NKVD Special Camps In Germany 1945–1950
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NKVD special camps () were
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
-run late and post-
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
internment camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
from May 1945 to January 6, 1950. They were set up by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) and run by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.126, On 8 August 1948, the camps were made subordinate to the
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
. Because the camp inmates were permitted no contact with the outside world, the special camps were also known as silence camps ().Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, pp.126,133-134, The Soviet occupation authorities did not admit to the existence of the camps until the Western press led the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
to respond with a moderate propaganda campaign of their own admitting and defending the camps' existence. No inmates were released before 1948. On January 6, 1950, the camps were handed over to the East German government, who tried the remaining detainees. Officially, 157,837 people were detained, including 122,671 Germans and 35,166 citizens of other nations, at least 43,035 of whom did not survive. The actual number of German prisoners was about 30,000 higher.Alexander von Plato. ''Sowjetische Speziallager in Deutschland 1945 bis 1950: Ergebnisse eines deutsch-russischen Kooperationsprojektes''. In: Peter Reif-Spirek et al. (ed.): ''Speziallager in der SBZ. Gedenkstätten mit "doppelter Vergangenheit"''. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 1999, p. 133.


Inmates

The NKVD Main Camp Administration (GULAG) controlled the special camps from Moscow. All of the camp commanders were senior Soviet military officers and the camps were laid out to GULAG camp specifications just as in Siberia or Central Asia. The camps, however, were not slave labor camps attached to factories or collective farms. On the contrary, prisoners were not allowed to work. Strictly speaking they were not death camps such as the Nazi annihilation camps in Poland, but the death rate nevertheless was very high due to malnourishment and disease.


Charges

People were arrested because of alleged ties to the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s, because they were hindering the establishment of
Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
, or at random.Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.128, The legal basis for the arrests was the Beria-order No. 00315 of 18 April 1945, ordering the internment without prior investigation by the
Soviet military The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...
of "spies, saboteurs, terrorists and active
NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
members", heads of
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
organizations, people maintaining "illegal" print and broadcasting devices or weapon deposits, members of the civil administration, and journalists. This was the same type of NKVD order for administrative arrest and deportation to Gulag camps in the Soviet Union used extensively by the Soviet security services where the victims had absolutely no legal recourse. Inmates were classified "sentenced" or "interned" depending on whether they were tried by a Soviet military tribunal (SMT) or not. A decree issued by the
Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority (), also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allies of World War II, Allied Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Al ...
on 30 October 1946 made a trial prior to internment obligatory, yet in November 1946 only 10% of the inmates were "sentenced", this proportion rose to 55% in early 1950. Of the "interned", 80% were members of the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
in early 1945, two thirds in late 1945, and less than half after February 1946. Of the "sentenced", 25% were members of the Nazi Party in 1945, 20% in 1946, 15% in 1947, just above 10% in 1948, and less than 10% since 1949. A significant actual prosecution of
Nazi war crimes The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized, and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Nama genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notable of ...
by the SMT did not take place. Among the alleged Nazis were also boys suspected to be
Werwolf ''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in ...
members: About 10,000 internees were youths and children, half of whom did not return. Among the inmates were many supporters or members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which the Soviet authorities sought to suppress, particularly from 1946.Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.129, When the Social Democratic Party was merged into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), renamed Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), Social Democrats were interned to ensure Marxist–Leninist dominance in the party. Also, people were interned as "spies" because they were suspected of opposing the
authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...
regime, e.g. for having contacts with organizations based in the Western occupation zones, on the basis of Article 58 of the Soviet penal code dealing with "anti-Soviet activities". In the Bautzen special camp, 66% of the inmates fell into this category.


Isolation policy

The Soviet authorities enforced a policy of total isolation of the inmates. A decree of 27 July 1945 reads: "The primary purpose of the special camp is the total isolation of the contingent therein and the prevention of flights", and prohibits all mail and visitors.Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, pp.133-134, Another decree of 25 July 1946 confirmed the "total isolation from the outside world" as a primary purpose, and further reads:
nmates of special campsare to be isolated from the society by special measures, they are not to be legally charged, and in contrast to the usual procedure in legal cases, their cases are not to be documented.Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.134, : "''... werden nach Sonderregelungen von der Gesellschaft isoliert, sie werden nicht angeklagt, und über sie werden keine Gerichtsakten, wie in der Strafprozeßordnung vorgesehen, angelegt.''"
No inmate could contact a relative, nor the other way around (with some exceptions in the early stage of the camps). Relatives were not able to retrieve any information and were not even informed of inmate deaths. Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.135, Exceptions were not made. In one case, the chief of special camp No. 8 asked the supreme chief of the special camps, Colonel , whether people arrested in their summer clothes were allowed to request winter clothes from their relatives, and pointed out that the situation was very urgent and that some of the inmates did not even have shoes. Sviridov forbade contact. In late 1947 the inmates were allowed limited access to Communist newspapers, which represented their first contact with the outside world since their arrests.Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.136,


First releases

A first 27,749 were released mid-1948 after a revision of 43,853 cases by a joint commission of SMAD, MGB and
MVD The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; , ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia. The MVD is responsible for law enforcement in Russia through its agencies the Police of Russia, Migration ...
(the successor of the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
).Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.131, Among the released were primarily people whose arrest was based on a suspected Nazi background, which was found to be of low significance by the commission.


Numbers and casualties

The total number of detainees and deaths is uncertain. In 1990 the Soviet Ministry for the Interior released numbers, which were based upon a collection of data compiled after the dissolution of the camps by the last head of its administration in 1950. According to these numbers, 122,671 Germans, 34,706 citizens of the Soviet Union, and 460 foreign citizens had been received. While 40,244 detainees were deported to the Soviet Union, 45,635 were released, 786 were shot and 43,035 died. 6,680 Germans were turned over to POW camps, 128 inmates managed to escape. 14,202 German detainees were handed over to the East German Ministry of the Interior. A critical examination of the data by Natalja Jeske concluded that approximately 30,000 more Germans were detained in the special camps than officially acknowledged. The official number of deaths is nonetheless considered to be accurate. Older estimates, according to which 65,000 to 130,000 or between 50,000 and 80,000 interned persons had died, are too high. Most people died from starvation and diseases. The death rate was particularly high from the end of 1946 to early 1947, when the already low food rations had been reduced further. The food rations for detainees did not differ significantly from the food rations in the Soviet occupation zone in general, but the prisoners were cut off from the black market. Among the dead were an estimated 12,000 discovered in 1990 in
mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...
s near the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...
. Six thousand of the captives in Sachsenhausen were German officers sent there from Western Allied camps. The major causes of death of the prisoners were starvation, disease, particularly tuberculosis and dysentery or torture and execution. Their health was completely neglected.


Camps in Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD)

A total of ten camps existed, set up in former Nazi
concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
s, former
stalag In Germany, stalag (; ) was a term used for prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag is a contraction of "Stammlager", itself short for ''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'', literally "main camp for enlisted prisoners of war" (officers were kept i ...
s, barracks, or prisons. * NKVD special camp Nr. 1 in the former
Stalag IV-B Stalag IV-B was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in Germany during World War II, located north-east of the town of Mühlberg. It held Polish, French, British, Australian, Soviet, South African, Italian and other Allied prisoners of war. ...
near Mühlberg * NKVD special camp Nr. 2 in
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
* NKVD special camp Nr. 3 in
Hohenschönhausen Hohenschönhausen () was a borough of Berlin, that existed from 1985 until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. It comprised the present-day localities of Alt-Hohenschönhausen (the core of the borough), Neu-Hohenschönhausen, Malchow, Warte ...
(later
Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
-''Arbeitslager X'') * in
Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...
(since 1948 Nr. 3) * in Ketschendorf /
Fürstenwalde Fürstenwalde/Spree (; ) is the most populous town in the Oder-Spree District of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Geography The town is situated in the glacial valley (''Urstromtal'') of the Spree river north of the Rauen Hills, about east of ...
* in Jamlitz near
Lieberose Lieberose (Lower Sorbian: ''Luboraz'') is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 25 km north of Cottbus. History From 1815 to 1947, Lieberose was part of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. Dur ...
*
NKVD special camp Nr. 7 NKVD special camp Nr. 7 was a NKVD special camp that operated in until August 1945 and in Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg), Sachsenhausen from August 1945 until the spring of 1950. It was used by the Soviet occupation zone, Soviet occupying forces t ...
in Weesow near
Werneuchen Werneuchen () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, in the district of Barnim northeast of Berlin within the metropolitan area. Most of the population of Werneuchen commutes to Berlin. History From 1815 to 1947, Werneuchen was part of the Prussian ...
(until August 1945) and Sachsenhausen (since August 1945) * in
Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...
() * NKVD special camp Nr. 9 in Fünfeichen,
Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg (, Low German ''Niegenbramborg'', both lit. ''New Brandenburg an der Havel, Brandenburg'') is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban c ...
Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, p.127, * in
Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...
(Seydlitz-Kaserne) In addition, numerous prisons were either directly assigned to or seized by the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
.


Prisons and camps in East Central Europe prior to May 1945

Numerous prisons and filtration camps were set prior to May 1945, in an area that is today Poland and Russia, Slovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. The Soviet forces detained German civilians in the regions they conquered in early 1945. Some were sent for
Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union ''Forced'' is a single-player and co-op action role-playing game developed by BetaDwarf, released in October 2013 for Windows, OS X and Linux through the Steam platform as well as Wii U. It is about gladiators fighting for their freedom in a ...
and others transferred to the NKVD special camps in occupied Germany after May 1945. These temporary prisons and camps were set up according to the same Beria-doctrine as their counterparts west of the Oder-Neisse line. Almost the complete male German population remaining east of
Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...
and
Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (; ; ; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.
, numbering several tens of thousands, was arrested as "Hitlerites" by the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
. Only very few actual Nazis were among them. According to records from the Soviet archives by early May 1945 215,540 persons were interned by the Red Army on the territory of present-day Poland: 138,200 Germans, 36,660 Poles, 27,880 USSR citizens and 10,800 from other countries. Amongst the 215,540 detained 148,540 were sent to the USSR, 62,000 were held in prisons in the battle area and 5,000 died As of 10 May 1945, there were NKVD camps in what is today Poland and Russia *
Rembertów Rembertów () is a dzielnica, district of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Between 1939 and 1957 Rembertów was a separate town, after which it was incorporated as part of the borough of Praga-Południe. Between 1994 and 2002 it formed ...
*
Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
*
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
* Danzig (Gdansk) *
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
* Schneidemühl (Piła) * Schwiebus (Świebodzin) *
Landsberg (Warthe) Landsberg may refer to: * Landsberg family * Landsberg (surname) Places * Landsberg (district), Bavaria, Germany * Landsberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany * Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany ** Landsberg-Lech Air Base, Germany ** Landsberg Prison, a ...
(Gorzow) * Preußisch Eylau (Bagrationovsk) * Domtau (Долгоруково) *Panart (unidentified) *
Mysłowice Mysłowice (; ) is a city in Silesia in Poland, bordering Katowice. The population of the city is 72,124. It is located in the core of the Metropolis GZM in the Silesian Highlands, on the Przemsza and Brynica rivers (tributaries of the Vistul ...
NKVD prisons in *
Grudziądz Grudziądz (, ) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. Grudziądz is one of the oldest citie ...
* Gollnow (Goleniow) *
Stargard Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; ) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 2021 it was inhabited by 67,293 people. It is situated on ...
*
Insterburg Chernyakhovsk (; German language, German: Insterburg) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District. Located at the confluence of the Instruch and Angrap ...
(Chernyakhovsk) *
Tapiau Gvardeysk ( rus, Гвардейск, p=ɡvɐrˈdʲejsk, a=Ru-Гвардейск.oga; known prior to 1946 by its German name Tapiau ; ; ), is a town and the administrative center of Gvardeysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on t ...
(Gvardeysk) *
Bartenstein Bartoszyce (pronounced ; , ) is a town on the Łyna River in northern Poland, with 22,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the capital of Bartoszyce County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Geographical location Bartoszyce lies on ...
(Bartoszyce) *
Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...
(Kaliningrad), *
Wadowice Wadowice () is a town in southern Poland, southwest of Kraków with 17,455 inhabitants (2022), situated on the Skawa river, confluence of Vistula, in the eastern part of Silesian Foothills (Pogórze Śląskie). Wadowice is known for being the bir ...
*
Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...
and * Ratibor (Racibórz); and NKVD camps as well as NKVD prisons in * Tost (Toszek) * Oppeln (Opole) and *
Rawicz Rawicz (; ) is a town in west-central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants as of 2004. It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Rawicz County. History The ...
. An additional NKVD prison was in Slovak
Ružomberok Ružomberok (; ; ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of approximately 27,000. Etymology The name of the initial settlement located on today's Makovický street was ''Revúca'' ( Slovak "roaring ...
. A couple of weeks after the war had come to an end, the prisoners were subsequently transferred to the
Soviet Occupation Zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
. While immediately after the Soviet occupation of that zone some people detained west of the Oder-Neisse line were transferred to Landsberg east of that line, inmates from camps east of the line who had not been deported to the Soviet Union for forced labor were transferred to camps west of the line following the Potsdam agreement. While the abovementioned camps and prisons were all listed in attachment 1 to the Beria-doctrine 00461, signed by Beria's substitute Tshernyshow, there were other camps not included in this list. Already on 15 December 1944, Beria had reported to Stalin and Molotov that *7890 German citizens were interned in 15 camps in
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, and *16804 German citizens were interned in 22 camps in
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
. These were all the people holding German citizenship remaining in these countries. Additional NKVD camps in Poland, which were likewise not listed in the Beria-doctrine 00461, are known from Polish sources. These camps included *
Działdowo Działdowo (; , ) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Działdowo belonged previously to Cie ...
(Soldau) *
Ciechanów Ciechanów is a city in north-central Poland, seat of the Ciechanów County in the Masovian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 43,495. A city with almost a thousand years of history, recorded in 1065, Ciechanów is one of ...
* Nasarzewo near Mlawa * Mątwy near Inowroclaw * Antonienhütte (Nowy Bytom) * Pleß (Pszczyna) *
Sosnowiec Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Metropolis GZM municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industrial Re ...
*
Cieszyn Cieszyn ( , ; ; ) is a border town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has 33,500 inhabitants ( and lies opposite Český Těšín in the Czech Repu ...
*
Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; ) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Metropolis GZM – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Rawa ...
*
Knurów Knurów (; ) is a city near Katowice in Silesia, southern Poland. Knurów is an outer city of the Metropolis GZM, a metropolis with a population of two million. Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Bierawka River, a tributary of t ...
*
Szopienice Szopienice-Burowiec () is a district of Katowice, Poland, located in the north-eastern part of the city. It has an area of 8.47 km2 and in 2007 had 17,139 inhabitants. The area of a district encompasses two historically important settlement ...
*
Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
-Ligota *
Gleiwitz Gliwice (; , ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital ...
(Gliwice) and others.


Handover to East Germany

The
Political Bureau A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
decided on 28 September 1949 to hand the camps over to the authorities of the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(East Germany), that was about to be formed from the
Soviet occupation zone in Germany The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
. The East German republic was officially founded on 7 October 1949. On 6 January 1950, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs Kruglov ordered the handing over to the East German Ministry of Internal Affairs of 10,513 inmates for further detention and of 3,500 for trial. These trials were the so-called () - a series of
show-trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a warning to o ...
s. They took place in
Waldheim prison Waldheim Prison is a -year-old federal prison in Waldheim, Saxony, Germany. Use , the Waldheim penal institution held 373 men (aged 21–80) out of a capacity of almost 400. The Saxon Minister of Justice, Sebastian Gemkow, described the ...
in Saxony and handed down previously prepared and overly long sentences. The trials often lasted only a few minutes, and took place behind closed doors. The judges refused to admit evidence for the accused. The sentences were based on the original NKVD arrest protocols, which often involved torture. By June 1950 over 3,000 had been condemned to various additional prison sentences. Many of the convicted had already spent over four years interned in the special camps, and more than half were emaciated and sick. The Waldheim trials introduced the vigorous use of the judicial system as an instrument of political repression of all dissident elements in the GDR. Ulrich Merten, ''The Gulag in East Germany:Soviet Special Camps 1945-1950'', Teneo Press, Amherst, New York, 2018, pages, 8,213,217, Many of these sentences were revised in 1952. Before the hand-over, a number of inmates were deported to
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
- their fate remains unknown as of 2015.


See also

* Special camp (disambiguation), for other types of Soviet special camps *
German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war During World War II, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) held by Nazi Germany and primarily in the custody of the German Army were starved and subjected to deadly conditions. Of nearly six million who were captured, around three million died during ...


References


Further reading

*
Norman M. Naimark Norman M. Naimark (; born 1944, New York City) is an American historian. He is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He writes on modern Ea ...
''The Russians in Germany. A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949''(1994), pp. 353–397 * Wolfram von Scheliha "Soviet Special Camps in Germany" ''Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment'' ed. by Jonathan F. Vance (2000), pp. 276–277 * Ulrich Merten, ''The Gulag in East Germany; Soviet Special Camps, 1945-1950'', Teneo Press/Cambria Press, Amherst, New York, 2018 ()


External links


Special Camp No. 1 near MühlbergSoviet Special Camps Nos. 8 and 10 in Torgau, 1945 - 1948
* *

Deutsche Welle on 16.02.2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:NKVD special camps in Germany 1945-1949 Internment camps in Germany 1940s in East Germany Aftermath of World War II in Germany Germany–Soviet Union relations Buildings and structures in East Germany 1945 in Germany 1946 in Germany 1947 in Germany 1948 in Germany 1949 in East Germany Soviet occupation zone