The NKVD special camp No. 48 (also UMVD POW camp no. 48) was located in Cherntsy [ru], Ivanovo Oblast. Russia. Initially it was established during World War II as a POW camp for most senior military commanders of the Axis powers. In German sources it is known as Kriegsgefangenenlager Woikowo, the latter location translated in English as Voikovo. Later it housed a secret Soviet biological weapons facility.
The location of the camp was a former Dedlov family manor, where the Soviets established a sanatorium for railroad workers named after Pyotr Voykov, known simply as Voykov sanatorium, hence the (corrupted) German name of the camp.
Axis POWs
The first party of Axis POWs was delivered to the camp in June 1943, captured during the Battle of Stalingrad: 22 Germans, 6 Romanians, and 3 Italians, including Friedrich Paulus with his aide-de-camp Willi Adam. Initially Paulus and his generals were delivered to NKVD POW camp no. 27 [ru] (Красногорский особый оперативно-пересыльный лагерь No. 27 НКВД) in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast and held there during February–April 1943, then transferred to Monastery of Saint Euthymius in Suzdal, where a POW camp was established. However allegedly NKVD was afraid that the Nazis will send paratroopers to release Paulus, hence a more secluded location was eventually selected.
Many German generals were buried at the Cherntsy cemetery.
Biological weapons facility
After the war, since 1949 it housed a secret Soviet biological weapons facility staffed with Japanese POW which were members of Japanese Unit 731 and Unit 100 which developed biological weapons.
Notable inmates
- Friedrich Paulus
- Hans Boeckh-Behrens
- Otozō Yamada
- Fumitaka Konoe, the eldest son and heir of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and the 13th-generation descendant of Emperor Go-Yōzei
- Lieutenant General Takahashi Takaatsu [ja], former Chief of Veterinary Service, accused during the Khabarovsk war crimes trials died in prison in 1951, buried at the Cherntsy cemetery
- Heinrich Thoma
- Otto Günsche, Hitler's aide-de-camp (before sentencing)
References
- ^ File:Приговор Отто Гюнше от 15 мая 1950 года военного трибунала войск МВД Ивановской области.jpg
- ^ Люди-брёвна и салат из хризантем
- ^ Разжатый Гулаг
- DER ARZT VON STALINGRAD (1958) (The Doctor of Stalingrad) with English subtitles
- Das Zeitalter der Weltkriege. Völker in Waffen p. 395
- ^ Beevor, Antony (1998). Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942−1943. Harmondsworth, United Kingdom: Penguin Putnam Inc. ISBN 0-670-87095-1.
- Howard Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy, p. 184
- оперативно-пересыльный лагерь для военнопленных № 27
- Особый лагерь УПВИ НКВД №27
- Элита Плена
-
Media related to World War II memorial in Cherntsy at Wikimedia Commons
- Rimmington, Anthony (2018-11-15). Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-092885-8.
- ^ В Чернцком лагере отбывали сроки японские врачи, ставившие опыты над людьми
- Rimmington, p. 171
Further reading
- Zeidler, Manfred (1996). Stalinjustiz contra NS-Verbrechen. Die Kriegsverbrecherprozesse gegen deutsche Kriegsgefangene in der UdSSR in den Jahren 1943 – 1952. Kenntnisstand und Forschungsprobleme [Stalin's Justice versus Nazi Crimes. The War Crimes Trials against German Prisoners Of War in the USSR in the Years 1943 – 1952. Knowledge and Research Problems] (PDF). Berichte und Studien (in German). Vol. 9. Dresden: Hannah Arendt Institute for the Research on Totalitarianism. ISBN 3-931648-08-7.