Koldychevo death camp is a Nazi concentration camp and death camp for the mass extermination of people, mainly Jews of the Great Patriotic War . It was named after the village of Koldychevo in which it was located, 16 kilometers north of Baranovichi , (now Belarus ). About 22,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed in the camp between 1942 and 1944. Belarusian policemen guarded the camp under the command of Stefanyuk and his deputies - Nikolay Kolko and Sergey Bobko [1] . Hundreds of people burned alive. There was resistance in the ghetto.
| Koldychevo | |
|---|---|
| Location | Baranavichy district |
| Period of existence | beginning of summer 1942 - 1944 |
| Death toll | 22,000 |
History
The concentration camp “Koldychevo” was created in the early summer of 1942, about 18 km from Baranovichi, in the village of Koldychevo , on the road to Novogrudok , in West Belarus occupied by the Germans [2] . One former prisoner described it as “a sad collection of concrete buildings and cultivated farmland, with dilapidated barns, animal stalls and tool sheds [...] separated by an endless barbed wire fence to create a temporary prison” [3] .
The camp was used to imprison Jews from the Settlement, Dyatlovo , Novogrudok, Stolbtsev and Baranovichi, as well as Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Belarusian partisans. Jews were settled in the former stable and they existed in disgusting conditions and were forced to do extremely hard work. Since September 1, 1942, a Jewish doctor in the camp was Dr. Zelig Levinbock, whom after his death left a memoir [1] . One of the prisoners was a young rabbi from Slonim named Shlomo David Weinberg. The prisoners of the camps tried to help him as much as possible in observing the traditions as much as possible in terrible conditions, and on November 24, 1942 he was shot. About 600 Jews, Poles and Belarusians were burned alive in the Koldichevo crematorium in 1942 [4] . Few prisoners survived the harsh conditions of the camp [5] .
On January 31, 1943, a pogrom was made inside the camp, after which only 93 Jews survived [1] . After that, the craftsman Romek Friedman and the shoe maker Shlomo Kushnir planned the escape [1] . They managed to get two pistols [1] . On March 22, 1944, they were able to poison the guard dogs [1] , drilled a hole in the wall of their barracks, cut an electric fence around the camp and fled on a moonless night [5] . Twenty-four prisoners were caught, including Kushnir, who committed suicide. Many of the others joined the Bielsk partisans in the Naliboki forest [6] .
On the night of June 29-30, 1944, when Soviet troops were approaching Operation Bagration, the Koldichevo camp was liquidated. The 2,000 remaining prisoners were destroyed by being shot in a pit under a mound [7] . Another 300 were evacuated to Germany [8] .
In 1992, Sergis Khutyrchik, a security guard who immigrated to the United States in 1954 (and also worked as a security guard in the USA), was identified as a security guard from the Koldichevo camp, accused of lying to his wartime activities and losing his US citizenship. He was known as the "black commander" [4] . He died in 1993, trying to protest his denaturalization [9] .
In 1964, a monument was erected at the camp’s location [10] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bauer I. Jewish Baranavichy during the Holocaust
- ↑ Arad, Yitzhak. The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. - University of Nebraska Press, 2009. - P. 325. - ISBN 0-8032-2059-6 .
- ↑ Small, Martin. Remember us: my journey from the shtetl through the Holocaust. - Skyhorse Publishing, 2009 .-- P. 163. - ISBN 1-60239-723-6 .
- ↑ 1 2 Osi Moves to Revoke US Citizenship of Nj Man Accused of Wartime Deaths
- ↑ 1 2 Tec, Nechama. Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. - Oxford University Press US, 2009. - P. 198. - ISBN 0-19-509390-9 .
- ↑ Small, Martin. Remember us: my journey from the shtetl through the Holocaust. - Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. - P. 169. - ISBN 1-60239-723-6 .
- ↑ YAHAD - IN UNUM . yahadmap.org. Date of treatment July 15, 2017.
- ↑ Strzelecki, Andrzej. The evacuation, dismantling and liberation of KL Auschwitz. - Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2001. - P. 42. - ISBN 83-85047-95-6 .
- ↑ Sergis Hutyrczyk, 68; Named as Nazi Guard (February 6, 1993). Date of appeal September 24, 2018.
- ↑ Russian Jewish Encyclopedia