The NKVD special camp No. 48 (also UMVD POW camp no. 48[1]) was located in Cherntsy, Ivanovo Oblast. Russia. Initially it was established during World War II as a POW camp for most senior military commanders of the Axis powers.[2][3] In German sources it is known as Kriegsgefangenenlager Woikowo,[4][5] the latter location translated in English as Voikovo.[6][7] 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,[3] known simply as Voykov sanatorium, hence the (corrupted) German name of the camp.
Axis POWs[edit]
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.[3][6] Initially Paulus and his generals were delivered to NKVD POW camp no. 27 (Красногорский особый оперативно-пересыльный лагерь No. 27 НКВД[8][9]) in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast and held there during February–April 1943,[10] 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.[3]
Many German generals were buried at the Cherntsy cemetery.[11]
Biological weapons facility[edit]
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.[2][12][13]
Notable inmates[edit]
- Friedrich Paulus[2]
- Hans Boeckh-Behrens
- Otozō Yamada[14]
- 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, former Chief of Veterinary Service, accused during the Khabarovsk war crimes trials died in prison in 1951, buried at the Cherntsy cemetery[13]
- Heinrich Thoma
- Otto Günsche, Hitler's aide-de-camp (before sentencing)[1][3]
References[edit]
- ^ a b File:Приговор Отто Гюнше от 15 мая 1950 года военного трибунала войск МВД Ивановской области.jpg
- ^ a b c Люди-брёвна и салат из хризантем
- ^ a b c d e Разжатый Гулаг
- ^ DER ARZT VON STALINGRAD (1958) (The Doctor of Stalingrad) with English subtitles
- ^ Das Zeitalter der Weltkriege. Völker in Waffen p. 395
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b В Чернцком лагере отбывали сроки японские врачи, ставившие опыты над людьми
- ^ Rimmington, p. 171
Further reading[edit]
- 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.