The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

The Wehrmacht formed AGSSt 6 on March 27, 1941, from Frontstalag 136. It received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 05 738 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. From July 1941, AGSSt 6 fell under the command of the Fourth Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 559).

The staff consisted of approximately 20 men, of whom approximately a dozen at any given point were officers. The first commander of the unit was Hauptmann Nicolai who remained in that position until August 16, 1942. His [End Page 41] successor was Hauptmann Herrmann, and the third commander, beginning in September 1944, was Oberst Burckhardt.

From 1941 to 1943, AGSSt 6 deployed to different localities in Belorussia and Russia. In Belorussia, AGSSt 6 deployed to the city of Minsk (map 9b) and, in September 1941, near the city of Orsha (9b). In Russia, the unit deployed to the cities of El’nia (9c), Maloiaroslavets (9c), Medyn’(9c), Ostër (9c), Roslavl’ (9c), Smolensk (9c), and Iukhnov (9c).¹ By September 11, 1941, the camp, which was then located 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.5 miles) to the south of Orsha (9b), held 5,000 prisoners of war.² From the start of 1942 until the fall, the camp had relocated back toward Smolensk and operated just to the northwest of the city, in Ost’e (9c). From there, it was moved further west and spent most of 1943 in the Mogilev region of Belorussia (9b).³

The conditions in AGSSt 6 during its deployment to different localities in Belorussia and Russia were the same as those in other camps for Soviet prisoners of war. The tremendous overcrowding in small spaces, small quantities of barely edible food, horrible sanitation, and lack of proper medical care brought about famine and disease, which led to an extremely high mortality rate, especially in the first year or so of the camp’s existence. Abuse by the guards made the situation still worse.

While stationed in Ostër, the unit interacted with a forced labor camp of Jews who were made to work in peat mining. The extent to which AGSSt 6 actually administered or oversaw the camp is unknown, but it is clear from postwar testimony that officers exhibited some control over the camp and personally handled the prisoners. The camp consisted of three dilapidated wooden barracks housing approximately 80–100 Jews who were in “extremely poor physical condition.”⁴

According to one former member of the unit, they were tasked with carrying out executions of those prisoners deemed unfit for work. In his postwar testimony, Walter Beer stated:

I can remember 3 to 4 instances in which Kompanie-Feldwebel Schulz organized shootings of some 2 to 3 Jews each who were no longer capable of work and disabled…. The shootings were carried out by soldiers of our AGSSt 6. I myself was supposed to take part on one occasion. But because I had urgent work to tend to as a driver, I was able to get myself out of this task. I’m of the opinion that the Jews who were shot were not deathly ill, but rather that they could have become fully healthy again with appropriate care and treatment.⁵

These allegations resulted in an extensive investigation during the 1960s into the executions of Jews, as well as other groups, by the personnel of AGSSt 6, but the small size of the unit and the few postwar survivors limited West German efforts to prosecute.

The Germans disbanded the unit at the end of 1943.