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

The Wehrmacht established AGSSt 12 on March 26, 1941. From 1941 to 1942, AGSSt 12 was assigned to the Eleventh Army, which was part of Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd) during the invasion of the Soviet Union, fighting in Bessarabia, southern Ukraine, and Crimea. AGSSt 12 moved in accordance with the movements of the Eleventh Army. During the period when AGSSt 12 was assigned to the Eleventh Army, the unit fell under the jurisdiction of that army’s Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 553). In August 1942, AGSSt 12 was reassigned to the First Panzer Army. While the unit was assigned to the First Panzer Army, it came under the jurisdiction of Korück 531. AGSSt 12 received the field post number (Feldpostnummer) 41 656 between February 28 and July 29, 1941.

AGSSt 12’s primary role was the initial processing and treatment of captured Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), who were shortly thereafter transferred to transit camps (Dulags) and main POW camps (Stalags). There were generally between 500 and 1,000 prisoners at a time in AGSSt 12, although the population varied widely, and at times as many as 3,000 prisoners were present. The prisoners were sorted and segregated by nationality and religion. In some cases, the “weeding out” (Aussonderung) of “undesirable” prisoners (such as Jews and political commissars) was performed by Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) personnel accompanying AGSSt 12, but sometimes this was not done until the prisoners arrived at other camps.¹

German personnel at AGSSt 12 consisted of 6 officers, 3 noncommissioned officers, and 10 privates.² The commandant of AGSSt 12 from 1941 to 1942 was Hauptmann Phillip Hund. In 1942, Hund was succeeded by Major Raestas, a Baltic German who spoke both German and Russian, whose adjutant was Hauptmann Volkmar. Witnesses stated that Volkmar was responsible for the weeding out of Jews and political commissars during this time. Raestas remained in this position through at least 1944. The 2nd Company of the 49th Guard Battalion (Wachbataillon) guarded the camp. This company consisted of 4 officers, 22 noncommissioned officers, and 222 privates. The commander of the 2nd Company was Hauptmann Kuch. Dr. Metz served as the chief doctor in the unit for a time, followed by Dr. Walter Gass and Dr. Raabe (who had previously been a missionary in China, according to former staff member Johann Hagen). As Leutnant Julius von Wowern Matthiesen—who was part of the staff of AGSSt 12 in 1943—recalled, the unit’s personnel, particularly the medical staff, changed frequently.³

In June 1941, AGSSt 12 was sent to Giurgiu, Romania (map 7), with the Eleventh Army in anticipation of the invasion of Bessarabia, which commenced on July 2, 1941. During the summer of 1941, the unit moved rapidly with Army Group South’s advance through Bessarabia and southern Ukraine: on July 27, 1941, the unit was located in the city of Bel’tsy (today Bălţi, Moldova) (9g); on August 10, it redeployed to the city of Kodyma (9g); and at the end of August, the unit redeployed to the village of Varvarovka, near the city of Nikolaev (today Mykolaiv, Ukraine) (9g).⁴ From about mid-September to September 25, 1941, AGSSt 12 was located in the village of Snigirevka (today Snihurivka, Ukraine). From September 26 on, the camp was in the village of Kalga (9h), and then in the city of Melitopol’ (9h), where it arrived soon after the occupation of the city, on October 6; it remained there until October 21. On October 20, Korück 553 gave the order to transfer AGSSt 12 to the city of Armiansk (9h).⁵

Several instances of weeding out and shooting of Jews and political commissars were documented during this time. In Snigirevka, 20 Jewish prisoners were removed from the camp and shot by the SD. In Melitopol’, Jewish prisoners were transferred to Sonderkommando 10a to be shot. On October 10, the administration handed over 49 Jewish prisoners to the [End Page 46] Sonderkommando, and on October 15, another 26.⁶ Existing AGSSt 12 reports from October 12 show that another 54 Jewish prisoners were removed on that day.⁷ Thus, there is evidence that at least 129 Jewish prisoners were given to Sonderkommando 10a to be shot. Between October 11 and October 21, 1941, while the camp was at Melitopol’, 18,475 prisoners were evacuated to the west from AGSSt 12. Another 192 prisoners died in AGSSt 12 during this period.⁸ In early November 1941, the camp was deployed to Dzhankoi (9h), in Crimea. From November 13 until December 29, 1941, AGSSt 12 was deployed to the city of Feodosiia, also in Crimea (9h).⁹ AGSSt 12 continued to be stationed in Crimea throughout the first half of 1942, during the Axis offensive in that area.

In August 1942, AGSSt 12 was transferred to the First Panzer Army. Throughout the second half of 1942, the camp was stationed in different locations in the northern Caucasus. For example, at the end of October 1942, AGSSt 12 was deployed to the city of Prokhladnyi (9i). In Prokhladnyi, its staff was temporarily reduced to only nine people.¹⁰ From late 1942 through 1943, AGSSt 12 moved westward as German forces retreated back through Ukraine. In November 1942, it was located in Ordzhonikidze (today Yenakiieve, Ukraine) (9f). By April 1943, it had relocated to Shepetovka (today Shepetivka, Ukraine) (9e); in September of that year, it was in the village of Ivankov (today Ivankiv, Ukraine) (9e), about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Kiev; and by the end of 1943, it was in Zhitomir (today Zhytomyr, Ukraine) (9e).¹¹ AGSSt 12 was disbanded in early 1945 as German forces withdrew to the west.¹²