[End Page 75] DURCHGANGSLAGER (DULAG) 123
The Wehrmacht established Dulag 123 on March 1, 1941, from the staff of Frontstalag 123, which was located in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XVII at the time. Dulag 123 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 23 914 between July 31, 1942, and February 9, 1943. The unit was disbanded on October 5, 1943.1 Its field post number was struck on October 30.
From April to July 1941, Dulag 123 was deployed in Romania, and, in August 1941, it was deployed in Ukraine. On August 1, 1941, the unit was located in Soroki (today Soroca, Moldova) (map 9g), where it replaced AGSSt 12.2 On September 9, 1941, the camp was deployed in Varvarovka (today Varvarivka, Ukraine) (9g) , and, as of September 27, 1941, it was located in Berislav (today Beryslav) (9g), where it replaced AGSSt 11. While located in Berislav, the camp had a subcamp (Nebenlager) in the village of Tiaginka (today Tyahynka),3 and, as of October 21, 1941, a subcamp in the city of Kherson.4 As of November 12, 1941, the unit was located in the town of Dzhankoi (9h).5 While it was located in Dzhankoi, Dulag 123 had subcamps in Voinka and Armians’k. The unit remained in Dzhankoi until September 1942, when it was replaced by Stalag 370.
From September 1942 until October 1943, the unit was deployed in various localities in Russia and Ukraine, initially in the rear area of the Sixth Army. In the fall of 1942, the unit was located in the village of Novomaksimovskii (9d).6 In the spring of 1943, having escaped the destruction of the Sixth Army, the camp deployed to Makeevka (today Makiïvka) (9f), with a reception camp (Auffanglager) at Malo Chistiakovo (today Chystiakove).7
Beginning on April 6, 1941, Dulag 123 was under the Twelfth Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 560) in Romania; from June 18, 1941, it was under the Senior Quartermaster Romania/Commander of Prisoner of War District A (Oberquartiermeister Rumänien/Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen-Bezirk A). From July 28, 1941, it was subordinate to the Commander of the Eighth Army Rear Area (Korück 553), and from September 21, 1942, it was under the Commander of Prisoners of War in Operations Area II (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Operationsgebiet II) and the Sixth Army Rear Area Commander (Korück 593).8
The camp commandant was Major Springen. On July 27, 1941, the headquarters included 11 officers, 10 government officials, 27 noncommissioned officers, and 70 enlisted men, for a total of 118 personnel.9 On June 12, 1942, the headquarters included 20 officers and government officials and 98 non-commissioned officers and enlisted men (including Tatars).10 The camp was guarded by 2nd Company of the 836th Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon), with a strength of 2 officers and 180 men, including 27 Tatars.11
Dulag 123 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The conditions in the camp were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. Meager food rations, overcrowding, and lack of shelter or proper medical aid led to widespread malnutrition and disease, which produced a high death rate. Abuse by the guards exacerbated the terrible conditions. According to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) materials, 1,146 people in Dulag 123 perished in Dzhankoi,12 more than 1,000 in Armiansk,13 and 120 in Voinka;14 however, casualty figures from the ChGK are often significantly inflated and should be treated accordingly.
A report from a People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) special section on the Southern Front to the Administration of Special Sections of the NKVD of the USSR from January 24, 1943, provides information about the conditions in the camp at Novomaksimovskii. The report states specifically:
During the liberation of temporarily occupied Soviet territory by the spec[ial] organs, a number of facts were documented with respect to atrocities committed by the German fascist occupiers against the civilian population of the large Cossack villages on the Don and against prisoners of war. Having liberated the small village of Novomaksimovskii in Stalingrad oblast’, our soldiers detected, in two brick buildings with walled-up windows and doors nailed shut, 76 Soviet POWs, 60 of whom had starved to death, and some of the corpses were decomposed. The remaining POWs were half-alive, most of them unable to stand up because of great exhaustion. As it turned out, the prisoners were in the walled-up building for about two months—the Germans gradually starved them to death, only very occasionally tossing in pieces of rotten horseflesh and giving them salted water to drink.
As in other such camps for Soviet POWs, the authorities screened new arrivals to separate out Jews and political commissars, who were shot nearby by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) personnel.16
SOURCES
Primary source material about Dulag 123 is located in the BA-MA (RW 6: Allgemeines Wehrmachtamt/Chef des Kriegsgefangenenwesens); the GARF (files 7021-9-45 [Dzhankoi], 40 [Voinka and Armiansk]); the GAARKS (files r1289-1-10, 12); and BArch B (162/29007: Ermittlungen StA Hamburg 147 Js 22/72 gg. Unbekannt wegen des Verdachts der Tötung russischer Kriegsgefangener im Dulag 123 in Dzhankoj/Krim).
Additional information about Dulag 123 can be found in these publications: Gert C. Lübbers, “Die 6. Armee und die Zivilbevölkerung von Stalingrad,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 54, no. 1 (2006): 109; Gianfranco Mattiello and Wolfgang Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987), p. 45; and Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 6: Die Landstreitkräfte 71-130 (Osnabrück: Biblio, 1972), p. 301.
