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

The Wehrmacht established Dulag 124 from Frontstalag 124 at the end of August 1941. It was deployed to the eastern front, where it was subordinate to the Army Group Center Rear Area Commander (Befehlshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes Mitte, Berück Mitte) and then to the Fourth Panzer Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 593, later 585). It was relocated several times as the Fourth Panzer Army moved through Russia and Ukraine. It carried the field post number (Feldpostnummer) 24 402, which was assigned between February 15 and July 30, 1942, and struck on December 12, 1944, and assigned again on April 13, 1945.

The commandant of the camp was Oberst Oscar Lohse, co-owner of the Lohse perfume factory, and his deputy was Hauptmann Dr. Johannes Schmalfuss. Former members of the camp staff claimed that Lohse was largely uninterested in the prisoners and concerned himself instead with music and his horses. He was succeeded as commandant in September 1942 by Oberstleutnant Hermann Pösche.¹ As of July 11, 1943, the camp staff consisted of 116 members, along with 94 guard personnel and 202 Soviet prisoner of war (POW) volunteers (Hilfswillige, Hiwis).²

Dulag 124 deployed to Rudnia (map 9b) in November and December 1941, and then to Gzhatsk (today Gagarin) (9c) in January 1942. While it was in Gzhatsk, the camp was located on the southern edge of the town. It occupied the grounds of a church, a pedigree livestock center, and a receiving point for hay, where several dilapidated structures remained, fenced off by rows of barbed wire. The prisoners were awakened at 5:00 a.m. and forced to stand outside for up to two hours in the cold while roll was called; this procedure was repeated in the evening. They were assigned to exhausting labor in the work commandos (Arbeitskommandos), unloading freight cars of munitions at a large, secret depot in the area of the present-day Sel’khozkhimiia agricultural chemical factory, and loading munitions onto trucks. The enfeebled prisoners were often at the brink of death from exhaustion and beatings, and some never made it back to the camp. Scores of prisoners froze to death in the camp, where they slept side by side on the ground. Every morning, special teams using wooden sledges took away the frozen corpses and then threw them into pits outside the camp or into holes cut in the ice in the Gzhat’ River. Frequently, prisoners who were still alive were thrown into the pits along with the dead. In total, at least 5,000 prisoners are believed to have perished in the camp.³ In addition to the deaths from the horrible conditions in the camp, “undesirables,” such as Jews and political commissars, were taken out of the camp to be executed by Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) personnel.

Dulag 124 remained at Gzhatsk until April 1942, when it was relocated several times as it followed the Fourth Panzer Army during its advance through southern Soviet Union. In late 1942, it was located near the village of Remontnoe (9i). During this time, at least 25 Jews were shot by Ukrainian Hiwis near the camp.⁴ In the spring and summer of 1943, the camp was located in Pavlograd (today Pavlohrad, Ukraine) (9f). Witness testimony recounts brutal treatment of the prisoners during this time, including constant beatings by the guards and Hiwis and shootings of Jewish prisoners.⁵ In August and September 1943, the unit was located in the town of Gadiach (today Hadiach, Ukraine) (9f) and had a subcamp in the town of Romny. The camp in Gadiach had a maximum population of 842 (including 11 officers), while the maximum population of the subcamp in Romny was 2,125 (including 30 officers).⁶

In the fall of 1943, the camp was relocated several more times to locations including Millerovo (9d) and Poltava (9f). In December 1943 and early January 1944, the unit was located in Slavuta (9e).⁷ The unit withdrew westward through Poland with the German army in 1944, eventually relocating to Hoyerswerda (4e).⁸

The exact date of the camp’s disbandment is unknown; records indicate that it was still in service as of March 5, 1945.