DURCHGANGSLAGER (DULAG) 134
The Wehrmacht established Dulag 134 on March 15, 1941, from Frontstalag 134.1 The camp deployed to Poland initially. Dulag 134 was assigned field post number (Feldpostnummer) 33 911 between March 1 and September 7, 1942; the number was struck on December 4, 1944.
As of June 1941, the camp commandant was Major Laasch. His adjutant was Oberleutnant der Reserve Richter, the officers on assignment were Hauptmann der Reserve Fugmann and Leutnant der Reserve Etzold, the physicians were Oberarzt Dr. Orland and Unterarzt Dr. Haderer, the counterintelligence (Abwehr) officer was Oberleutnant der Reserve Hopperdietzel, and his deputy was Leutnant der Landwehr Knöfel.2
Dulag 134 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). From May 1941, Dulag 134 was under the control of the 285th Security Division (Sicherungsdivision). After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the camp deployed to various towns in the rear area of Army Group North (Heeresgruppe Nord). In August 1941, the camp was located in the city of Pleskau (map 9a).3 It then relocated to Sablino (today Ul’ianovka, Leningradskaia oblast’) (9a).4 As of June 1942, the camp was located in L’gov (9d).
In July 1942, Dulag 134 was transferred to the rear area of Army Group A and placed under the control of the Seventeenth Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 550). From September 1942 to January 1943, the camp was deployed in the town of Armavir (9h), with a subcamp (Nebenlager) in Cherkessk (today [End Page 85] Starocherkasskaia, Rostovskaia oblast’). Dulag 134 was a relatively small camp, with a maximum population of 3,443 in the main camp in Armavir and a maximum population of 848 in the subcamp in Cherkessk.5
On January 14, 1943, the Cherkessk camp was closed, and the prisoners were sent to Armavir. Between January 18 and January 20, 1943, the prisoners were transferred out of the main camp in Armavir. On January 18, 1,500 prisoners were sent to Dulag 132 in Krasnodar, followed by the remaining prisoners on January 20. In 1943, the camp was deployed to various towns in occupied Ukraine.
The conditions in the camp were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. Overcrowding and improper medical care facilitated the spread of disease, while insufficient food rations led to malnutrition, resulting in a high mortality rate. As in other camps, the newly arrived prisoners were screened to weed out “undesirable” prisoners, such as Jews and political commissars, who were executed near the camp by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD).
The exact date of the camp’s disbanding is unknown; it was still in operation as of February 10, 1945.
SOURCES
Primary source material about Dulag 134 is located in BA-MA (RW 6), BNF, NARA, and BA-L B 162/8934–8937, Aussonderung von Kriegsgefangenen im Dulag 134 in Armavir (Sowjetunion).
Additional information about Dulag 134 can be found in the following publications: Gianfranco Mattiello and Wolfgang Vogt, Deutsche Kriegsgefangenen- und Internierten-Einrichtungen 1939–1945. Handbuch und Katalog: Lagergeschichte und Lagerzensurstempel, vol. 2 (Koblenz: self-published, 1987), pp. 48, 76; and Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Vol. 7: Die Landstreitkräfte 131-200 (Osnabrück: Biblio, 1973), p. 18.
NOTES
1. Tessin, Verbände und Truppen, p. 18.
2. NARA, T 501, roll 21, fr. 669.
3. Div. Befehl der 6. Pz. Div./Ic, vom 18.8.1941 (Nürnberg Dok. NOKW 2512).
4. Anlage 3 zu GenQu II/630/42 g. Kdos. v. 24.4.1942: Einsatzorte und Unterstellungsverhältnis der Kriegsgefangeneneinheiten, Stand 1.4.1942, BArch B 162/9094; Anlage 3 zu GenQu II/775/42 g. Kdos. v. 24.5.1942: Einsatzorte und Unterstellungsverhältnis der Kriegsgefangeneneinheiten, Stand 20.5.1942, BArch B 162/7188, fol. 61.
5. Korück 550/Qu, Tagesmeldungen für Oktober–Dezember 1942, Januar–Februar 1943, NARA, T 501, roll 69 (Oktober–Dezember 1942) and roll 77 (Januar 1943).
