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

The Wehrmacht created Dulag 137 on March 22, 1941, from Frontstalag 137. It deployed to Romania and from there to various locations in Ukraine, including Nikolaev (today: Mykolaïv) (map 9g) in the fall of 1941 and Zaporozh’e (9f) as of May 1942.¹ On July 4, 1942, while the camp was in the town of Romny (9f), it was converted into the headquarters of the 1st Turkestan Eastern Legion (Ost-Legion).² The camp carried field post number (Feldpostnummer) 22 717, which was assigned between April 19, 1941, and February 14, 1942, and struck between February 10 and August 23, 1943.

In the fall of 1941, the camp was subordinate to the Senior Quartermaster Black Sea (Oberquartiermeister Schwarzes Meer), Major Ernst Merk. From the spring of 1942 on, the camp was subordinate to the Army Group South Rear Area Commander (Befehlshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes Süd, Berück Süd).

The camp held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The conditions, especially while the camp was located in Nikolaev, were the same as those in the other camps for Soviet POWs. Meager food rations, overcrowding, and lack of proper medical care resulted in widespread malnutrition and disease, which produced a high mortality rate. Abuse by the guards exacerbated the prisoners’ plight. As in other such camps, the Germans screened newly arrived prisoners to separate out Jews and Communists, who were then shot nearby by the guards or the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD).³