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

The Wehrmacht established Dulag 172 on March 15, 1941, from Frontstalag 172. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, it was deployed to various locations in Ukraine, including Zhitomir (map 9e), Novograd-Volynskii (today Novohrad-Volyns’kyi) (9e), Belaia Tserkov’ (today Bila Tserkva) (9e), Krasnograd (9f), and Lozovaia (today Lozova) (9f). In late 1941, the camp deployed to Konstantinovka (today Kostiantynivka) (9f).¹ On August 15, 1942, the camp was relocated in Taganrog (9f), and then to Mariupol’ (9h).² From November 1942 to February 1943, the camp deployed to Krymskaia (today Krymsk) (9h).³ In the spring and summer of 1943, the camp was deployed in Anapa (9h). In late September 1943, it was relocated to Kherson (9g).⁴ In 1944, the camp deployed to Smederevo in occupied Serbia (7). The unit [End Page 96] received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 06 066 between July 15, 1942, and January 24, 1943.

While it was deployed in the occupied Soviet Union, the camp was under the 213th Security Division (Sicherungsdivision) from June to October 1941, and then under the Seventeenth Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 550). Beginning in October 1943, the camp was subordinate to the Army Group South Rear Area Commander (Befehlshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebiets Süd, Berück Süd). While deployed in Serbia, the camp was under the authority of the Military Commander Southeast (Militärbefehlshaber Südost).

The known camp commandants were, in chronological order, Major Salkowski (d. 1942), Major Theissen, Major der Reserve (until July 30, 1943), and Major Gustav Herold (August–October 1943). The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers in the camp were Oberleutnant Hoffenreich and Hauptmann Dr. Polzer; the camp officer (Lageroffizier) was Leutnant Ziercz; the adjutants were Leutnant Geisler and Leutnant Ramthun; and the camp doctor was Dr. Hans Hegemann.⁵ On January 1, 1943, the camp personnel included 80 Germans (10 officers, 4 civil servants, 22 noncommissioned officers, and 44 enlisted men) and 191 local Hilfswillige.⁶

While it was deployed in the occupied Soviet Union, Dulag 172 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The conditions were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. In the camp at Krymskaia stanitsa, around 300 people were confined, but the population later rose to between 5,000 and 6,000 men. Many prisoners were barefoot and had no coats, and they were quartered in cold warehouses on a cement floor, in basements, or in the open air, even in winter. The prisoners were given one small tin can of bran with tiny pieces of plum or pear per day, when they were fed at all; these poor rations rapidly led to malnutrition. Often, the residents of the Krymskaia area brought foodstuffs to the camp and tried to give them to the prisoners, but the German soldiers and police banned this practice and beat those who attempted to pass food to the prisoners. They also beat prisoners who came close to the fence to get the food. Poor sanitary conditions and medical care led to frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The combination of exposure, malnutrition, disease, and deliberate abuse by the guards led to a high mortality rate. For example, while the camp was deployed in Konstantinovka, around 5,000 prisoners are said to have passed through it, and approximately 4,000 of those prisoners died.⁷ While the camp was in Krymskaia, between 10 and 15 prisoners died in the camp each day. There was no time to dig graves for the dead; the prisoners were instead forced to dig an enormous mass grave, 10 meters long, 8 meters wide, and 2.5 meters deep (about 33 by 26 by 8 feet). At least 907 prisoners are known to have died in the camp in Krymskaia.⁸ As in other such camps, the Germans screened newly arrived prisoners to separate out the Jews and Communists, who were then shot near the camp by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD).⁹

While it was deployed in Serbia, Dulag 172 held Italian military prisoners. The conditions in the camp remained poor. The prisoners’ rations were inadequate and poor sanitary conditions and medical care led to a widespread typhus epidemic in which 380 prisoners were infected and 34 died.¹⁰

Specific information about the date of the camp’s dissolution is unavailable, and it may have continued operating until the capitulation on May 8, 1945.