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

The Wehrmacht established Dulag 314 on April 15, 1941. Beginning in August 1941, the camp was first under Security Division (Sicherungsdivision) 221 and then the 339th Infantry Division (Rear Area, Army Group Center), and deployed to Bobruisk, in occupied Belorussia (map 9b). From 1942 to 1944, the camp was under the Second Army Rear Area Commander (Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Korück, 580), and continued to be deployed in the occupied Soviet Union. In the first half of 1942, the camp was located in Vorozhba (9c), then in Konotop (9c), and then, starting in May 1942, in Kursk (9d).¹ In 1943, the camp deployed to Kalinkovichi and then to Brest (both 9e). In July 1944, the camp was located near Warsaw, and, on September 20, 1944, it was disbanded in East Prussia.²

From April 1941 to March 1944, the camp commandant was Oberstleutnant Ernst Meley. Dulag 314 received the field post number (Feldpostnummer) 41 454 between March 1 and September 7, 1942. The number was struck on September 22, 1944.

While deployed in Bobruisk, Dulag 314 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). For example, on September 15, 1941, the camp held 12,265 POWs, and, on September 29, there were 5,157 prisoners.³ The conditions in the camp were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The prisoners did not receive adequate housing, food, or medical care, resulting in a high death rate, primarily due to malnutrition and disease. As in other camps, the Germans conducted selections 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) personnel.

During the deployment in Brest, the camp held Italian servicemen who refused to fight on the side of Germany. Details on conditions for those prisoners is lacking, but, if the general pattern prevailed, they were harsh.