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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 341 from Frontstalag 341 on April 2, 1941, in Altengrabow (map 4a), in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XI; it was also known as Stalag XI E.¹ In September 1941, the camp deployed to Slutsk (9b), in occupied Belarus. In November 1941, the camp was relocated to Mogilev (9b).² From September 11, 1941, the camp was subordinate to the Armed Forces Commander Ostland (Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ostland), and as of November 15, 1941, it was subordinate to Security Division (Sicherungsdivision) 286 and the Commander of Prisoners of War in Operations Area III (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Operationsgebiet III).³ Stalag 341 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 10 916 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. The number was struck on November 8, 1943.

The first commandant of the camp was Major Edgar Hugo Nikolaus Graf von Luckner. He was succeeded as commandant by Major Erich Viktor Nichelski on March 25, 1942. On May 31, 1942, Oberst Wilhelm Senff took over the position of commandant. He was succeeded on August 5, 1942, by Major Herbert Tiedemann. The final commandant of the camp was Oberst Rudolf Burger, who took over on November 7, 1942. The deputy commandant was Hauptmann Günter Försterling and the adjutants were Leutnant Ewald Meyer and Leutnant Richard Becker.⁴ The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers were Hauptmann Georg Duchrow and Hauptmann Heinrich Stuhlmann. The labor detachments (Arbeitseinsatz) were commanded by Hauptmann Johannes Osterhagen. The camp doctors were Oberarzt Dr. Otto Dörr, Unterarzt Dr. Karl Ditzmann, Dr. Gustav Ahne, and Dr. Walter Piontek; however, much of the care in the camp infirmary (Lazarett) was provided by a Russian doctor (who himself died of typhus in 1942) and Russian medical personnel.⁵ The camp was guarded by personnel from Company 1 of Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) 861, who were assisted by a group of Soviet volunteers (Hiwis).⁶ The camp staff and guards were quartered in a former Red Army barracks near the camp.

Stalag 341 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The conditions in the camp were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The camp was severely overcrowded and the prisoners received minimal rations and medical care, leading to widespread death from exhaustion, malnutrition, and diseases, particularly typhus, which ravaged the camp in the winter of 1941–1942. The atrocious conditions were exacerbated by deliberate mistreatment by the guards. The prisoners were required to perform hard labor in the area around the camp. As in other camps, newly arrived prisoners were screened to separate out “undesirables,” such as Jews and political commissars, who were executed in the woods near the camp by Security [End Page 339] Service (Sicherheitsdienst) personnel. In September and October 1941, around 200 prisoners of Mongolian ethnicity were also executed, as they were considered “racially inferior elements” (Rassisch minderwertige Elemente).⁷ According to Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) data, as many as 70,000 prisoners were confined in the camp, and, by the beginning of 1942, around 40,000 already had died; however, casualty figures from the ChGK are often significantly inflated and should be viewed accordingly.⁸ The camp was still in operation as of October 6, 1943; its date of dissolution is unknown.