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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 345 on April 15, 1941, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) V.¹ From August 24, 1941, to December 1943, it deployed to the Bobrinskaia railroad station in the town of Smela (today Smila, Ukraine) (map 9f).² In December 1943, it was relocated to Zagreb (7). Starting on August 16, 1941, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen) with the Armed Forces Commander in Reichskommissariat Ukraine. As of March 16, 1943, it was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Operations Area II, and from December 13, 1943, on, to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Commander of Army Group F.³

Stalag 345 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 09 708 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. The number was struck between January 25 and July 31, 1943, renewed on November 20, 1943, and struck for good on March 14, 1944.

The first commandant of the camp was Oberstleutnant Gustav Henckel. His successor was Oberst Achim Reymann, who became commandant on February 4, 1943. On May 13, 1943, Major Ludwig Händler took over as commandant and held the position until the dissolution of the camp the following year. The deputy commandants were Major Georg Reichel and Major Max Kemmetmüller. The adjutants were Hauptmann Josef Kropp, Hauptmann Carl Dirrmann, and Hauptmann Karl Kiderlen. The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officers were Hauptmann Friedrich Calwer, Hauptmann Ludwig Kloth, and Hauptmann Harry Weiss. Feldwebel Karl Dillmann was responsible for the camp’s labor detachments (Arbeitskommandos). The camp doctors were Dr. Paul Grundler, Dr. Otto Kromer, Dr. Karl Süss, Dr. Richard Vogel, and Dr. Gerhard Wolter.⁴ The camp was guarded by personnel from Company 1 of Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) 783, who were assisted by Russian Hilfswillige—prisoners who volunteered to serve as guards in order to escape the terrible conditions in the camp.⁵

While it was deployed in Smela, Stalag 345 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The population varied from a minimum of 2,605 in February 1942 to a maximum of 18,871 in February 1943.⁶ The conditions in Stalag 345 were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The camp was severely overcrowded and the prisoners were severely underfed, leading to widespread death from starvation. Although the camp was designated as a hospital for wounded POWs, almost no medical care was provided, resulting in a high death rate due to both untreated combat wounds and epidemics. Deliberate abuse by the guards exacerbated the awful living conditions. Upon arrival in the camp, prisoners were screened by the counterintelligence officers and guards to separate out “undesirables,” such as Jews and political commissars, who were executed by the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst) near the camp; Jewish civilians from Smela were also executed near the camp on multiple occasions.⁷ At least one prisoner was hanged in the camp after he allegedly killed a guard while attempting to escape.⁸

Former prisoner A. E. Sukhinin, who was in the camp from October 1942 to May 1943, described the conditions:

To this camp they brought the wounded, to deliberately let them die. In winter the buildings were not heated in any way, and we were warmed only by the heat of our bodies. We slept on bare boards, covered with nothing: they took away all our clothing and footwear and left us only our underwear. We slept in a ball, thrusting our arms into the neckband of our shirt with our palms under our arms, and pressing our knees up toward our chins—that was the best way to conserve heat. The food they gave us was not enough to sustain life. I tried not even to move unless necessary, and not to speak.⁹

In December 1943, Stalag 345 relocated to Zagreb, Croatia. Little information is available about the prisoners or the conditions in the camp during this deployment. The date on which the camp was disbanded is unknown; it was still in operation as of June 5, 1944.