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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 360 on April 8, 1941, in Nürnberg-Langwasser, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XIII (map 4d). From August 1941 to October 1943, the camp was located in the town of Rovno (today Rivne, Ukraine) (9e), and then, until February 1944, it was in the village of Velikii Zhitin (9e), 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northeast of Rovno. There were three subcamps, located in Zdolbunov, Dubno, and Lutsk; the subcamps in Zdolbunov and Lutsk were later relocated to Brest and Kovel’. Stalag 360 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 13 143 between February 1 and July 11, 1941. The number was struck between January 25 and July 31, 1942, renewed on November 30, 1943, and struck again for good on March 28, 1944.

While deployed in Rovno, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Armed Forces Commander Ukraine (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ukraine). Starting in the fall of 1943, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Commander of the Rear Area of Army Group South (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Befehlshaber des Heeresgebiets Süd). The first commandant was Major der Reserve Carl Gerber, and his adjutant was Hauptmann der Reserve Ferdinand Wild. The officer for assignments was Hauptmann der Reserve Christian Hermann, the camp doctor was Dr. Josef Prost, and the camp doctor’s assistants were Wilhelm Müller and Dr. Johann Linnemann.¹ The last commandant of the camp (from October 1943) was Oberstleutnant Otto Kadelke. In January 1944, he moved the camp headquarters through Dubno into Tarnopol. The exact date of the camp’s disbandment is unknown, but records indicate that it was still in operation on March 10, 1944.

Stalag 360 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The maximum population of the camp was 12,916 in October 1942. Many of the prisoners were assigned to work details (Arbeitskommandos) outside the camp.² The camp in Rovno consisted [End Page 363] of three parts. Camp 1 served as a hospital for sick prisoners. The camp physician, Dr. Prost, was in charge of this camp. The largest section was Camp 3, located in the area of the military post on Belaia Street. Alfred Kühn was the commandant of this camp, which held 15,000 prisoners by November 1941. The conditions were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The prisoners suffered due to extreme overcrowding, food that was inadequate in both quantity and quality, lack of medical care, forced labor, and abuse by the guards. Malnutrition, exhaustion, and disease led to a high mortality rate.³ The prisoners were often reduced to eating grass and leaves.

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Stalag 360 at Rowno. Soviet POWs in the camp, date unknown.

USHMM WS #50155

The number of prisoners who died in the camp is not known with certainty. According to Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) materials, more than 30,000 POWs lost their lives in Rovno between 1941 and 1943.⁴ The number of POWs that perished in the subcamp in Lutsk is 10,530;⁵ in Dubno, more than 3,000;⁶ and in Zdolbunov, 300.⁷ It should be noted that casualty figures from the ChGK are often substantially inflated and should therefore be viewed accordingly.