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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 363, from Frontstalag 363, on November 1, 1941, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) XXI.¹ The date of its redesignation as a Stalag is unknown. Initially, it deployed to a forest camp near Posen (today Poznań, Poland) (map 4c). On December 2, 1941, the headquarters (Kommandantur) of the camp transferred to Reichshof (today Rzeszów, Poland) (5) in the Generalgouvernement, but, before mid-1942, it was not used. On June 12, 1942, the camp was moved to Khar’kov (9f), where the camp headquarters took over from Dulag 171.² The camp was located in Khar’kov until February 5, 1943, when the Germans evacuated the prisoners (around 18,000) westward. The camp headquarters took over Stalag 346 in Kremenchug (9f) on February 20, 1943, where it remained until June 20, 1943.³ The camp was then relocated to Plauen (4e), where it was dissolved on July 27, 1943.⁴

As of December 1941, the camp was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War in the Generalgouvernement of Poland (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Generalgouvernement Polen). Starting on April 15, 1942, it was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Armed Forces Commander Ukraine (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ukraine). As of June 10, 1942, it was subordinated to Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd), and as of September 25, 1942, to the Commander of Prisoners of War in Operations Area II (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Operationsgebiet II) and Commander of Prisoners of War with the Army Group B Rear Area Command (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Befehlshaber des Heeresgebiets B). Starting on March 14, 1943, it was subordinated to Army Detachment (Armeeabteilung) Kempf.⁵ Stalag 363 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 41 755 between July 30, 1941, and February 28, 1942. The number was struck between March 12 and September 7, 1943.

The camp commandant was Major (later Oberstleutnant) Wilhelm Gottschalk until January 31, 1943, when Oberstleutnant Dr. Franz Knoll succeeded him. The deputy camp commandant was Major Mann, the first camp officer (Lageroffizier 1) was Hauptmann Rudolf Utz; the counterintelligence (Abwehr) officer was Hauptmann Wilke, as well as Rittmeister Arndt. The adjutant was Oberleutnant August Müller, and the officer for assignments was Oberleutnant Heilgemeyer. The Soviet volunteers (Hilfswillige, Hiwi) company that guarded the camp was headed by Oberleutnant Stüwe. The camp doctors were Oberarzt Dr. Gatting, who was succeeded by Stabsarzt Dr. Quante. The prisoner hospital was headed by Unterarzt Dr. Hans Stappert.⁶

Stalag 363 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). In Khar’- kov, the camp was located on the grounds of the former Correctional Colony No. 18 (Kholodnogorskaia Prison) near a fireman’s watchtower on Sverdlov Street. In October 1942, the camp held 21,000 prisoners.⁷ The conditions were similar to those in other camps for Soviet POWs. The camp was severely overcrowded, the food was inadequate in both quality and quantity, the prisoners had to perform heavy labor, the guards were abusive, and the prisoners received minimal medical care. As a result, the death rate was high. According to former Generalleutnant Kurt von Österreich, who served as Commander of Prisoners of War with the Army Group B Rear Area Command in 1942, “when visiting the hospital for Russian POWs in Khar’kov, I saw how gravely ill men were placed in accommodations where there was no heating and all the windows were broken, and the sick men had no clothing or shoes. As a result, 200–300 people died in this hospital each day from exhaustion and epidemic diseases.”⁸ [End Page 366]

The prisoners’ constant hunger led to desperation and violence during the distribution of food. A former prisoner, B. Vitman, says in his memoirs,

In one of the enclosures at the camp, the Germans set up three big cauldrons in which asphalt is made. Using carbines, the guards shot the horses used for bringing in the wounded. They chopped the carcasses into pieces and threw them into the cauldrons. The water started to boil. Thousands of hungry eyes watched this procedure. The Germans went out of the enclosure, and the only people remaining near the cauldrons were cooks who also were prisoners. That, apparently, was all the enormous crowd of people was waiting for. In an instant the crowd got through the barriers between the enclosures and rushed toward the cauldrons. Those who were running ahead of the others succeeded in snatching still-raw pieces of horseflesh out of the boiling water. But the people farther back immediately crushed underfoot the ones who were ahead of them. In a few seconds, the cauldrons were concealed from sight by the people swarming all over them. Blood-curdling shrieks were heard, they came from the stupefied guards, who fired several shots into the air. This did not stop anyone. People continued to clamber over the fallen bodies to get to the cauldrons. Those at the back pushed those in front into the boiling water. Only after the guard opened fire on the people and felled several individuals did the wave of human beings fall back. Before distribution of the soup began, it was necessary to fish the boiled corpses out of the cauldrons.⁹

Many prisoners also died during transport to the camp. For example, according to von Österreich, “in October 1942 a special train carrying Russian POWs came to Khar’kov. In Khar’kov it appeared that about 150 of the 1,500 people on this train were missing. Upon clarification, it turned out that 75 people had died of starvation en route, and their corpses were found in the cars of the train. The remaining 75 had tried to escape, but were caught by the guards and shot on the spot.”¹⁰

As in other camps, the Germans screened newly arrived prisoners to separate out Jews and political commissars, who were then shot by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst) near the camp.¹¹