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

The Wehrmacht established Stalag 370 on November 4, 1941, in Defense District (Wehrkreis) X.¹ The camp deployed initially to Reichshof (Polish: Rzeszów) (map 5), in the Generalgouvernement. In April 1942, the camp relocated to Kherson, Ukraine (9g), where it took over the site of Dulag 120. In July 1942, the camp moved to Simferopol’ (9h), in Crimea, where it occupied the former site of Dulag 241. While it was located in Simferopol’, the camp had subcamps in Sevastopol’, Dzhankoi, and Kerch.² While it was located in Ukraine, Stalag 370 was subordinate to the Commander of Prisoners of War with the Armed Forces Commander Ukraine (Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen beim Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ukraine). After it relocated to Crimea, the camp was subordinate to the Commander Crimea (Befehlshaber Krim). Stalag 370 received field post number (Feldpostnummer) 42 082 between July 30, 1941, and February 28, 1942. The number was struck on November 22, 1943.

The commandant of Stalag 370 was Oberstleutnant Gürtner and his deputy was Major Müller-Jürgens. The adjutant was Hauptmann Laube. The counterintelligence (Abwehr) officer was Hauptmann Schwinck.³ The camp doctor was Dr. Adam. The staff of the camp consisted of about 110 people. During the deployment in Simferopol’, the camp was guarded by personnel from the 3rd Company of the 623rd Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon).⁴

While it was deployed in Ukraine and Crimea, Stalag 370 held Soviet prisoners of war (POWs). The camp in Kherson held 9,034 prisoners on May 1, 1942, and 8,258 prisoners on June 1, 1942.⁵ One witness estimated the population of the branch camp in Dzhankoi at around 600–700 prisoners. The conditions in Kherson and in Simferopol’ were similar to those in other camps for Soviet prisoners. The prisoners faced severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and inadequate medical care as well as deliberate mistreatment by the guards. The prisoners were also required to work in labor detachments (Arbeitskommandos) near the camp. Because of the terrible living conditions, mistreatment, and hard labor, the death rate in Stalag 370 was very high. As in other camps for Soviet prisoners, moreover, new arrivals in the camp were screened to separate out “undesirable” prisoners, such as Jews and political commissars, who were then executed by the guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst) personnel near the camp; these actions also took place at the subcamps.⁶

The number of prisoners who died in Stalag 370 during its deployments in Kherson and Simferopol’ is unknown because the reports of the camp commandant’s office were not preserved. The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) documents regarding Kherson and Simferopol’ simply refer to deaths during the entire period of occupation in these areas and do not distinguish deaths in Stalag 370 from those in other camps. Stalag 370 was disbanded on October 10, 1943.⁷