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

The Wehrmacht established Dulag Borispol at the end of September 1941, in the city of Borispol (today Boryspil’, Ukraine), 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) northeast of Kiev (map 9e). The camp was used to hold Red Army soldiers who had been taken prisoner in the encirclement east of Kiev.¹ The camp was subordinate at first to the 113th Infantry Division and then to Security Division (Sicherungsdivision) 454. The camp was operated by German subunits assigned by these divisions rather than a separate Dulag headquarters; therefore, the camp was officially referred to as a prisoner of war (POW) camp (Kriegsgefangenenlager) or prisoner camp (Gefangenenlager), although it functioned as a Dulag, or transit camp. As of October 9, 1941, the camp held 28,000 prisoners who were guarded by 300 German soldiers.²

Gefreiter Eugen Seibold, an artilleryman who was one of the soldiers guarding the camp, wrote in his diary on September 23, 1941:

In Borispol. Along the same route where we were firing last time, we are now advancing southward, to the Kiev-Khar’kov railroad line, with which we are already acquainted. Along the way are a great many abandoned trucks, transport vehicles, saddlebags scattered here and there, dead horses, [firing] batteries, which, along with the [artillery] tractors, had been abandoned at the firing position. The first trains carrying prisoners are being sent northward. There was no work at all for us, since the town had been abandoned, everyone had run away. On the other hand, we had to process several captured trains. By September 21, I already had an opportunity to take a look at Borispol. The town presents an unforgettable picture of the war. The Russians’ routes of retreat had been attacked by German dive-bombers, and here we see terrible devastation: hundreds of trucks, some half-destroyed by fire, others completely blown up. Body parts of horses are lying all over the ground, and between the craters made by the bomb explosions there are heaps of corpses. We sleep in former barracks for paratroopers; the buildings are very well equipped. The night of September 23–24 we spend at an airfield and guard prisoners, of whom there were 18,000. The Russians slept in the hangar, while we slept out in the open. They presented a diverse picture: all kinds of troops, ranging from infantrymen, combat engineers, and artillerymen to people dressed in a summer uniform and the black uniform of railroad troops and even including sailors, who had come, most likely, from Kiev. One could even find civilians among them. Women who are partisans and nurses supply them with water, which they drink greedily. Although many [End Page 521] Russian prisoners were in combat for a protracted period, the uniforms they wore were in good condition. In most cases, the uniforms were even new. The cleanliness of their underwear was especially striking. They were all in boots, made of fine leather besides, and with high boot-tops. The Russian greatcoats are thicker, with warm padding, they give good protection against the cold, with which we tried to cope by means of bonfires. The headgear is extremely diverse. One can see caps with earflaps, peaked service caps, flat-topped round hats made of karakul lambskin, and field caps. The women, by and large, are dressed in the same uniform as the men, and only the bust indicates that they belong to the female gender. The majority of them are young, inspired by their work. Incidentally, most of them make the same impression as the women of Montmartre. With undisguised pleasure, they tormented the Jews. A part of the prisoners had been chosen and, by highly effective means, had to prove their Aryan origin. They undress the manager of a Kiev factory down to his shirt, he takes out a packet of money and surrenders it in despair, but to no avail. He tears off even his shirt and is left in a yellow-and-blue bathing suit and a woolen blanket. Egoism in its crudest form. Many unnecessary things are done purely out of stupidity or animal instinct. We accompany this crowd of people (10 of us for 3,500 Russians) to Brovary, not far from Kiev. A dreadful march. We go through endless plains and tiny hamlets. Everyone rushes to drink water from stinking puddles. Such is the lot of prisoners. We hope that we won’t have to experience similar things.³

As in other camps for Soviet POWs, new arrivals were screened to separate out undesirables, such as Jews and political commissars, who were subsequently shot by the camp guards or Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) personnel. For example, “at the request of the camp commandant,” a “platoon of Sonderkommando 4a shot 752 Jewish POWs on October 14, 1941, and 357 on October 18, 1941, among whom there were several [political] commissars and 78 wounded Jews, handed over by the camp doctor.”⁴

Dulag Borispol was liquidated in late October 1941 by transferring the prisoners to other camps. For example, on October 16, 1941, Security Division 454 ordered the 375th Infantry Regiment to transport 8,000 prisoners (including 80 staff officers and around 300 other officers) under guard to Dulag 205 in Poltava on October 18. Based on the same order, the camp in Borispol, which at that time was run by the headquarters of Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) 987, was supposed to hand over 10,000 prisoners to the 62nd Infantry Division for transport to Dulag 205 and from there to Stalag 339, in Kiev-Darnitsa, beginning on October 20.⁵

On April 13, 2011, during excavation work in Borispol, a ditch 30 meters long and 3 meters wide (98.4 by 9.8 feet) was uncovered, which held the remains of Red Army soldiers (killed with shots to the back of the head), some bearing the traces of serious predeath injuries. During the exhumation, the remains of 493 people (including women) were discovered, in addition to 26 personal identification cards. It was possible to identify nine of the bodies (all but one of whom were Jews).⁶