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

The Wehrmacht formed FStGA 6 in Defense District (Wehrkreis) V, in Armed Forces Prison (Wehrmachtgefängnis, WG) Freiburg.¹ It was the only FStGA formed in this WG. In mid-September 1942, FStGA 6 deployed to the eastern front, where it was subordinated to Army Group North (Heeresgruppe Nord). Additional prisoners were added to the FStGA from the area of Army Group North during its deployment; if direct transfer was not possible, they were sent via Wartime Armed Forces Prison (Kriegswehrmachtgefängnis, KWG) Wilna (Vilnius).

The Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) guidelines of April 14 and 15, 1942—which were expanded on October 28, based on the experiences up to that point—dictated the organization and strength of the unit, the selection of the prisoners, and the prisoners’ treatment and deployment. These guidelines are discussed in detail in the entry for FStGA 1. The OKW’s instruction that the prisoners in the FStGAs were to be sent “to the hardest labor” under “particularly unfavorable and perilous circumstances”² was practiced in a particularly brutal manner in FStGA 6. On September 4, 1943, the court of the 61st Infantry Division reported to the Eighteenth Army that prisoners in FStGA 6 who were sick or otherwise incapable of working had nonetheless been forced to continue working to the point of physical collapse. The prisoners were also subject to torture, including having water poured over their naked bodies outdoors in subzero temperatures. A prisoner who was shot while attempting to break into a supply camp (Verpflegungslager) was subsequently tied to a tree for hours while almost naked during cold, rainy weather, and subjected to further beatings. These instances of torture took place in full view of the guard staff and with the knowledge of the unit’s commanding officers.³

A prisoner from FStGA 6 who managed to defect to the Red Army captured the prevailing conditions in the unit in a leaflet distributed in June 1943 under the headline “To the Comrades of the 6th Penal Battalion.” It continued: “They let you slave away like animals and treat you as such. And who condemned you? Men in clean, pressed uniforms, who have never felt any of the horrors of war, and who only benefit from all the killing. You’ve risked everything including your life to this point, and now your reward for it will be a slow ruin.”⁴

The inhuman conditions of imprisonment brought with them numerous escape attempts, which resulted in additional deaths through executions. On December 14, 1942, Wilhelm Bruhn of the 2nd Company of FStGA 6 was sentenced to death for desertion. The legal reports concerning his execution note that “in light of the many cases of desertion in the Field Penal Units … , the immediate execution of the sentence is necessary to deter all unreliable elements, despite the demonstrated mitigating circumstances.”⁵ In the 11 months between October 1942 and August 1943, there were at least 26 documented executions of prisoners from FStGA 6.⁶ The executions took place in Shar on the train line from Chudovo to Volkhov and at the train station in Mga. It should be noted that FStGA 6 had the highest number of prisoners of any FStGA, as it was the only such unit with six companies (all of the others had a maximum of five).⁷ Nonetheless, it should be noted that FStGA 6 approached the likewise high total of executions in FStGA 4, which was located in the area of the front between Leningrad and Volkhov.

After August 1943, fewer death sentences were documented. This change may have been because fewer prisoners [End Page 605] were sentenced to death, or simply because the documents for the executions during this period were lost or destroyed. It is possible that the abovementioned report by the court of the 61st Infantry Division of AOK 18 also led to an intervention against unnecessary torture, which could have led to a decrease in escape attempts and, therefore, death sentences. A letter sent to FStGA 6 and other units by the Eighteenth Army headquarters on May 14, 1943, emphasized that “fair and by-the-book treatment of prisoners under all circumstances must be ensured with all due toughness in imprisonment. Measures for their care must have the goal of absolutely holding onto the valuable labor force of the prisoners in the interests of the fighting troops.”⁸

In addition to preserving the prisoners’ ability to work, the Eighteenth Army also wanted to maintain their fighting strength for potential deployment to “front probation” for prisoners who demonstrated good behavior. On January 27, 1943, FStGA 6 acted on the order from AOK 18 to establish an armed platoon (Waffenzug) from prisoners who had been promoted within the ranks of the FStGA for good behavior, the so-called climbers. The order stated that “expansion [of the armed platoon] to an armed company remain contingent upon the experiences with the platoon.”⁹ This order followed the October 1942 directive from the general for Special Tasks at the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres, OKH) responsible for the FStGAs that the FStGAs should take measures so that “in cases of emergency, prisoners (particularly the ‘climbers’) could be armed with weapons to defend against enemy attacks” or “be deployed for smaller operations.”¹⁰ This order was likely motivated by positive experiences with a “task group” (Einsatzkommando) in FStGA 3—which was also deployed with Army Group North—in “anti-partisan warfare (Bandenbekämpfung).” In February 1944, “‘Army Group-Probationary-Battalion II’ … was formed from parts of FStGA 6 that were assigned to Pleskau [today Pskov, Russia] Garrison Command.”¹¹ Supposedly, this battalion was only used temporarily to carry out security-related tasks. It is unclear how many prisoners from FStGA 6 were assigned to front probation with normal combat units or the specially created Probationary Unit (Bewährungstruppe) 500 after deployment to an armed platoon or similar group.¹² It is also unclear how many prisoners from FStGA 6 were deemed to be “incorrigible” and were assigned to field penal camps (Feldstraflager). Prisoners sent to the field penal camps were to remain there for the rest of the war; the time they spent there would not count against their sentences, which they were expected to serve in full after the war ended.¹³

Although it is possible that the worst excesses in the treatment of prisoners in FStGA 6 had ceased by the end of 1943, the conditions in the unit remained harsh, as indicated by the testimony of former prisoner Wolf Gerlach. Gerlach, a Luftwaffe airman, was sentenced to two years of prison for “subversion of fighting power” (Wehrkraftzersetzung) and transferred from WG Glatz to FStGA 6. Although he did not witness any executions as a result of courts-martial, his recollections nonetheless attest to the brutal conditions in FStGA 6 in 1943 and 1944, when the prisoners were assigned to “building obstacles in front of our own lines and minesweeping. In no-man’s land, the unarmed prisoners were continually exposed to their own and Russian fire…. And this was our lot: the hardest physical labor with total malnourishment, casualties under fire, and mistreatment and beatings to death for inability to work, whereby the poor parents were then informed that their son died of ‘circulatory system failure.’ The torture and harassment is impossible to describe in so few words. It was hell.”¹⁴ If the described treatment of individual FStGA prisoners was to serve as “atonement and deterrence,” it was also to serve a general preventive function. General der Artillerie Eugen Müller, the General for Special Tasks at OKH, had clearly stated that “the knowledge of these hardships [in the FStGAs] must effectively deter others from committing similar crimes. Only when they can realize the bigger picture can the incarceration fulfill its purpose.”¹⁵

The observations of Hans Breithaupt, who at the time served as a major in the 30th Infantry Division, show that the hardships in the FStGAs did, in fact, come into the “wider consciousness” of the troops at the front. He reported in April and May 1944 that “the deployment of one Prisoner Unit 6 [FStGA 6] in the division sector is also depressing. Among the prisoners are numerous demoted service ranks. Now they must manage the work of clearing out the direct vicinity of the front line, particularly the mountain of numerous dead from previous battles, with its awful side effects. They conduct their work quietly and give the soldiers food for deep thought, particularly since there are occasionally personal connections, even though the troops are forbidden from speaking with prisoners.”¹⁶ The “deep thought” Breithaupt mentioned had a dual nature—both the deterrent effect desired by the army leadership and pity for their mistreated comrades and anger at those responsible.

Breithaupt remarked of the guards of FStGA 6 that “the sentry is very sharp, but on the other hand also visibly happy when the dangerous deployment at the front line is over.”¹⁷ Wolf Gerlach also recalled the sharpness of the guards in FStGA 6. He recalled the case of two Soviet women who hid a bowl with boiled potatoes for the prisoners multiple times as FStGA 6 built reception camps (Auffangstellungen) for prisoners behind German lines. He noted: “It worked for eight full days … until a certain Unteroffizier, Butz, from Karlsruhe, became aware of them, smashed the potatoes, stormed into the house, dragged out the girl and her old mother, and along with Feldwebel Göttinger, Unteroffizier Mühleisen, Obergefreiter Dietz, and other guards, beat the women with the butt of the rifle until they lay in their own blood.”¹⁸

The front side of the aforementioned leaflet intended for the prisoners of FStGA 6, ended with the words: “All the work that you do builds the throne of your …” ‘oppressors,’ the text may have continued on the unavailable backside of the leaflet. Gerlach arrived at a similar view. He and a comrade fled together to the Soviet partisans in August 1944.

FStGA 6 was among four FStGAs that were sent from the sector of the Sixteenth Army to the western front between [End Page 606] October 1 and October 15, 1944. These units were deployed to the border region with France and Belgium to build defensive installations in advance of the approaching western Allied troops.¹⁹ Prior to this transfer, at least three more members of FStGA 6 were executed in Riga. On August 8, 1944, Hans Lasse (b. August 8, 1922) “was shot … for desertion … and buried in the Jewish cemetery” after he was sentenced to death by the court of Field Training Division North (Feldausbildungs-Division Nord).²⁰ The regular practice of burying executed deserters and prisoners convicted of “subversion of fighting strength” in the Jewish cemetery in Riga was intended to extend the shame of the prisoners beyond death.²¹ Werner Bandekow and Karl Bismanns (b. July 27, 1924) were also executed for desertion on September 11 and October 4, 1944, respectively, in Riga. The verdicts had been handed down by the court of the Armed Forces Local Command (Wehrmacht-Ortskommandantur) in Riga.²²

After it was transferred to the western front, FStGA 6 was deployed to Army Group G in the Upper Rhine region. It was temporarily subordinated to the 708th Volks-Grenadier-Division, as is apparent from two death sentences handed down by the divisional court on November 14, 1944, against Josef Gschwandtner for desertion and Gerhard Thiede for insubordination.²³ It is not known whether these sentences were carried out. FStGA was sent back to the eastern front in early 1945, where it was subordinated to Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte) in Silesia.²⁴ As late as May 1, 1945, sentences were still being passed against prisoners from FStGA 6 for various offenses. On that date, the unit leader drafted a verdict against Heinrich H., who had been interned in the Penitentiary Company of FStGA 6 for a term of 15 years for desertion.²⁵