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

The Wehrmacht established FStGA 16 in March 1943 in Armed Forces Prison (Wehrmachtgefängnis, WG) Glatz through the commander of Defense District (Wehrkreis) VIII.¹ The unit deployed to the eastern front for service with Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd), where it was subordinated to the Sixth Army. Additional convicts from the front and rear areas of Army Group South were transferred to FStGA 16; in cases where direct transfers were not possible, the prisoners were usually sent via Wartime Armed Forces Prison (Kriegswehrmachtgefängnis, KWG) Dubno and its subordinate Reception Center (Auffangstelle) Kiev.

The Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) guidelines of April 14 and 15, 1942—which were expanded by the General for Special Tasks responsible for the FStGAs at the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres, OKH) on October 28, based on the initial experiences with the FStGAs—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 FStGA 1.

Hauptmann Friedrich Böttger was responsible for the implementation of these guidelines in FStGA 16 as well as the unit’s deployment and leadership. Böttger was transferred from Infantry Replacement Battalion 10 in Dresden to WG Torgau-Fort Zinna in the middle of 1941, when he still held the rank of Oberleutnant, so that he could be familiarized with the Wehrmacht corrections system. In the fall of 1941, he took over a company of the offshoot Armed Forces Prisoner Unit (Wehrmachtgefangenen-Abteilung, WGA) Wolfen, which, due to its location (Lager Marie über Bitterfeld), was also designated WGA Bitterfeld. In the summer of 1942, Böttger took over leadership of FStGA 16 and remained in command until it was dissolved at the end of the war.² Böttger (who had by then been promoted to Hauptmann) was transferred to WG Glatz to form FStGA 16. After the war, in regard to the deployment of the unit with Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd), Böttger stated: “I was deployed with this unit as its leader in April 1943 to dig trenches behind the front, ca. 150 kilometers [93 miles] east of Stalino [today Donets’k, Ukraine]. Several months later we were withdrawn and the unit was deployed temporarily at the bridgehead in Nikopol’.”³

The report of Fritz D. discusses the detail of these deployments in the southern section of the eastern front. Fritz D. traveled with Hauptmann Böttger from Glatz to Stalino. Fritz D., who was sentenced to two years in prison for absence without leave, wrote about that time: “We had to bury corpses there, clear mines, build tank ditches and so on. My strength was nearly out, I was in pain, I was malnourished. If you could not accomplish the intended work, you were hit and didn’t get the watery soup.” Fritz. D. was eventually transferred into KWG Dubno with a transport of “malnourished and sick [prisoners].” He stayed there for “recovery,” meaning the restoration of work strength. However, Fritz D. was soon sent to the front again: “It didn’t take long before I collapsed. I was struck with a rifle butt, and I couldn’t recover my breath.”⁴ He was diagnosed with open pulmonary tuberculosis and had to remain in the care of a field hospital (Lazarett) until well after the end of the war.

The disastrous consequences of the combination of insufficient rations, long and hard labor, and harassment by the staff were reflected in the reports of the consulting internist with Armeearzt 6, Oberfeldarzt Dr. Katsch. He first encountered members of FStGA 16 on July 9, 1943, in KWG Makejewka (Makeevka) and noted: “52 men from Field Penal Unit 16 have arrived who were pulled out of the Div.-Arzt [i.e., the Third Mountain Division] as no longer fit for deployment. Of [End Page 627] these, 51 are most severely malnourished. Yesterday the Standortarzt sent 14 directly to field hospital 776 because they to some extent could no longer remain on their feet or displayed severe hunger edema. The rest of the prisoners [of FStGA 16] are quite miserable, some underweight by up to 20 kilograms [44 pounds].”⁵

On July 14, 1943, Dr. Katsch traveled to FStGA 16, located in Lotikovo (today Lotykove, Ukraine), to carry out a “study of the health, work, and nutritional conditions” of the unit “on special orders” of commander of the Sixth Army. “Some 30 percent” of the prisoners were in a “catastrophic state of malnourishment.”⁶ Dr. Katsch gave the commander a report two days later. This report ordered a continuation of the study. Katsch returned to FStGA 16 on July 23, this time accompanied by Armeerichter Kowarzik and Hauptmann Löhrmann of the OKW. The following day, Katsch and the Armeerichter met with the Pioneer Leader (Pionierführer) of the “Mieth Group,” under whose command FStGA 16 was deployed at the time.

In his activity report for the period of July to October 1943, Katsch wrote of FStGA 16 that “three cases of death have occurred. Numerous cases of hunger edema, even more numerous cases of extreme exhaustion with dried, exfoliated skin, shaggy hair, underweight by up to 20 kg. Festering wounds from work accidents or gunshots healed very poorly, which was apparently for the majority of the cases wrongly attributed to prisoners manipulating their wounds.”

Katsch described the vicious cycle that resulted from the treatment of the prisoners: “Psychological reactions were pronounced with some of the severely malnourished: a dull apathy from which they did not report their sickness, on the one hand, and indifference to orders or lack of cleanliness in dress and in physical posture on the other. Here they incurred particularly unfavorable judgments and special punishments (partially through food deprivation), through which they descended into a hopeless cycle of harm.”⁷ For some, this “cycle of harm” led directly to death by exhaustion; others undertook futile escape attempts or simply quit obeying orders. In both cases, a death sentence often resulted, or the prisoner was shot “as a disciplinary measure resulting from his own actions,”⁸ as it was called on the form used to notify next of kin.

In the above-cited postwar statement by the former leader of FStGA 16, Hauptmann Böttger, there are no hints as to the catastrophic internment conditions in the unit. In regard to other events, it merely says that “as a result of the quick advance of the Red Army, in which the unit was without weapons, we experienced great material—and through enemy activity also human—losses. Therefore, I submitted to the Generalkommando, Corrections Division [Abteilung Strafvollzug] a new formation of the unit. The new formation was approved and was to be prepared in the homeland.”⁹

As a result of Böttger’s statement, the “majority of the personnel and all the prisoners” were divided among the other FStGAs in the southern section of the front. The “rest of the personnel” returned around May 1944 to WG Glatz to carry out the reorganization of FStGA 16, which was to begin in August 1944 in Rokitnitz, in the Sudetenland (today Rokytnice v Orlických horách, Czech Republic). After the reorganization was completed, Böttger surrendered leadership of the unit because his appeal for release from the penal system, which, in his words, he “no longer felt physically up to,” was granted.¹⁰ It is possible that Dr. Katsch’s suggestion that “procedures be taken” against the commander of FStGA 16 was based on his previous report.¹¹ However, Katsch’s suggestion had little effect on Böttger or his career. He found further military employment and retained the rank of Hauptmann. In the last days of the war, he commanded Reserve Battalion (Landesschützenbataillon) 4.

The newly reformed FStGA 16 was spared redeployment on the eastern front. Instead, it was among the eight FStGAs transferred to the western front in the fall of 1944. FStGA 16 was deployed with the First Airborne Army in the Lower Rhine region. Between December 1944 and February 1945, six death sentences for desertion, handed down by the court of the Generalkommando of the LXXXVI Army Corps, were confirmed. These sentences were carried out in Walbeck, near the Dutch border.¹² In January 1945, the same court issued three other death sentences, which, in two cases, were commuted to lengthy prison sentences. In the other case, the convicted was given over to the Gestapo for work deployment in a concentration camp.¹³ In the case of a fourth death sentence, handed down in February 1945 for subversion of fighting power (Wehrkraftzersetzung), the prisoner was still awaiting a decision on his appeal for clemency. Finally, another death sentence, on March 24, 1945, was handed down by the field court of the Airborne Army Troops against Gerhard Klimek, for desertion. The sentence, although it was confirmed on April 26, was commuted to “special probation.”¹⁴ Though there are some fragmented records of prisoners from FStGA 16 who were sentenced to death, there are no records of how many prisoners were deemed “incorrigible” and transferred to Field Penal Camps (Feldstraflager),¹⁵ or how many were sent to “front probation” with a regular combat unit or the specially created Probationary Unit (Bewährungstruppe) 500 as a result of good behavior.¹⁶

More than three years after the end of the war, a former military prisoner named Paul G. accidentally encountered the former leader of FStGA 16, Hauptmann Böttger—whom he recognized from his time in WGA Wolfen—at a company party in Dresden. Due to the mistreatment he had suffered there, Paul G. went to the police. In the course of the trial, the issue of death sentences carried out during Böttger’s tenure in FStGA 16 was raised. The verdict against him stated that the court had heard “the accounts of about 18 internees sentenced by court-martial to death by firing squad. This court-martial was the responsibility of the officer of the camp, and therefore also of the defendant. [Böttger] twice participated in the execution of these sentences. The condemned had attempted to flee. The other prisoners were required to witness the executions to show them what would happen to them if they were also to attempt to flee.”¹⁷ [End Page 628]

The term “court-martial” may have been used in error. The leaders of FStGAs were authorized to call for courtmartials under §13a of the Wartime Penal Process Regulation (Kriegsstrafverfahrensordnung), if it seemed to be necessary “for imperative military reasons.”¹⁸ However, it is questionable whether the 18 death sentences mentioned here were all handed down by a court-martial. As a rule, proper military courts were supposed to be available for such proceedings. The court of the 79th Infantry Division, which at the time represented the “Combat Command of the Bridgehead at Nikopol’,” sentenced four members of FStGA 16 to death for desertion in December 1943. In one case, the execution was commuted to probation, while two other convicts, Herbert Scholz and Franz Morgen, were executed on December 29. The fourth verdict was confirmed on January 16, 1944, by the court martial, though it is unknown whether the sentence was actually carried out.¹⁹

There are no accounts of death sentences issued to prisoners from FStGA prior to December 1943. Böttger stated in the course of interrogations that he could only remember two executions. However, six additional death sentences against members of FStGA 16 were entered in January 1944 alone.²⁰ At least two of these death sentences handed down by the court of the Local Commander (Ortskommandantur) 456 (formerly located in Rostov but by then located in Lemberg; then also known as Lwów; today L’viv, Ukraine). Both of these sentences were carried out: Rudolf Naake was executed on April 25, 1944, and Reinhold Bardischefsky was shot by a firing squad in Lemberg on May 22.

Böttger was sentenced to eight years in prison on March 5, 1949, for “an infraction of Control Council Directive No. 38, Paragraph II, Article II, No. 8 in concomitance with a crime against humanity,” by the Landgericht Dresden.²¹