Germans in Katyn

Germans in Katyn. Documents on the execution of Polish prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941.
Compiled by: R. I., Kosolapov, V. E. Pershin, S. Yu. Rychenkov, V. A. Sakharov

Responsible for the issue: S. A. Lozhkin.

Moscow: ITRK Publishing House, 2010 - 280 p. ISBN 978-5-88010-266-2

From the report of the ministerial adviser Dorsch to Reichsleiter Rosenberg on July 10, 1941 "Report on the prisoner of war camp in Minsk".

Germans in Katyn. M.: ITRK. pp. 98-100; Nuremberg Trials. Collection of materials. T. I. M., 1954. S. 478-479.

[Document 022-PS]

... Prisoners huddle in such a limited area, they can hardly move and are forced to perform their natural needs where they stand.

This camp is guarded by a team of regular soldiers, the number of which is a company. Such insufficient protection of the camp is possible only if the most brutal force is used.

Prisoners of war, whose food problem is difficult to solve, living for 6-7 days without food, know only one desire caused by brutal hunger - to get something edible.

Civilian prisoners aged between 15 and 50 come from Minsk and its environs. These prisoners are fed, since they are from Minsk, thanks to their relatives. Food is provided, of course, only to those who have relatives, stretching in long rows from morning to evening to the camp of prisoners.

The only available means of insufficient protection, standing on duty day and night, is firearms, which she mercilessly uses.

The military authorities cannot help this chaotic state due to the huge need for transport and people caused by the offensive.

The Todt Motorway Organization (OT) attempted to take drastic measures, realizing that, first, the enormous work that fell to the lot of rear operatives could not be done only with the help of German labor; secondly, because due to the destruction of all enterprises producing food products in Minsk, the threat of the spread of the epidemic in the camp is increasing day by day due to the close contact of the human masses.

From among the civilian prisoners, the Todt organization selected skilled workers, who were full-fledged in the sense of the race, as an experience, and successfully used them. After this successful experience, it was supposed to select about 200 more skilled workers to be used in the restoration of the fleet when managing the Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow highway.

The selection of prisoners was to be carried out further in order to use the prisoners in the construction of roads under the leadership of German workers from the Todt organization. On the second day, the OT banned the selection of civilian prisoners with reference to the order of Field Marshal Kluge, according to which the field marshal decides on the issue of providing prisoners for work.

Under this concept, from a military point of view, the order hides the danger that:

1. Implementation of the urgent program is not possible due to lack of labor force.

2. It is hardly possible to prevent a terrible epidemic.

As a consequence, the necessary number of civilian prisoners should be immediately released from OT to rebuild the food production facilities in Minsk, and the selection should be limited to only those skilled workers who are racially qualified.

Since there can be no talk of disbanding or shrinking the camps in the near future, a strict quarantine should be immediately declared in the mass camp in Minsk, which is probably not the only one in such a state.

To Herr Reichsleiter Rosenberg in connection with a conversation with Herr Minister Dr. Todt.

Signed: Dorsch, ministerial adviser.