Deported Germans in the Kusnetsk Coal Basin
As from the end of 1941 until 1943 large-scale transports of German prisoners were carried out to the coalminig town of Prokopievsk.
The town was not prepared to receive so many people, and, in order not to perish particularly during the cold winter months, the arriving people built themselves dug-outs. The walls were made of soil, there were no windows, no stoves, no doors. These miserable huts merely disposed of some kind of an access hatch, which was then covered with sods; the roof consisted of brushwood, straw and soil. The floor was “carpeted” by straw. The people used to sit and sleep side by side, and the closer the huddled together, the warmer it was. 25 – 30 individuals were forced to live here at the same time, and when we consider that everybody had to work and that shifts comprised a term of twelve hours per day, we can easily figure out that this dug-out community was made up by 50-60 occupants in all, and that 2 people had to share one bedding within 24 hours. The acute lack of space caused the proliferation of lice. Exhaustion, the outbreak of diseases, bad colds dysentery, theft and insanity originated from cold and hunger (human beings developed into wild animals).
The resettlers who happened to get to this place by force tried to exchange against foodstuffs any somewhat suitable object they had. Pretty soon they had given away the shirts of their backs, and the clothes they were wearing from morning till night became more and more shabby and finally looked all torn up.
The deported Germans were used for hardest labour underground or aboveground.
Many people ended up in a serious state of illness, since they were neither able to acclimatize under the new living conditions , nor to adopt their new, hard and entirely unknown jobs. This process was not exactly brought forward by the formation of the exiles. Most of them were women, kolkhoz workers, who had only attended school for 2 to 4 years; they had great problems to cope with their new jobs and adopt necessary skills. Among those who had been mobilized into the labour army were a few workers, as well, and even civil servants – medical scientists, pedagogues, nurses, bookkeepers, accountants, representatives of the creative intelligentsia. At the beginning, they had to ablate coal, prop the adit by means of supporting beams or just to simple but hard labour which did not necessitate any particular skills at all. The people were sent into the pit in their own clothes, which soon looked all dirty and spoiled. And since they had no garments for change, they did not wash their clothes, either. Later, when they began to distribute special workwear, the exiles accepted it with great pleasure, for it was in good condition and they could finally throw away their own rags. However, they still had to sleep in the same clothes they went to work with, in order that they wouldnot freeze and nobody would have the opportunity to steel the garments. The people were particularly happy about fur shoes – at least they had something solid to put on their feet now. Till that day they had gone in perforated footgear, which was so tattered that they had to lash the parts up by means of wire. Others had fastened wooden slats or rubber sheets to the soles of their shoes, elsewise they would have gone entirely barefoot. And this is what the poor pople had to wear even in bad weather!
In the summer of the year 1943 the labour armists were already busily digging ditches, building funkholes and huge dug-outs formen, women, women with children and even (towards the end of the year) for families. These dwellings disposed of a large corridor and partition walls at the sides, some running lengthwise, others transverse. instead of doors there were curtains, little windows on ground level, and the allyways were equipped with stoves – little round iron stoves. The dig-outs were built very close to eachother, the whole area was surrounded by a tall enclosure, a barbed wire fence with high watch towers at the corners. The Germans were guarded by NKVD soldiers.
When leaving the camp to go to work and when returning from work the Germans had to walk in file. They were accompanied by guards, after having been called by name. The gang was not allowed to return to the camp, until it was complete, until everybody was present. In spite of iciness, strong wind, heavy rain and unbearable heat they were kept standing there, waiting for those who were late. They did not dear to beat them, for it would often happen that such late arrivals were organized by the guards on intent, just in order to humiliate the enemies of the people. During the first time, the prisoners were not allowed to be on the loose within the camp – they were permoitted to walk up to the street toilet, and if they wanted to go to the canteen, which was located in a dug-out barrack, too, they had to form up before.
And this is how the daily routine in a pit camp looked like:
4.40 h wake-up call
4.45 h political education
5.25 h breakfast
6.10 h – 6.50 h receipt of the prisoners by guards, departure to work
under escort, work assignment
7.00 h – 7.30 h change of clothes and distribution of pit lamps
7.30 h – 17.30 h work in the pit
17.30 h – 18.00 h return of the lamps and change of clothes
18.00 h gathering (roll call)
18.30 h – 19.00 h returning to the zone under eascort
19.00 h delivery of the prisoners to the camp zone
19.10 h evening meal
19.55 h evening roll call
20.10 h leisure time
20.30 h bedtime
The schedule for the second shift looked the same. Thus, the prisoners were permanently kept under strict control, a circumstance which had a considerable influence on their consitution, and many were,in fact, unable to bear the stress.
The people had to work 12-14 hours every day (sometimes even more), without any days off, without holidays. Each of them was asked to fulfil his norm: men, women, minors. In 1942 and 1943 the camp inmates were forced to go to work for the pits already at the age of 13 or 14 years.Later, the age of prisoners subject to work there was raised to 18. German children were not allowed to go to school, for the authorities were of the opinion that they were nothing but simple workers. Hence, a whole generation of Germans, whose families were living in internale exile, grew up practically illiterate. However, due to this bad experience, many of them were later striving for a well-grounded school education of their children, even though they, in some cases, did not go to university, but merely attended grammar, professional or technical schools.
So-called camp “zones” were situated in Yasnaya Polyana, Beriozovaya Roshcha, Chernaya Gorya, Nizmennyi, Tyrgan,Shcherbakov and other places.
Beriozovaya Roshcha was a special compound, where people lived according to a very peculiar regime. Traditional names, such as Street of the NKVD, Dictatorship, Revolution and others – speak for themselves.
Some old-established inhabitants of Prokopyevsk (which was still a settlement at that time) recall:
On the Street of the NKVD (today Lenin Street) there was the special commandant’s office, where the “enemies of the people” had to go and get registered twice a week. Soviet-Germans lived on this street, and they worked for some construction project down-town. They were accomodated in detached houses, only spoke broken Russian and were very neat.
In each of the barracks there was a housekeeper, who did the laundry,wiped the floor and took care that there was scrupulous cleanliness in every corner. Kirov Street was built up by Germans. It was the main street of the settlement, paved with freestone, which they had secured themselves from the quarry and transported to the spot by horses.
In 1942-1943 there was a mass mortality among the Germans ; however, this loss was immediately balanced by another batch of prisoners. If they were really worrying about those Germans mobilized intothe labour army at all, then this just happened because it was very comfortable to use free-of-charge manpower.Thus, the majority of pit managers was entirely unconcerned about the hard fate of the people.
The Germans in the camp were kept under strict arrest until 1945-1946, when the authorities began to take Vlasovites, prisoners of war from among Hitler’s soldiers, Japanese, exiled Ukrainians and Bessarabians to Prokopyevsk.
During the first time of their internal exile and their working for the labour army the Germans were fed worse than animals; it was impossible to eat one’s fill. The mortality rate assumed such alarming proporations that burial brigades were formed up in every camp, who could not manage to inhume all the corpses,particularly in winter.
In 1944 the life of the labour armists slightly improved. They were now allowed to receive parcels with clothes and foodstuffs from their relatives. Till that time they had been strictly forbidden to receive such parcels. The forced resettlers built themselves barracks and began to leave the camp zone. However, not all were granted the right to leave; the permission was limited to those who had been assigned group leaders, i.e. people responsible for the duh-out, brigade, work unit, etc., who differed from others by consistent reliable shock work.
Such people received better foodrations and better clothes; but,of course, the release from the camp and from permanent escorting was of capital importance to each of them. People began to somehow trust in the authorities.
In 1944 isolated exiles were allowed to reunite with their families; they sent invitations to their family members, who then removed to Prokopyevsk, where – during the first time – they would live on their own, without their exiled relative, for he still had to stay in the camp zone for a while. During the second half of 1944 barracks were built; family members and parents with childrenleft the camp zone and removed to these barracks.
During the first months after the war the situation of workers of German nationality improved. In November 1945 the instructions of the 13 November 1943 given by the People’s Commissariat of Coal Industryand the People’s Commissariat of the Interior of the USSR were completely abolished, the special brigades and special gangs, who had been working for the trusts and in which mobilized Germans had been concentrated were finally liquidated.
New German roads and settlements came into being – they were named after the colonies: Nizhnaia, Verkhnaia, Nemetskaia,Sakhalin.Vancheva, Gornaia and others. In June 1947 the cadre units of the coasl trusts were given the order, to arrange for a three years’agreement with mobilized Germans with the objective of guranteeing the required manpower in combination with other mobilized individuals. At that time 7577 labourers of German nationality were working for the Kuzbas (Kuznetsk Coal Basin; translator’s note) coal industry. Upon the decision of the Council of Ministers dated the 4 December 1948, they were assigned to stay in their place of internal exile for the rest of their life, just like other categories of resettlers, who had been mobilized to the coalmining areas of the Kuzbas, too.On the 1 January 1953 there were 121598 special resettlers of German nationality in the Kemerovo region,including those who were working for the regional pits.
The central committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided not to allow the Germans to leave but keep this special labour force potential in the places where they were needed. In 1946 special commandants’offices sprang up everywhere like mushrooms. Everybody, as from the age of 16, was forced to go and get registered there in regular intervals for the authorities to be sure that none of the exiles hat escaped: at first once a week, then every 10 or 15 days, later once a month. Each person was assigned a definite place of residence. In case someone was seen and seized outside of this clearly defined area, this fact was put on a par with an attempt to escape and the “guilty” person sentenced to 20 years forced labour.
As from 1954 theauthorities began to proceed with the release of Germans from special resettlement..In accordance with the resolution of the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR of the 3 July1954, some civil liberties were returned to settlers living in the Kemerovo Region, including Germans. Following the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 13 December 1956 more than 41000 people were releasedfrom compulsory registration.
In August 1954 all remaining special resettlers were discharged from the register, except for the Germans, for whom this procedure went on until the middle of 1956.
The present material was arranged by the Prokopievsk Center of German Culture, Kemerovo Region.
Siberian Newspaper plus N° 8 (38) 8/2001
(Newspaper edited in Novosibirsk)