Egon Husser, born in 1919, came from the village of OLGINO in the district of
GORNOSTAYEVSK, KHERSON region, 40 km away from Kakhovka. In the twenties the
village had about 150 farms. It was a pure German village, all Lutherans.
In 1929 the family was plundered by the authorities and the complete farm property was confiscated. The family was forced to set out for the Dnepropetrovsk region, to the town of HALBSTADT (today Prishib). Later, a part of the family moved to the little village of VERKHNEYE, in the district of LISICHANSK (today district of LUGANSK). There Egon's brother, Oskar HUSSER (1906-1959), worked for the mine as a bookkeeper and was arrested by the OGPU (= USSR United Main Political Administration) in 1935. He was blamed for having uttered the sentence that "Japan, anyway, will occupy Ukraine" and given 5 years on section 58-10 (= propaganda or agitation containing an appeal for the overthrow, subversion, or weakening of Soviet power).
He was taken to BUKHTA NAGAYEVA and kept there in custody until 1948 - 13 years instead of 5.
The other brother, Kurt HUSSER (born 1909-?), worked in the brickworks in the village of LYUBOMIROVKA, in the district of VYSOKOPOL (a German district), in the DNEPRO-PETROVSK region. He was arrested by the Communists in 1938 and sentenced to a 3 years' term. He wrote an appeal, a petition, and in return received 5 years instead of 3. He was taken to KOLYMA and lost his life in the concentration camp. He was rehabilitated only recently.
Egon finished the school for army surgery, as well as specific courses for pharmaceutical assistants in 1938 and took up his work in a pharmacy in the town of VERKHNEYE. In September 1941 he was arrested and taken to the district remand prison in LISICHANSK , where they took him from one interrogation to the other. They searched his house. Three days later he was taken to the district military comittee and then, together with other "to-be Trud-Armists", from LISICHANSK to VOROSHILOGRAD. There they were forced to get into wagons. The train headed in the direction of the Ural, to the settlement of VERKHNE-TURINSK, in the SVERDLOVSK region. Within a few days his family was deported, as well.
The approximately 3.000 "Trud-Armists" were taken to the compound, which had remained from the camp. The camp barracks were equipped with 2-tier continuous bed boards, marked as "place to sleep": 49 cm for each person. Besides, there was another empty zone. There the Communists took Volga Germans in 1941.
Egon started to work in the zone as a pharmacist, but most of the prisoner-"Trud-Armists" had to work in the lumber industry, felling trees.
Those who were already suffering from exhaustion and would evidently die very soon, were "filed away" (a special commission wrote a report indicating the impossibility of using a prisoner as part of the work force due to poor health and inability to recover) and sent to their families that is to the places, where their families lived in exile. Thus, the head of the medical unit, a woman, set about to discharge the army surgeons, together with those who were weak and ill and did not have the slightest chance to recover.
"In case they will ask you questions - tell them you are medical company". In February 1942 she discharged Egon, as well, and he went to his family in the district of PRIISHIMSK, PETROPAVLOVSK region (Kazakhstan), to where his relatives had been deported.
On 31st March 1942 he was again "mobilized" into the "Trud-Army" and taken from PETROPAVLOVSK to CHELYABINSK to work in the metal-processing factory - ChelyabMetallurgStroy (TMS), that is the Chelyabinsk Metal Combine.
In the ChMS "Trud-Army" zone Egon worked in his specialty, in accordance with this qualifications, that is at the infirmary waiting-room reception. They brought to him completely exhausted prisoners, who had collapsed and were unable to get up again. He gave them 20 cc of a 40% glycose solution and then asked them: "You want to eat?"
Those who were able to reply "yes" were usually saved from death, the others, who did not give any answer anymore - were lost.
In autumn 1942 the Security Officer's Section started hunting for "enemies of the people". The security officer KOLYESNIKOV called for Egon and forced him to "give evidence" about the head of the waiting-room reception, EISHORN. However, he did not succeed in getting any information out of Egon, but end of October or beginning of November 1942 EISHORN was nevertheless arrested. Almost at the same time they also arrested Sigmund LUDWIG (born around 1918), who, until his deportation, had studied at the Moscow Institute for Medicine in the 5th semester. LUDWIG was sentenced to 10 years, which he served in the NORILLag. He worked there as head of the dermatological and venerological department in the Central Hospital.
On the basis of numerous hints it can be concluded that security officer KOLYESNIKOV did not stop bothering Egon. Some of the patients also noticed this, and one of them gave him the advice: "Sign, elsewise they will beat you!" Egon was arrested on 8th December 1942. He remembered the advice and signed the "evidence" on "anti-Soviet agitation", which had been invented by the investigator of the Security Officer's Section, major ZELICHOV. Afterwards he was brought out of the zone and taken to the CHELYABINSK prison.
Egon was locked up in a cell of approximately 15 m2 in size, which was stuffed with 40 prisoners. They had to sleep on the bare floor, in four rows; the only piece of "furniture" was a latrine bucket standing right by the door. Among the inmates were Germans and Latvians. One of the Latvians was a physician, another one - a pilot.
In February 1943 Egon was taken to another prison, to ZLATOUST. The cell, which was of the same size as the one in Chelyabinsk, also did not dispose of any plank beds. There were about 20-25 inmates.
In this cell the Greek Nikolaj (son of Christofor) BALTADZHI (born 1919) served his sentence. He had also been arrested during the time when he was working in the "Trud-Army" for the CHELYABINSK METAL COMBINE (ChMS). Before, he had been in the 8th construction gang and before his mobilization to the "Trud-Army" he had been a student at the DONETSK Pedagogic Institute for Physics and Mathematics. He had been sentenced to 10 years on section 58-10.
In May or June 1943 he came back to the TMS, together with Egon, at first as a gang labourer, and then as a norm setter. In 1945 he was taken from the ChMS to the Chelyabinsk "Caliber" Works. In 1957 Egon, by accident, heard his name in a radio transmission about Chelyabinsk, and made him out through the address information office. Later, he worked as a building engineer in the Chelyabinsk town executive committee. Now he lives on pension in Chelyabinsk.
Just in the same cell they had also put the Polish Jew Fjodor Grigoryevich TEICHGOLD (born around 1919). He had been arrested in 1942 and was sentenced to 10 years. Another occupant landed him in prison, when he had exchanged her against a younger woman: she reported him to the police, claiming that he had promised to go away with her and show her all about true life. He was also transferred from the prison in ZLATOUST to the ChMS and worked there in the zone as a carter - he transported timber. Today he lives in Chelyabinsk.
After he had been arrested, his younger brother, Mikhail TEICHGOLD got prepared to search for him. The trace lead him to the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) on the 3rd day. From there they already took him away under escort, and he was sentenced to three years. He was released in 1944 and mobilized into the Polish Army (Berling's pro-Soviet army). He is still alive and lives in the USA.
In May or June 1943 they brought about 120 prisoners from ZLATOUST to the ChMS, into exactly the same zone, to be precise, where Egon had been kept in the "Trud-Army" until his arrest. And now the Germans had already been sent away, and the usual camp zone had been built - the 1st forced labour camp sector of the Tsheljabinsk Metal Combine. When the prisoners were moved from ZLATOUST into the zone, there were already 120-130 inmates, and the number of imprisonned persons living in the 1st forced labour camp sector afterwards reached 4000. Among them were also so-called "bytoviki" (harmless, non-political everyday-crooks). The daily bread ration for gang labourers was 800 gr and for the service staff 400 gr only.
There Egon met a woman, who he knew from the times, when he had lived in Verkhneye. She worked as a free employee in the ChMS and helped him to get a job as a medical orderly in the infirmary. In July or August 1943 Egon was called over and shown a scrap of paper with his "sentence": in accordance with the decision of the OSO (Special Board = in absentia administrative court) 10 years on section 58-10. In summer 1945 they segregated the zone and built a zone for women next to it - the 2nd camp sector of the ChelyabinskMetallurgStroy. Egon was transferred there, to the infirmary, and later to the Central Hospital of the Chelyabinsk Metal Combine.
In summer 1946 Egon was taken to the 2nd camp sector in KYSHTYMA (Chelyabinsk region), named CHELYABINSK-40 by special order. In this camp section there were 3-4000 prisoners, among them many "bytoviki" (harmless, non-political every-day crooks). Inside the barracks there were 2-tier continuous bed boards. Egon has been able to keep a photograph, which was taken in the 2nd camp section. The prisoners were sent to fell trees and build a "socialist town".
In 1947 Egon was transferred, once again in order to work in his specialty, to the secret 8th camp section of that same camp in KYSHTYMA, in which they were keeping about three-thousand prisoners. Almost all of them had been sentenced on section 58. They were sent to work on underground construction projects, probably nuclear objects. The group photo with the imprisoned physicians that Egon has preserved throughout all these years, was taken at that time. Egon is in the upper row, the second from the left; the third on the right is the army surgeon KOZLOV. The second from the left in the bottom row is the physician Nikolaj (son of Semyon) BANCHUGOV (born around 1916); he had been sentenced to 10 years, and after having been transported to the NORILLag, he worked there in the Central Hospital, later in DUDINKA. He was released in 1951. The forth from the left in the bottom row shows the physician OBOLYENTSEV (born around 1890), and the fifth from the left is the army surgeon NOVIKOV (whose special field was veterinary medicine).
In June 1948 all those who had been sentenced on section 58 and were kept in the 8th camp section, were chased into cattle-wagons (actually used for the transportation of calves) and taken to KRASNOYARSK. They were off-loaded at Yenissey station, then transported to the NORILLag by barges within only a few days. On 7th June 1948 the prisoners arrived in NORILSK . All physicians from the 8th camp section in KYSHTYMA had been taken there.
The whole group was kept in the 2nd camp section under quarantine for 21 days. During this period the Registration Distribution Unit (URCh) classified the Norilsk "newcomers" according to their vocational qualification. And it turned out that they took 500 Roubles from each of the physicians, in order to give them a job in accordance with their special qualification. The physicians baecame outraged about that and wrote a letter of complaint to the medical unit in the Norillag; after that the excessive payments stopped and the doctors were given tasks in vocationally orientated positions. Egon happened to work in the Norilsk pharmacy supply unit.
One of his colleagues was Vassilij Fyodorovich GRITSENKO (KULMAN, born in 1917). He lives in Krasnoyarsk, Pr. Krasnoyarskiy Rabochi, 57a, Flat No. 39.
After the job in the pharmaceutiocal supply unit, Egon was transferred to the zone with intensified regime in ZUB-GORE, in order to manage the pharmacy; the prisoners there were exclusively criminals. At this time all section 58 prisoners, except those who had been sentenced on the "clean" paragraph 10, were sent to the GORLag zones. In the 11th camp section of the GORLag there was the brother of the university graduate Bogolyubov, Vladimir Nikolayevich BOGOLYUBOV.
Egon was released in 1951, six months earlier to the actual end of his term. He stayed in NORILSK as a free employee, not as an exile, but as a German in the "special settlement", and had to report to the commandant's office twice a month. This office was disbanded beginning of 1956, and the same year Egon received his rehabilitation.
Mar. 10, 1991, recorded by V.S. Birger, Krasnoyarsk, "Memorial" Society
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