“the Germans had set the goal to destroy everyone” Ozarichi in German-occupied Belarus through the eyes of survivors University of Amsterdam Master thesis in History, German Studies Anne-Lise Bobeldijk
[email protected] March 2016 Supervisor: dr. K.C. Berkhoff Second reader: dr. M.J. Föllmer Contents Introduction 3 1. Towards an oral history of the Ozarichi camps 9 2. The round-ups 20 2.1 The cities of Bobruisk and Zhlobin 20 2.2 Villages and hamlets 24 3. Transport to the camps as virtual death marches 28 3.1 Deportation methods 28 3.2 Arbitrariness, torment and violence 33 4. The transit camps 39 4.1 The numerous transit camps 39 4.2 Treatment in the camps and social interaction 45 5. The Ozarichi camps 51 5.1 Ozarichi, Dert and Semonovich 51 5.2 Liberation and aftermath 53 Conclusion 56 Bibliography 61 Appendix I 64 Appendix II 65 Appendix III 73 Acknowledgements 74 2 Introduction ‘The regime in the camps – a regime of hunger, cold, illness and the immense insults of the Soviet people – gave me the firm belief that the Germans had set the goal to destroy everyone; all children, elderly people, women, disabled people and inmates.’1 This quote from Vasilli Murashkin seems to refer to one of the well-known national socialist concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, Dachau or Majdanek. However, he refers to the Ozarichi camps in Belarus, near the villages Ozarichi, Dert and Semonovich. Murashkin was one of the approximately 40,000 people who ended up in these camps because they were seen as “useless eaters”.2 After the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler ordered that nothing useful was to fall into the hands of the Soviets.