Eyewitness Testimony Jurij Schukow

Zukov, Urij Stepanović, questionnaire provided by Ukrains’kij Nacional’nij Fond „Vza&morozuminnä i Primirennä“ pri Kabineti Ministriv Ukraîni [Ukrainian National Foundation „Understanding and Reconciliation“ at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine]. Жуков Юри Степанович Zukov Urij Stepanović I was born on August 14, 1923, in the city of Kotovsk in the Odessa region. I come from a railway worker family. My family consisted of father, mother, my sister, and me. Its composition changed over time. My father died in 1927. In 1941, the family consisted of three people — my mother, my stepfather, and me. In July 1941, I was drafted into the army. On August 18, I was wounded and stunned in the battle for the defense of Zaporizhzhia and therefore captured. Due to the injury and stun, I was released from captivity. In 1943, I was sentenced by a Romanian court in Tiraspol for spreading radio broadcasts from Moscow. In March 1944, prisoners were liquidated during the German retreat. I managed to escape, but I ended up in the group of people deported to Germany. I was deported to Germany in April 1944. The journey stages were on foot from the city of Tiraspol, through Moldova, Romania, and Hungary. From Hungary, we went by train to Austria. After disinfection/ delousing, we were "delivered" with a large number of deportees to Germany, to Erfurt. This was in early May 1944. In Erfurt, we were in a camp called "Arbeitsamt." I fell ill with typhus and was placed in the typhus barracks of the camp. Of 111 people sick with typhus and dysentery, only 16 remained at the end. In the city of Kahla, I arrived at the end of May 1944 in a freight wagon together with a group of other deportees. On June 1, we began working on the construction of the REIMAHG plant. The construction of the plant was led by the company Dikkerhof and Vidman, where we also arrived. In February 1945, I was transferred to the company "Vanger." I worked as an electrical fitter in the "Stelle 0" sector, where the process of assembling airplanes was already underway. We were housed in a camp near the village of Niederkrossen, and I stayed there the entire time. The camp was a converted building of the village club (inn? - maybe). The capacity was about 200 to 250 people. The quarters were heated by portable iron stoves. The winter was cold. The beds were two-tiered. I slept on straw, covered with a blanket. Whether there was a second blanket, I do not remember. In autumn and winter, I slept in this blanket. No more than 15 to 20% of the workers were supplied with clothing. Canvas/linen shoes with wooden soles could be purchased for money in the economic section of the camp, in the suburban settlement Orlamünde. Old, no longer usable clothing was sold to us by the local population at moderate prices — 1 jacket for 1 mark. Many received such clothing and shoes for voluntary work in agriculture. Hot food was served once at noon, in the camp or at work. The food was insufficient. Bread was distributed separately, at first one loaf for four, later for six people. Occasionally there were "subalimente," "extras" — 50 grams of cheese or jam or 20 grams of margarine. In the morning and evening, there was linden tea or substitute coffee. The coupon for the "subalimente" was distributed by the foreman. The workday lasted 10 hours, as far as I remember. The camp was 5 kilometers away from the workplace. Until autumn, we went on foot to the workplace, under guard. From autumn, we traveled by work train from Zeutsch station. There were no fixed norms at work — the foreman gave us specific tasks which we were obliged to complete. I have a high opinion of the German workers themselves, both in terms of professionalism and their behavior towards the deportees. Foremen and engineers were strict and often cruel/merciless not only towards us but also towards German workers. If a task was not completed or the work was slow, it could lead to beatings. For mistakes or errors at work, the foreman canceled the coupons for the "subalimente." The wages were given to us in an envelope. I no longer remember the exact amount of the wage. It was mainly spent on clothing and footwear. Three times I was ordered outside the plant to repair roads in the Niederkrossen district together with the local population. Half of the stock was once sent to Кеш Russian Кельн or Кёльн (Cologne? Probably not, but what is meant?) for dismantling/sorting after a bombing raid. The work there under strict supervision of police and military lasted 48 hours. I had no opportunity to communicate with home. Contacts with workers from other camps existed only during work. In fact, different groups of prisoners were treated differently — the workers who worked in the already finished factory halls of the plant on airplane production lived in special camps and were much better supplied. Contacts with workers of other nationalities existed when work brigades were formed from different camps. During concrete work, we were supervised by workers of Belgian nationality. During the tunnel driving, our brigade consisted of 3 Italians, 1 Czech (he died of heart failure), and 5 workers deported from the USSR. The composition of the brigade often changed. In the camp where I was, people were housed who had been expelled during the German army's retreat from the USSR territory to Germany, so families were also among them. I remember the Selechov family, father and son. Many were brothers from Ukraine, whose names I no longer remember. The camp chiefs, who often changed, were essentially German military personnel from the reserve stock/reservists or similar, and Russian guards who spoke German well. One of them was Николай Трегубов. He was the deputy camp chief and understood German perfectly. He was cruel and quick with punishment. For any offenses, one was arrested and sent to the concentration camp (Russian: Konzentrationslager) where, according to rumors, he was an executioner. It was heard that after liberation, he was seized and killed by the inmates of the concentration camp.There were also informers. After being denounced by one of them, I was imprisoned in the penal camp for three days. I later met this man in Kiev. He is no longer alive, but his family remains, so I am glad that I have forgotten his (first) name. Part of our provisions was embezzled by the workers of the central kitchen and the camp administration. I did not receive letters or packages (so I cannot say whether there was embezzlement there). I was also a witness to mistreatment — one experienced in the camp the rough and ruthless conditions, with beatings, especially in the penal camp. In the labor camp, the usual punishment was a slap or the loss of the midday meal, but the sentence depended on the decision of the guards. The German workers themselves were benevolent. The camp management, however, which changed frequently, always behaved harshly and mercilessly towards us. We also had contact with the local population. Like the workers, the population treated us benevolently. We bought old clothes from them, and goods in the shops that were not restricted by the ration card system. Many of the workers helped the local population on days off with the permission of the camp leader in agriculture, as the population lacked working hands. There were no cases of mistreatment of prisoners by civilians in the Niederkrossen camp. There were Germans who treated prisoners humanely or helped them. Our foreman, a German named Jakob Kross, treated us as equals and often shared his breakfast with us. I remember two escape attempts from the camp. As we were told, the escapees were sent to a concentration camp. In Orlamünde there was a hospital and an infirmary/clinic. Injuries during construction were frequent, but many had colds. The treatment was at the level of feldsher care. There were also deaths in the camp. In autumn 1944, I contracted pneumonia and was treated in the infirmary, where three people were lying. They gave me fever-reducing medication. During my stay in the infirmary, I witnessed the death of three workers, also from pneumonia. On the construction site there was a cemetery where workers who died on the job were buried. On April 1, 1945, we were assembled in a column, together with workers from other camps. Under the guard of Volkssturm soldiers, we marched east. We walked all night. In the morning, our guards disappeared, and we scattered in all directions. I was then liberated by American troops in the town of Auma on April 14. I know nothing about arrests of camp personnel — apart from rumors about Tregubov. At the beginning of May, I was transferred to the Soviet occupation zone. I was placed in the 263rd NKVD filtration camp (city of Sagan) and put under arrest. After a lengthy investigation, I was released and sent to the troops, where I served as a simple soldier until demobilization. After my demobilization, I returned to my homeland in May 1947, to Kotovsk. I worked in Kotovsk as an electrical fitter. In 1948, I enrolled at the Kiev Civil Engineering Institute (KISI), in the Faculty of Architecture. From 1954, I worked as an architect at the "Kievprojekt" institute in various positions. In 1989, I retired. I have tried to answer the questionnaire questions in detail, as far as the long passage of time allows. If there are questions about my text, I will try to answer them additionally. Addendum (Correspondence) In the camp there was a room that served as a washhouse. There we washed ourselves and there were also tin basins in which laundry was washed and one washed oneself, if we received soap. There were no instructions or equipment regarding work safety, and therefore accidents were frequent, especially due to stone breakage and electric shocks. We had no opportunity to organize our daily life ourselves. We had no labor representatives, but possibly in other camps (ours was small compared to others). Unfortunately, there was no solidarity among the workers, rather a tendency towards isolation and denunciation. In our camp, besides the camp leader and his assistant, there was one guard (see also earlier answer). There were official regulations, the official daily routine, the details of which I do not remember. There were no unofficial rules, as the workers lacked solidarity. The question about the penal camp is difficult for me to answer because these are very sad memories, so I will write only briefly. The penal barrack was located at the construction site behind barbed wire. There the dirtiest and heaviest work was done, often as punishment a useless task — such as carrying 50-kilo cement bags or bricks from one place to another. We were assigned a lot of work and also a lot of punishment if we did not complete this work. Insults and beatings were the norm.