Who created the first concentration camps? Did Trotsky invent the first concentration camps? Some facts from the history of Auschwitz

To be honest, I didn’t draw attention to it - I know 132 units (there are other photos of this event).
I know of two banners from Brest - Pion org and 132 battalions. I know who exactly took it and where and how: there are traces of the first, traces of the second were noticed in 1945 - there is a very high probability that the banner of 132 bn is in the bins of Moscow storage facilities.
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I wonder what the hero who captured the banner of the pioneer squad had: was he rewarded, given a vacation, or was he encouraged in some other way?
Dug:
Where is the evidence that the bridge was mined? Who wrote that the bridge was mined?
Apart from the Germans SUGGESTING that the bridge was mined, did anyone else say so?
Clarifying question: what are your bold 100% “not in the fortress” based on, German documents?
Can you imagine, the Germans have information that two were shot the night before Hitler and Mussolini arrived. Yes and German military cemetery at the fortress it was regularly replenished. This is if bodies were found, and it often happened that they disappeared in the fortress, without a trace. But they didn’t tell Hitler about this: why bother and upset the authorities with such trifles?
And secondly - I think in Fort 5 - until mid-August...Who these people were and where they were captured and how many there were - nothing is known. Bye...I'm cooking now new job and I hope you can already familiarize yourself with it - I’m thinking of shortening “The Assault” by four times (so if you are interested in the pre-war period, you need to read the Assault) and supplement it with materials. I didn’t mess up much in Sturm, but there are little things that need to be corrected.
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Thank you very much for the information about the 5th fort and the approximate date of mid-August! For a couple of young masochists in this thread, it’s like a sharp knife in... well, let it be in the eye.
Unfortunately, by all indications, the episode of the bridge capture was a terrible mess.
Have you served in the army?
If this is the case throughout the entire text, or even half of it, then - alas - then a lot needs to be edited.
Don't take the trouble to read the entire topic. Otherwise you have to quote yourself or write about the same thing two or three times.
My post 248
None. The operation was recognized as exemplary and was included in textbooks and manuals. The personnel of all outposts covering any bridges were familiarized with it, with all the miscalculations of that squad, so as not to repeat their mistakes.
There is one such official document called STPV - Service and Tactics of Border Troops. It absorbs everything that happened on the border since the 20s of the last century: all the mistakes and all the miscalculations that ever occurred during the protection and defense of the state border of the USSR, from which we learned to prevent this from happening.
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I’ll add to myself: subsection “Bridge Security”.
Well, the border guards again officially stated that this bridge was mined, but for some reason the others were not. Unfortunately, I can’t provide the links, I didn’t save them.
Did you shoot or LOOK like shoot? This sounds somehow uncertain.
How did the Germans know that these were several soldiers and an officer, and not escaped criminals or local punks?
And secondly - I think in Fort 5 - until mid-August...Who these people were and where they were captured and how many there were - nothing is known. Bye...
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Where does this information come from? Are there any documents or just rumors?
Reply to Leonid:
There was no armored train. I wouldn't even argue
There are people who were lying behind the very embankment where the armored train supposedly stood - they took pictures. In one of the photographs, it looks like the explosion of Karl on Zapadny - a wall of smoke is creeping onto the water.
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And there were people who lay on the Western Island, on the shore.
So your “it wasn’t” is too presumptuous, in my opinion, and does not do you any credit as a historian. Otherwise they have already started referring to you.
Sorry, did they take the pictures in the dark? Or when it was already dawn?
As a version, a strange train passed there - with a pusher. Maybe the border guards are talking about this. Border troops experts have many questions about Myasnikov. They served in pv) anticipating questions). There are 4 options for playing Myasnikov. They differ.
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Where and from where did the “strange train” with a pusher go?
Here, to “pedal group” and “combat cyclists” is added “strange train”!!!
The border guard recalled that a German armored train unexpectedly came out onto the bridge and a little later opened artillery fire on the fortress.
Finally, this question was asked. No, the person was absolutely non-military and did not serve in the army.
Regarding the two who disappeared on the eve of Hitler's arrival - is there a link to the material?
100% - only on German documents. In general, it should be noted that “Storm of the Brest Fortress” is still German look, because according to many data there are too many discrepancies. But the main reason for the German view is to German archives easier to access than Soviet ones. Because the Soviet ones are the basis for writing the “heroic version”, and the “heroic version” is the basis for budget money, and budget money...
The book will be redone - albeit not completely. The bridge is the little things. However, I cannot help but note that after a more thorough study, the picture emerges even further from the canonical one. Soviet canonical.
About water and the rest. The fact is that if you don’t have serious sources (or is everyone lying?), the question may be asked incorrectly. What do you mean by water and strength? 333 sp? East Fort? Officers' house?

The officers' house - yes, it was hard there. We hoped to escape until June 24; we did not store water; it was possible to get it. They never escaped, the Germans surrounded 24 of them - and crawling for water was arrogant, two of them sat without water at all. Can a person live without water for three days?
A counter question to you, as a historian: are you aware that there was not just one armored train, but at least two?
Yes, how can you argue here, or rather, what?
And misinformation is not given out out of habit and not randomly mental disorder“pathological lies”: a standard in general, because the operational work of collecting intelligence takes place CONTINUOUSLY, that is, without breaks for lunch or retreat. Well, reconnaissance can be different: direct, front-line, front-line, strategic, etc.
This is the basics, by the way.
Website iremember.ru - Osaulenko. About the train with a pusher.
About the armored train. The 2nd company lay behind the dam, to the right of the bridge. The photographs were also taken in the dark - there are photographs of the morning of June 22, but where is the evidence that they were taken at this time?
Also, in the book I noted that there cannot be a single version of events around BC. There is Soviet, Polish, German... I work a) with documents b) with those documents that are available to me. German documents are more accessible...In general, additional information on the problem goromed.livejournal.com.
Memoirs of von Unruh - commandant of Brest. He says that “shots were heard” at the Citadel. Onn arrived in Brest at the end of July and captured a group of Soviet defenders at the beginning. August. Several soldier and officer.
In the same place - about a fort surrounded by water south of Brest. There - until mid-August.
Download the front-line illustration “Brest Fortress. A view from the German side” on the internet. There's something about it there.

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Your quote:
And now, it turns out it’s no longer there?
According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, there is nothing about chiselling.
And there were no free hands there; all the survivors of the first artillery attack were busy repelling the attacks.
And for that matter, why hammer when there were hand grenades?
I don’t know about the rest, but you have drained my credibility and professionalism almost to the bottom.
Yes, there really is nothing to argue about. Or rather, there is no need.
There were armored trains No. 27 and No. 28. It was not possible to find information about their participation in the battles either in the documents of the division or in the documents of the corps. Moreover, back in early June, von Kluge called them a “burden,” expressing confidence that they would remain a burden. All docks are marked "top secret".
Now the documents from the 4th Army command have come to me. If there is anything else about the capture of the bridge (after all, somewhere there should be a report from Zumpa..well, or a report on Zumpa) or about the armored train, of course I won’t keep it a secret.
Dug: Yeah, I probably won't see you among the readers.
For 132 b-nu - Kupchikov “Until the last cartridge”.
Rostal
At one time I read the book by S.S. Smrnov and the opinion was formed that the Germans in the fortress did not take border guards, commissars, or Jews prisoners. Is there any information about why, for example, Fomin was shot, but Matevosyan remained alive (after all, he participated in the execution of a German prisoner, Leman paid for it)?
Dug:
I read your post (No. 248). As expected, there is no evidence as to whether the bridge was mined or not.
Although suddenly it would really turn out - historians argue and argue, shaking papers, but there is a person who knows how it happened.
Nevertheless, your posts are interesting to me. In the year after the book was published, I did not see any critical comments, although I was expecting them. There was only one thing - about the translation - but I emphasize that I know that the translation is clumsy, but this is intentional - every word is as accurate as possible to avoid distortions.
If you don't want it, don't read it. But the book describes in detail the organization of the capture of the bridge (composition of the assault group, cover group, etc.), and the debates...
You were somewhat right when you “proposed” your plan to capture the bridge - it was precisely this plan (or a similar one) that was considered at the beginning!! They decided to abandon it for only one reason - having won the bridge if successful, if unsuccessful, it could have disrupted an operation on a larger scale.
In general, based on all the comments, I agree with only one thing - machine gun fire on the bridge. It looks like she wasn’t there, partly because they wouldn’t have had time to fire a machine gun. Just like with other weapons. And the shots that were heard by those who were lying near the bridge - it was Zumpe who killed the sentry. The second jumped into the river - probably losing his head from horror. And as for the “queue into the sky” - yes, for Hollywood.
Also for Hollywood - the explosion of the "Karla" shell and a huge cloud of smoke and dust creeping towards the Bug.
Thanks for the science!
Rostal
At one time I read the book by S.S. Smrnov and the opinion was formed that the Germans in the fortress did not take border guards, commissars, or Jews prisoners. Is there any information about why, for example, Fomin was shot, but Matevosyan remained alive (after all, he participated in the execution of a German prisoner, Leman paid for it)?
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You, Leonid, ask such questions because of which I went to " German theme"!. To engage in them is to fasten on yourself the yoke of a “democratic historian” (thanks to Dug for this definition).
Therefore, I did not specifically raise these questions, but:
1) The border guards were taken prisoner. See obd-memorial.ru. many of them survived the war.
2) Jews were taken prisoner, but then shot in the camps. Lerman seems to have been killed not because of prisoners, but precisely during the “Jewish purges” in concentration camps. After all, he lived until August, although they wanted to extradite him. In general, the story is interesting.
3) Political instructors and commissars were taken prisoner. Many political instructors (I know from BC) survived the war. The reason for the execution of Fomin was clearly revenge for the prisoners. But! Why weren’t Lerman and Matevosyan shot for the same thing? Lerman carried out the order and refused to carry it out for almost a long time. Matevosyan killed the prisoner himself, on his own initiative... And most likely the Germans knew about it. There is only one explanation - by the time the Germans (45 divas) learned about the execution, Lerman and Matevosyan were already in the camp, but Fomin was not. But the camp guards were all alike and would not have looked for Lerman and Matevosyan among the prisoners.

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Thank you very much for participating in the discussion on our forum.
Especially for his attitude towards Dug.
While supporting his arguments “in general”, I nevertheless note his almost youthful, let’s say, fervor (well, the person writes “in my opinion” without indicating other sources, as requested) and ask you to take a closer look at his not even “point of view” ", but "a way of thinking."
I would love to read your book in new edition. Damn, don't read the 2nd one right away

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Well, I had no doubts, it was necessary for you to do it yourself and graphically.
You understand what is the problem with absolutely non-military historians who undertake to write books and “studies” about the war and the military: they do not know not only the realities of the army, but they are not even familiar with the basics.
And the result is a gag about something that they don’t understand or understand anything about, but nevertheless have an opinion and even replicate it.
Do not hesitate to consult not only generals or colonels before writing. Hey, you can't go wrong.
Have you ever heard this from the “Frau Automatic” section?
There is no link, so there is a doc. movie. The link to it was posted here.
100% - only on German documents. In general, it should be noted that “The Storming of the Brest Fortress” is still a German view, because according to many data there are too many discrepancies. But the main reason for the German view is that German archives are easier to access than Soviet ones.
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It finally came out. Thank you. You indicated in the annotation that what you presented in the book is “still a German view”? That is, definitely biased.
(Applauds furiously) You are great! So you work, with such personal views, prejudices and attitudes?
You understand what the matter is: the fact that Hitler’s special group took the bridge quietly without firing a single shot does not do credit to that part of the squad that covered those border guards who were called to the fairway line: those who were sitting in the bunker slammed everything in the world. And this - they conveyed to generations and generations of border guards that it is categorically impossible to serve like this, that serving like this is worse than betrayal. And this version was not hidden, it was simply not particularly publicized to the civilian community.
The book will be redone - albeit not completely. The bridge is the little things. However, I cannot help but note that after a more thorough study, the picture emerges even further from the canonical one. Soviet canonical.
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Well, what kind of “little things” are these, when a week later the Germans noted that trains were regularly going east across the bridge?
Let me explain: by railway faster and more can be transferred to the front line than by motor transport, so maintaining the bridge is one of the most important prerequisites for the success of the offensive development. A full-blooded offensive - with timely and uninterrupted delivery of everything necessary to the advancing units.
Back to my question again: what do you think are “serious sources”?
What do you mean by water and strength? 333 sp? East Fort? Officers' house?
Eastern Fort - wells were dug and strained.
333 sp - crawled towards the Bug, in principle there was no strong thirst.
The officers' house - yes, it was hard there. We hoped to escape until June 24; we did not store water; it was possible to get it. They never escaped, the Germans surrounded 24 of them - and crawling for water was arrogant, two of them sat without water at all. Can a person live without water for three days?
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Meaning general situation with water from the defenders.
According to eyewitnesses, the water in the dug wells in the Eastern Fort was impossible to drink: it was poisoned by horse urine and droppings.
Yeah, they “crawled” and “basically there was no strong thirst,” yeah.
According to eyewitnesses, out of a dozen who crawled away at night for water to Mukhavets or Bug, at best one returned, and sometimes no one returned: the approaches to the water were shot at by the Germans.
According to the testimony of the participants in the defense, due to the constant shelling and persistent heat, people simply went crazy with thirst. And you look like, one or two and - “in principle.”
A person can live without water for five days; if without sleep for more than three days in a row, then death occurs.
Excuse me, but everything is extremely neglected for you. Maybe you shouldn’t write after all - research about fighting? What can you explore when completely non-military?
Can you describe the feeling when, at plus 35 at night, they give out three mugs of water for a day?
Or what does a person experience when he has been without sleep for 48 hours?
I, who know both thirst and sleepless service firsthand, feel terrified when I read the memoirs of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, do you understand? CREEPY!
And then a person who did not serve comes and begins to draw powerful personal conclusions based on the documents of the attacking side, and reconstruct the book based on them. About “in principle”, taken from a personal ceiling, share.
And then pale young men with burning eyes begin to refer with fervor to your fabrications: well, they say, the man worked with German documents, by the way. But the fact that there is a purely civilian gag there is not visible to them.
By all indications, you are not popularizing the research of a professional historian, but, having found easy ways (Soviet sources are not available, and even there heroics are only for money, yeah), you are giving out a voluntary or involuntary falsification of historical events.
When compiling such a study, a conscientious professional historian works with sources from both sides and certainly consults with the military, if he himself is not on either side of the army.
And he does not share the personal conclusions of the uninitiated, but invites the reader to decide for himself where the truth is. I think so.
I would like to conduct discussions as depoliticized as possible.
Because the propaganda talking shop is very annoying.
Rezunists are anti-rezunists, Mukhinists are anti-Mukhinists...
The discussion on the defense of BC continues, there are still a lot of blank spots, they said that my book would close the topic, but I know that this is not so.
Now such issues are being discussed as “the method of work of sappers of the 81st battalion of the 45th division to blow up the building of the Officers’ House and the Eastern Fort.” They need people who really understand the sap business, who, after looking at numerous photographs, will be able to determine how the explosion was made.
But official science has not yet decided where the “house of officers” was, etc. Therefore, it is hardly correct to draw conclusions on Smirnov’s books or collections of the 60s.

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Dug
Thanks for the advice.
let the last word will remain yours.
I support. And I add that Comrade Matevosyan’s memoirs must be taken “critically” (if I’m not mistaken, he said: “out of a dozen who crawled away at night for water to Mukhavets or Bug, at best, one returned”). A fairly typical veteran who repeats whatever he wants from year to year. Soviet propaganda I already believed it myself. I can't treat him badly myself. My grandfather is the same. But it is necessary to “filter”.

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Yes, there really is nothing to argue about. Or rather, there is no need.
There were armored trains No. 27 and No. 28. It was not possible to find information about their participation in the battles either in the documents of the division or in the documents of the corps. Moreover, back in early June, von Kluge called them a “burden,” expressing confidence that they would remain a burden. All docks are marked "top secret".
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You weren’t able to find it, but that doesn’t mean that this information didn’t exist? Ask how staff operational reports/summaries and documents on them are compiled - for the archive. These are, as they say in Odessa, “two big differences.”
You know, von Kluge was, by all indications and reviews, both from his comrades and opponents, both at home and behind the front line, a professional, and he could not help but understand what an armored train was as a means of ensuring the safety and security of the railway track.
This “burden” has already been mentioned to me here, based on the text of your book. You see, the replication of your findings and conclusions is proceeding at full speed to the unprepared masses.
Well, that's what he said at the beginning June, BEFORE the start of hostilities, before miscalculations in tactical and strategic planning. Now, if there is information that he repeated the same thing, say, in July, then I agree with the statement that he was out of place.
Now the documents from the 4th Army command have come to me. If there is anything else about the capture of the bridge (after all, somewhere there should be a report from Zumpa..well, or a report on Zumpa) or about the armored train, of course I won’t keep it a secret.
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The main question: the capture of the bridge by the Zumpe group is indicated from 3.15 to 3.19 Berlin time. This is 4.15 - 4.19 Moscow time. The Nazis began artillery preparation, according to official data from the Soviet side, at 4.00, according to the border guards, even earlier: from 3.35 to 3.50 Moscow time, along the entire length of the USSR border in the direction of the main attacks of the invading armies.
It turns out that the bridge was taken quite some time after the start of the general offensive?!
Well, why: if you start writing books as a conscientious historian, having previously consulted with the military from general to private inclusive of both armies and with the border guards, you will see.
Please excuse me for being too harsh.
Make it a rule, when communicating graphically, to first ask clarifying questions whether and whether you understand what your interlocutor puts into the text of his posts.
Do I have it somewhere that I can post the proof of?
I posted here three times my reconstruction of the capture of the bridge, based on the STPV and personal experience of serving at the linear outpost covering the bridge.
Covering bridges, any kind, has always been taken very seriously, taking into account the experience of June 41, because any bridge is NVDNG (the most likely movement of a border violator) and NVNVV (the most likely direction of an armed invasion).
Try to get access to the archives of the Federal Border Guard Service of Russia on the actions of 20 outposts of the 17th (89th) Brest border detachment on June 22-24, 1941.
Get a few more pieces of the puzzle for a more complete approximate reflecting the actual state of affairs in that place and at that time.
Nevertheless, your posts are interesting to me. In the year after the book was published, I did not see any critical comments, although I was expecting them. There was only one thing - about the translation - but I emphasize that I know that the translation is clumsy, but this is intentional - every word is as accurate as possible to avoid distortions.
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Thank you. I suspect that the border guards haven’t read your book, just like the army men. By indirect signs your main reader target audience ( the target audience) - non-serving male students: it’s hard to expect critical comments from them about the description/reconstruction of the capture of the border bridge, isn’t it? Here, being well read is clearly not enough to see or notice a bunch of absurdities.
I have a mountain of literature on the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, and I don’t have time to read as much as I would like. Understand that there is neither time nor desire for “scary tales” or one-sided presentation of material, don’t blame me.
You were somewhat right when you “proposed” your plan to capture the bridge - it was precisely this plan (or a similar one) that was considered at the beginning!! They decided to abandon it for only one reason - having won the bridge if successful, if unsuccessful, it could have disrupted an operation on a larger scale.
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I didn't propose a plan, I suggested reconstruction. I'll open it for you right now terrible secret: when called at night to the fairway line/post, when there have been provocations on the bridge one after another for a month, the called border guards do not have the slightest chance of surviving and have an extremely scant chance of having time to sound an alarm and they have a different task.
And this is half security - away, half the success.
I assume that the senior detachment did not report the start of the next provocation as it should be done according to the instructions, and the covering group of those who went to the bridge, two machine-gun crews and a sapper, plus some others, also did not follow the instructions. And they were cut out too. Something, but the Germans trained saboteurs very well, plus there was the opportunity to “train” in combat conditions, when they took bridges in Belgium, for example.
As you described, they don’t take bridges - this is a mockery of common sense in general and the rules for conducting sabotage operations to seize bridges in particular.
The timing discrepancy is unclear: the bridge is taken before the start of the invasion/artillery barrage operation, and not a few minutes before the start and certainly not during the start general operation and 20 minutes after the start.
In general, based on all the comments, I agree with only one thing - machine gun fire on the bridge. It looks like she wasn’t there, partly because they wouldn’t have had time to fire a machine gun. Just like with other weapons. And the shots that were heard by those who were lying near the bridge - it was Zumpe who killed the sentry. The second jumped into the river - probably losing his head from horror. And as for the “queue into the sky” - yes, for Hollywood.
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You know, it was the description of where the machine gun’s line went that puzzled me most of all. You see, any army man would shoot at the floundering saboteurs; the border guard guarding the bridge only went into the air, because in this situation - the opportunity to have time to fire one burst - the main thing for him was to sound the alarm, and not to destroy/injure at least one of the saboteurs. A burst into the air is heard and visible much better, more distinctly and longer than when fired point-blank into the enemy’s body. I don’t know whether the border guards had tracers in the disks of their machine guns. If there were, then I have no doubt that the border guard would have done exactly that.
The border guard who, in violation of the instructions before entering the bridge to the fairway line, would have had time to remove the machine gun from the safety and put the cartridge into the chamber and put it on the safety again. Then I would have had time, one turn.
The second one jumped into the water from the bridge not because he lost his head with horror. The bridge is under surveillance, and if not the jump itself, then the thunderous sound of “thumps” in the silence of the night is already enough to sound an alarm.
Since the Germans describe the very worthy behavior of border guards, this is used as an example. But according to the official version, they were removed, professionally, with knives, quietly. I repeat, those who came out onto the bridge had no chance in any way. They also used knives to remove the covering group remaining in the bunker. But these had every chance, but according to the German version, voiced by you, they managed to fire a hectic burst and the dismounted cyclists plus that machine gunner suppressed them, and according to our version, they cut them out, without making any noise.
Regarding “Zumpe killed the sentry”: the bridge guard squad never consists of one soldier, but there was a reinforced squad, because the service was carried out according to a reinforced version. Shot - one fell, the rest will at least be wary, right?
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3) ...The reason for Fomin’s execution was clearly revenge for the prisoners. But! Why weren’t Lerman and Matevosyan shot for the same thing? Lerman carried out the order and refused to carry it out for almost a long time. Matevosyan killed the prisoner himself, on his own initiative... And most likely the Germans knew about it. There is only one explanation - by the time the Germans (45 divas) learned about the execution, Lerman and Matevosyan were already in the camp, but Fomin was not. But the camp guards were all alike and would not have looked for Lerman and Matevosyan among the prisoners.
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I assume that the circumstances of the capture and who commanded the German unit played a role: if the commander is young and does not keep his subordinates in his fist, then in the heat of battle lynchings or executions on the spot occur.
There are similar episodes in “Saving Private Ryan” when the frenzied GIs, breaking through from the beach behind the line of pillboxes, shot German soldiers who raised their hands and openly surrendered. It is unlikely that it would have been different in the Brest Fortress, which stubbornly refused to capitulate.
By the way, the shooting of prisoners by the defenders is not an act of bloodthirstiness or sadism: you yourself have nothing to eat or drink, and then an extra mouth will try to free itself and hit you in the back while the defenders are repelling the attack. But I’m working on myself and I’ll definitely improve.
“In my opinion” - I am writing to note that this is my personal opinion, based on personal experience urgent service, so that they don’t persistently ask: where are the links, huh? But things are still there: they ask for sources. Well, I’ll point out that it’s from the STPV, but what’s the point - this set of documents has not been made public, and even there it’s indirect information, not evidence with exact dates, names and numbers. And you still need to get into the archives of the Federal Border Guard Service of Russia, but there too, for example, on the actions of the 9th border outpost of the Brest detachment - nothing, at least some notebooks remain from some outposts.

Sir, don't be foolish! I'm from Brandenburg!!! - the bandit almost shouts in a shrill, hysterical voice.

But always welcome, shit from Zhmerinka! - Lerman says, dismissing him like an annoying fly. - Vi, Mr. Ponosenko, the main thing is don’t get too excited... relax, drink some cold water.

The saboteur falls silent, breathing like a fired horse.

What is this? Why are you wincing? - Lerman asks affectionately. “Does your hand still hurt, your Petlyura face?” Unfortunately, I can’t help you now! Because, according to the Decree, criminal cases of spies, saboteurs and terrorists are considered within 24 hours. Four hours have already passed!

Or maybe to the doctor, sir? - the saboteur asks, cradling his injured limb, with hidden hope.

Where are you going, my dear, to the doctor? - Lerman says in the same quiet, gentle voice, as if talking to a seriously ill person. - After all, we also need to convene a Special Meeting and draw up a protocol... We don’t have time before the end of the working day - after all, it’s shortened today! Oh, excuse my indiscretion, when will we dig your grave? It also takes time...

The saboteur shudders with his whole body, and, instantly forgetting about his broken arm, looking ingratiatingly into the detective’s eyes, he says:

Officer sir, don't go to the grave! I’ll say everything... I’ll say everything!

Well, what can you tell me, besides lyrical childhood memories? - Lerman is surprised. - The matter is completely clear, they took you, Mr. Ponosenko, in a Red Army uniform, with a weapon in your hands, and the whole thing is so uninteresting... So explain to me, a stupid, shaggy Jew, why didn’t we issue you a ticket to the Mogilev province? must?

The hefty saboteur slides off the stool and crawls to the table, sobbing. Lerman looks at this performance with one eyebrow raised ironically.

Everything, everything, everything, I don’t want to listen to anything! - the detective says mockingly. The saboteur, without getting up from the floor, begins to howl. - Oh, how stubborn you are, Vovochka is just a second-year student! Okay, okay, get up off your knees already. Well, okay, okay... we still have five minutes... I'll be back now, wait...

Lerman goes out into the corridor, looks into the next room - there is a young lady with headphones on perhydrol curls behind a typewriter.

Mashenka, are you ready to record? - Lerman’s small-town accent instantly evaporates. - The client, glory to the work, has definitely flown!

Ready, Isaac Abramovich! - the young lady nods. - How did you… once! And they split it! I didn't even have to hit him!

Oh, come on, Mashenka, you know me - I’m not a villain! - Lerman smiles. - In general, I am a civilian, a Minsk history teacher... last school year... I was.

...

Near the open safe there is a pile of paper ashes... on a piece of charred cardboard there is an overprint in black font “Owls. secret..."...

In the corner behind the safe - sitting on the floor, leaning the back of his head, torn apart by a bullet, against the blood-stained wall, Lerman presses to himself with his left hand a secret young lady with a black mouth of the entrance hole at the curly blond temple, in right hand- the gun is held tightly...

There is a smile on the detective's dead lips. He managed to do everything on time, exactly according to instructions...

Brest. Headquarters of the 11th Border Detachment

Carry on, Comrade Lerman! - Lieutenant General Bogdanov, Chief of the Belarusian Border District Troops, encourages the detective. - What else did this Ponosenko show?

Sitting at a small side table, Lerman now looks completely different from the typical “nerd” whose image he demonstrated during interrogation. Isaac is strict, smart, dressed in a smart carpet tunic, even instead of glasses - pince-nez without rims, like Lavrenty Pavlovich.

Yes, yes, general,” Lerman nods and, glancing briefly at the interrogation report, continues to report by heart, from memory. - According to the testimony of a detained Abwehr agent, the main task of the next 24 hours preceding the German attack on Soviet Union, for the specified reconnaissance group there were measures to block wire communications, including Bodo and HF.

Bogdanov takes out cigarettes, but without lighting a cigarette, begins to tap the cigarette holder on the box.

Other tasks were: the destruction of the com and political personnel of the Red Army living in the city of Brest, preventing the said persons from entering their units due to a large gathering or alarm, reports Lerman. - First of all, this concerns pilots, tank crews, and senior commanders of the Red Army. After the outbreak of hostilities, the task was set to destroy and replace road signs, organize traffic jams, the direction of the Red Army transport columns in the wrong direction. The connection with the troops of the German Wehrmacht was planned at 18:00 on June 23 of this year in the area of the Yaselda River.

They walk widely... - Bogdanov chuckles.

That's right, general! - Lerman responds. - Further. As the detained Ponosenko testified, the deputy head of the 2nd department of the Abwehr service, Oberst-Lieutenant Eduard Stolz, personally gave instructions to the leaders Ukrainian nationalists, German agents Melnik and Bandera organize, immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union, provocative riots in Ukraine, with the aim of undermining the immediate rear Soviet troops. And also in order to convince international public opinion about the supposed disintegration of the Soviet rear. The detainee testified that he knew that his close acquaintance, the head of intelligence of Ukrainian nationalists, a certain Sushko, was allegedly preparing a rebellion in the city of Lvov.

B-bitches! - the general exhales through clenched teeth. The unlit cigarette crumbles in your fist. - So they decided to organize riots... Well, well...

The detainee also testified that German agents in the near future have the task of seizing a railway tunnel and bridges near the city of Vilna,” Lerman continues to report, glancing briefly at the protocol again. - And the German sabotage groups have the task of capturing bridges across the Dvina River on the night of June 22, and must hold them until the German troops arrive. The detainee himself is subordinate to Wehrmacht Colonel Lahousen and is a voluntary assistant in the first company, in the so-called “Nachtigall” company, this is “Nightingale” in Russian, since the personnel of Ukrainian nationalists really like to sing in chorus...

Well, just like Pyatnitsky’s choir,” Bogdanov grins.

“That’s right, general,” Lerman nods. - So these same choristers, the Nachtigal company, are part of the special regiment Brandenburg-800. According to Ponosenko, thirty paratroopers from this regiment were sent to Brest. And from forty-five to sixty former subjects of Poland and the Baltic states (Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians). The indicated divisions are described for twenty-five specific objects. In particular, the “2-A-Z” unit, which included the detainee, was supposed to go up to the attic of residential building No. 5 of the DNS of the Brest garrison and on June 22 at 4 o’clock Berlin time begin the physical liquidation of the commanders and members of their families living there , including women and children.

Children... Why children?! - Bogdanov is amazed.

I don’t know, dude general,” Lerman shakes his head. - The logic of the enemy is incomprehensible to me.

Study, Isaac Abramych, study better! - Bogdanov smiles sadly. - You need to know your enemy inside and out!

Yes, it’s better to study, general! - Lerman nods, makes a note in his notebook and continues his report. - Further. All members of the Brandenburg Regiment, former foreign Germans, are fluent in Russian. The unit is equipped with uniforms and weapons of the Red Army. Moreover, the items are absolutely authentic. The tunics and breeches we removed from the corpses of saboteurs even had manufacturer's labels on them.

Wow, what neat people... - notes Bogdanov.

It’s the general’s fault, but German neatness will let them down! - says Lerman and takes out a small package from a worn leather briefcase. The package contains documents of the saboteurs. - Please note, general, this is a Red Army book from one of those killed during detention. Made very professionally, at an excellent printing level, in compliance with all requirements for military personnel identification cards. Our commanders have exactly the same... almost... only our paper clip is made of steel wire. When you carry your ID in your pocket for a long time, sweat and water cause the paper clip to rust and stain the paper. And the spy has a paper clip made of STAINLESS steel wire. And it doesn’t stain the paper at all!

There's a brand on my forehead - I'm a spy! - Bogdanov chuckles.

...

Special message from the border troops of the NKVD of the BSSR: “In the zone of the 10th Army, a group of saboteurs crossed the state border. Of these: 2 were killed, 2 were seriously wounded, 3 (Ukrainian emigrants) were captured.”

Brest Fortress. North Island. House of Commanding Staff No. 5

At the stadium next to the house - Red Army soldiers, in identical blue T-shirts, with identical haircuts, are excitedly kicking a soccer ball.

At the entrance to the entrance of a three-story red-brick house, under a red tiled roof, a boy in short pants, with his armpits crossed behind his back, and a girl in a Panama hat and a white sundress are sitting on a bench.

And I have a nail in my pocket! - the boy says importantly.

And we have a guest on our roof! - the girl answers almost in rhyme.

What other guest? - the boy is surprised.

Military, what else! - the girl answers judiciously. “Mom and I were climbing into the attic to hang laundry, and he was sitting there.” Mom was scared of him at first, and then she talked to him and laughed. He gave me a button. Look, there are letters!

The boy carefully examines the gift and wrinkles his forehead.

But the letters are not Russian... - the boy mutters under his breath and decisively takes the button from his sister.

Give-a-ay, give-a-ay, my button! - the girl roars.

At this moment, a three-axle ZiS-5, with border guards in green caps and an ABC-36 in their hands, stops at the entrance, squeaking its brakes...

The cab door swings open and Lerman jumps onto the asphalt. He smiles welcomingly at the children and asks affectionately:

Kids, do you happen to live here?

The boy comes closer and, menacingly frowning his whitish eyebrows, answers clearly, in a military, commanding voice:

We are not your children, but the children of Captain Prokhorenko! - And then he asks no less sternly: - Who are you? - Carefully, sniffling, he studies the ID card handed to him... he looks up at the buttonholes and smiles white-toothed: - I see. EN-KA-VE-DE?

Well, I almost guessed,” Lerman answers with a kind smile.

Then, uncle, I’ll tell you what... - and the boy whispers something to the attentively listening commander.

Lerman carefully examines the button, which was being squeezed by a hot boy’s palm, and says thoughtfully:

It seems that we have successfully entered... Platoon, to the car! And you kids, come on, run to the stadium and watch the football!

...

A dark corridor... An open door, half torn from its hinges... A woman in a hastily thrown on robe, in her hands children's things, froze in a pool of blood on the floor, with her last movement trying to cover the little girl with herself, in whose eyes mortal horror was frozen.

Brest. Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Office of the first secretary of the regional committee

- ...And then the surviving state border violator jumped from the attic into the courtyard of the house, where he was scalded from head to toe with boiling water by the wife of Red Army captain Zubachev, who at that moment was going to soak her husband’s outer clothing in a basin. Due to this, the said intruder was detained without resistance by the task force of the “neighbors,” that is, the Directorate of the NKGB of the BSSR, reports the head of the regional Directorate of the NKVD of the BSSR, Senior Major Frumkin. - Gutted... excuse me, hastily interrogated using methods of physical coercion permitted by the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in relation to spies, saboteurs and saboteurs, the detained Krysenko confirmed that on June 22, at 4 o'clock Berlin time, in the Brest sector, German troops would commit a massive attack using tanks, artillery and aircraft.

Hmmm... How did they get through the button, huh? - thoughtfully turning a button with foreign letters in his hands, says the first secretary of the regional committee, Tupitsyn.

Well, you didn’t screw up, Comrade Tupitsyn! - Frumkin chuckles. - On the uniform of both destroyed terrorists and on the uniform of those detained alive, all buttons bear domestic markings. Through an emergency check, with the involvement of employees of the Special Department of the 6th Infantry Division, we were able to establish that a native and resident of Chisinau, Red Army soldier Andrei Bolfu, a native and resident of Chisinau, was talking in the attic with Captain Prokhorenko’s wife in the attic. On the sleeves of Bolf's tunic and on the fly of Bolf's breeches, buttons with Latin markings, which he had sewn on his own without permission, were actually found to be of a non-statutory type.

General Bogdanov, present in the office, smiles reservedly.

Hastily interrogated using methods of physical coercion permitted by the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in relation to spies, saboteurs and saboteurs, Frumkin continues, the detainee Bolfu testified that he had visited the attic of CSN No. 5 for the purpose, as he stated, of collecting souvenirs. During a search in his duffel bag, women's trousers with a fleece of size fifty-eight and a bra of size five were found, confidently identified by the wife of Red Army captain Comrade Zubachev as her personal belongings...

Bogdanov laughs quietly, Tupitsyn turns his head in bewilderment.

Bolfu’s involvement in foreign intelligence services is currently being worked out, Frumkin continues to report. - The scoundrel has already confessed to his connections with the Romanian Siguranza, as well as with the intelligence services of Horthy Hungary, Imperial Bulgaria and the feudal Grand Duchy of Liechtenstein...

Bogdanov and Tupitsyn looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

But Bolfa knows nothing about the German attack on the USSR! - Frumkin finishes.

Well, with this... Bessarabian rabbit, everything is clear to me personally! - Bogdanov says, wiping away the tears that came out from laughter. - But what really worries me is the testimony of the detained bandits... Is it really a large-scale provocation, like at Khalkhin Gol?

But there is still no connection with the district,” Tupitsyn says quietly.

How is it not? - Bogdanov is dumbfounded. - And along the lines of the NKPS?

Tupitsyn shakes his head negatively.

Also no? - Bogdanov asks again. - And on the radio?

There have been no codes for three months now,” Frumkin shrugs. - They didn’t approve.

And who didn’t approve? - Bogdanov narrows his eyes thoughtfully. - Comrade Pavlov?

Tupitsyn and Frumkin nod synchronously.

Well, no way... whatever! Comrade Frumkin, it seems to me that there is room for your department to work here... But what should we do, huh? What if you use “chauffeurs”? It was - it wasn’t! Under my responsibility... Let them gently touch the adversary by the udder...

Issue a written order, Comrade General! - Tupitsyn says decisively. - I, as a member of the military council, will also sign!

Kobrin

The commander of the 4th Army, General Korobkov, managed to get through to the District headquarters through Pinsk. I asked the chief of staff of the Klimovsky District to give permission to withdraw at least divisions from the Brest garrison to combat areas. Received a categorical refusal.

“It’s signed, off your shoulders!”

And Korobkov and the Chief of Staff of the Army, Major General Sandalov, go to the performance of the Belarusian Operetta Theater “The Gypsy Baron”.

Meanwhile, member of the Military Council, Military Commissar Shlykov and his head of the political propaganda department are leaving for Brest - for a concert of Moscow pop artists...

Minsk

The commander of the Western Front (not the District, but since yesterday - the Front), Army General Pavlov, is not at the front GKP, but in the Minsk District House of the Red Army. Enjoying the operetta “Wedding in Malinovka”...

Next to him is the first deputy commander, Lieutenant General I.V. Boldin.

They like operetta, Popandopulo is especially amused...

Suddenly, the head of the intelligence department of the Western Front headquarters, Colonel S.V. Blokhin, appears in the box. He leans over Pavlov’s ear and whispers something...

What nonsense! This can't be true! - Pavlov mutters irritably.

The intelligence chief shrugs and leaves.

Some kind of nonsense... - Pavlov says in a low voice, leaning towards Boldin. “Intelligence reports that there is supposedly a lot of anxiety at the border.” German troops are supposedly put on full combat readiness and have even begun shelling certain sections of our border. Listen, do something about this alarmist so that he doesn’t bother me anymore! [Genuine dialogue. Taken from the published interrogation of Pavlov, arrested on July 7, 1941, and the testimony of witness Boldin.]

Brest Fortress. West Island. District driving school of border troops

...

Nobody knows anything about this school, located on the very edge of Soviet land, surrounded on three sides by neighboring territory. Only the surviving witnesses of the heroic defense of the fortress unanimously remember that there was no garage, no race track, or training cars in this school... Apparently, the evil Stalinist regime forced future drivers to learn exclusively from pictures. And when early in the morning a German assault force burst into the Western Island, three times the number of school personnel, every single fascist was destroyed by the drivers in hand-to-hand combat... what an interesting “driving school” it was...

The head of the driving school, military technician of the first rank, Bezugly, looks with interest at the wet to the skin German non-commissioned officer... The picture deserves attention - on the bound German, mooing through a gag, with his eyes bulging, there is a Kaiser’s helmet with a pike! [True story.]

Well, where, soldiers, did you catch this clown? - Bezugly, interrupting his contemplation for a second, is curious.

There were three of them there - the MG-34 crew. Directly directed at us, at mark 145, the eldest of the two cadet “drivers”, Sergeant Mikhail Myasnikov, a short, sturdy man in overalls, pulls out wet golden books from his breast pocket. - We drowned the soldiers out of sin, and the eldest - on our shore. There are no border police on the adjacent side, the checkpoint is empty, that’s why there are dogs German second they don't bark for a day.

In general, the Germans in the coastal bushes are like dirt! - adds the second “driver”, Corporal Kolpakov. - Sappers are pulling boats, here and here... - Kolpakov shows places on the map. - The Germans don’t dig trenches, they bivouac. And it seems they have nothing more than... a party meeting - officers personnel they read something out loud.

Good! - Bezugly nods. - So, guys, call from the German office and quickly bring a hot iron - you see, our guest is completely chilled, we need to dry his uniform...

Undress? - Myasnikov pretends to be a fool.

No, we’ll dry it directly on it! - Bezugly grins wryly. - Oh, why did he shake his head? You don't want an iron, do you? Are you going to talk, comrade?

Square

After reading A. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago,” I wanted to raise the topic of concentration camps in the USSR. The concept of “concentration camp” first appeared not in Germany, as many believe, but in South Africa(1899) in the form of brutal violence for the purpose of humiliation. But the first concentration camps government agency isolation appeared precisely in the USSR in 1918 on the orders of Trotsky, even before the famous Red Terror and 20 years before the Second World War. Concentration camps were intended for kulaks, clergy, White Guards and other “doubtful” people.

Places of detention were often organized in former monasteries. From a place of worship, from a center of faith in the Almighty - to places of violence and often undeserved violence. Think about it, do you know the fate of your ancestors well? Many of them ended up in camps for having a handful of wheat in their pockets, for not going to work (for example, due to illness), or for saying too much. Let's take a brief look at each of the concentration camps in the USSR.

ELEPHANT (Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp)

The Solovetsky Islands have long been considered pure, untouched by human passions, which is why the famous Solovetsky Monastery was built here (1429), which Soviet times retrained for a concentration camp.

Pay attention to the book by Yu. A. Brodsky “Solovki. Twenty Years of Special Purpose" is a significant work (photos, documents, letters) about the camp. The material about Sekirnaya Mountain is especially interesting. There is an old legend that in the 15th century, on this bark, two angels beat a woman with rods, since she could arouse desire in the monks. In honor of this history, a chapel and a lighthouse were erected on the mountain. During the concentration camp there was an isolation ward with a notorious reputation. Prisoners were sent there to work off fines: they had to sit and sleep on wooden poles, and every day the convict was subject to physical punishment (from the words of SLON employee I. Kurilko).

Penalties were forced to bury those who died from typhus and scurvy, the prisoners were dressed in sacks, naturally, they were given a terrible amount of food, so they differed from other prisoners in their thinness, unhealthy color faces. They said that rarely did anyone manage to return alive from the isolation ward. Ivan Zaitsev succeeded and this is what he says:

“We were forced to undress, leaving only a shirt and underpants. Lagstarosta knocked on the front door. An iron bolt creaked inside and the huge heavy door opened. We were pushed inside the so-called upper penalty cell. We stood dumbfounded at the entrance, amazed at the sight before us. To the right and left along the walls, prisoners sat silently in two rows on bare wooden planks. Tight, one to one. The first row, with your legs down, and the second behind you, with your legs tucked under you. All are barefoot, half naked, with only rags on their bodies, some already looking like skeletons. They looked in our direction with gloomy, tired eyes, which reflected deep sadness and sincere pity for us newcomers. Everything that could remind us that we are in the temple has been destroyed. The paintings are poorly and roughly whitewashed. The side altars have been turned into punishment cells, where beatings and straitjackets take place. Where there is a holy altar in the temple, there is now a huge bucket for “great” needs - a tub with a board placed on top for the feet. In the morning and evening - verification with the usual dog barking “Hello!” It happens that, for sluggish calculation, a Red Army boy forces you to repeat this greeting for half an hour or an hour. Food, and very meager food at that, is given once a day - at noon. And so not for a week or two, but for months, up to a year.”

Soviet citizens could only guess about what happened on Solovki. So, the famous Soviet writer M. Gorky was invited to examine the condition in which prisoners were kept in SLON.

“I cannot help but note the vile role played in the history of the death camps by Maxim Gorky, who visited Solovki in 1929. He looked around and saw an idyllic picture of the heavenly life of the prisoners and was moved, morally justifying the extermination of millions of people in the camps. The public opinion of the world was deceived by him in the most shameless manner. Political prisoners remained outside the writer's field. He was quite satisfied with the leaf gingerbread offered to him. Gorky turned out to be the most ordinary man in the street and did not become either Voltaire, or Zola, or Chekhov, or even Fyodor Petrovich Haaz...” N. Zhilov

Since 1937, the camp has ceased to exist, and the barracks are still being destroyed, everything that can indicate scary story THE USSR. According to the St. Petersburg Research Center, in the same year the remaining prisoners (1,111 people) were executed as unnecessary. By the forces of those sentenced to imprisonment in SLON, hundreds of hectares of forest were cut down, tons of fish and seaweed were caught, the prisoners themselves earned their meager food, and also performed meaningless work for the amusement of the camp staff (for example, the order “Draw water from the ice hole until it’s dry ").

A huge staircase from the mountain has still been preserved, along which prisoners were thrown; upon reaching the ground, a person turned into a bloody something (rarely did anyone survive such punishment). The entire camp area is covered with mounds...

Volgolag - about the prisoners who built the Rybinsk Reservoir

If there is a lot of information about Solovki, then little is known about Volgolag, but the death toll is terrifying. The formation of the camp as a subdivision of Dmitrovlag dates back to 1935. In 1937, there were more than 19 thousand prisoners in the camp, in war time the number of convicts reaches 85 thousand (15 thousand of them were convicted under Article 58). During the five years of construction of the reservoir and hydroelectric power station, 150 thousand people died (statistics from the director of the Museum of the Mologsky Region).

Every morning the prisoners went to work in a detachment, followed by a cart with tools. According to eyewitnesses, by evening these carts returned strewn with the dead. People were buried shallowly; after the rain, their arms and legs stuck out from under the ground - local residents recall.

Why did prisoners die in such numbers? Volgolag was located in an area of constant winds, every second prisoner suffered from pulmonary diseases, and a consumptive rumble was constantly heard. Had to work in harsh conditions(getting up at 5 am, working waist-deep in icy water, and in 1942 a terrible famine began). A camp employee recalls how grease was brought in to lubricate the mechanisms, and the prisoners licked the barrel clean.

Kotlaslag (1930–1953)

The camp was located in the remote village of Ardashi. All information presented in this article is the memories of local residents and the prisoners themselves. There were three barracks for men and one for women on the territory. Mostly those convicted under Article 58 were here. Prisoners grew crops for their own food and convicts from other camps also worked on logging. There was still a catastrophic shortage of food; all that was left was to lure the sparrows into homemade traps. There was a case (and maybe more than one) when prisoners ate the camp commander’s dog. Locals also note that prisoners regularly stole sheep under the supervision of guards.

Local residents say that life was also difficult during these times, but they still tried to help the prisoners with something: they gave them bread and vegetables. There was a rampage in the camp various diseases, especially consumption. They died often, were buried without coffins, and in winter they were simply buried in the snow. A local resident tells how he was skiing as a child, driving down the mountain, tripped, fell, and broke his lip. When I realized what I had fallen on, I became scared, it was a dead man.

To be continued..