Evacuation of Chortkiv Prison

Last updated
Evacuation of Chortkiv Prison
Part of occupation of Poland (1939–1945)
Pam'iatnii znak zhertvam bil'shovits'kogo teroru, vul. Banderi, 25, m. Chortkiv.jpg
Plaque at Stepan Bandera Street in Chortkiv commemorating victims of the prison massacre
Location Chortkiv, Eastern Poland/Western Ukraine
Coordinates 49°01′06″N25°47′32″E / 49.01833°N 25.79222°E / 49.01833; 25.79222
DateJune–July, 1941
TargetPrisoners, mostly Ukrainians and Poles
Attack type
mass murder
Deathsat least 890
Perpetrators NKVD

The Evacuation of Chortkiv Prison refers to the compelled evacuation and massacre of inmates from the prison in the city of Chortkiv, then in occupied Poland and now in Ukraine. In the last days of June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed an estimated 100 to 200 prisoners held in the Chortkiv prison. The remaining prisoners were evacuated further east, either by train or on foot, while hundreds died due to the inhumane conditions of transport or at the hands of guards. According to Soviet documents, the overall number of victims was estimated at around 890, while other sources suggest it might exceed 1,000. This atrocity was one of several prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

Contents

Background

During the interwar period, Chortkiv (Ukrainian : Чортків, Polish : Czortków) was located within the borders of the Second Polish Republic and served as the center of the Chortkiv county in Tarnopol Voivodeship. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the city fell under Soviet occupation. On January 21, 1940, local Polish conspirators, mostly youths aged 16–20, organized an unsuccessful uprising against the Soviets. According to Soviet reports, at least 24 captured insurgents were executed, while 55 others were deported to the Gulag camps. [1]

Those apprehended by the NKVD were confined in the cells of a pre-war Polish prison situated on Adama Mickiewicza Street (present-day Stepan Bandera Street), in close proximity to the pre-war magistrates’ court building. [2] The prison in Chortkiv was one of four Soviet prisons operating in Ternopil Oblast. It was referred to as 'Prison No. 2' in Soviet official documents. [3] An NKVD functionary named Levchuk served as a prison warden. [4]

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Due to the swift progress of the German offensive, the NKVD began exterminating political prisoners in the war zone. In the summer of 1941, in the part of Poland occupied by the USSR, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 individuals were murdered in prisons and detention centers. [5]

The course of events

Massacre in prison

According to documents from Soviet archives, as of June 10, 1941, the prison in Chortkiv held 1292 inmates. [3] The "List of departures and movements of transports from NKVD prisons of the Ukrainian SSR" informs that "until the evacuation, there were 1,300 inmates in the prison". [6] This information is also found in a July 12, 1941 report by Captain of State Security Andrei Filippov, regarding the evacuation of prisons in the western districts of the Ukrainian SSR. [7] [lower-alpha 1]

After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, over a thousand prisoners were evacuated from Chortkiv by the NKVD. [8] However, the Soviets decided to murder some of the political prisoners on the spot. First of all, they executed those individuals to whom, before the war, the death penalty or long prison sentences were awarded under Article 58 of the USSR Penal Code and Article 54 of the Penal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. [9]

At the beginning of July 1941, after the German troops entered Chortkiv, the inhabitants went to the prison at Mickiewicza Street. [2] [10] Initially, the building seemed completely deserted. However, soon the bodies of murdered prisoners were found in its basements, and in the inner courtyard, a mass grave was discovered, concealed beneath freshly planted flower beds. [10] Many of the discovered corpses showed signs of torture. [2] [lower-alpha 2] Witnesses also claimed that, in one of the cells, guards walled up prisoners alive; several living people and about 100 bodies were allegedly found there [2] (however, Bogdan Musiał questions the veracity of such reports). [lower-alpha 3]

On July 9, 1941, German soldier Meinrad von Ow recalled: [11]

We arrived at a large prison in a small town at 5:00 AM, where we encountered some horrifying scenes. The bodies of the murdered were scattered everywhere: some half-buried, some near the wall where they were shot, and some horribly mutilated. Most of them were people killed in recent days, but many of them lost their lives before June 22.

Determining the exact number of prisoners who were murdered directly within the prison remains challenging. The NKVD reports provide no information about executions in Chortkiv itself. [12] Eyewitnesses reported that several hundred bodies were found in the prison. [13] The District Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź, which investigated this crime in the 1990s, estimated that between 100 and 200 prisoners were murdered in the building on Mickiewicza Street. [8]

The prison massacre was not the only crime committed by the Soviets in Chortkiv in the summer of 1941. Before leaving the city, NKVD men committed numerous rapes and robberies against the civilian population. [14] Additionally, on the night of July 1–2, 1941, they killed seven Dominican friars and one tertiary from Saint Stanislaus Church. [15] [16]

Evacuation by train

From 350 [8] [17] to 500 [lower-alpha 4] prisoners were sent by train to the city of Gorki (present-day Nizhny Novgorod). The journey in sealed and uncleaned cattle wagons lasted 17 days. [8] [18] The prisoners were not provided with water, only minimal rations of food. As a result, heat, thirst, and exhaustion resulted in numerous deaths. Due to the fact that the wagons were emptied every few days, the prisoners had to travel with the bodies of their deceased comrades, which quickly decomposed in the summer heat. [19]

B. H. Łoziński, a Polish prisoner who survived the train transport, recalled: [20]

We travelled for the second day without any meals or water, and the heat was terrible, the tightness and stuffiness led to extreme despair and cries for help. Finally, at some station, already in Soviet Ukraine, the train stopped, and NKVD soldiers started carrying buckets full of heavily salted fish into the carriages. Everyone rushed for this food. Unfortunately, they did not provide water, and the train continued its journey. And then the real tragedy began. The thirst, intensified by the salty fish, led to madness. Incredible screams and moans of the dying came from dry throats and bloody foam at the mouth. A true picture of 'Dante's Inferno'... When I woke up from this lethargy, and consciousness returned, I found... that about 30% of the prisoners died in tragic conditions.

Polish investigators estimated that at least 63 prisoners died during transport by train. [8] [17] Witness quoted by Jerzy Węgierski claimed that 34 people died in one wagon alone. [21]

Death march to Uman

From 700 [8] to 800 [22] or even 954 [23] prisoners were kept in prison almost until the last moment. According to Andrei Filippov’s report: [7]

A sufficient number of wagons were provided to evacuate all the prisoners, but the head of the local NKGB post ordered that 800 prisoners under investigation or convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes be left in prison. [...] At the last moment, he renounced these 800 prisoners and told the prison warden, "Do with them whatever you want."

Finally, these prisoners were rushed east on foot. The route of the march led through Kamianets-Podilskyi, Zhmerynka, Tyvriv, Sytkivtsi, and Khrystynivka. [24] Soviet reports state that "on the way, in an attempt to rebel and escape," 123 prisoners (allegedly members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) were shot. [25]

After a dozen or so days, the column reached Uman. On July 20, 1941, the Deputy People's Commissar of State Security of the Ukrainian SSR, Major of State Security Ivan M. Tkachenko, along with an unnamed military prosecutor, decided to execute all prisoners who had been "convicted or were under investigation for counter-revolutionary crimes". [24] Consequently, according to Soviet reports, 767 individuals were executed in Uman. [25]

Only 64 criminal prisoners survived. Some of them were immediately released, while 31 prisoners of Polish nationality were temporarily left in the prison in Uman. [24]

Aftermath

The NKVD reports stated that a total of 890 prisoners were murdered during the liquidation of the Chortkiv prison. However, surviving prisoners and witnesses of the exhumation estimated that the number of victims was in the hundreds. [26]

As in other instances of prison massacres, the local Jewish community got blamed for the actions of the NKVD. As per the antisemitic canard of Jewish Bolshevism, Jews were pervived as synonymous with the Soviet regime and its policies of terror. After German troops entered Chortkiv, local Jews were forced to work on the exhumation of bodies found in the prison. During this work, they were beaten, humiliated, and murdered by soldiers. [27]

The funeral ceremony for the victims of the prison massacre took place on July 9, 1941, [11] with the bodies buried in a mass grave at the municipal cemetery in Chortkiv. [8]

During an investigation conducted in Poland in the 1990s, it was established that executions in the Chortkiv prison involved, among others, two communist functionaries of Jewish origin who were natives of Chortkiv. They served as employees of the Soviet occupation apparatus. After the end of the war, both individuals went on to serve in the ranks of the Polish People's Army, attaining high officer ranks. [28]

Notes

  1. ↑ These are not the only mentions of the evacuation of Chortkiv prison found in the NKVD archives. A July 31, 1941 report by the deputy head of the prison board of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR, politruk Demyekhin, concerning the evacuation of inmates from prisons in Chortkiv and Kolomyia, states that when the evacuation began, there were 954 inmates in the prison in Chortkiv. However, this report only describes the fate of those prisoners who were rushed to Uman on foot. See: Popiński, Kokurin i Gurjanow (1995), pp. 89–90.
  2. ↑ The testimony and accounts of witnesses involved in the exhumation of the victims of the NKVD prisoner massacres repeatedly mention bodies bearing signs of severe torture. However, according to Bogdan Musiał, injuries initially thought to be signs of torture were likely a result of rapid decomposition of the corpses, accelerated by the summer heat, as well as scavengers and unskilled handling during exhumation (see: Musiał (2001), pp. 236–237). At times, executions were hastily carried out using grenades and machine guns, resulting in severe injuries to the victims (see: Musiał (2001), p. 236). Also, he believes that in Eastern Galicia and Volhynia, there were cases where, after the departure of the Soviets, the bodies of NKVD victims were purposely mutilated by Ukrainian nationalists seeking to depict dramatic examples of their nation's martyrdom for propaganda purposes (see: Musiał (2001), pp. 237–240).
  3. ↑ According to Bogdan Musiał, information about prisoners being walled alive, which is repeated in the accounts of many witnesses of the NKVD prisoner massacres, most probably had its source in rumors or was the result of a misinterpretation of facts. In his opinion, only the bodies of previously shot prisoners were bricked up in the cells. See: Musiał (2001), p. 240.
  4. ↑ Both the "List of departures and movements of transports from NKVD prisons of the Ukrainian SSR", and Andrei Filippov’s report inform that 500 prisoners were evacuated by train. The former document also states that "470 prisoners arrived in Gorky on July 16, 1941, as part of the Kyiv transport. See: Popiński, Kokurin i Gurjanow (1995), pp. 97, 101.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustów</span> Town in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland

Augustów is a town in north-eastern Poland. It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal. It is the seat of Augustów County and of Gmina Augustów in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Augustów has an area of 80.90 square kilometres, and as of June 2022 it has a population of 29,305.

The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions of political prisoners carried out by the NKVD, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, across Eastern Europe, primarily in Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states and Bessarabia. After the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, NKVD troops were supposed to evacuate political prisoners to the interior of the Soviet Union, but the hasty retreat of the Red Army, a lack of transportation and other supplies, and general disregard for legal procedures often led to prisoners being simply executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valozhyn</span> Town in Minsk Region, Belarus

Valozhyn or Volozhin is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Valozhyn District. It is located 75 km (47 mi) northwest of Minsk, on the Valozhynka River in the Neman River basin, and the beginning of the Naliboki forest. In 1995, its population was approximately 11,500. As of 2023, it has a population of 10,064.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chortkiv</span> City in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine

Chortkiv is a city in Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Chortkiv Raion, housing the district's local administration buildings. Chortkiv hosts the administration of Chortkiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: 28,279.

Freedom and Independence Association was a Polish underground anticommunist organisation founded on September 2, 1945 and active until 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naliboki massacre</span> 1943 massacre of Poles

The Naliboki massacre was the 8 May 1943 mass killing of 127 or 128 Poles by Soviet partisans in the small town of Naliboki in German-occupied Poland.

On May 21, 1945, a unit of the Polish Home Army, led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski, attacked a Soviet NKVD camp located in Rembertów in the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. Hundreds of Polish citizens had been imprisoned there, including members of the Home Army and other members of the underground resistance. Prisoners at the camp were being systematically deported to Siberia. As a result of the attack, all of the Polish political prisoners were freed from the camp by the pro-independence resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)</span>

In the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, which took place in September 1939, the territory of Poland was divided in half between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets had ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Since 1939 German and Soviet officials coordinated their Poland-related policies and repressive actions. For nearly two years following the invasion, the two occupiers continued to discuss bilateral plans for dealing with the Polish resistance during Gestapo-NKVD Conferences until Germany's Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, in June 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafał Wnuk</span> Polish historian

Rafał Wnuk is a Polish historian, editor of several historical periodicals, employee of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences and of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Wnuk was a student of the Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia</span>

Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia, which took place on October 22, 1939, were an attempt to legitimize the annexation of the Second Polish Republic's eastern territories by the Soviet Union following the September 17 Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Only one month after these lands were occupied by the Red Army, the Soviet secret police and military led by the Party officials staged the local elections in an atmosphere of state terror. The referendum was rigged. The ballot envelopes were numbered and often handed over already sealed. By design, the candidates were unknown to their constituencies which were brought to the voting stations by armed militias. The results were to become the official legitimization of the Soviet takeover of what is known today as the Western Belorussia and the Western Ukraine. Consequently, both Assemblies voted for incorporation of all formerly Polish voivodeships into the Soviet Union.

<i>Rzeczpospolita Polska</i> (magazine)

Rzeczpospolita Polska was the official monthly underground journal and mouthpiece of the Government Delegation for Poland, the highest authority of the Polish Underground State, accountable to the Polish government-in-exile located in London during the wartime occupation of its territory by two hostile powers. According to the historian Lewandowska, it acted as "a source of instruction and information" for Polish underground organizations in the field, including other underground publications, operating in occupied Poland. It was staffed by a network of professional writers both in Poland and correspondents in exile.

Chronicles of Terror is a digital internet archive established by the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies in August 2016. Initially, it provided access to the depositions of Polish citizens who after World War II were interviewed as witnesses before the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. From 17 September 2017, the database also presents the accounts of Poles who fell victim to repressions perpetrated by Soviet totalitarianism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chervyen massacre</span> Episode of mass murder of political prisoners

The Chervyen massacre was one of the NKVD prisoner massacres. More than 1,000 political prisoners from Lithuania, Poland and Belarus were executed by the NKVD near Chervyen on 25–27 June 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD prisoner massacre in Lutsk</span>

The NKVD prisoner massacre in Lutsk was a Soviet war crime conducted by the NKVD and NKGB in the city of Lutsk, situated in occupied Poland. On June 23, 1941, during the second day of the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed a vast majority of the prisoners held in the Lutsk prison, predominantly Ukrainians and Poles. The estimated number of victims is believed to be around 2,000, although there are varying estimates from different sources. This atrocity was one among many prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

Valozhyn-Tarasovo Death Road refers to the compelled evacuation of inmates from the prison in the city of Valozhyn, located in occupied Poland. This evacuation, orchestrated by the NKVD following the German invasion of the USSR, commenced on the night of June 24–25, 1941. It concluded within two days, with nearly all prisoners being executed by Soviet guards near the village of Tarasovo, close to Minsk. The death toll from this massacre reached approximately one hundred. This atrocity was one among many prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berezwecz-Taklinovo Death Road</span>

Berezwecz-Taklinovo Death Road refers to the compelled evacuation and massacre of inmates from the prison in the village of Berezwecz in occupied Poland. The liquidation of the prison, carried out by the NKVD after the German invasion of the USSR, began on the night of June 23-24, 1941, with the targeted execution in the prison's basements of inmates deemed particularly dangerous. The next day, the remaining prisoners were rushed towards Vitebsk. During the 120-kilometer death march, they died en masse due to exhaustion, hunger, thirst and at the hands of the guards. The last stop on the 'road of death' was the Taklinovo kolkhoz, where on June 28, the Soviets executed almost all the prisoners. Approximately 1-2 thousand people were murdered during the evacuation of the prison in Berezwecz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD prisoner massacre in Sambir</span>

The NKVD prisoner massacre in Sambir was a Soviet war crime conducted by the NKVD in the city of Sambir, then located in occupied Poland. In the last days of June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed an estimated 500 to 700 prisoners held in the Sambir prison. The majority of those executed were Ukrainians and Poles. During the latter stage of the massacre, some prisoners actively resisted, which resulted in saving their lives. This atrocity was one of several prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD prisoner massacre in Zolochiv</span>

The NKVD prisoner massacre in Zolochiv was a Soviet war crime conducted by the NKVD in the city of Zolochiv, then in occupied Poland and now in Ukraine. In the last days of June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed an estimated 650 to 720 prisoners held in the Zolochiv prison. This atrocity was one of several prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD prisoner massacre in Dubno</span> Soviet war crime

The NKVD prisoner massacre in Dubno was a Soviet war crime conducted by the NKVD in the city of Dubno, then in occupied Poland and now in Ukraine. Between 23 and 25 June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed an estimated 500 to 550 prisoners held in the Dubno prison. This atrocity was one of several prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD prisoner massacre in Berezhany</span>

The NKVD prisoner massacre in Berezhany was a Soviet war crime conducted by the NKVD in the city of Berezhany, then in occupied Poland and now in Ukraine. Between 26 and 30 June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed at least 174 prisoners held in the Berezhany prison. This atrocity was one of several prisoner massacres carried out by the Soviet secret police and army during the summer of 1941.

References

  1. ↑ Zechenter 2017, p. 106–119.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dynowski 1997, p. 133.
  3. 1 2 Głowacki 1997, p. 53.
  4. ↑ Głowacki 1997, p. 55.
  5. ↑ Musiał 2001, p. 125.
  6. ↑ Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 97.
  7. 1 2 Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 101.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dynowski 1997, p. 134.
  9. ↑ Galiński 1997, p. 65.
  10. 1 2 Musiał 2001, p. 115.
  11. 1 2 Musiał 2001, p. 190.
  12. ↑ Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 89–90, 97.
  13. ↑ Musiał 2001, p. 116.
  14. ↑ Musiał 2001, p. 130.
  15. ↑ Zechenter 2017, p. 117–118.
  16. ↑ "Męczennicy z Czortkowa" [Martyrs of Chortkiv]. zyciezakonne.pl (in Polish). 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  17. 1 2 Galiński 1997, p. 66.
  18. ↑ Węgierski 1991, p. 278.
  19. ↑ Węgierski 1991, p. 279.
  20. ↑ Galiński 1997, p. 62.
  21. ↑ Węgierski 1991, p. 278–279.
  22. ↑ Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 97, 101.
  23. ↑ Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 89.
  24. 1 2 3 Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 90.
  25. 1 2 Popiński, Kokurin & Gurjanow 1995, p. 90, 97.
  26. ↑ Popiński 1997, p. 75.
  27. ↑ Dynowski 1997, p. 133–134.
  28. ↑ Musiał 2001, p. 244.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.