In the Terezin camp
After escaping from a prisoner of war camp, my father and two of his comrades were captured on the territory of Czechoslovakia. At first they were kept in the prison in Roudnice, then they were transferred to the prison in Kladno. From Kladno to the Terezin concentration camp, where my father spent several months before being transferred to Mauthausen. After the war, my father visited Czechoslovakia twice - in 1963 and 1989. And both times he visited the former Terezin concentration camp. There are photographs of this concentration camp in my father's archive...
Among my father's papers I found an interesting letter. It was written by an acquaintance of my father named Evgeniy. The name of the author of the letter is not indicated there. It was only possible to install it on August 11, 2018, several years after the letter was published on this site. Leafing through one of my father’s notebooks, I came across the address of a certain E.I. Plakhin, who lived in Alma-Ata on Dzhambula Street. Turning to the website pamyat-naroda.ru, I found out that the author of the letter is Plakhin, Evgeniy Alekseevich. The only discrepancy with my father’s notebook is that the last initial of the patronymic is I., and not A., as it should be. This can be explained by the fact that the father did not confidently know the middle name of his friend, since he was on first name terms with him and both addressed each other by name.
In the year the letter was written (1965), as can be understood from the text, he worked at the Kazakh State University or at the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute and took entrance exams. But I don’t know what subject he taught. This letter is a response to my father’s request to tell about the liberation of the Terezin concentration camp, in which his friend took part. The letter, in my opinion, is an interesting historical document. Historical in the sense that it reports one episode of the last days of the war by one of its eyewitnesses. I present the text of the letter with some abbreviations (I have omitted those places that are not related to the topic of war).
Ilya, my friend, great!
Sorry for taking so long in fulfilling your request. Your letter arrived when I was on vacation... Two months! And then I took the entrance exams. Head spin. Now I'm getting started.
When we talked to you (this was in 1951), I still somehow more or less vividly remembered everything... But more than 20 (!) years have passed... I somehow did not return to this topic, to these memories, and now a lot of things blurred in my memory... Dates, names, numbers of military units. I will try to remember and tell about everything as it was preserved in my memory. There is a danger that I had “layers”, added “visual” and literary reminiscences: I had to liberate several camps, then read books (and watched films) about the camps... I compared, found familiar situations, something seemed new. And now, perhaps, some of Terezin’s paintings will seem to me “seen,” but in fact they may have been suggested. However, figure it out for yourself, but I’ll simply state it as I remember, or rather, as it seems to me it was.
Terezin, an ancient fortress located in the bend of the Elbe (I think Laba in Czech). On the map it’s something like this (I give, along with the Czech names, German ones, as they appeared on our military maps: I did not part with the map, fulfilling the duties of a platoon of foot reconnaissance officers and a translator of the German language):
Served in the 13th Guards. page of the division (Order of Lenin, twice Red Banner, Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov) in the 34th Guards. page regiment (Silesian). As a rule, along with the functions of a translator, he performed the duties of either an intelligence officer of a regiment or a platoon of foot reconnaissance (when one of them was sent either to the hospital, or even further... It’s a military matter!).
At the beginning of May we captured Dresden and were hastily thrown south (after a meeting with the Americans near the city of Torgau on the Elbe - it was ours, 32nd Guards Corps of the 5th Guards Army of General Zhadov, the corps was commanded by Rodimtsev), to Prague . We raced like mad in cars, motorcycles, carts, bicycles... Frankly, from the consciousness of victory, and more from the dry and not so dry wines, I felt dizzy around the clock... To the right, to the left, and along with us, regiments, divisions, and tank corps walked in endless streams , artillery, rifle... The German barriers were knocked down. The Germans were disarmed and immediately released, without being sent anywhere - there was no time for escort. Some kind of bacchanalia of delight and grief, a mixture of blood and wine, tears of joy of victories and bitterness of defeats (it was no longer we who shed them!), the noise of engines, screams, clanging, shots, commands - and all this against the backdrop of magnificent landscapes and May flowering nature...
I, as expected, raced with the platoon ahead of the regiment. Everyone on bicycles - asphalt! Easy and fast. It seems that Senkevich was already there - platoon commander, lieutenant, who had just returned from the hospital. I was with the scouts out of habit (but actually I was a free bird, I was where I wanted). We immediately passed Leitmeritz (Litomeritz) and crossed the bridge (Elbe) further...
Elba is calm, clean - a mirror! It reflects a beautiful, clean town, a bridge, towers... Three minutes of lyrics, thoughtful standing on the bridge and again - forward! I don’t remember how many kilometers from the city, to the left of the road there were walls, buildings, Terezin wire... If I’m not mistaken, two or three gates led into the camp... And our units flew into it from different sides (I don’t remember the neighbors’ numbers). I got ahead of the platoon and drove up to one of them... I drove carefree, because I was drunk (youth! victory! well... wine, a little, really). I'm wearing a ceremonial uniform! The fact is that the day before, I flipped over on a motorcycle and was torn to pieces.
And I liked the uniform (buttonholes! chevrons! gilding! In a word, a boy and a dude. I wanted the Czechs to like it), so I put it on. The pilot is in his pocket. The shoulder straps are shining. I whistle “Lili Marlen” (Lili Marlen, a famous soldier’s song, I hope you know and remember). This was my habit: the Germans, seeing an unfamiliar form and hearing their song, let me come close, point blank! And then my boys jumped up like a meteor and it was too late to shoot - the horned men threw down their weapons and raised their hands. I used this technique here too.
The guys were about a hundred meters behind. Small gate. Bivalve. The wire is like a thick evil web (3 meters high). Passage booth. At the booth there is a blond sentry with a carbine at his leg. He looks at me with a blank expression. I drive up and get off the bike: “Hello boy, gib mir dein Karabiner, aber schnell!” [ Hey guy, give me your carbine, but just quickly - A.N.] I smile, but in my voice there is the iron of the German team.
The fool blinks his eyes in confusion and pulls the carbine towards himself. Apparently he was a Volkssturm soldier, unscientific. It was necessary to shoot - he was a sentry after all. And he was confused. According to German law, he would have been spanked for his dear soul. But we are Slavs. Therefore, the soldier Venglovsky (a strong fellow!) arrived and punished him purely in Russian: he hit him in the ear - he was sent to the asphalt, only his boots rattled. And Venglovsky mutters: “You bastard! The officer orders you - you must obey. Especially if it’s a Russian officer.” The German groans, stands up, fear in his eyes.
And I smiled maliciously (all the guys had already arrived) and translated this historical phrase in full to the German, placing a strong intonation emphasis on the word “Russian”. You should have seen, Ilya, how his lower jaw dropped! And everything inside me is rejoicing! Anger and delight! Look, I think, Übermensch, what fruits have grown on your head from the seeds you have sown.
At this time, another one, disheveled, without a belt, and sleepy, leaned out of the entrance hall (two partners were sleeping in the entrance hall). This one reached for a weapon, called out to his sleeping comrade... I don’t remember which of the guys did not understand his delight... However, I think that this sentry died of a heart attack. 0.5 seconds before the turn. I hope that this is exactly what happened. So, in fact, there was no murder. The second, that is, the third, surrendered calmly. Apparently, the lesson with a friend and the instinct of self-preservation had a calming effect on him. Where is valerian? Now they obeyed flawlessly. The gates were opened. We flew in...
To the right and left of the passage is a wall of thick thorns in several rows, and behind them are ghosts, a solid wall! They already heard something, smelled it, waited... And they can’t understand anything - only eyes, like bowls, on thin, white, half-ossified faces... Hands - bones, covered with dirty parchment of skin - cling to the wire... And silence, terrible, tense silence ! They didn't recognize us by our uniform. Moreover, in this part of the camp the majority were foreigners. One of my friends shouted something in Russian... What started here! Some kind of animal howl of pain, delight, hello!
We wanted to stop, open some gates, gates - I don’t know what was there, I didn’t have time to look - there was shooting ahead: our PPSh and German MPs (empi - Maschinenpistole, i.e. machine guns - remember, I hope?)
10.IX. I continue (yesterday they cut me off and didn’t let me finish writing).
We abandoned our bicycles and, taking cover as best we could, ran forward. Almost in the center of the fortress there was something like a large square, on it there were several large houses (two- or three-story - I don’t remember), brick, under tiles. The houses are long. A short fight took place near them and in them. The fact is that most of the garrison (security and administration) left in a timely manner, knowing about the approach of the Russians, but some did not know or did not have time, or were waiting for the order to withdraw (this is German pedantry and diligence to me!). And it was with them that our units (I don’t know which other units and through which gates jumped in) entered, so to speak, into a short circuit.
I remember I also managed to exchange a few shots with some long-legged officer (he was washing and didn’t have time to put on his jacket), but we both kindly missed. He disappeared into the building, then, apparently, waved from the window at some buildings behind him... I don’t know if he got away from ours. I think not, because our people were already everywhere. In the rooms of the command staff, everything was untouched: coffee, breakfast, wine... I quite accidentally grabbed a pillow there when I slept in one of the rooms (we spent a day in Terezin). This small, soft pillow, purely by chance, has survived to this day! The only trophy from the war, except for the shrapnel in his temple and the scar on his lower back.
We climbed around the camp, in attics and basements, looking for the undead... We were strictly forbidden to have contact with the prisoners, because they had an epidemic (I think typhus, scabies and something else - I don’t remember). But, of course, we still talked to someone. For some reason I met very few Russians there. Many left the camp without permission to join the Czechs in the villages. True, most of the time I was just sleeping, catching up on sleep after a long, grueling push from Dresden. We were terribly exhausted.
The soldiers told me that the ancient cellars of the fortress (in which, apparently, gunpowder or something else was once stored) were converted by the Germans into punishment cells. There were also suicide bombers there. Along the long corridors there was a cement bench with a ditch with running water in it. A ditch was being dug near the bench. Death row prisoners were placed there and almost knee-deep in quickly drying (hardening) concrete. The convict could stand up and sit down, but could not move anywhere or leave. They didn't seem to be wearing trousers (I don't know for sure). They settled into a ditch along which water flowed (on which, in fact, the convicts sat). They usually died from gangrene, which began in the legs.
They showed me one of these basements. There were, it seems, 11 people there, the lights were not on (the power plant was not working), they were shining with flashlights. But I didn’t go in: there was such a stench from there! There were only dead people there or those whose gangrene had risen to the thighs, to the perineum... For them we came too late...
In general, I had little to do with the prisoners, because I was busy with something else: I had to prepare for a further attack. That's it. I remember a little about the fortress – its western part. And I completely forgot the eastern one. Everything is in a fog. And it’s not surprising: I was in it for about a day, slept most of it), and more than 20 years have passed since then...
I was also in some camps. One, for example, somewhere in Silesia. The overseers were captured there. We didn’t know that the Nuremberg trials were planned, so I and Lieutenant Zatserklyan (we had one whose entire family was killed by the Germans in Ukraine) quickly arranged a trial in front of all the prisoners. It is interesting that the prisoners (there were about 800 of them - they served some kind of factory) were at first timid and fearful about this idea. Apparently they doubted how long we would come, and whether the Germans would throw us back. Then it started. Two were convicted immediately (Zatserklyany himself and immediately carried out the sentence), they were beaten and placed in a punishment cell until the regiment arrived, several fled (the smallest thing). We were not afraid of anything, because ahead of us, the scouts and several thrill-seekers, there was no one, no authorities. Lafa!
Volkssturmovets - a member of the Volkssturm (German: Volkssturm), a militia created in Nazi Germany as a result of the total mobilization of men aged 16 to 60 years by decree of A. Hitler of September 25, 1944.
Guard Corporal Venglovsky, Stanislav Ivanovich. Native of S.N.-Zavod, Markhlevsky district, Zhitomir region. Genus. in 1918. In 1944 he served as a chemist in a chemical defense platoon. In March 1943, he became a scout in a foot reconnaissance platoon. In the Red Army and on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War - since 1941. In 1943 he was wounded. Awarded the medal "For Courage" (1944), the Order of Glory, III degree (1945).
Übermensch - superman, a concept introduced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche; for Nietzsche, this is a person who has conquered himself, controlling his impulses, and is able to direct any of his energy into a creative direction. The German Nazis also used this concept, but distorted it. The Nazis had a concept of racial hygiene that divided people into representatives of the superior race (Übermensch) and the inferior elements (Untermensch). According to this concept, the former had to be artificially maintained, while the reproduction of the latter had to be prevented; Mixing races has undesirable consequences. This concept also required the sterilization of alcoholics, epileptics, people with various hereditary diseases, and the weak-minded.
PPSh – Shpagin submachine gun. The USSR adopted it for service in 1941 and removed it from service in 1951.
Guard Lieutenant Zatserklyanny, Pyotr Sergeevich. Born in 1918 in the village of Babynino, Moscow region. In the Red Army since 1937, he participated in the Great Patriotic War since December 1941. He was wounded in 1944. Guard lieutenant. In 1944 he was awarded the medal "For Courage".
Term "concentration camps" in the mass consciousness evokes associations with either Stalin or Hitler. Just like any mention of genocide in the 20th century. However, they almost never remember how it all began. And it began, if we do not take it, with the genocide of Russian people - or rather, Carpathian Rusyns on the territory of Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It must be borne in mind that the genocide was carried out by direct order of the Vatican.
Rusyns- direct and purest descendants of ancient Rus'. In fact, “Rusin” and “Russian” are one and the same. “Rusyns” are mentioned in “Russkaya Pravda”. This was the name of the population of Rus', both Kyiv and Novgorod, and later Moscow and Lithuania. In the XVI-XVII centuries. this is primarily the self-name of the entire people Western Rus'– present-day Ukraine. It remained largely the same in the following centuries. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. a significant part of the Carpathian Rusyns lived within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the second half of the 19th century. The Rusyn revival begins, which was perceived by the Rusyns themselves as a return to belonging to a single Russian people “from the Carpathians to Kamchatka,” as well as from union to Orthodoxy. The word “Ukrainian” then meant “anti-Russian minority”(see N.M. Pashayev “Essays on the history of the Russian Movement in Galicia in the 19th-20th centuries”).
On the eve of the First World War, most Rusyn organizations in Galicia were closed. In 1913, the Marmarosh-Sziget trial began in Ugric Rus', in which 32 defendants were sentenced to a total of 39.5 years in prison for converting to Orthodoxy. In Lvov, just before the war, a sensational trial took place against two Orthodox priests Ignatius Gudima and Maxim Sandovich, S.Yu. Bendasyuk and student V.A. The Cauldrs, who spent two and a half years in prison without being charged and were then acquitted.
In 1914 already “ they grabbed everyone completely, indiscriminately. Those who only recognized themselves as Russian and bore a Russian name. Who was found with a Russian newspaper or book, icon or postcard from Russia. They grabbed just anyone. Intellectuals and peasants, men and women, old people and children, healthy and sick. And, first of all, of course, the Russian “priests” they hated... Thousands of innocent victims, a sea of martyr’s blood and orphans’ tears...” (Yu. Yavorsky from the work “Terror in Galicia in the first period of the war of 1914-1915”).
Genocide begins. The reprisals were carried out on the spot, without trial. So on September 15, 1914, the Hungarian Honveds killed forty-four civilians in Przemysl. In 1915 and 1916-1917. two political trials took place in Vienna, during which the very idea of the unity of the Russian people was accused and Russian literary language. Most of the defendants were sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment. In Lvov alone there were about 2,000 prisoners. It was then that the first concentration camps in Europe were created: Thalerhof in Styria, Terezin in Northern Bohemia, etc. At the same time, according to the testimony of the prisoner of Talerhof and Terezin Vasily Vavrik (“Terezin and Talerhof.” Lvov, 1928), “ was the cruelest dungeon of all Austrian prisons».
The first batch arrived there on September 4, 1914. The camp was a section of uncultivated field in the form of a long quadrangle five kilometers from the railway. At first they separated him with wooden stakes and barbed wire. Over time, the camp expanded. In the official report of Field Marshal Schleer dated November 9, 1914, it was reported that in Thalerhof at that time there were 5700 "Russophiles". Until the winter of 1915 there were no barracks. People lay on the ground in the open air in the rain and frost.
V. Vavrik says: “Death in Thalerhof was rarely natural: there it was inoculated with the poison of infectious diseases. There was no talk of any treatment for the dead... To intimidate people, to prove their strength, the prison authorities erected pillars here and there throughout the Talergof square, on which the already fiercely battered martyrs quite often hung in unspoken torment... Talergof slaves in the hot summer and in the frosty winter, beating them with rifle butts, they straightened their roads, leveled holes, plowed fields, and cleaned latrines. They didn’t pay them anything for this, and on top of that they called them Russian pigs.”. At the same time, Vavrik adds, “Still, the dirty tricks of the Germans cannot be equal to the bullying of their people. A soulless German could not get his iron boots as deep into the soul of a Slavic Rusyn as this same Rusyn, who called himself a Ukrainian.”.
In total, from September 4, 1914 to May 10, 1917, at least 20 thousand Russian people, in the first year and a half alone, about 3 thousand prisoners died. The camp was closed in May 1917 by order of the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I, who wrote in his rescript dated May 7, 1917: “All the arrested Russians are innocent, but were arrested so as not to become them”.
The Nazi concentration camp in the city, located in the north of the Czech Republic near the German border, became one of the largest European ghettos during the Second World War. Today, Theresienstadt is remembered as a dark page in Czech history by a huge memorial complex, which is visited by thousands of tourists every year.
- (209.00 €, 3 hours)
Creation of Theresienstadt
The Nazis' goal was to create a model ghetto, behind which they intended to exterminate the hated Jews. Moreover, Jewish leaders supported the idea of creating a “model Jewish settlement” in the hope that this would save Czech Jews from deportation. Of course, after arriving in the ghetto, it became obvious that life here was no better than in the concentration camp, which it, in fact, was. The first prisoners arrived at the camp on November 24, 1941, and two months later the first deportation of Jews to Riga took place.
Theresienstadt was initially used by the Nazis as a concentration site for Czech Jews, and then elderly, wealthy or prominent Jews from Western Europe and Germany were imprisoned in the camp. In September 1942, the maximum number of people lived in the ghetto - 53 thousand. Until this point, Jews were deported to the ghettos of the Baltic states and Poland, and from October 1942 they began to be gradually transported to Polish death camps.
The terrifying statistics of Theresienstadt are as follows: out of 140 thousand prisoners, 33 thousand people died in the ghetto, 88 thousand were taken to death camps, and the remaining 19 thousand Jews survived in the ghetto itself or were redirected to Sweden and Switzerland. Some stayed here for a few days, others awaited deportation for months, and some spent the entire four years of its existence in the ghetto. During this time, Jews from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Holland, and at the end of the war, also from Hungary and Slovakia, were integrated here.
Life in a concentration camp
Despite the current situation, spiritual and cultural life was in full swing within the walls of the ghetto. Not only synagogues were opened here, but also Christian houses of worship. The prisoners, many of whom were highly educated and professional, held lectures and performances, published magazines, and secretly supported schooling. Among the prisoners were many famous scientists, musicians, artists, writers and politicians, including: Austrian mathematician Georg Pieck, French writer Robert Desnos and Czech composer Hans Krasa.
At the same time, the physical conditions in Theresienstadt were truly intolerable. The difficult epidemiological situation, disgusting food and unsanitary conditions led to the spread of a large number of diseases. Only at the end of 1943 was it possible to organize a hospital in the ghetto, thanks to which the mortality rate decreased somewhat.
Red Cross Commission
Two years after the creation of Theresienstadt, the world community began to express alarm about what was happening in the Nazi concentration camps. In order to reassure the public, the Germans allowed a commission from the international organization Red Cross to visit the ghetto. Their arrival was preceded by careful preparation with the construction of fake shops, cafes, kindergartens and schools. In addition, the day before, the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz had been accelerated and a film was made that portrayed life in the ghetto as comfortable and idealistic.
The commission, which arrived in July 1944, was greeted by briefed prisoners. The Nazis managed to deceive the public, and the Red Cross representatives left with positive impressions.
On May 8, 1945, the ghetto and city were liberated by the Soviet army, and the last Jews left the camp walls on August 17. In 1947, the Czechoslovak government decided to create a monument in Terezin, which allowed the site to be preserved for future generations in the same form as it was during Nazi slavery.
A visit to Theresienstadt certainly leaves a lasting impression. The depressing atmosphere that reigns in this place allows you to remotely feel the horror that the Jews suffered from the Nazis during World War II had to endure.
Sometimes you can’t help but wonder what else is interesting to see in addition to protocol, architectural, etc. The answer comes unexpectedly: the city of Terezin, famous for the location of the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Second World War.
Terezin is located 60 km northwest of Prague, near the confluence of the Elbe and Ohře rivers (yes, very close to the castle). consists of two fortresses: Big (where the city and ghetto are located) and Small (which is a national cultural monument).
Terezin Fortress was founded in 1780 by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II to repel the aggressive attacks of the Prussian army; The name is a tribute to the memory of the famous Empress Maria Theresa. According to the military canons of that time, it was a truly perfect fortification structure - suffice it to say that it took 10 years to build, draining the swamps and using stone load-bearing structures and thousands of oak piles.
The first element of the fortress's defense was water. If necessary, individual fortifications were filled with water from Ohře. If this were not enough, the defenders mined underground passages on two levels (at 3 and 6 meters depth). The explosion destroyed enemy troops approaching Terezin.
Terezin gained notoriety during the Second World War. The Germans set up a “model ghetto” in the city, through which about 140 thousand people passed. It was considered “exemplary” because representatives of the Red Cross were allowed here, who were shown that the life of the prisoners was not bad at all. Guests were even shown “ghetto money” - coins with the image of an unknown rabbi, which in reality had no value.
33 thousand people died in Terezin. Another 88 thousand were deported to the more famous Auschwitz and other concentration camps. By 1945, there were just over 17 thousand survivors here. They were liberated by the Soviet army on May 9.
It is curious that the controversy regarding Terezin still does not subside. The fact is that Polish Auschwitz and German Dachau are open to free visits, while for visiting the former Theresienstadt you will have to pay a hefty sum - 200 crowns per adult (the price includes visits to the Small Fortress, the Ghetto Museum and the Magdeburg Barracks). Considering that tickets to most Czech castles are cheaper, one can understand the indignation of the public, who accuse the country's authorities of seeking to profit from the Holocaust.
However, the Czech Ministry of Culture reasonably states that some of the facilities in Terezin are completely free. And he emphasizes the fact that according to local laws, state institutions (ex-ghettos include them) must earn money for their activities themselves. This means that it is impossible to abolish the entrance fee without changing the legislation.
Be that as it may, a Russian tourist will always have an extra 200 crowns. And there is no shame in spending it to get acquainted with the former concentration camp. In any case, the next time I visit the Czech Republic, I will definitely. Which is what I advise you to do.
P.S. By the way, from Terezin the idea smoothly moved to Yalta. Why smooth? Don’t you remember the famous Yalta meeting between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt? Although they did not gather for the purpose of tourism, but, in the opinion of some historians, they had a good rest in the wonderful resort city. You can still have a great time there. My girlfriend, who recently returned from there, says that a vacation in Yalta is in no way inferior to a Turkish or Egyptian one. Shall we check?..
The world's first concentration camps, Thalerhof and Terezin, appeared in September 1914. Their prisoners were residents of the region that is now called Western Ukraine.
But then there was neither Ukraine nor Ukrainians. Local residents called their lands Galician and Subcarpathian Rus and Bukovina, and called themselves Rusyns, and often simply Russians. And the most amazing thing: most of them loved the “Muscovites” and sought to reunite with them, creating the Russian world “from the Carpathians to Sakhalin” (for this they were nicknamed Russo- or Muscovophiles). For this love they were subjected to genocide.
On Calvary
They were citizens of Austria-Hungary, and with the beginning of the First World War, all local Russophiles were labeled traitors. The arrests were massive, there were not enough prisons, and the Terezin fortress-concentration camp in the Czech Republic was immediately overcrowded. And the authorities made a concentration camp Talerhof for the Rusyns - a clear field near the city of Graz was fenced with barbed wire.
“Before the winter of 1915, there were no barracks in Thalerhof,” wrote the famous concentration camp prisoner, historian and writer Vasily Vavrik. - People were lying on the ground in the open air in the rain and frost. Happy were those who had linen above them and a tuft of straw below them.”
Then they built barracks, each housing 300 people. Due to hunger, cold, overcrowding and dirt, epidemics began, from which several thousand people died. There was practically no treatment. The dead were buried in a field “under the pine trees.” When the Graz-Thalergof airport was built here in 1936, the remains of 1,767 people were removed and reburied in a common grave. But there were, of course, more dead. The camp was closed in May 1917; in total, from 20 to 30 thousand prisoners passed through it; no accurate records were kept. In the first year and a half alone, more than 3 thousand people died. The prisoners were brutally and sophisticatedly abused.
“For the slightest mistake they would stab me to death. Every morning, several bloody corpses lay under the barracks,” recalled camp prisoner Alexander Makovsky.
World War II 1939 - 1945. Citizens of almost all European countries were kept in the ghetto of the city of Terezin, which was turned into a concentration camp by the Nazis.
Torture by hanging was especially popular.
“To intimidate people, to prove their strength, the prison authorities throughout the Talergof square knocked down pillars on which the already fiercely battered martyrs quite often hung in unbearable torment,” said V. Vavrik. “The reasons for hanging from a pole were the most insignificant - for example, smoking in the barracks at night.”
It is no coincidence that the genocide of the Rusyns is called the Galician Golgotha. In total, about 60 thousand Rusyns. Peasants and priests were often shot and hanged without trial.
Beat your...
The key role in this genocide was played by the Rusyns, who adhere to a pro-Ukrainian orientation. Here is what Talergof prisoner M. Marko writes about this:
“It is terrible and painful to remember that difficult period of the still close history of our people, when a brother, who came from the same everyday and ethnographic conditions, without a shudder of soul, stood not only on the side of the physical tormentors of part of his people, but even more - he demanded this torment, insisted on them".
And there is a lot of such evidence.
“Our brothers, who renounced Rus',” writes V. Vavrik, “became not only its servants, but also the most vile informers and even executioners of their native people. Blinded by some kind of dope, they carried out the most vile, shameful orders of the German mercenaries.”
General view of the Thalerhof concentration camp in 1917. Album of photographs from the concentration camp for military arrested Russian Galicians and Bukovinians in Thalerhof, in Styria, 1914-1917. Publication of the Thalerhof Committee. Lvov, 1923
“At the very beginning of the war,” recalled the Russian Galician Ilya Tereh, “the Austrian authorities arrested almost the entire Russian intelligentsia of Galicia and thousands of leading peasants according to lists prepared in advance and devoted to the administrative and military authorities by Ukrainophiles, rural teachers and priests.”
How did the Germans manage to set Rusyns against Rusyns? In 1890, Austria-Hungary decided to turn the Rusyns into Ukrainians in order to tear them away from Russia. The idea was suggested by the Poles - they actively participated in the Ukrainization of Little Russia, driving a wedge between it and Russia. In modern terms, they carried out lustration - pro-Russian teachers and priests were replaced by Ukrainophiles. They declared war on everything Russian. Only those who swore allegiance to Ukraine were allowed to pursue a career. And by the beginning of the First World War, the Rusyns found themselves a divided people. As the Muscovophiles figuratively said, “teachers and priests did their job”: Over the 24 years of the existence of the new education system, representatives of some of the youth have become Ukrainophiles.
It took approximately the same amount of time to instill Bender’s ideology in our days - 23 years ago, in 1991, Ukrainians began to teach history in a new way. And these young people under 30 are the most active participants in the Maidan and the ATO.
And in 1914, the military commandant of Lvov, Major General Fr. Riml summed up the results of 24 years of Ukrainization:
“Galician Russians (the Austrians considered all Rusyns to be Russians and even those who were Ukrainian-oriented were not called Ukrainians - ed.) are divided into two groups: a) Russophiles and b) Ukrainophiles. If it is possible to correct the Russians at all, then this is only possible through the use of defenseless terror. My opinion is that all Russophiles are radicals and should be mercilessly destroyed.”
Fathers of the Nation
Prominent Ukrainophiles, who became the fathers of the new nation, actively participated in denunciations. According to their testimonies, trials were initiated against Russophile traitors, many of whom were executed. Kost Levitsky, an icon of modern Ukrainianism and the head of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR), which existed for several months in 1918-1919, was especially active in this. His associate Longin Tsegelsky, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and great-grandfather, also appeared in this Oleg Tyagnibok.
This story has a lot in common with modern times. The building of the Ukrainian nation has always been carried out through violence and intimidation. And today, those who disagree are demonstratively destroyed and thereby intimidate others. To become Ukrainians, they must kill the Russian in themselves.
Victims of Thalerhof