NKVD special camp No. 48

The NKVD special camp No. 48 (also UMVD POW camp no. 48[1]) was located in Cherntsy [ru], Ivanovo Oblast. Russia. Initially it was established during World War II as a POW camp for most senior military commanders of the Axis powers.[2][3] In German sources it is known as Kriegsgefangenenlager Woikowo,[4][5] the latter location translated in English as Voikovo.[6][7] Later it housed a secret Soviet biological weapons facility.

The location of the camp was a former Dedlov family manor, where the Soviets established a sanatorium for railroad workers named after Pyotr Voykov,[3] known simply as Voykov sanatorium, hence the (corrupted) German name of the camp.

Axis POWs

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The first party of Axis POWs was delivered to the camp in June 1943, captured during the Battle of Stalingrad: 22 Germans, 6 Romanians, and 3 Italians, including Friedrich Paulus with his aide-de-camp Willi Adam.[3][6] Initially Paulus and his generals were delivered to NKVD POW camp no. 27 [ru] (Красногорский особый оперативно-пересыльный лагерь No. 27 НКВД[8][9]) in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast and held there during February–April 1943,[10] then transferred to Monastery of Saint Euthymius in Suzdal, where a POW camp was established. However allegedly NKVD was afraid that the Nazis will send paratroopers to release Paulus, hence a more secluded location was eventually selected.[3]

Many German generals were buried at the Cherntsy cemetery.[11]

Biological weapons facility

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After the war, since 1949 it housed a secret Soviet biological weapons facility staffed with Japanese POW which were members of Japanese Unit 731 and Unit 100 which developed biological weapons.[2][12][13]

Notable inmates

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References

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  1. ^ a b File:Приговор Отто Гюнше от 15 мая 1950 года военного трибунала войск МВД Ивановской области.jpg
  2. ^ a b c Люди-брёвна и салат из хризантем
  3. ^ a b c d e Разжатый Гулаг
  4. ^ DER ARZT VON STALINGRAD (1958) (The Doctor of Stalingrad) with English subtitles
  5. ^ Das Zeitalter der Weltkriege. Völker in Waffen p. 395
  6. ^ a b Beevor, Antony (1998). Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942−1943. Harmondsworth, United Kingdom: Penguin Putnam Inc. ISBN 0-670-87095-1.
  7. ^ Howard Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy, p. 184
  8. ^ оперативно-пересыльный лагерь для военнопленных № 27
  9. ^ Особый лагерь УПВИ НКВД №27
  10. ^ Элита Плена
  11. ^   Media related to World War II memorial in Cherntsy at Wikimedia Commons
  12. ^ Rimmington, Anthony (2018-11-15). Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-092885-8.
  13. ^ a b В Чернцком лагере отбывали сроки японские врачи, ставившие опыты над людьми
  14. ^ Rimmington, p. 171

Further reading

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