The NKVD killed prisoners in many places from
Poland to
Crimea. Immediately after the start of the German invasion, the NKVD started to execute large numbers of prisoners in most of their prisons, and it evacuated the remainder in
death marches. Most of them were
political prisoners, who were imprisoned and executed without a trial. The
massacres were later documented by the occupying German authorities and were used in anti-Soviet and anti-Jewish propaganda. After the war and in recent years, the authorities of Germany, Poland, Belarus, and
Israel identified no fewer than 25 prisons whose prisoners were killed and a much larger number of mass execution sites. •
Chervyen massacre near
Minsk: in late June, the NKVD started evacuating all prisons in Minsk. Between June 24 and June 27, at least 1,000 people were killed in
Chervyen and in the death marches. •
Hrodna (Grodno in pre-war Poland): on June 22, 1941, the NKVD executed several dozen people at the local prison. Execution of the remaining 1,700 prisoners was not possible due to the advance of the German army and hurried retreat of the NKVD executioners. •
Vileyka-Barysaw Death Road: on June 24, 1941, the NKVD executed at least 28 prisoners held in
Vileyka (Wilejka in pre-war Poland). The remaining prisoners, over 1,000 men and women, were forcibly marched eastward towards
Barysaw. During the march, an estimated 500 to 800 prisoners died at the hands of guards. •
Valozhyn-Tarasovo Death Road: in late June, the NKVD evacuated prisoners from
Valozhyn (Wołożyn in pre-war Poland). After marching on foot for two days, approximately 100 prisoners were executed by the NKVD near the village of
Tarasovo.
Estonia ,
Estonia, July 1941 •
Tartu massacre: on July 9, 1941, 193 detainees were shot in
Tartu prison.
Lithuania •
Vilnius (Wilno in pre-war Poland): after the German invasion, the NKVD murdered a large number of prisoners of the infamous
Lukiškės Prison. •
Rainiai massacre near
Telšiai: up to 79 political prisoners were killed on June 24 and 25. •
Pravieniškės prison near
Kaunas: in June 1941, the NKVD murdered 260 political prisoners and all Lithuanian personnel in the prison. • Lithuanian prisoners were evacuated to Belarus and some of them were murdered, e.g., in the
Chervyen massacre and near Bigosovo.
Poland By 1941, much of the ethnically Polish population
living under Soviet rule in the eastern half of Poland had already been
deported to remote areas of the USSR. Others, including a large number of Polish civilians of other ethnicities (mostly
Belarusians and
Ukrainians), were held in provisional prisons in the region, where they awaited deportation either to NKVD prisons in
Moscow or to the
Gulag. It is estimated that out of 13 million people living in eastern Poland, roughly half a million were jailed, and more than 90% of those were men. Thus, approximately 10% of adult males were imprisoned at the time of the German offensive. Many died in prisons from torture or neglect.
Timothy Snyder estimates that the NKVD shot some 9,817 imprisoned Polish citizens following the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. • NKVD massacre sites in pre-war Poland are now in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Ukraine GPU prison as German troops approached are being identified by their relatives on July 10, 1941 In Soviet-occupied
western Ukraine, under the threat of German invasion, the NKVD committed various mass murders of prison inmates, including: •
Berezhany massacre (Brzeżany in pre-war Poland): between June 26 and 30 June 1941, the crew of the NKVD prison executed from 174 to 300 Polish citizens. Among them were many Ukrainians. •
Chortkiv (Czortków in pre-war Poland): in the last days of June 1941, the Soviets executed an estimated 100 to 200 prisoners held in the local 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. At the end of July 1941, 767 prisoners evacuated from Chortkiv were executed by Soviets in
Uman (the
Evacuation of Chortkiv Prison). •
Dobromyl: in late June 1941, soon after the German attack on the USSR, the Soviet
NKVD murdered hundreds of prisoners who had been evacuated from nearby
Przemyśl, dumping their bodies into a salt mine on the outskirts of the city. •
Dubno massacre (in pre-war Poland): between 23 and 25 June 1941, the Soviets executed an estimated 500 to 550 prisoners held in the
Dubno prison. Only a few individuals survived the massacre. •
Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanisławów in pre-war Poland): Over 500 Polish prisoners (including 150 women and dozens of children) were shot by the NKVD and buried in several mass graves at
Dem'ianiv Laz. •
Lutsk massacre (Łuck in pre-war Poland): After the prison was hit by German bombs, Soviet authorities promised amnesty to all political prisoners to prevent escapes. As they lined up outside, they were machine-gunned by Soviet tanks. They were told: "Those still alive get up." Some 370 stood up and were forced to bury the dead, after which they were murdered as well. The Nazi foreign ministry claimed 1,500 Ukrainians were killed, while the SS and Nazi military intelligence claimed 4,000. A Ukrainian uprising briefly forced the NKVD to retreat, but it soon returned to kill the remaining prisoners in their cells. In the aftermath, medical students described the scene at one of the prisons: "From the courtyard, doors led to a large space, filled from top to bottom with corpses...Among them were many women. On the left wall, three men were crucified, barely covered by clothing from their shoulders, with severed male organs. Underneath them on the floor in half-sitting, leaning positions – two nuns with those organs in their mouths...most were stabbed in the stomach with a bayonet. Some were naked or almost naked, others in decent street clothes. One man was in a tie, mostly likely just arrested."These massacres were followed by the
Lviv pogroms, committed by the German military and the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists after the German takeover of the city. Jewish residents of the city were targeted by German soldiers, OUN members, and local citizens. In some instances, the pogroms and violence against Jewish residents was framed as justified revenge for the murders committed by the NKVD. •
Sambir massacre (Sambor in pre-war Poland): in the last days of June 1941, the Soviets executed an estimated 500 to 700 prisoners in the Sambir prison. During the latter stage of the massacre, some prisoners actively resisted, which resulted in saving their lives. •
Zolochiv massacre (Złoczów in pre-war Poland): in the last days of June 1941, the Soviets executed all inmates at Zolochiv prison, an estimated 650 to 720 individuals. Massacres in other parts of Ukraine: •
Donetsk: Rutchenkovo Field •
Kharkiv tragedy: 1,200 prisoners were burned alive. •
Simferopol: on October 31, the NKVD shot a number of people in the NKVD building and the city prison. •
Yalta: on November 4, the NKVD shot all the prisoners in the city prisons. • evacuated 45,569 • killed inside the prisons 8,789 • killed runaways 48 • killed
legally 123 • killed
illegally 55 • left alive 3,536
Russia •
Oryol: In September 1941, 157 political prisoners (among them
Christian Rakovsky,
Varvara Yakovleva,
Maria Spiridonova,
Olga Kameneva, and
Dmitri Pletnyov) were executed in
Medvedevsky Forest near Oryol. •
Kuybyshev: On 28 October 1941, 20 high ranking ex-
Red Army officers and
party officials were shot without trial in the village of Barbysh, Kuybyshev. ==See also==