This day in the history

And Culture of Germans from Russia

Deportation of the Germans of Crimea

On the basis of the decision of the Council for the evacuation  of August 15, 1941 from the peninsula of Crimea began the eviction of the Germans.

The first mass forced evictions of Germans on ethnic grounds began in the territory of Crimea. Thus, on Aug. 15, 1941, the Directive of the Supreme Headquarters of the Supreme Command No. 00931 "On the Formation and Tasks of the 51st Independent Army" was issued, where, in particular, it was said that it was necessary "to immediately clean the territory of the peninsula from local Germans and other anti-Soviet elements" . As a result, from August 15 to September 11 from the Crimea, more than 60 thousand representatives of German nationality were evicted. All Crimean evictions were placed in the territory of Ordzhonikidzevsky Region and the Rostov Region.

Almost 50 thousand people settled in Divny, Blagodanski and Budennovsk districts of Ordzhonikidzevskaya region.

The evacuation took place hastily and ill-conceived, as the NKVD workers themselves, who conducted the operation, confessed. As Gusev, deputy chief of the 12th Division of the Ordzhonikidzevsky Territorial Administration of the USSR People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, pointed out in a letter to the higher body, "absolutely unnecessary rush was allowed in a number of Crimean districts (Alushta, Yalta and others), evacuated, as a rule, did not say where they are being taken, how much time will be on the way, what kind of stock you need to take with you food. "

As a result, in two or three days most of the evacuees from the urban area were left without food, which, naturally, caused discontent. When the echelons were sent, the heads of the echelons were not appointed. Sometimes in one echelon there were several people who considered themselves senior. Such a situation created an atmosphere of chaos and brought confusion to the work of the station attendants, as many senior and simply traveling in the echelon of citizens were simultaneously turning to them.

According to the UNKVD of the Ordzhonikidze Territory, 50,000 Germans came from the Crimean ASSR. In addition, 3 thousand Crimean Germans were evacuated to the Rostov region. The Germans who stayed in the Crimea for one reason or another moved later, in May-June 1944, together with Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians. Crimean Germans who found themselves in the Rostov region and Ordzhonikidzevsky region, stayed there for long. In October, together with the local Germans, they were deported further to the east.

One of 60 thousand

Konstantin Layer lived in the village of Arginchik (now Zybino village, Belogorsky district). He worked on the collective farm. The process of eviction was laid deep in his memory:

- On August 17, 1941, a meeting was held on the collective farm, and the chairman announced that tomorrow, on August 18, all Germans would be evicted. He said that many things can not be taken - take only what you need with you. Father Constantine, a German by nationality, died as far back as the 1920s. Mom, Alexandra Yakovlevna, came from the Russian Matveev family. In the same village lived two of her brothers, and Kostya grew up in a Russian environment.

"And I did not know that I was a German!" - Sincerely surprised 17-year-old country boy.

But on the morning of August 18, Constantine and his Russian mother began to be evicted.

- We were driven to the house by collective-farm carts with horses, told to be loaded. They say: "You are Germans. There is an order to evict all Germans, there is a war with the Germans. Let's get ready. " We took only two suitcases, clothes and bed. In 1940 we built a new house, it was a pity to leave everything.

Author Valentine Komissarova

Source: rusdeutsch.ru

This and other memories of the resettlement of the Germans in the Crimea can be read read in the book "Evict with a bang." Eyewitnesses and researchers about the tragedy of Russian Germans

Starting with this post we will incorporate into the blog summaries of the articles published in this book: each one is dedicated to the different areas from which the Germans of Russia were deported in the year 1941