The Kiev-West (in German sources) or Syrets () was a

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

or (arbeitserziehungslager – correctional labour camp) established in 1942 in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

's western neighborhood of , part of Kyiv since 1799. The toponym was derived from a local small river. Some 327 inmates of the KZ Syrets (among them 100 Jews) were forced to remove all traces of mass murder at

Babi Yar Babi Yar () or Babyn Yar () is a ravine in the Ukraine, Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during Eastern Front (World War II), its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and ...

Establishment and location

The concentration camp was established in 1942 at the former summer camp of the Kyiv garrison on the northern edge of the city of Kyiv, a few hundred meters from the

ravine, which had been the scene of enormous massacres in late September 1941 and later. Syrets was intended to be a subsidiary of

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

in Germany. About 3,000 people were imprisoned at Syrets, guarded by Ukrainian policemen and German SS. Paul Otto Radomski was the camp commandant. The camp was built in June 1942 at the request of , a Nazi police official and head of the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in Kyiv (see Auschwitz Trial), which he made to his superior Erich Ehrlinger. The camp was intended to house prisoners perceived as opponents of the Nazi regime, mainly Jews. Once a person was arrested, only skilled craftsmen would survive, to be used as forced labor. All others were shot or murdered by gas van.

Camp operation

The prisoners (women and men) were housed in wooden barracks and in dug-outs with doors and stairs leading down from the ground level to prevent them from freezing up in winter. The inmates were underfed and many starved to death, with daily mortality of around 10–15 people. ''Sturmbannführer'' Paul Radomski ran a terror regime in the camp with the aid of ''Kommandant'' Anton Prokupek and a company of Sotniks. For the smallest misdemeanours, he imposed heavy punishments and often struck the prisoners with the whip. Radomski also used his German shepherd pet, Rex, to attack inmates. The sadism of the camp administration convinced many inmates to flee, despite the penalty of death. Guards were not immune, with some arrested or subject to solitary confinement if they helped.

Inmate revolt

During the Sonderkommando 1005 exhumations, a group of prisoners secretly armed themselves with tools and scraps of metal they managed to find and conceal. They picked locks with keys they found on victims' bodies.

Martin Gilbert Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of 88 books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish history inc ...

quotes historian : On the night of September 29, 1943, as the camp was being dismantled, an inmate revolt broke out. The prisoners overpowered the guards using their bare hands, hammers and screwdrivers. Fifteen people managed to escape. Among them was Vladimir Davіdov, who later served as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials. Among other escapees were Fyodor Zavertanny, Jacob Kaper, Filip Vilkis, Leonid Kharash, I. Brodskiy, Leonid Kadomskiy, David Budnik, Fyodor Yershov, Jakov Steiuk, Semyon Berland, Vladimir Kotlyar.Shmuel Spector, "Babi Yar," ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', Israel Gutman, editor in chief,

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

, Sifriat Hapoalim, New York: Macmillan, 1990. 4 volumes. . An excerpt of the article is available at Ada Holtzman,
Babi Yar: Killing Ravine of Kiev Jewry – WWII
, ''We Remember! Shalom!''. Once Nazi control was re-established in the camp, the remaining 311 inmates were executed. After the camp's liberation, Soviet authorities took a group of American, British, and Soviet correspondents to the site of the Babi Yar massacres. Bill Downs and Bill Lawrence were among those who interviewed three Syrets-held Jewish

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

who had been forced to participate in the mass disposal of bodies: Efim Vilkis, Leonid Ostrovsky, and Vladimir Davidoff. In an article for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' in December 1943, Downs described Vilkis' account of the prisoner escape: According to Vilkis, some of the prisoners grew ill or went mad from the experience, and Nazi guards killed them as a warning to the rest. Three to five prisoners were shot each day.

Camp for German POWs

When the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

liberated Kyiv on November 6, 1943, the camp was converted into an internment camp for German POWs and operated until 1946. The camp was subsequently demolished and in the 1950s and 1960s urban development began in the area, which included an apartment complex and a park. The construction of a dam nearby also saw the ravine filled with industrial pulp. The dam collapsed in 1961, leading to a mudslide with numerous fatalities.

Notes

{{coord, 50, 28, 17, N, 30, 26, 58, E, region:UA_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Kiev in World War II Jewish resistance during the Holocaust World War II sites in Ukraine World War II sites of Nazi Germany World War II prisoner of war massacres by Nazi Germany Nazi concentration camps in Ukraine The Holocaust in Ukraine Reichskommissariat Ukraine Ukraine in World War II

Establishment and location

Camp operation

Inmate revolt

Camp for German POWs

See also

Notes