shtalag 342

A memorial complex was built at the location of the camp by this time. It was built not only with public funds, but also with private donations. In the center of its building is a box made of concrete, without a single window. All those who died here, which is more than 33 thousand people, are reburied at the foot of the pantheon. The ground in that place is covered by 221 stone slabs with grave numbers. The project of the monument belongs to the architect Leonid Levin. Every year on April 11 — the International Day of Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps — a requiem rally is held near the memorial in Molodechno. At one of these rallies in 2002, a former prisoner of Stalag No. 342, A.I. Tverdokhlebova, told that when the column of prisoners in which she was was driven down the street near the current school No. 3, local women put pieces of bread into the hands of the prisoners of the camp, children and adults. "Many years have passed—" the speaker recalled, "but I remember the smell of Molodechno bread to this day." I think all these years after the war she remembered not only the smell of bread, but also the special cordiality of those locals.

In October 1941, a typhus epidemic began in the camp. 350-400 people died a day, the patients were not treated.

Among those who were here, there were many prisoners of war retreating from Brest. Others managed to escape. These people replenished the composition of partisan detachments in the Molodechno region, took revenge on the fascists consciously.

On July 5, 1995, on the basis of the collected documents and certificates, a special commission established by the decision of the Administration of the President of Belarus unanimously assigned Stalag No. 342 the status of a concentration camp.

A memorial complex was built at the location of the camp by this time. It was built not only with public funds, but also with private donations. In the center of its building is a box made of concrete, without a single window. All those who died here, which is more than 33 thousand people, are reburied at the foot of the pantheon. The ground in that place is covered by 221 stone slabs with grave numbers. The project of the monument belongs to the architect Leonid Levin. Every year on April 11 — the International Day of Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps — a requiem rally is held near the memorial in Molodechno.

There was a map-plan of the German colonization of the Baltic States and Belarus. The German authorities were going to "clear" these territories in order to resettle German colonists here. This document specified specifically by cities how many German colonists to settle in them and how many to leave local residents (with the further use of the latter as slaves). It was planned to settle 7 thousand Germans in Molodechno and its area and leave 15 thousand locals as a labor force. The rest were to be destroyed. That's what Stalag No. 342 was for.

Source: https://tutejszy.ru/minskaya/molodechnenskij/molodechno/392-kontsentratsionnyj-lager-shtalag-342

Source: https://tutejszy.ru/minskaya/molodechnenskij/molodechno/392-kontsentratsionnyj-lager-shtalag-342

Through the efforts of employees of the State Archive of the Minsk region, a burial scheme was discovered on the territory of Stalag No. 342. It marks the places of 220 graves, in each of which more than 150 people are buried.

Here is an excerpt from the diary of a German prisoner of war Schrader: "The camp was located... in the buildings of some factory. In the yard of the factory... a small building rises. From there, the whole camp is visible at a glance. Prisoners are lying in pits covered with leaves and straw, in the morning prisoners are driven out to work - to dismantle bunkers and destroyed houses..."

Source: https://tutejszy.ru/minskaya/molodechnenskij/molodechno/392-kontsentratsionnyj-lager-shtalag-342

At the end of 1941, there were six "dulags" (transfer concentration camps) on the territory of Belarus.

The camp in Molodechno appeared already in early July 1941 and at first was a transfer camp. Subsequently, it became stationary and received the name "Stalag - 342".

One of his prisoners, a Red Army soldier from Krasnoperki, recalls that on July 1, 1941, there were already several thousand prisoners of war and about the same number of representatives of the civilian population in the camp.

Stalag No. 342 was located in the north-eastern part of the city, 500 meters from Zamkova Street. (Currently, this is the territory of a Machine tool factory).

Source: https://tutejszy.ru/minskaya/molodechnenskij/molodechno/392-kontsentratsionnyj-lager-shtalag-342