The fate of the wachmans after the service in the Belżec death camp

Abstract

The Wachmann Institute was the Nazi military guard of concentration camps and death camps, which was staffed at the expense of Soviet prisoners of war and was actively involved in implementing the policy of genocide against Jews and Roma in the Nazi-occupied territories. The purpose of the article is to highlight the fate of the guards of the Belżec camp (territory of Poland) after the latter’s liquidation. The relevance of the study is determined by the possibility of introducing documentary materials from the SBU archives into scientific circulation, as well as the political and legal significance of studying the topic of collaboration in the context of the aggression of Putin’s neo-imperial regime against sovereign Ukraine. Important research methods, given the processing of little-known archival sources, are heuristic and hermeneutic. During the work, the chronological method, the method of collective biographies, was also used, which made it possible to present the fate of the Wachmans as a certain holistic historical phenomenon. Main results. Based on primary source data, the general life trajectory of the Bełżec camp guards after the camp’s liquidation was reconstructed: the vicissitudes of their further service with the Nazis after special retraining; filtration processes after the end of the war; post-war life; Soviet investigation and trial. Conclusions. Analysis of archival materials showed that the fates of the Wachmans after serving in the Belżec death camp were different. Some tried to desert, but the majority remained with the Nazis until the end of the war, continuing to perform security or punitive duties. A feature of this period was the constant change of the Wachmanns’ locations, mainly due to the advance of Allied troops across Europe. At this time, the attitude towards the Wachmanns by the German command was contradictory: on the one hand, they were constantly controlled on the other, they were left with all the benefits and privileges they had previously. Upon entering Soviet territory, they usually went through filtration, trying, of course, to hide the fact that they were serving for the Nazis. Some succeeded, but they were often let down by deviant behavior. Sooner or later, former Wachmans fell under Soviet investigation and trial, the materials of which thus became an important historical source on the topic.