Occupants Deterrence Policy toward Armavir Population in the Days of the Great Patriotic War
| 15 April 2025
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Yakovlev S.Yu., Armavir, Russian Federation
Occupants Deterrence Policy toward Armavir Population in the Days of the Great Patriotic War
Abstract
The article describes policies of the occupation authorities towards the Armavir population and provides many examples of documented massacres of civilians. These documents may be found in the fond of the Armavir Town Commission for Establishment and Investigation of Nazi Occupants’ and Their Accomplices’ Crimes and Damages to Citizens, Kolkhozes, Non-Governmental Organizations of Armavir from the archives department of the Armavir administration. There was a Gaswagen, which the citizens called ‘dushegubka’ (exterminator). It was used for fiendish mass extermination of civilians. Hanging, shooting, burning and burying alive were not enough for the Nazies aiming for extermination of several peoples. Thus Gaswagen was invented. Every evening it drove up to the Gestapo. An officer roll-called the arrested, they were brought out into the yard and put into the automobile, which then drove away. The “death-mobile” was followed by two light motor vehicles and a soldier convoy. In two hours the Gaswagen returned to take new prisoners. The soldiers unloaded possessions of the executed. In half a year in Armavir the occupants destroyed, ruined and burned the town, blew up 1117 best town buildings, schools, libraries, the museum, the Pioneer Palace, big and small plants and factories. They ransacked the kolhozes taking cattle, fowl, grain, destroyed the municipal infrastructure. The calculated material damage is 0,5 billion rubles.
Keywords
Archival document, Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Armavir town, Krasnodar Krai, Nazi atrocities, evacuation.
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About the authors
Yakovlev Sergei Yurievich, PhD in history, associate professor, head of Archives Department of the Administration of the Municipal Formation Town Armavir, Armavir, Russian Federation, +7-953-071-49-60, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it