Jews-prisoners of war in nazi camps of occupied ukraine (1941-1944): from segregation to destruction

The purpose of the article is to analyze certain aspects of the situation of Soviet Jews-prisoners of war in the camps of occupied Ukraine (1941-1944). The conditions of entry into the camps, the process of selection of prisoners and concealment of ethnic origin, mass executions are revealed. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, systematic analysis and generalization, using chronological and historical-geographic research methods. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, on the basis of the specified methods, an attempt is made to conduct a more detailed study of certain aspects of the stay of Jews in Nazi camps for Soviet prisoners of war in Ukraine. Conclusions. The admission of Jewish prisoners of war to the rear camps of the Wehrmacht took place according to the general procedure that was applied to all Soviet prisoners. Only in the camps did they undergo thorough selection and segregation. Jews were kept in separate sectors. They practically did not feed, since all were subject to destruction. In the best case, before the execution, Jewish prisoners were used for public works. In order to survive, most of the prisoners tried to hide their ethnic origin, pretending to be «circumcised» Muslims or Slavs, to escape from the camps. Those prisoners who were able to hide their Jewish origin and remain in the camps in the sectors for «non-Jews» suffered from Nazi arbitrariness just like the rest of the people. Until the summer-autumn of 1942, Jewish prisoners of war were shot as «hostile, dangerous elements», and then they increasingly began to involve them in forced labor. All «sonderactions» took place outside the camps. In some cases, with the permission of the commandants, public executions could take place on the territory of the camps themselves, on the appel-platz. In the military occupation zone, mass shootings of detected Jews were carried out by Einsatzgruppen teams, in the zone of the German civil administration – city stationary departments of the security police and SD, which sent their employees to the camps.