Maly Tracjanec

Map of settlements around Maly Trascjanec

Prisoner sketch of Maly Trascjanec (by Ludwig Gutmann)

The "Commander's Estate"

The former collective farm in the village of Maly Trascjanec was confiscated by the National Socialists in April 1942. The area covered a total of 250 hectares. The estate consisted of several dilapidated barns and a large silo. In order to build up a "model estate" as Eduard Strauch demanded, which could supply the German occupation, the estate was equipped with agricultural machinery and cattle and managed by forced labour. According to documents, there were around 127 cattle, 132 pigs, 300 sheep and poultry in Maly Trascjanec.

The first transport of those persecuted as Jews arrived in Maly Trascjanec in mid-May 1942. From this first "Jewish transport", which included almost exactly 1,000 people, 81 Jewish forced laborers were selected by members of the SS and chosen to work on the estate. The rest of the people were taken to the Blahauščyna forest and murdered.

According to Erich Prinz, one of the few survivors, all the prisoners had to get rid of their luggage after arriving at the estate:

"There, an SS member gave the following speech: 'You don't need your luggage, you are coming to a camp where everyone is the same and therefore wears the same camp clothes, money is worthless here and must therefore be handed in, watches must be handed in, there is an electric camp clock in the camp, fountain pens must be handed in, as writing letters is forbidden on pain of death. The time limit for handing in these items is 10 minutes. Anyone who is still found with one of the items mentioned above after 10 minutes will be shot on the spot." [1]

On the so-called "Commander's Estate", the forced labourers had to do agricultural work and were significantly involved in the construction of the estate. Less frequently, they were brought to Minsk for external work assignments.

The deportations of Austrian Jews ended in 1942, but even after that, Jews with manual skills were brought from Belarus to the "Commander's Estate". By autumn 1943, the number of forced labourers at Maly Trascjanec was between 600 and 900. In September of the same year, 480 Jews, together with 350 inmates of the Minsk ghetto, were taken to the Majdanek concentration camp. 80 people were shot in Blahauščyna. In the end, there were only 112 Jews from Austria and 80 from Belarus in the camp, which was to remain so until the German withdrawal in 1944. The "Commander's Estate" was guarded by the Latvian company; later, members of the Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) company from the KdS/BdS took over this task.

The labour prisoners were housed in the estate's dilapidated collective barns and they slept there on the floor. The barns were guarded and secured with barbed wire. The barrack camps themselves were built by the prisoners and were constructed on the model of the Salaspils police prison and labour re-education camp.

The food situation at the Trascjanec estate was extremely poor, despite the agricultural environment. For example, the Jewish camp cook Julie Sebek reports how much "food" the inmates received per day:

"Water soups, in which the rotten potatoes had to be boiled with their skins, and 200 to 400 grams of bread."[2]

Again and again there were selections of the forced laborers by members of the SS. This is also documented in a witness statement by Isaak Grünberg:

“[They] performed these selections by simply pointing at the prisoner – you go left, you go right. Then came the command 'march off' and a short time later the volleys of shots were heard”. [3]

These selections meant a death sentence. This is how Hans Munz describes it:

"There was only one road in the camp, and that was shooting." [4]