Forced labour in the Kochem-Bruttig-Treis satellite concentration camp on the Mosel river

Conditions in the Kochem-Bruttig-Treis satellite camp were appalling. Even so, to date, only 73 casualties have been identified by name, and overall, it has been difficult to find out what happened to the individual prisoners. Some of the dead were buried on site in mass graves, while others were taken to the crematorium in Mainz before being interred in the forest cemetery in Mainz-Mombach.[13]

The work in the tunnel, like the route into it, was extremely physically exhausting as well as hazardous. Additionally, the prisoners were also forced to undergo these hardships in a state of severe malnourishment. The daily food rations consisted of one portion of a kind of black juice, one portion of beet soup, 300–500 g of bread and a spoonful of jam or curd cheese. There was constant hunger and persistent malnutrition. The level of hygiene was dire. Medical care was practically non-existent.[14] In the spring of 1944, this combination of factors caused, among other things, an outbreak of typhus. The first “night and fog” prisoners who had been sent back to the camp in Natzweiler were in such poor health even after just a short stay on the banks of the Mosel that another prisoner from Natzweiler who witnessed their return was appalled. He later described the scene, which was unlike any he had experienced, in a report.[15]

The citing of natural causes of death by the SS, as was the case with the men buried in Bruttig, and the concealment of the real reasons, such as mistreatment, was standard procedure in the concentration camps and their satellites. The living conditions in the camp meant that here, too, deaths occurred in very large part due to exhaustion, hunger, mistreatment and the lack of medical provision. In the Kochem-Bruttig-Treis satellite camp, prisoners were also executed.

On 20 June 1944, for example, the following 13 prisoners were executed in Bruttig and Treis for “attempted escape” and “theft”:[16]

Alexej Gorilow, prisoner no. 10179, b. 1903, Russian (Treis)
Nikolaj Nocaijew, prisoner no. 10224, b. 1920, [nationality unknown] (Treis)
Wilian Costasza, prisoner no. 10313, b. 1904, Pole (Bruttig)[17]
Slawonir[18] Kwiadkowski, prisoner no. 10438, b. 1918, Pole (Bruttig)
Theodor Wasilula, prisoner no. 10630, b. 1908, [nationality unknown] (Treis)
Wachlaw Tarzycki[19], prisoner no. 10658, b. 1920, [nationality unknown] (Treis)
Stefan Bandel, prisoner no. 10682, b. 1910, Russian (Bruttig)
Antoni Genezako, prisoner no. 10724, b. 1914, Russian (Bruttig)
Wadim Krutalewicz, prisoner no. 10770, b. 1924, Russian (Bruttig)
Stephan Mitjaschenko, prisoner no. 10810, b. 1918, [nationality unknown][20] (Bruttig)
Iwan Tschurikow, prisoner no. 10909, b. 1918, Russian (Treis)
Nikolaj Weselew, prisoner no. 10916, b. 1910, Russian (Bruttig)
Gregor Iwanow, prisoner no. 10947, b. 1921, Russian (Treis)

In April 1944, 21 prisoners had indeed tried to escape from the provisional living quarters in Bruttig. All of them were recaptured, as were other prisoners who had attempted to escape earlier. Among them were Wiliam Costasza, aged 40, and Sławomir Kwiatkowski, aged 26, who were reported as having escaped on 18 April (they had probably fled three days previously). They were already recaptured on 19 April. The historian Ksenia Stähle-Müller, who has studied the history of the camp, has been able to reconstruct what happened. Some of the escapees were returned to Natzweiler, and 13 were taken to the state police station in Koblenz. Here, the burglaries in which the escapees stole food and clothing were investigated, “most likely involving a massive use of force” on the prisoners. According to Stähle-Müller, “in light of the time differences between the escape and the arrest of the 13 prisoners, the mass execution that followed can above all be interpreted as a deterrent measure”.[21]