Post
by michael mills » 10 Mar 2004 04:03
Mogilev is a city in Belorussia.
During the German occupation, it remained under Wehrmacht control, ie it did not become part of Generalkommissariat Weißrußland, which was part of Reichskommissariat Ostland.
The German historian Christian Gerlach believes that there plans to construct an extermination camp there, to which all the Jews of occupied Europe were to be sent, but that the plan was abandoned. His proofs for his contention are however not conclusive.
There is some evidence of planning in 1941 to set up a concentration camp at Mogilev. There is also evidence of plans to deport the Jews of Europe to the occupied Soviet Union, but it is unclear whether it was to be to Mogilev; most of the remaining documentary evidence points rather to destinations in the White Sea area.
Furthermore, for the time of the planning in relation to a camp at Mogilev, there is no conclusive evidence of a german Government decision to set a central place of extermination for all Jews. There are many indications that as of the end of 1941, German Government thinking had not moved beyond the concept of wiping out the "Bolshevik" Jews of the Soviet Union.
The four 8-muffle ovens eventually installed in Crematoria IV and V in Birkenau Camp were originally ordered for installation in Mogilev, but were diverted to Birkenau after the plans for a camp at Mogilev were abandoned. However an exterminatory purpose cannot be concluded from that fact alone, since a total of 16 muffles would be excessive for a large concentration camp.