Working for the Gestapo — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Working for the Gestapo/ Michael Schemyavitz

The Antokol military hospital, a unit of professional workers working for the Gestapo headquarters, labor camps for peat mining, the camps in Estonia.

About 70 Jews who worked and lived at the hospital, were exterminated at Ponar just a few days before Vilna was liberated by the Red Army.

70 professional Jews and their families were housed in the Russa neighborhood. They, too, were exterminated at Ponar just a few days before Vilna was liberated by the Red Army.

Biala Waka, Bezdan, Kana, Sorok Tatar, Podbrodzie, Russa, Novo Vileyka, Ignalina, Ziezmar. There were between 200 – 300 workers in each camp. They were all liquidated as the front closed in on Vilna.

The number of Jews in the Estonian camps:  Goldfields (Kohtla) – 1,500; Arada – 1,000; Kiviöli – 1,200; Vaivara – 1,300; Katago – 2,400; Vivikonna – 1,000. The Soviet Army’s success in breaking through the Estonian front initiated the liquidation of Jews, with around 2,500 being loaded on boats on the Baltic Sea to be taken to the Stutthof concentration camp.