Deportation of residents of Shostka city and district to forced labor duty

One of the most popular measures of the occupation authorities that affected almost every family was deportation to do forced labor in Nazi Germany and countries occupied by it. Deportation of Shostka region locals began in early April 1942 and lasted until the end of the summer of 1943, the very retreat of the German army. According to post-war calculations, 1,815 locals were taken out of the villages of Shostka district and 6,000 young men and women were taken out of the Shostka city.

Deportation exposition shows samples of labor exchange reports received from families of young people. An inconspicuous document – a letter from the recruitment commission to the chief of police of the city of Shostka, asking him to hand over the summons to an addressee – explains how thousands of people were gathered to be sent out.

While in 1942, it was mostly young people who were sent to Germany, but in 1943, entire families were deported: neither young children nor sick parents presented any barriers to the Nazis. A memo from the First Lieutenant of the Kupper Security Police on escorting a train with forced workers to Germany, tells us a lot about the methods of exporting labor force to the Reich and the circumstances of their transportation. The history of the Bunny family and the Sedachev sisters who were deported to do forced labor with their young children, is a prime example of this occupational policy.

Organization of the deportation of residents of Shostka city and villages to do forced labor in Germany is described in interviews of its witnesses – Pelagia Chubun, Ivan Dudar, Anna Tkach, Maria Dotsenko, and Marfa Gedz.