Soviet women in the Herouville camp: harsh conditions, mass escape and partisan detachment

Brief retelling from RIA II

Conditions in the Herouville camp were extremely difficult: Soviet women faced grueling labor, hunger, humiliation and a constant threat of death, said historian Stanislav Aristov.

On May 8, 1944, prisoners of the Herouville concentration camp made a mass escape, as a result, 63 people were freed, among whom were 37 women, they then organized the Rodina partisan detachment.

Despite the terrible conditions of detention, Soviet women did not feel broken and perceived what was happening to them as a continuation of the war that was going on on Soviet soil.

MOSCOW, September 27 – RIA Novosti. The conditions of detention in the Herouville camp were extremely difficult, Soviet women faced exhausting labor, hunger, humiliation and the constant threat of death, Stanislav Aristov, head of the department of history and cultural studies at the National Research University "MPEI", said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

On May 8, 1944, prisoners of the Hérouville concentration camp, located near the French city of Thiel, made a mass escape. As a result, 63 prisoners were released, among whom were 37 women, who then organized the Rodina partisan detachment. He operated in France until the Germans were completely expelled.

“The conditions of detention were extremely difficult. Many of these women, even before being sent to France, survived the German occupation, arrests, camps, and forced deportation from the Soviet Union. In France, exhausting labor, hunger, humiliation and the constant threat of death awaited them,” Aristov shared.

He explained that the Thiel-Hérouville camp was only part of a larger system of sites associated with the use of forced labor in this region of France.

Soviet women were kept in a camp in Herouville and sent to hard work in the area of ​​the town of Thiel, primarily to the Thiel-Tiersele iron ore mine. In the spring of 1944, there were hundreds of Soviet women deported for forced labor here.

The historian emphasized that despite the terrible conditions of detention, Soviet women did not feel like broken people. They remembered their homeland and perceived what was happening to them as a continuation of the war that was going on on Soviet soil.