After arrival in Germany, the resettlement procedure was not yet done for the Bessarabian Germans. They spent many months in about 800 resettlement camps run by the German National Central Organization. These were located in Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Sudetenland, Silesia and Austria. Sometimes people had to change camps several times.

Each camp occupant received a camp identity card. Depicted here is the one issued to Katharina Ternes.

Image 110: Katharina Ternes's camp identity card

The camp stay was not only to house the Bessarabian Germans temporarily, but also to have them checked out by the NSDAP (National Socialist Labor Party) ¹⁾) and their offices.

Ute Schmidt ²⁾ has found out that Krasna people were housed in West and East Saxony, ³⁾) especially in the Pirna district.

As far as can be determined, these were the Pirna camps (House Sonnenstein), Koenigsstein, (Restaurant Bielatal), Bad Schandau, Gottleuba-Hartmannsbach, Dittersbach, Rheden, Rosenthal-Schweizermühle. The Pirna district had about 20 camps, but it cannot be determined if Krasna people were in all of these camps. As a visualization of the two neighboring communities of Krasna: Beresina was distributed over 32 camps and Friedenstal over 10.

At the beginning of October 1940, the resettlement transports carrying Besarabian Germans, arrived in the Pirna district. There had to have been a few people of Krasna among them, because a transport left Krasna on September 24, one of the first to leave Bessarabia. Sonnenstein housed 800 people and Bad Schandau roughly 780. A total of 5,000 Bessarabian Germans were housed in the Pirna district. Most Krasna people were probably housed at Sonnenstein camp, where a few Krasna mothers gave birth.

Image 111: Krasna Resettlers, Wearing the Traditional Fur Hats, at Camp Pirna in 1941

Resettlement camps were established wherever there was room available. Shelters were located in schools, homes, restaurants, sport halls, factories and other institutions. Many families were housed in one room. People slept on cots or matresses. A Bessarabian German remembers: ⁴⁾ In the hall the beds were arranged two on top of each other and the old and the young, bachelor or married, grandmother and grandchild all slept in one room. There were day rooms, mess halls and playgrounds for children.

It was mentioned above that the Krasna people were distributed into several camps. In some cases it was unavoidable to split up village communities but sometimes this was done on purpose, as is evident in village reports written before the Resettlement where pertinent recommendations were already made for each village, the Krasna report suggests: …distributions to several villages in visiting distance, mixture with families of other faiths.

At first, men and women were housed separately. This was also in part because the men left Bessarabia with the resettlemnt treks later, after some of the women had already arrived in the camps in Saxony.

After a check up by a physician and a waiting period of four weeks, the families were reunited. A group of Krasna men was housed in Pirna from October 28 until November 21 and then reunited with their families, for instance in Königstein, Bad Schandau and other camps.

Responsible for the care of the resettlers were: the mayors, village leaders of the NSDAP, (National Socialist German Labor Party) the NSV (National Socialist Welfare organisation) and the DAF (German Workers Front). The resettlers were still under the auspices of the SS and soon felt the reality of the Third Reich in many ways. The camp leaders were instructed to instill discipline and order among those people who were dressed strangely and spoke unusual dialects at cut rations.

• The camp leadership conducted political instruction in acccorance with the beliefs of the National Socialist (NS) regime.
• There was a camp SA which wanted the Bessarbians to join.
• There were naitional socialist parties, heroic memorials and day of the woman celebrations
• Religious services in the camps were hindered.
• Young men were already recruited into the Waffen SS from camp.
• The handicapped were placed into state institutions.

Camp life demanded severe restrictions from every individual. The quality of the stay in camp depended largely on the staff and the infrastructure of the camp. There were considerable differences.

Efforts were made to make the critical situation of the resettlers bearable, which was oftentimes not possible in the confinement of the camps. Camp stays led to some discord which was derrived from the lack of understanding by the National Socialistic camp leaders and the incompetence of the administration. At times unqualified camp personnel treated the Bessarabian Germans as second class citizens.

Max Riehl remembers his camp stay at Lager Königstein (Camp Königstein).
The restaurant Bielatal consisted of the bar in the basement, a dance floor on the first floor and a few other rooms. Bunk beds were set up for about 100 people. The camp residents came from all walks of life from the suckling babe to the ancient. This dance hall was our bedroom, day room and playroom for the children of all ages for 10 months. It was not easy to put up with the racket of the half grown youths, the screaming of babies and the crying and lamenting of the women.
The camp cook was the lessor of the restaurant. During the first days of our stay, there were disputes between him and the adult resettlers. The fight was soon settled when the cook was willing to have some resettlement wives work in the kitchen, who could enlighen him about the eating habits of the Krasna people. Spinach, mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs like on the first day was never served again. The resettlers accepted the substitute of potatoes for bread and flour-made foods. After this compromise between the camp administration, the cook and the resetttlers, people got along quite well.
The parents wanted to send their children to the local schools at Königstein but the lack of teaching personnel and space prevented this. Elisabeth Söhn ⁵⁾ reports of similar experiences at camp Rosenthal-Schweizermühle. There, the resettlers also took over kitchen duties after a time.

As time went by, the impatience in the camps grew. The resettlers waited with longing for the promised farms and re-establishment of the old village communities. The life in camp which dragged on for many months wore down many of them so all they wanted was to be shed of camp, regardless what else happened. The experience taught the Krasna people reality, it destroyed many of the illusions they had had and the imagined glow of a positive picture of Germany was tarnished.

People died in the camps, children were born there. Krasna families were also involved. A fair number of them died at Camp Pirna-Sonnenstein, but the reason for this has not yet been determined. Elisabeth Söhn ⁶⁾ writes: The camp food was poor…we often received a thin soup, that would not still a person’s hunger. We Bessarabians were not used to this from back home and the health of the camp population deteriorated rapidly.

It got much worse when childhood diseases such as scarlet fever and diphtheria broke out. As a defensive measure Krasna children were also placed in quarantine at secret locations. Some Krasna children died. Schooling of the children, with extremely few exceptions, did not take place.

Order number 23/1 of the Reich Commissar for the Strengthening of German Nationalism ⁷⁾ reads: In general, all resettlers capable of working shall be deployed at once after their quarantine. There are also more statements pertaining to the work schedules. In some camps people could earn some additional money, in others they could not. Some of the Krasna resettlers worked in the camps themselves. For instance, some worked as guards (men), women and children in the kitchens, as cleaning personnel or watching the children. Resettlers also worked in the forests or in the war efffort such as loading and unloading of trains. Some Krasna people worked at the field postal station in Dresden. Others worked in street maintenance. Some young people, ages 17 and up, also worked in the grain storage and other facilities.

People had to adapt and learn, things were different than they had been back home. Jakob Becker described the camp situation quite well in his essay Wie’s daheim war (What it was like back home) Asperg/Württemberg 1950, page 143.

As so-called German nationals, the Bessarabian Germans had to complete a citizenship process to become Germans of the Reich. This took place in the resettlement camps. At the end of this co-called “sluicing through” process, people were naturalized and received a personal citizenship certificate.

Image 112: Example of a Citizenship Certificate.

For the people of Krasna the citizenship procedure took place from January to the middle of 1941. The Immigration headquarters of Lodz (EWZ) ⁸⁾ sent the so-called mobile or flying commission ⁹⁾ into the camps. The procedure usually took one day. The resettlers received a police record, a physical exam and a political evaluation. The families had to appear together. The three main criteria were nationality, race and hereditary diseases. The evaluation was rated in race classes, I-IV: pure northern, IV: Eastern or Eastern Baltic, foreign, etc. And political values 1-5 (1, active fighter for Germanism, 2, associate for Germanism, 3, indifferent, 4, associate of another foreign group, 5, fighter for another foreign group.

All families had to complete a “questionaire of family report of Russian Germans.” ¹⁰⁾

Image 113: A sample of page one of the questionaire is depicted below.

The overall evaluation result was the basis for granting the German citizenship and the so-called Deployment Decision, meaning who could resettle in the East (O for Ost = East), or who had to remain in the old Reich (A cases). ¹¹⁾ There were also the categories of “foreigners” or otherwise unsuitable or the “s” class for undesirables. The latter were transferred to the General Government of Poland or returned to their old homeland.

At the citizenship procedure almost all resettlers recieved the mark for their blood type on the upper left arm, which during the war was repeatedly mistaken as a membership marking of the SS. Some of the horrid consequences of this can be found in the report of Kaspar Ternes, whom the Soviets sent to Siberia because of this mark on the upper arm. ¹²⁾

The capability of handling an agricultural enterprise was not established at this “sluicing” process. Later, this was improved somewhat. The classification of A [Settlement in the Altreich (old country)] always caused restlessness and anxiety. Many farmers, who had run good farms in the old country were not taken as settlers for the East, whereas people, who had never farmed, but met the criteria of national socialists in looks, were taken.

This also affected several people from Krasna. They could not understand the separation from relatives and fellow villagers. Protests to the leadership of the EWZ office sometimes led to revisions. These families then came to the camp of Tuschin Wald and finally to the place where their relatives were settled. Ute Schmidt mentions another aspect: ¹³⁾ ……Research into the reason why so many of the Catholic Krasna people were labeled “A cases”, seems to support the suspicion that a former village leader, who worked for the EWZ ¹⁴⁾ accused some of his fellow residents of being “receptive to communist ideas.”

After the completion of the citizenship procedure, the resettlers for the East were placed into the resettlement camps for those regions.
See also 8.3, Settlement in West Prussia
Most Krasna people remained in camps of the Pirna district up to 10 months. Roughly between April and August of 1941 transports from Pirna to the East took place. At this time the “O-cases” were gradually distributed into camps in Poland.

The “A” cases, which the offices did not find fit for settlement in the East, for health or other reasons, remained in the “Altreich.” It is not clear how many of the Krasna “A-cases” were actually involved. The fate of the people left behind differed from the fate of the other former villagers, who were settled in West Prussia. According to memories of still living resettlers most Krasna “A-cases” remained in Saxony. Unfortunately, the author does not have more information concerning their fate.

A third category, labeled “S-cases” were the people to be returned to Rumania, because they were so-called “foreign nationals” and according to the officials, were not entitled to resettle. It is not clear if people from Krasna were in that group and if so, how many.