The Jewish Camp at Brusty-Dziemiany in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXII

The Jewish Subsidiary of the Stutthof Concentration Camp (Konzentrationslager Stutthof) at Brusy-Dziemiany (1944-1945)

The camp at Brusy–Dzemiany (the Bruss labor camp) was set up by order of the Stutthof camp command on August 24, 1944. Its first prisoners, 500 Jewish women, arrived from the Kaiserwald concentration camp near Riga via Stutthof, which was overcrowded at this time. Most of the women were placed in a camp at Dzemiany (Sophienwalde), the rest in the buildings of a monastery at Brusy. The prisoners were forced to construct the SS testing range, and subsisted under terrible working and living conditions. Those who perished while working were replaced by other women prisoners. In February 1945, the SS began to evacuate the camp. Before the evacuation began, some eighty prisoners were shot. The report here is partially based on eyewitnesses’ accounts.