LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE GERMAN GROUP AT ARSENAL NO. 1 IN KIEV

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R015400360004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 13, 2002
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 19, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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FEB 1992D 4nw ;
1. The house in which our German group lived
INFORMATION REPORT REPORT NO.
CLASSIFICATION
CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR (Ukrainian SSR)
25X1A
DATE DISTR. 19 December 1952
SUBJECT Living Conditions of the German Group at Arsenal NO. OF PAGES 5
No. 1 in Kiev
DATE OF 25X1 A NO. OF ENCLS.
INFO. (LISTED BELOW)
PLACE I I SUPPLEMENT TO
ACQUIRE!
25X1
SECRET
SECURITY INFORMATION
was shared with Soviets, The German part of the house was
separated from the Soviet, part by metal partitions, and we also had a
separate entrance. Only one Soviet lived on the German aide of the house.
He was obviously employed to observe the movements of the German inhabi-
tants, He was a fanatical Comntunist,and took every occasion to insult
the Germane.
2. Mail. was not delivered to our house, Every day, one of our group had to
go to the post office to pick it up. There was a store in the block
where our house was located, but. it was not very well stocked;, and we did
not like to buy there, Other stores could only be visited at certain
hours and on certain days, and visits had to be made with the accom-
paniment of one or more'interpreters,(Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 to 11
o'clock in the morning).
The only walk we could take without our interpreters was between our house
and the arsenal, At the entrance gate of the arsenals we had to gather and
.wait until two guards escorted each member of the entire group to his respec-
tive work station. The same procedure was repeated at night,w hen we had
to wait in the yard of the arsenal until all German specialists had
NAVY
AIR
NSRB
FBI
DISTRIBUTION
OR,R Ev x
REPORT NO.
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assembled to be escorted out of the plea..
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We had. to pay fop. our living quarters.. Therefore, the members who
ha high salaries gat the la
e
t
-
rg
r apar
ment
s In additi t rt
..onoen,
w aid bills' for light
gae
wate
and h
t
,
,
r
ea
Families livi
.ng re\than one room were obliged to take i
o
t
n One
f
he bachelors as
'lnd$er",and to permit him thO.use of their kitchen.
When e, arrived in1ev, our cameras were taken from us The
p? Bees ion of.a samen was forbidder and violations were Severely
punished.? We,were also forbidden to have radios, and those we
brought with us from Germany were taken awe . However, after
about. one year (late in :L947 or early in 1948 ), our radios were
restored to us,. At the time of our deParture, our .cameras were
also.'handed'baok to us, much to our Surprise;
An far as we could find out
we were' paid an a
verage of 604-boo
,
rubles less than other A Bran groups in the USSR. 25X1
I , was paid 1800 rubles per month, of which O was
actually paid and 200 was withheld for taxes.. It was hard to live
on this salary with a wife ' and two children. We were not paid, for
overtime, .although we worked.: overtime almost every night after the
15th of the" month, sometimes until 2 or .3 o'clock in the morning..
We did not get premiums-for the fulfillment-of a plan or for over-
fulfillment of &. quota because our ,work was credited to the, Soviet .
employees. A number of German specialists worked as informers
for the MVD .4bec use being an informer entailed anincrease in normal. pay, plus an occasional premium for especially good in-
formation... People who refused to cooperate with the MVD had
their salaries out.., Professor $a hp o , for instanec who had
apparently displeased the KVD in 'some manner had his ' sal'
reduced from 6000.. rubles to 2500 rubles,.i; al;lhough..,he wasn-
eldered the foremost ? expert on optional instruments in the German
group.
A large number of ' our group 'was suspected of bein informers for
the M -. Frequently, German apeeialiate were called either to_. the
employment offioe" , or to the "dentist" ., both of which were.4,
cover names for the.M . While such calls were.generally deliver-
04, some discretion, they were 'at Other times shouted out to
alert the other German specialists to the fact that there were
informers among theme.. Obviously, the ,Soviets had` a carefully
worked-'out plan to arouse among the Germane,asuspicion of every-
body against ,everybody else. They suooeed.ed in this design
completely. The German group did not' meet socially during the
.last two years of theirr* '*tay in Kiev they did not celebrate thO
holidays together, nor did they most for oupltura1 or reareationaill
enterprises, stayed at their homes in the evenings, hUddled','.
around the radio . (whioh~-was barely audible for more than 1-2 m
from the receiving,set everybody listening to RIAS-Berlin).
Living in this mariner for two years is nerve-chattering and 11 Man of us suffered ? severe nervous disorders or heart Alseases. 25X-IX
.The German group -was split into two factions. The leader of the
J,collaborators with 'the Soviets was instruction engineer . #ts R!lh +A
T 1a. - ....-4 si_ w__
dons. He n&' _ as 0041
as
f
o ins"Kiev, and was frequently Bout"on missions, such an observing
the,1 May celebration and writing favorable descriptions of to*
parades' and processions for the German papers, Hs,was on ggood
terms with the Soviets and spent many evenings in their midst,
His frequent guests were . tine . interpreters and the teachers of
the German school.
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As far as I know, R6hrdanz had been,d.uring the Nazi times either an
army officer or a party worker. When the Soviets took over the
eastern part of Germany, R8hrdanz was sent from the Zeiss plant to
Berlin, where he went to school for 9 months. He-.came back as a
vociferous communist, and he was instrumental in organizing the
SETS 'and Antif a (Anti-Fascist League) in Kiev.. After his return to
Germany.,he continued his propaganda for Soviet-German friendship.
10. When the Soviet loan for the promotion of peace was introduced,
all workers were forced to give up one month's salary for the
cause. The "loanlf eras withheld every month from- the salary check.
of the worker a The Germans 'were not requested to collaborate. i.n
this loan,, but R8hrdanz volunteered to pay his share and urged
the other Germans to follow his example. His sacrifice, however,
was not go great since he received an increase in salary immedi-
ately . after , he had 'volunteered for the loan. I do not know if any
other Germans signed up for the loan; possibly, rner was also a
contributor,
11. Construction engineer Pa ? KiAsaline, was the Mend and confidant of
R6hrdanz, and was nicknamed. " .djuta.nt".. He kept pictures of
? Lenin, , Stalin, and the highest official of the Ukraine in his
room. All these pictures were . adorned with, red flags. He also
wrote articles in' German papers and sent them pictures of life
in the USSR. He collaborated with R8hrdanz. in some of his
missions, one of which has stuck in my mind. R8hrdanz sent to
the German papers ' a report of a German movie which was shown in
Kiev. Behind his sat a Soviet boy, who$ spotting R8hrdanz as a
German said in broken Germany ~' ncle,& how nice, how nice', The
story Is essentially true, except that the boy was not a Soviet,
but the son of Kiessling.
25X1X 12.
ate In ' , an anonymous letter from Jena arrived in Kiev, in
.which .his entire life history was discussed and he was accused
of being hostile to the Soviet system of government and of being.
25X1X a fascist. as.shown the handwritten letter and recognized
the handwriting of Mrs.R&hrdanz. After many weeks of denying the
charge, Mrs rt8hrdanz suffered a nervous breakdown and confessed,
to having written the letter.
13. Listening to foreign broadcasts was forbidden. We were sure
that one item the informers had to report about was the radio
programs which the various families listened to in the evening.
,TO a certain extent, however, the system.of informing broke down
over this item. Everybody listened to RIAS,Berlin, even if they
had to.do it in the deepest secrecy,, Everybody knew that
everybody else did the same, but only R8hrdanz was at liberty to
talk, since he listened; in order to refute the lies it spread.
It was not easy to face R8hrd.anz when he was misquoting RIAS
and not to contradict him v but any contradiction would have
revealed that we had listened to RIAS too. We might have
suffered very much, if the fact of our listening. had been thus
confirmed'.
14. Wien the German specialists got sick, thew had to notify the
25X1 X foreman that- they wanted' to go.on
sick cal all, and urng this period . they were paid only half of
their salary.. We were sent to the plant dispensary for exami-
nation. The plant dispensary was inclose.touch with the
production departments and would refuse: ' to. pronounce a man
sick when the monthly quota was in danger of not being fulfill-
ed. Of course, we could stay away.from work'complet.ely, but'
we would have lost all our pay for the period of our abaence4
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lp for one,, could not afford any loaf of pay.
15. As early as November 1946, some of the German specialists began
to write letters to official placea ,concerning our deportation.
The first-two letters obviously did not reach the office to which
they were directed., instead, some of us were called to the manager
of the.plant and he asked us about our intentiof-is in writing the 25X1X
letters. and took them out of his desk drawer. But we continued
people to whom they were addressed.
sons and o: gaMzatii ? Pierk G s '* , StApi : Soarnik, t~i* Soviet Vinist
under whose. jurisdf at1on . 'Arsenal No, J. was operating, the SET)
patty, the German Union, and the Ger!.an aaye, We got answers from
all places, after along delay.. All had approximately the same
text: that the person or office was acting on our behalf, and that
vie would be informed as soon. as they had more detailed knowledge
of our cases,
16. We .did not complain in our letters about the deportation., about
our situation in a foreign country, or about the treatment we were
given, but rather about our worries that the children would not
receive adequate schooling, about cases of acute homesickness,
about the health of our wohien, and about our worry over conditions
at home. We cited the cases of men in poor health, of men who 25X1X
suffered from the climate of men who were too old to withstand
the work in the plant.
17, All in all, I estimate the number of letters we wrote to be about
twenty. While the first letters were written by the five members
of 'the "writing cdmmitt :e" we later had meetings of all Germans
to choose the correct and diplomatic phrasing for the letters and
to have our , rough drafts changed and edited the way the group
wanted. The letters then were signed by all Germans, but there
were a-1ways some 6-8 persons who refused to sign, We sent the
letters through the plant management, which to ha& the right of
censoring the letters. A few of our letters were sent through a 25X1
Soviet middleman, who posted them at the railroad station.
.18.
19. Theft was a daily occurrence in the plant. The employees of
the plant stole everything they could lay a hand on. Frequently
they took entire instruments out of the plant, such as micrometers,
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depth measuring instruments, and boring machines. The guards frequently
helped them when they were promised alcohol.
20. A particularly favorite trick of the employees was to take the component
parts of a Contax camera and build a camera with them, The cameras which
were made in this manner sold for 4,000 rubles. The most prized part
of a Contax camera was not the lense, but the trade-mark "Contax". With
this label, one could sell his camera as the genuine article and get as
much as 6,000 rubles.
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