Иван Алексеевич Мишин / Iwan Alexeewitsch Mischin
Born 1912 in Nowyj Krjaschim / Machalino
Died 15.11.1942 in Gusen
Biography
My grandfather Michail Grigorevich Matvienko, a sergeant in the 117th Rifle Division, was reported missing in action near Gomel in mid-September 1941. For some years now, I have been trying, without success, to discover something of what happened to him. For this reason, I dedicate the following biographies of two soldiers from the 117th Rifle Division to my grandfather, since he may have suffered a similar fate.
Ivan Alexeevich Mishin and Sergei Alexandrovich Samsonov were born in the village of Novy Kryazhim (today’s Makhalino in the Kuznetsky district of the Penza oblast), Mishin in 1912 and Samsonov three years later. In 1941 they were drafted into the Red Army by the local district military commission and entered the 820th Rifle Regiment of the 117th Rifle Division.
A former solider of the 3rd Battalion of the 820th Rifle Rewgiment of the 117th Rifle Division, Ivan Ivanovich Kunitsky recalled: ‘On the morning of 12 August 1941 the Germans opened heavy artillery fire on the villages of Dragunsk, Malaya Simiza and Bolshaya Simiza. The German planes started to bombard the village and our defensive position behind the village. The whole village burned, a real inferno. Afterwards the Germans began to attack with tanks and motorbikes. We began our retreat, fighting, into the village…’
On this day Mishin and Samsonov, along with many other units from the 21st Army surrounded at Gomel, fell into enemy hands. They spent some time in a prisoner collection point in the rear of the Wehrmacht, which gave them the opportunity to find one another. They were already together when they arrived at the Frontstammlager (Frontstalag) 316/B camp. This is confirmed by their registration numbers – 2169 and 2170.
A witness reported: ‘Frontstalag 316 for Soviet prisoners of war was set up by the Germans in spring 1941, 17 km from the town of Siedlce near to Podnesnja station. It consisted of camp “A” near the village of Suchożebry and camp “B” near the village of Wola Suchożebrska. There were no buildings in these prisoner camps. The prisoners lived in dugouts that they had dug themselves in the open fields. The dugouts were covered by boards that did nothing to protect the prisoners from cold and rain. 50 to 150 men fitted into each dugout.’
From Frontstalag 316, the prisoners were transferred to the Stammlager (Stalag) IV B camp near to Mühlberg within the German Reich. This camp had already been set up before the ‘Great Patriotic War’ and was an international camp. The main camp lay five kilometres northeast of Mühlberg/Elbe close to Neuburxdorf station. Mishin’s camp number there was 128911, and Samsonov’s 128894.
On 15 October 1941, the first transport carrying Soviet prisoners of war from Stalag IV B departed for a concentration camp located near the town of Flossenbürg on the border to what was then the Sudetenland. The transport was made up of around 2,000 men. Among them were Ivan Mishin and Sergei Samsonov. The prisoners arrived at the concentration camp on 17 October and were taken to a special camp that was separate from the main camp. They were not registered as prisoners but were designated as ‘Arbeitsrussen’ (‘labour Russians’) in the camp files, and they made up around a third of the total population of the camp. It is thought that they worked building the camp and in the nearby quarries.
In summer 1942 the ‘Russian camp’ in Flossenbürg was disbanded. Afterwards the barracks were used as quarantine barracks.
On 10 September 1942, Ivan Alexeevich Mishin, Sergei Alexandrovich Samsonov and many others were transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. It was – officially at least – the harshest concentration camp: the only Grade III camp, a synonym for ‘return undesired’. The most prevalent form of killing in this camp was ‘annihilation through work’. In most cases, the lifespan of a Soviet prisoner didn’t last much beyond two to three months. The two fellow villagers died that autumn. Sergei Samsonov died on 29 October 1942 in Gusen, supposedly from pneumonia. Ivan Mishin lived just two weeks longer than his friend and died on 15 November 1942 of ‘pleurisy’.
Michail Matvienko
Location In room
