| In a small pinewood 8 km far
from Vinnitsa during the years of the Great Patriotic War Hitler’s
headquarters «WERWOLF» were built. The headquarters were
meant for the purpose of commanding of the military activity during
the Eastern Front. «WERWOLF» are not the only headquarters,
but perhaps the most famous ones, as Fuhrer is considered to have
spent most time of the Second World War there.
 |
"Werwolf" |
Initially the construction of the headquarters
was planned to be done near Lubnu in the Poltav region, but partisans
were very active there, that is why Vinnitsa, a detached and cozy
town was chosen. Besides nearly 10 German reconnaissance schools
were situated near Vinnitsa, which allowed controlling partisan
and conspiracy movements. Not the last role was paid to the fact
that the location of the town coincided with the way of future trance
European highway Hamburg- Gotenland (the German called the Crimea
so). Some historians claim that Fuhrer followed the advice of 400
magicians, astrologists from the Institute of occult sciences in
Berlin in the choice of the place of the headquarters.
There exist a suggestion that the German were
planning to create here the zone, free from local residents and
inhabited by ethnical Germans but the idea was not realized. Another
version suggests that the German headquarters are located exactly
in the area, where prior to the War on the granite riverbank underground
headquarters of the Soviet Army were built.
Actually «WERWOLF» became the copy of
the central headquarters of Hitler «Wolfsan» in the eastern Prussia.
Near the headquarters analytic- reconnaissance department of the
Joint Staff of the land army, which was situated in the village
of Voronovitsa, in the Mozajskij palace, the headquarters of the
head of the air military army and the ministry of home affairs was
situated. The leaders of the Vermaht were located in Vinnitsa, which
guaranteed security and strict control of the territory. At the
airport in Kalinovka(20 km from Strizavka) 2 regiments of fighters,
which guaranteed the defense of the headquarters from the air were
situated. «WERWOLF» was guarded by a special part of the
division « Adolph Hitler». Near Vinnitsa large amounts of police,
Gestapo, security and different reconnaissance services were located.
The defense group «Ost» cleaned the area from all unfavorable and
suspicious people, such as Jews, Komsomol workers, the ones who
were against the existing authority. A strict defense regime was
established in the region: after the registration of the inhabitants,
they all got special passes, a curfew was imposed, and often examinations
of the houses were performed.
Ruin of Hitler’s headquarters «WERWOLF»
The construction of the headquarters lasted
from December of 1941 till June 1942 under conditions of full secrecy.
Germans spread rumors about the construction of the sanatorium for
military officers. But soon Kiev conspiracy knew about the arrival
of Hitler to Vinnitsa and informed Moscow.
Historic sources give evidence that German contractors,
who did the main secrecy works, freelance citizens of European countries
took part in the construction. Prisoners of war of the Red Army
and local residents performed the hardest works on the construction
of trenches, extraction of granite outside the central zone. The
conditions were horrible, many died of hunger and diseases, hard
work, delinquents were killed immediately, and their bodies were
put in huge pits near Strizavka and Kolo-Mihajlivka. Many versions
exist about the destinies of the workers of the secret object: from
the shooting of prisoners and setting on fire the plane with German
engineers to exporting of prisoners to camps and evacuation to Germany.
From the highway Vinnitsa-Zutomir the German
put an asphalted road to the central part of the pinewood. Near
the object landing ground was situated. They established every day
railway and air connection with Berlin. To hide the construction
the Germans brought and planted nearly 800 trees and a couple of
thousands of bushes.
The ground part of the object was comprised
of 81 construction, almost all of them were built of wood. Two 120m-artesian
holes provided consuming and technical water and electro station
supplied with power. There was a kitchen, a canteen for soldiers,
warehouses, bomb shelters, houses and two radio stations. There
also was a church. In the central zone the main buildings were located:
Gestapo, a telephone station, canteens for generals and officers,
a summer swimming pool, a gym, 12 houses for the supreme officers,
a bomb shelter and a log house of the Fuhrer.
The main part of the object was situated under
the ground. Historians suggest that underground quarters are covered
with a 6m thickness of sand and are located in granite. There are
opinions that the headquarters comprised 7 floors. The quarters
were equipped with the systems of air filtration, conditioning,
autonomic energy supply.
When the Germans retreated they blew the ground
constructions with the help of powerful bombs and mined the entrances
to the underground part. In March 1944 a special committee by a
personal order of Stalin made an investigation of the headquarters
and came to the conclusion that the Germans took all valuable documents
with them. Other investigations of the «WERWOLF» were held later,
but more than 60 years the headquarters bare their mystery, provoking
the appearance of new suggestions and hypotheses. |
