Konstantin Zhurbin

Konstantin Zhurbin was born on 13 November 1922 in Russia. Before WW2, he was a student, possibly in a military institute. After joining the Red Army and serving as a lieutenant in the 855 Infantry Regiment, he was captured in Karachev on 14 October 1941, eight days after the German military occupied the city. As a result, he became a prisoner of war (POW) and was sent to a number of POW camps: first, Oflag 57, a camp for officers in Ostrolenka in the Soviet Union (now Poland), and then Stalag IA in Stablack, East Prussia (now Bagrationovsk in Russian Kaliningrad Oblast). He was then assigned to Kommando Neidenburg 7/201 but on 10 October 1942, he escaped from his place of work. A week later, he was recaptured, interrogated and sent to Stalag IB in Hohenstein, East Prussia (now Olsztynek, Poland).

He was arrested and punished for a period of eight days. On 10 December 1942, he was transferred to Stalag III C in AltDrewitz, Brandenburg before being moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 20 January 1943. Having been assigned to SS BB1 and designated a political prisoner, he was given a Neuengamme camp number (17,140) prior to his transfer to Alderney on either 3 or 5 March. Imprisoned in Sylt concentration camp, Zhurbin survived fifteen months of slave labour in Alderney, after which he was transported back to mainland Europe.

Like the majority of former Alderney SS BB1 prisoners, after a hard journey lasting several weeks, he was registered in Neuengamme, before being sent to Sollstedt (a subcamp of Buchenwald and later Mittelbau-Dora) where he was forced to under-take further harsh labour following his reassignment to SS BB5. After the war was over, he returned to his native village. Following a shift in Soviet policy towards war veterans after 1980, Zhurbin was awarded the Order of Great Patriotic War (second class) on 6 April 1985 in recognition of his military service during WW2.

Sources

FSB-Kursk, 6221_38a, ‘Prisoner of war information’, https://obd-memorial.ru/
html/info.htm?id=915610308&p=2 (accessed 2 December 2019)

Ibid.; M.N. Kozhevnikov. The Command and Staff of the Soviet Army Air
Force in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 (Moscow: All-union copyright agency of the USSR, 1977), p. 54.

For information about the camps, see Forces War Records, ‘German camps’, www.forces-war-records.co.uk/european-camps-british-commonwealth-prison ers-of-war-1939–45 (accessed 16 April 2020); FSB-Kursk, 6221_38a, ‘Prisoner of war information’, https://obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=915610308&p=2 (accessed 2 December 2019).

ITS, 1.1.5/7104267–7104273, ‘Konstantin Shurbin’, misc. dates; ITS,
1.2.27/2719551, ‘Konstantin Shurbin’, undated.

‘Zhurbin Konstantin Zakharovich 1922’, http://podvignaroda.ru/?#id=1512067030&tab=navDetailManUbil (accessed 2 March 2020)