Naftali Aronowitsch Frenkel

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Naftali Frenkel in the 1930s

Naftali Aronowitsch Frenkel ( Russian: Нафталий Аронович Френкель; * 1883 according to various statements either in Constantinople , Odessa or Haifa ; † 1960 in Moscow ) was a Soviet functionary . In the 1920s he was one of the main people responsible for the development of the camp structures in the Solowezki - Gulag and the organizer responsible for the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal .

biography

Frenkel was of Jewish origin and originally came from the Ottoman Empire or Odessa , the place of birth is unclear. He was sentenced in 1923 to 10 years of forced labor on the Solovetsky Islands for “illegally crossing the border” either as a smuggler or as a successful businessman . He arrived there in 1924 or 1925 and within a very short time made it to the head of the operations and trade department.

During this time he devised a plan for the “more economical” exploitation of the prisoners. He wrote the following saying: “We have to get everything out of the prisoner in the first three months - after that we don't need him anymore.” In addition, the idea came up of linking the food rations to the fulfillment of work standards or work performance.

It is questionable whether there ever was a conversation between Frenkel and Stalin . It is more likely that Frenkel met with the superiors of the OGPU , showed them his plans and then given him a free hand.

Frenkel (far right) building the White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal (1932)

Between 1931 and 1933 he was in charge of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal, labor supervisor in BelBaltLag - "an unheard of rise for a former prisoner". There his career took another rise. At least 25,000 people died during the construction of the canal. The work slaves received around 1,300 kilocalories of food every day. After the canal was completed, he came to the Baikal-Amur Mainline , until he was later responsible for the management of the Central Administration of Camps for the Construction of Railway Lines (GULShDS).

Frenkel was awarded the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labor and three times the Order of Lenin .

Not much is known about his personality. It is reported that he liked to visit construction sites at night , stayed in railway wagons and, like Stalin, nurtured the legend that he never slept. “His dealings with the engineers were tough and deliberately humiliating.” (Quote from: The Gulag Archipelago ).

literature

  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn : Der Archipel GULAG , Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 31st edition, 1974
  • Lukáš Babka: K jednomu z příběhů bolševického vězeňství (Úloha Naftalije A. Frenkela v sovětském Gulagu) [One of the Stories of the Soviet Penal System (The Role of Naftalij A. Frenkel in the Soviet Gulag)] , in: Sloedvanský p Survey) 92, 2006, pp. 321–351 [1]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Friedrich Pohlmann : Places of Terror under Communism and National Socialism - Gulag archipelago and concentration camps ; in: Zeitschrift für Politik , Vol. 52 (2005), Issue 3 , pp. 297–317, here p. 308.
  2. ^ Anne Applebaum : The Gulag . Translated from the English by Frank Wolf. Siedler, Munich 2003, p. 93, ISBN 3-88680-642-1 .
  3. ^ Anne Applebaum: The Gulag . Translated from the English by Frank Wolf. Siedler, Munich 2003, p. 102 and p. 104, ISBN 3-88680-642-1 .
  4. ↑ Timothy Snyder : Bloodlands . 2nd edition 2014, p. 49.
personal data
SURNAME Frenkel, Naftali Aronowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet GULag officer
DATE OF BIRTH 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople , Haifa or Odessa
DATE OF DEATH 1960
Place of death Moscow