Establishment and Location
The concentration camp was established in 1942 at the former summer camp of the Kiev garrison on the northern edge of the city of Kiev, a few hundred meters from the Babi Yar ravine, which had been the scene of enormous massacres in late September 1941 and later. Syrets was intended to be a subsidiary of Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. About 3,000 people were imprisoned at Syrets, guarded by Ukrainian policemen and German SS. Paul Otto Radomski was the camp commandant.
The camp was built in June 1942 at the request of Hans Schumacher, a Nazi police official (see Auschwitz Trial), which he made to his superior Erich Ehrlinger. The camp was intended to house prisoners perceived as opponents of the Nazi regime, mainly Jews. Once a person was arrested, only skilled craftsmen would survive, to be used as forced labor. All others were shot or murdered by gas van.
Read more about this topic: Syrets Concentration Camp