Many items in the Military Medical Museum originated from Nazi concentration camps liberated by the Red Army. They include the personal belongings of prisoners, such as clothes, crosses, combs, and handkerchiefs.
The collection includes the uniform of a concentration camp prisoner — the nurse and Lieutenant of Medical Corps Valentina Samoylova. The dress has a straight cut without a collar and three-quarter-length sleeves.
The striped uniform is made of coarse cotton fabric. The dress features alternating white and blue stripes, each three centimeters wide. At the chest level, there is a badge on the left side of the dress — an inverted red triangle. Under the badge, there is a white rectangle with the number “17609”. On the upper part of the right sleeve, there is also a badge and a number.
After being registered, all prisoners were given a similar outfit. The clothes were made of durable cotton fabric. The colors were chosen in such a way that it would be difficult to hide in case of an escape attempt. The winter uniform differed only in the thickness of the material.
Inspections were conducted in concentration camps twice a day, which often meant that prisoners were forced to stand in mud and water or freeze outside for hours on end. If it rained during the day, prisoners had to sleep on bunk beds wearing wet clothing that did not protect them from the cold and moisture. The prisoners who dared to put paper under their clothes in order to stay warm risked being beaten to death. Bedding and underwear were changed infrequently and therefore were almost always dirty.
Regardless of the weather conditions, prisoners wore rags, were forced to have their heads shaved, and wore shoes or wooden clogs without socks. The wooden shoes damaged the skin on their feet, causing blisters and infections.
Valentina Samoylova was wounded and shell-shocked during the defense of Stalingrad. While unconscious, she was taken prisoner by the Germans. Between 1942 and 1945, she was held in the Nazi concentration camps of Darnitsa (Kyiv) and Ravensbrück (Barth, Germany).
In Ravensbrück, she joined an international group of underground fighters against the Nazis. Female inmates organized resistance under the slogan of “Everyone and everything — to fight against the SS! Everyone and everything — to defend our friends!”
The collection includes the uniform of a concentration camp prisoner — the nurse and Lieutenant of Medical Corps Valentina Samoylova. The dress has a straight cut without a collar and three-quarter-length sleeves.
The striped uniform is made of coarse cotton fabric. The dress features alternating white and blue stripes, each three centimeters wide. At the chest level, there is a badge on the left side of the dress — an inverted red triangle. Under the badge, there is a white rectangle with the number “17609”. On the upper part of the right sleeve, there is also a badge and a number.
After being registered, all prisoners were given a similar outfit. The clothes were made of durable cotton fabric. The colors were chosen in such a way that it would be difficult to hide in case of an escape attempt. The winter uniform differed only in the thickness of the material.
Inspections were conducted in concentration camps twice a day, which often meant that prisoners were forced to stand in mud and water or freeze outside for hours on end. If it rained during the day, prisoners had to sleep on bunk beds wearing wet clothing that did not protect them from the cold and moisture. The prisoners who dared to put paper under their clothes in order to stay warm risked being beaten to death. Bedding and underwear were changed infrequently and therefore were almost always dirty.
Regardless of the weather conditions, prisoners wore rags, were forced to have their heads shaved, and wore shoes or wooden clogs without socks. The wooden shoes damaged the skin on their feet, causing blisters and infections.
Valentina Samoylova was wounded and shell-shocked during the defense of Stalingrad. While unconscious, she was taken prisoner by the Germans. Between 1942 and 1945, she was held in the Nazi concentration camps of Darnitsa (Kyiv) and Ravensbrück (Barth, Germany).
In Ravensbrück, she joined an international group of underground fighters against the Nazis. Female inmates organized resistance under the slogan of “Everyone and everything — to fight against the SS! Everyone and everything — to defend our friends!”
