Hi team AskHistorians! I'm looking for book or article recommendations. I'm currently trying to write about a Nazi-run prison located in occupied Russian territory in 1942-43, and I've been trying to find existing secondary sources that talk about the day-today workings of the justice system in the occupied USSR or Poland, prison regimes operated by the SS in the Occupied Eastern Territories, etc. (I'm not interested in concentration camps or POW camps at the moment, just prisons, police stations, etc.). I'm coming up empty. If anyone knows of any potentially relevant material they could send my way, I would appreciate it. I will happily take anything in English, Russian or German, and less happily but still totally willingly accept stuff in French if you happen to have it. Thanks!
Ok, so this is a bot of a tough one since (as I am sure you are aware), there isn't exactly a wealth of research on this out there.
For prisons I recommend starting with Nikolaus Wachsmann: Hitler's Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany, which ostensibly deals with the Nazi prison system. While I am unsure just how much details he gives on the prison system outside of the Reich proper (I don't have the book at hand atm), it is the best place to start research on prisons and the Nazis.
In the same vein but much much older, there is also Martin Broszat's Zur Perversion der Strafjustiz im Dritten Reich from the VfZ, and Lothar Gruchmann's "Nacht- und Nebel"-Justiz. Die Mitwirkung deutscher Strafgerichte an der Bekämpfung des Widerstands in den besetzten westeuropäischen Ländern 1942-1944.
As for the justice system vis a vis "Fremdvölkische" in general and also what was implemented in annexed territories of Poland and the Warthegau, the very cumbersome and dry but still immensely detailed "Fremdvölkische" im Dritten Reich. Ein beitrag zur nationalsozialistischen Rechtssetzung und Praxis in Verwaltung und Justiz unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der eingegliederten Ostgebiete und des Generalgouvernements" by Diemut Majer (Boppard am Rhein 1993 [1981]) is one of the best places to start. Majer does go into detail concerning the justice system and the Strafrechtspraxis in Poland but has little about the prisons itself since she is more interested in the legal workings.
For the Sovietunion, I'd probably check out Dieter Pohl's Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht and Christian Gerlach's Kalkulierte Morde about Belorussia for potentially more information. I quickly checked the books but unfortunately as German publications the indices only contain people and places and therefore I was unable to see if they contained anything about prisons/the justice system. In the case of Pohl though I seem to recall that he does discuss it, which could lead to further sources.
What could also be helpful in this inquiry would be to write to Martin Dean/Jan Lambertz at the USHMM (I can supply email addresses via pm). They are in charge of the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos and are currently working on the volumes about non-WVHA camps which include a wide range of things from AEL to Organization Schmelt camps and presumably also include prison camps.
Though admittedly I don't have the best grasp on the exact subject, my suspicion from reading Majer and also the article Konzentrationslager auf dem Gebiet der Sowjetunion by Alfred Streim in Dacherauer Hefte 5: Die vergessenen Lager (November 1989) that for the Fremdvölkischen in the occupied territories, "regular" prisons seems to have been replaced with camps run by the local authorities. These camps get often called Concentration Camps despite being decidedly not WVHA camps or something similar. Rather they could also be called prison camps since the whole legal system in these territories seems to have been redesigned towards extralegal punishments for the inhabitants of these areas. See for example, the Kriegsgerichtsbarketiserlass of the OKW mandating that it was Wehrmacht courts which were responsible for anything that posed a threat to German security, i.e. anything that invovled the Germans somehow or that was somehow politically charged.
Articles such as The Holocaust in Northern Mazovia (Poland) in the Light of the Archive of the Ciechanów Gestapo and Next to Babi Yar: The Syrets Concentration Camp and the Evolution of Nazi Terror in Kiev seem to support that impression.
One resource you could check out is Justiz- und NS-Verbrechen the list of West and East German trials against Nazis, which might include mentioning prisons in the East.
Finally, I'm going to tag /u/kieslowskifan for they might also know more about this subject.
Because I am seriously interested if I missed something:
u/angelsil
/u/Kugelfang52
/u/stormraughtz
First of all, thank you so much to everyone- particularly /u/commiespaceinvader- for the wonderful and very helpful answers. You guys rock! But please, no one rush to write a journal article, I will (hopefully) get there eventually. Because I agree, understudied is an understatement. In the meantime, I really, really appreciate all the input.