Germany’s 9th Army saw itself confronted with a dire situation in its sector during the winter of 1943/1944 because the enforced recruitment for labor of all able-bodied men and women in its area of command had resulted in left-behind family dependents who were incapable of fending for themselves. In a planned, large-size operation, all remaining civilians incapable of labor were to be deported out of the German area of command and placed in three concentration camps in the no-man’s land between the German and the Soviet front lines.
At the beginning of March, Adolf Hitler authorized a front line adjustment within the command area of the 35th Infantry Division due to an eastward pointing nose in the German front line that was proving difficult to defend. This provided the 9th Army with an opportunity to implement its radical plan: the deportation of what the Wehrmacht regarded as “superfluous” civilians – in as far as these persons were incapable of labor – from the entire territory under its occupation.
Source: https://azarycy1944.nghm-uos.de/en/the-concentrations-camps-near-ozarichi/.
