The feat of a military doctor: how a Russian hero saved the lives of thousands of prisoners of a fascist concentration camp

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"He who saves one life saves the whole world" - this phrase is well known to us from the film "Schindler's List", dedicated to the history of saving Polish Jews from death during the Holocaust. The same phrase could become the motto Georgy Sinyakov, Russian doctor, who was a prisoner of a German concentration camp for several years and during this time not only saved the lives of thousands of soldiers, but also helped them escape from captivity.

We did not remember the name of Oskar Schindler by accident: the history of the German industrialist-hero gained worldwide fame, since the significance of his feat for the Jewish people can hardly be overestimated. A similar feat was accomplished by Georgy Sinyakov for Soviet soldiers. Once in a concentration camp, he established himself as a first-class doctor, despite the skeptical attitude of German officers towards him, and managed to revive hundreds of prisoners.

Georgy Sinyakov received his medical education in Voronezh and went to the front from the first days of the war. He performed his first feat in the defense of Kiev, the fearless doctor remained with the soldiers to the last, providing first aid, until the Nazis surrounded the unit and took him prisoner. During the war years, Georgy visited two concentration camps, in Borispol and Darnitsa, and after that he ended up in Kustrin. In this concentration camp, he launched activities to rescue compatriots.

It was not easy to get the opportunity to treat prisoners in a concentration camp: the Germans considered the Russian doctor to be incapable of anything. George managed to prove his competence only during the many hours of operation, which he carried out, exhausted from hunger and cold, standing barefoot on the ground. Prisoner European doctors watched this. They were shocked by the endurance of the Russian specialist, who, overcoming fatigue, completed the operation.

George provided assistance to everyone who needed it. Once he saved the life of a German boy, for this he began to receive a larger ration of bread and potatoes. He shared these products with the prisoners. He tried to maintain their spirit in all possible ways: the doctor organized an underground movement and began to distribute leaflets in which he reported on the victories of the Red Army.

Georgy Sinyakov saved the lives of many Soviet soldiers. Among the most famous cases of healing is the rescue of the famous pilot Anna Egovora-Timofeeva and the soldier Ilya Ehrenburg. The plan to rescue the soldiers was thought out to the smallest detail: the doctor assured the Germans that the medicines prescribed by him did not help the patient and once announced that the patient had died. All the corpses were taken out at night on a trolley and dumped into the ditch, needless to say that one of the corpses "resurrected" and was able to get back to his own. So, no one believed in the return of Anna Yegorova, she was even given a posthumous award, and she fled from captivity. To help Ehrenburg, Georgy made sure that his documents did not fall into the hands of the Germans, and announced that the soldier's surname was Belousov, transferred him to the infectious diseases ward, and from there “sent him out for burial”.

On account of Sinyakov's good deeds and help to a group of 10 Soviet pilots, all of them got a doctor, they all lived to see victory. George operated day and night long, thousands of sick and wounded passed through his table. His last feat is difficult to overestimate: intending to surrender, the Germans wanted to shoot the prisoners of the concentration camp, but Georgy Sinyakov was not afraid to go to the leadership and persuaded them to leave, leaving everyone alive. Lives were saved literally a few hours before the arrival of the Soviet army.

In the first 24 hours after the liberation of the Kustrin concentration camp, the doctor saved more than 70 tankers. In subsequent years, he continued to fight and reached the Reichstag with the Russian troops. In a peaceful life, the hero did not abandon his profession, it became known about his exploits only 15 years after the victory, when Anna Yegorova published a letter of thanks to the savior. Then hundreds of people from all over the Soviet Union supported the initiative and expressed their deepest gratitude to the great man.

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