Soviet Dentistry 65 Years Ago

I do not have a copy of the original Russian text of this document. Rather I have a German translation from the Russian. So the English translation I have prepared below has in fact been translated twice. The translation from German to English is mine. Alfred Eisfeld and Victor Herdt made the original translation from Russian to German.

Guidelines for the GULAG NKVD USSR for the removal of gold dental work from dead prisoners in corrective labor camps (4 January 1942)

1. The gold dental work of dead prisoners is to be removed.

2. The removal of the gold dental work is to be assigned to a commission consisting of representatives from the medical service, the camp administration and the finance section.

3. After the removal of the gold dental work the commission is to make a record in two copies of the number of removed units (crowns, teeth, hooks, bridges, etc.) and their exact mass is to be noted.

4. The record is to be signed by all of the above named representatives. A copy of the record is to remain in the documents of the camp medical service, and the second together with the removed gold dental work to be transferred to the camp financial section. The gold is then to be transferred to the appropriate section of the state bank, the receipt for the gold from the state bank is to be enclosed with the first record.

Source: Alfred Eisfeld and Victor Herdt, Hrsg., Deportation, Sondersiedlung, Arbeitsarmee: Deutsche in der Sowjetunion 1941-1956 (Koln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1996), Dok.. 140, S. 144-145.