The FSB Directorate for Stavropol Krai, together with the regional investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Russia, recently declassified archival documents about the accomplice of the Nazi occupiers, Olga Gindler, a native of Pyatigorsk of German descent. According to the document owners, their publication is being carried out as part of measures to counter the glorification of Nazism and the revision of the results of World War II, which is far from a new trope.
According to the documents, Gindler voluntarily reported to the Gestapo in the first days of the occupation of Pyatigorsk, where she registered as a person of German origin and joined the punitive organs of SD-12. Initially, she was engaged in the purchase of furniture and kitchen equipment, while receiving housing, food, and a salary of 350 German marks per month for this.
The investigation established that Gindler did not hide her work for the Gestapo; on the contrary, she was proud of her involvement in the activities and (according to the Stavropol Krai FSB) threatened to have killed those she disliked. Later, she was recruited as an agent under the covername “Vorobey” [Воробей – Sparrow] with the task of identifying communists, Soviet authorities, and police officers in hiding, as well as individuals with anti-German sentiments.
During the occupation of Pyatigorsk, Gindler passed on information to the Gestapo about more than ten Soviet citizens, who (per the FSB) were subsequently arrested, most of them shot.
In January 1943, during the retreat of German troops, Gindler fled from Pyatigorsk together with the Gestapo officers. In the spring of 1945, she was detained in Germany and sent to her former place of residence, where she was arrested for collaboration with the occupiers and betrayal of her countrymen.
On September 12, 1945, a Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Stavropol Territory sentenced Gindler to 20 years of hard labor with deprivation of political rights for 5 years and confiscation of property.
The translation of GINDLER’s brief interrogation and findings, with names of the city prosecuting attorney and witnesses redacted, follows:
Translating History 