SOLOVETSKY ISLANDS, NOVEMBER 21, 1937
The Solovetsky Islands were the site of the first Soviet concentration camps, the SLON (Solovetsky special purpose camp), which held mostly political prisoners. The camp functioned from 1923 to 1939. The test was such a resounding success that Stalin eventually spread such slave-labor camps across the Soviet Union.
NOVEMBER 21, 1937
Mauzer disappeared from the camp in a mysterious and inexplicable way, most likely during one of those awful storms when the tower guards, the firearms, and the German shepherds were equally helpless. On the fourth day, a guard spotted Mauzer at the ironworks, unshaven and looking like an apparition, warming himself next to the furnace. They released the German shepherds. Following the howls of the dogs, the pursuers burst into the foundry building. The fugitive was on the ladder at the top of the furnace, illuminated by the flames. One eager guard began to climb up. As the guard approached him, Mauzer leaped into the boiling mass. The guards saw him disappear before their very eyes; he rose like a wisp of smoke, deaf to their commands, defiant, free from German shepherds, from cold, from heat, from punishment, and from remorse. This brave man died on November 21, 1937, at four o’clock in the afternoon. He left a few cigarettes and a tooth-brush.
