he physical work was performed by 45 Russian prisoners whose ultimate fate is related by Herr Dieter Corbach*:
… afterward, the SS Otto Goldapp held a friendly speech for the 45 workers and said good-bye to each individual with a handshake. He told them they would now leave for Minsk and could take a shower there.
Each was given a bar of soap and towel.
They boarded waiting trucks, not suspecting these were rigged up to spew exhaust fumes into the passenger section. After a quarter of an hour of desperate struggle, everything was quiet. A detail of six to eight prisoners dragged the bodies out of the trucks and threw them on the pyre.
Then they had to lie down and, in turn, were shot by the ethnic-German policemen.
These in turn burned down the last pyre, and afterwards left for two weeks of home leave.
… in order to celebrate Christmas, the birth of their savior, with their families.
*Quoted from "6.00 Uhr ab Messe Koln-Deutz Deportationen 1938–1945," Dieter Corbach, Scriba Verlag, 1999.