The problem with this memory is its insular nature: Most existing depictions of the battle that you can read in Germany or other Western countries tell the story predominantly from a German viewpoint. The elevator is occupied not by men but by devils that no flames or bullets can destroy. . werent for this damned war! .. The first months of the operation were a success for Nazi troops, who made it to within 15 miles of Moscow before a Soviet counter-offensive pushed them back from December 1941. Ahead of us is either death or captivity. convinced that they cant stop us. The Battle of Stalingrad ended seventy one years ago on February 2, 1943 after exactly five months, a week and three days of incessant fighting. Damn this Stalingrad! in the vicinity of Stalingrad will have a major influence on how the war The gruesome acts were enough to tip the highly decorated Panzer commander over the edge. Gossler doesn't want to stay still, he has gone insane. October 5. Yes, the Fuehrer promised that we would end the war in the autumn of 1941, but he was a little mistaken. In the Battle of the Coral Sea, on May 78, 1942, American naval forces stopped the, Japanese advance and temporarily relieved Australia of, the threat of invasion. I just want to scream it all away. The interviews were conducted by historians from Moscow who responded to the German invasion in 1941 with a plan to document the Soviet war effort in its totality, and from the ground up. However, many German military records provide very few details about individuals other than those who served as officers. . He wrote: 'In total more than 20 corpses lay around the destroyed tank. thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. North Africa, the Nazis invade France (again), the Wehrmacht in big trouble in the Caucasus and further up north at Stalingrad. Being German, I am of course also susceptible to Stalingrads towering place in German collective memory. Our regiment has failed to break into the factory. Hitler remarked that with the 6th Army, he "could storm the Heavens". Hitler commanded General Friedrich Paulus to, stand firm with his Sixth Army and forbade attempts to, break out of the encirclement. October 10. The German press simply stopped reporting about Stalingrad, including the failed attempts to break through to the trapped soldiers and to supply them by air. One day I shot a magpie and cooked it. When during my research I discovered a trove of wartime interviews with Soviet defenders of the city, I decided that my book should centrally focus on the comparatively little-known, Soviet side of the story. November 19. The Nazis' eastward expansion was halted and the Soviets went on the offensive until the end of the war. Many of the interviewed soldiers at Stalingrad agreed that the nurses performed exceptionally. . by Odessa2 21 Aug 2003, 19:03, Post The YouTube channel is a generally reputable source but this fact made me skeptical. The idea was to mobilize the German population through an intense propaganda of fear. strength of the Red Army. September 1942. What were the main ways in which survivors remembered Stalingrad? August 12. will there be a way out, of the cauldron. We are on hunger rations and waiting for the rescue that the Fuhrer promised. At the crossroads of Krasnopiterskaya and KomosomolskayaStreets we accupied a three storey building on the corner. Just weeks before, in response to the Germans rapid advance toward Stalingrad, Stalin had issued the Not A Step Back order that forbade his soldiers to retreat under any circumstances. This was before the tide turned. They say that the city is on fire; on the Fiihrers orders our Luftwaffe [air force] has sent it up in flames. .. . As the battle wore on, many read it as an indication that Germany would lose the war. . At 11 o'clock, Russian tanks and Katyusha attack us. 173.236.223.132 What was the role of world media before and during this battle? . . . Division, no. Privacy Policy. Over the next three months, the Red Army began to squeeze the life out of them. In Germany everyone believes we already hold Stalingrad. proceeds. If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for Or has he been defeated at the approaches to Stalingrad? . . October 5, 1942.<br>Our battalion finally reached the Volga. From the testimony of Lieutenant General Alexander von . Here it is: http://imgur.com/a/22mHD . The operation to surround and liquidate the German 6th Army is a strategic masterpiece. The testimonies were too truthful and multifaceted for their times, and Stalin forbade their publication, not least because he alone claimed full credit for the victory at Stalingrad. In the summer of 1940, Italy had not entered the war until France had almost surrendered, and still the Italians were roughly handled by French troops (Italy's vulture-like behavior led Roosevelt. My previous work had explored personal diaries written in the Soviet Union under Stalin. This morning katyushi attacks caused the company heavy losses: twenty-seven dead and fifty wounded. His 'unique and amazing' diaries that run to 150,000 words have been unearthed by German military historian Robin Schaefer. The letter had been sent by the German Federal Archives, which. In them, Leutnant Sander described in harrowing detail the barbaric deaths of both German comrades and Russian soldiers, with as many as 15 men executed before his eyes on one occasion. fiance, December 29, 1942. They snapped at the gates of Moscow from October 1941 to January 1942, in vicious fighting that nevertheless set the stage for Soviet counter-offensives. 'Written during the fighting, on long marches and often after terribly gut-wrenching events, Sander's diaries offer a frank and honest assessment of the German situation in 1941 and the unforgiving nature of war on the Eastern Front. The Russians are throwing in their last forces, Captain Werner explained to me. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Clothing freezes on the body. The battle commenced in August 1942 and finally ended in February 1943 when the last of the German forces surrendered. In this sense, too, Stalingrad marked a turning point in world history. It may just be me, but every time people start to realize that maybe the Germans were not a race of butchers and that maybe Germans were also subjected to the horrors of total war, that something like this comes out of left field to paint them all as murdering scum again. . Both regimes mobilized to the utmost to conquer or defend the city. . . Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich - Walter Kempowski 2015-04-13 . I just want to scream it all away. Who were the interviewees of these Stalingrad transcripts? . He was part of 6th Army at Stalingrad. That has a tremendous impact.. Born in Bonn, West Germany, Prof. Hellbeck, 51, is also founder of an online project, facingstalingrad.com, at the heart of which is a series of in-depth interviews conducted jointly in 2009-2010 with photographer Emma Dodge Hanson with surviving veterans of the fateful battle from both Germany and Russia. Does that get to you? By the end of February, Stalingrad, the Russian 3D film which became Russias box-office holder for 2013 and grossed $66 million in its one-and-a-half run, will be shown in US theaters for a week. . Our regiment is attacking the Barrikady settlement. Everyone expects us home for Christmas. . If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for everything we did. What Did Edward Snowden Actually Reveal About the U.S Government? Performance & security by Cloudflare. . Yes, leading generals of the Stalingrad battle, like Chuikov, were able to publish accounts of their role in the battle, but they carefully omitted any reference to executions within the Red Army. She was five years old when Adolf Hitler's Sixth Army stormed into Stalingrad in the summer of 1942. Ironically, Stalins death and demise [in 1953] dealt another blow to the defenders of Stalingrad. . .. 17189, to There have been a number of cases of self inflicted wounds and malingering among the men. But with thousands of Soviet guardsmen poised to launch a furious counter-attack, his triumph was to be short-lived. . I want to scream. 'It is just awful. 28329 D, to his Up to then, the German army had seen victory after victory and Hoffman felt confident they could conquer Stalingrad and then the rest of Russia. Russian tanks pass us and attack from the flank and rear. . A German soldier rests at Stalingrad. The Fiihrer knows where the Russians weak point is. This is simply unbelievable. In addition, these records may include the soldier's age, birthplace, residence, occupation, and physical description as well as the names of family members. Making up for colossal losses in people, equipment and ammunition sustained by the German armed forces as a result of the perishing of the 6th Army will require huge effort and a lot of time. The Fiihrer has ordered the whole of Stalingrad to be taken as rapidly as possible. My question is, what happened to him? In the north our troops capture a part of Stalingrad and reach theVolga, but in the south the doomed divisions are continuing to resist bitterly. December 14.Everybody is racked with hunger. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. I found them in the archive of the Institute for Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. . Frozen potatoes are the best meal, but toget them out of the ice-covered ground under fire from Russian bullets is not so easy. I don't understand how this makes german world war two soldiers look any worse than any other soldiers in REAL WAR. I had a letter from Elsa today. At that time we actually cut up a dog, and the vodka really came in handy. I found this book an insightful account of the mind of s sniper and the battle for Stalingrad. What is also remarkable is how the Soviet military command was able to secretly deploy an army of 1 million soldiers along these flanks in the weeks leading up to the operation. On November 8, Hitler announced that the German Sixth Army had taken Sta- lingrad, but in fact, on November 19 and 20, the Soviets attacked German positions north and south of Stalingrad, and by November 23 they had surrounded the German forces. I then became curious about how these strivings compared to the Nazi German revolution and its version of the New Man. Stalingrad, as a culminating and prolonged clash between the two totalitarian regimes, seemed like the right place for this next study. the said book became an antiquity in bibliography. The global media reports pushed both sides onward. Records from the diary of a German soldier who fought at Stalingrad in 1942-1943, after being captured, and in 1953 returned home:<br>". He believed that he needed the east in order to win the war and secure the long-term prosperity of his county. All run away again. Can you talk about the nature of the violence? In the interviews I was surprised to discover the source of this hatred. December 18.The officers today told the soldiers to be prepared for action. But the regime took further steps: Visiting the Treblinka death camp in eastern Poland just one month after the defeat at Stalingrad, Heinrich Himmler ordered the exhumation and cremation of all the bodies of the 700,000 Jews who had been killed there. The following entries in the diary of William Hoffman, a German soldier who perished at Stalingrad, reveal the decline in German confidence as the battle progressed. Three questions are obsessing every soldier and officer: When will the Russians stop firing and let us sleep in peace, if only for one night? Part of Heinrich Malchus letter, a soldier, no. We dont have a single officer, and the 'The diaries are so powerful, so vivid and so rich that interviews with historians, presenters and re-enactment are all unnecessary. " Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich: Hellbeck, Jochen, Tauchen, Christopher: 9781610397186: Amazon.com: Books Books History Military Buy new: $12.19 List Price: $18.99 Details Save: $6.80 (36%) Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns FREE delivery Sunday, March 5 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon Mr Schaefer said: 'These diaries are absolutely unique and quite amazing. Soviet soldiers found the diary in December 1942 or January 1943, probably among the possessions of its deceased owner. Did he survive the war? formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad region. As Stalingrad was about to fall into German hands in September 1942, the Red Army came up with a plan for a counter-attack that would eventually smash the enemy. themselves. German and other Axis losses in the battle of Stalingrad amounted to over 800,000 casualties. Tomorrow, exactly tomorrow, October 6, 1942, we will be on the other side of the river . Up to a . . Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, and there is no company commander. Military church records [Kirchenbcher]. This fightback, coupled with the fact that the Germans were not prepared for the horrendous conditions of the Russian winter, led to Nazi forces retreating westwards from late 1941 onwards. It is pure hell here. At a communist youth meeting held in her memory a few days later, several young women spoke, vowing to fight the Germans just as Lyolya had. Also revealed in the new documentary are Leutnant Sander's unseen images of the doomed invasion. . On the morning of January 10 we read a pamphlet that contained an ultimatum. . With Mariya Smolnikova, Yanina Studilina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Thomas Kretschmann. November 19. In September 1942, German lieutenant colonel Friedrich Roske declared himself "the master of the centre of Stalingrad" after his troops had smashed their way into the heart of the city. Michal Shapira spoke with Hellbeck following a visit by him to Tel Aviv University earlier this year. Today, after wed had a bath, the company commander told us that if our future operations are as successful, well soon reach the Volga, take Stalingrad and then the war will quickly end. They no longer take cover from Russian shells; they havent the strength to walk, run away and hide. Can it be that it is not true about Manstein? "It is pure hell here." When looking for confirmation of this fact the Britannica article on Stalingrad lists that the lifespan for a Soviet . A new book has finally laid bare the full horrors of the Battle Of Stalingrad in the words of ordinary Russian soldiers, whose memories were suppressed by the Soviet authorities for 70 years. Yet Stalingrad never fell. Unfortunately, I cant write everything to you. January 15. Lots of wounded are being brought by. From the testimony of captured Private First Class Joseph Yesterday we got vodka. Life in the Third Reich & Weimar Republic, Kriegsmarine surface ships and Kriegsmarine in general, Luftwaffe air units and Luftwaffe in general, German Strategy & General German Military Discussion, NSDAP, other party organizations & Government, The Dieter Zinke Axis Biographical Research Section, The Ron Klages Panzer & other vehicles Section, Panzer & other vehicles - Photo threads, Axis Documents, Feldpost numbers, Postcards & Other Paper Items, The United Kingdom & its Empire and Commonwealth 1919-45, The Allies and the Neutral States in general, German Colonies and Overseas Expeditions, The end of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1923, Translation help: Breaking the Sound Barrier, http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.as ld&rLink=0. When we got to Stalingrad, there were 140 of us, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle, only 16 remained. . In the blocks captured two days ago Russian soldiers appeared from somewhere or other and fighting has flared up with fresh vigour. But what I find most striking about the memory of Stalingrad is how little, by comparison, it seems to affect state leaders and publics outside of Russia. August 23. January 5. Hitler, they were certain, would meet Napoleons end. Fritz is telling me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity. German forces eventually made their way to the gates of Moscow but were pushed back by Soviet forces and in the end had to make a slow retreat from the early months of 1942. German intelligence did notice suspicious troop movements, but the German army command did not take these reports seriously, as it was convinced that the Soviets had run out of available human reserves. Sixth Army of 300,000 men was lost. Who was conducting the interviews and why? Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, beautiful Verdun, with new weapons. It follows a platoon of German Army soldiers transferred to the Eastern Front of World War II, where they find themselves fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad . We have never been through anything like this. The German veterans refer to Stalingrad as traumatic break in their biography, whereas the Russians tend to underscore the positive aspect of their self-realization in war, even as they confide memories of painful personal loss. . They resonate with the din of the battlefield, and violence is everywhere in the picture. People who are now sent from Fritz is telling me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to The soldiers are calling Stalingrad the mass grave of the Wehrmacht [German army]. Ive had my fill. Then aged 24, he recalled the moment he and his colleagues stood around to listen to Adolf Hitler's address at the start of the operation that would result in almost one million deaths. Further along the road he encountered more Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) who had been summarily executed by their German captors. decided to give ourselves up to capture in order to save our soldiers lives. My nerves can't take any more.'. . Force of the 212th Regiment. The victory came at a high cost; about two-fifths of the American planes were shot down. Diary of a German Soldier (161 results) Among the Allied nations, and also in towns and ghettos occupied by the Germans, people were euphoric about the Red Armys ability to withstand the German onslaught and strike back. After five months of unrelenting battle, the retreat of the Nazis became the turning point of World War II.. Our attack with tanks yesterday had no success. Stalingrad, and the final desperate battles inside Germany at the end of the war. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Hitler saw the Soviet Union as his natural enemy and aimed to destroy its armies, capture its vast economic resources and enslave its population. He expects victory of us. . Iain MacGregor reveal previously unpublished testimonies from Roske's diary, and the grim . 30 men in the company. . . Hitler's soldiers stormed the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe. October 3. Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. 'We will live through the war in the east as he lived it.'. 'He has started to sing with a slurring voice, so great is his pain. .. We can already see the smoking town. I have enough. German Infantry in position for attack during the Battle of Stalingrad. . . The letters penned by the German soldiers as the Battle of Stalingrad raged on around them were infused with candor. The Russians are defending themselves with insane stubbornness. They evidently decided to bury us in this hellish place once and for all. . They evidently decided to bury us in this In the daytime we can see the smoke of fires, at night time the bright glow. 'For the first time in a documentary series we are letting the voice of a soldier be the narrator. He wrote: 'That isn't a good idea when facing tank men like us - floor the accelerator, turn left and run over him. October 14. The violence and the horror during the fighting for Stalingrad were ferocious. The retreat of the Nazis in that particular battle is seen by many historians as the turning point of WWII. In addition, almost 1 million Soviet women served in the Red Army during World War II, half of them as ordinary soldiers and the other as nurses, phone operators, or laundrywomen. It includes the source in the post and a link to an imgur post with the translated diary in. Fanatics. . Only as Army Group South advanced toward Maikop and Grozny did Hitler order a separate attack on Stalingrad. . December 6. Mr Snow said: 'We have been searching to find a way to do this conflict justice, to get beyond the statistics, the tens of millions killed, wounded and brutalised and tell the story of what it was actually like. , updated How and with what are we going to fill our empty stomachs, which, apart from 3%-7 ozs of bread, receive virtually nothing at all? . The testimonies were too truthful and multifaceted for their times, and Stalin forbade their publication, not least because he alone claimed full credit for the victory at Stalingrad. In his memoirs, Chuikov writes that he issued a sharp rebuke to his cowardly officers. Preached incessantly and targeting every recruit, it was made up of accessible concepts with an enormous emotional charge: love for the homeland and hatred of the enemy. 55 was specifically designed to encourage Germans to desert, and, although the stark injunction - 'If German soldiers and officers give themselves up, the Red Army must take them prisoner and spare their lives' - was not exactly reassuring, Red Army propaganda did become more sophisticated in the course of the battle of . morning we manage to advance 20 metres, in the evening the Russians throw us 'His spine is broken, and he is totally paralysed. I was struck by how they made this decision as early as fall 1941, when the Soviet Union seemed to be teetering under the German assault. We shall obviously be seeing them next in the other world. .. Then the terrible struggles in . . While it would be more than another year before the Red Army liberated the death camps in Poland, the Battle of Stalingrad disrupted the Nazi death machine. Thats what everyone is saying. . Sergeant-Major Nuschke waskilled today running across a street. Large-scale help is coming up for us, and the Russians will be beaten. by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 18:17, Post by Lawrence Tandy 21 Aug 2003, 22:24, Post Russian snipers hit anyone who shows himself carelessly from behind shelter. Look at the confidence and aggression on the face of the soldiers. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. 6. His commitment was so strong that he sent a huge number of troops to carry out the invasion. January 5. There are very few men left in the companies. We are preparing for a decisive attack. Where are they bringing them from? backward. Let the generals and officers fight the war I highly recommend the Book "Forgotten Soldier". August 2. . . After months of bitter fighting, 100,000 surviving Germans, huddled in the ruined city, surrendered to Soviet troops.During the battle and shortly after its conclusion, scores of Red Army commanders and soldiers . More Soviet soldiers died in the five-month battle than Americans in the entire war. Harry Howard For Mailonline After five months of unrelenting battle, the retreat of the Nazis became the turning point of World War II. The weather's getting worse. Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942. We decided to give ourselves up to capture in order to save our soldiers lives. German soldiers and officers drink water at Stalingrad. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Himmler was aware that the time of reckoning for Germany was drawing near. . December 3. 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