Also revealed in the new documentary are Leutnant Sander's unseen images of the doomed invasion. Why did Stalingrad become important to the Nazis and the Soviets in 1942? "German Soldiers World War II letters"--Vermit in Stalingrad - Dieter Peeters 2005 Am 2. . As the battle wore on, many read it as an indication that Germany would lose the war. Little changed after Stalins death. After marching through the night we have established ourselves in a shrubcovered gully. . . . January 5. 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. days. When, as part of the campaign to fight Stalins cult of personality, his city was renamed Volgograd in 1961, many veterans objected: With Stalingrad gone, they felt written out of history as well. Seventy-one year ago, February 2, 1943, the The Battle of Stalingrad, finally ended. Within four days, they had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a frozen wasteland in and around Stalingrad. . Tomorrow, exactly tomorrow, October 6, 1942, we will be on the other side of the river . . 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. Clothing freezes on our bodies. . Even civilians were considered vital defenders of Fortress Stalingrad and not allowed to evacuate until several days after the beginning of the bombardment. . . Winter privations and Soviet, attacks, however, forced the Germans to surrender on, February 2, 1943 (see the box above). An excerpt from a letter of soldier Otto Zechtig, 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 227th Infantry Regiment of the 100th Light Infantry Division, no. Maj. Gen. Ivan Burmakov and Lt. Col. Leonid Vinokur, two of the Russian officers interviewed after the Battle of Stalingrad. November 18. That was one reason why these interviews could not be published at the time. . .. The Russians have stopped surrendering at all. Do we even know? by Weiss Wurst 21 Aug 2003, 18:01, Post November 21. Click here to find out more. Fragment of Lieutenant General Alexander von Daniels testimony, commander of the German 376th Infantry Division: . I want to scream. The military history YouTube channel The Armchair Historian opens their episode on the Battle of Stalingrad with the line "The average lifespan of a soldier in Stalingrad was just 24 hours.". by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 22:03, Post The letters penned by the German soldiers as the Battle of Stalingrad raged on around them were infused with candor. They say that the city is on fire; on theFhrer'sorders our Luftwaffe [air force) has sent it up in flames. Are the Russians really thinking of holding out in the city itself? Why Do People Stay In Abusive Relationships? The letters of the German soldiers are imbued with frankness, We havent eaten or slept in three He wrote: 'That isn't a good idea when facing tank men like us - floor the accelerator, turn left and run over him. . 'I shot him myself. But now we have to roam around this horrible A German newspaper described Stalingrad as the most fateful battle of the war that was in early August 1942, even before Hitlers soldiers began their assault on the city. The documentary 'Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries' will be coming soon via History Hit TV. Poor fellow, hes got three children. . The YouTube channel is a generally reputable source but this fact made me skeptical. Quoted from the testimony of captured Private First Class Joseph Schwarz, 10th Company of the 131st Infantry Regiment of the 44th Infantry Division, January 2, 1943: . September 22. I believe that the Fuhrer will carry the thing through to a successful end. an effort to communicate impressions to relatives, an effort to share the truth They evidently decided to bury us in this . by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 22:05, Post December 25.The Russian radio has announced the defeat of Manstein. If fate allows it, someday I .. . Will I really go back to Elsa without a decoration? If we take any prisoners its because they are hopelessly wounded, and cant, move by themselves.Stalingrad is hell. Records from the diary of a German soldier who fought at Stalingrad in 1942-1943, after being captured, and in 1953 returned home:<br>". Over 1.8 million became casualties. They describe shocking violence. . .. We are on hunger rations and waiting for the rescue that the Fuhrer promised. 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. Unfortunately, I cant write everything to you. All the rest were wounded and killed. already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades cant eat their fill. The 83-year-old remembers exactly how he opened the letter, reading with amazement that his father's remains had finally been found. The battalion is suffering heavy losses. decided to give ourselves up to capture in order to save our soldiers lives. By the spring of 1943, even Hitler. 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. Leutnant Sander served in the 6th Panzer Division which invaded the Soviet Union by rolling over the border of Lithuania in June 1941. 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. The most notable account used in both is the brutal six-day long battle between 16 and 22 September 1942 over a grain elevator where, according to him, only 40 Russian soldiers (he refers to them as "devils") were found dead in the elevator at the end of the engagement, while his battalion in comparison, suffered disastrously heavy losses. God, let it be! . I will wait to pass judgement until I read it though. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. July 29 1942. . There are not more than sixty men left in each company. December 3. The most obvious course of action for any. During that meeting, Lyolya Novikova was posthumously accepted into the Communist Party. . The Russians are defending themselves with insane stubbornness. Two men then carefully lift him out. It was the most ferocious battle in human history, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. A soldier prepares to throw a grenade. 'They tell the story of the campaign through the eyes of a German junior officer in a way in which it has never been told before. Fanatics. If they could only see what Stalingrad has done to our army. Our regiment has lost many men from [he katyushi, which belch out terrible fire. Unfortunately, I cant write everything to you. There are barely 30 men in the company. 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 says in the diary that Russian soldiers treated people just as savagely. 'This is how I see it at least. 44111, to his brother, November 18, 1942. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. morning we manage to advance 20 metres, in the evening the Russians throw us the said book became an antiquity in bibliography. . My book shows in great detail how Red Army soldiers were inducted into the Communist Party. If fate allows it, someday I will tell you about it. . In a total war for refusing to . precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win 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. A German soldier rests at Stalingrad. I found them in the archive of the Institute for Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. . The Russians have two alternatives, either to flee across theVolga or give themselves up. Force of the 212th Regiment. Who was conducting the interviews and why? On February2, 1943, the remnants of the Sixth Army surrendered. If in the From a letter from Senior Lance Corporal Arno Bitz of the Further along the road he encountered more Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) who had been summarily executed by their German captors. .. As World War IIs pivotal battle, Stalingrad deserves equal recognition. Source: Zelma/RIA Novosti. Background to the Battle of Stalingrad: By mid-1942, the German invasion of the USSR had already cost Russia over six million soldiers, half killed a Furthermore, a large part of its territory and resources were under German control. and December of 1942 and the first half of January 1943. . August 10. . . . Hitler, they were certain, would meet Napoleons end. Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of invading the Soviet Union to secure future German interests. They only differed in their interpretations of this resistance. . . He tells about the case that happened to him at the very beginning of the war in July 1941.<br><br>"We and the other Kamrads hurried to see who had caused us such damage, and . At the time of the invasion German combat effectiveness had reached its peak and the forces invading Russia represented the best it had to offer. At that time we actually cut up a dog, and the vodka really came in handy. Im sick of this. Diary of a German Soldier William Hoffman 4.50 4 ratings2 reviews Want to read Buy on Amazon Rate this book 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. Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, From time to time mines explode When I think about this, Im ready to howl from annoyance His battlefield . .. October 28. Clothing freezes on the body. There have been a number of cases of self inflicted wounds and malingering among the men. You dont see them at all, they have established themselves in houses and cellars and are firing on all sides, including from our rear-barbarians, they use gangster methods. There is no way out, nor 6. It must be mothers prayersthat have taken me away from the companys trenches . 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