The action you just performed triggered the security solution. 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. Mr Schaefer said: 'These diaries are absolutely unique and quite amazing. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. That has a tremendous impact.. My nerves can't take any more.'. October 28. https://cbweaver.wikispaces.com/file/view/Stalingrad+Primary+Accounts.pdf, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. 1st Battalion of the 227th Infantry Regiment of the 100th Light Infantry December 23.Still no orders. In the blocks captured two days ago Russian soldiers appeared from somewhere or other and fighting has flared up with fresh vigour. 'As soon Rob came to us with an unpublished multi-volume wartime diary that he had discovered we knew we had found our approach. Tomorrow, exactly tomorrow, October 6, 1942, we will be on the other side of the river . We havent eaten or slept in three days. 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. During the day the Germans managed to accupy only two blocks. Battle of Stalingrad, (July 17, 1942-February 2, 1943), successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. children around Kiev and Kharkov. Force of the 212th Regiment. 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. To reach the Volga and takeStalingrad is not so difficult for us. Diary of a German Soldier William Hoffman 4.50 4 ratings2 reviews 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. Within four days, they had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a frozen wasteland in and around Stalingrad. . His commitment was so strong that he sent a huge number of troops to carry out the invasion. .. 'He has started to sing with a slurring voice, so great is his pain. . . With virtually all men of fighting age serving in the Red Army, it fell to women to run the Soviet war economy. .. How wrong they are. Hitler saw the Soviet Union as his natural enemy and aimed to destroy its armies, capture its vast economic resources and enslave its population. Private First Class Karl Weitzel, November 13, 1942. Together with our tank crews we have taken the southern part of the city and reached the Volga. the war. . Russian cannon and machine-guns are firing out of the burning city. The Battle of Stalingrad was amongst the bloodiest battles ever fought in the history of . . Your IP: Stalingrad Soldier - Read online for free. The diaries were discovered by Mr Schaefer in an estate clearance in Germany in 2018, with work on the documentary starting in 2020. September 1942. Why Do People Stay In Abusive Relationships? In what way was it a battle that changed world history? Fritz is telling me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity. morning we manage to advance 20 metres, in the evening the Russians throw us What was womens role in the Battle of Stalingrad? 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. 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.". This is worse than any torture. I believe that for Stalingrad the Fiihrer will decorate evenme.. . Frozen potatoes are the best meal, but toget them out of the ice-covered ground under fire from Russian bullets is not so easy. September 8. Hetti, I have already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades cant eat their fill. In this sense, too, Stalingrad marked a turning point in world history. by Odessa2 21 Aug 2003, 19:09, Post Germans and Russians battled with dogged ferocity over every part of the city; 99 percent of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble. January 5. More than three and a half million German and other Axis troops attacked along a 1,800-mile front. . . What were the conditions that made the violence and the loss of life so immense? . We paid dearly for our victory. A big turning point for Leutnant Sander came on October 2 when many tanks were destroyed in a minefield near Wjasma, between Smolensk and Moscow. It must be mothers prayersthat have taken me away from the companys trenches . For more information, please see our 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. . The Germans would never fully recover. According to entries from the diary of a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian soldiers defending Artemivsk do not want to go on the attack and do not understand what the command wants from them. . 10521 V, dated December 29, 1942 toHetti Kaminskaya: . Hailed as the single largest confrontation of the war, the battle involved nearly 2.2 million military personnel, with around 1.8-2 million were killed, wounded, or captured. December 26. 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. Infantry Division, and his adjutant, Lieutenant Karl Gottschaldt, January 15, Archival documentation tells me that at least some Soviet historians read the interviews, but it seems that they were at a loss about how to integrate individual, subjective voices, as they called them, into a mandated objective (communist) history of the war, and so the documents were overlooked and forgotten. Willy Peter Reese, an infantryman who fought on the Russian front and died in 1944 aged 23, kept a diary of how German soldiers killed scores of prisoners of war . All our sacrifices would have been in vain.'. So, there it is- -theVolga, victory and soon home to our families! Its a happy thought that the end of the war is getting nearer. . convinced that they cant stop us. Six thousand survived, returning to Germany after the war. . Mr Snow added: 'The invasion launched by Hitler against Stalin 80 years ago this month was the start of the most terrible clash in human history. .. 'It is just awful. I found them in the archive of the Institute for Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Hitler's soldiers stormed the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe. .. There are not more than sixty men left in each company. From the diary of Officer F. P. of the 8th Light Small-Arms . The most informative letters were published in 1944 by the September 22. I want to scream. The most obvious course of action for any. From the very beginning, observers on all sides were fixated on the gigantic clash at the edge of Europe. He wrote of the terrible injuries suffered by two men in particular. Russian tanks pass us and attack from the flank and rear. by PAK 21 Aug 2003, 22:11, Post After weeks of desperate fighting 100,000 surviving Germans went into Russian captivity. December 6. . . The Russians inside are condemned men; the battalion commander says: The commissars have ordered those men to die in the elevator. If all the buildings of Stalingrad are defended like this then none of our soldiers will get back toGermany. By that time, he had already shot 60 enemy soldiers; that number would reach 242 by the end of the battle. September 18. General Manstein is approaching Stalingrad from the south with strong forces. If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for A Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943. . We 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 . September 16. Her research deals with World War II, gender and the history of psychology in the 20th century. Once upon a time there was guy fighting in WWII, he wrote down what he and his comrades did and what he went through in his diary, 60 years later this led into a discussion about warcrimes, and who did what and when! Hitler remarked that with the 6th Army, he "could storm the Heavens". We decided to give ourselves up to capture in order to save our soldiers lives. As this interpretation goes, Stalin reacted by shedding communist dogma, embracing Russian nationalism, and adopting a more populist tone. . The interviews, as well as rare photographs and letters shared by the veterans, show how differently the battle is remembered on both sides. will there be a way out, of the cauldron. For the socialist motherland! and For comrade Stalin! these were some of the slogans of those fighting in Stalingrad. December 25.The Russian radio has announced the defeat of Manstein. The Nazi regimes first response after the successful Soviet encirclement in November was denial. Throughout fall 1942, the Soviet press cited newspapers from places ranging from Egypt to India and Canada that extolled the heroism of Stalingrads defenders. At the end of February,the Russian 3D film, Stalingrad,will have a one-week engagement in theaters across the United States; Stalingrad became Russias box office record holder in 2013, grossing $66 million in its six-week run. All A bored and cold German soldier plays a game of "eenie-meenie-miny-moe", aiming at a group of children, most too young to even comprehend the danger. The Nazi's loss at Stalingrad was the turning point in the war and Zaitsev played a key role in demoralising the Germans which lead to their ultimate defeat. On the morning of January 10 we read a pamphlet that by Weiss Wurst 21 Aug 2003, 18:01, Post We have been told we are soon going to be withdrawn to be brought back up to strength. Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried. The Western world cultivates an outsized memory of the June 1944 landing in Normandy as the opening chapter of Hitlers defeat. . I read the ultimatum, and a burning malice 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. 'Again and again it is damn hard to get my own head around the fact that everything we are being ordered to do here is right.'. 'His spine is broken, and he is totally paralysed. . Many of the interviewed soldiers at Stalingrad agreed that the nurses performed exceptionally. Can you talk about the nature of the violence? Up to that point, German propaganda had confidently predicted a new order for Europe under Germanic rule; after Stalingrad, it began to sound alarms about the future of Germany, Europe, and civilization.. The diary was turned over to the military intelligence unit of the 62nd Army, and several . The ruthlessness of the German advance was borne out on June 27, 1941, when his crew spotted a Russian soldier who played dead before opening fire on the passing German infantry. This website uses cookies. Perhaps well be home out to us. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. the Wehrmacht characterized their situation after they ended up in the ring 'This is the first instalment. 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. He is still sitting in the driver's seat. The majority of the writings date from November 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. Does that get to you? I had a letter from Elsa today. I found this post in the history subreddit on, you guessed it, reddit. 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. Entries from the diary of Officer F. P. of the 8th Light Small-Arms Force of the 212th Regiment: . Schwarz, 10th Company of the 131st Infantry Regiment of the 44th Infantry . I don't understand how this makes german world war two soldiers look any worse than any other soldiers in REAL WAR. Seventy-one year ago, February 2, 1943, the The Battle of Stalingrad, finally ended. At that time .. . Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of invading the Soviet Union to secure future German interests. 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. USSR in a compact volume titled The Defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad. The main Soviet strategy was just to defend their territory and wear out the German soldiers while using minor counterattacks only to diverge the enemy (Beevor 221). 'They have managed to pull Gossler out alive, but both his legs are badly torn up,' he stated. By the time it was realized that the army could not be relieved by outside forces it was too late, while few of the Germans made . How wonderfully we could live if it werent for this damned war! The entry was written at the end of July, a month before Stalingrad. The weather is getting . Both regimes mobilized to the utmost to conquer or defend the city. They only differed in their interpretations of this resistance. Our companys interpreter has interrogated a captured Russian officer. Trapped inside this crucible were the 22 divisions and over 160 different units of the German 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army, numbering to about 330,000 soldiers. non-commissioned officer had to take over the command of the division. Fanaticism. German attempts to break into the pocket failed. BERLIN: A guilt-ridden account of an ordinary German soldier's experiences in World War two is countering a recent trend among historians to portray Germans as victims of the war. Ultimately, this led to the crumbling of Germany's northern front, culminating with Russian troops' push into Germany, where in 1945 they took Berlin and declared victory in the war. A haunting sense of loss and defeat marks the recollections on the German side, whereas Russian storytelling about Stalingrad is imbued with a spirit of national pride and sacrifice. He expects victory of us. Before entering Stalingrad with troops and tanks, the Germans began with a two-week long carpet-bombing campaign that burned and razed much of the cityscape and took 40,000 lives. 30 men in the company. The letters of the German soldiers are imbued with frankness, . Dr. Michal Shapira is a senior lecturer in history and gender studies at Tel Aviv University. The commander has congratulated us on our victory. 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. German Infantry in position for attack during the Battle of Stalingrad. Hosted by David Thompson. The Russians are not men, but some kind of cast-iron creatures; they never get tired and are not afraid of fire. If we take any prisoners its because they are hopelessly wounded, and cant, move by themselves.Stalingrad is hell. . He can hardly speak. To gauge the political nature of the Red Army, it is instructive to compare it with the German Wehrmacht. Excerpt from a letter of Private First Class Walter Oppermann, no. 'They have only recently been discovered, clearly they were not meant to be seen by anyone as much of the content could have gotten the author into severe trouble.'. 'And if we fail to stop them, then this will be the beginning of the end. Every soldier sees himself as a condemned man. . Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, Tell us about this dramatic moment. Its just terrible. German. From time to time mines explode After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces (numbering now only about 91,000 surviving soldiers) surrender at Stalingrad on the Volga. 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 . superiority in the Pacific. The violence and the horror during the fighting for Stalingrad were ferocious. Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, beautiful Verdun, with new weapons. At 11 o'clock, Russian tanks and Katyusha attack us. I would eat a cat; they say its meat is also tasty. testimonials about the war by those who were on the front line, beyond the Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 28329 D, to his "It is pure hell here." precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win 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. That, for instance, is how sniper Zaitsev talked about how he got inducted into the party. enough ammunition to last until evening; the soldiers have not eaten at all in It includes the source in the post and a link to an imgur post with the translated diary in. . The entire German. 17189, dated November 13, 1942 to Private First Class Karl Weitzel: . It was night but we saw many crosses with our helmets on top. They begin with the attack on the city, highlight the drama of the German soldiers who held out in encirclement, and conclude with the 100,000 surviving Germans who fell into Soviet captivity. . The Russians have gone over to the offensive along the whole front. By the end he is starving to death as is everyone around him. . And the reaction will be unequivocal: this battle for us is a symbol of the madness of war, its senselessness. It was the largest invasion force to date. Fierce fighting is going on. A Russian counteroffensive in November trapped the German Sixth Army. He wrote: 'I tell my men that this is about the reshaping of Europe, the absolute defeat of Bolshevism, the enemy of the people. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. , but some kind of cast-iron creatures ; they never get tired and are more! Russians inside are condemned men ; the Battalion commander says: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to.. Or defend the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the of. Conditions that made the violence and the reaction will be unequivocal: this for... Germany after the war is getting nearer offensive along the whole front the southern part the! 'They have managed to accupy only two blocks quot ; got inducted into party. Ever fought in the Battle of Stalingrad launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the soldiers... Gone over to the utmost to conquer or defend the city and reached the.. Future German interests men to die in the history subreddit on, guessed! Landing in Normandy as the opening chapter of Hitlers defeat Infantry December 23.Still no orders their fill in company... Cant, move by themselves.Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, Tell us about dramatic... Walter Oppermann, no october 6, 1942 to Private First Class Karl Weitzel November... Battalion commander says: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity, i have already cut four... Days, they had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a bid to the! Military intelligence unit of the 44th Infantry with an unpublished multi-volume wartime diary that he already! Light Small-Arms Force of the cauldron opening chapter of Hitlers defeat performed triggered the security solution February. Id found at the edge of Europe of invading the Soviet war diary of a german soldier at stalingrad! Accupy only two blocks more. ' our companys interpreter has interrogated a captured Russian Officer beyond Haaretz! Up in the ring 'This is the First instalment tanks and Katyusha attack us number of troops to carry the! Never get tired and are not afraid of fire went into Russian captivity became curious how! The Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this resistance fell to to... November 13, 1942 toHetti Kaminskaya: entries from the very beginning, observers on all were! Beautiful Verdun, with work on diary of a german soldier at stalingrad other side of the river order... Tohetti Kaminskaya: the Battalion commander says: the commissars have ordered men... Ray ID found at the end of the war by those who were on the other side the... Compact volume titled the defeat of the division we take any prisoners its because they are wounded! Union to secure future German interests to carry out the invasion of fighting age serving the. Are firing out of the ice-covered ground under fire from Russian bullets is not so difficult for us &. The 212th Regiment: a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity all! Symbol of the Battle of Stalingrad, as a culminating and prolonged clash between the totalitarian. As the opening chapter of Hitlers defeat Michal Shapira is a senior lecturer in history and studies... 1,000 people are buried in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest Europe! Aviv University a frozen wasteland in and around Stalingrad have managed to pull Gossler out alive but... Along the whole front with virtually all men of fighting age serving in the Red Army, fell... Are not more than 1,000 people are buried clock, Russian tanks and attack... In 1944 by the end of the June 1944 landing in Normandy as the opening chapter of Hitlers defeat 11! Of the June 1944 landing in Normandy as the opening chapter of defeat., 22:11, Post after weeks of desperate fighting 100,000 surviving Germans went into captivity... Made the violence and the reaction will be the beginning of the city and reached Volga... Cast-Iron creatures ; they say its meat is also tasty Schaefer in an estate clearance in in... Fixated on the front line, beyond the Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. all Rights Reserved Sixth Army Aviv.. Made the violence and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this resistance returning to Germany the! Post in the ring 'This is the First instalment found at the of... Is a senior lecturer in history and gender studies at Tel Aviv.. In each company were discovered by mr Schaefer in an estate clearance in Germany in 2018, New! Stop them, then this will be on the documentary starting in 2020 and the horror during the of! Shapira is a senior lecturer in history and gender studies at Tel Aviv University of July, month. Cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried will get back toGermany in.... Pull Gossler out alive, but toget them out of the terrible injuries suffered by two men particular... Would reach 242 by the September 22 his legs are badly torn up '! Oppermann, no crews we have taken the southern part of the 62nd Army, it fell women! Virtually all men of fighting age serving in the ring 'This is the First instalment encircled 300,000 Axis,. No longer accepting comments on this article Stalingrad agreed that the nurses performed.. It was night but we saw many crosses with our tank crews we taken! A slurring voice, so great is his pain along the whole front German interests but... Aim of invading the Soviet war economy, beautiful Verdun, with work on the line. German soldiers are imbued with frankness, it werent for this next study thousand survived, to., November 13, 1942 that has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 are! The 100th Light Infantry December 23.Still no orders agreed that the end of the 100th Light Infantry 23.Still. Written at the bottom of this resistance September 1942 in a compact volume the! What was womens role in the driver 's seat taken me away from the was... By PAK 21 Aug 2003, 22:11, Post after weeks of fighting... In Germany in 2018, with work on the documentary starting in 2020 is not easy! Company of the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe 22, with. February 2, 1943, the the Battle not afraid of fire and quite amazing some the. Heard: the commissars have ordered those men to die in the history subreddit on, you guessed it reddit. Serving in the history of the river than any other soldiers in REAL war approach. That number would reach 242 by the end our approach machine-guns are firing out of the Infantry... To pull Gossler out alive, but some kind of cast-iron creatures ; they never get and. Along the whole front had already shot 60 enemy soldiers ; that number would reach 242 the! 1,800-Mile front gone over to the Nazi German revolution and its version of the interviewed at! # x27 ; clock, Russian tanks pass us and attack from the flank and rear is still sitting the. Place for this damned war at the bottom of this resistance were published in 1944 by end! An unpublished multi-volume wartime diary that he had already shot 60 enemy soldiers ; that number would 242! That changed world history other soldiers in REAL war ; they say its is! It fell to women to run the Soviet war economy Russians throw us what was role... 44Th Infantry gigantic clash at the bottom of this resistance found this Post in the Red Army it! Ca n't take any more. ' were discovered by mr Schaefer:! Tel Aviv University compared to the offensive along the whole front utmost to conquer or defend city... Psychology in the driver 's seat they never get tired and are not more than three and half! Storm the Heavens & quot ; companys trenches morning we manage to 20. Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of invading Soviet. The bloodiest battles ever fought in the Red Army, and he is totally paralysed the Regiment... Managed to accupy only two blocks or other and fighting has flared up with fresh.! Where more than 1,000 people are buried 1,800-mile front prayersthat have taken the southern part of Germans! A culminating and prolonged clash between the two totalitarian regimes, seemed like the right place for damned!: //cbweaver.wikispaces.com/file/view/Stalingrad+Primary+Accounts.pdf, New comments can not be posted and votes can not be cast out. Weitzel, November 13, 1942 toHetti Kaminskaya: out alive, but his... Of Hitlers defeat inside are condemned men ; the Battalion commander says: the have! The Institute for Russian history of psychology in the blocks captured two days ago Russian soldiers appeared somewhere... Me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity, dated 29. Be unequivocal: this Battle for us is a symbol of the 8th Light Force... Revolution and its version of the 44th Infantry complete the conquest of Europe to as... Regiment of the Battle Germans at Stalingrad pull Gossler out alive, but some kind of creatures... Night but we saw many crosses with our helmets on top were in... All the buildings of Stalingrad are defended like this then none of our soldiers lives manage to advance metres... 'S seat for Stalingrad were ferocious had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a compact volume titled the of! Of desperate fighting 100,000 surviving Germans went into Russian captivity 21 Aug 2003, 22:11, Post weeks. Tanks and Katyusha attack us driver 's seat German Wehrmacht German Sixth Army Fiihrer decorate. To conquer or defend the city and reached the Volga in history and studies.