diary of a german soldier at stalingrad

In what way was it a battle that changed world history? Friedrich Paulus - the 6th Army's commander - led his men east across the endless steppe, finally reaching the outskirts of the city on 16 August. Problem solved. I have enough. Its a happy thought that the end of the war is getting nearer. the personnel army "lost weight", total mobilization was announced in all spheres of German life. We havent eaten or slept in three days. . Fighting is going on inside the elevator. .. During the day the Germans managed to accupy only two blocks. I had a letter from Elsa today. . themselves. 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. Why Do People Stay In Abusive Relationships? It was all a bluff with Manstein. From a letter from Senior Lance Corporal Arno Bitz of the Within four days, they had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a frozen wasteland in and around Stalingrad. will tell you about it. I read the ultimatum, and a burning malice toward our generals boiled up in me. When the Germans resumed their offensive, in spring 1942, their strategic target was the oil fields of the Caucasus. If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for everything we did. Diary entries of Field Gendarmerie Sergeant Helmut Megenburg: . December 14.Everybody is racked with hunger. . Look at the confidence and aggression on the face of the soldiers. In the summer of 1942 Paulus advanced toward Stalingrad with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. Ironically, Stalins death and demise [in 1953] dealt another blow to the defenders of Stalingrad. In pubs throughout England, the radio would be turned on for the start of the evening news only to be turned off after the report on Stalingrad had aired. 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. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. . Then the terrible struggles in . She was five years old when Adolf Hitler's Sixth Army stormed into Stalingrad in the summer of 1942. But with thousands of Soviet guardsmen poised to launch a furious counter-attack, his triumph was to be short-lived. Only as Army Group South advanced toward Maikop and Grozny did Hitler order a separate attack on Stalingrad. this was a good position from which to . Iain MacGregor reveal previously unpublished testimonies from Roske's diary, and the grim . . October 27.Our troops have captured the whole of the Barrikady factory, but we cannot break through to theVolga. 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. Our regiment is attacking the Barrikady settlement. Diary of a German Soldier (161 results) It was largely because of its symbolic charge that the battle for Stalingrad turned into a decisive showdown between the two regimes. September 4.We are being sent northward along the front towards Stalingrad. . He is still sitting in the driver's seat. It was the most powerful formation of the whole 'Heer' (German Army). Take Vassily Zaitsev, the famed sniper at Stalingrad, who killed 242 enemy soldiers over the course of the battle, until he suffered an eye injury, in January 1943. I found this book an insightful account of the mind of s sniper and the battle for Stalingrad. We are preparing for a decisive attack. defect or surrender to captivity. January 5. There are very few men left in the companies. But, the Germansseverely underestimated their opponent and the weather they would face on their journey to Moscow. strength of the Red Army. On February2, 1943, the remnants of the Sixth Army surrendered. . September 1942. 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. beautiful Verdun, with new weapons. The battle for the elevator is still going on. Records from the diary of a German soldier who fought at Stalingrad in 1942-1943, after being captured, and in 1953 returned home:<br>". .. What is so remarkable about the interviews that I discovered in the archive is that they were recorded during the battle and in its immediate aftermath. about the combats in the Stalingrad region, and soldiers assessment of the . At the beginning he seems hopeful and excited, towards the end his tone gets darker. . We attack on a daily basis. the said book became an antiquity in bibliography. October 14. But now we have to roam around this horrible Russia, and for what? Their goal was not to cultivate private thoughts as distinct from the communist regime, but to align their thinking with the mandate of the Soviet revolution, and to rise to the level of a worthy participant in a world historical drama. For the socialist motherland! and For comrade Stalin! these were some of the slogans of those fighting in Stalingrad. .. Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried. The retreat of the Nazis in that particular battle is seen by many historians as the turning point of WWII. . . The work of Hellbeck, who was awarded a 2017 John Simon Guggenheim fellowship in the humanities, continues to focus on wartime efforts to record German atrocities committed on Soviet soil. Entries from the diary of Officer F. P. of the 8th Light Small-Arms Force of the 212th Regiment: . . You can scarcely breathe in the daytime: there is nowhere and no one to remove the bodies, so they are left there to rot. We have never been through anything like this. enough ammunition to last until evening; the soldiers have not eaten at all in This was before the tide turned. By December 21, 1941, when the Red Army had turned the tide of the German advance and the invaders were enduring the harsh conditions of the Russian winter, Leutnant Sander started to doubt the Nazi cause. All the rest were wounded and killed. . Who would have thought three months ago that instead of the joy of victory we would have to endure such sacrifice and torture, the end of which is nowhere in sight? One day I shot a magpie and cooked it. The entry was written at the end of July, a month before Stalingrad. The soldiers on record dont know what will come next, and when and how the war will end. [Quoting Zaitsev]: Or another time you see young girls, children hanging from trees in the park. The Russians are throwing in their last forces, Captain Werner explained to me. This is worse than any torture. the rest were wounded and killed. Does that get to you? How wrong they are. The book became a bibliographic rarity. They quickly encircled an entire German army, more than 220,000 soldiers. In his memoirs, Chuikov writes that he issued a sharp rebuke to his cowardly officers. The diary was turned over to the military intelligence unit of the 62nd Army, and several . I just want to scream it all away. Nov. 3, 2010 -- August 26, 1916, Guillemont, Somme region, northeastern France: "In front of my hole lies an Englishman who fell there yesterday. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. military publishing house of the Peoples Commissariat of the Defence of the What role did Bolshevism play in the fighting? While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. 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. . . Behind them is theVolga. August 25, 1942. Realizing that the Sixth Army, exhausted and short of weapons, ammunition, food, and medical supplies, faced annihilation, German generals pleaded in vain with Hitler to permit withdrawal before the Russians closed the ring. . Its just terrible. October 5. Who were the interviewees of these Stalingrad transcripts? Her research deals with World War II, gender and the history of psychology in the 20th century. 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. . The violence and the horror during the fighting for Stalingrad were ferocious. Do we even know? We stay in our cellar; you cant go out into the street. . thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. Two men then carefully lift him out. The number of soldiers cemeteries is growing .. September 5. 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. . We shall obviously be seeing them next in the other world. This is nothing new. 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). At dawn on Jan. 31, 1943, the bloodiest battle of World War II came to an end for the top German commander in Stalingrad. His tone changes from exicted and hopeful to a darker tone toward the end. It is pure hell here. An unlucky number. Megenburg. . 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. The letters and diary entries were direct and animated testimonials of the Battle of Stalingrad from the front lines, a long way off from the trenches and the bunkers. All are fleeing in panic. an effort to communicate impressions to relatives, an effort to share the truth It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked . I want to scream. by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 22:48, Return to Holocaust & 20th Century War Crimes. Hellbeck interviewing Boris Serafimovich Kryzhanovsky, who was still a child when Stalingrad was bombed in 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. . . . November 19. In the blocks captured two days ago Russian soldiers appeared from somewhere or other and fighting has flared up with fresh vigour. It was the most ferocious battle in human history, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. . More Soviet soldiers died in the five-month battle than Americans in the entire war. by Lawrence Tandy 21 Aug 2003, 22:24, Post 17189, dated November 13, 1942 to Private First Class Karl Weitzel: . 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. Cookie Notice 22-25 November. As this interpretation goes, Stalin reacted by shedding communist dogma, embracing Russian nationalism, and adopting a more populist tone. Splendid news-north of Stalingrad our troops have reached theVolga and captured part of the city. Victory is not far away. for a long time. . and our Clothing freezes on the body. The Soviets delay Operation Uranus to get their troops in position to attack, encircle 6th Army. Hitler commanded General Friedrich Paulus to, stand firm with his Sixth Army and forbade attempts to, break out of the encirclement. 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. Yes, the Fuehrer promised that we would end the war in the autumn of 1941, but he was a little mistaken. Its just terrible. . If only the days and nights would pass more quickly . Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. These letters and diaries are lively and direct Hetti, I have already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades cant eat their fill. This morning katyushi attacks caused the company heavy losses: twenty-seven dead and fifty wounded. July 29 1942. . Hosted by David Thompson. . After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces (numbering now only about 91,000 surviving soldiers) surrender at Stalingrad on the Volga. which both sides took severe losses. . Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, beautiful Verdun, with new weapons. Stalingrad Soldier - Read online for free. formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad region. When I think about this, Im ready to howl from annoyance and rage. So they wove a tale of a few German soldier heroes left standing, fighting Asiatic hordes to their last breath. 30 men in the company. September 22. Credit: Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad, My Aunt Had a Dinner Party, and Then Took Her Guests to Kill 180 Jews, Germany Marks Munich Massacre With Memorial, but Still Avoids Taking Responsibility, How a neo-Nazi Group Recruited Her Majestys Soldiers. Among the documents collected by the Historical Commission in Stalingrad were two excerpts from the diary of a German private 1st class. To this day, the Russian state and the Russian people commemorate the battle intensely. Stalingrad is a 1993 German anti-war film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. I want to scream. . Together with our tank crews we have taken the southern part of the city and reached the Volga. A Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943. Even civilians were considered vital defenders of Fortress Stalingrad and not allowed to evacuate until several days after the beginning of the bombardment. Diary entries of a German solider during the Battle of Stalingrad Discussion/Question The entries are written by William Hoffman and records the fighting and general situation around him from the 29th of July to the 26th of December 1942. The print run was not detailed, the book printed using the simplest of papers and released as a paperback clearly it was not meant to be kept for a long time. Surely, though, even though this may be form the diary of a sociopathic soldier, he was still, not the norm in the army. 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. 4 pages, ebook First published January 1, 1942 Book details & editions . .. A group of Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to two Russian women who have been living there. As the battle wore on, many read it as an indication that Germany would lose the war. Red Army soldiers describe how they fought their way into the city center, blowing up basements and entire buildings filled with Germans after at least some of them refused to lay down their arms. 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. . Thesefragmentsfrom letters, diary entries and testimonials were first published in File.rf in Russian. In this photograph, a Red Army soldier is seen marching a German soldier into captivity after the Battle of Stalingrad. . After weeks of desperate fighting 100,000 surviving Germans went into Russian captivity. . already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades cant eat their fill. by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 22:03, Post . Russian resistance in the elevator has been broken. But the historians drew confidence from history, notably the War of 1812, when the Russian people had been able to defeat a technologically superior invader. Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more '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.'. The turning point of World War II came at Stalingrad. The 83-year-old remembers exactly how he opened the letter, reading with amazement that his father's remains had finally been found. . 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. . Germans and Russians battled with dogged ferocity over every part of the city; 99 percent of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble. sustained by the German armed forces as a result of the perishing of the 6th However, many German military records provide very few details about individuals other than those who served as officers. Hetti, I have In some sense, the counter-offensive copied the stunningly successful German Blitzkrieg model of 1941. by Odessa2 21 Aug 2003, 19:03, Post The documentary 'Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries' will be coming soon via History Hit TV. . But by February 2, 1943, when the Germans trapped in the city surrendered, it was clear that the momentum on the Eastern Front had shifted. All From the testimony of captured Private First Class Joseph This news brought hope to the soldiers hearts. The victory came at a high cost; about two-fifths of the American planes were shot down. Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, and there is no company commander. 6 Dec. But they speak with palpable pride about their victory over Hitlers army, which had an aura of being unstoppable. Fanaticism. That was how Wehrmacht soldiers and officers viewed their plight after they ended up in the middle of the circle of fire formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad area. .. . Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns by Don A. Gregory; William R. Gehlen and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. Are the Russians really thinking of holding out in the city itself? The Russians are firing on allsides. In the interviews I was surprised to discover the source of this hatred. On June 4, at the Battle of Midway, Island, American planes destroyed all four of the attacking, Japanese aircraft carriers and established American naval. everything we did. The entire German. . 'But have I myself really taken these slogans to heart? . This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by the Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjernes Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day. We marched all night and by dawn had reached Voroponovo Station. Both regimes mobilized to the utmost to conquer or defend the city. Two days of non-stop fighting. . Soviet soldiers found the diary in December 1942 or January 1943, probably among the possessions of its deceased owner. Have we really lost so many men? writings by captured soldiers. 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