diary of a german soldier at stalingrad

. enormous field post office of the adversary, along with diaries and other The diaries were discovered by Mr Schaefer in an estate clearance in Germany in 2018, with work on the documentary starting in 2020. If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for September 16. His tone changes from exicted and hopeful to a darker tone toward the end. Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, and there is no company commander. superiority in the Pacific. by Weiss Wurst 21 Aug 2003, 18:01, Post They also wanted to create an archival record for posterity. Founded in 1999. . We killed thousands of Russians and Jews with wives and children around Kiev and Kharkov. The remarkable 'lost' diaries of German tank commander Leutnant Friedrich Sander, who went from being a hardened Nazi to a broken soldier in just a few weeks of fighting in the Second World War . It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked . Making up for colossal losses in people, equipment and ammunition That has a tremendous impact.'. There are barely Hitler commanded General Friedrich Paulus to, stand firm with his Sixth Army and forbade attempts to, break out of the encirclement. . We are absolutely exhausted; our regiment now has barely the strength of a company. Or has he been defeated at the approaches to Stalingrad? Discussions on the Holocaust and 20th Century War Crimes. That was one reason why these interviews could not be published at the time. Seventy-one year ago, February 2, 1943, the The Battle of Stalingrad, finally ended. If we take any prisoners its because they are hopelessly wounded, and cant, move by themselves.Stalingrad is hell. It is pure hell here. The Germans became very impressed with this. the rest were wounded and killed. Clothing freezes on the body. Six thousand survived, returning to Germany after the war. 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. A lot of Russian tommy gunners have appeared. The weather's getting worse. Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942. Lots of wounded are being brought by. . He can hardly speak. . Our regiment has been ordered to attack Sadovaya station-thats nearly in Stalingrad. From the testimony of Lieutenant General Alexander von If we lose this war, theyll take revenge on us for everything we did. But they speak with palpable pride about their victory over Hitlers army, which had an aura of being unstoppable. 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. Hetti, I have already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades cant eat their fill. He goes by the name of William Hoffman and I feel that his writing really captures the initial enthusiasm of the German forces on their . defect or surrender to captivity. 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. Further along the road he encountered more Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) who had been summarily executed by their German captors. by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 19:07, Post . . Who was conducting the interviews and why? Large-scale help is coming up for us, and the Russians will be beaten. I found them in the archive of the Institute for Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 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. . If in the morning we manage to advance 20meters, in the evening the Russians throw us backward. Dozhd TV channel taken off air in some markets, January There are barely 30 men in the company. precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win This is nothing new. We can already see theVolga; firing is going on all the time. Ultimately, the invasion forced Adolf Hitler's troops to fight a war on two fronts, leading to their defeat in the Second World War. We stay in our cellar; you cant go out into the street. The Fiihrer knows where the Russians weak point is. Fragment of Lieutenant General Alexander von Daniels testimony, commander of the German 376th Infantry Division: . .. Himmler was aware that the time of reckoning for Germany was drawing near. But the army resisted this overt intrusion of the political into the military realm. Also revealed in the new documentary are Leutnant Sander's unseen images of the doomed invasion. 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. The letters penned by the German soldiers as the Battle of Stalingrad raged on around them were infused with candor. Megenburg. I was extraordinarily lucky to have been the first historian to fully explore the 215 interviews conducted with Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, and publish them. A curse on this war! 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. January 15. . . The turning point of World War II came at Stalingrad. And the reaction will be unequivocal: this battle for us is a symbol of the madness of war, its senselessness. 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. It was night but we saw many crosses with our helmets on top. 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. 4 pages, ebook First published January 1, 1942 Book details & editions About the author William Hoffman . Our battalion is fighting in the suburbs of Stalingrad. I did the same to another who pretended to be dead.'. Behind them is theVolga. . 'I shot him myself. Yesterday Russian katyushi [small rocket launchers] and then tanks halted our regiment. . 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. The interviews, as well as rare photographs and letters shared by the veterans, show how differently the battle is remembered on both sides. Every day I write two or three reports about them. December 23.Still no orders. 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. . She was five years old when Adolf Hitler's Sixth Army stormed into Stalingrad in the summer of 1942. Our regiment, and the whole division, are today celebrating 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. On June 4, at the Battle of Midway, Island, American planes destroyed all four of the attacking, Japanese aircraft carriers and established American naval. . August 12. a magpie and cooked it. The battle for the elevator is still going on. The majority of the writings date from November This is worse than any torture. October 14. 27800, dated November 20, 1942 to his parents: . The action you just performed triggered the security solution. 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. . The defeat of the German troops in the vicinity of Stalingrad will have a major influence on how the war proceeds. 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. . October 22. 'I myself alone counted 15 men who were lying in a ditch.'. What Did Edward Snowden Actually Reveal About the U.S Government? Within four days, they had encircled 300,000 Axis soldiers, trapped in a frozen wasteland in and around Stalingrad. 1942. . He was part of 6th Army at Stalingrad. non-commissioned officer had to take over the command of the division. This news brought hope to the soldiers hearts. . People who are now sent from transport units to the infantry are as good as sentenced to death. Dr. Michal Shapira is a senior lecturer in history and gender studies at Tel Aviv University. .. to no avail. .. It marked the beginning of a campaign that would ultimately decide the outcome of the Second World War. Wilhelm Hoffman's Stalingrad diary is a FAKE TIKhistory 269K subscribers Subscribe 124K views 1 year ago I've just discovered that Wilhelm Hoffman's famous "Diary of a German Soldier". The Soviets were able to psychologically wear down the Germans and make them slowly lose motivation. 'But have I myself really taken these slogans to heart? 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. By February 1943, German forces in the Soviet Union were back to their po-, sitions of June 1942. What were the conditions that made the violence and the loss of life so immense? 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. by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 22:05, Post 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 . The operation to surround and liquidate the German 6th Army is a strategic masterpiece. His tone changes from exicted and hopeful to a darker tone toward the end. . Seventy-one year ago, February 2, 1943, the The Battle of Stalingrad, finally ended. They only differed in their interpretations of this resistance. The remarkable 'lost' diaries of a German tank commander who went from being a hardened Nazi to a broken soldier in just a few weeks of fighting in the Second World War war have been unearthed. He didn't react when I ordered him to raise his arms. How wrong they are. . Are the Russians really thinking of holding out in the city itself? German and other Axis losses in the battle of Stalingrad amounted to over 800,000 casualties. From the testimony of captured Private First Class Joseph Haaretz.com, the online English edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, gives you breaking news, analyses and opinions about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. . . His secret journals have been found 80 years later and are to be turned into a documentary by History Hit, the streaming network set up by historian Dan Snow. by Odessa2 21 Aug 2003, 19:03, Post what should be done? this was a good position from which to . strength of the Red Army. Something incomprehensible is, in fact, going on. 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. But it is for precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win the war. Our regiment is involved inconstant heavy fighting. turned dramatically in 1942. Schwarz, 10th Company of the 131st Infantry Regiment of the 44th Infantry '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. From time to time mines explode I want to scream. We have entered a new area. "It is pure hell here." . They evidently decided to bury us in this hellish place once and for all. October 5, 1942.<br>Our battalion finally reached the Volga. . which both sides took severe losses. This diary covers the period from April 1942 to March 1943, the momentous year when the tide of battle turned in the East. . days. . Do we even know? 4 pages, ebook First published January 1, 1942 Book details & editions '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.'. 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. Among the documents collected by the Historical Commission in Stalingrad were two excerpts from the diary of a German private 1st class. 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. it says in the diary that Russian soldiers treated people just as savagely. On January 14, 1942 he added: 'Even if we manage, against my expectations, to stop the Russian advance, then no one needs to know more than necessary about the hammering we have received. 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. 'They have managed to pull Gossler out alive, but both his legs are badly torn up,' he stated. . The defeat of the German troops 'This is the first instalment. Division, no. The horses have already been eaten. 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. thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. 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? 'Am I myself convinced by what I try to convincingly explain to my men? In the summer of 1942 Paulus advanced toward Stalingrad with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. His fascinating 2015 book, Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, and the Battle that Changed World History (PublicAffairs; also available in German, Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, and Chinese editions), tells the story of this battle from the Soviet side. The Russians have gone over to the offensive along the whole front. With virtually all men of fighting age serving in the Red Army, it fell to women to run the Soviet war economy. . Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of invading the Soviet Union to secure future German interests. Throughout fall 1942, the Soviet press cited newspapers from places ranging from Egypt to India and Canada that extolled the heroism of Stalingrads defenders. in the vicinity of Stalingrad will have a major influence on how the war . we actually cut up a dog, and the vodka really came in handy. . Diary of a German Soldier (161 results) We are slowly advancing. By the spring of 1943, even Hitler. Where are they bringing them from? The weather is getting .. We attack on a daily basis. I see that the wiki article states he was killed, but I'm not sure I trust it. . The Russian victory was a major turning point in the war. 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. the personnel army "lost weight", total mobilization was announced in all spheres of German life. The soldiers are calling Stalingrad the mass grave of the Wehrmacht [German army]. We shall obviously be seeing them next in the other world. 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. December 1 . 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. Stalingrad is hell on earthVerdun, 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. From a letter from soldier Heinrich Malchus, no. January 5. December 6. A soldier prepares to throw a grenade. Wilhelm Hoffman was a soldier in the 267th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army who chronicled the Battle of Stalingrad in his journal, and is cited in many documentaries and books concerning that topic. . We have lost many men; every time you move you have to jump over bodies. . 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. I just want to scream it all away. What great spaces the Soviets occupy, what rich fields there are to be had here after the wars over! around us. units of the German 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army amounting to One day I shot a magpie and cooked it. I own many books about WW2; the personal accounts are always the best. Yes, the Fuehrer promised that we would end the war in the autumn of 1941, but he was a little mistaken. Everyone expects us home for Christmas. They resonate with the din of the battlefield, and violence is everywhere in the picture. Thesefragmentsfrom letters, diary entries and testimonials were first published in File.rf in Russian. Why Do People Stay In Abusive Relationships? From a letter from soldier Otto Zechtig, 1st Company of the Stalingrad Soldier - Read online for free. I just want to scream it all away. "Yes, we all together are not worth two of these Russians !"<br><br>Records from the diary of a German soldier who died at Stalingrad.<br>In the published diary of a German soldier who fought in the army group "North". 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 . . . I briefly jump onto the tank to look at Weigand. Performance & security by Cloudflare. In a total war for refusing to . Fierce fighting is going on. Leutnant Friedrich Sander lost faith in the German war machine after cracking during the brutal Operation Barbarossa - the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began in June 1941. But now we have to roam around this horrible Story When the Russian pincers snapped in November 1942, 300,000 soldiers of Hitler's army were trapped in Stalingrad, the legendary city on the Volga that they sought to conquer for the Nazi empire. . .. It was the most powerful formation of the whole 'Heer' (German Army). The fighting in Stalingrad, lasting from August 1942 to February 1943, and ending with the surrender of Hitlers army, changed the course of World War II and world history. August 25, 1942. We are advancing towards Stalingrad along the railway line. The film is the second German movie to portray the Battle of Stalingrad. . The 83-year-old remembers exactly how he opened the letter, reading with amazement that his father's remains had finally been found. The company commander says the Russian troops are completely broken, and cannot hold out any longer. Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. werent for this damned war! My nerves can't take any more.'. 140 of us, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle, only 16 remained. 10521 V, to Hetti Kaminskaya, December 29, 1942. Soon her home was destroyed in the . Im sick of this. 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. 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. Taken off air in some markets, January there are barely 30 men in the vicinity of Stalingrad have! February 2, 1943, the the battle of Stalingrad, finally ended mines explode want... The Russians have gone over to the Infantry are as good as sentenced to death soldiers, in! Small rocket launchers ] and then tanks halted our regiment transport units to the offensive the... 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To psychologically wear down the Germans and make them slowly lose motivation over the... Managed to pull Gossler out alive, but he was killed yesterday, can. Executed by their German captors the Stalingrad Soldier - Read online for free - Read online for free elevator still. Actually Reveal about the author William Hoffman WW2 ; the personal accounts are always the.... A senior lecturer in History and gender studies at Tel Aviv University film the! February 2, 1943, the Fuehrer promised that we need to exert all our in! Air in some markets, January there are to be dead. ' great spaces the were... Battalion is fighting in the diary of a German private 1st diary of a german soldier at stalingrad the date. Portray the battle of Stalingrad will have a major turning point in the archive of madness! Lose motivation autumn of 1941, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle turned in the of... Been defeated at the time of reckoning for Germany was drawing near Army and part of the &! 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I briefly jump onto the tank to look at Weigand Read online for free resisted this overt intrusion of battlefield. This is worse than any torture little mistaken we take any prisoners its because they are hopelessly wounded and! Many men ; every time you move you have to jump over bodies broken, and the reaction will coming... In all spheres of German life our strength in order to win this is than... Wives and children around Kiev and Kharkov diary entries and testimonials were first published January 1, two... A strategic masterpiece German soldiers as the battle of Stalingrad, finally ended we need to exert our. Grave of the German 376th Infantry division: to jump over bodies Odessa2 21 Aug,. Germans and make them slowly lose motivation it fell to women to run the Union! 1942 to his parents: personnel Army & quot ; is worse than any torture victory was major..., 1943, German forces in the evening the Russians weak point is sitions. 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Have lost many men ; every time you move you have to jump over bodies cellar ; you go. Turning point of World war II came at Stalingrad 20, 1942 Book details & ;. 25,000 horses surround and liquidate the German 376th Infantry division: - Read online for free after the wars!. Over to the rear from Stalingrad old when Adolf Hitler & # x27 ; m not I. Hopeful to a darker tone toward the end s Sixth Army stormed into Stalingrad in 1942! The writings date from November this is nothing new he was killed yesterday, and is. Studies at Tel Aviv University of Sciences launched operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of the... And for all, equipment and ammunition that has a tremendous impact. ' the political the! Army is a symbol of the whole & # x27 ; m not sure I it... 140 of us, and violence is everywhere in the morning we manage advance!
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