PRISON CAMPS AND CANNIBALISM
From interviews with Germans listed in preceding chapter and with Felice Bracci and Cristoforo Capone. Also Bracci’s diary; Reginato’s Twelve Years of Prison in the USSR; Don Guido Tuna’s Seven Rubles to the Chaplain; and a report by Guiseppe Aleandri on the treatment accorded the Axis POWs in Russia.
After Twelve Years
In September 1955, Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the new West German government, flew to Moscow to meet the leaders of the USSR. During their discussions, Adenauer broached a sensitive topic:
“…Let me start with the question of the release of those Germans who are still imprisoned within the area or sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, or who are otherwise prevented from leaving this area. It is on purpose that I put this problem at the beginning, as this is a question that leaves no German family unconcerned. I wish with all my heart that you do understand in which spirit I want to treat this problem. For me only the human point is at stake. The thought is unbearable that—more than ten years after the end of the war—there are still men who are separated from their families, homeland, and their normal, peaceful work-men who were involved—in whatever way—in the maelstrom of war. You must not find any provocation in my saying: It is out of the question to establish ‘normal’ relations between our states as long as this question is unsolved. It is normalization itself of which I am talking. Let us make a clean break with a matter which is a daily source of remembrance of sorrowful and separating past.”
Mr. Bulganin answered:
“The Federal Chancellor, Mr. Adenauer, raised as first question that of the prisoners of war. In our opinion there is a definite misunderstanding. There are no German prisoners of war at all in the Soviet Union. All German prisoners of war were released and repatriated. In the Soviet Union there are only war criminals of the former Hitler armies—criminals that were convicted by a Soviet court for especially grave crimes against the Soviet people, against peace and against humanity. In fact, 9,626 men have been retained up to September 1. (Some 2,000 actually fought at Stalingrad.) But these are men who must be kept in prison as criminals, according to the most humane standards and rules. They are men who have lost the human countenance; they are men guilty of atrocity, of arson, of murder committed against women, children and old people. They were duly sentenced by a Soviet court and cannot be regarded as prisoners of war.
“The Soviet people cannot forget the capital crimes committed by these criminal elements, as, for instance, the shooting of 70,000 men in Kiev on the Babi Yar. We cannot forget these million people who were killed, gassed and burned to death. Can anyone ever forget the tons of hair that were cut off (and stapled) from women who were tortured to death. Those present on our side have witnessed all that happened in Maidanek. In the Maidanek and Auschwitz camps more than five and a half million people, all innocent, were murdered. The Ukrainian people will never forget those innocent people murdered in Kharkov, where thousands were shot or gassed. I could name the concentration camps in Smolensk, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Lov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel, Rovno, Kaunas, Riga—and many others—where hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were tortured to death by the Hitler fascists. We cannot forget those innocent people, murdered, gassed and buried alive; we cannot forget the scorched towns and villages, the killed women, juveniles and children. And those 9,626 men I mentioned are criminals who committed these monstrous crimes…”
Adenauer was quick to respond:
“Then, Mr. Prime Minister, you talked about the prisoners of war. May I be permitted to draw your attention to the fact that in my yesterday’s statements the words ‘prisoners of war’ were not at all mentioned. I avoided this expression on purpose. If you closely examine my statements, you will find that I rather spoke of ‘persons who were retained.’ You talked of ‘war criminals’ and of sentences passed by Soviet courts. We have similar facts also in our relation to the U.S.A., Great Britain and France. But these states came to understand that the sentences passed by the courts of these countries in the first postwar period were not free from emotions, from the atmosphere of that specific time…
“Much evil was done.
“This much is true: German troops invaded Russia. And this much is true: Much evil was done. But this is true, too: Russian armies invaded Germany—in defense, I admit without hesitation—and many horrible things also happened in Germany during the war. I think, if we enter into a new period of our relations—and this we want seriously—we should not take too close a look into the past, for then we only start putting up obstacles.” Premier Nikita Khrushchev vehemently attacked Adenauer’s position: “Mr. Chancellor, you said at the end of your declaration that the Soviet troops, when they crossed the Soviet borders and penetrated deeper into your country, also committed crimes; I refuse this categorically, as this was not the case and the German party cannot submit any evidence as to this (author’s note—here Khrushchev ignored the truth). The Soviet troops drove away the others from this country and persecuted them, as they did not surrender. If we had left these troops alone, they could have prepared for another invasion. We could not stop halfway, but had to destroy the enemy who dared to raise his weapons against us. That is why the Soviet soldiers fulfilled their holy duty toward their homeland by continuing this war and sacrificing their lives. Are these horrors? If any troops had invaded Germany and Germany had defended herself and destroyed the enemy— would you call that horrors? It would be Germany’s holy duty. For these reasons, I am of the opinion that an insulting remark has been made as to the Soviet troops. And this forced me to make such a statement.”
On September 14, Adenauer held a press conference in Moscow:
“…The Soviet Government—Mr. Bulganin and Mr. Khrushchev—expressly declared during the negotiations that the Soviet Union has no longer any German prisoners of war, but only 9,626 convicted war criminals—as they put it.
“All of them will leave the Soviet Union in the near future. They will partly be amnestied and released; as far as the Soviet Union believes that really serious crimes were committed they will be extradited to Germany to be treated according to the laws of our land. I think this will ease a lot of grief—not only of those nearly 10,000 people here in the Soviet Union but also of the numerous relatives in our home country. Now I may also inform you that Prime Minister Bulganin said to me—and he authorized me to tell you this—that the entire action will be under way even before we have arrived in Bonn…”
In this manner, the last of the Stalingrad prisoners began their final journey home from Soviet prison camps.
Index
Abganerovo, 33, 38, 42, 45, 48, 74
Abrusovka, 276
Acktuba, 307
Adam, Col. Wilhelm, 367-368, 372, 376-377, 396, 434
Ademeit, Lt. Gottfried, 51
Adenauer, Konrad, 435-437
A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway), 15
Africa, see North Africa
Air Corps, German Eighth, 193
aircraft: bomber, 32, 40, 42, 44, 58, 60, 70, 91, 93, 134, 245; British, 88; German lost at Stalingrad, 303, 339; fighter, 346; reconnaissance, 53, 167; Russian, 136-137, 139, 162, 233; transport, 237, 297, 299, 351, 355, 399. See also He-111; Ju-52; Ju-88; Stuka
Air Fleet, German Fourth, 131
Air Force, Soviet Eighth, 54
airlift: German, 193, 199, 206-207, 213, 216, 217, 221-222, 229, 233, 237, 246, 247, 254, 302-303, 330, 336, 345; Russian, 162
air raids: Allied, 153; German, 32, 33, 57-60, 65-67. See also air strikes
air-raid shelters, 59, 60, 365
air strikes, tactical: German, 93; Russian, 77, 130-131
Akimovski, 114, 184, 189, 190
Aksai River, 213, 234, 243, 293
Albania, 15
Algeria, Allied landings in, 153
Alt, Capt., 341
Alter, Wilhelm, 115-116, 360, 405
ambushes: German, 40, 43, 264, 320; Russian, 44, 133
ammunition, German:
brought into Stalingrad, 125-126; rationing of, 224; stockpiles, 164, 274; supplies exhausted, 240, 339, 355
amputations, 223, 305, 313
Anderson, Lale, 295
antiaircraft guns: German, 64; Soviet, 57-58, 233, 303
anti-Communism, 42, 78, 321
anti-Semitism, 10-11, 336, 398
antitank defenses, 9, 38, 45, 86; ditches, xv, 33, 54, 60. See also artillery,
air raids: Allied, 153; German, 32, 33, antitank
Antonescu, Marshal Ion, 213
Anzio, landing at, 401
artillery: antitank, 49, 137, 188, 194, 224, 240; German, 73, 79, 94, 101, 123, 125, 133, 335; Russian, 36, 39, 46, 104, 112, 151, 171-172, 306, 315; surrendered to Germans, 75. See also mortars
Asia, Russian expansion into, 29
Astrakhan, 3, 67
atrocities: German, 43, 143, 321, 436; Russian, 282, 321, 362
Austria, 151; troops, 224, 226, 334
autopsy, 318-319
Azov, Sea of, 3, 179, 203
Babi Yar, 436
Baburkin, 286, 304, 353
Badanov, Gen., 301, 302
Baden-Baden, 401
Bad Gotesburg, 396
Baku, 78
Balkan States, 13
Banco Nazionale del Lavore, 397
Barmantsak, Lake, 187
Barrikady Gun Factory, 36, 99, 123, 125, 135, 155, 156, 162, 208, 261, 270, 399, 400; battle for, 137, 138-142, 144, 150, 151, 186, 225-226, 242
Batov, Gen., 368
Batum, 78
Batyuk, Col. Nikolai, 103, 120, 127, 168, 396
Beaulieu, Col., 372
Beer Hall Putsch, 153
Behr, Capt. Winrich, 175, 176, 182, 185, 186, 299, 335-336, 340, 344-345, 356, 382, 396, 405
Beketovka, 67, 80, 149, 151, 171, 187, 241, 378, 390
Below, Col. Gunter von 100-101, 114-115, 329-330, 367, 396, 405
Below, Col. Nikolaus von, 100, 229, 335-336, 382, 396
Berlin, 118, 121, 398, 401, 402; airlift, 394
Bezditko, Lt. Ivan, 168
Big Saturn offensive, 229, 301
Billert, Oberleutnant, 353
Binder, Karl, 112, 142, 184, 189-190, 220-221, 288-289, 313-314, 333-334, 359-360, 387, 388-389, 396-397, 405
“Black Crows,” 11
Black Sea, 78, 147, 301
Blinov, 183, 185
blitzkrieg, 4, 76, 90, 118
Boblingen, 268, 288, 397
Bock, Gen. Fedor von, 8, 18, 19
BODO line, 48, 61, 83, 187
Boguchar, 282
Bolshe Nabotoff, 184, 189
Bolshevik Revolution, 29-30, 58-59, 83, 152
bombing, see air raids; Stuka aircraft
Boris, Oberleutnant, 339
Bormann, Martin, 206, 344
Bracci, Lt. Felice, 15, 262, 275-276, 281, 304-306, 327, 328, 390, 397, 405
Branco (Italian prisoner), 327
Brandt, Pvt. Willi, 133
Breining, Lt. Friedrich, 115, 166, 209, 405
Brezhnev, Leonid, 404
bridges, see Don River; Kalach
British Army, Eighth, 153
British Expeditionary Force, 4
Brunnert, Pvt. Ekkehart, 164-165, 239, 268-269, 288, 322-324, 397, 405
Brunnert, Irene, 288
Bulganin, Nikolai, 436, 437
Bund Deutsche Offiziere, 396
Bundeswehr, 401
Businovka, 192, 196, 247, 252
Byelorussia, 106
cannibalism, xiii, 390-392
Capone, Dr. Cristoforo, 15-16, 257-258, 259, 276-277, 329, 362, 390, 392-393, 397, 405
Caspian Sea, 3, 70, 78
casualties, xiv-xv; in air raids, 65-67; civilian, 61; German, 92, 111, 114, 131, 132, 145, 155, 157, 205, 229, 260, 280, 293, 309, 335, 344, 359; Italian, 259; among prisoners 388, 389, 390; Rumanian, 201-202, 213; Russian, 40, 68, 82, 101, 105, 110, 120, 125, 135, 136, 150, 157, 171, 241, 285, 368
Catherine the Great, 29
Caucasus Mountains, 15, 19, 29, 44, 85, 86, 152, 183, 203, 214, 229, 266, 310; German headquarters in, 79; oil fields, objective in German offensive, 24, 78, 118, 119
cavalry, see horses
cemeteries, military, 6, 114, 314
censors, military, 311, 312-313, 361, 386-387
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 398
Changar, Capt. Ignacy, 143-145, 324-325, 387, 397, 405
Chekhov, Anatoli, 145
Chemist’s Shop, battle for, 155, 156
Chemnitz, 225
Chernova, Tania, 106-107, 122-123, 145-146, 235-236, 386, 397, 405
Chiang Kai-shek, 83
Chileko, 33
China, 83
Chir, 164, 165, 167, 190, 196, 198
Chir River, 192, 201
cholera, 29
Christiakov, Gen., 183
Christmas Eve, battlefield observances of, 283, 284, 286-290, 295
Chuikov, Valentina, 124
Chuikov, Gen. Vassili Ivanovich, xii, 83-85, 86-88, 159-160, 176, 218, 220, 243, 316; headquarters, 93-94, 99, 124, 126, 136, 150, 167-168, 204, 284, 368, 378-379, 386; intelligence organization, 132; orders given by, 96, 134-135; postwar career, 397-398; reinforcements requested, 136, 151; tactics adopted by 89-91, 234-235
Chungking, 83
Churchill, Winston, 48n, 88
CIA, 398
Circassians, 78
Clausius, Col., 354
clothing supplies, 164, 268, 352
Codre, Lt. Col., 113, 142
Cologne, xiii
Combat Groups, German: Engelke, 139; Fretter-Pico, 346; Hollidt, 228, 346; Hunersdorff, 240, 242-243; Krumpen, 63; Mieth, 346; Stahel, 346
commandos, Russian, 133, 134, 324, 387, 397
“Commissar Order,” 10, 12
Commissar’s House, battle for, 155, 156-157, 225
Communist party: members, 42, 83; Paulus and, 401; political agitators, 125, 172, 324, 393; Stalingrad Central Committee, 60. See also anti-Communism
concentration camps, German, 436
counterintelligence, 91-92, 97
courts martial, 353, 360
Crete, 210
Crimea, 20, 215
Croatians, regiment of, 220
Crome, Col., 371
Daniel, Edler von, 13, 366
Danilov (political agitator), 129
Danzig, 50
Dar Goya, 33, 54, 59, 97, 170, 285, 378, 385
Das. Reich, 161
defectors: German, 367-368; Rumanian, 185; Russian Army, 165-166, 235, 268, 273; Russian civilian, 398
de Gaulle, Charles, xv
Deifel, Cpl. Franz, 167, 226-227, 348-349, 406
Demyansk, 311
Denikin, Gen. Anton, 20
Denisova (militiawoman), 59
Deriabin, Lt. Pyotr, 103, 104, 120-121, 135, 379-380, 398, 405
deserters: execution of, 43, 104, 125, 307, 380; German, 336; Russian, xv, 5, 48, 71, 108, 149, 380
Detrunina, Nina, 66
Dietzel, Lt. Gerhard, 197
Dimitrevka, 304, 334
Dingier, Oberst, 353
disease, 29, 364-365, 369, 389-390
dive-bombers, see Stuka aircraft
Dnieper River, 55
dogs, 79, 282; used as food, 238-239, 309
Dolgy Ravine, 104
“Dom Pavlov (Pavlov’s House),” battle for, 137, 146
Don-Chir Front, 214
Don Front, 45, 117, 174, 302
Don River, 3, 13, 15, 19, 28, 39, 183, 213; crossed by Germans, 48-49, 53, 75, 114, 118; in defense of Stalingrad, 25, 26, 73; German headquarters on, 111; positions on, 193; pontoon bridges over, 47, 55, 159; Russian positions on, 158. See also Kalach
Donets River, 19, 119
Donskaya-Tsaritsa River, 257
Dragan, Lt. Anton Kuzmich, 96, 100, 102, 103, 107-109, 398
Drebber, Gen., 367-368
Dresden, xi, 116, 401
Dumitrescu, Gen., 150
Dunkirk, evacuation at, 4, 7, 118
&nb
sp; Dylo, Lev, 56
Dzerhezinsky, Felix, 124
Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works, 36-37, 53, 68, 127, 234, 285; evacuation of workers, 123-124; German attack on, 134; return of workers, 385, 390
East Germany, 394, 396, 401, 403
East Prussia, Nazi headquarters in, 71, 150, 199, 206, 245, 253, 271, 303, 310, 340, 356, 381
Egypt, 153
Eden, Anthony, 118
Eichlepp (aide to Paulus), 299, 345
Einsatzgruppen, 11, 400
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 398, 400
Eismann, Maj., 246-247, 248-249, 253, 273
El Alamein, 153, 232
Elininski, 121
Engineer Training School, Russian, 195
Englehardt, Karl, 165, 405
English Channel, proposed Allied invasion
across, 20, 48n
entertainment of troops, 307-308
espionage, Russian, 23-24, 91-92, 158, 229, 398, 402, 422-423. See also intelligence
factory district, battle for, 110, 111, 123, 126, 130, 134-135, 138-142, 144-146, 150, 151, 155, 163
famine, see starvation
Far East Fleet, Soviet, 68, 121
Fasanotti (Italian prisoner), 327
Fascism, 14, 15, 88, 305, 306
Fiebig, Lt. Gen. Martin, 193, 216, 217, 229-230, 237, 280-281, 300, 351
field hospitals: German, 6, 63-64, 131, 229, 257, 304, 323, 370-371; Russian, 72
Fillipov, Lt. Col. Grigor, 194-195, 197
Fillipov, Sacha, 97, 170-171, 285-286, 385
Finland, Soviet attack on, 42, 83
food supply: failures, 238-239, 295, 297, 350, 360; German, 164, 184, 197, 220-221, 253, 278, 318, 334, 359-360; for prisoners, 328, 378, 392-393; rations cut, 220, 226, 233, 274, 298; Russian, 38, 124, 168, 171, 220, 265, 307
France, 20, 213, 329; occupation of, 7, 138, 193, 210, 215
Frankfurt on the Main, 7, 347, 393-394, 400
Frankfurt on the Oder, 394
frostbite, 275, 294, 305, 352, 357, 363
Frunze Military Academy, 83
fuel, shortage of, 20, 196, 242, 247, 249, 258-259, 267, 268, 278-279, 297-298
Furth, 114
Fusco, Franco, 281, 327
Gavrilovka, 75
Gebhardt, Capt., 340-341
Gehlen, Col. Reinhard, 182
Enemy at the Gates Page 44
