I publish these pictures here not because I believe ‘atrocities’ are comparable or can be so easily judged over, but because the war in the east has always been conveniently ‘forgotten’ in the Western history books and minds of the general public. You can never remind people enough of what has happened. But above all this is just good material, unknown to me and interesting to study—so thanks to Russian Historian for sharing.

Here’s some Russian youth hanged by the Germans to make an example:

Here’s a picture of Soviet Red Army soldiers distributing food among the German population in Berlin 1945:

And here is a very silly picture that Russian Historian captioned with “very terrible atrocities indeed”. I love it.

So there you are. Regardless of the cruelty displayed in these and other pictures, isn’t it wonderful they let us look back in time? As a digital photographer a single picture means little to me; as a historian it never stops fascinating me.

I find myself sitting next to a smart, tweed-jacketed man called Ray Ellis, with thick white hair and a ruddy face. His regiment, the South Nottinghamshire Hussars, were trapped by the Germans in a corner of bleak desert known, ironically, as the Knightsbridge Box. They had already been in the desert for a year, without a day’s leave, when, under heavy attack, they were given orders ‘to fight until the last drop of ammo’. Ray it was who fired the last shot, before being captured, taken to Tripoli

From the extras of the TV series I’ve transcribed mr. Ellis’ story:

I was taken prisoner at Knightsbridge where all these men died. And then we were dragged across—I say dragged because it is too long and too horrible a story to relate at this time—dragged across the desert all the way to Tripoli. Many men died on the way of dysentery, starvation and that sort of things.[...] We had to march for water. And many men died on the way. They didn’t die of thirst because the Germans mercifully shot them as they fell to the floor. They dispatched them so they didn’t die of thirst. That wasn’t being cruel, that was being kind.

Then we were dragged all the way to Tripoli and then we went across to Naples on a cargo ship in the bottom of the hull, buttoned down and praying. It was the most frightening journey I ever made in my life, afraid of being sunk by the RAF or the Royal Navy. [..] We were a dirty, lousy, filthy, unshaven, thin, begrimed group of men. In this way they marched us through the streets as propaganda: this is the British army. And the population were cheering and mocking and I hated them. I was full of hatred.

But then something happened that has been with me for all my life. A girl came from the back of the crowd and put a peach in my hand. It was… it was fantastic. And all my life afterwards when things are being bad, I have always thought: somewhere there’s girl with a peach. Someone with another idea, another thought, who isn’t following the general trend. And as I said, that girl with the peach has stayed with me for all my life.

I find it a wonderful story illustrating not only a different kind of war from what we know from the eastern front—but I also find it amazing how little events like these are so powerful they survive for decades and are told even today, be it with mixed emotions. I hate to think of how many stories like this remain unrecorded and will soon be forever forgotten.

The finest prank in history was perpetrated towards the end of the second world war, against a background of gloom and horror that made it all the more brilliant. German and allied airforces were launching bombing raids on each other’s factories with ferocious regularity. The Germans hatched a plan to deceive allied intelligence by building mock wooden factories painted in industrial colours, the hope being that the enemy would waste much of its precious ordinance on them. Soon enough the British figured out what the other side was up to, and sent a lone Avro Lancaster to an industrial area near Duisburg. The plane’s mission: to drop a wooden bomb on one of the fake factories.

Imagine the looks on the faces of the German army officials, staring at a harmless “bomb” made from wood, and looking up at the sky, where a crew had earlier put their lives in jeopardy for the sake of a jape. Even they must have been touched by the humour of it.

Go read the entire piece because there are some other good pranks in there.

According to German sources, 3,35 million Soviet soldiers had fallen into German hands by the end of 1941, of whom over two million were dead by 1942. By the end of the war some 5.75 million Soviet Soldiers had become POWs. [...] Figures issued by the Soviet General Staff in 1989 gave a figure for overall fatalities among the regular forces of 8,6 million [deaths]. In this context it is worth noting that the remainder of the Soviet war dead was made up of at least 19 million civilians. (source)

Soviet figures remain doubtful since at the time Stalin forbid counting the dead, because he knew all too well that the cost of war would be in no way justifiable. Still, these estimations tell us two things:

1. The western public has underestimated the war at the Eastern Front, and still neglects it in their history lessons today;
2. Stalin, however terrible he might have been, had every right to distrust the western allies who only opened a second front in the west (D-day) in late ’44 when the Russians were already coping with the Germans themselves;

The latter point lay the foundations of the cold war. Stalin argued that bombing raids on Germany by the British simply weren’t enough to help relieve the Red Army. And he was quite right, as the British mostly unfruitfully bombed civilian targets out of anger and revenge; most of the strategic bombing was done by the Americans in the later stages of the war. After continuously postponing an allied invasion in France for well over a year—apparently making no effort to keep the fascists and communists from killing each other—Stalin was surprised to find the western allies actually coming up with demands after the war. Surely the Soviet Union had single-handedly defeated the fascist enemy, and therefore had the right to dictate the peace terms?

First things first

Although Stalin comfortably forgot the millions of tons of American food, raw materials and equipment that poured into the Soviet Union (via Iran mostly) during the war, the western allies were perhaps too busy planning the geopolitical aftermath of the war even when Nazi Germany was still far from defeated. The Soviet Union accounts for half of the total number of casualties in the entire war. Considering the cold war that we got anyway, we might had been wiser paying more attention to our ally in despair—it could have saved the world a lot of misery. But we didn’t.

We declared victory in the cold war but the conflict is far from over.

The mutual respect and understanding for each other’s lives, skills and resources is greatly illustrated by colonel Hans von Luck in his memoirs:

We quickly developed a certain routine. Toward five o’clock in the afternoon the reconnaissance patrols broke off their operations in order to reach base in good time; in the treeless desert with no landmarks it was impossible to find one’s way back to base in the dark. [...] The two British batallions carried on in the same way, so that from 1700 hours, all reconnaissance and combat activity was suspended, to be resumed again the following morning as soon as it was light.

“We could really agree to a cease-fire with the British from 1700 hours until the next morning,” I said, more as a joke, to those around me.

“Why not?” I was supported by lieutenant Wenzel Luedecke, the reserve officer who had worked at UFA film studios as an assistant director. “After all,” he went on, “the British have a sense of humor. We ought to suggest it to them.”

[...]

It was only a matter of days before we had arrived at a “gentleman’s agreement”: at 1700 hours, precisely, all hostilities would be suspended. We called it “tea time”. At 1705 hours, we would make open [radio] contact with the British, to exchange “news” about prisoners, etc.

Luck goes on describing how his forces and the British would later exchange prisoners, information and cigarettes for one another.

The reason this could be was because of Rommel’s defiance of Hitler. Although Hitler never allowed tactical retreating, let alone “tea time”, Rommel stood his ground. Hitler was not interested enough in North Africa to care, nor was he stupid enough to underestimate Rommel’s abilities and popular support and fire him.

The desert was unforgiving as were most of the battles. But other than in Russia or other fronts, veterans from both sides are today able to drink tea together with pride and understanding. Without hate.

The apparant luxurious life of the fascist dogs filled Russian troops entering German soil with hate and envy. It probably made the frontoviks aware of their own misery. Mass rape, looting and continuous drunkenship were the only ways that kept the men from killing each other rather than the enemy. But some soldiers entertained themselves in other ways.

There is a story of a German musician caught by Russian soldiers. The soldiers ordered the man to play and make them happy. Would he stop playing the piano they would shoot him. And so the man played. He played and played, as his life literally depended on it. He played for more than 24 hours without ever pausing. When at last he fell off his chair in exhaustion, hunger and desperation the Russian soldiers applauded. They rose to their feet and applauded for minutes long. This had truly been an outstanding feat.

They took the pianist outside and, as promised, they shot him. A promise is, after all, worth more than a human life.

[...] rumors go that “our people” are coming closer. We can hardly wait. Perhaps we will soon meet our brothers and an end will come to our suffering. Shall we live through these horrible times? Shall we ever see our family again? We cannot hold out much longer. It is terrible here in Germany.

That sounds nasty. The morbid thing is that as soon as prison or labour camps in German territories were “liberated”, most of the prisoners were shot. To Stalin and the communist party there were only those fighting for the motherland, and those collaborating with the fascists invaders. In the whole of the Second World War, the Soviet Union has never acknowledged “prisoners of war”. The world “horrible” does not suffice for describing being killed by your fellow countrymen out of hate and indifference in a war of total annihilation.