At the end of January 1943, the soldiers of the German 6th Army trapped near Stalingrad were extremely exhausted. Against Hitler's orders, Marshal Friedrich von Paulus finally surrendered. His conversation with the winners, however, showed that he still did not acknowledge his defeat.
Coming out of the basements and bunkers with hesitant steps, their hands held high as a sign of surrender, the exhausted prisoners looked for a piece of wood that could serve as a support. Many suffered from frostbite to their feet so severe that they could hardly walk. Almost everyone lacked toenails, if not their entire toes. Soviet officers noticed that Romanian soldiers were in worse condition than German soldiers. Apparently their food rations had been cut early to keep the Germans strong.
The defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad changed the course of World War II.
The captives kept their eyes lowered, not daring to look at the guards, or at the emaciated civilians surrounding them, who emerged from the ruins in surprising numbers. Single shots were heard everywhere, disturbing the silence of the former battlefield. Shots in the bunkers had a muffled sound. No one knew if a particular bang meant the end of a soldier found in a hideout or a soldier who resisted in some way, or a soldier receiving a coup de grâce .
"This is what Berlin will look like!"
The defeated remnants of the soldiers of the 6th Army, without weapons and without helmets, in woolen hats, pulled as low as possible over the face or simply with heads wrapped in rags to protect against severe frost , shivering in their unsuitable coats, with the telephone wire serving as a belt, were driven in long marching columns. A group of surviving prisoners of the 297th Infantry Division was accosted by a Russian officer who pointed to the ruins surrounding them and shouted:"This is what Berlin will look like!".
Field Marshal Paulus, escorted by Lieutenant Lev Biezyminski from the Red Army Intelligence, was transported in his own staff car from the 64th Army command to the Doński Front command near Zawarykin, about eighty kilometers from Stalingrad. Schmidt and Adam, also under escort, followed them in another car.
They were led into a quarters located in a single-room hut with five walls. A designated detachment of guards under the command of Lieutenant C. M. Bogomołów was waiting for them. The other "Stalingrad generals" were led into the second adjoining cabin, where they were guarded by a platoon of Lieutenant Spektor's soldiers.
The capitulating soldiers of the German army were nothing like those whose images were published in the "Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung".
Bogomolov and his guards, fully aware of the historical moment, watched their charges with fascination. Tall Paulus had to bend down as he entered. Following Adam's example, he left his uniform cap and wore a fur earpiece. He still wore the general's uniform. After Paulus came General Schmidt and Colonel Adam, who impressed the guards with his "rather good command of Russian" . The driver of Paulus was the last to enter with the generals' heavy suitcases. The Mercedes staff was immediately commandeered by General W. I. Kazakov, commander of the front artillery.
Paulus and Schmidt took the inner room of the hut while Colonel Adam and the escort settled in the outer room. They were joined by two NKVD agents sent from Moscow by Beria. Late in the evening, General Malinin, Chief of Staff of the Front Command, and Colonel Jakimowicz, Senior Staff Officer arrived.
First audition
Biezyminski as an interpreter informed Paulus and Schmidt that they had to search their luggage for "forbidden items", such as any sharp metal objects. Schmidt exploded:"A German field marshal does not commit suicide with nail scissors!" Exhausted, Paulus motioned for him to calm down and handed over his shaving gear himself.
Shortly before midnight, Paulus was told that the commanders of the Red Army had just gathered and were awaiting an interview with him. Lieutenant Yevgeny Tarabrin, the German-speaking NKVD officer appointed as the permanent escort, heard Paulus whisper to Schmidt's coat handing him, "What shall I say?".
"Remember that you are General and Marshal of the German Army" Schmidt was to whisper back. The most surprising and significant for the eavesdropping Red Army intelligence officer, the Russian officer reported in the report, was that Schmidt used the direct form of "you" when addressing his superior. Just half an hour before the start of the meeting, Captain Dyatlenko of the NKVD received an order to report to the hut occupied by Marshal Voronov, just promoted by Stalin. "Well, Captain," Voronov greeted him kindly. "You must remember a time when that old man refused to accept you." Now he is paying us a visit. And you will accept it. ”
Field Marshal Paulus handed over his shaving gear without protest.
Voronov sat at the table with General Rokossovsky, the commander of the front, and General K. F. Tielegin, the commissar of the front. A photographer appeared, wearing a fur-lined aviator's jacket. To Dyatlenki's surprise, he treated Voronov with unfettered familiarity.
It turned out to be famous documentary maker Roman Karmen who befriended Voronov during the Spanish Civil War. Karmen positioned the chair intended for Paulus to get the right shot through the door from Voronov's bedroom. He knew the photo he would take would be used to tell the world about the great victory of the Soviet Union.
"I'm not a general ..."
There was a tense atmosphere in Voronov's hut when their "guest" showed up. Tall, slim, leaning forward, Paulus, in his "mouse-colored" uniform and face ashen from nervous tension, presented himself as a gray figure. His hair was starting to turn gray and even his beard was grown black and white.
It was only when Paulus approached the table that Voronov gestured him to an empty chair. "Please have a seat," he said in Russian. Dyatlenko jumped to his feet and translated. Paulus made a half-bow and sat down. Then Dyatlenko introduced two commanders:"Representative of Stawka, Marshal of artillery Voronov! Commander of the Donski Front, General Rokossovsky! ”. Paulus jerked to his feet and made a half-bend toward each of them.
Voronov began to speak, pausing every few moments so that Dyatlenko could translate. “Mr. General, it is rather late and you must feel tired. We have also been working a lot in the last few days. Therefore, we will now discuss only one urgent problem. ”
"Sorry," said Paulus, knocking Dyatlenka out of the process. - I'm not a general. The day before yesterday, my command received a message that I had been promoted to the rank of marshal. This was written on my military ID. He touched the breast pocket in his sweatshirt. “But under the circumstances, it was not possible to change my uniform.”
Voronov and Rokossovsky looked at each other with ironic amusement. General Shumilov informed the command of the Don Front about the latest promotion of Paulus.
"So, Marshal," Voronov resumed, "we are asking you to sign an order for a part of your army that is still resisting to surrender, preventing this from happening." the very senseless loss of life.
- It would be unworthy of a soldier! Paulus exploded, before Dyatlenko finished translating.
- How can one say - said Voronov - that saving the lives of your subordinates is behavior unworthy of a soldier when the commander himself surrendered?
- I did not give up. I was surprised.
Fight for the last order
This "naive" response did not make the best impression on the Russian officers who knew the circumstances of the surrender well.
"We're talking about a humanitarian act," Voronov continued. "It will take us only a few days, or perhaps only a few hours, to destroy your troops, which are still fighting." Resistance is pointless. It will only cause unnecessary deaths for thousands of soldiers. Your duty as an army commander is to save their lives, especially since you saved your own life by surrender.
Paulus nervously fiddling with the pack of cigarettes and ashtray on the table at his disposal, ignored the question, sticking to the formula he said.
- Even if I signed an order like that, they won't obey it anyway. By giving up, I automatically stopped being their commander.
- But a few hours ago you were their commander.
"Since my army split into two groups," Paulus insisted, "I was in command of the second group only theoretically." Orders came separately from the Führer's headquarters and each group was commanded by a different general.
Marshal von Paulus was interrogated by Marshal Voronov, Marshal Rokossovsky and Captain Dyatlenko.
The discussion "revolved in a circle." Paulus' nervous tic became more and more visible. Also Voronov, knowing that Stalin in the Kremlin was waiting for information about the results of the negotiations, began to show tension. His upper lip, damaged in a car accident in Belarus, began to tremble.
What about the prisoners?
Paulus in his obstructive tactics even stated that if he had signed this document, it would be considered a forgery. Voronov replied that they would then bring one of his generals to witness the signing and that he would be sent to the northern "cauldron" with this document to guarantee its authenticity. Paulus, however, despite the weakness of his arguments, stubbornly refused to sign. Voronov eventually had to conclude that any further efforts to persuade Paulus were futile.
The soldiers who were captured by the Soviets after the surrender of the German army at Stalingrad were extremely exhausted.
"I must inform you, Mr. Marshal," explained Diatlenko, "that by refusing to save the lives of your subordinates, you are assuming great responsibility towards the German people and future Germany ”. Paulus stared at the wall, dejected and silent. In this "anguished pose" only the tic on his face indicated that he was thinking.
Then Voronov ordered the meeting to be closed, asking Paulus at the end if he considered the accommodation suitable and if he needed any special diet due to his illness. "There is only one thing I would like to ask," replied Paulus, "and that is to feed so many prisoners of war and provide them with medical care." Voronov explained that "the situation at the front makes it difficult to register and deal with such a large number of prisoners," but that they would do everything possible. Paulus thanked him, stood up, and made another half-bow.
Source:
The above text is an excerpt from Antony Beevor's book. Stalingrad, which was released by the Znak Horyzont publishing house.
The title, lead, illustrations with captions, information and explanations in square brackets, bolds and subtitles come from the editors. The text has undergone some basic editing to introduce more frequent breakdown of paragraphs. To preserve the integrity of the text, footnotes in the book version have been removed.