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Foreign soldiers in the Wehrmacht during WW2

By Tarihçi at 00:33 army, foreign, german, military, soldier No comments

One of the most amazing facts of the Second World war is that people of many foreign countries fought in the German army as Wehrmacht soldiers.

Turkish

Koreans

Jews. Mostly as guards of concentration camps. Jews of course were not foreigners. They were as German as anyone else.

It would be interesting to understand why a Jew would act as a guard in a a concentration camp; a place where his kith and kin were persecuted. The most opportunistic types. Those who prefer to survive without any principles, perhaps?

Japanese

What were the Japs doing here? They could have well served in their nation's army. Some kind of exchange? Or were there Japanese people in Germany in large numbers?

This Japanese is an officer in the German army

Indians. Efforts of Subhash Chandra Bose.

Bose was anti-British. He met Hitler in Berlin and raised the Indian unit in the Wehrmacht. Enemy's enemy is a friend, I guess.

Georgians and Azerbaijanis

Chechen

One can understand the Chechen in the German army. Their struggle against Russia continues till this day.

Bosnian Muslims

Africans

Hitler shrewdly maintained good relations with the Arab world

Life under German occupation in Russia: WW2

By Tarihçi at 23:31 german occupation, russian people, ww2 No comments

Frankly from the point of view of most Russians, it was not a bad life under the Germans during the Second World War. Most German soldiers were very disciplined and not women-ravishing monsters like the Soviet soldiers who occupied Berlin at the end of the war. Russians could freely practice their religion. Most hated Stalin and communism.

But it is not wise to say these things nowadays. In the West because the army of Nazi Germany has been branded as a bunch of devils. In Russia too every home has lost a member in the war and saying nice things about Wehrmacht during WW2 would not be wise.

But there is another side to the coin. The mentality of the German leaders their attitude towards the Russians. Hitler labeled them as sub-human (untermenschen). Himmler said that he would have no pity even if a Russian woman died after working like a slave for German cause. According to Erich Koch, Reich Commissar of occupied Ukraine the 'lowliest German worker was a thousand times more valuable' than the entire population of the Ukraine.

In German occupied areas of Russia the people died of starvation. There was little food to go around. The people took to eating dogs, crows.. anything they could lay their hands on. In Kharkov 1,00,000 people died of starvation under German rule.

Yet the hardy Russian people survived. Inna Gavrilchenko, A Russian woman, worked in a slaughterhouse in Kharkov. She used to smuggle out blood from there and ate 'blood omelettes'.

Russians throwing stones at a statue of Lenin in occupied Russia.

German soldiers watch as a Russian religious procession passes.

This Russian village had no use for this Soviet emblem.

This Wehrmacht soldier tends a Russian baby.

Russian women wave as German soldiers pass

Ordinary people everywhere are the same. They do not hate people of other nations. It is the leaders' who create discords.

This woman seems smitten by the handsome German officer.

Attack on Russia: Early days: WW2

By Tarihçi at 22:59 eastern front, military, russian front No comments

In the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the attack on Russia on June 21, 1941, the German progress was easy. It seemed by winter arrived, Moscow would fall. But Russia had a strong ally; the dreaded Russian winter. But that is another story.

Given below are snippets of the early days of the invasion. All the pictures have been taken by German soldiers.

New testimony and documentary evidence can now reveal that Stalin was seriously considering suing for peace and had even organised a 'getaway' train to take him to safety as German guns started pounding Moscow. His decision to stay and fight was a crucial turning point in the war.

A horse cart gets bogged down in the slush. The Russian terrain was a German enemy. So was the climate.

A Russian plane lies broken. That was Russia in late 1941.

HITLER INVADES RUSSIA (Source: BBC)

The Germans invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, and looked poised to take Moscow by October that year. With the benefit of hindsight, popular opinion has labelled Hitler as virtually insane for invading the Soviet Union, but at the time many people - including those influential in both Britain and America - thought his decision was a sound one. Indeed, Hitler came much closer to pulling off his grand plan than the Soviet Union was ever prepared to admit.

A Russian machine-gun unit lies destroyed.

The German Blitzkrieg technique was as devastating in Russia as it had been in the rest of Europe. The scene was set for a war of annihilation waged by the Nazis against the Soviets with no mercy shown by either side. One week into the German invasion, 150,000 Soviet soldiers were either dead or wounded - more than during the five months of the Battle of the Somme.

As the German armies swept further into the Russian heartland, one million Soviet troops were drafted to protect Kiev. But despite Stalin's ruthless order forbidding any city to surrender, Kiev fell and 600,000 Soviet soldiers were captured. By October 1941, three million Soviet soldiers were prisoners of war. New testimony and documentary evidence can now reveal that Stalin was seriously considering suing for peace and had even organised a 'getaway' train to take him to safety as German guns started pounding Moscow. His decision to stay and fight was a crucial turning point in the war.

German soldiers get a shoe-shine.

BRUTAL HITLER, BRUTAL STALIN.

Stalin and Hitler were together responsible for the leitmotiv of ruthless brutality that prevailed throughout the hostilities between Russia and Germany. During the Battle of Moscow, in which 8,000 Soviet citizens were executed for perceived cowardice, the Russian armies were forced to stand their ground, despite perishingly cold conditions of 43 degrees below freezing.
To prevent his soldiers deserting the front line around the capital, Stalin ordered special 'blocking detachments' to shoot all deserters. The Soviet leadership also instructed Soviet partisans operating in the countryside to kill anyone whom they believed was disloyal. This resulted in an effective carte blanche for partisans to abuse their power and extract whatever they wanted from helpless villagers.
A report from one partisan division shows that rape, killings and beatings were commonplace. To make villagers' lives still more hellish, in some areas, particularly the occupied Ukraine, nationalist partisans (as opposed to Soviet partisans), who were bent on freedom from the Soviet regime, also started up their own brutal operations in the countryside. Villagers were now faced with violence from three different fighting forces.
Russians did not suffer only from their own side. Nazi rule over the territories they captured from Russia was draconian. Erich Koch, Reich Commissar of occupied Ukraine stated that the 'lowliest German worker is a thousand times more valuable' than the entire population of the Ukraine. Starvation was widespread, with Soviet civilians forced to eat dogs - until the dog supply ran out and people were forced to turn to rats, crows and birch bark. In the Ukrainian town of Kharkov, which was administered by the German army, 100,000 people died of starvation and disease.

A Russian village burns

THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE SUFFERED

The German army, faced with an ever growing partisan threat, became increasingly comprehensive in their view about what constituted a partisan. One army document lists 1,900 partisans and their 'helpers', killed by the Germans in one action. But only 30 rifles and a handful of other weapons were found with them - more than 90% of those killed by the Germans had no guns.
And yet people still managed to survive. Inna Gavrilchenko tells how lucky she was to get a job in a slaughter house during the occupation of Kharkov. It gave her access to blood, which she smuggled out and cooked into a 'blood omelette'.

German planes have blown away this train.

German soldiers killed in action.

Amazing photos from the Russian Front: WW2

By Tarihçi at 22:26 russian front, ww2 No comments

This Russian soldier stands guard at Karelia.

Did you know that some Japanese too fought in the German army during the Second World War? Here they sit as POWs in Russia.

Contrary to the horror stories we hear about the brutal treatment German POWs received in Russian hands, here they are offered a smoke by a Russian soldier.