Soviet writer and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg , July 24, 1942, at the height of summer during the German advance on the Don, published in the "Red Star" the infamous article "Kill the Germans." Adolf Hitler personally ordered the capture and hanging of Ehrenburg. Nazi propagandists gave Ehrenburg the nickname "Home Jew Stalin."
Below is the article as published in the "Red Star".
A little earlier, on 18 July 1942 the "Red Star" published a poem by Konstantin Simonov titled "Kill him", which possibly, inspired Ehrenburg to come up with his subsequent article. Here is the Simonov poem being recited by Mikhail Tsariov, a folk artist
The text of the Simonov poem......
If your house means a thing to you
Where you first dreamed your Russian dreams
In your swinging cradle, afloat
Beneath the log ceiling beams.
If your house means a thing to you
With its stove, corners, walls and floors
Worn smooth by the footsteps of three
Generations of ancestors.
If your small garden means a thing:
With its May blooms and bees humming low,
With its table your grandfather built
Neath the linden - a century ago.
If you don't want a German to tread
The floor in your house and chance
To sit in your ancestors' place
And destroy your yard's trees and plants
If your mother is dear to you
And the breast that gave you suck
Which hasn't had milk for years
But is now where you put your cheek;
If you cannot stand the thought
Of a German's doing her harm.
Beating her furrowed face
With her braids wound round his arm.
And those hands which carried you
To your cradle washing instead
A German's dirty clothes
Or making him his bed .
[If you haven't forgotten your father
Who tossed you and teased your toes,
Who was a good soldier, who vanished
In the high Carpathian snows,
Who died for your motherland's fate,
For each Don and each Volga wave,
If you don't want him in his sleeping
To turn over in his grave,
When a German tears his soldier picture
With crosses from its place
And before your own mother's eyes
Stamps hobnailed boots on his face.]
If you don't want to give away
Her you walked with and didn't touch,
Her you didn't dare even to kiss
For a long time - you loved her so much,
And the Germans cornering her
And taking her alive by force,
Crucifying her - three of them
Naked, on the floor; with coarse
Moans, hate, and blood, -
Those dogs taking advantage of
All you sacredly preserved
With your strong, male love.
If you don't want to give away
To a German with his black gun
Your house, your mother, your wife
All that's yours as a native son
No: No one will save your land
If you don't save it from the worst.
No: No one will kill this foe,
If you don't kill him first.
And until you have killed him, don't
Talk about your love - and
Call the house where you lived your home
Or the land where you grew up your land.
If your brother killed a German,
If your neighbor killed one too,
It's your brother's and neighbor's vengeance,
And it's no revenge for you.
You can't sit behind another
Letting him fire your shot.
If your brother kills a German,
Hes a soldier; you are not.
So kill that German so he
Will lie on the ground's backbone,
So the funeral wailing will be
In his house, not in your own.
He wanted it so It's his guilt
Let his house burn up, and his life.
Let his woman become a widow;
Don't let it be your wife.
Don't let your mother tire from tears;
Let the one who bore him bear the pain.
Don't let it be yours, but his
Family who will wait in vain.
So kill at least one of them
And as soon as you can. Still
Each one you chance to see!
Kill him! Kill him! Kill!
The "Kill The Germans" campaign took many forms. It appeared on billboards and as posters.
 |
| Here is a poster in Leningrad in 1943 at the height of the siege |
Kayıtlar
Harry Riblett is my Dad. He is a published author and consultant on airfoil design. He and his brothers are pilots by hobby. I can remember my Uncle Richie landing helicopters...
Anonymous December 4, 2012 11:11 AM
Interesting. As a Dempsey, it is very interesting to learn the history.
Larry T November 27, 2012 7:35 PM
I also grew up in Sherwood 2, I must be older than Vic C. The property on both sides of McKennans used to be state property/ prison farm. After closing the prison farm, the state sold...
Scott P November 27, 2012 10:07 AM
Thanks, Vic. Good to know. So unless the house was small and overgrown, then it sounds like the barn lasted longer than the house did. In either case, it...
Anonymous November 26, 2012 12:45 PM
I grew up in Sherwood Park II. I don’t remember the house but I do recall an old barn back there. Older kids would go there to smoke. We roamed about the overgrown fields quite often. It was...
Anonymous November 24, 2012 12:02 PM