A man is arriving from a long journey to his new home in Drsden. Eight years have passed since the end of World War II and this city, unfortunately known for suffering one of the worst air raids in history, was trapped on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain in the early years of the German Democratic Republic. Even so, this city will become the home of one of the most remembered characters of World War II: the one-time Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, the general who surrendered the 6th Army at Stalingrad, an event that marked a turning point in the history of World War II.
But what happened to Paulus after he surrendered in that distant city on the banks of the Volga? Today, we will learn more about the fate of Friedrich Paulus after the battle of Stalingrad. Welcome to Mini War Stories… I think that when one studies the Second World War for the first time, it is impossible not to mention the battle of Stalingrad and that general/marshal who came out of it defeated, surrendering an entire army.
Under that idea, we understand then that Friedrich Paulus is a man with a heavy burden on his shoulders. By antonomasia, his name is and will be forever linked to Stalingrad. The battle for that city on the Volga led to the death of almost two million people.
His 6th Army, which Hitler once said could "conquer the sky", consisted before the battle of 260,000 men, but only 91,000 were alive when Paulus decided to surrender, of whom only 6,000 survived Soviet captivity. With all this regret under his shoulders, why did Paulus, after being released from captivity, decide to remain under Soviet control by wanting to live in the GDR? On January 31, 1943, when the end of the battle of Stalingrad was imminent, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal, which in the end, was an implicit invitation to commit suicide, under the idea that no German field marshal had ever been captured alive.
But in the end, Paulus chose life and that same night, he allowed himself to be captured at his last command post. It was the first and last time he disobeyed his esteemed Führer. The next day, Soviet generals conducted the first interrogation.
The recordings of this went around the world. It was a tremendous psychological turning point of the war. After the signing of the surrender, Paulus began his long journey to captivity, but as previously negotiated, he was allowed to go with his personal items and in his own car.
Behind his back, he left 91,000 soldiers who were still alive after the bloody battle to their fate, even though they would have wished they had died in that cold winter, for their martyrdom had only just begun. Even their long journey to the prisoner-of-war camps in Siberia meant death for many of them. In the meantime, Paulus was sent to a special camp some 300 kilometers from Moscow, and was placed under surveillance by the NKVD, which regularly compiled files on his political stance.
When World War II ended, the Soviets used him as a star witness at the Nuremberg Trials, and what he would reveal against his one-time Führer came as a surprise to everyone. But how did this surprising change from general loyal to Hitler to now being his harsh critic come about? It turns out that by the time of the trials, Paulus had already been a prisoner of the Soviets for three years.
During those years, Wilhelm Pieck, a German Communist politician who had managed to flee Germany and take refuge in the USSR before the war, had been one of the creators of what would become known as the NKFD, a special committee composed of German soldiers and officers captured to fight Hitler and the National Socialists. During a conversation between the two, Paulus admitted his disappointment with Hitler, but insisted that, as a soldier, he must obey in all circumstances, so he flatly refused to help establish and integrate this committee. However, the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944 changed his mind.
Among the conspirators led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, there were many whom he, as a military man, valued and respected. The field marshal, who had been so loyal to Hitler, finally realized that Germany was on the verge of collapse. So now he too sided with the resistance against Hitler, and together with other captured generals, called for his overthrow.
Although this changed nothing in the course of the war, Paulus now wanted to secure a peaceful future for Germany, different from the one he had once envisioned. With that in mind, and with the end of the war, the Marshal returned to German soil in 1946 after four years in the Soviet Union to testify in Nuremberg, where he admitted his complicity in the planning of Operation Barbarossa. As a reward, the Soviets promised him that after his appearance before the Tribunal, he would be allowed to communicate with his family, something he was forbidden to do during those four years in captivity.
In doing so, Paulus was destined to endorse the criminal nature of Barbarossa, but one must also consider that even before that, he had already voluntarily admitted his complicity in the planning of the operation. Judge (in English): "I swear by God. " Paulus (in German): "I swear by God.
" Judge (in English): "The Almighty and Omniscient. " Paulus (in German): "The Almighty and Omniscient. " Judge (in English): "That I will speak the pure truth.
" Paulus (in German): "That I will speak the pure truth. " Judge (in English): "And will withhold and add nothing. " Paulus (in German): "And will withhold and add nothing.
" In the dock, Hermann Göring listened attentively to him, whom Paulus accused of being the main culprit for Stalingrad, since he had promised him to supply his 6th Army from the air so that they would not succumb, which never happened. When asked if he recognizes the planners of Operation Barbarossa. Paulus: "Of the defendants, as far as they were in my field of vision.
Hitler's first military advisers: This is the Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command: Keitel. The Chief of the Wehrmacht Command Office: Jodl. And Göring, in his capacity as Reich Marshal.
" Friedrich Paulus was the first war planner who told the world the truth about Germany's criminal policy of conquest and at the same time admitted his own complicity. As a consequence of his confession, he received comments from some of the defendants calling him a traitor, and this also came from some Stalingrad veterans: Erich Burkhardt, German soldier at Stalingrad: "There speaks a scoundrel! In a word.
We were both soldiers who took an oath, and all of a sudden he is against Hitler. He took it to the highest point: Field Marshal, and then, all of a sudden, he's talking like that. No…" The cross-examination before the Tribunal demanded much more of Paulus, for he was already putting his name and honor on the line, but nevertheless, he ended up revealing the background to Hitler's war plans.
By that point in his life, he was indifferent to everything, since the only thing he longed for above all else was to see his wife and family again. But this was not to be… After his participation in Nuremberg, the Soviets decided to send him back to Moscow, a very hard blow for him. It took seven years and the death of Stalin before he was able to return to Germany in 1953 to be reunited with his family.
When he arrived home again, he learned everything she didn't know at the time. He learned that one of her sons and her son-in-law were killed in the war. The SS arrested his family in 1944 for their anti-Hitler messages.
His beloved wife, Elena, had been seriously ill ever since. She died in 1949 without seeing her husband again. Despite this, the Marshal defeated at Stalingrad decided not to go to West Berlin or to see his daughter in Baden-Baden, but chose to settle in Drsden in East Germany.
Some historians believe that after more than ten years in the Soviet Union, Paulus may have adopted the wrong image of the American-ruled FRG. In addition, most of the leading German generals had taken refuge there, so he also feared constant criticism and harassment. For its part, the GDR was very interested in him as it wanted to benefit from his conservative attitude and his name would serve as a political boost for the newly created state.
But at the same time, they were suspicious of him. From the very beginning he was under constant surveillance by the Stasi, and received threatening letters both from the West and from his own bloc with messages such as "Death belongs to you as much as to my father" or "You led thousands of lives to death without remorse". During the months that followed, the GDR authorities began to be more benevolent towards him.
His daughter Olga and his grandchildren were allowed to cross the border to be with him. With this help, he was able to live out his longed-for family happiness. In 1954, in return for East German assistance, Paulus was one of the speakers at an international press conference in Berlin, his first public appearance since Nuremberg.
The East Berlin leadership used him as a political weapon during the Cold War to promote the reunification of the two German states into a single neutral state under Soviet influence. But what was expected to be a grand reunification speech ended up being a return to his past. Once again, it was about Stalingrad and his responsibility for the fate of German soldiers in Soviet captivity.
In the end, Paulus did not have the expected impact with German society. His participation in the conference was a total failure. All he had left was his fateful theme: Stalingrad.
After that, the former marshal wanted to continue trying to change his image and restore his honor. Deep down, he wanted to ease his conscience, but by now he could no longer even do that. Since mid-1955, he had been suffering from a rare and incurable muscular disease that led to complete paralysis of the body.
Friedrich Paulus died in Drsden on February 1, 1957 at the age of 66, coincidentally, the same day he was captured at Stalingrad fourteen years earlier. The German Democratic Republic gave him a state funeral. A man marked by controversy to the end.
Whether he was considered a hero, traitor, opportunist or a mere pawn of the Cold War, his name survives to this day. His fate and that of tens of thousands of men under his command remain connected to this day; connected to a distant city on the banks of the Volga. Even when you think something appears clear, question it and do not rest.
Doubt everything that appears to be beautiful and true. Always ask yourself: “What for? ”.
Don't think that one thing alone is good; straight is not straight and neither is curved curved. If someone says a value is absolute, ask them quietly, “Why? ” Today's truth may already lie tomorrow.
Follow the river from where the torrent began. Isolated parts are not enough for you. Always ask yourself, “Since when?
”. Look for the causes, unite and dissolve, dare to look behind the words. If someone says, "This is good (or bad),” ask quietly: “For whom?
”. Friedrich Paulus.
