How the superior race shocked the Russians during the war

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

During the Great Patriotic War, not only different ideologies collided, but also cultures. For Soviet people brought up in the spirit of correct life values, the behavior of German soldiers, whom they could observe in an informal setting, came as a shock.

Both peaceful Soviet citizens and Red Army men became closely acquainted with the Wehrmacht servicemen.

According to the testimony of the front-line soldiers, sometimes they talked with German soldiers during the lull between battles - the opponents could treat each other with smoke and canned food, or even play a ball. After Stalingrad, the Germans began to be taken prisoner more often, some of them were sent to Soviet hospitals. In hospital attire, they could be distinguished from the wounded Red Army soldiers only by their German speech.

The first thing that caught the eye when meeting the Germans, despite the deep and rich origins of German culture, they behaved, to put it mildly, not entirely decent - too liberated, deliberately rude, sometimes frankly vulgar. The framework of decency from childhood, familiar to Soviet people, was unknown to them. Not at all the way we organized their life.

For a long time, the German army did not have proper conditions for washing and washing, which gave rise to a high level of unsanitary conditions in the active units.

German Lieutenant Evert Gottfried noted that they, of course, tried to be clean, but in trench life it was difficult. According to the officer, it was from the Russians that his regiment learned the habit of constantly washing and washing, and already in 1941, with his own hands, Gottfried built the first bathhouse, which allowed his subordinates to get rid of lice and other parasites.

If in the first months of the war the German authorities tried to punish their soldiers for stealing property belonging to the population of the occupied territories, by the end of 1942 these measures were no longer in effect. Moreover, the Wehrmacht soldiers increasingly robbed their own colleagues. “Our officers appropriated the food products intended for us: chocolate, dried fruits, liqueurs, and sent it all home or used it themselves,” one of the German soldiers wrote home.

True, soon the entire top of the unit, which was engaged in robbery, was removed from office and sent to the reserve. As it turned out, in order to be promoted. In the field kitchen, according to the Germans, ordinary army nepotism reigned. Those who were close to the "ruling clique" did not deny themselves anything.

The orderlies walked with "shiny muzzles", and the orderlies had bellies "like drums." Colonel Luitpold Steidle, commander of the 767th Grenadier Regiment of the 376th Infantry Division, recounted how in November 1942 he found his soldiers stealing parcels from his comrades. In anger, he beat the first thief who came to his arm, but later he realized that the decay in the army retreating from Stalingrad could no longer be stopped.

It should be said that for many, the German invasion of the USSR was akin to a trip to an exotic country. But reality quickly sobered them. For example, in December 1941, Private Voltheimer wrote to his wife: “I beg you, stop writing to me about silk and rubber boots, which I promised to bring you from Moscow. Understand - I am dying, I am going to die, I can feel it. " It's a matter of culture After the total capture of the Germans, Soviet soldiers began to come across shocking pictures introducing the pastime of German soldiers in the war. On many of them, privates and Wehrmacht officers were completely naked: either they show their butt, or "manhood", here they are in an embrace with a life-size woman doll, and here they are doing indecent deeds over the cesspool.

According to psychoanalysts, the anal-genital theme is in the blood of the Germans. Thus, folklorist and cultural anthropologist Alan Dandes notes that the scatological issue is a specific feature of German national culture, which persisted in the 20th century. Referring to the texts of Martin Luther, Johann Goethe and Heinrich Heine, the scientist proves that interest in such a base topic was not alien even to the best representatives of the German nation. Take, for example, Mozart's letters to his cousin, which contain expressions such as "lick my ass" or "shit in bed." The beacon of classical music did not see anything shameful in this.

From this point of view, for a German soldier, what is called "spoiling the air" was an absolutely natural action. Satisfy the needs Brothels were an integral part of the German army.

They were created not only in occupied Europe, but also on the territory of the Soviet Union. The decision to streamline the sex life of personnel was made after almost one in ten German soldiers had had syphilis or gonorrhea. In organized brothel houses, prostitutes received salaries, insurance, benefits, and adequate medical care. According to the surviving documents, it is known that similar establishments were in Pskov, Gatchina, Revel, Stalino.

A significant proportion of the contents of the parcels sent from Germany to the front were condoms. Contraceptives, in addition to the brothels themselves, could be purchased at buffets, in kitchens or from suppliers. However, Germans not preoccupied with sexual problems complained that for most of the hungry and exhausted soldiers, many of whom were destined to die, "rubber products instead of bread were tantamount to sending hot coals to hell."

More shocking, however, was that brothels also operated in concentration camps. So, in June 1941, Heinrich Himmler ordered to organize a "house of tolerance" in the Mauthausen concentration camp, which could serve the SS men.

As priestesses of love, contrary to the racial policy of the Reich, the prisoners of the camp were used. Many of them, in conditions of mass hunger and high mortality among prisoners, voluntarily agreed to such "work". But this only temporarily eased the fate of the representatives of the "lower races". A few months later, they returned to the barracks, often pregnant or sick with syphilis. The authorities did not care about the fate of prostitutes. Most often, their torment was pumped by a lethal injection.

We know that at the front in units of the Soviet army they could have been shot for a serious offense. However, even the employees of the NKVD could not understand that on the other side of the front, the beheading was used as a punishment. German artilleryman Max Landowski recalled that during 1943-44 in the 253rd Infantry Division most of the soldiers were executed on the guillotine.

So they punished mainly for an attempt to desertion or for unauthorized absence from the unit. Landowski also noted a high suicide rate in his unit. This was facilitated by the full availability of firearms, but the servicemen not only shot themselves, but also hanged themselves, drowned themselves or took their own lives by jumping from a great height. More than 2/3 of the suicide attempts in the German army ended in death.