Kharkov 1942: 250,000 Soviet prisoners marched to death

[IustitiaPax]

Also starvation of Soviet soldiers was a problem of the rapid onmarch in the autumn and early winter 1941! Not of May 1942, when Soviet POWs were professionally abducted to the inner parts of the Reich and the Axis sphere of influence to become forced labourers or POWs in work camps for the Soviet POWs (USSR had not signed the Geneva Conventions). By May 1942 Soviet soldiers' treatment had improved very much (also Red Cross and Swiss and other neutral observers) compared to Autumn 1941!

[IustitiaPax]

The commenting of the OP in the title is historical nonsense. Millions of Soviet POWs became forced labourers in Axis countries and inside the German Reich (many remained hidden in the western zones, fearing 'repatriation' to Stalin's death squads). And 1.5 million Soviet POWs served in Axis volunteers uniforms and Waffen-SS! Remember Gen. Andrej Vlasov? Dead? By Stalin. Not by Hitler.

[IustitiaPax]

@IustitiaPax Of course in autumn 1941 hundred thousands of Soviet soldiers starved, but unwanted.The numbers are mere estimates and Soviet propaganda and 'historians' falsified and exaggerated them. To cover up the number of those murdered by the Soviet secret police and their post-war repression against Soviet volunteer labourers, POW forced labourers in the Reich and Nazi-occupied Poland, not to mention the mass murder of pro-Axis military volunteers formerly from the Red Army.

[buffuzo]

Praise to the Red Army, savior of Europe from the Fascist savages!

[iainhead]

@buffuzo yes, praise be to them for swapping fascism for their own brand of tyranny and destruction, good on them...

[juporzio]

Paulmac38: Yes, it is true. But I am an Uruguayan man and I always remember the epic battles of these German Hero. It is sad that they lost the war after so big sacrificies! Poor of they, the most lose their young lives for their homeland. A great example of honour and courage.

[paulmac38]

god bless all the German soldiers who lost their lives fighting the asiatic Russians. you are sadly missed.

[unserer1488]

Jedem das seine:)

[tranmere789]

1943 was the real turnpoint of the Barbarossa. Not because Soviet was doing better, but coz allies took Italy and Hitler had to move over 700 000 soldiers to Italy and Balkan instead to send them to eastern front. Like author John Mosier has written - 1943 was the most bloodies year for Soviet military forces. Red army lost more soldiers than in 1941 or 1942.

Yes - and then there is also that huge important lend lease help from west to Soviet. It was crucial as Zhukov addmitted later.

[GorterPoss]

@tranmere789 Casualty figures and kill ratios are interesting but they have to be considered in the proper perspective. Ultimately, the Russians simply had the distance, ressources and manpower to sustain obscene amounts of losses in land, men and materiel and still be able to regroup, retrain and replenish fresh armies deep in the Russian hinterland. In all likelihood, the 700,000 would have succeeded only in slowing the pace of the Russian advance.

[alu701]

@GorterPoss No, Russia's capacity for war is exaggerated. The Soviet Union has thrice of Germany's population, but casualty figures could swing demography in favor of Germany.. eventually. Ofc, u can argue tt the USSR can enlist females while Germany can't. But, with Ukraine in German hands, 1/8 of the Soviet population was captured. Lucky for the Soviets, they had a self-sufficient industry in the hinterland, which spammed t-34s, n did nt have to worry abt a shortage of US trucks for logistics.

[GorterPoss]

@alu701 I'm not suggesting that Soviet manpower was unlimited, but the depth of their reserves and their willingness to sacrifice men to forestall German gains and engage Germany in battles of attrition is hard to overstate. The three German summer offensives of 41', 42' and 43' were blunted and reversed by Soviet capacity to absorb massive losses and then counterattack. My point is, kill ratios were irrelevant as long as the Soviets could field new reserves and they were always able to.

[alu701]

@GorterPoss True, true. But soviet counterattacks would have failed horribly, if hitler allowed the building of field fortifications. Who knows, a trench war could have been the outcome of that.

[deg050607]

GERMANY should have enlisted some of these men to fight against the biggest mass murderer in history JOSEPH STALIN.

[trixter1996]

Stalin ordered his soldiers that, given the option to retreat and survive or stay and die where they stand, they should shoose the latter option.

[12thgenord]

Mother Russia wouldn't take back these cowards, Germans had no provisions or resources to maintain these prisoners whom they considered to be sub-human anyway.

What do you think is going to happen to them?

If half these soldiers would have provided their weapons, ammo and provisions to the other half... and then surrendered, the 125,000 left would have had a fighting change to at least take some Germans down to hell with them. It was Soviet land the Germans were trampling over. Die fighting

[ww2footage]

@12thgenord Communism was jewish occupation of Russia

[kamikazeboy123]

wow that a lot of russian men there ,why did they surrender?

i thought stalin doesnt want any of his troops to surrender and fight to his death?

[joey143anna]

if it is the japanese surrender is not in their vocabulary. cool music' just add some electric guitar with full blast distortion drop A.

[joey143anna]

fear the wrath of GOD! count your blessings cause i'm counting every lies!

[sirlovemehard]

If you surrender with 250,0000 troops, i'm sorry... that's just sheer cowardice. You know what 250,000 people can do? Holy shit...

[ruleireland6]

who cares the battle of Stalingrad 750,000 germans troops where killed and almost half of em were POWs that the Soviets killed and tortured

[isitcosimblack]

@ruleireland6 yes , but that was AFTER the germans did this , AND killed 7 mln civilians . after stalingrad defeating the enemy was not enough .

[breizhaganbrav]

Independantly of the nature of the stalinian regim,I think the destiny of these prisonners is the most horrible crime of Hitler after the "Shoah".

[12boilerup]

why the fuck would you A) surrender that many soldiers B) take that many prisoners, logistics nightmare

[danielscpfanatic]

True. The japs with 250.000 would create havoc and hell.

[dachicagoan]

It sucks to be these guys. Through their communist government, their families were starved and relocated to desolate areas. Once these guys were forced into the army, their superiors (if not executed or sent to labor camps) were not given any support or arms to defend against the german invasion.  They were even forbidden to fire back at the germans during the opening days of the war.

[ChiefOren]

War is just a tool in the arsenal of the NWO to reduce world population. The Soviets just like the Germans were interested in reducing the Slavs to slaves. So what!

[tonijocevski]

well yeah stalin maybe was bad ass!!! but thats only 1 russian bad!!! all germans are satanists and nazi bastards!!! thanks god for russian soldiers who free us from satanists like germans!!! russian soldiers look so young so strong so proud!!! germans= losers like always and cold blodd with no emocional bastards!!!

[GerValkyrie]

@tonijocevski LOL

[WaffenSS62]

marched to death my fucking ass....did anyone here ever think that the Germans didn't have enough food for all those prisoners???? cuz that's exactly what happened

[butters2k]

There were German orders to let Soviet POWs and the Soviet civilian population starve to death in order to squeeze as much grain out of the occupied terretories as possible. And Slaws were to die on giant refugee treks, as determined by the Germans in Generalplan Ost. That's exactly what happened.

[SiggyStern]

@butters2k

I agree with you,many of them were starved very intentionally!!! Only when in later time it was realized that they could work for the industry they were "more careful with them".....but having said that,they were still treated very very badly as their survival was not considered important,but just that they would work as long as possible before they would die.....it was just a very inhuman way of thinking!! and cost millions of lives!

[breizhaganbrav]

There's only a little problem,the germans had enough food for russians POW'S.AnywayHitler had told to his generals in april 1941: this war will be a war of extermination.He made what he said that's all.

[quest8899]

Thats alright, the russians were still the stronger military during ww2 even though they lost here the first time around.

[BooteyMasta]

Stalin and Saddam and Hitler came from the same paranoid megalamaniac ego complex gene pool.Amazing people tolerated any one of them for so long!If there is a Hell all of them will suffer in the darkest circle.

[BillWard1990]

The battle of Kharkov was a completely disaster for the red army.Stalin should have heard his generals.

[eric5906]

It is a fact: Stalin never trusted one of his soldiers who surrendered. Wish we could've seen more of these victories. Stalin was shitting his pants.

[eric5906]

Don't forget: Stalin would have shot/imprisoned anyone who surrendered to the enemy. Cool music.

[ExtraSmoker]

interesting, the russian archives with Stalin's orders shields completely different story. Stalin was telling the comrades to revenge the enemy imprisoned them.

of course the soviet fugitive POW's were checked long to be sure, that they were not german agents... but why shot and imprisoned?

[IustitiaPax]

@eric5906 Indeed. And more than 1.5 million former Soviet POWs became pro-Axis (pro-German) anti-Communist volunteer troops. Most of them were killed in action against the Red Army or killed by the NKVD and KGB after May 9, 1945. Remember this. And Andrej Vlassov. The Germans did not "march all Soviet prisoners of war to death" at all! That is a lie and anti-German propaganda.