Kharkov 1942: 250,000 Soviet prisoners marched to death

1942 & the Russians lose big time. Every soldier in this scene was marched by the Germans to his death within a few days!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• kharkov
• 1942
• 250
• 000
• russian
• prisoners

[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.

[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]

@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.

[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]

@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.

[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.

[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 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.

[iainhead]

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

[buffuzo]

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

[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.