History 19/03/20 What habits of soldiers of the Wehrmacht surprised the red Army soldiers
the great Patriotic war faced not only a different ideology, but culture. For the Soviet people, educated in the spirit of good life values, came as a shock behavior of the German soldiers, whom they could observe in an informal setting.
familiarity
With soldiers of the Wehrmacht acquainted as peaceful Soviet citizens and soldiers. According to the testimony of soldiers, sometimes with German soldiers communicated during a lull between battles – the opponents can regale each other with smokes, and canned food or even play with the ball.
After Stalingrad the Germans were more likely to be captured, some of them were sent to Soviet hospitals. In a hospital robe from the wounded soldiers to distinguish them except for the German language.
the First thing that catches the eye when meeting with the Germans, despite the deep and rich origins of German culture, they behaved, to put it mildly, not very decent – too relaxed, deliberately rough, sometimes openly vulgar. The limits of decency from childhood familiar to the Soviet people they were unknown. Not because we are organized and your life.
for a Long time in the German army did not exist the proper conditions for Laundry and washing, which generated in the operating units a high level of hygiene. German Lieutenant Evert, Gottfried noted that they, of course, tried to be clean but in the life of the trenches it was difficult. According to the officer, it was the Russian, his regiment learned the habit of constantly wash and wear, and in 1941 their hands, Gottfried built the first bath, which allowed his subordinates to get rid of lice and other parasites.
Hankering for someone else
If in the first months of the war the German authorities tried to punish their soldiers for theft of property belonging to the population of the occupied territories, by the end of 1942, these measures have not worked. Moreover, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht increasingly robbed of their colleagues.
“Our officers are appropriated intended for us food products: chocolate, dried fruits, liquors, and sent it all home, or used themselves,” wrote home one of the German soldiers. However, soon the whole top part, which lived by plundering, was removed from office and sent to the reserve. As it turned out, in order that they increase in rank.
In a kitchen, according to the Germans, there was an ordinary army nepotism. In what does not deny those who were close to the “dominant clique”. The orderlies went with the “shiny face”, and orderlies bellies was “like drums”.
Colonel Luitpold Steidle, commander of the 767-th Grenadier regiment 376th infantry division, told how, in November 1942 caught his soldiers for plundering parcels comrades. In anger he beat him the first available under the hand of the thief, but later realized that the decomposition in retreating from Stalingrad the army can not be stopped.
I Should say that for many, the invasion of Germany in the USSR was akin to a trip to an exotic country. But the reality of them quickly sobered. For example, in December 1941 the average Feltheimer wrote to his wife: “I Beg you, please stop me to write about the silk and rubber Botica that I promised you to bring from Moscow. Understand – I die, I die, I feel it.”
Business culture
After the indiscriminate capture of Germans by the Soviet soldiers began to see shocking pictures, introducing the pastime of the German soldiers in the war. Many of them rank and file and officers of the Wehrmacht were stark naked: they show your ass, “manhood”, here they are cuddling with a doll of a woman in natural size, and then above the cesspool doing obscene things.
According to analysts, anal-genital subject of the Germans in the blood. So, folklorist and cultural anthropologist Alan Lieutenant Dundas notes that scatological GPSROS – specific characteristic of German national culture, which has survived in the XX century. Referring to the texts of Martin Luther, Johann Goethe and Heinrich Heine, a scientist proves that the interest in such a lowly subject was not alien even to the best representatives of the German nation.
Take, for example, Mozart’s letters, addressed to his cousin, in which there are expressions like “lick my ass” or “shit the bed”. The torch of classical music that did not see anything wrong. From this point of view, for a German soldier to “spoil the air” was absolutely natural effect.
to Meet the needs of
an Integral part of German army life was brothels. They created not only in occupied Europe but in the Soviet Union. The decision to regulate the sexual life of the personnel was taken after almost every tenth German soldier was ill with syphilis or gonorrhea. Organized in “brothels” prostitutes received a salary, insurance, benefits, and adequate medical care. According to surviving documents it is known that such institutions were the Pskov, Gatchina, revel, Stalino.
a Substantial proportion of the contents of parcels sent from Germany to the front, he made condoms. Contraceptives except the brothels could be purchased in canteens, kitchens or buyer. However, it is not concerned with sexual problems, the Germans complained that for the majority of the hungry and exhausted soldiers, many of whom are destined to die, “rubber products instead of bread was equivalent to the sending of coals to hell.”
“Waste material”
But more shocked that a brothel operated in concentration camps. So, in June 1941, Heinrich Himmler ordered to organize a “brothel” in the Mauthausen concentration camp, which could serve the SS. As prostitutes, contrary to the racial policy of the Reich, it was used a prisoner of the camp.
Many of them in conditions of mass hunger and the high mortality rate among prisoners voluntarily agreed to such “work.”
But this is only temporarily facilitate the participation of representatives of the “inferior races”. A few months later, they returned to the barracks often pregnant women or patients with syphilis. The authorities did not care about the fate of prostitutes. Most often their torment was pumped injection lethal injection.
heads
We know that on the front in the Soviet army for a serious offense and can shoot. However, even the NKVD in the thought that on the other side of the front as punishment was used in the beheading. German artillery Max landowski recalled that during 1943-44, in the 253-th infantry division, most of the soldiers were executed on the guillotine. So Karal mainly for attempted desertion or unauthorized absence from the part.
landowski also noted the high rate of suicide in part. This was facilitated by a full availability of firearms, but the soldiers not only fired, but hung, burnt or took his own life by jumping from a great height. More than 2/3 of suicide attempts in the German army were fatal.
Russian Seven
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© Russian Seven
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