The former East Prussian city of Elbing once harbored one of the most
beautiful inner city centres of the region. But then, late January 1945, the Red Army came
and after a battle the city was sacked. Houses were burned, its German civilians murdered
and women assaulted. Why were the Soviets so cruel in East Prussia during World War II?
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Here in Elbląg formerly known as Elbing – a town in East Prussia
that did not survive WWII. It was largely destroyed, its inhabitants expelled and the
city became part of Poland and is now known by the name of Elbląg.
In order to understand the Soviet cruelty we need to explain
the German conduct of war during their invasion of the Soviet Union that started in June 22, 1941.
Hitler saw this as a crusade against the Slavic-Judeo-Asiatic-Bolsheviks. Already before
the operation was started, Hitler had made clear that this would be
a war of annihiliation. As German general Erich Hoeper wrote seven weeks before the attack:
According to Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau the German had two tasks:
the utter destruction of Bolshevist state and the extermination of anything foreign
to secure the life of the German Wehrmacht. And so it was carried out.
The fact alone that more than half of the estimated 5.7 million Red Army soldiers died
in captivity says it all. Because of the acute lack of food, medical care and clothing resulted
in a horrific death toll. Furthermore Soviet resistance activities – partisans – were put
down mercilessly. Often whole villages were set ablaze and its inhabitants murdered, simply
because a partisan activity had occured nearby. Jews were murdered en masse by the Einsatzgruppen.
These units operated behind the front and carried out mass executions of the Jewish population of
Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Russia. As the Germans retreated from these areas in 1943-44
the pursued a scorched earth policy where food, livestock, machinery,
houses were taken away of destroyed. This sowed the seeds for Soviet revenge in 1944-1945.
As soon as the Soviets got a foodhold on German ground in the autumn in 1944 atrocities were
carried out. The German village of Nemmersdorf suffered a great ordeal which was discovered after
it was retaken by the Germans where they found of 20 inhabitants murdered and all houses destroyed.
This continued after the Soviets overran Germany's easternmost province. Girls and women were raped
en masse. Often in front of horrified family members and often by multiple soldiers. As
Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in a poem named Prussian nights:
Many German inhabitants that didn't succeed in getting away in time
were simply shot on the spot: children, men, women, the elderly. And buildings
were set on fire. Whole East Prussian settlements, towns and cities were burned down.
So how do we explain the Soviet brutality in East Prussia during WW2? One simple explanation was
revenge. Revenge of the brutal behavior of the German troops during the Russian campaign. Many
Red Army soldiers had one if not more family members killed in the war. Those soldiers whose
family's lived in areas that were seized by the German soldiers sometimes had their whole families
killed. Furthermore, as the Soviets retook Ukraine they witnessed the massive death and destruction
the Germans had caused. As Soviet-Jewish author Vasily Grossman – born in Ukraine – wrote:
And this shock was strengthed when they Soviet troops discovered the mass graves
of executed Jews and when they liberated the concentration camps like Majdanek and Treblinka.
The hatred against the Germans was also fueled by Soviet propaganda. Ilya Ehrenburg who was like
Grossman a writer for Soviet newspaper Red Star. He was a popular writer who articles were mostly
read first as soon as the paper was distributed among Soviet troops. When a soldier wasn't able to
read, they ask their officers to read it aloud. Ehrenburg often aped Nazi language and twisted
it around the theme of “Kill the Germans”. Furthermore as Red Army soldiers entrered
Germany in East Prussia they were amazed by the luxurious lifestyle these people enjoyed.
Their clean, well-ordered towns with paved streets and electricity,
well-constructed houses filled with furniture, bedding, provided with indoor toilets and running
water. And after all the misery these Red Army troops been through – losing their relatives,
losing millions of their comrades in battle, facing the hard life at the front. They now
asked themselves: if the Germans had so much, why did they attack us, the people that had so little?