Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
Link to the FSB page that feature the documents.
[REGNUM] February 2, 2023 will mark the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad, which marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the entire Second World War. The day before, the FSB of Russia published declassified archives about Nazi atrocities, as well as information received by the Soviet police department from German prisoners of war that helped the Red Army clear the liberated Stalingrad from Nazi mines.
The city and its environs were littered with German mines. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the enemy destroyed all the documents on the minefields and mined areas in the liberated territory that he had established. Every step in the already conquered and peaceful city threatened with death.
“The forces of the task force, through interrogations and through specially recruited agents, processed 50,000 prisoners of war, from whom testimonies were obtained about the location of enemy minefields, including previously unknown ones,” wrote a certificate in April 1943, the head of the UNKVD for the Stalingrad region, the commissioner of state security 3rd rank Alexander Voronin.
As a result of interrogations, the presence of about 300 minefields and sites in which up to 150,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines were laid.
In the continuation of the atrocities and excesses of the invaders, Alexander Voronin cited facts about bullying, murders, robberies and rapes.
Wehrmacht soldiers broke into dwellings and took everything they could get their hands on. They did not disdain even children's dresses and underwear. The Nazis sent things and valuables stolen from the population by parcels to Germany.
“In October 1942, in Stalingrad, the invaders robbed the apartment of the worker of the Krasny Oktyabr plant Georgy Fedorovich Zotov , took away clothes, food, utensils and furniture, and he, along with his mother, wife and two children aged three and seven, were shot for resisting ", said the head of the UNKVD.
"In the Barrikadny district, there were cases when, during a robbery, women were stripped of their dresses, shoes, stockings, down to their underwear. On the streets they detained and undressed children, took off their shoes, shirts, shorts and left half-dressed in the open," wrote the commissar.
After the liberation of Stalingrad, the main perpetrators of the atrocities were identified, including Major General Paul Lehning, who headed the German military commandant's office in Stalingrad, the organizer of robberies and bullying of the city's residents.
Together with units of the Red Army, employees of the Soviet state security agencies carried out combat missions, participated in reconnaissance, and the capture of enemy spies and saboteurs.
At the end of 1947, a monument to Chekists, employees of the military counterintelligence of the Stalingrad Front, soldiers and officers of the 10th Division of the NKVD troops, police officers who died while defending the city from Nazi invaders was opened in Stalingrad.
As REGNUM reported , Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in Volgograd on February 2 - he will take part in memorial events and talk with residents.
More from RIA Novosti, which provides a few more details of the German atrocities:
FSB told how the NKVD helped to clear Stalingrad from German mines
The FSB told how the NKVD helped clear Stalingrad from German mines 80 years ago
80 years ago, the Soviet internal affairs bodies received information from German prisoners of war that helped the Red Army clear the liberated Stalingrad from German mines - a declassified archival document about this is published by the FSB of Russia.
Immediately after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Stalingrad Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), together with the Smersh military counterintelligence authorities, began work on checking (filtering) German prisoners of war, in which information was collected on the territories mined by the Germans.
The city and its environs were littered with mines for many kilometers. The situation was greatly complicated by the fact that during the offensive of the Red Army and the liquidation of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad region, the enemy destroyed all the documents for the minefields he had established and mined areas in the liberated territory. Thus, every step in the already conquered and peaceful city threatened with death.
The FSB also published new evidence of atrocities committed by the occupiers against civilians in Stalingrad.
The Nazis did not expect the stubborn and heroic resistance of the Soviet troops near the city on the Volga, and therefore took revenge and took out their anger on the defenseless townspeople, explained at the FSB Public Relations Center.
“Wehrmacht soldiers broke into homes and took everything they could get their hands on. They didn’t disdain even children’s dresses and underwear. The Nazis sent things and valuables stolen from the population by parcels to Germany,” the CSO added.
Voronin wrote about the atrocities of the occupiers in the certificate "On the situation and results of the operational-Chekist work in the regions of the region and the city of Stalingrad, liberated from the Nazi occupiers" on February 20, 1943.
"In the Barrikadny district, there were cases when, during a robbery, women were stripped of their dresses, shoes, stockings, down to their underwear. On the streets, they detained and undressed children, took off their shoes, shirts, panties, and left them half-dressed in the open air," Voronin noted.
He also cited the facts of rape of local residents by the occupiers, statistics on cattle theft, data on schools, hospitals, and libraries destroyed en masse.
After the liberation of Stalingrad, employees of the regional People's Commissariat of State Security identified the main culprits in the atrocities committed during the occupation. Among them is Major General Paul Lehning, who headed the German military commandant's office in Stalingrad and was the organizer of looting and bullying of Soviet citizens.
"By order of Lehning, Soviet patriots-partisans were shot, with his sanction, officers of the intelligence department and the field gendarmerie attached to the commandant's office committed atrocities against prisoners of war of the Red Army, communists, former Soviet activists, Jews and other "suspicious" persons," the now published certificate of crimes said. Lehning, compiled by the Department of the People's Commissariat for State Security in the Stalingrad region at the end of June 1943.
The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943) in terms of scale, duration and number of participants became one of the largest during the Great Patriotic War. It radically changed its course and turned out to be a harbinger of the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany.
On the firing lines of Stalingrad, the 10th Rifle Division of the NKVD of the USSR under the command of Colonel Alexander Saraev stood to the death, which, on the outskirts of the city, was the first to take the blow of the enemy. At the cost of inhuman efforts and the feat of its fighters, the city, which was practically wiped off the face of the earth in a few days of massive bombardment, managed to be held until the arrival of the regular units of the Red Army.
Together with units of the Red Army, employees of the Soviet state security agencies carried out combat missions, participated in reconnaissance, and the capture of enemy spies and saboteurs. At the end of 1947, a monument to Chekists, employees of the military counterintelligence of the Stalingrad Front, soldiers and officers of the 10th division of the NKVD troops, police officers who died while defending the city from Nazi invaders was opened in Stalingrad.
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