Friedrich Paulus

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (September 23rd 1890 - 1957) was a German soldier .

He was the commander of the 6th German army during the Bataille of Stalingrad. One sometimes wrongly associates von with his name because a great number of generals were resulting from the rows of the Prussian aristocrats , but came to him in fact from a relatively humble medium. What undoubtedly constituted an additional reason for Hitler to make him climb the levels of the military hierarchy quickly.

At the time of the Battle of Stalingrad, he obeys, against better judgment, with the orders of Hitler to hold his positions at all costs whereas the Red Army of the marshal Georgi Joukov had inserted in November 1942 the weak sides of German defense held by the allies of the Axis (of the Rumanian and Italian units) and that the German troops were encircled in the city without possibility of being helped. The effort of the army of the Gift group of Erich von Manstein to break surrounding failed partly because of its lack of understanding and its refusal to evacuate the city. The 6th army was destroyed in Stalingrad under the pressure of the Soviet troops during the months of December 42 and January 43. Under the order of Paulus, the German troops resisted until February 2nd, 1943.

A few days before, on January 30th, Hitler Paulus with the dignity of Feld-maréchal had raised, which was a manner disguised assure him its order to fight until death, because, in all the German history, no Marshal had never gone to the enemy. Paulus refused there however, and, prisoner, he became even a critic of the mode Nazi, serving the Soviet propaganda of war. He was then a witness for the prosecution at the time of the Procès of Nuremberg.

Witness of the charge in Nuremberg

The advertisement of the lawsuits against the principal German war criminals caused in November 1945 a great agitation among the captured officers who had fought in Stalingrad: one of the counts of indictment related to the murder of 40.000 civilians. The subordinates of Paulus rejected any responsibility on top and cut off themselves behind its orders. It is what undoubtedly pushed it to collaborate with the Soviet Union: it informed the liaison officer of the NKVD which it wished to testify about the preparation to the countryside to Russia and what it knew about the general Government.

Under the pseudonym of Satrap and Soviet protection, it was taken along discreetly to Germany at the beginning of 1946 and was the pilot on February 11th of the charge in front of the court. He explained his own role during the preparation of the company Barbarossa and on his character of destruction and war of conquest which the defendants could not be unaware of. Questioned on the principal culprits, it indicated Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl and Hermann Göring. Defense did not manage to weaken its assertions by reproaching him its own role in the general Staff, the 6th army and the NKFD, because the judge did not regard these aspects as important. The declaration of Paulus satisfied waitings of the Soviet persons in charge perfectly, but Paulus did not obtain anything in exchange to tell the truth: it was to him interdict to say goodbye to his seriously sick wife: one did not see the utility of it! She died in 1949 without to have re-examined her husband.

The attitude of the field-marshal convainquit not soldiers and officers captive of the Russians: the majority held it for somebody of méprisable and estimated that it was less guilty than Keitel, Jodl and Göring. For this reason, several thought that it would then pass itself in judgment. After its Paulus return was not brought back to the camp, but was installed in a datcha with Tomilino. It found there the generals Vincenz Müller and Arno von Lenski like its aide-de-camp, colonel Adam. In convalescence after a pulmonary tuberculosis, they spent two months in the Crimea during the summer 1947. The mode changed in 1948, when - contrary to Paulus itself - his/her companions were slackened and that one left with him only two German prisoners of war as cook and ordinance. This situation and the bad news on the health of his wife (increasingly sick) caused at his place a depression. Also, in June 1948, required it to be repatriated in Eastern zone, because he wanted to help with the construction of democratic Germany closely related to the Soviet Union. Apparently it discounted to have thus larger chances to be released, but this request remained unanswered. Paulus had the feeling which one had started to inform against him. The exits with the theater of Moscow were allowed to him more, it did not receive any more the visit of civils servant and one had removed his radio under an unspecified pretext to him. However in 1949, although there existed against him rather heavy loads, it was still not marked.

The death of his wife in November 1949 was hidden to him during four weeks: one wanted to prevent that Paulus refused from now on to go to live in GDR, since the son and the girl who remained to him lived both in FRG. For this reason, if one gave an agreement in principle to a new request in May 1950, the final permission still did not arrive. In a ratio of 1953, one said well: “The repatriation of Paulus is pushed back until a express order, one does not have to speak about it more. ” There could be some discussion for him about settling only in East Germany, since in the west its image was very bad following a novel of Theodor Plivier, whose topic was the events of Stalingrad; with the remainder it could have been marked in front of a court of West Germany. In September 1953, it still had an interview with Walter Ulbricht during whom one spoke about his return. Before Paulus got into the train for Frankfurt/Oder with its two servants on October 24th, 1953, he wrote once again to speak about his devotion towards the Soviet Union what, with the eyes of the German public, definitively made him a traitor who had turned casaque.

Its last years

The Paulus October 26th, 1953 pressed for the first time since 1946 the German ground: on the quay awaited it Arno von Lenski and Wilhelm Adam. They went then to East Berlin to an official reception given by the direction of State and the party of GDR. Its name had gained in importance since Adenauer, the federal chancellor, had anchored to the West FRG. Apparently one wanted to oppose known figures to him which supported GDR. One thus placed it in a villa of Dresden, in the district of Weisser Hirsch, and it accepted the privilege to carry a weapon and to have a car of West Germany, Opel Kapitän. It was not subjected of it after its arrival to the monitoring of Stasi: all its employees belonged to the secret services, his mail was supervised spy, her telephone and her housing. One gave him no station where it could have had influence in GDR, its official function was to direct the office of search for history of the war to the High popular Police academy in barracks. (It was inter alia one of the principal authors of the Working instructions of the national popular army of GDR). Paulus was occupied in its writings, and at the time of conferences, of the battle of Stalingrad, for the remainder it carried out the life of the notable buildings and readily passed the evenings between old soldiers. In fact, it then had difficulties in establish the contact with its compatriots and got along better with the Soviet generals. In 1955 it was associated on the initiative “Meetings panallemandes between officers” who aimed at preventing the rearmament of both Allemagnes. This initiative made it endeavor to obtain the release of the last prisoners of war. For that, he addressed himself to the direction of the GDR which did not have there, to tell the truth, no interest. The second meeting called with national resistance against the driving policy to a durable separation of Germany. This call, and also the participation of officers of Waffen-SS, led GDR to put an end to these meetings. Thereafter Paulus withdrew public life, before very for health reasons (since 1955/56 he suffered from bulbar paralysis with amyotrophic Sclérose side, an affection of the brain which leads to the paralysis of the muscles in all intellectual clearness). The fast aggravation of its health prevented it from finishing a study on the battle of Stalingrad. He died towards the end of the afternoon on February 1st, 1957 in his villa of Dresden and was buried with the military honors with the cemetery of Dresden-Tolkewitz.

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