russian atrocities in east prussia

The Soviet forces took control of East Prussia only in May 1945.
In other words, perpetrators of such massacres followed a system, admittedly a perverse one, in which the perceived security threat in the form of the adult male population was targeted first. [53] Some German prisoners in French captivity were sent to North Africa. Russian soldiers also committed widespread violence against civilians in the Austro-Hungarian territory invaded in 1914/15. Zwei Jahrhunderte deutsch-russische Kulturgemeinschaft, Stuttgart 1986, pp. [68] Both the British and the French used gas grenades at the Somme in 1916, and by 1918 the Allies were making extensive use of chemical weapons. The higher estimates for death rates and for illness are cited by Hull, Isabel V.: Absolute Destruction. Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to an eight-year term in a labor camp. In the Habsburg Empire, where there was no dominant ethnic group (at least in the Austrian half of the monarchy), imperial rather than national ideologies could also beget violence – on home and in occupied territories. The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire, Oxford 2014, pp. De elektrische draadversperring aan de Belgisch-Nederlandse grens tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog, in: Het Tijdschrift van Dexia Bank 54 (2000), pp. Die Welt 1914 bis 1918, Berlin 2014, pp. The killing of a surrendering or defenceless soldier was perceived as an atrocity, and undisciplined elements on all sides committed such crimes, although it was not in their armies’ self-interest to do so. The soldiers knew the victims were "innocent", but they perceived the civilians to be collectively culpable. [61] In 1919 the Prussian War Ministry claimed that "the British have murdered German prisoners of war entirely systematically and on orders from above." "Propaganda", in the sense of cultural production that strove to make sense of the violence, was only to a limited extent state directed and was characterized by its origins in bourgeois self-mobilization. 196-201.

Their treatment depended greatly on their rank (officers were almost always treated well, given relatively comfortable accommodation, and not forced to work), and on their nationality. [21] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also served in East Prussia in 1945 and was arrested for criticizing Joseph Stalin and Soviet crimes in private correspondence with a friend. Login via your by David Thompson » 15 Nov 2004, 21:25, Return to “Holocaust & 20th Century War Crimes”. Hans Hautmann, quoted in Holzer, Das Lächeln der Henker 2008, p. 76.
Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. The Russian army committed many acts of violence during the invasion of East Prussia in August/September 1914. © 2014 by The University of Chicago. [15] It is impossible to provide an exact death toll; Austro-Hungarian figures indicate the total at the end of 1915 was less than 100. [5], After 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union, new sources became available and the dominant view among scholars became that the massacre was embellished, and actually exploited, by Goebbels in an attempt to stir up civilian resistance to the advancing Soviet Army. 2005, p. 22. Humanitaire et culture de guerre: Populations occupées, déportés civils, prisonniers de guerre, Paris 1998, pp. They finally had their way in February 1917, when Germany resumed all-out submarine warfare. For German nationalist publicists in the 1920s it was self-evident that the "English hunger blockade" was an atrocity and a war crime. That is especially apparent in the German denunciation of the Allies’ deployment of colonial troops as a barbaric atrocity.[73]. The figures are from Gause, Fritz: Die Russen in Ostpreußen 1914/15, Königsberg 1931, pp. Not only had it saved the Prussian heartland from occupation by an enemy the German propagandists increasingly chose to depict as "barbarian" -. It holds evidence of other Soviet massacres in East Prussia, notably Metgethen. [62][63] The German historian Rüdiger Overmans maintains that the statistical foundations of the West German government search service report to be unreliable; he believes that new research on the number of expulsion deaths is needed. The Red Army eliminated all pockets of resistance and took control of East Prussia in May 1945. The final Soviet assault on Königsberg started on 2 April with a heavy bombardment of the city. Detailed references to the atrocities of 1914 are to be found in Horne, John/Kramer, Alan: German Atrocities 1914. (eds. It reported that all the dead females had been raped (they ranged in age from 8 to 84). Hankel, Die Leipziger Prozesse 2003, p. 391. Imperial Russian Atrocities in East Prussia (1914) Post by sylvieK4 » 08 Nov 2004, 17:19 Can anyone help me with information about Russian atrocities committed during the 1914 invasion of East Prussia? by WalterS » 15 Nov 2004, 20:56, Post Don't do it again. The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate transfer to the Soviet Union of the City of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above subject to expert examination of the actual frontier. ): Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg 2003, p. 344.

The study of atrocities reveals a pattern in the First World War that shows both a historic shift towards ever more "total" forms of war that involved ever greater sections of society, and conscious decisions taken in the context of specific military cultures. The Declaration of London of 1909, which extended the rights of neutral shipping and restricted the type of goods liable to seizure as contraband, but allowed blockades, had in any event not been ratified by any state when war began. During this massacre, the Russian soldiers also shot some fifty French prisoners of war. Civilians were also subjected to violence by their own governments. 14, 26, 58-60. According to.

All Rights Reserved. This accounting, which was based on ration cards, included air raid evacuees from western Germany and foreign workers. [17] A Nazi information campaign about the atrocities at Nemmersdorf, as well as other crimes committed in East Prussia, convinced the remaining civilians that they should not get caught by the advancing enemy. [41], On 24 January 1945, the 3rd Belorussian Front led by General Chernyakhovsky, surrounded the capital city of East Prussia, Königsberg. 2005, p. 179.

1923, pp. Die Istanbuler Prozesse und die türkische Nationalbewegung, Hamburg 1996, p. 63. 287-289. Between 12 January and mid-February 1945, almost 8.5 million Germans fled the Eastern provinces of the Reich.

Conditions after capture could be equally lethal.

Both spurious and factual accounts of Soviet atrocities were disseminated through the official news and propaganda outlets of Nazi Germany and by rumors that swept through the military and civilian populations. by sylvieK4 » 08 Nov 2004, 17:19, Post The killing of small groups of allegedly "guilty" non-combatants required strict military hierarchy with relations of trust in superiors, the high emotional tension of combat, and mentalities predisposed towards violence. Expulsion is the method which, in so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. Becker, Annette: Oubliés de la Grande Guerre. institution, Login via your

Russian Atrocities against Civilians in East Prussia, 1914-15, in: The Journal of Modern History 86/4 (2014), pp. This not only confirmed the moral justification of the Allied cause, but also lent the Allies a propaganda weapon to mobilize home and neutral opinion. [53] Given the strict control of the Communist party over the military hierarchy, the pillage and rape in Prussia was the result of the Soviet command at all levels. [20], Lev Kopelev, who took part in the invasion of East Prussia, sharply criticized atrocities against the German civilian population. or contact your librarian for access to this journal. This text Hagen, War in a European Borderland 2007, pp. Note that Holocaust denial is not allowed. Later, however, it turned out that that was not the case. Abgeschlossen mit 30 November 1915, Vienna 1916, pp. The conditions of occupation led to famine and epidemics in which thousands died in the winter of 1917/1918. Münkler, Herfried: Der Große Krieg. 42-52. Here 137 civilians perished. I might add that I have studied the First World War in the East rather extensively and I don't believe that the Russian troops behaved substantially worse or better than the troops of other countries. Looting of Prussia is one of the few things I wouldn’t curse commies for. [25][26] Most of the refugees were women and children heading to western parts of Germany, carrying goods on improvised means of transport, such as wooden wagons and carts, as all the motorized vehicles and fuel had been confiscated by the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the war. Log in now if you have an individual subscription this journal, or if you've already purchased this et al.


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