actually fought at Stalingrad.) But these are men who must be kept in prison as criminals, according to the most humane standards and rules. They are men who have lost the human countenance; they are men guilty of atrocity, of arson, of murder committed against women, children and old people. They were duly sentenced by a Soviet court and cannot be regarded as prisoners of war.
“The Soviet people cannot forget the capital crimes committed by these criminal elements, as, for instance, the shooting of 70,000 men in Kiev on the Babi Yar. We cannot forget these million people who were killed, gassed and burned to death. Can anyone ever forget the tons of hair that were cut off (and stapled) from women who were tortured to death. Those present on our side have witnessed all that happened in Maidanek. In the Maidanek and Auschwitz camps more than five and a half million people, all innocent, were murdered. The Ukrainian people will never forget those innocent people murdered in Kharkov, where thousands were shot or gassed. I could name the concentration camps in Smolensk, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Lov, Poltava, Novgorod, Orel, Rovno, Kaunas, Riga—and many others—where hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were tortured to death by the Hitler fascists. We cannot forget those innocent people, murdered, gassed and buried alive; we cannot forget the scorched towns and villages, the killed women, juveniles and children. And those 9,626 men I mentioned are criminals who committed these monstrous crimes…”
Adenauer was quick to respond:
“Then, Mr. Prime Minister, you talked about the prisoners of war. May I be permitted to draw your attention to the fact that in my yesterday’s statements the words ‘prisoners of war’ were not at all mentioned. I avoided this expression on purpose. If you closely examine my statements, you will find that I rather spoke of ‘persons who were retained.’ You talked of ‘war criminals’ and of sentences passed by Soviet courts. We have similar facts also in our relation to the U.S.A., Great Britain and France. But these states came to understand that the sentences passed by the courts of these countries in the first postwar period were not free from emotions, from the atmosphere of that specific time…
“Much evil was done.
“This much is true: German troops invaded Russia. And this much is true: Much evil was done. But this is true, too: Russian armies invaded Germany—in defense, I admit without hesitation—and many horrible things also happened in Germany during the war. I think, if we enter into a new period of our relations—and this we want seriously—we should not take too close a look into the past, for then we only start putting up obstacles.” Premier Nikita Khrushchev vehemently attacked Adenauer’s position: “Mr. Chancellor, you said at the end of your declaration that the Soviet troops, when they crossed the Soviet borders and penetrated deeper into your country, also committed crimes; I refuse this categorically, as this was not the case and the German party cannot submit any evidence as to this (author’s note—here Khrushchev ignored the truth). The Soviet troops drove away the others from this country and persecuted them, as they did not surrender. If we had left these troops alone, they could have prepared for another invasion. We could not stop halfway, but had to destroy the enemy who dared to raise his weapons against us. That is why the Soviet soldiers fulfilled their holy duty toward their homeland by continuing this war and sacrificing their lives. Are these horrors? If any troops had invaded Germany and Germany had defended herself and destroyed the enemy— would you call that horrors? It would be Germany’s holy duty. For these reasons, I am of the opinion that an insulting remark has been made as to the Soviet troops. And this forced me to make such a statement.”
On September 14, Adenauer held a press conference in Moscow:
“…The Soviet Government—Mr. Bulganin and Mr. Khrushchev—expressly declared during the negotiations that the Soviet Union has no longer any German prisoners of war, but only 9,626 convicted war criminals—as they put it.
“All of them will leave the Soviet Union in the near future. They will partly be amnestied and released; as far as the Soviet Union believes that really serious crimes were committed they will be extradited to Germany to be treated according to the laws of our land. I think this will ease a lot of grief—not only of those nearly 10,000 people here in the Soviet Union but also of the numerous relatives in our home country. Now I may also inform you that Prime Minister Bulganin said to me—and he authorized me to tell you this—that the entire action will be under way even before we have arrived in Bonn…”
In this manner, the last of the Stalingrad prisoners began their final journey home from Soviet prison camps.
Abganerovo, 33, 38, 42, 45, 48, 74
Abrusovka, 276
Acktuba, 307
Adam, Col. Wilhelm, 367-368, 372, 376-377, 396, 434
Ademeit, Lt. Gottfried, 51
Adenauer, Konrad, 435-437
Africa,
Air Corps, German Eighth, 193
aircraft: bomber, 32, 40, 42, 44, 58, 60, 70, 91, 93, 134, 245; British, 88; German lost at Stalingrad, 303, 339; fighter, 346; reconnaissance, 53, 167; Russian, 136-137, 139, 162, 233; transport, 237, 297, 299, 351, 355, 399.
Air Fleet, German Fourth, 131
Air Force, Soviet Eighth, 54
airlift: German, 193, 199, 206-207, 213, 216, 217, 221-222, 229, 233, 237, 246, 247, 254, 302-303, 330, 336, 345; Russian, 162
air raids: Allied, 153; German, 32, 33, 57-60, 65-67.
air-raid shelters, 59, 60, 365
air strikes, tactical: German, 93; Russian, 77, 130-131
Akimovski, 114, 184, 189, 190
Aksai River, 213, 234, 243, 293
Albania, 15
Algeria, Allied landings in, 153
Alt, Capt., 341
Alter, Wilhelm, 115-116, 360, 405
ambushes: German, 40, 43, 264, 320; Russian, 44, 133
ammunition, German: brought into Stalingrad, 125-126; rationing of, 224; stockpiles, 164, 274; supplies exhausted, 240, 339, 355
amputations, 223, 305, 313
Anderson, Lale, 295
antiaircraft guns: German, 64; Soviet, 57-58, 233, 303
anti-Communism, 42, 78, 321
anti-Semitism, 10-11, 336, 398
antitank defenses, 9, 38, 45, 86; ditches, xv, 33, 54, 60.
air raids: Allied, 153; German, 32, 33, antitank
Antonescu, Marshal Ion, 213
Anzio, landing at, 401
