A general cheated soldiers with coins to improve their morale. What is the topic in the composition material?

For as many as 9 1000 German Sixth Army soldiers, becoming a prisoner of war is only the beginning of a long suffering. According to statistics, nearly 50% of the prisoners did not live through the coming spring of 1943, and the instructions of the Soviet high command on the placement of prisoners often became a dead letter. The "prisoner of war hospital" hastily established in the tsaritsyn Valley is actually just a death camp. The hastily built earth wall can't resist the cold in early spring at all. About 4,000 patients were directly placed on wet and cold land, and many patients died of frostbite and typhoid fever infection here. A limited number of military doctors are confused by the huge number of patients, and the lack of medical materials has reached an unimaginable level. Cleaning supplies are only brought from streams, mixed with ice and snow, and pitiful medicines and equipment are often "requisitioned" by Soviet second-line troops. The only way is to semi-bribe the black market. Rudolph Dubert, the military doctor of the 44th Infantry Division, had to collect two watches from his patients in exchange for some quinine, painkillers and a loaf of brown bread. The situation of prisoners of war declared "healthy" is also very bad. The wrangling between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the military logistics agencies has made no one think about how to provide food for the Sixth Army, which is about to surrender. Moreover, the Red Army is also spending the most difficult winter since the outbreak of the war. "The food is the same every day. 65,438+00 people share a loaf of black bread, plus soup made of water, a little salt and millet." A second lieutenant attached to 14 armored division said in his diary, "It is unrealistic to expect better treatment, especially considering how the SS security forces treated those Soviet soldiers who fell into our hands."

The road to exile

When March came and the ice and snow first melted, the team consisting of "ghosts hobbling around in worn-out military blankets" set off from Stalingrad and marched eastward. The "will to survive" has become the driving force to support these semi-inactive prisoners to go to distant prison camps. "In the eyes of Russians along the way, we are no different from the prisoners sent to Siberia by the Tsar hundreds of years ago." Rudolph Dubert recalled, "Some women stood on both sides of the road according to the ancient custom, stuffing blankets, coarse salt, black bread and pickled fish for prisoners of war on the road, while some children and men threw stones at the team and cursed loudly." For prisoners of war, the time of this death journey is different. The luckiest group, marching12km, arrived at Dubovka prison camp in the north of Stalingrad and barely settled down. More people have to travel for months to reach their destinations in Siberia and the Caucasus. During the Long March, you can constantly hear the gunfire of the guards, announcing that another overwhelmed and too weak companion has fallen. At night, the prisoners of war will be crowded together and share a military blanket at the ratio of 10 to 20 people. The outermost members must be vigilant and ensure that the sleepers in the inner circle rotate after two or three hours, otherwise the cold weather will turn a short sleep into death. "Every morning, everyone wakes up in the blunt urging of the guards and queues up in time. The Russian logic is simple. Those who can stand up will be sent to the road, and those who can't stand up will be rewarded with a bullet. "

After a long journey to the prison camp, these exhausted exiles found that they were only faced with a ruin with a roof and four walls. In the largest Beketovka camp, 30 people are crammed into cells less than 60 square meters. Every three days, a batch of food and water are delivered to prisoners of war by several trucks and camels. In order to prevent possible riots, prison camp managers classify prisoners of war into various grades according to their nationality and "political composition": Romanians and Italians are treated better than Germans, they have more food and clothing supplies, and they can work in the kitchen. In his memoir The Return of Siberia, Captain Carlo Silva of the Eighth Italian Army captured on the Don described that they could even perform operas in concentration camps and get bread, sugar and fresh vegetables at Christmas. As for German prisoners of war, at least 50 to/kloc-0.00 people suffer from infectious diseases or overwork every day, and even a pound of margarine stolen from the kitchen can make hungry prisoners of war indigestion. For those relatively lucky senior officers, the dilemma they face is usually spiritual: as one of the senior commanders of the Sixth Army, General Walter von Cedritz actively advocated cooperation with the Soviet Union to save the German army and people from Nazi tyranny. He even hoped that beria would allow him to set up a German prisoner-of-war force of about 3,000 people after he was the head of the political work "Free Germany" in Germany, so as to attract more Germans on the Eastern Front to surrender and finally set it up on this basis. However, both his former comrades-in-arms and new collaborators expressed hostility or indifference to his enthusiasm. 1In September, 943, Molotov strongly stated the consequences of wider cooperation with "Free Germany" in his letter to Stalin: "This will not only insert an unreliable factor into the Red Army, but also make our allies suspect that we are making secret deals with Germany." Similarly, after receiving the surrender leaflet signed "Cedritz" at the front line, the furious Hitler immediately convened most marshals including rundstedt, Rommel, Kleist, Lister and Wedges in the "Wolf Cave" in East Prussia, forcing them to make a statement, announcing that they and the Wehrmacht were infinitely loyal to the Nazi regime that had already revealed defeat.

After a long wait of two years, the peace in May 1945 did not immediately bring these "ghosts of Stalingrad" back to the motherland, and the increasingly tense cold war pattern in Europe made them a bargaining chip between the Soviet Union and its former allies. By 1955, among the 5,000 prisoners of war lucky enough to live to this day, 2,000 were still detained in the Soviet Union. Until September of that year, when Premier Adenauer visited Moscow and signed a package of economic and trade agreements with the Soviet Union, these talents were released, including General Castric, commander of the 1 1 infantry army who had insisted on paulus's breakthrough. However, after returning to Germany, many survivors found themselves living forever in the question of "Who is responsible for the tragedy of the Sixth Army". In the eyes of veterans, General Cedritz is undoubtedly a "traitor" of Germany and the Wehrmacht. Although the federal government revoked the judgment of 1956 Nazi German military court, it refused to restore his rank. Even General Oster, who participated in Count stauffenberg's plan to assassinate Hitler, thought that he had "tarnished the reputation of the Wehrmacht". Colonel Adam, who persuaded paulus to persevere, was called a "cold-blooded accomplice" by the grieving military survivors. However, for ordinary soldiers who suffered from concentration camps and were lucky enough to return to China, the answers to these questions are no longer important. As Captain Gottfield Bismarck wrote in his memoirs, "Being alive is the only reason to be grateful for fate".