Nazis' Last Stand: The Brutal Final Days Of Stalingrad

[@kaifuchs4921]

My grandpa was in stalingrad and he throw away the ammo boxes for the MG42 and run for his bare life as the Soviet Tanks Rolled in Sight of his Position he returned Home wir a Shot trough the arm and his left Hand. Thanks to that he was 94 bevor he died. I was there in the age of 16 as he died.

[@alanluscombe8a553]

My grandfather was also there. His name is friedrich Schulz. He was in the 6th army and was wounded sometime around 45 days or so before they were cut off. He has passed away now and always said that him being shot through his femur was the best thing that happened to him and saved his life as he would have never been removed and would be there when they were captured. He was a nice man. He said that they all knew for quite some time that they were in bad shape and the Soviet resistance kept getting worse and worse

[@کنزاًمخفیاً-ع9ص]

We still have dusty old letters of my Grandfather during his service in the Soviet army. He recounts his service in the 293rd Rifle Division, which later became the 66th Guards Rifle Division, in 1942-45 He was wounded in Austria and medically discharged by the end of the war.

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

That's an amazing story! Did your grandpa avoid being trapped in the Kessel (as some did by sheer luck) or was he evacuated by air between November and late January?

[@JohnWest-zq5gs]

It was unimaginable suffering after Stalingrad they should have got rid of that moron Hitler did he get flew out of the pocket before it fell to the Russians or before the surrender

[@JohnWest-zq5gs]

I hope he didn't go to a Russian POW camp

[@RubberToeYT]

The letters with the voice actors are so personal, great doc

[@jeanchasticot6893]

This is by far the best documentary I've ever watched about Stalingrad. Please, do thank its author(s) and give us more documentaries of that type.

[@mashek331]

If you haven't already, Antony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' is a must read. What a hell on earth. Anything tragic that could happen in this battle did.

[@AuntieTrichome]

Good book indeed. Berlin is also worth a read by the way.

[@mashek331]

@@AuntieTrichome Yep, I have that! As well as a raft of others by Beevor. I think the last one I was reading was Ardennes. Somehow, he always makes otherwise factual acounts so harrowing, so interesting, capturing the human story so beautifully.

[@redskyatnight123]

Stalingrad by vassily grosman is a good one , he was a Russian reporter.

[@redskyatnight123]

David m glants, is also highly recommended, he has done numerous books on stalingrad

[@AuntieTrichome]

@@redskyatnight123 I’m going to check that out. Thanks for the info. 👍

[@kylefitzpatrick6926]

What an extraordinary piece of work. Firsthand German accounts from the final days are scarce, yet 81 years later, thanks to History Hilt, we are privileged to read newly publicized letters from those desperate moments, through the eyes of Officer Lindeman.

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

Every year still, hundreds of bodies of soldiers who died in the battle are recovered in the area around Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and reburied in the cemeteries at Mamayev Kurgan or Rossoshka.

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

Mamayev Kurgan is effectively (and rightly so) a sacred shrine now, along with the statue 'The Motherland Calls'. It's my goal to visit and pay my respects someday.

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

Plenty of them are plundered that is very common in russia.

[@Боговский-м8р]

​​@@WielkaStopa-qh1rrне было уважения к захватчикам . Слишком много жестокости они принесли !

[@kennethmcintosh5545]

One of the best documentaries I've watched so far about. Stalingrad

[@MikeHarland-m2g]

The images should not be blurred. War should be seen as what it is.

[@mcallistermizy]

Agree with you. It was unblurred before for sure but I think the new regulations from youtube hindered that. War should seen as real war indeed.

[@XGRIMYONEX]

Liberals are censoring everything they don’t agree with or find offensive.

[@JohnMarshallsay-x8n]

One of the best WW2 docs I have seen in years. Need to come back and watch it all when I have time. Incredible stuff.

[@futseb]

Temperature during the battle fell to -25 to -40°c. At this temperature, only fuel and vodka doesn't freeze, bodies need more food just to cope, any wound or blood loss is lethal, frozen land is a hell to dig in.

[@kevinbell6247]

In some cases it was so cold it froze the blood as it came out and stopped them bleeding out. I can't remember where I read it somewhere.

[@ImGoingSupersonic]

Yea, the coldest winter in like 100yrs.

[@r.minnis9722]

cold temperatures will freeze blood

[@jameson32]

Thank Christ the booze didn't freeze at least.

[@ImGoingSupersonic]

@jameson32 Right, that'd be the worst lol. Not the swish!

[@thalesofmiletus2966]

Great Video. I worked in Turkmenistan a few decades ago and was in Turkmenbashi. Our agent drove us from the hotel to the heliport and explained that the road was built by German POW’s. Their graves (apparently very few if any POW’s survived) were right along this road which was miles long. Very poignant knowing these young men never went home and were treated abysmally. It’s true. War is Hell.

[@DrVictorVasconcelos]

We shouldn't lose the fact that they killed 27 million people in the USSR though. The Holocaust is firmly on people's mind but because the USSR immediately became "the enemy", people don't learn this at school. For comparison, the US and UK took 500k fatalities each in WW2.

[@gladtech4740]

I think the craziest videos are the ones digging up bodies outside of Stalingrad. Vicious and deadly war where you never knew when your time on earth was over

[@lukezaharczuk1043]

Ppppppppoʻoʻppĺpoʻ😮

[@ev.c6]

What is even crazier is to see Germans voting for a political party that talks the same language the Nazis did. This is the same country that had these young POWs you are talking about.

[@Odyssey-y3s]

Did you know that those soldiers killed millions of Soviet children and women?

[@ji8044]

That was a superb piece of filmmaking.

[@alvaroaugustomeridio]

What a marvelous video, what a great job remembering the fallen. Great documentary indeed

[@ekim000]

Excellent production. Despite having read many historical accounts of the battle the private thoughts of combatants gives me a much richer view of the absolute horror. Thanks.

[@Revy8]

They only wrote what they were allowed to say and even those were filtered

[@mrjoba3208]

The best history channel ❤

[@billd2635]

The best Doc on Stalingrad I've seen in quite awhile, very good

[@ishitunot5152]

Thank you for your service - Ivan

[@MrNaKillshots]

This presentation is a superb account, made all the more interesting by the excerpts of letters from those involved and the whole mood portrayed with excellent narration and fitting music.

[@bwilliams463]

This is a really well-done video. Voices, images/footage, editing - apart from a few minor misspellings and misplaced apostrophes -are all expertly-handled. 1:39:10 I'm pretty sure Hans' treasured heirloom became Ivan's treasured war prize.

[@yammt3148]

The biggest lesson I take from war... People gotta stop killing each other for monsters. We probably never will.

[@RealTeuto]

My family were ethnic Germans who spoke German and lived in Stalingrad along the Volga river, When the Germans arrived at the city my family were able to apply for Reich Citizenship and moved to East Germany where they stayed until the end of the war. My great grandpa walked over to the Wehrmacht recruitment center and volunteered to fight for the German army, he went to Stalingrad and never came back home.

[@Odyssey-y3s]

So, he became a Nazi voluntarily. The end result was the logical conclusion of that decision.

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

So your great grandfather ended up back where his family had lived before the war? How ironic is that?

[@RealTeuto]

@@bigjake-ev7nj I do not know the full extent since my grandma who had told me this died a few years ago, but basically from what I remember as they were being put on trucks back to Germany somewhere along the way my Great Grandpa hopped off the truck and joined up with the Germans, (he was able to do this pretty easily I'm assuming since they had only lived in the soviet union for maybe 2 decades or so and still had their old German passports from the 1920s) my grandma still had the letters he sent back after he joined dated around April - June 1942. I also have a Bundesarchiv folder showing the signed document for their Reich Citizenship, interestingly it has an SS stamp on it, I'm not sure if they were involved with the process or not but it is super interesting nonetheless.

[@tonyg-2jz82]

What an amazing story. I'm sorry your grandfather paid the ultimate price but I bet his knowledge of the area, language, and other information he gave helped tremendously.

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

@@RealTeuto Family history is fascinating!

[@bakerb485]

Fascinating great video well narrated and very informative

[@ruperterskin2117]

Right on. Thanks for sharing.

[@omaeve]

When we lived in Germany, my son and his friend found a storage walker built into the railroad train system with World War I guns in it. The town council brought it to the. Notification of the government, they found the very one that my children had looked at not only had guns but had grenades in it live grenades, and so they put out a thing to have the military police check each one along the railroad and remove these very old weapons. We live there when my husband was in the Air Force in the 1980s stationed at Rammstein, but we lived off base.

[@camatrusaca]

Yup, lotta guns here in Europe last century

[@JohnKnott-zi6ht]

Wow,just imagine how much is still stashed away and forgotten about.

[@kooperativekrohn819]

Great oldschool style doc ❤ i grew up on this style tv

[@MilitarySummaryChannel2024]

* Rest In Peace to all soldiers and civilians who fought and died in this hellish Battle. I found a book many many years ago called… LETTERS HOME… Each page was a letter to family members of soldiers at STALINGRAD… That lone BATTLE was its most and worst fight of ALL WARS…*

[@nikolaipotapenkov8823]

2 million innocent civilians around Stalingrad perished because of German and Hungerian murder.

[@daha8805]

Fantastic doce. Possible to Remaster in colour one day? Brilliant!

[@ald1144]

I wonder, in 80 years how well people will know what the individual soldier of today experienced, without archived letters and even emails giving way to video chats?

[@sebus559]

Today there's the Internet.

[@RextheDragon881]

More info on day to day life than ever.

[@jasonbailey1951]

The romance of letters home have a different impact than emails and video calls. There is poetry, expressions, and emotions that are simply lost with electronics.

[@ald1144]

@@jasonbailey1951Yes. I was thinking even more of the intimacy and honesty of personal correspondence compared to vlogs, tik toks, or public interviews.

[@tjanderson5892]

@@ald1144you'll be able to have the most personal experiences possible w/o actually having been there. We extract so much information and retell the stories of the great wars using technology that we take for granted today bc it was so primitive in its infancy. In futures we'll be able to look back and see the specific soldiers purview instead of extrapolating it from his words in a letter. Real question is how much WW1 and WW2 will still be seen as the greatest wars in modern military history. It seems near impossible that we'd ever see so many soldiers and armor go to war w/ each other again. Casualty numbers in the millions for Germans and Soviets is just insane to think about. The 20yr Afghanistan war saw the US suffer some 20k casualties. Imagine if those numbers had been 5 million per 4yrs. Would be insane to experience

[@bulldozernl1976]

Great documentary, thank you for this

[@sulate1]

The problem with relying on German film footage is that it gives an unrealistic impression of the Wehrmacht's level of mechanisation. The reality was actually that the German's were largely marching on foot and relying upon horses for supply. German logistics management were amateurish at best and the inability to effectively manage the regauging of the rail network added to the woeful situation. The reliance upon horses meant that more rail volume was consumed with fodder and vetinary supplies than for fuel and ammunition.

[@calc1657]

The German film footage that gives the most realistic impression of the mechanization are personal footage shot by soldiers, rather than the propaganda dept.

[@Oakeshott-ko8ig]

German generals couldn't have been the renown commanders that they were without being experts at logistics. Logistics is part and parcle to commanding. Otherwise, German commanders couldn't have executed the masterful maneuvers, counterstrokes and encirclements on a vast scale that they did on the Russian battlefield.

[@johnwright9372]

The Allies supplied the Soviets with 400,000 American trucks, many thousands of Jeeps and millions of tons of supplies, all on credit. Without it, Russia could not have survived.

[@calc1657]

@@johnwright9372 Possibly, without the food supplies. But the most important impact of the American supplies was that they facilitated the Red Army's ability to go on the offensive.

[@liloulux2739]

My grandfather was a German soldier in Russia in WWII… he never walked for long periods of time… Got around by train and truck. I think people underestimate how fucking huge Russia is… you would walk a very, very long time if you mostly rely on your feet and horses! My grandfather told me about those endless train rides… He told me that he was starring out of the window and thinking “What the fuck are we doing here???”

[@johnneal4942]

Your WW2 docs are the best

[@Peter-MH]

Excellent documentary! 👍

[@CT9905.]

Excellent video essay!

[@ThomasRifleman96]

Many thanks for this video, this kind content is much needed in these times of troubles. Love from Italy! ❤

[@woodrowpreacely7521]

Yeah dudes no shit WAAAAY better documentary on the love fest of The Eastern Front than I've seen in quite a while. Bet y'all could do a great one on Kursk too!😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@ruudvandiermen8747]

You see this as a movie huh?..

[@MrNaKillshots]

Excellent presentation.

[@cmondevils]

This is what happens when you think you're superior and are delusional, you get fd up in the end 🤷‍♂️

[@Polina-fe8if]

My grandfather's brother died defending Stalingrad. He was 22 years old. Only in 2019 did I find documents indicating the place of his burial.

[@duncanbryson1167]

Unrelated but I now hate Green King because it's the only advert that has interrupted the video a number of times.

[@kabuti2839]

no. Sponsored the video, so you could watch it for free.

[@YogeshGhatte2011]

Thanks for this video... Great video.

[@BerndLercher]

I really miss such documentaries in german language. They rarely give such vivid insights into the sacrifices of the comrades

[@zillsburyy1]

that color film is excellent but could have done without the censorship! mark felton has a video on the german holdouts. resistance after the surrender

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was an informative, incredible, truthful documentary about Stalingrad invasion by Germans and liberation by Soviets...letters debates showed moral dwindling gradually...what was notable..inside Hitlers mindset[ changing operations names was a main problem...?]...not changing military situation from bad to better for German armies

[@alanbennett7199]

An excellent history, clearly explained and supported by the many letters that somehow made their way home to Germany!

[@julianshalders6047]

The excellent filming is a reminder of the horrors of war between two megalomaniacs.

[@mattclements1348]

Ty , outstanding

[@memirandawong]

What a brutal accounting. I couldn't imagine the fate of so many with hope coming and going.

[@IMBrute-ir7gz]

So, tell me, Ms. KZbin Censor, when this documentary was created decades ago and probably shown on TV, were certain images blurred out? Maybe we're more squeamish than audiences back then?

[@mnbsay9548]

Damn Good Video Thanks for sharing

[@Alexandros.Mograine]

I wonder how many offed themselves, considering their only other option was extreme abuse and hard labour for the next 13 years.

[@Oakeshott-ko8ig]

Many did.

[@AtlasAugustus]

Over 10,000 fought to the last man, refusing to surrender. Paulus went into “captivity” meaning he with his staff sat comfy in a castle with all desired catered to while his men were marched off to death, most died.

[@morstyrannis1951]

@@AtlasAugustus most of them were walking dead when they were captured. The physical toll of months of starvation level rations and exposure to extreme cold could not be undone even if the Soviets had the facility and desire to do so. Paulus and his staff looked well fed and rested.

[@TerminusEst1982]

13 is a cake walk. Try thirty years. Some never got out.

[@gerarddelautel4354]

Thanks

[@AuntieTrichome]

Awesome video you guys. Really informative. ❤ Edit: subscribed.

[@MrNaKillshots]

Quite happy to stand up there while the military died in horrific circumstances.

[@michelbillydolly3129]

des gars qui montent au front a Stalingrad les manches relevees !!!! chapeau

[@Deveriell]

Brilliant voice actors.

[@DrVictorVasconcelos]

They edited this footage without seeing it so that it could be unseen footage, so please pardon the animation in the middle with the pink bears and stuff, that was probably unintended.

[@jda7656]

seems like most uploads from this channel are always edited and blurred out

[@bongbongGAMING7878]

Let's not forget that this theater was fought by 2 very evil factions; it's like Mordor and Isengard going at each other's throats.

[@сашаюдин-щ6х]

you stupid illiterate creature, my great-grandfathers and grandfathers fought in this war and not all returned, and you stupid shit dare to call them freaks shut your mouth, bastard, if you don't know anything about the Soviet Union, then there's nothing to say about it, stupid ass

[@ОксанаБитюцкая-х3ы]

Какие две группировки?! Советские солдаты защищали свою Родину, а вот что делал вермахт на нашей земле?! Те, кто приходит на нашу землю с орудием, не ждите милосердия.

[@ИванНинов-ц6о]

One day, when you're grown person, you'll return here and realize what stupidity you wrote

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

@@ОксанаБитюцкая-х3ы What? You Soviets were defended your land? So who took part of Poland and other countries before in an alliance with Nazis? Poland is not your country!

[@ОксанаБитюцкая-х3ы]

@@WielkaStopa-qh1rr Красная Армия вошла на территорию Польши после того, как польская армия была полностью разгромлена тефтонцами и правительство Польши трусливо бежало за границу. Таким образом Польша, как государство прекратило своё существование.Если бы наши войска не вошли в восточную Польшу, фашисты заняли бы всю её территорию , тем самым сократив границы между нами. Если бы мы были союзниками гитлера, то на Польшу мы напали бы вместе с гитлером 1сентября.

[@user-kq5qp6dh8l]

Brilliant documentary.

[@Matt-ix5gq]

"Iron wind was blowing into their faces, but they kept advancing and again and again the enemy was taken over by a superstitious feeling: were there really humans attacking them? Were they mortal?"

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

Nothing like poetic style when in reality Germans treat an enemy as subhuman to exterminate.

[@Matt-ix5gq]

​@WielkaStopa-qh1rr that quote is an inscription on mamayev hill

[@maplerice6226]

6 minutes in between adverts ... ridiculous

[@lynderherberts2828]

There's a great tank warfare movie called "White Tiger". It's a very intriguing and entertaining story.

[@1978JonBullock]

Truly one of the best WW2 films ever made.

[@lynderherberts2828]

@@1978JonBullock I totally agree with you.

[@alexandermukai7724]

Great film! Russian war films have so much depth and humanity - so much better than the shallow heroic action-fests of Hollywood.

[@alexbowman7582]

The death of the 6th army at Stalingrad gave the one million German troops in the Caucasus the chance to retreat. Presumably by this time Stalin was listening to his generals as presumably he was asking about seizing Rostov preventing the Caucasus army from an easy retreat apart from through Crimea but his generals understood their limitations.

[@iShone94]

I feel no empathy for Germans; never forget the monstorsities they commited...

[@ruudvandiermen8747]

The russians were,and ARE still the same,they have learnt nothing from all this,on both sides there were bastards ,we dont fell anything for people like You, i see hate in your eyes,for every thing you dont like...!,have a nice day!😮

[@raywalters243]

Us young men today can't fathom the hell that awaits in a war of that magnitude.

[@falconbuns]

Where do i see uncensored footage of this?

[@randylahey1822]

Don't you guys have anything on the battles in Prussia and the final surrender in the Vistula estuary? The Stalingrad topic have been so heavily talked about and covered for years with the same Wikipedia styled facts. Please mix it up!

[@DanielL-ee7fe]

I always hear something new. For example the deliberate retreat of the Russian army.

[@abasudoh7459]

A while ago I saw a post on Reddit about letters written by civilians when the air raids on Germany were intensifying and when the allied army was on German soil, I would like to see a similar documentary with such letters.

[@christianprinceears4653]

Notice how Germans were aware of our help to the Soviets, they also understood that because of Allies, they had to sent troops and equipment to fight them in other fronts, making it easier for the Soviets, because the Soviets directed all their Forces and their Equipment to one front. Germans literally fought against entire world.

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

Yes, it was an unwinnable situation for Germany. She had woefully underestimated Soviet resilience during Barbarossa, and when that operation failed Germany had precious few strategic alternatives. Fall Blau was a frankly desperate attempt to deal a knockout blow to the USSR, using fewer men and equipment than had been available the previous summer, and starting from a badly overextended supply line--which only became more strained as the Axis advanced east and south. At the same time, the Red Army and the military-civilian leadership (STAVKA, essentially) had taken to heart the catastrophes of 1941 and were becoming increasingly proficient at the strategic and operational levels. Tough, successful generals were now being given increasing responsibility and the (relocated) armaments industry was finding its feet. In 1942 the USSR had more men under arms than the German forces in the East, and her armaments industry outproduced Germany's in every important metric. Operation Uranus was successful on a scale that would have been unimaginable a year before, though as the failure of Operation Mars showed, the USSR still had quite a bit to learn. In short, Germany burned herself out in Barbarossa, launching a last-gasp attempt to win the war in 1942, against an opponent who had learned hard lessons, put the learning to excellent use, and now commanded large and increasingly skilful forces.

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

Germans were not alone but they ignored foreign manpower as well for racially and logistic reasons (more soldiers, more supplies needed).

[@sebus559]

A.H. and all the other betrayed my fatherland, Germany, in the most disgusting way thinkable; and in the process drove themselves into insanity. The common soldier was as much a victim in this as everyone else. May some hard to have compassion with the "antagonist", but if the allied soldiers suffered during the war, maybe at D-Day or Bastogne, try to imagine how war must have been like for the Germans. Nearly always outmanned, outgunned and increasingly being unable to move either for nor backward and yet holding on...tragedy and madness

[@Revy8]

The Nazi party and racism towards slavs n Jews was very popular in Germany in the 30s and 40s. Stop trying to rewrite history

[@sebus559]

@@Revy8 wtf man, knocked your head somewhere?

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

@@sebus559 nothing like a nazi fanboys crying about innocents germans and blaming just one adolf. pathetic.

[@tomipantich6484]

Although Stalin was initially collaborating with Hitler in invading and splitting Poland in half and was no saint ,the Allies supported the Russians who fought valiantly to repel the enemy from their territory and eventually overpowered the Nazis and Hitlers murderous rampage across Europe with the help of the Allies. The Russians lost 26 million people in WW2 …. A huge loss!!!!

[@justinlybbert3467]

One thing they didn't mention is that the red army abandoned stalingrad at the same moment Paulus become the commander of the 6th army. All Paulus had to do was to advanced in to Stalingrad and it would have been taken without a fight. But that was not to be. Paulus stopped the advance for several days giving the soviets time to pick their wounds and fall back in on Stalingrad.

[@xyzbeta5807]

I think it’s mad that most of the men in these videos perished in battle

[@DD-fj2ut]

Stop with the blurring. If you have to blur out history, don’t put it up. Just make kitten videos. Maybe you should put up two videos, one with the blurring that all the advertising can go to, and one without that I will watch. I promise to just run the blurred one off to the side so you get the view and compensation,. A lot of times I watch a video, they start blurring, I leave.

[@BlondeDudeGaming]

You can watch the uncensored version on History Hit TV

[@miclewis55]

KZbin will not allow graphic stuff …. Nothing to do with the content creator . If you publish it will get quickly removed and channel may get taken down altogether ….. Blame Google who own YT.

[@ahereticanthem]

One of the narrators sounds like the narrator from the English translation of Soviet storm

[@swblade6190]

yes! Was just trying to place the narrator's voice. I have a spreadsheet list of a) the documentary and b) who the narrator is 😆 Can't settle otherwise

[@jsbach9848]

The opening music......Mozart's Requiem. Goosebumps!!!!!!!!

[@katherinecollins4685]

Very interesting

[@richardjohnson5529]

"humans" the cruelist animal.

[@eliotness4029]

"democrats" with rifles

[@davidsullivan7743]

​@@eliotness4029 moron

[@proletariapricotf155]

@@eliotness4029okay grandpa let’s get you to bed

[@gladtech4740]

​@@eliotness4029 communists with rifles

[@savidge08]

Democrats are todays evil for sure, Trump equals freedom

[@Larryandbob]

Who is the renowned German historian?

[@joesantos2455]

Was Fall Blau still considered part of Barbarossa or were they considered two different operations?

[@eliasramos7236]

I believe a key point of barbarossa or atleast one of the objectives

[@carador9286]

Operation Barbarossa ended on December 5, 1941 with the start of a Soviet counteroffensive, which led to the defeat of the Germans at Moscow.

[@kimberlysteller2556]

What i do not understand is that the germans fighting this fixed battle that was the opposite of blitzkrieg tactic. They could have surrounded stalingrad and remained mobile enough to avoid such an entrapment.

[@austinporter6701]

Probably because time I beleive what hitler said is true. It was the crossroads for almost everything. Historians today will tell you hitler told his generals to piss off and took command foolishly adverting some armys to stalingrad.

[@karlmarx9853]

Twenty-two German generals were captured at the Battle of Stalingrad: General Schmidt: Surrendered the German headquarters General Strecker: Surrendered on February 2, 1943 The Battle of Stalingrad was fought between the Soviet Union and the Axis powers, led by the German 6th Army. The Germans lost a total of 500,000 men during the battle, including 91,000 who were taken prisoner. On January 31 Paulus disobeyed Hitler and agreed to give himself up. Twenty-two generals surrendered with him, and on February 2 the last of 91,000 frozen starving men (all that was left of the Sixth and Fourth armies) surrendered to the Soviets.

[@billd2635]

I'm a bit curious as to how these letters and diaries remained uncensored

[@bigjake-ev7nj]

It's technically possible that, if Paulus had acted decisively, 6th Army might have been able to either 1) withdraw (run for its life, basically) as the first Soviet breakouts occurred from the Don bridgeheads on and after 19th November or 2) broken out westward in late November as Soviet forces were still consolidating their lines around the pocket. Option (1) is viable only with hindsight--as ever, understanding lags events, and action (usually) lags understanding: Paulus would have had to clearly understand the threat to his forces. However, German estimates of Soviet strength were in general woefully low, or where estimates were accurate (the Romanians reported massive troop build-ups on at least one occasion) ignored. The Wehrmacht also had a low opinion of Soviet offensive capability. And, of course, the German High Command had no desire to abandon the hard-won city. That leaves option (2). To execute it, however, Paulus would have to be someone other than he was. He was, unfortunately, indecisive and unimaginative and entirely unwilling--unlike a Reichenau or Manstein--to disobey the Fuhrer's orders. Had be mustered the will to do so, it is possible that 6th Army might have broken out to the west in late November, or possibly linked up with Manstein during Wintergewitter. With Paulus in command, though, none of these options were remotely likely.

[@HistoryHit]

Great comment!

[@Алексей-ч6з7в]

Довольно странно видеть это,,, и комментатор и автор-невменяемы, как и Гитлер, паулюс получил извещение с небес-сопротивление бесполезно,,,

[@Алексей-ч6з7в]

Дурачкам атеистам-поражение Гитлера началось не с Паулюса, а с появлением Гитлера,,,

[@Алексей-ч6з7в]

Русским помогает Бог, а ты тут про волю и инициативу втираешь,,,

[@mirola73]

The Stalingrad transmission was recorded a long time before it was transmitted in Germany.

[@rodillsoongobacktoprintedi5605]

Would have enjoyed the video but the censor blurred, what was being discussed.....

[@Coollobsters]

Is it me or is there a crazy amount of adds in this video

[@josephbacon7493]

Stop censoring history please. Excellent documentary though!

[@3mb852]

8:56 what's the name of the german music playing in the background please?

[@matheusmargente2789]

May hell have them all! Damn Nazis!

[@R08Tam]

So Paulus cared more about Hitler than he did about his men.

[@tiborjedovszky980]

At 1.02.52. the film shows general Walter Model. He never was at Stalingrad.

[@eliotness4029]

after an easy victory in Poland and an easy victory in France the German Wehrmacht suddenly met a serious opponent in Stalingrad the Germans are coming suddenly realized that they will not win

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

Wasn't so easy before. An easy may walk is pure nazi propaganda.

[@TheIfifi]

The last letters of stalingrad have been considered fake since the 60's. Has something changed with this?

[@declanburke6999]

There is nothing to say those diarys where used as source material here

[@AnthonyOMulligan-yv9cg]

I just wrote some new ones........

[@jsbach9848]

And the Fuhrer was sleeping in a warm bed every night......

[@FLucca11]

Beautifully terrible and terribly beautiful

[@brandonkew9122]

The soldier in your thumbnail was not in Stalingrad. Look at his uniform.

[@mitchelvanwoerkom2398]

My grandfathers uncle was there in Stalingrad, as a Dutch volunteer within the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. He survived Stalingrad and got captured by the Soviets. He was in a prison camp until ‘47-‘48 and then walked more than a year back home. He got shot and killed in Maastricht a few weeks later. This is all my grandfather is willing to tell about him, since the rest of the family including my grandfathers father was involved in the defense of the Netherlands on May 10th 1940. They got quickly overrun. The scars of the war are still very noticable here, with old bunkers still littering the fields and every town has war memorials for those who lost their lives.

[@jakejhons5138]

RIP Ann Frank.

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

He was not captive in home country for traison?

[@brucemacmillan9581]

The blurred images are unnecessary. This is a disgrace, spoiling what is otherwise a very good doc.

[@BlackGold-fc7tu]

The beginning of the end.

[@orinboyce7894]

I believe they should go to the families of those 6000 survivors and collect genetic samples of either the most vigorous members of the families or the bodies of the survivors or both. Those men were extraordinarily tough. They would have had to survive the fighting to reach Stalingrad; the battle of Stalingrad itself, and then 10 years of extremely brutal conditions under slavery. Such men would be the epitome of mental and physical toughness.

[@WielkaStopa-qh1rr]

Or luck and collaboration. Not just survival of fittest.

[@jbagger331]

Interesting how the soldiers are circumventing censorship. "I'll run my unit from, that works too" Telling his family that he's very ill.