seige of berlin essays

seige of berlin essays By Christmas 1944, Berlin was in ruins, and still being bombed around the clock. The Nazis still talked about wonder weapons and the Fhrers genius turning the tables, but in the city canny and cynical Berliners made grim jokes about giving each other coffins as Christmas presents. The idea was more practical than they realized. Every Russian soldier advancing westward had been an eyewitness to the destruction of his country. By the time the Soviets stormed the Vistula River, those sights had generated a consuming hatred for Germany and the Germans among many Russian soldiers. The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, though still capable of dogged resistance, had been wrecked and bled white after 3 1/2 years of fighting the Soviet Union. Stopping the Red Armys advance was futile. The war was lost. But as long as Adolf Hitler was in charge, there was no chance of sensible surrender. Something horrible was building in the minds and hearts of Russian soldiers. Kill the German! was the motto and battle cry of the Red Army as it approached Berlin. Like their opponents, Josef Stalins men were subjected to an intense and unending barrage of indoctrination and hate propaganda. In the Red Army the Communist Party carried the ideological effort right to the front lines. Political officers agitated the front-line troops, with speeches, banners and propaganda leaflets whipping up their fury. Behind the lines, security and secret police formations viciously punished anyone deemed to be either militarily or politically unreliable. Tens of thousands perished at their hands. Soviet soldiers, under such brutally tight political and military control, were ready to explode. Germany, having sown the wind, was about to reap the whirlwind and provide an outlet for Russian soldiers to vent their rage and frustrations. The January 1945 Vistula attack quickly overran Poland and mostly isolated East Prussia. There was li...