A Wehrmacht officer of the 707th Division hangs two Belorussian teenagers in Nazi-Occupied Minsk, photographed during Operation Barbarossa. October 26, 1941. [1080×677]
A Wehrmacht officer of the 707th Division hangs two Belorussian teenagers in Nazi-Occupied Minsk, photographed during Operation Barbarossa. October 26, 1941. [1080×677]
This photo was taken by a Lithuanian collaborator during Operation Barbarossa in Minsk, of a Wehrmacht officer hanging two “Communist partisans” who allegedly “shot German soldiers”. These two teenagers were 17-year-old Masha Bruskina and Volodya Sherbateyvich, who were executed for treating wounded Soviet POWs in a concentration camp. Nazi-Occupied Belarus in particular would become the most devastated region in Eastern Europe, with a quarter of its entire population dying, and another quarter being displaced or deported.
As it had been in Poland and Yugoslavia, atrocities like these were common Nazi behavior on the Eastern Front. Wehrmacht forces started using civilians as human shields on Day Two of Barbarossa. Wehrmacht troops massacred Red Army POWs via shooting, death marches, and deliberate starvation in concentration camps. Panzer crews played games crushing wounded Russians with their tanks. Army Group North began a genocidal siege of Leningrad not to capture the city, but to starve all its inhabitants to death, with the city to later be flooded with the nearby lakes. This was just in 1941.
Iron_Cavalry on
>Academic research confirms Buchner’s statement that participation in mass killings or other atrocities was widespread, probably universal. Arduous checks have been carried out on the Wehrmacht records and the records of the survivors, which has led Professor Michael Geyer to the conclusion that almost *every single Wehrmacht unit was involved in some form of mass killing*.
>“Was there any need, for example, to shoot the children in front of the women and then shoot the women after that? That happened too. That is sadism. There were officers like that, they liked sadistic things, they liked it when the mothers were screaming or children were screaming – they were really hot for that… to see a child crying “Mummy” or “Daddy”…”
* Laurence Rees, on Wehrmacht behavior including the testimony of a Wehrmacht veteran
There was no “Clean Wehrmacht”. The Wehrmacht was a direct perpetrator of the Holocaust, and was the main agent in the deliberate starvation of three million Soviet POWs. No one in the Heer was forced by the state to commit atrocities.
Possible-Arachnid323 on
*German
monsieursnatcher on
Good lord, that photo is haunting.
Tricky_Dog_2328 on
Unfortunately we’re heading back this way again, the right needs to be stopped. There’s an awful lot of evil hate filled people among us capable of this.
slonhr on
Today’s Slavs following Nazi/right wing ideology is by far the stupidest level of human existence.
banzaizach on
Just people trying to live their lives and then one day you see your sister or girlfriend or whatever get executed then it’s your turn.
This happened for years, millions of times, in so many places. And that’s just one war. It’s happening right now to somebody. Humans suck, man
PolyglotPaul on
Man, there are so many people who have met a heinous end to their lives.
9 Comments
This photo was taken by a Lithuanian collaborator during Operation Barbarossa in Minsk, of a Wehrmacht officer hanging two “Communist partisans” who allegedly “shot German soldiers”. These two teenagers were 17-year-old Masha Bruskina and Volodya Sherbateyvich, who were executed for treating wounded Soviet POWs in a concentration camp. Nazi-Occupied Belarus in particular would become the most devastated region in Eastern Europe, with a quarter of its entire population dying, and another quarter being displaced or deported.
As it had been in Poland and Yugoslavia, atrocities like these were common Nazi behavior on the Eastern Front. Wehrmacht forces started using civilians as human shields on Day Two of Barbarossa. Wehrmacht troops massacred Red Army POWs via shooting, death marches, and deliberate starvation in concentration camps. Panzer crews played games crushing wounded Russians with their tanks. Army Group North began a genocidal siege of Leningrad not to capture the city, but to starve all its inhabitants to death, with the city to later be flooded with the nearby lakes. This was just in 1941.
>Academic research confirms Buchner’s statement that participation in mass killings or other atrocities was widespread, probably universal. Arduous checks have been carried out on the Wehrmacht records and the records of the survivors, which has led Professor Michael Geyer to the conclusion that almost *every single Wehrmacht unit was involved in some form of mass killing*.
>“Was there any need, for example, to shoot the children in front of the women and then shoot the women after that? That happened too. That is sadism. There were officers like that, they liked sadistic things, they liked it when the mothers were screaming or children were screaming – they were really hot for that… to see a child crying “Mummy” or “Daddy”…”
* Laurence Rees, on Wehrmacht behavior including the testimony of a Wehrmacht veteran
There was no “Clean Wehrmacht”. The Wehrmacht was a direct perpetrator of the Holocaust, and was the main agent in the deliberate starvation of three million Soviet POWs. No one in the Heer was forced by the state to commit atrocities.
*German
Good lord, that photo is haunting.
Unfortunately we’re heading back this way again, the right needs to be stopped. There’s an awful lot of evil hate filled people among us capable of this.
Today’s Slavs following Nazi/right wing ideology is by far the stupidest level of human existence.
Just people trying to live their lives and then one day you see your sister or girlfriend or whatever get executed then it’s your turn.
This happened for years, millions of times, in so many places. And that’s just one war. It’s happening right now to somebody. Humans suck, man
Man, there are so many people who have met a heinous end to their lives.
BuT oNLy ThE Ss CoMmitTeD wAr CriMeS