In this festive, victorious May, reviewing my archival photographs, I thought about what the younger generation knows about this terrible war? Well, there was a war, well, they fought with the Germans. Hitler attacked us and we defeated him. Yes, this is an extraordinary feeling of our just Victory! But we must not forget the bitterness of loss that our people experienced. We must not forget, behind the prescription of years, those atrocities committed by the Nazis. And I decided to publish some of the scary pictures, testifying to the crimes of fascism. Let your children and grandchildren see them and understand how terrible that war was, for the victory in which their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not spare their lives. That hatred for the Nazis, which raised our fighters under lead fire to attack. And why the Great Victory is joy with tears in our eyes.

Tortured children 1942 Stalingrad

The shooting of Soviet citizens by the Nazis

Executioners


Maria Bruskina, 17 years old. Volodya Shcherbatsevich, 16 years old. The girl is still alive.


The corpses of prisoners of the Russen Camp No. 344 in Lamsdorf


concentration camp for civilian population"Ozarichi" - Byelorussian SSR, 1944. A girl over the body of her murdered mother.

It is striking with what cynicism the Nazis took these photographs.

Nazis at work. Bitches are smiling.


SS officer Eichelsdorfer, commandant of the Kaufering-4 concentration camp, standing near the corpses of prisoners killed in his camp.

The Einsatzgruppe executes Jews in Dubossary on September 14, 1941

Execution of the victim... A woman shoots...

For the slightest suspicion - execution by hanging. Kyiv, 1941

Shot mother and children.

In the Krasnodar Territory, the atrocities of the Nazis were horrifying. In Yeysk, the Sonderkommando SS 10-A only on October 9-10, 1942 destroyed 214 children. regional center More than 13,000 Krasnodar residents were shot, hanged and died in gas chambers.

The "new order" of the occupiers

During the retreat, the Nazis stole the population. Those who could not walk were shot.

Killed prisoners

Soviet prisoner of war, whom German monsters poured water on in the cold until he was covered with ice.

The prison yard in Rostov after the departure of the Germans


Rostov pioneer hero Vitya Cherevichkin killed by the Nazis with a dove in his hands.


MURDER OF A WOMAN WITH A CHILD. Ukrainian SSR, 1942

Few people know what Krasnodar Territory has its own Khatyn, this is the village of Mikhizeeva Polyana in the Mostovsky district. 75 children died in Khatyn, 116 in the Kuban village. Now there are 7 Orthodox crosses in its place and this skeleton of a crib, all that remains of the working village.

On November 13, 1942, a detachment of fascists armed to the teeth, together with the policemen, entered Mikhizeeva Polyana. Civilians were unceremoniously driven out of their huts and yards.
They were divided into seven groups. The men of each group were forced to dig a trench. Then they put the whole group along it and shot from machine guns and machine guns. The doomed stood silently, holding hands tightly, eyes raised to the sky. The Nazis and policemen approached those lying on the ground. Single shots were fired. Shots were fired at those who were still showing signs of life. Then came the turn of the second, third ... seventh group. The Nazis were in a hurry: it was evening - it was necessary to manage before dark.

One woman was expecting a baby and, out of surprised horror, prematurely gave birth to a baby right under the bullets. The German shot the mother, and the child was hooked with a bayonet, pierced and thrown aside. Another mother, dying, did not want to give her child away. Then the fascist monster tore him out of the woman's hands, took him by the legs and hit his head against a tree. Covering his tracks, the Nazis burned the village to the ground.

For a whole week, the Nazis forbade residents of other villages to approach the place of massacre. They did not suspect that there were witnesses of their terrible atrocity, they did not know that a harsh but fair punishment would overtake the executioners. Miraculously, several people survived, who told about the brutal fascist massacre.

Tatyana Onishchenko with her daughter in her arms, mortally wounded by shrapnel german bomb- Moscow region

Marauders remove things from the dead

Soviet prisoners of war. Camp Mauthausen, 1944.

Reprisal against the captured commander of the Soviet Army


Nazis with a flamethrower. August 1944


German cavalrymen. 07/16/1941.


Crematorium in a concentration camp.


Residents hanged by the Germans in Staraya Russa.


By order of the Soviet command, an excursion was arranged for residents of nearby German cities Flossenburg concentration camp

Blessed memory of those who died on the battlefield, tortured in fascist dungeons, innocently killed children, civilians who died of starvation and disease. “Victory Day is a holiday with tears in our eyes.”

After the invasion German army in 1941, Soviet Union experienced a whole series of defeats and encirclements unprecedented in history, which cannot be explained otherwise than political reasons. Those. manifestation of the hostility of the peoples of the USSR to the Bolshevik government and to its leader I. Stalin. In just the first six months of the war, the Germans surrendered over three million Soviet military personnel, and 25% of them crossed voluntarily, without even leaving their weapons.

And then Stalin decided on a public call for an inhuman treatment of German soldiers, believing in this way to cause a cruel response from the Germans, and thereby prevent the final collapse Soviet state. November 6, 1941 Stalin in his speech publicly announced his savage plan: “Well, if the Germans want to have a war of extermination, they will get it. From now on, our task, the task of the peoples of the USSR, the task of the fighters, commanders and political workers of our army and our fleet will be to exterminate every single German who has made his way into the territory of our Motherland as its occupiers. No mercy for the German occupiers! Death to the German invaders! »

Stalin had no doubt that, thanks to the Soviet Agitprop, the hatred for the Germans cultivated and mercilessly instilled in Soviet people would outweigh the truth that the Wehrmacht was in the USSR in order to liberate the people of this country from Jews and commissars, i.e. from the Soviet government. Now it was necessary to put into practice this inhuman hatred - and all the Jewish power in the Kremlin was saved! For these bloody deeds, Stalin enlisted those who, since the October Revolution, had proved their loyalty to the Bolshevik Party. Among them were the majority of Jews who were awarded the rank of political workers: divisional commissar D. Ortenberg, brigade commissar I. Ehrenburg, senior battalion commissar R. Karmen, senior battalion commissar L. Slavin, quartermaster of the 3rd rank L. Pervomaisky and others. commissar "legion", head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, army commissar of the 1st rank L. Mekhlis.

In the southern direction of the Soviet-German front, the Stalinist clique developed a particularly dangerous situation. The victorious advance of the Wehrmacht in this direction threatened the anti-Bolshevik rise of the Cossacks of the Kuban and Terek, the Muslims of the Crimea and the Caucasus. It was in the Crimea that Mekhlis decided to arrange monstrous provocations in order to generate mutual hatred between Germans and Russians.

December 29, 1941 at 3.00 am by a detachment of ships Black Sea Fleet was landed amphibious assault in German-occupied Feodosia. The main striking force of the landing was units marines consisting of sailors written off for indiscipline from ships, and violent storerooms of the fleet.

By the end of the day, the resistance of the German garrison was broken, after which a bloody drama broke out in the Feodosia hospital, which the Soviet commissars so needed. a large number of non-transportable, seriously wounded German soldiers, who, due to the amputations carried out, turned out to be completely helpless ...

The military commander K. Simonov, who arrived on the editorial assignment of Ortenberg in Feodosia on January 1, 1942, found the following picture: “The streets near the port were littered with dead Germans. Some of them were lying, others were sitting for some reason, and we had to fall next to them several times..”.

When January 18, 1942. the German units again managed to capture Feodosia, a chilling picture of the tragic death of their wounded comrades opened before them. To investigate these horrific murders, a special commission of inquiry Wehrmacht engaged in the collection of material evidence and interviewing witnesses. Lieutenant Döring testified about what he saw at the entrance to the former German hospital. The bodies of fifty German soldiers lay in two large rooms. On some of them, red hospital cards were still preserved, in which the type of injury was affixed. All corpses were mutilated. Some of those killed had a shapeless mass instead of a head. Apparently, they were beaten with rifle butts or other blunt objects. Some of the dead German soldiers had their ears or noses cut off, others had their tongues torn out of their mouths, their hands cut off and their eyes gouged out. In addition, their bodies were cut with knives and bayonets. Near the main entrance to the infirmary, other corpses of German soldiers were found. All of them had their hands and feet tied with bandages, so that the slightest movement must have caused unbearable pain. These wounded by their Red Navy tormentors were left under open sky, doused with water and frozen.

The military doctor, Captain Burkhad, reported that the bodies of hundreds of German soldiers killed by blows of blunt objects were found in the city cemetery of Feodosia. In addition, he also discovered a hill on the Feodosia coast from under which 55 bodies were removed, identified as part of the German wounded who had disappeared from the hospital. All those killed were wearing splints and bandages, and there were gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Not far from the hill there were hooks that served as a murder weapon for the Soviet paratroopers in the massacre of the seriously wounded.

The brutal murders of defenseless German wounded were also confirmed by the Russian civilian doctor Yu. Dmitriev, who, during the first German occupation city, the German military commandant's office was instructed to provide treatment for the Russian wounded left by the retreating Red Army, later he began to work in a German hospital.

Dmitriev testified that the Red Navy during the assault on Feodosia were very drunk. According to him, about 160 German wounded were the victims of a terrible massacre. The Russian doctor, plucking up his courage, asked the Soviet commissar who commanded this massacre why the German wounded were being killed. To this, the commissar answered him that this was done in accordance with Comrade Stalin's speech of November 6, 1941, which contained a clear demand to destroy all Germans without exception, including the wounded. Also in the report of the German military commandant's office dated February 10, 1942, it was reported: “A stunning picture of brutal cruelty is presented by the view of prisoners frozen from the cold, shot German officers and soldier. So far, 307 corpses buried in the garden of Stamboli Villa have been picked up and identified. 91 fallen comrades were not identified.

Infantry General E. von Manstein, commander of the 11th Wehrmacht Army in the Crimea, being well aware of frontline life, later in his memoirs confirmed the brutal massacre of Soviet soldiers with wounded German soldiers and officers taken prisoner in December 1941. in Feodosia: “In Feodosia, the Bolsheviks killed our wounded who were in hospitals, but some of them, who were in plaster, they dragged to the seashore, doused them with water and froze in the icy wind.”

The bloody drama played out in Evpatoria, where on January 5, 1942. was landed Soviet landing. In addition to the sailors, the landing force included officers of the NKVD, headed by the captain of state security L. Shusterman, and a group of party workers headed by the former chairman of the city executive committee, Ya. Tsypkin. Both of these high-ranking Jews, under the cover of paratroopers, were supposed to raise a large Jewish population against the German soldiers, who for the most part settled in the Crimea under the Bolshevik regime, the resettlement of which was actively engaged, famous executioner white officers R. Zemlyachka.

At the same time, Chekists came out of the underground in the city to capture a number of villages in the western part of Crimea. The commander of the 11th Arimei, E. von Manstein, described the events as follows: "January 5 ... followed by the landing of Russian troops under the cover of the fleet in the port of Evpatoria. At the same time, an uprising broke out in the city, in which part of the population participated..in cruel street fighting drunken Soviet paratroopers spared no one: neither civilians nor wounded Germans.

A. Kornienko, Soviet Marine recalled: “We broke into the hospital, occupied all three floors, destroyed the Germans with knives, bayonets and rifle butts, threw them through the windows into the street ...”

And only thanks to the fact that loyal to the Germans locals warned of the possible activation of the Bolshevik-Jewish underground, the Wehrmacht managed to quickly localize this terrorist performance and restore anti-Bolshevik order in the city. And the German units transferred to Evpatoria by January 7, 1942. completely defeated the landing, which was mostly destroyed, and partly captured.

In the same terrible days was landed with similar goals and a small Soviet landing in Sudak, but the Germans, along with the Crimean Tatar volunteers, immediately destroyed it.

According to E. von Manstein, the landing of troops in Feodosia and Evpatoria opened the way for the Soviet troops to the iron Dzhankoy-Simferopol. At that time, there were more than 10,000 wounded German soldiers and officers in the hospitals of Simferopol, who German command was unable to evacuate. And if the German front had been broken through and the Bolsheviks reached the Simferopol hospitals, which Mekhlis so passionately desired, then probably the most cruel massacre of helpless soldiers in modern history would have occurred.

January 20, 1942 L. Mekhlis arrived in Crimea as a representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, in order to personally control and direct the bloody whirlwind conceived by Stalin in the Kremlin.

He had no doubts about the success of the upcoming crimes, declaring to Stalin: "We will play great music for the Germans here." That part of the Crimea, which was controlled by Soviet troops, was overwhelmed by repression. Military field courts tirelessly exterminated hundreds of commanders and privates of the Red Army and Navy.

Pathological cruelty touched not only their own, German prisoners of war suffered no less.

And, not jokingly, I considered it an honor. L. Mekhlis proudly wrote about this to his son: “I order the fascist prisoners to finish. And Fisunov is working well here. With particular satisfaction, he destroys the robbers.

The time of the "Mekhlis" terror continued until the spring of 1942. when, thanks to the leadership talent of E. von Manstein, the Soviet troops were finally and irrevocably expelled from the Crimea.

The topic of prostitution in Germany during World War II has always been a taboo, only in the 90s German editions began to illuminate this layer of history. This is hard to believe, because as soon as they came to power, the National Socialists began by supplementing the Criminal Code with a paragraph according to which, for worrying a citizen with a depraved proposal, one could go to jail. Only in Hamburg for six months about one and a half thousand women were detained, accused of prostitution. They were caught on the streets, sent to camps and subjected to forced sterilization. Somewhat more fortunate were those women who sold their bodies, combining prostitution with government jobs. We are talking here primarily about the notorious “Kitty Salon”, sung in the film of the same name by Tinto Brass. (19 photos)

1. In the 19th century in Germany, the creation of brothels was welcomed to avoid numerous diseases. Men, accustomed to the availability of the female body, did not deny themselves habits and did not consider it immoral to rent a prostitute. The tradition was preserved under Nazism, therefore, in connection with numerous cases rape, homosexuality and disease of soldiers, on September 9, 1939, Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick issued a decree on the establishment of brothels in the occupied territories.
To account for front-line brothels and prostitutes, the military department created a special ministry. The merry frau were listed as civil servants, had a decent salary, insurance, and enjoyed benefits. You can not discount the fruits advocacy work Goebbels departments: a German man in the street, who had a son or brother in the war, was kind to the Wehrmacht, and even among prostitutes, along with professionals, there were, as they say, quite a few who went to serve front-line soldiers out of patriotic motives.

2. The highest quality service was supposed to be in the hospitals of the Luftwaffe, Goering's favorite brainchild, which provided for the presence of one full-time Frau for 20 pilots or 50 technicians from ground staff. According to the strictly enforced rules of conduct, the prostitute met the pilot in clothes, with neat make-up; immaculately clean Underwear, like bedding, had to change for each "iron falcon".

4. It is curious that for the soldiers of the satellite armies, access to German sex establishments was closed. The Reich fed them, armed them, uniformed them, but it was considered too much to share their Frau with the Italians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Spaniards, Bulgarians, etc. Only the Hungarians were able to organize for themselves a semblance of field brothels, the rest got out as best they could. A German soldier had a legal norm of visiting a brothel - five or six times a month. In addition, the commander could issue a coupon on his own to the one who distinguished himself as an encouragement or, on the contrary, punish him with deprivation for wrongdoing.

6. An hour was allotted for the visit, during which the client had to register a coupon, where the name, surname and registration number girls (a soldier was instructed to keep a ticket for 2 months - for every firefighter), get hygiene products (a bar of soap, a towel and three condoms), wash (wash, according to the regulations, it was necessary twice), and only after that was allowed to the body.
Barter flourished in the subdivisions: womanizers exchanged coupons with those who liked to eat more than sex for marmalade, schnapps, and cigarettes. Individual daredevils indulged in tricks and, using someone else's coupons, made their way to the sergeant's brothels, where the girls were better, and someone even penetrated into the officer's, risking getting ten days in case of capture.

8. Having capitulated on June 22, 1940, France provided its numerous brothels to the German invaders. And in the second half of July, two orders had already arrived to curb street prostitution and create brothels for the Wehrmacht.
The Nazis confiscated the brothels they liked, recruited management and staff, adhering to the criteria of Aryan racial purity. Officers were forbidden to visit these establishments; special hotels were created for them. Thus, the command of the Wehrmacht wanted to stop sodomy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the army; increase the incentive and stamina of a soldier; stop intimate relationships on the side, because of the fear of espionage and the birth of handicapped; and saturate with sex to stop the sexual crimes that undermine the ranks of the army.

9. Only foreigners worked in these brothels - mostly Poles and French women. At the end of 1944, the number of civilians exceeded 7.5 million. Among them were also our compatriots. For a penny, raising the economy of the warring Germany, living in closed settlements, they had the opportunity to buy goods on a voucher in brothel which is encouraged by the employer.

11. To visit the brothel, the prisoner had to make an application and buy the so-called Sprungkarte worth 2 Reichsmarks. For comparison, a pack of 20 cigarettes in the dining room cost 3 Reichsmarks. Jews were not allowed to visit the brothel. weakened after labor day the prisoners did not willingly go to the brothels provided by Himmler. Some for moral reasons, others for material reasons, a brothel coupon could be profitably exchanged for food.

Related content:

A series of documentary photographs dedicated to the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. rare photo and unique footage from the Second World War. Black and white photographs of military equipment and combatants. Photos from the places of events, the memory of the defenders of the Motherland - your feat is not forgotten. Watch online documentary photo of the Second World War 1941-1945.

The commander of the 3rd battalion of the motorized regiment "Der Fuhrer" of the SS division "Das Reich" SS Hauptsturmführer Vinzenz Kaiser (right) with officers on the Kursk Bulge.

The commander of the 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking" Standartenführer Johannes-Rudolf Mühlenkamp with a fox terrier in the Kovel area.

Commander of the Red Banner partisan detachment named after Chkalov S.D. Penkin.

The commander of the submarine K-3 Lieutenant Commander K.I. Malafeev at the periscope.

Commander rifle battalion Romanenko talks about the military affairs of a young intelligence officer - Vitya Zhaivoronka.

The commander of the tank Pz.kpfw VI "Tiger" No. 323 of the 3rd company of the 503rd heavy tank battalion, non-commissioned officer Futermeister (Futermeister) shows a trace of a Soviet shell on the armor of his tank.

Tank commander, Lieutenant B.V. Smelov shows a hole in the turret of the German tank "Tiger", knocked out by the crew of Smelov, Lieutenant Likhnyakevich (who knocked out in last fight 2 fascist tanks).

The commander of the Finnish 34th squadron (Lentolaivue-34), Major Eino Luukkanen (Major Eino Luukkanen) at the Utti airfield near the Messerschmitt Bf.109G-2 fighter.

Squadron commander from the 728th IAP I.A. Ivanenkov (right) listens to the report of the pilot of the I-16 Denisov fighter aircraft on the implementation combat mission. Kalinin Front, January 1943.

The commander of the squadron of Soviet bombers of American production A-20 "Boston" Major Orlov sets a combat mission for the flight crew. North Caucasus.

Commanders of the 29th tank brigade Red Army armored car BA-20 in Brest-Litovsk.

Command post of the 178th artillery regiment(45th rifle division) Major Rostovtsev in the basement of the calibration shop of the Krasny Oktyabr plant.

Komsomol card of the deceased Red Army soldier Kazakh Nurmakhanov under No. 20405684 with an entry on the pages "I will die but not a step back." 3rd Belorussian Front.

Krasnaya Zvezda correspondents Zakhar Khatsrevin and Boris Lapin are questioning a German defector. Both correspondents died while trying to break out of the Kyiv pocket on September 19, 1941.

Red Army signalman Mikhail Usachev leaves his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag.

Red Army soldiers capture a wrecked man on the battlefield near Mozdok german tank Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf F-2. The tank does not have a course machine gun.

Red Army soldiers in position with a captured German machine gun MG-34. On the right is machine gunner V. Kuzbaev.

The Red Army soldiers are examining the German trench they captured on the Panther line. The corpses of German soldiers are visible at the bottom and parapet of the trench.

Red Army soldiers surrender to soldiers of the 9th motorized infantry company of the 2nd SS division "Reich" on a village street.

Red Army soldiers at the grave of a friend. 1941

Levi Chase is one of three pilots who have scored air victories over aircraft from three Axis countries - Germany, Japan and Italy. In total, Chase shot down 12 enemy aircraft during the war.

The light cruiser "Santa Fe" approaches the damaged aircraft carrier "Franklin".

German soldiers inspect a wrecked Soviet T-34 tank.

German soldiers inspect a Soviet Ar-2 dive bomber shot down near Demyansk. Very rare car (only about 200 pieces were produced).

German soldiers near the remains of a Soviet KV-2 tank destroyed by the detonation of ammunition.

German tanks Pz.Kpfw. VI "Tiger" of the 505th heavy tank battalion near the city of Velikiye Luki.

German Admiral Karl Dönitz (center). Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces from April 30 to May 23, 1945.

German ace Heinz Baer (Heinz (Oskar-Heinrich) "Pritzl" Bär) inspects the American B-17 bomber he shot down.

A German paratrooper looks at a pile of captured weapons captured in the city of Corinth (Greece). In the foreground and to the right of the paratrooper are captured Greek officers.

A German paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) poses with a captured English Bren machine gun.

German fighter Messerschmitt Bf.109G-10 from 6.JG51 at the Raab airfield in Hungary. This aircraft was flown by Lieutenant Kühlein.

German battleship Tirpitz under attack British aviation. Operation Wolfram, April 3, 1943. A direct hit on the tower is clearly visible.

German oberfeldwebel prepares to undermine the area railway in the Grodno region. At the time of the picture, the oberfeldwebel inserts the fuse into a stick of dynamite. July 16 - 17, 1944

German field uniform repair station. From the album of a private (from 1942 - a corporal) of the 229th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Light Infantry Division.

German crew inside an assault gun.

German prisoners of war are being escorted through the Majdanek concentration camp. In front of the prisoners, the remains of the prisoners of the death camp lie on the ground, and the crematorium ovens are also visible. Outskirts of the Polish city of Lublin.

German General Anton Dostler, sentenced to death on charges of executing 15 American saboteurs who surrendered, is tied to a pole before being shot.

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Incredible Facts

1. This demonstration was organized in connection with the celebration of Thanksgiving (Reichserntedankfest), which took place in the city of Buckeburg (Buckeberg) in 1934.

The number of participants was estimated at 700,000 people.

According to the stories of the Germans, who did not support the Nazis, even they were shocked by the scale of the event.

Until now, no one has seen anything like it.

Witnesses and participants of this event spoke about the feeling national unity, emotional upsurge, incredible delight and mood for change for the better.

When, after the demonstration, the Germans went to their tents, they still observed huge lightning in the sky.

2. Nazi storm troopers in Berlin sing near the entrance to a branch of the Woolworth Co. trading house. March 1, 1933. On this day, an action was organized to promote the boycott of the presence of Jews in Germany.

As soon as the Nazis came to power, they began to call on all German citizens to boycott Jewish organizations and enterprises. A long propaganda campaign began.

On April 1, Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech in which he explained the need for a boycott as retribution for the "conspiracy against Germany by the Jews of the world" in the foreign media.

The store pictured was owned by the Woolworth Company, which later put all Jewish employees out of work.

As a result, the company received a special distinctive sign"Adefa Zeichen", which meant belonging to a "purely Aryan business".

3. SS soldiers rest near the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in August 1936. These SS men served in the guard battalion, intended for the personal protection of Hitler and his escort during public events.

Some time later, the battalion was named the elite first division "Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler"" (Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler"). The unit was very large and accompanied Hitler wherever he went.

AT war time the division took part in the fighting, showing itself as one of the most the best divisions for the entire war.

4. Parade of the Nazis in 1937 in the "Temple of Light". This structure consisted of 130 powerful searchlights, standing at a distance of 12 meters from each other and looking vertically upwards.

This was done in order to create light columns. The effect was incredible, both inside the columns and outside. The author of this creation was the architect Albert Speer (Albert Speer), it was his favorite masterpiece.

Experts still believe that this work is the best that Speer created, whom Hitler ordered to decorate the square in Nuremberg for parades.

5. Photo taken in 1938 in Berlin. On it, the soldiers of the Fuhrer's personal guard are undergoing drill training. This unit was in the barracks Lichterfelde (Lichterfelde).

The soldiers are armed with Mauser Kar98k carbines, and the lightning bolt emblems on the collars are the hallmark of the SS unit.

6. "Hall of the Bavarian generals" in Munich, 1982. The annual oath taking place in the SS troops. The text of the oath was as follows: "I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, to always be a brave and loyal warrior. I swear to you and the commanders who will be determined for me, to be betrayed until death. May God help me."

7. The slogan of the SS was: "Our honor is our loyalty."

8. Greetings from the Fuhrer after the announcement of the successful annexation of Austria. The action takes place in 1938 in the Reichstag. The most important tenet of the Nazis' ideology was the unification of all Germans who were born or live outside Germany's borders to create an "all-German Reich".

From the moment Hitler came to power, the Führer announced that he would achieve the unification of Germany with Austria by any means.

9. Another photo from a similar event.

10. The frozen body of a Soviet soldier, which in 1939 was paraded by the Finns in order to intimidate the attacking Soviet troops. The Finns often used this method of psychological influence.

11. Soviet infantrymen frozen in a "fox hole" in Finland in 1940. The troops were forced to be transferred to the Finnish front from remote regions. Many soldiers were not at all prepared for an extremely harsh winter, having come to Finland from the southern regions.

Moreover, Finnish saboteurs regularly monitored the destruction of rear services. Soviet troops experienced great difficulties due to the lack of food, winter uniforms and proper training.

Therefore, the soldiers covered their trenches with branches, and sprinkled them with snow on top. Such a shelter was called the "fox hole".

World War II: photo

12. Photo of Joseph Stalin from the police archive, taken during his arrest by the secret police in 1911. This was his second arrest.

The first time Okhrana became interested in him in 1908 because of his revolutionary activity. Then Stalin spent seven months in prison, and after that he was sent for two years to the city of Solvychegodsk, into exile.

However, the leader did not spend the whole time there, because after some time he fled, disguised as a woman and left for St. Petersburg.

13. This unofficial photo was taken by Vlasik, Stalin's personal bodyguard. In 1960, when this and some other works of Vlasik were first published, they all became a sensation. Then one Soviet journalist took them out of the Land of Soviets and sold them to foreign media.

14. Photo taken in 1940. On it, Stalin (right) and his double Felix Dadaev. Highly long time unconfirmed rumors circulated in the USSR that the leader had a double who replaces him under certain circumstances.

After several decades, Felix finally decided to lower the veil of secrecy. Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler, was invited to the Kremlin, where he was offered a job as an understudy for Stalin.

For more than 50 years, Felix was silent because he was afraid of death for breaking the contract. But when he was 88 years old, in 2008, naturally with the permission of the authorities, Dadaev published a book in which he described in great detail how he happened to "play" the leader at various demonstrations, military parades and filming.

15. Even the closest associates and comrades of Stalin could not distinguish them.

16. Felix Dadaev in the dress uniform of a lieutenant general.

17. Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's eldest son, was captured by the Germans back in 1941. According to some historians, Jacob himself surrendered. There are still many conflicting rumors and legends about the life of the leader's son.

18. After receiving a package from Germany, Stalin learns about the capture of his son. Then Vasily, younger son leader, I heard from my father: "What a fool, he did not even manage to shoot himself!" It was also said that Stalin reproached Yakov for surrendering to the enemy like a coward.

Photo of the second world war

19. Yakov wrote to his father: "Dear father! I am a prisoner. I feel good. Very soon I will find myself in a camp in Germany for prisoners of war for officers. They treat me well. Be healthy. Thank you for everything. Yasha."

Some time later, the Germans offered to exchange Yakov for Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus ( Friedrich von Paulus), who was taken prisoner near Stalingrad.

It was rumored that Stalin refused such an offer, saying that he would not change an entire field marshal for an ordinary soldier.

20. Not so long ago, some documents were declassified, according to which Yakov was shot dead by camp guards after he refused to obey the established order.

During the walk, Yakov received an order from the guards to return to the barracks, but refused, and the guards shot him in the head. When Stalin found out about this, he noticeably softened towards his son, considering such a death worthy.

21. A German soldier shares food with a Russian woman with a child, 1941. His gesture is in vain, because his role is to starve to death millions of such mothers. The photo was taken by the photographer of the 29th division of the Wehrmacht Georg Gundlach (George Gundlach).

This photograph, along with others, was included in the album collection "The Battle of Volkhov. Documentary Horror of 1941-1942".

22. The captured Russian scout laughs, looking into the eyes of his death. The photo was taken in November 1942 in Eastern Karelia. Before us are the last seconds of a person's life. He knows that he is about to die and laughs.

23. 1942 Surroundings of Ivangrad. German punitive units execute Kyiv Jews. In this photo, a German soldier shoots a woman with a child.

Rifles of other punishers are visible on the left side of the photo. This image was sent from the Eastern Front by post to Germany, but was intercepted in Poland by a member of the Warsaw resistance, which was collecting evidence of Nazi war crimes in the world.

Today this photo is kept in Warsaw, in the Historical Archive.

24. Rock of Gibraltar, 1942 Beams of searchlights that helped anti-aircraft gunners shoot at Nazi bombers.

25. 1942, a suburb of Stalingrad. Marching 6th Army. The soldiers do not even imagine that they are heading to a real hell. Most likely, they will not see the next spring.

One of the soldiers walks in his own sunglasses. This is an expensive thing that was issued exclusively to motorcyclists and soldiers of the African Corps.

26. Going to hell.

Photos from the Second World War

27. Stalingrad, 1942 Preparations for the assault on the warehouse. German soldiers were forced to fight back every building, every street. It was then that they discovered that the tactical advantage that they had at their disposal in open spaces had sunk into oblivion due to the tightness of the city.

In street battles, tanks could not prove themselves. Oddly enough, but snipers in such conditions played much more important role compared to tanks and artillery.

heavy weather, the lack of a proper level of supplies and uniforms, as well as the stubborn resistance of our soldiers led to the complete defeat of the Nazi army near Stalingrad.

28. 1942, Stalingrad. German soldier with the Silver Infantry Assault Badge. This insignia was awarded to soldiers of infantry units who took part in at least three assault operations.

For soldiers, such an award was no less honorable than the Iron Cross, which was established specifically for the Eastern Front.

29. A German soldier lights a cigarette from a flamethrower.

30. 1943 Warsaw. Bodies of murdered Jews and Ukrainian policemen. Photo taken in Warsaw ghetto during the suppression of the uprising. The original German caption for the photo reads: "Policemen also took part in the operation."

31. 1943 The ending Stalingrad battle. Soviet soldier with a PPSh-41 submachine gun escorts a captured German. Hitler's troops near Stalingrad, being surrounded, they were completely defeated.

This battle is considered one of the most brutal and bloody in the history of all wars. It claimed the lives of more than two million people.

32. Summer 1944. Belarusian strategic offensive"Bagration". As a result of this operation german group armies "Center" was completely defeated.

The front line of 1100 kilometers in two months of fighting was moved 600 kilometers to the west. German troops in this battle lost five times more people than the Soviet ones.

Photo 2 world war

33. July 17, 1944 Moscow streets. March of tens of thousands of captured Germans. Operation "Bagration" is considered the most successful of the entire period of the war.

Attack on Eastern Front began immediately after the Allied troops landed in Normandy. Little is known about this operation, especially in the West. Only a few historians are familiar with its details.

34. 1944 Camp Nonan-les-Pins (Nonant le Pin), German prisoners of war. In France during the Falaise operation allied forces more than thirty thousand German soldiers were taken prisoner.

Camp guards regularly rode along the barbed wire and fired into the air to pretend to stop another escape attempt. But there were no escape attempts, because even if they managed to get away from the guards, the execution would still not have been avoided.

35. 1944 France. 18-year-old member of the resistance movement Simone Seguin (Simone Segouin). Her military alias is Nicole Mine.

The photo was taken during the battle with German troops. The appearance of the girl in the center, of course, is surprising, but it was this picture that became a symbol of the participation of French women in the Resistance.

36. Simone in a color photograph, rare at the time.

37. Simone with her favorite weapon - a German machine gun.

38. March 9, 1945 The young fighter "Hitler Youth" received the "Iron Cross" award for his services during the defense of the city of Laubana in Silesia, he is congratulated by Goebbels.

Today Laubana is Polish city Luban.

39. 1945 Balcony of the Reichs Chancellery. Allied soldiers ridicule Hitler. Soldiers of the American, Soviet and British armies celebrating a joint victory.

The photo was taken on July 6, 1945, two months after the surrender. There was a month left before the bombing of Hiroshima.

40. Hitler speaking on the same balcony.

41. April 17, 1945 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, liberation. British soldiers forced the guards - SS men to dig up the burial places of prisoners and load them into cars.

42. 1942 German soldiers watching a movie about concentration camps. The photo shows the reaction of prisoners of war to documentary materials from the death camps. This photo located in the United States Holocaust Museum.

43. The last rows of the cinema hall, the same scene.