For educational purposes
Friedrich Paulus - a general fighting a losing battle. His name is inextricably linked to the devastating defeat at Stalingrad.
As commander of the Sixth Army he had no chance in the encircled Volga city area against the superior strength of the Red Army.
The situation of his more than 250,000 soldiers was hopeless.
But all attempts failed to wring out from Hitler the order finally to evacuate the encircled area and break out with his troops westward.
The dictator was firmly convinced to sacrifice rather the Sixth Army than to willingly surrender Stalingrad.
To the entrapped he radioed a cynical thanks for their "contribution to save the Western World".
Paulus knew that his appointment to field marshal shortly before the encirclement was the order for suicide. But he did not fulfill the wish of his commander-in-chief.
Paulus went into captivity. Only in the hour of defeat did he refuse to obey.
In January 1943 Friedrich Paulus became the first German field-marshal ever to surrender on the battlefield.
Having held Stalingrad for five months against all odds, he defied Hitler and led the remnants of Sixth Army into Russian captivity.
He then worked for the Soviets, calling on Germany to surrender.
Friedrich Paulus - a general fighting a losing battle. His name is inextricably linked to the devastating defeat at Stalingrad.
As commander of the Sixth Army he had no chance in the encircled Volga city area against the superior strength of the Red Army.
The situation of his more than 250,000 soldiers was hopeless.
But all attempts failed to wring out from Hitler the order finally to evacuate the encircled area and break out with his troops westward.
The dictator was firmly convinced to sacrifice rather the Sixth Army than to willingly surrender Stalingrad.
To the entrapped he radioed a cynical thanks for their "contribution to save the Western World".
Paulus knew that his appointment to field marshal shortly before the encirclement was the order for suicide. But he did not fulfill the wish of his commander-in-chief.
Paulus went into captivity. Only in the hour of defeat did he refuse to obey.
In January 1943 Friedrich Paulus became the first German field-marshal ever to surrender on the battlefield.
Having held Stalingrad for five months against all odds, he defied Hitler and led the remnants of Sixth Army into Russian captivity.
He then worked for the Soviets, calling on Germany to surrender.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Stalingrad, January 1943. An army in its death throes hears its own funeral oration.
00:3091,000 men were taken prisoner. Barely 6,000 would return home.
00:37The leader of the army surrendered, though Hitler expected him to commit suicide.
00:44He refused to obey.
01:15Spring, 1942. An airstrip on the Eastern Front.
01:22The 6th Army was expecting a new commander-in-chief. The previous one had had a success. He was to lead an army group.
01:52The new commander was Friedrich Paulus, General of the Tank Corps. No stranger to army headquarters.
02:23The enemy was also interested in the newcomer.
02:30A year later, Paulus was a field marshal and a Russian prisoner. He was considered a vacillator. Had that caused the Stalingrad catastrophe?
03:00The fate of the front, of which the fate of 300,000 people depends, you don't just do that. You hesitate.
03:15The fate of the front in the First World War. Lieutenant Paulus on the Western Front. The Navy didn't want him, so he became an army officer.
03:26He spent less time in the trenches than on the staff. By the end, he'd risen to captain, a battalion adjutant.
03:45Post-war. For him, the fall of the monarchy was a disgrace. He became an officer in the right-wing Freikorps. Democracy remained alien to him.
03:55With an army of 100,000, he was regarded as an old hand.
04:01He was a terrible worker. Day in and day out, he was on duty. Even in Stuttgart, where he was a captain, he wrote for anti-scientific newspapers in the evenings. He always worked.
04:31Lieutenant-Colonel Friedrich Paulus.
04:34While the republic, without republicans, declined into dictatorship, the lieutenant-colonel and others designed a new arm of the service. Tank units. The power behind the coming blitzkrieg.
04:49Paulus, an ambitious perfectionist.
04:52He looked like an egg-shelled. He was pedantic. Barely dressed. The shirt and uniform were two millimeters. Not more, not less.
05:10And the pencil marks on his desk were all pointed and had to be aligned. That was Paulus.
05:21In 1933, another veteran of the First World War took power in Germany.
05:28From the start, Hitler built on the loyalty of the military. He promised that a soldier would once again be the first man in the state.
05:40The soldiers approved.
05:51...the old, proud army rule among the people, which is no less than the traditionally established political leadership of the party.
06:00And then these two institutions will raise and strengthen the German people together and bear the German state, the German Reich, on their shoulders.
06:14He certainly wasn't enthusiastic, but I mean, they didn't have much at the time, did they?
06:22Paulus was gripped by a vision of the tank corps as the spearhead of a future blitzkrieg.
06:28Hitler could be relied on for modern weapons. Arms for a war of aggression were rapidly produced.
06:36Their motto? Don't fiddle about, get on with it.
06:41Moscow was also betting on tanks. The elite of the Red Army was trained in Germany. Paulus was one of their teachers.
06:49Stalin's Marshal Tukhachevsky said, if Paulus is no longer needed in Germany, we could use him.
07:02But he couldn't be spared.
07:05But he couldn't be spared.
07:09In the summer of 1939, the brigadier left his military exercises to become chief of staff in the army of General Reichenau, a convinced Nazi, who became Paulus' foster father.
07:22Reichenau highly appreciated Paulus.
07:31The two complemented each other perfectly.
07:35Paulus was the conscientious, all-thinking, forethought...
07:43...general officer.
07:50And Reichenau was the commander. He said, he took the decision, it was done, and then he stayed.
07:57Hitler's warrior, Reichenau, fanatical but lazy. Chief of Staff Paulus covered for him.
08:18September 1939, attack on Poland. The first men in the state got some work.
08:25Spearhead of the Wehrmacht, Reichenau's 6th Army.
08:29After 12 months of blitzkrieg, it was called Conqueror of the Capitals.
08:42The warlord was well pleased with his generals and showered them with favours.
08:55Paulus was still in the second row, but he was promoted to Chief Planner of the General Staff.
09:06A new post, new duties.
09:10The first logistics officer was to check a plan, codename Barbarossa.
09:15The aim, Lebensraum in the east.
09:20Attack on the Soviet Union, a war of annihilation.
09:25Paulus had problems to solve, supplying an advance deep into Russian territory.
09:49He said, General, this is going to be a different war than the one we know.
09:54It was clear that the Russians were a different opponent.
09:59We had never experienced that before.
10:02That soldiers could kill each other in their holes.
10:09In June 1941, Barbarossa, the map reading exercise, got serious.
10:14Hitler's divisions were meant to reach the Urals in 14 weeks.
10:19But the enemy was also building new tanks.
10:44We saw a tank.
10:48If it runs off the band in Russia, then we have lost the war.
10:55The T-34, Stalin's wonder weapon.
11:01The Wehrmacht was victorious, but weakening.
11:04When a German offensive bogged down in the south of the Eastern Front,
11:08Paulus succeeded Reichenau as Army Chief.
11:13He was no longer responsible for maps, but for human lives.
11:16The 6th Army.
11:19The right man, in the right place.
11:39Now he was a field commander.
11:42Summer 1942. Under Paulus, the 6th Army advanced.
11:47The Soviets had retreated, to this point without resistance.
11:53In the first part of the advance,
11:57through the Ukrainian steppe towards Stalingrad,
12:01the army led successfully,
12:04according to the judgment of the troops under him.
12:11What did success mean in such a war,
12:15in which more civilians than soldiers died?
12:20All victims of criminal despotism,
12:23and orders that revealed human brutalization.
12:32Under the aegis of Reichenau,
12:34countless war crimes had been committed,
12:37a handicap for Paulus.
12:49Paulus was very upset,
12:52and then he raised this tough order.
12:56It was a terrible order,
12:59and every decent soldier could not understand it.
13:03It was practical that every soldier could do with civilians what he wanted.
13:12Paulus wanted nothing to do with war crimes,
13:15including behind the lines,
13:17and thought he could distance himself from them.
13:20But rescinding Reichenau's killing orders didn't in itself prevent attacks.
13:48Paulus was always to be accompanied,
13:51and above all to ensure that he had his own army order,
13:55which he had paid for at noon.
13:57It had to be paid for by noon,
14:00so that he was at the Kurs at the latest at 6 p.m.
14:05So I was supposed to be there,
14:08and had the order,
14:10so that Paulus would not violate his own order.
14:15The highly regarded staff officer.
14:18Among staff and troops, he was seen as a vacillator.
14:21Still, by August, the Germans had reached the Don.
14:25The Soviets pulled back,
14:27leaving the Wehrmacht with its engines idling.
14:31Hitler changed his headquarters from East Prussia to Vinnytsia,
14:35in the middle of the Ukraine.
14:37Here, he wanted to force a decision.
14:42Why in the south of the Soviet Union?
14:45What was driving him?
15:05Stalingrad, the industrial city on the Volga.
15:09Hitler's second goal in the south.
15:11For that, he divided his army.
15:40At the end of August,
15:43Paulus started the attack on the city that bore Stalin's name.
15:47German bombers turned Stalingrad into a pile of rubble.
15:5140,000 people died.
15:54Evacuation began far too late.
16:09Naturally, the question arose,
16:12what was going on in the north of the Don,
16:16where a few Romanian or Italian units were stationed?
16:21And what was going on in the Kalmyk steppe?
16:24This army marched to Stalingrad without any flank protection.
16:39I wanted to come to the Volga.
16:41To a certain place.
16:43To a certain city.
16:45By the way, you bring up Stalin's name,
16:48but don't think that I marched there because of that.
16:52You could have called me something else.
16:54But only because it was a very important point.
16:56They wanted to take it.
16:58And you know, we are modest.
17:00We have it.
17:02We all had the impression at the time
17:04that Hitler wanted to take Stalingrad
17:07because of the significance of the name Stalingrad.
17:10The conquest of Stalingrad
17:12in the fight against Stalin and Hitler
17:15was one of his great political triumphs.
17:22Paulus, of all people, was supposed to give it to him.
17:26Stalin also wanted to know
17:28who was trying to take his city from him.
17:31I was given various missions
17:34to find out more about Paulus
17:38because he was our opponent in Stalingrad.
17:43And the commander of the front group
17:49was interested in learning more about him.
17:52And since I was an interrogation officer,
17:55I had various opportunities to get information.
18:02By early October, nearly all of Stalingrad was in German hands.
18:06But they never succeeded in taking the whole city.
18:09Newsreels told repeatedly of the capture of Stalingrad.
18:14The reality looked different.
18:24Nobody knew it better than the commander of the army.
18:28And the whole thing was a thick blue line
18:31on the maps of the army,
18:33the army group from Okaha to Hitler.
18:36That was the front.
18:38But it actually looked grim.
18:45The front ran across streets
18:47and through the middle of buildings.
18:52Battles that lasted for weeks
18:55without gaining one building
18:57were wearing the 6th Army down.
19:24They wanted to destroy the roof over their heads.
19:27There was a house. I was there once.
19:30The Germans sat on the lower floor.
19:32On the first floor, the Russians said.
19:34On the second floor, the Germans again.
19:36On the third floor, the Russians again.
19:39Early November, the start of winter on the steppes.
19:42Temperatures fell to 30 below.
19:45Supplying the army became increasingly difficult.
19:48Ammunition and provisions were scarce.
19:51Less than half the soldiers had winter clothing.
19:55They already had normal German military equipment.
19:59Let's say underwear,
20:02underwear, uniform and a winter coat.
20:05In Russia, they were practically naked.
20:08Naked.
20:10They didn't have anything on.
20:13They only had coats or winter clothing.
20:16Nothing else.
20:20In Stavka, Stalin's headquarters,
20:23the state of the 6th Army was well known
20:25and a counterattack was planned.
20:28Stalingrad was to be encircled.
20:32The Soviets knew that Italian and Romanian troops
20:35guarding the German flanks were inadequately equipped.
20:45Stalin had waited for this opportunity.
20:49Two thousand brand new T-34 tanks
20:52moved up to both sides of the 6th Army,
20:55facing the Axis front,
20:58which had nothing to counter them with.
21:19It didn't work, of course.
21:35There were no reports.
21:37We didn't know what was going on.
21:39And the Army Headquarters, on the 20th,
21:42was surprised by the Russians.
21:46The Poltavs were shot down
21:49by the Russians.
22:06The attack against the North West,
22:09against the Nord-Riegel position,
22:12was a wave after wave of German machine guns.
22:15The second and third waves had no more weapons,
22:18but had to take the weapons of the fallen
22:21to continue the attack.
22:24The Russians suffered terrible losses.
22:42Paulus asked Hitler for freedom of action.
23:13Radio messages to an encircled man.
23:16Manstein promised Paulus he'd get him out.
23:19The generals of the 6th Army didn't want to wait.
23:22Seidlitz urged disobedience.
23:26He literally said,
23:28throw your radios together.
23:31Throw your radios together.
23:33Don't listen to him anymore.
23:35You have to act alone here.
23:37That's what he said.
23:56But Paulus didn't act.
23:59He hoped things would get better.
24:26An army digging in,
24:29in the snowy wilderness around Stalingrad.
24:32The recently appointed general
24:35issued the exhortation to hold out.
24:38Men, don't give up.
24:41The Führer will get you out of here.
24:44Did even Paulus believe it?
24:47Or did Seidlitz?
24:56I wished Paulus would be a York
25:00and break out on his own.
25:03But he's no one.
25:05The Führer is no one.
25:07That's the answer.
25:09But to accuse him of that,
25:12that's not allowed.
25:26A desperate attempt.
25:28The last chance.
25:56The forces were weak.
25:59Christmas in Stalingrad.
26:01The men in frozen foxholes.
26:06They were still clinging to one last hope.
26:25Two more days.
26:27Hold on.
26:28Then it's over for us.
26:30Then it's over for us.
26:32They couldn't go any further.
26:34We could go 60 kilometres.
26:37That's not possible.
26:39Don't you want anything?
26:41Not even a litre of fuel?
26:56An order to shoot?
27:16The daily ration on January the 13th.
27:1950 grams of bread.
27:22Paulus still believed he could tie up
27:25strong Russian forces by holding out.
27:28Thousands of soldiers died every day.
27:31The commander sent a young officer
27:34on a mission to Hitler,
27:36Captain Winrich Baer.
27:40He was...
27:44...devastated, I would say.
27:47He couldn't let himself go as a commander.
27:50He couldn't let himself go.
27:53But he said to him,
27:55we'll try our best.
27:57I don't know if he really believed
28:00that my mission
28:02could be crowned with success.
28:05But he wanted to do everything he could
28:08to make sure that Stalingrad was helped.
28:13Captain Baer had a second mission.
28:16He took a letter from Paulus to his wife.
28:19A letter of farewell.
28:21In it, the general clung firmly to his beliefs.
28:24I stand here where I am,
28:26a soldier under orders.
28:28While the army was dying,
28:30Hitler retreated into delusion.
28:34He reported, for example,
28:36about an SS tank army
28:38that had been deployed in the Stalino area
28:41and was supposed to attack Stalingrad.
28:44I already knew that this army
28:47had been shot down
28:49when the Russian T-34 was being unloaded.
28:52And then the Führer told me
28:54that this tank army
28:56was supposed to attack Stalingrad
28:59400 kilometers through snow and wind.
29:02That was so obvious nonsense.
29:11What do you do?
29:13In general,
29:15as the officers said,
29:17the only thing that helps
29:19is to take the pistols.
29:21And then we experienced
29:23that a regiment
29:25from a division of ours,
29:27an artillery regiment,
29:29the commander ordered all the officers
29:32to drink the last schnapps.
29:35The commander said,
29:37take out all the pistols,
29:40and shoot at the sleepers.
29:43And at that moment
29:45this whole regiment
29:47had no more officers.
29:50Surrender is out of the question.
29:536th Army, fulfill your historic task.
29:58Hitler stood firm.
30:00Stalingrad was to be a beacon
30:02down to the last man.
30:19Everything was fine.
30:21He hit me in the stomach
30:23with a machine gun.
30:25That was the first thing.
30:27He took the gun away.
30:29I could keep the gun,
30:31but I had no watch.
30:49He had suddenly
30:51got a bump.
30:53He was somehow bent.
30:55I saw his face.
30:57It was pale.
30:59And I got the impression
31:01that there was a man standing here
31:03who was almost collapsing
31:05under the enormous burden
31:07of responsibility.
31:19He must be taken prisoner.
31:43Without resisting,
31:45the army staff went into captivity.
31:48The higher the rank,
31:50the better the chance of survival.
31:52Of 23 generals,
31:54only one didn't return home.
32:03The field marshal
32:05was driven away in a staff car
32:07and presented to the press
32:09as a victory trophy.
32:13The people were happy
32:15and proud
32:17that a German field marshal,
32:19a general field marshal,
32:21was taken prisoner.
32:23Photos of the captured field marshal
32:25went around the world,
32:27including Berlin.
32:29In the evening,
32:31my husband and I
32:33were ordered to identify
32:35the photos of my father,
32:37because they were not
32:39very clear.
32:41And I have to tell you
32:43that I only saw my father
32:45from the side,
32:47but I recognized him
32:49by his hands.
33:16Summer, 1943.
33:18A revolt behind barbed wire.
33:20German officers opposed Hitler.
33:23Paulus refused to take part.
33:25From captivity
33:27and under the appearance
33:29of cooperation with the enemy,
33:31for me, there is no scope for action.
33:33This is typical of Paulus.
33:35Only after, to a certain extent,
33:37through the 20th of July,
33:39through the attempted assassination,
33:41because a few field marshals
33:43had been hanged,
33:45was, to a certain extent,
33:47the resistance against Hitler
33:49a certain legitimation
33:51from within Germany.
33:53Only then did he
33:55turn to this side.
33:59Paulus and Pieck,
34:01later president of East Germany.
34:05It was only towards the end
34:07of Hitler's war that the chief planner
34:09of Barbarossa revealed new insights.
34:13...in the midst of the peace,
34:15from the fence-breaking war of
34:17smoke and conquest,
34:19which the world has not yet seen,
34:21which is still being led by methods
34:23that are at the same time
34:25completely unique in the history of the world.
34:27It must have taken a very long time
34:29for Paulus.
34:31I heard this critical remark
34:33both in the editorial office
34:35and in conversations at Hotel Lux.
34:37And I understood it
34:39because it corresponded
34:41to being careful,
34:43to be cautious.
34:45But I regretted it very much
34:47because an earlier statement
34:49in the fall of 1943
34:51would have had
34:53a much greater meaning
34:55both for himself
34:57and for the activities
34:59of the National Committee of Free Germany.
35:03In Germany, the Paulus family
35:05was held liable for him.
35:07The regime's revenge fell on his wife and children.
35:11He received us and told my mother
35:13that she should give up her name
35:15because otherwise we would not be
35:17protected from the wrath of the people.
35:19And she refused.
35:25War's end found the prisoner in Voikovo
35:27a retreat for generals near Moscow.
35:33Soviet Marshal Zhukov
35:35during the victory parade in Red Square
35:37before his commander-in-chief.
35:41The Red dictator's favorite trophy,
35:43the captured field marshal.
35:45Nine months later,
35:47Nuremberg, the victor's trial.
35:49A thunderbolt.
35:51Paulus, chief planner of the general staff,
35:53was a witness for the prosecution.
35:57I swear by God,
35:59the almighty and omniscient,
36:01the almighty and omniscient,
36:03that I will speak the pure truth
36:07that I will speak the pure truth
36:09and will withhold and add nothing.
36:17He strongly incriminated
36:19his former superiors,
36:21Göring, Keitel and Jodl.
36:23He had less to say
36:25about the fate of his soldiers.
36:39Paulus, the prisoner, had a good life.
36:41He lived in a Moscow suburb,
36:43had his own dacha,
36:45his own cook and servant.
36:47But Stalin had no intention
36:49of releasing him.
36:51Stalingrad wouldn't let him go.
36:53Why hadn't he broken out?
36:55He constantly looked for answers.
37:09Then Stalin died
37:11and the bird in the golden cage
37:13no longer had a guard.
37:15Paulus wanted to go back to Germany.
37:17To the East.
37:19He was afraid of criticism
37:21and abuse in the West.
37:23The GDR, at a high level,
37:25guaranteed him protection.
37:27I mean, let's be honest.
37:29They brought him down fantastically.
37:31They gave him all the opportunities.
37:33They treated him well.
37:35In the beginning it was a bit difficult
37:37because you noticed
37:39that he was being watched
37:41step by step.
37:43But he lived in comfort
37:45in an imposing mansion
37:47in Weisse Hirsch,
37:49an exclusive district of Dresden.
37:51The Volkspolizei, who lived in barracks,
37:53took care of his board and lodging.
37:55Paulus' family was allowed
37:57to visit the returned soldier
37:59at any time,
38:01but their home remained in the West.
38:03Footage from the family archive.
38:07A close network of informants
38:09took care of state security.
38:11A close network of informants
38:13took care of state security.
38:15A close network of informants
38:17took care of state security.
38:19The owner of the object
38:21was a former general
38:23of the fascist Wehrmacht.
38:25A check was therefore necessary.
38:27I didn't dare to go to the housemaster.
38:29And afterwards it was said
38:31that when everything was over,
38:33the worst was the chauffeur,
38:36The few attempts to get Paulus
38:38to talk about the Cold War failed.
38:40The homecomer declared,
38:42I'm neither East nor West.
38:44I'm German.
38:46In the land of workers and peasants,
38:48the field marshal remained an alien.
39:06The Volkspolizei were billeted
39:08in barracks,
39:10forerunners of the East German army.
39:12Paulus had no part in setting it up.
39:14These men modelled themselves
39:16on the victors of Stalingrad.
39:18The Stasi subject,
39:20codenamed Terris,
39:22didn't travel to the West,
39:24but he did get a picture
39:26of the new Germany.
39:28The field marshal
39:30had written a letter
39:33The field marshal regularly,
39:35twice a week,
39:37got a bag
39:39in which the latest edition
39:41of the Spiegel was contained
39:43and the latest edition
39:45of the newspaper
39:47Frankfurter Allgemeine
39:49and Die Welt.
39:51He read the Spiegel
39:53very attentively
39:55and often in conversations
39:57on the arguments of the Spiegel
40:00He read the Spiegel very attentively
40:02and often in conversations
40:06Over all this hovered the nightmare
40:08of Stalingrad.
40:10At the end of 1955,
40:12he contracted an incurable nervous condition.
40:16They let Prof. Bürger come in
40:18from Leipzig.
40:20He had a capacity.
40:22Then they let doctors from Moscow come in.
40:26Then they put him
40:29in a hospital.
40:31But there was nothing to do.
40:33It was an incurable disease.
40:35After months of attempted treatment,
40:37Paulus died on February 1st, 1957.
40:39To the very end,
40:41he was looked after
40:43by the Stasi and the East German Army.
40:47Oberst Adam called me
40:49and said,
40:51there is a task for you.
40:53Field Marshal Paulus has died.
40:55We have to arrange it financially.
40:58Since then,
41:00a staff has been organized
41:02by the then high-ranking officer.
41:04One had to take care of the funeral
41:06and the other had to take care of this.
41:08I had to collect all the bills
41:10and organize the financial
41:12arrangements.
41:17Funeral service for the dead Field Marshal
41:19at public expense.
41:21A private family film.
41:23At the special request of the family,
41:25a priest was allowed to speak.
41:27On the day of the funeral,
41:29his Stasi file was
41:31officially closed.
41:37Friedrich Paulus was 66.
41:39He survived Stalingrad
41:41by 14 years,
41:43one day and six hours.
41:47Post-war Germany he never knew.
41:55A film by Friedrich Paulus.
41:57A film by Friedrich Paulus.
41:59A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:01A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:03A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:05A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:07A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:09A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:11A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:13A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:15A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:17A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:19A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:21A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:23A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:25A film by Friedrich Paulus.
42:27Stalingrad, Alaska.