The real face of the war
The Wehrmacht High Command reports: “We were stationed around 50 km from Charkow. After a difficult fight we made a forward path for ourselves. One morning we took over the post office. There was a newspaper there, and to our surprise it announced in large type the seizure of Charkow [illegible]. It was only eight days later that we took Charkow.”
From the front:
“My brother had several frozen fingers and similarly his feet were freezing. That didn’t stop the bastards sending him back to the East. That is where he is staying...”
Extract from a letter from Hamburg:
“The dead were piled up in a huge mound and burned with flame-throwers. I can only say: don’t come back here, you won’t recognise the place...”
The birth of children brings joy to the fatherland:
“We had to stay in the line of fire for fourteen days. Then we had eight days’ rest. Many were those who stayed back afterwards. Sch. and K. learned the news of the birth of their children just when they had to go back to the front line. Halfway there, they turned on their heels. I never saw them again: soon after they were shot.”
The family is the cornerstone of the national socialist state:
“My two brothers were killed, one in Russia and the other in Africa. My wife and my son also perished in the last bombardment of Berlin. I knew nothing about the fate of my parents. When I went to the lieutenant to ask for information his only response was: we have more important things to do. Now I know for sure: my father and mother are dead.”
From a soldiers’ paper produced by Fourth International comrades we reproduce one comrade’s appeal:
“You know, comrades, how Hamburg suffered the most violent of attacks on 23 July 1943. Not only once have these criminals with their incendiaries attacked: no, it has been five times. This is no longer a war: it is just murders and more murders. 280,000 women, children and workers lost their lives just because they were Germans.
“I have lost everything. And for what? Just so that these capitalist bastards can have a better life and bask in their own grease.”
“Dear comrades, we must put an end to this murder and tell people that none of it makes sense. They made us promises which they still haven’t fulfilled. Dear comrades, we can’t go on like this. So join us. Together we will finally put an end to this war.”
