Библия Времени. Найди свое. Лим Ворд
Germany was signed on May 7, in the French city of Reims. Before that, the German leadership wanted to surrender only to the Allied forces, but the commander-in-chief, Dwight Eisenhower, withdrew the offer. The German side was represented by the Chief of Staff, General Jodl, who was commissioned by the Grand Admiral Dönitz (who became the Reich Chancellor of Germany), the British and American – Eisenhower, the USSR – a member of the Soviet mission, General Susloparov.
Susloparov made a written reservation, perhaps saving his life: «… this act should not preclude the possibility of signing another act at the request of one of the allied countries.» Stalin refused to accept such a document, insistently demanding that capitulation be accepted in the «den of the beast,» Berlin. The Allies had to yield. The repeated signing of the act took place in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, in the dining room of the former engineering school. D. Eisenhower sent his deputy, Marshal Tedder (Great Britain), the Soviet side was represented by K. Zhukov, the German side – the commander of the high command of the Wehrmacht V. Keitel. Time of surrender and cease-fire – May 8 23.01. Soviet citizens learned about the Victory from the message of Sovinformburo speaker Yu. Levitan at 22 hours on May 9.
Total losses of the parties: according to official data, the Wehrmacht lost 5.6 million people on the Eastern Front, with 6. 5 million on all fronts, the rest of the Axis countries about 1.6 million. Another 1, 1 million civilians killed during the Anglo-American carpet bombing (by 1945 all major cities in Germany turned to dust), the United States – 400,000, in all theaters of operations, Britain – 286,000 (civil and military), Poland – 5.5 million people. The losses of the USSR are 12.5 million servicemen, including 4 million people who died in German captivity. and 12—14 million people civilian population (near each occupied Soviet city or village there appeared ditches filled with bodies, on average 25% of the inhabitants were killed).
It should be taken into account that German commanders and historians tend to underestimate the number of losses in the «war with non-Germans», and the actual number of dead German soldiers on the Eastern Front, according to the calculation of demobilization resources, the ratio of the number of wounded and killed reaches 6.8 million.
On average, taking into account the number of dead servicemen of all countries that fought on the side of Germany, the ratio of human losses to Hitler’s Europe-USSR is 1: 1.4, for military equipment in comparable units – 1: 3.6 (including guns, aircraft and tanks, lost at the beginning of the war). If we take data from alternative sources, according to which 15 million Red Army soldiers died, this fraction is 1: 2. However, independent sources of a different kind show the same figure for the Wehrmacht, who at the end of the war replenished their ranks with old men for 65 years and 13-year-olds.
German captivity survived 1.5 – 1.7 million people (death rate 72%).
At the same time, 250,000 people (that is, every sixth) recognized by the GUGB of the NKVD, in particular by the counter-intelligence departments SMERSH, are guilty of anything, receive from 8 to 10 years of imprisonment. From the Nazi concentration camps, these people, who had been confused (most likely in the confused early part of the war), had already been encouraged by the meeting with their relatives, are moving to the Soviet camps.
It should be recognized that the Stalinist government completely refuses to cooperate in any way with the International Red Cross (ICC). Through this, of course, respectable, at all times, an international, neutral organization, it is entirely possible to send prisoners of war to prisoners of war; in particular, so necessary for the maintenance of life of glucose (sugar).
In one way or another, the Nazis cooperate with the IWC with respect to the Poles, the French, the British, and the Americans. We do not know how the government of Hitler would react to the proposals of Stalin sent through the ICC to feed the captured citizens of the USSR. There were simply no such proposals.
The appeals of other Axis countries, in particular Romania and Finland, to send food for the feeding of prisoners of war, also remain unanswered. It should be noted that the most favorable conditions for the maintenance of Soviet captive soldiers were observed in Romania (6% mortality), and the worst conditions in Hungary and Finlan… not an agrarian power, a cold country.
In the Soviet captivity, 2.6 Germans (Austrians), as well as 0.2 million servicemen of the Axis countries (the first large groups of prisoners during the Stalingrad battle, up to the first 10 thousand people) fall among them. From them, until 1948, the beginning of mass repatriation, while feeding the same as for the average Soviet citizen with a ration, 380,000 people die (13% mortality).
Anglo-American troops capture about 4 million, who are trying to surrender to them, the German military. Of them (the data are quite contradictory), according to the materials of the book of the English publicist James Bak, at least 0.8 million (20% mortality) died of starvation and bullying. The bulk of the prisoners were released by the middle of 1947.
The percentage of deaths in the German captivity of the British and, or Americans, is 3.2%.
A separate line can be taken out of the victims of the German civilian population when he was evicted from Poland, and the annexed regions, after the war. Actually, the deportation began in 1949, ended in 1950; up to 5 million people were held in concentration camps, or were used in forced labor, subjected to innumerable humiliations and torture. All property of ethnic Germans requisitioned. Almost all women are raped. The regime of the Poles was only softened after serious remarks from the Soviet military. Estimates of the number of deaths vary: from 400—800 thousand to 2.2, and even 3 million people. In total, 14 million Germans were resettled in Europe, but in Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary, such open and brutal violence against them was not carried out.
Evacuated by the Germans and from East Prussia, which became the enclave of the USSR, the Kaliningrad region, about 800 thousand people, but, without any serious excesses.
…Actually, having adopted the act of surrendering the German armed forces, the USSR was still formally at war. The decree on ending the war between the Soviet Union and Germany was finally adopted on January 25, 1955 by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The document has a double meaning – the war ceases as it were only with the German Democratic Republic (GDR), while «taking into account the interests of the population of both East and West Germany.» As a result of everything – the first point: «The state of war between the USSR and Germany ceases, and peaceful relations are established between them.»
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1. The stamp of the Allied Military Command. Had a circulation until 1948 in the territories of Germany, occupied by the USSR, Britain, the United States, France, together with the Reichsmark. Course: ruble – two marks, dollar – 10 marks, pound – 40 marks.
In 1948 the American occupation command introduces a dojmark. The streams of Reichsmarks that are already unnecessary there suddenly fall on the territory of the future GDR, where they are still legal tender. To separate their «own» Reichsmarks from «American», the Soviet administration, in an emergency order, labels them.
…I was able to read the memoirs of a Soviet officer who, after the war, had at his disposal entire mountains of Reichsmarks. A group of Soviet commanders went to a German restaurant. At the end of the feast, the officer slipped a handful of bills to the waiter. He chose only one or two of them. But, everything was given to him.
The memoirist boasted for a long time that, like this, he enjoyed the German waiter, showed generosity. I wanted to ask: why did not you find out the purchasing power of the notes in advance? You also before reconnaissance before the fight? And, further,