Stalingrad Movie Depicts Horror Of War, Part One, Historical Background

A little historical background: Stalingrad was a massive and famous World War Two battle, which came to symbolize, along with El Alamein in North Africa, the turning point in the war against Hitler and Mussolini. In the summer of 1942, a year after ordering his forces to invade the Soviet Union, Hitler concentrated his forces in the southern part of the Soviet Union in a strategic move to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus region, and to breach the Volga River, thus halting Soviet river traffic northwards. As the summer proceeded, Hitler divided his forces, sending one branch southward to take the oil fields, and keeping the other branch focused on the Volga at the city of Stalingrad.* The Soviets were determined to fight for the city, and German efforts to completely capture it were thwarted in August through October of 1942, bringing a street to street and building to building struggle for the remaining part of the devastated city still in Soviet hands.** In an effort to capture the last part of the city, the Germans sent in combat engineer battalions to try to gain control (the movie deals with a group of these combat engineers).*** As the slow, but brutal fighting took place, the Soviets mustered substantial forces outside the city for an offensive of their own.

With the bulk of his forces in the area tied down in and around Stalingrad, Hitler relied on his allies for forces to protect the flanks of his forces in the immediate Stalingrad area. These Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian troops were largely ill equipped to face the Soviet forces, especially to face Soviet tanks, but Hitler entrusted them with this important mission anyhow, believing the Soviets to be too weak to launch any major offensive operations, although German intelligence had reported Soviet troop concentrations on either side of German forces in the Stalingrad area, an area defended by Rumanian troops. In mid November the Soviets struck. While some Rumanian forces fought hard, the presence of large numbers of Soviet tanks eventually spread panic among their ranks and the front line collapsed. The Soviets raced to the rear of the German forces in the Stalingrad area (their 6th Army), trapping about a quarter of a million German troops, along with some Rumanian and Croatian forces.**** Hitler refused to allow a breakout attempt by the 6th Army, and a relief attack from the south was halted by Soviet resistance and winter weather. Attempts to supply the surrounded forces by air failed to adequately deliver enough supplies to keep the army going and repeated Soviet attacks gradually whittled down the size of the 6th Army. Although forbidden by Hitler to surrender, Colonel General (Generaloberst) Friedrich Paulus, then promoted to Field Marshal by Hitler as the end neared on January 30,***** decided to surrender his remaining 91,000 men to the Soviets in early February 1943. Only about 6000 of these men ever returned to Germany after the war. Prior to that time, the Soviets had attacked the Italians and the Hungarians, inflicting devastating casualties on these German allies, including many thousands killed. After the war, Italian-Soviet diplomatic relations were poor for decades, as the Italians said the Soviets had never given a full accounting for the Italian prisoners they had taken during the Stalingrad battle. "As I recall," the Soviets said the Italian prisoners, unfamiliar with the harsh winter conditions in Russia, had consequently suffered a high death rate in captivity, but the Italians felt the Soviets had mistreated their Italian prisoners, causing their deaths, or had executed many of them. The Rumanians and Hungarians, both under Soviet domination in the postwar era, could not offer any protest about their Soviet held prisoners of war until their communist governments were ousted and they were able to ask questions decades later.

This overall gigantic "Battle of Stalingrad" brought staggering casualties of at least three quarters of a million Axis troops killed, wounded or missing, and at least a million Soviet killed, wounded or missing. In addition, perhaps as many as fifty thousand Soviet civilians died.

* Stalingrad had been known as "Tsaritsyn" under the Tsars and into the early years of Soviet rule, when it was then renamed in honor of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin. It was renamed "Volgograd," circa 1961, as Soviet leaders tried to distance themselves from Stalin's rule. Stalin had died in 1953.

** German air and artillery bombardment had left many structures in partial to total ruin, but these ruins then provided the remaining Soviet troops with excellent hiding places to ambush German units, slowly bleeding the German forces and leaving their units in a weakened state. The fighting was often confusing for the opposing forces, as later reports indicated examples where German forces would control certain floors of a building, while Soviet forces controlled other floors of the same building.

*** The movie has a scene using an actual preserved recording of Hitler giving a speech to long time Nazi Party members in Munich in November 1942. The movie has the exhausted men, who had just fought to capture a Soviet factory, sitting around and listening to the speech, which had been broadcast on radio all over Germany, and to the troops on the Eastern Front. In the speech, Hitler says he wants to take the remaining part of Soviet held Stalingrad "mit ganz kleinen Stoßtrupps" ( "with very small assault detachments"), in reference to the combat engineers. Some of the men look at each other in astonishment, as they have already suffered high casualties just taking this one factory.

**** Croatia had been established as an independent state, although with foreign policy tied to Italy and Germany, after the defeat of Yugoslavia in 1941. It was a fascist ruled nation which provided some military forces to Germany, although these forces were technically part of the "German" armed forces (Wehrmacht). Another small unit was part of the Italian military. Their other forces remained as part of their own Croatian military to combat insurrection forces in the Croatia-Serbia region, often, but not always, organized by communist leaders, most prominent of whom was Josef Tito, who later became the head of postwar Yugoslavia.

***** Essentially, German general ranks had been copied from the French long ago. Typically the Germanic languages (which includes English) place adjectives before the noun they describe, as in, "the blue car." The Latin based languages, which includes French, typically place adjectives after the noun. In the British and American armies of World War Two, there was the rank of Major General, for instance, but the Germans use the French form, "General Major" (Generalmajor, in German). Neither the British nor American armies had the specific German rank of "Colonel General" (Generaloberst) in World War Two, but it was equivalent to a four-star general in the U.S. Army. Hitler had promoted Paulus to field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) just a couple of days before the end, with the thought that Paulus would commit suicide, rather than surrender.   

Word History:
Freeze-This word goes back to Indo European "preus," which meant "to freeze, to frost over." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "freusan," as the Indo European "p" often became "f" in Old Germanic. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "freosan," which then became "fresen," before the modern version. The figurative sense, "to remain motionless, to stop in one tracks and remain motionless," may well have developed in Old Germanic and was passed on to a number of its offspring, including English. The noun form meaning, "a period of cold temperatures in which crops freeze," came from the verb. The other Germanic languages have: German "frieren," ^ Low German "fresen," ^^ Dutch "vriezen" West Frisian "frieze," Danish and Norwegian "fryse," Swedish "frysa" and Icelandic "frysta" and "frjósa."

^ Note the change of "s" or "z" to "r," a common change (sound shift) which developed in High German centuries ago, although the "s" sound continued in this case, as Old High German had "friosan;" and it wasn't until later that that sound shift took place. Another example is, English has "I was," but German has "Ich war" (not pronounced like English "war," but rather it rhymes with "far").

^^ Low German, under influence from German (standard German is heavily based on High German), also has "freren," a borrowing with the "r" from standard German. Low German was once the general dialect of northern Germany, but the teaching of standard German in schools has brought a serious decline to Low German, although it still is used, but less than in times past. Low German is very closely related to English, as northern Germany is the ancestral homeland of Anglo-Saxon.

Rolling Back Fascism Is Not Easy, Part Two

This was first published in January 2013. I'm adding this note 5/25/16: On May 22, Austrian voters narrowly defeated a far right candidate for president, Norbert Hofer, choosing instead, Alexander Van der Bellen.

Nazism differed from Italian Fascism, and indeed from most other European fascist movements, at least to some degree, in that Hitler's fascism was strongly based upon "race" and "ethnic" identity, with the fanatical furious Führer the proponent of mass murder against people he deemed to be racially unfit, with his number one target being Europe's Jews. Members of other fascist movements tended not to emphasize this hatred as much as did Hitler, but they acquiesced to the dominant German dictator by participating in many a crime against minorities.* 

A post World War Two Nazi revival in Germany didn't materialize, although the fear of such remained for decades,** and still does for some. First the Allied occupation forces, and then the Germans themselves cracked down on Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, by banning the display or use of the swastika, even banning medals for veterans of the war, as they virtually all contained a swastika somewhere on the medal, by forbidding the Nazi salute (Hitlergruss, in German; that is, "Hitler greeting"), by banning Nazi songs, and by making the third verse of the national anthem the official version, thus removing the first verse, which had been exploited by the Nazis and other super German nationalists to support conquest, as it touted "Germany over all," but it was originally meant to promote German unity, not conquest, and the third verse more clearly defines that principle with the words "unity, justice and freedom."*** The right wing fanatics have stomped, huffed and puffed, but German democracy has flourished, showing that sometimes national law may need to be to some degree undemocratic to protect the basic principle of democracy from those who would destroy that democracy to gain power, and let's not forget, this was all started under the Allied occupation in West Germany, enforced by three democracies, the U.S., Britain, and France.**** The last I checked, Germany was still a model democracy and the tough anti-Nazi laws haven't diminished that, nor ended civilization. Laws must be flexible and what might be good for one country may not be good for all, or others. Similar measures were put into effect in postwar Austria, but right wing political groups in Hitler's homeland have tended to be more successful than those across the border in Germany, but this is in no way meant to suggest that Austrians are about to lead an establishment of a Fourth Reich, as Austria too seems to be a solid democracy.

Next, Rightwing Extremism In The United States

* Croatian fascism during World War Two manifested itself in hatred of Serbs, their close kin. The only real difference between the two groups is, Croats are Roman Catholic and use the Latin alphabet (some call it the "Roman" alphabet), while Serbs are Eastern Orthodox and use the Cyrillic alphabet (most prominently used in Russia). Religion can be used by some as a powerful motivator, including in the motivation and justification of hatred. In this case religion determined the "ethnicity" of people and several hundred thousand Serbs were murdered and many more were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism by Croats, especially by their militia forces. As to fascist collaborators with the Nazis, this could be an article or series of articles on its own, but briefly, the greatest number of Europe's Jews and Gypsies lived in eastern Europe, especially in the then Soviet Union, Poland, Lithuania, Rumania and Hungary. Fascists in these countries eventually helped the Nazis in their murderous deeds committed right in those regions, or in the sending of Jews to "resettlement areas," a euphemism for "concentration camps," where many were murdered. Only a small percentage survived the Nazi defeat. Mussolini, the Italian dictator, was not a racist anywhere near the likes of his Axis partner Hitler, but he too came under the sway of the man with the toothbrush mustache, and I don't mean Charlie Chaplin, and the "Duce" had his fascist thugs persecute and terrorize Italy's small, but vibrant, Jewish community. Hungary, an Axis ally, held out against deportation of their Jews for much of the war, but by 1944 they too gave in to Nazi pressure and outright force. Earlier, Hungary persecuted and repressed their Jewish population, even murdering Jews, but the vast number of the country's Jewish population lived until the Nazi takeover in 1944. This is in no way meant to suggest that Hungary's pre-1944 treatment of Jews was okay.  

** The plot of "The Quiller Memorandum," a movie from the mid 1960s starring George Segal, was based on a neo Nazi group in West Germany and an agent sent to get information on it. As he meets various Germans, you can never be sure if they are Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, or anti-Nazis. The movie is well worth watching. The link to my article on the movie: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-quiller-memorandum-anti-nazi.html

*** For more on the German anthem, see my article:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/09/german-question-part-forty.html

**** East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union and any inclination by former Nazis to regain power would have been met by severe penalties, and possibly death. "In theory" Soviet Communism was not supposed to be racist and bigoted, but in reality, Stalin was another nutcase whose paranoia brought suppression to some of the Soviet Union's many ethnic and national groups, including to German communities living there, like the Volga Germans (German: "Wolgadeutsche"), who had been living in southern Russia since the 1700s. They had been invited and encouraged to settle there by the German-born Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great. 

WORD HISTORY:
Crime-The ultimate origins of this word are unclear. It traces back to Latin "crimen," which meant "accusation of wrongdoing, offense." Some say this was derived from another Latin word, which itself was borrowed from Old Greek, but I'm not really sold on this. Anyway, "crimen" was inherited by Old French, a Latin-based language, the form of which is uncertain to me, perhaps "crimne," which was then borrowed by English in the 1200s, seemingly as "crime," and with the meaning "sin, evil deed." Within a couple of hundred years this had taken on the more legalistic sense of "act that violates the law." 

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/E
"Greece & Yugoslavia Fall"

In late October 1940, Benito Mussolini launched an ill prepared and untimely (nearly winter) invasion of Greece from Albania, an Italian possession in those days. Greece has many rough and mountainous areas, where winter comes early, and the Greeks were no push overs, they were tough. Not only did they stop the Italian forces, they counterattacked, throwing the Italians back into Albania! Mussolini then sent more troops to help halt the Greek advance. The Greeks were halted by the Italians and winter weather, but once again Hitler prepared to step in to bolster his sagging ally. The British had sent some forces to help the Greeks, but this diminished their forces and supplies in North Africa, where they too had the Italians on the run at that time. With spring in the offing, the Germans had an invasion plan to overrun Greece.

Yugoslavia, another creation of post-World War One, had similar problems to Czechoslovakia; that is, it was a multi-ethnic nation governed by its largest ethnic group, the Serbs.* Other groups were not happy with the arrangement, especially the Croats, or Croatians, who wanted much more autonomy, with some more radical elements wanting an outright independent Croatia. Further, there were increasingly strong fascist-type groups throughout the country, including the much stronger Croatian group the "Ustaše," which maintained close ties to the fascist nations of Germany and Italy.

Yugoslavia was ruled by a regent, Prince Paul, until the king, Peter II, reached maturity. The Serb leaders, once committed more to the western powers of Britain and France, saw these powers as too weak after their behavior over Czechoslovakia, and they turned more and more to Italy and, especially Germany, for economic ties, and for protection against the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted the Yugoslav government to sign the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan, as other eastern European countries were doing. Prince Paul reluctantly agreed, but the action was not popular with Serbian military leaders or with much of the non-Croatian population, especially the Serbs. Prince Paul was overthrown and King Peter II, by then 17, took power. In spite of assurances by the king and Serb leaders that the treaty with the Axis would be honored, Hitler had the German military draw up plans for the invasion of Yugoslavia, to be undertaken simultaneously with the invasion of Greece. Mussolini committed an Italian army to the invasion from northeastern Italy, where Italy had a common border with Yugoslavia. Bulgaria also participated on a limited basis, as did Hungary; both were signatories to the Axis alliance.

The invasions started in early April 1941, and the Yugoslav army, fractured by the Serb-Croatian split, was overwhelmed by the invaders. The Germans rolled through Greece also, and while there were periods of intense fighting in both Yugoslavia and Greece, the outcome was not in doubt, and both countries surrendered after a short time. The British forces, along with some Greek forces, evacuated to the Greek island of Crete. The Germans launched an assault on the island, led by a massive paratroop drop, the largest ever undertaken up to that time. German casualties were heavy, but again, the outcome was not long in doubt, and once again, the British evacuated many of their forces from the island. "Evacuation" was becoming a word all too familiar to the British.

The Germans, Italians and their allies now ruled Greece and Yugoslavia, at least on paper or maps. The terrain of both countries was rough and mountainous, ideal for insurgency groups to hide and launch attacks on the occupiers, and this happened with increasing frequency. You can see how Germany and her allies were stretching themselves thin, as they now had to garrison these countries with substantial forces to try to control the insurgency forces of both Greece and Yugoslavia. From a military viewpoint, they gained little for all of these efforts. Croatia was set up as an independent nation, but naturally tied to the Axis.

* There was a substantial German minority in Yugoslavia of about 700,000. Most of the Germans lived in areas that had been a part of Austria-Hungary until the end of World War One, with the largest group being the "Danube Swabians" ("Donauschwaben"), a general term for the German population living in or near the Danube River valley, although not just in Yugoslavia, but also in Hungary and in part of Rumania. Part of these "Danube Swabians" in Yugoslavia was the German population in a region called the "Banat," with the Germans there called "Banater Deutsche." Many of these Danube Swabians came to America after World War Two, with a fairly large number coming here to Cleveland. For many years there was a club called "The Banater Club," in Cleveland (West 140th Street, near Lorain Avenue), and then these Germans built a new, much more extensive club in the mid 1980s here, called "The Donauschwaben German-American Cultural Center," at Lenau Park on the suburban West Side.

WORD HISTORY:
Hit-The origin of "hit" is unknown. Old Germanic had "hitjanan," which meant "to come into contact with, come upon, meet." Apparently the word only endured in Old Norse, as "hitta." It wasn't until about 1100 that English borrowed the word as "hittan," and it still retained the meaning "to meet, to come into contact with." This later became "hitten," and it also extended the notion of "meet, come into contact with" to mean "strike." The native English word for "strike" was "slean," the forerunner of modern "slay," which in those times meant both "strike, hit," but also "kill." Gradually "hit" overtook "slay" in that meaning, leaving "slay" with the meaning "to kill." The original sense of "hit," however, is still around in the expression, "hit upon (something)." A noun version appeared in the late 1400s or early 1500s, derived from the verb. Forms of the word are still present in the North Germanic languages: Norwegian "hitte," which seems to now be archaic, Danish "hitte" and Swedish "hitta," both of which mean "find" (Get it? "Come upon, come into contact with"="find"), and Icelandic "hitta," which means "to meet."