New owners
First, let us touch on the origins of the formation of an anti-fascist organization from the composition of German prisoners. There are a lot of opinions on this matter. Official propaganda of the Soviet period said that the initiative came from the Communist Party of Germany and its members in the USSR. At the same time, the anti-fascists carried out the decisions of the illegal pre-war Brussels (1935) and Berne (1939) conferences, in which the principle of combating fascism was proclaimed. The conferences, by the way, were named so for disguise - the first was held in Moscow, and the Berne conference in Paris. In fact, the most plausible is the version of the emergence of the National Committee "Free Germany" directly at the behest of Joseph Stalin. In June 1943, the leader had a telephone conversation with the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, Alexander Shcherbakov:
“Comrade Shcherbakov, it's time for the Germans to create their own anti-fascist committee on a broad basis. The time has come. Give directions and provide the necessary funds for this."
However, this is only a plausible assumption - there is no written documentary evidence of this.
The meeting of the constituent conference of the "National Committee" Free Germany "took place on June 12-13, 1943 in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. 25 German prisoners of war and soldiers, as well as 13 civilians - political emigrants-anti-fascists became members of the committee. Among them was the chairman of the Communist Party of Germany, Reichstag deputy Wilhelm Pick and several of his fellow deputies: Edwin Gernle, Wilhelm Florin, Walter Ulbricht. The intelligentsia was also represented in the ranks of the committee: writers Wili Bredel, Johannes R. Becher and Friedrich Wolff, as well as director Baron Gustav von Wangenheim. The communist poet Erich Weinert was elected president of Free Germany at the conference. According to Major General Dr. Korfes, the former commander of the 295th Infantry Division, the anti-Nazi committee gathered
“Anti-communists and socialists, free-thinkers and Christians, partisans of the center and liberals, conservatives and democrats, professional soldiers, former members of the Steel Helmet and members of the storm troopers who have learned from their past; they were united by their love for the German people."
By joint efforts at the founding conference, the first manifesto of "Free Germany" was adopted, which outlined the directions of the committee's work. The elimination of Hitler, the early end of the war before the Wehrmacht lost its strength, the conclusion of an armistice, the withdrawal of German troops to the old borders of the Reich and the formation of a national government - these provisions were placed at the forefront. Moreover, if Hitler was overthrown by the anti-Hitler coalition, there could be no talk of any independence of the state. The Fuehrer was supposed to be liquidated by the Germans themselves, only then it was possible to talk about the preservation of any sovereignty. The manifesto, in particular, said:
"Germans! Events require an immediate decision from us. At the moment of mortal danger hanging over our country and threatening its very existence, the National Committee "Free Germany" was organized.
The full text of the manifesto with biting “Hitler must fall for Germany to live. For a free and independent Germany! " by September 1943, it was printed at once in eight million copies for throwing on the side of the enemy. Also at the conference the flag of "Free Germany" was approved - a black-white-red tricolor, which has become a recognizable element of the anti-fascist newspaper Freies Deutschland ("Free Germany"). A few months later, an addition Freies Deutschland im Bild with drawings was released, intended for the rank and file of the German army. The publications published photos of committee members, activity reports and propaganda thematic illustrations.
It is also important to understand here that the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army very clearly divided the "zones of responsibility" between its own propaganda and the activities of "Free Germany". Unlike the anti-fascist Germans, the 7th department of political administration, responsible for the decomposition of the enemy's troops, was engaged in creating among the Germans an image of the hopelessness of a further war, the inevitability of defeat, and persuaded them to surrender. That is, the Red Army specialists called on the enemy for unconditional surrender, and the anti-fascist Germans advocated a soft option - the withdrawal of units and the conclusion of a world beneficial to all. There were even some kind of action programs developed for this case. So, in September 1943, more than half a million leaflets were printed "Instruction No. 1 to the troops on the eastern front", in accordance with which a military coup was planned.
Despite some differences in the concept of propaganda on the fronts, the empowered activists of Free Germany worked under the supervision and in close connection with the seventh divisions mentioned. By the end of June 1943, the most reliable anti-fascists arrived at the fronts to conduct "explanatory" conversations with former brothers in arms. And by the end of September, there were about 200 anti-fascists on the Soviet-German front - on average, one per division or army. These people were trained on the basis of the Krasnogorsk central anti-fascist school and the Talitsk anti-fascist school. By the end of the war, the number of front-line, army and divisional commissioners, together with service personnel (printers, typesetters, proofreaders, electricians, radio mechanics) was more than 2,000 people.
The duties of the commissioners of various ranks included work on the decomposition of the Wehrmacht troops, conducting anti-fascist propaganda, as well as encouraging German soldiers and officers to anti-state activities. In addition, members of "Free Germany" led (under the supervision of the 7th department and the NKVD, of course) illegal activities behind the front line and even threw sabotage groups into the German rear. However, the most large-scale and, obviously, the most effective was the production of leaflets to undermine the enemy's morale. The emphasis in the content was made on the front-line life of the German troops, on interpersonal relations, as well as on the promptness of the appearance of information. At the same time, in appeals to the soldiers, they directly pointed to the perpetrators of large losses at the front - specific colonels, majors and the like. The Voenno-Istoricheskiy Zhurnal provides an example of the leaflet “The End of the 357th Infantry Division,” drawn up by Corporal Rudy Scholz. He was a confidant of Free Germany on the 1st Ukrainian Front. Scholz simply and easily, without unnecessary sentimentality and abstractions, spoke about the large losses of the unit, about the futility of the war, urged not to die for the Fuhrer and organize committee cells on the German side. The password for the transition to the Russians was: "General von Seydlitz", which will be discussed below.
Usually, such leaflets were delivered using mortars, aircraft and balloons, and for "explanatory" conversations the commissioners used powerful loudspeaker installations (MSU) and trench loudspeakers (OSU). The first broadcasted 3-4 kilometers on average for 30 minutes, and the second was brainwashing German at a distance of 1-2 kilometers. Megaphones and even simple loudspeakers were often used. On the one hand, they made it possible to establish almost visual contact with the Wehrmacht soldiers, and on the other hand, they attracted unnecessary attention and came under fire. The work with the enemy in this direction is illustrated by the example of the activities of Corporal Hans Gossen, who from March 15, 1944 to May 1, 1945, conducted 1,616 audio broadcasts in German. This is about four thematic "radio programs" a day.
Marshal of Hitler or Marshal of the German People?
One of the most important stages in the work of the Free Germany committee was the involvement of the captured anti-fascists of the Union of German Officers in the camp. It was organized later by the committee, in August 1943, and was headed by General of Artillery Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, who was captured by the Soviet Union at Stalingrad. Seydlitz became the leaders of the union largely due to despair - Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus flatly refused not only to lead, but even to join the "Union of German Officers". And the union was needed by the propaganda of the Red Army to give weight to the anti-fascist movement in the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Paulus, feeling that in Russia no reprisal awaits him, began to behave very intractable. Organized on September 1, 1943, a whole petition to the Soviet leadership condemning the behavior of his former subordinates in the union. Under this treatise, in which the officers and generals of the union were called traitors to their homeland, another 17 high-ranking prisoners of war put their signatures. This seriously upset Seydlitz's relationship with Paulus, and the latter, at the insistence of the general of artillery, was expelled to a dacha near Moscow. I must say that the field marshal's living conditions in Soviet captivity were gorgeous - hearty food, cigarettes, adjutant Adam, orderly Schulte and personal chef Georges. And when Paulus' radial nerve became inflamed, the leading neurosurgeon of the Ivanovo Medical Institute, Professor Kartashov, was called for the operation. And the rest of the German generals lived in the USSR very satisfyingly, regularly alternating anti-fascist rhetoric with drunkenness with compatriot political emigrants. All this was part of the plan of the Soviet special services to voluntarily induce a high-ranking prisoner of war to cooperate with anti-fascists. At the beginning of August 1944, it seems that the turn of extreme measures came. Paulus was faced with a choice: either he is Marshal of Hitler and after the victory he will be judged, like the rest of the top of the Reich, or he is a Marshal of the German people and is obliged to side with the "Union of German Officers". The effect of the work came only after the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 and the subsequent execution on August 8 of Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, a close friend of Paulus. After that there was an appeal to the Germans ("To the German people and prisoners of war officers and soldiers in the USSR"), and the official entry into the union, and even the recall of the ill-fated letter of 17 generals.
The second most important figure in "Free Germany" (the "Union of German Officers" joined the committee in the fall of 1943) was General von Seydlitz, who from the very beginning had big plans for his place in the new Germany. At first, he tried to build his own army out of prisoners of war, by analogy with Vlasov's units. Later, having learned that the USSR, the USA and Great Britain would seek the complete surrender of Nazi Germany, he offered himself as president in exile, and the top of the Free Germany committee should be appointed the cabinet of ministers. They say that the direct curator of Seydlitz, the 1st deputy head of the Office for Prisoners of War and Internees of the NKVD, General Nikolai Melnikov, was forced to shoot himself because of such curtsies of the ward. All of Seydlitz's initiatives did not find understanding among the Soviet leadership, and contact with former colleagues was not particularly established. In January 1944, the general took part in an operation for the psychological treatment of officers and soldiers who were surrounded near the city of Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. Seydlitz tried to persuade 10 German divisions to surrender - he wrote 49 personal letters to the military leaders, spoke on the radio 35 times with calls not to resist, but all was in vain. The Germans, led by General Stemmermann, organized a breakthrough, lost a lot of soldiers, and after that Seydlitz himself was sentenced to death in absentia in the "Fatherland".
A new chapter in the committee's activities began in 1944, when it became clear that no one would be satisfied with a simple withdrawal of troops to the borders of Germany. The rhetoric of "Free Germany" changed, not without the influence of the Soviet side, and consisted in calls to massively go over to the side of the committee. Someone will say that this meant the actual surrender, but everything was somewhat different. The Germans on the eastern front were asked to lay down their arms, cross the front line, and already on the Soviet side prepare themselves for the restoration of democracy and freedom in the new Germany.
The calls of the anti-Hitler alliance of prisoners of war did not take on decisive significance, and the Fuhrer was never overthrown by his own people until the very end of the war. Democracy had to be brought to Germany on the bayonets of Soviet troops and allies.
