Field Marshal Paulus biography. “Russia cannot be defeated by anyone” - Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. From Hitler to Stalin

In time of war, one should never strive at all costs to carry out the plan, if circumstances and time do not favor this.

Baron Lazarus Schwendi. XVI century.

From 1935 to 1945 A. Hitler awarded the rank of field marshal to nineteen army commanders. Field marshals were the elite Nazi Germany as the most authoritative and respected personalities in military environment. At the start of World War II, they achieved a number of impressive victories. Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, Greece were conquered very quickly.

In 1941, the Nazi troops occupied Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and got stuck in the immediate vicinity of the Moscow Kremlin. But it was on the Eastern Front that the field marshals of Germany began to suffer crushing defeats. These include the Battle of Stalingrad, during which the largest disaster in the German military history. The final battle is known to the whole world - it became a turning point in World War II.

In his memoirs “The Campaign to Stalingrad”, General G. Derr writes that for Germany the battle of Stalingrad was the gravest defeat in its history, for Russia it was her greatest victory. Near Poltava (1709) Russia won the right to be called a great European power. Stalingrad was the beginning of its transformation into one of the two greatest world powers.

The name of Field Marshal Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, who was born in September 1890, is forever associated with the battle on the Volga. According to the concepts of the Third Reich, he was considered a native of the people. The military career of F. Paulus began in February 1910 in an infantry regiment with the rank of junior lieutenant. He participated in the First World War, by the end of which he received the rank of captain. Subsequent service was mainly associated with staff positions. Having earned a reputation as a specialist in the field of motorized warfare, on the eve of World War II he was already chief of staff of the 10th Army, which carried out the invasion of Poland, Belgium and France. In September 1940, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces.

He was appointed commander of the 6th Army in January 1942, and became a field marshal in the same post at the age of 52. Paradoxically, but true: higher military rank received a general whose army was defeated, and the title itself was awarded to him the day before her surrender and his capture (February 1, 1943). On the Volga, his 33-year military career ended dramatically.

Assessing the military operations near Stalingrad, General G. Derr pointed out that Stalingrad should go down in history as the greatest mistake ever made by the military command, as the greatest disregard for the living organism of its army, ever shown by the leadership of the state.

G. Derr believes that during the period from November 24, 1942 to January 8, 1943, there were conditions for the combat-ready 6th Army to leave the encirclement, and thus capitulation could be avoided. After January 8, 1943, there were no such conditions, because the army turned out to be unfit for combat.

Analyzing the course of hostilities near Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942, we agree with the opinion of G. Derr, but only partially, and clarify that the 6th Army actually had a potential opportunity to break out of encirclement from November 24 to December 23, 1942. The last date is related with the stop of the Don military group under the command of E. von Manstein, which was entrusted with the task of a deblocking strike in order to break through the encirclement around the 6th Army.

E. von Manstein later admitted that the attempt to rescue the 6th Army, launched on December 12, failed. Was there any hope, under the circumstances prevailing at that time, of repeating this attempt? E. von Manstein answers this question in the negative. There is hardly any doubt about the withdrawal of the best German field marshal of the Second World War.

The fact that F. Paulus, especially in the early days of the encirclement and during the deblocking strike, had the opportunity to exit the encirclement (with the undoubted fact that his army was defeated) is evidenced by the underestimation of the enemy, which took place in the actions of the Soviet military command. Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky recalls: incorrect data on the number of encircled enemy groups (89 - 90 thousand) - in fact, there were more than 300 thousand in it; understated information about the enemy's military equipment, especially artillery and tanks; sapper battalions, engineering detachments, field gendarmerie units, secret military police, etc., who were surrounded, were not taken into account.

In addition, on December 14, the Soviet military command decided to temporarily postpone the implementation of the operation "Ring" and concentrated all efforts on stopping the advance of the troops of E. von Manstein and their defeat, and the operation to eliminate the army of F. Paulus was temporarily postponed.

The question naturally arises - why didn't the commander of the 6th Army make an attempt to get out of the encirclement, if such a potential possibility still remained? As commander of the army, Paulus reported directly to Supreme Commander and had to follow his orders. A. Hitler, as you know, although he hesitated at certain moments, did not give the order to F. Paulus to break out of the encirclement and, moreover, did not respond to the field marshal's repeated requests for freedom of action. And finally, A. Hitler did not allow F. Paulus to accept the surrender either on January 8 or on January 23, when any resistance from the army was already useless. The Fuhrer, with fanatical stubbornness, believed that a German soldier should not surrender and even in a critical situation should die proudly with the words: "Long live Great Germany!"

An analysis of the events of that time, the memories of the participants show that on his own initiative (without the order of A. Hitler), F. Paulus would not have dared to withdraw the army from the encirclement due to such personal traits as slowness, indecision and boundless devotion to his Fuhrer.

In this regard, the official characteristics of the officer F. Paulus of the period of the 20s are interesting. They emphasized that he is slow, spends a lot of time thinking before giving an order, he lacks decisiveness. The higher F. Paulus rose through the ranks, the sharper these shortcomings manifested themselves, especially in a difficult combat situation. Already during the October battles of 1942, the commander of the 4th Air Fleet, Marshal of the Luftwaffe, Baron V. von Richthofen, spoke critically about how F. Paulus was fighting. Moreover, he reported on the loss by the 6th Army of its once famous fighting spirit and called for the replacement of F. Paulus with a more decisive commander.

Let us cite one more characteristic episode in support of F. Paulus's indecisiveness. When the Sixth Army had just been encircled, many of its generals, assessing the situation, insisted on an immediate exit from the encirclement without Hitler's order. During the meeting, General Jeneke hinted that W. von Reichenau would certainly brush aside any doubts, to which F. Paulus responded with a remark: "I am not Reichenau." Later, the same general wrote that F. Paulus was too timid to resist A. Hitler, which was the true reason for his failure.

Even on January 28, 1943, when F. Paulus was given a second ultimatum to surrender, he radioed the Fuhrer that a banner with a swastika was still flying over Stalingrad. “Let our struggle become an example for generations not yet born of how to stand to the end, no matter how hopeless the circumstances may seem to us. Germany will continue to win! Heil, my Fuhrer!

There is more military bravado in this radiogram than the common sense of the commander of an army that was doomed.

The fact that F. Paulus was inclined to succumb to someone else's influence is also evidenced by his relationship with the chief of staff of the 6th Army, Lieutenant General A. Schmidt. Regarding the personal relationship of these two people, General G. Derr notes that Paulus, an intelligent, gifted military leader, a generous, but very sensitive person, was not strong personality. His chief of staff was an aesthete, intelligent and energetic, persistent to the point of stubbornness. With such different qualities of character, they could well complement each other, but A. Schmidt was a stronger and more strong-willed person.

The influence of A. Schmidt affected all the meetings held by the army commander. So, on November 22, Major General of the Luftwaffe V. Pickert stubbornly insisted that the army should make a breakthrough in the south-west direction, because in the conditions of the Russian winter it was impossible to supply the army from the air on a gigantic scale. A. Schmidt objected that "nevertheless, it will be necessary." F. Paulus supported the chief of staff of the army.

Five days later, another meeting was held at which everyone together tried to persuade F. Paulus to make a breakthrough. One-armed General G. Hube (commander of the 14th Panzer Corps): "a breakthrough is our only chance." General Strekker (commander of the 11th Corps) asked F. Paulus: "We simply cannot stay here and die." All corps commanders demanded an immediate breakthrough, despite the order to fight to the end. “We must obey Hitler's order,” A. Schmidt stubbornly stood his ground. “And we will obey,” F. Paulus echoed him.

And, finally, the last example given by Field Marshal E. von Manstein. When the 4th tank army from the Don group was able to approach within 30 miles of Stalingrad, but then was stopped, E. von Manstein urged F. Paulus to make a breakthrough. However, the commander of the 6th Army again and again hesitated. Manstein wrote that his arguments "bounced like peas off a wall".

In conclusion, let us cite the statements of S. Mitcham, the author of the book Hitler's Field Marshals and Their Battles. He writes that it is difficult to imagine a general less suited to his high appointment than F. Paulus in 1942. No one will object that he was a solid, competent staff officer, but during his entire career he had experience commanding only a motorized battalion. He was a "staff rat" to the marrow of his bones. Tall, fit, neat, F. Paulus invariably wore gloves, because he could not stand dirt. He bathed and changed twice a day, earning him such caustic nicknames as "noble lord" or "our most elegant gentleman." But much worse, he lacked decisiveness, and, combined with faith in the infallibility of the Fuhrer's military genius, this had fatal consequences.

In mid-July 1944, F. Paulus, being in captivity, finally became disillusioned with A. Hitler. It was at this time that he first called on the officers of the Army Group "North" to desert or not to listen to the murderous calls of A. Hitler: "to fight to the death and not surrender to the Russians." In August 1944 he became a member of the Free Germany National Committee.

In 1946, F. Paulus appeared as a witness at the trial in Nuremberg, but was released only in 1953. He settled in Dresden (East Germany), died in 1957 at the age of 67 in a truly fatal for his fate day is February 1st.

From the moment the 6th Army was encircled, its commander faced a dilemma: either remain true to military duty and resist to the last, or proceed from moral responsibility for the lives of soldiers and officers subordinate to him. F. Paulus remained faithful to military duty, which ultimately led to numerous casualties and capitulation.

P.S. The reader should not get the impression that the main reason for the defeat of the 6th Army was the fatal mistakes of the military command and the personal qualities of F. Paulus as an army commander. In fact, both took place. But this was only a pretext for the catastrophe of the German military machine in the Battle of Stalingrad. We will express the main reasons in the words of two military leaders of the highest rank, who were opponents in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Field Marshal F. Paulus: “The Soviet strategy turned out to be so much higher than ours that the Russians could hardly need me, at least in order to teach at the school of non-commissioned officers. The best of that the proof is the outcome of the battle on the Volga, as a result of which I was taken prisoner, and also the fact that all these gentlemen are sitting here in the dock ”(from testimony at the Nuremberg trials).

Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky: “The battle showed the high level of Soviet military art and, in essence, became a worthy, instructive lesson in history. At the same time, the victory at Stalingrad was also irrefutable evidence of the enormous power and growth of the military skill of the Soviet Armed Forces as a whole.

The rank of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus received the day before he was taken prisoner. For the Soviet command, Paulus was a valuable trophy, they managed to "reforge" it and use it in geopolitics. Former field marshal and commander of the 6th SS Army, read Chekhov and praised the courage of Soviet soldiers ...

collapse

By early 1943, Paulus' 6th Army was a pitiful sight. On January 8, the Soviet command turned to Paulus with an ultimatum: if the marshal did not surrender by 10 o'clock the next day, all the Germans surrounded would be destroyed. Paulus did not react to the ultimatum in any way.

The 6th Army was crushed, Paulus lost tanks, ammunition and fuel. By January 22, the last airfield was occupied. On January 23, the commander of the 4th Army Corps, General Max Karl Pfeffer, left the building of the former NKVD prison with his hands raised, General Moritz von Drebber surrendered along with the remnants of his 297th division, and the commander of the 295th division, General Otto, surrendered in full dress with all the regalia Korfes.

The location of Paulus was still unknown, there were rumors that he managed to get out of the encirclement. On January 30, a radio message was intercepted about Paulus being awarded the rank of field marshal. In the radiogram, Hitler unobtrusively hinted: "Not a single German field marshal has yet been taken prisoner."

Finally, intelligence reported that German orders were coming from the building of the Central Department Store. Paulus was found there. "This is the end!" - said a dirty, haggard, stubble-grown old man, in whom it was difficult to guess Friedrich Paulus.

Disease

Paulus had a terrible disease - rectal cancer, vigilant control was established for him, and he was provided with proper care. Paulus was taken incognito to the hospital.

The German general was a pitiful sight: his emaciated, sallow-colored face was always gloomy, sometimes overgrown with stiff bristles. He was prescribed a diet: soups, vegetable and red caviar, smoked sausage, meatballs, fruits.

The field marshal ate reluctantly. In addition, his right arm was broken, which was unambiguously perceived by the hospital staff: the nameless patient was tortured.

Spring in the monastery

In the spring of 1943, Paulus met in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal. Here he stayed for six months. After the revolution, military units were located in the monastery, there was a concentration camp, during the war - a prisoner of war camp.

The field marshal lived in a monastic cell. He was guarded vigilantly. For the Soviet command, he was the number one prisoner. Even then it was obvious that they wanted to play Paulus in a big political game.

The decision to abandon Nazi ideas began to mature in Paulus after the assassination attempt on Hitler. The participants in the conspiracy were brutally dealt with, among them were the friends of the field marshal. A huge achievement of Soviet intelligence was the operation to deliver a letter to Paulus from his wife.

In Germany, they were sure of the death of the field marshal. There was even a symbolic funeral for Paulus, at which Hitler personally laid a field marshal's baton with diamonds on an empty coffin that was not handed to the ex-commander.

A letter from his wife was the last straw that led Paulus to a very difficult decision. On August 8, 1944, he spoke on a radio broadcast to Germany, calling on the German people to renounce the Fuhrer and save the country, for which it is necessary to immediately end the war.

Paulus in the country

From 1946, Paulus lived in a dacha in Tomilino near Moscow as Stalin's "personal guest". Paulus was surrounded by attention, protection and care. He had a personal doctor, his own cook and adjutant. The field marshal, despite the honor shown to him, continued to rush home, but by Stalin's personal order, he was forbidden to leave.

Paulus for Stalin was a valuable personal trophy. The "leader of the peoples" could not lose him. In addition, it was not safe for him to let the field marshal go: in Germany, the attitude towards him was, to put it mildly, unfriendly, and the death of Paulus could seriously damage the reputation of the USSR. In 1947, Paulus was treated for two months in a sanatorium in the Crimea, but the field marshal was forbidden to visit the grave of his wife and communicate with the children.

Nuremberg

Paulus was one of the main witnesses for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials. When Paulus entered the hall as a witness, Keitel, Jodl and Goering, who were sitting on the dock, had to be reassured.

As they say, nothing is forgotten, nothing is forgotten: Paulus was one of those who were directly involved in the development of the Barbarossa plan. Paulus' outright betrayal could not be forgiven even by inhuman Nazi criminals.

Interrogation of F. Paulus at the Nuremberg trials.

Participation in the Nuremberg Trials on the side of the Allies, in fact, saved the field marshal from a term behind bars. Most German generals, despite their cooperation during the war years, were still sentenced to 25 years.

Paulus, by the way, could not reach the courtroom. On the way to Germany, an assassination attempt was made on him, but the timely work of counterintelligence helped to avoid the loss of such an important witness.

Paulus at the Villa

On October 23, 1953, after Stalin's death, Paulus left Moscow. Before leaving, he made a statement: "I came to you as an enemy, but I leave as a friend."

The field marshal settled in the Dresden suburb of Oberloshwitz. He was provided with a villa, service and security, a car. Paulus was even allowed to carry weapons.

Paulus at his villa in Dresden in 1955. Photo from the State Archives of Germany.

According to the archives of the secret services of the GDR, Friedrich Paulus led a secluded life. His favorite pastime was taking apart and cleaning his service pistol. The field marshal could not sit still: he worked as the head of the Military Historical Center of Dresden, and also lectured at the Higher School of the People's Police of the GDR.

Practicing a benevolent attitude towards himself, in an interview he criticized West Germany, praised the socialist system and liked to repeat that "Russia cannot be defeated by anyone."

Since November 1956, Paulus did not leave the house, the doctors diagnosed him with "sclerosis of the brain", the field marshal was paralyzed in the left half of his body. On February 1, 1957, he died.

The paradoxes of history

When Paulus was captured, this was a serious bonus for anti-Hitler coalition and for Stalin personally. Paulus managed to be "reforged" and in his homeland he was dubbed a traitor.

Hitler and Paulus.

Many in Germany still consider Paulus a traitor, which is quite natural: he surrendered and began working for the propaganda machine of the social bloc. Strikingly different: modern Russia there is a cult of Field Marshal Paulus, on social networks - communities of his name, on forums - an active discussion of the "exploits" of the Nazi general.

There are two Paulus: one is a real, fascist criminal who caused the death of millions of people, and the other is mythological, created by the short-sighted "connoisseurs" of the German commander.

German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who commanded the 6th Army and surrendered after fierce fighting and encirclement near Stalingrad, actively cooperated with the Soviet Union, which greatly annoyed Hitler. German propaganda arranged a solemn funeral for the living Paulus at home, and Nazi saboteurs repeatedly tried to kill him. Volgograd writer Yury Mishatkin told about how it was.

Wand on the lid

“It is known that the Stalingrad Chekists prevented an attempt on the life of prisoner No. 1 - Field Marshal Paulus,” the writer recalls. - The day before the complete collapse of the encircled 6th Army, Paulus was awarded the highest rank of Field Marshal by Hitler's order. The calculation was simple - not a single top German commander surrendered. The Fuhrer intended to push the "heroic field marshal" at least to continue the resistance and possible suicide.
Already in early February, the Nazi authorities in Germany hastily declared a nationwide mourning for the 6th Army that had died on the Volga. Hitler's propaganda declared Paulus himself to have died heroically. In the hall of one of the Berlin town halls, a luxuriously finished empty coffin with a Kaiser helmet on the lid, symbolizing the martyrdom of a German commander, was solemnly installed. At the symbolic funeral of Paulus, Hitler personally hoisted a symbolic marshal's baton, which was not handed to the ex-commander, on the coffin lid. However, as you know, in reality, Paulus decided to do everything his own way. He personally gave the order to the army entrusted to him to stop resistance and himself surrendered together with the headquarters.

Fake underground

A couple of years after being captured in the basement of a Stalingrad department store, Paulus began to actively help the Red Army in organizing counter-propaganda. Widely known are his anti-Nazi appeals and leaflets, which the Nazis declared fakes. In them, the ex-field marshal called on the German people to eliminate Adolf Hitler and end the war. And immediately after the defeat of Nazi Germany, it was Paulus who became one of the main witnesses to the Soviet prosecution at the Nuremberg trials; he himself was not charged with war crimes.

“Few people know, but Hitler tried with all his might to eliminate the captured “comrade-in-arms” physically, I learned this from documentary archives, memoirs of the Chekists,” says Mishatkin. - For example, literally in February 1943, to the rear of the Red Army near Stalingrad from the air was transferred large group Hitler's saboteurs. Twenty well-trained, as they would say now, special forces thugs. They were given the task of physically eliminating all captured German military leaders by any means, Paulus in the first place.
According to the researcher, the KGB figured out the landing point very quickly and eliminated the landing force in battle just as quickly. Literally a few months later, the Nazis repeated an attempt to "get" the captured field marshal with a similar sabotage and fighter group near Suzdal. It was in this city that the camp "VIP - prisoners of war" was located at that time. And again, the complete failure of the fighter mission.

“The details of the extermination of the Paulus liquidator detachment near Stalingrad are still poorly understood,” the writer explains. - In my work "The Hunt for the Field Marshal" I decided to allow a free reception. He talked about how the Nazis, dressed as Red Army soldiers, got used to the rear of "ours" and established contact with the fake "White Guard underground", the role of which was played by experienced Chekists. But in fact, everything was more banal. I don't like violent scenes. He preferred the version that the Chekists "outplayed" the Nazis intellectually.

The capture of Friedrich Paulus was one of the brightest episodes of the Great Patriotic War - military leaders of this level had never before fallen into the hands of Germany's enemies alive.

On January 30, 1943, the day before his capture, Friedrich Paulus, being in the Stalingrad cauldron, received two pieces of news: good and bad. By radiogram, the Fuhrer personally informed his dear friend that he had been awarded the rank of field marshal. But then he unobtrusively reminded me that not a single German field marshal was taken prisoner.

Soviet intelligence, which intercepted Hitler's radiogram, worked instantly, and soon the building of the Central Department Store in Stalingrad, from where the Germans were broadcasting, was surrounded and stormed. The freshly-baked field marshal did not have the courage to commit suicide, and therefore the prisoner was delivered to the Soviet leadership alive, albeit fairly rumpled.

Ultimatum

As early as January 8, the Soviet command delivered an ultimatum to Paulus: if the marshal did not capitulate by 10:00 the next day, his entire encircled army would be exterminated to a single soldier. But Paulus ignored the ultimatum, and the Soviet troops went on the offensive. In a short time, the entire power of the 6th Army was destroyed. The gunners did their best: everything that could be blown up was blown up, the personnel were demoralized and could not defend themselves with high quality. And then the last of the airfields was taken away from the marshal, so he didn’t even manage to escape.

Captivity

One by one, the generals of the army of Paulus surrendered with the remnants of their corps and divisions. Pfeffer, von Drebber, Korfes. The latter generally surrendered solemnly: with all the orders and regalia on the dress uniform. No one knew only where Paulus himself was hiding. There were various rumors, they talked about the fact that they managed to take him out on a plane just before the runway was damaged. But, as we said above, Paulus was still captured. The once sleek German representative of the "master race" was impossible to recognize. There are stories of a dirty, stubbly old man dragged out of the basement of a department store, trembling with fear. According to other sources, the field marshal himself asked for negotiations and surrender. This is more plausible, especially since the field marshal looks very representative in the surviving photos.

Hospital

Despite the fact that Paulus was one of the most dangerous enemies of the USSR, he was provided with proper care. The field marshal was put in order and sent to treat rectal cancer. They were treated anonymously, the hospital staff did not know who this sullen, silent, emaciated patient with a broken arm really was. The medical recommendations and the diet prescribed by doctors of this nameless patient have been preserved. Among the products are smoked sausages, meatballs, soups, fruits and even red caviar.

Monastery

By the spring of 1943, the prisoner, who had recovered from several operations on the intestines, was transferred to the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal. There, carefully guarded, he lives in a monastic cell for about six months. All this time, he is being processed by Soviet counterintelligence officers, trying to persuade him to cooperate against Nazi Germany. Realizing his value as a prisoner, Paulus tried, on the one hand, to save his life, and on the other hand, he cherished the hope of liberation and therefore avoided cooperation in every possible way. The situation turned failed assassination attempt on Hitler. Although it turned out to be a failure, Paulus found out how widespread dissatisfaction with the Fuhrer was among his inner circle.

execution

Under the spotlights, revealingly, humiliatingly, with movie cameras, the conspirators were hung on strings from the piano. Everything was arranged in such a way that death did not occur instantly from a fracture of the vertebrae, not from a quick suffocation, but by slowly stretching the neck and a long painful suffocation. Hitler's brutal reprisals against the friends of the field marshal completed the work of "reforging" the commander, and the last straw was a letter from his wife, delivered by our scouts. Hitler was sure that the field marshal was dead, otherwise, instead of a symbolic funeral of the hero and a field marshal's baton, the wife would have received a link to a concentration camp as the wife of a traitor, in accordance with the ancient German law on blood guilt. According to this law, the relatives of the criminal are guilty of the crime in the same way as he himself, and must be convicted with him on an equal footing.

Cooperation

From the moment he received a letter from his wife, Paulus began to actively cooperate with the Soviet side, and on August 8, 1944, his call to the whole of Germany on the radio sounded his call to immediately stop the war and renounce Hitler as a person leading the country to death. The entire Paulus family is immediately subjected to repression. His son is arrested, then his daughter-in-law with his wife, daughter and grandchildren are exiled to Silesia, and after they have filed a petition for release, they are completely placed in Buchenwald, and later in Dachau. There they lived until liberation - after all, with representatives of the ancient noble family treated better than nameless Jews.

Country house

It was dangerous to let a former military commander of this rank go to his homeland, where he was considered a traitor, so all Paulus's requests for family reunification were politely rejected in his own interests. Otherwise, Paulus was surrounded by comfort and attention. For a while, he generally had an adjutant, his own cook and doctor. He lived with all this retinue at a dacha near Moscow and was listed as a personal guest Stalin. There are several versions of Paulus' stay at the "dacha". According to one version, it was a dacha in Tomilino, according to another - in Ilyinsky, according to a third - a former dacha Nemirovich-Danchenko in Kuntsevo.

Rector of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs A. Tchaikovsky in his book Captivity. Strangers among their own" cites evidence of the escort Ivan Gannusenko about the time of Paulus' stay at the guarded dacha. According to him, the escorts had a direct order not to detain the prisoner while trying to escape and not to cause him any harm. However, Paulus never tried to escape.

Camp

Only once, in 1944, was an attempt to escape from the camp near Ivanovo, where Paulus was transferred in October, thwarted. But field marshals do not run - not by rank. The fugitive turned out to be a soldier who was trying to deliver to the Germans a detailed plan of the camp, the daily routine, the layout and change of sentries, places where you can covertly land the plane. All this was accompanied by a note from the generals. The note said that 50 selected military leaders were waiting for their release in order to rejoin the ranks of the Wehrmacht. Measures to strengthen security were taken, exercises were conducted in case of an attempt to free the prisoners, but with laziness, because by that time everyone already perfectly understood that no one would save the generals - the wrong worries disturbed Hitler.

The same Gannusenko also said that after the transfer of Paulus to the "general's" camp, Paulus' wife was brought to the neighboring village of Cherntsy by the end of the war. They were allowed to meet once a day. According to another version, Paulus did not see his wife again, and he could not get to her grave.

Tribunal

23 Stalingrad generals were convicted in the Soviet Union and received long sentences. But they all eventually returned to their homeland. Paulus had a chance to see his relatives much earlier, back in 1946, when the Nuremberg trials were going on. Agreeing to testify against former associates should have saved the field marshal from imprisonment, and the former Nazi tried with might and main. It is known that Goering had a tantrum when Paulus began to testify incriminatingly.

golden cage

After the process, the field marshal was allowed to see his relatives, and he spent a month and a half with them in Thuringia. After that there was life in the USSR again. The former military leader went to Yalta for treatment, wrote memoirs and played gorodki. He was not denied any correspondence or parcels. The only thing Paulus could not do was go home. In 1951, he fell into a deep depression and refused to eat or get out of bed. Stalin promised him release, although he did not name the date of his return home.

Only after the death of the leader of the peoples did Paulus leave Soviet Union under the condition of living in East Germany. There Paulus lectured in higher school police and was the head of the military-historical center in Dresden. Until the end of his life, he worked out the life and freedom given to him: he criticized Nazism and political system Germany constantly repeated that no one could defeat Russia, extolled socialism and sang praises to communism. His son could not accept his father's betrayal and shot himself in 1970, 10 years before that, he had published his father's memoirs.

Death

For the geopolitical struggle, Paulus, who personally took part in the development of the Barbarossa plan, became a valuable acquisition. The Germans did not forgive him for his betrayal and active cooperation with the "soviets". So until the end of his life, Friedrich Paulus lived not only in the midst of silent condemnation, but also in fear that former comrades-in-arms would come after him.

But death from natural causes came first. Paulus died on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the surrender of his army, February 1, 1957. According to one version, he has been paralyzed since November 1956 due to lateral sclerosis of the brain, when clarity of thought is preserved, but paralysis of the body occurs. According to another version, he was still killed by cancer. The third is heart failure.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start Battle of Stalingrad from the German spa town of Baden-Baden came an answer to my inquiry about Baroness Olga von Kutchenbach, daughter of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. I wanted to know about the fate of her father after his release from Soviet captivity.

Long awaited letter

“Dear Mr. Barykin! I have to disappoint you: Baroness von Kutchenbach died on her estate at the age of 89. I advise you to contact the Bundesarchiv on the issue of interest, or to the memoirs of a friend of the Field Marshal, Colonel Wilhelm Adam, published in Russia. All the best! With deep respect, Chief Mayor Wolfgang Gerstner.

I took Mr. Gerstner's advice, and this is what I found out.

Having suffered a defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, on January 31, 1943, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus became a prisoner of war. Before that, there was no more popular person in the Wehrmacht than he. But there was no man with a fate more tragic than that of Paulus.

A brilliant general staff officer, one of the authors of the Barbarossa plan, he could have been appointed head of the High Command ground forces Wehrmacht, if he took Stalingrad. This was promised by Hitler, giving him command of the elite 6th field army, which took Paris. Instead, Paulus was destined for the fate of the first German field marshal who was taken prisoner.

From Hitler to Stalin

What happened next? Long years of Soviet captivity in an officer camp, the transition from the ranks of ardent opponents of the Soviet regime to its active supporters.

In the West, as in our country, there is an opinion that Paulus was "helped" in this by the NKVD. You can stick to this version or question it, but that's what he thinks. famous publicist and historian Vladimir Markovchin, citing as evidence not only the file filed against the field marshal, but also the contents of the folder with the inscription “Special operation “Satrap” (Fr. Paulus)”.

Apparently, there are no limits to the imagination of the NKVD officers who undertook an unprecedented and very successful operation under this name against Paulus. The NKVD authorities managed to break, though not immediately, the stubborn field marshal, playing, among other things, on his all-consuming love for the beautiful wife Elena-Constance Rosetta-Solescu from the royal Romanian family.

It was she who in many ways helped Paulus make a brilliant career. From a simple lieutenant of the Reichswehr, he went all the way to field marshal. The son of a prison accountant, Paulus became a member of the aristocratic circles not only in Romania, but also in Germany.

Elena-Constance everywhere represented her husband as a hero of the First World War, who received iron Cross from the hands of the Kaiser himself.
Paulus' career was swift. On January 20, 1942, Hitler appointed him commander of the elite 6th Field Army.

“With this army, my Paulus, it’s not scary to storm the heavens,” the Fuhrer admonished him.

Operation Satrap

But back to the moment of Paulus' capture. After his interrogation by the commander of the 64th Army, M.S. Shumilov, on the farm of Zavarykin, the field marshal spent three more days near Stalingrad, while they decided where to place him.

In the end, he was sent to the Krasnogorsk special camp of the NKVD. The transfer of the defeated field marshal there took place under the close supervision of special agencies. And for good reason.

The Abwehr was given an order: to recapture Paulus from the Russians, dead or alive. An attempt to capture the field marshal, undertaken by the henchmen of Otto Skorzeny himself, failed. Our agent was introduced into the Abwehr special group ...

It was much more difficult to reverse the Nazi convictions of the field marshal. Forcing Paulus, an ardent Nazi and Hitler's associate, to come over to our side was a purely political matter. It was hardly possible to find a better figure for anti-Hitler propaganda.

To process Paulus, the best state security officers were connected to the Satrap operation. To persuade the stubborn field marshal to cooperate, a unique operation was carried out to deliver letters from Paulus' wife from warring Germany.

Elena-Constance did not believe that her Fridi (as she called her husband) shot himself in order not to fall into Russian captivity. More than a year"processing" of Paulus was carried out. But he rejected any attempt to involve himself in the Anti-Fascist Committee. The resettlement of Paulus to the Suzdal camp did not help either.

There, seeing former comrades-in-arms, Paulus threw up his hand in a Nazi salute. He was oppressed by the thought that the Germans considered him a traitor. But after all, neither Hitler nor Manstein gave him the opportunity to withdraw troops from Stalingrad.
The last straw that wore away the stone in the soul of the impregnable field marshal was the news of the cruel execution on July 20, 1944, of the leaders of the assassination attempt on Hitler.

Among those executed was his friend, Count von Witzleben. Field Marshal Paulus was delivered fresh German newspapers, including the Nazi mouthpiece "Völkischer Beobachter" with a description of the execution of the conspirators. Paulus was deeply angered by the savage execution of the count and other conspirators. After monstrous torture, they were hung alive by the ribs on hooks.

Gradually, an epiphany came to Paulus: it was Hitler who was responsible for the death of the 6th Army. The field marshal volunteered to speak on the Soviet radio with an appeal to the German people, declaring the criminal nature of the Hitler regime. From that day on, the name "Paulus" was not pronounced in the Reich without the prefix "traitor".

Reprisals against his family followed immediately. Helena-Constantia, her daughter Olga von Kutchenbach with three-year-old Achim, and her son's wife with a three-month-old child were placed in a Gestapo prison. Half a month later, the son of Paulus, Ernst-Alexander, a tank captain, who miraculously escaped the Stalingrad "boiler", was also imprisoned there.

Ernst-Alexander was interrogated by the chief of the Gestapo, SS Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller himself. He told his son Paulus that his father was a state criminal, as he "leads an army of prisoners of war in Russia."

“Until Paulus stops his criminal propaganda against the Reich,” the Gestapo chief “encouraged” Ernst, “his family will be kept in custody.”

The son of Paulus did not renounce his father and was transferred to the Kustrin prison. With contempt, she rejected the proposal to change her surname and Elena-Constance. Then she was sent to the death camp in Dachau, from which she was later released by the Americans.

With modest savings, Paulus's wife bought a small house in Baden-Baden, where she lived with her daughter Olga and grandson Achim. She was never given the opportunity to see her husband - even in Nuremberg, where he was called as the main witness.

“Paulus's daughter, Baroness Olga von Kutchenbach, avoided meeting with journalists until her death,” he said. “The fact is that the field marshal is still considered a traitor in Germany.”

In captivity

Paulus stayed in the Soviet camp for more than ten years and was released as one of the last German generals. He wrote to Stalin more than once with a request for a personal meeting, wanting to express his thoughts about the structure of the new Germany and his place in it.

But Stalin did not want to let go of the "personal prisoner." The thought that the German field marshal was languishing in a Soviet camp warmed the heart of the aging leader. He did not answer, he only said to Beria: "Let him sit for his own good."

Stalin was informed that there had been attempts to kill Paulus more than once. Such an attempt was made by the Nazis on their way to Nuremberg, where the field marshal was to act as the main witness.

V.I. played a prominent role in the fate of the captured field marshal. Chuikov, who at that time commanded the Soviet occupation forces in Germany. By agreement with the government of the GDR, Vasily Ivanovich was ready to receive the field marshal in Dresden, where a villa and a position as a lecturer at the Higher School of the People's Police were prepared for Paulus.

Chuikov was the first to send a message to Paulus about the death of his wife in 1949. The death of his beloved wife deeply shocked Paulus. The hope of reuniting with the family also collapsed. Daughter Olga then lived in the French zone of occupation, and son Ernst lived in the English one.

Paulus was nervous, sending requests one after another to the Main Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. And only in September 1953, after a meeting with the head of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Walter Ulbricht, Friedrich Paulus was finally allowed to leave.

Before leaving for the GDR, the field marshal was presented with a gift from the leadership of the MGB - a radio receiver and a one-time allowance of 1000 marks.

On October 24, 1953, Paulus left for Berlin by courier train. Faithful Adam was the first to meet him at the Ostbahnhof station.

Testament of Paulus

In Dresden, in his own villa, Friedrich Paulus spent all the last four years of his life allotted to him by God.

As V. Adam, who was anxious about the fate of his former commander, recalled, he served as head of the Higher Officers' School of the People's Police.

Adam until the last day was next to Paulus. Giving all my strength new job in the People's Police of the GDR, he hid from everyone deep apathy and ill health.

On February 1, 1957, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus passed away. There are two versions of his death. According to one, he died in his villa, according to another, he died in a car accident arranged by the Nazis.

Paulus was buried with the highest honors in Dresden, and after the unification of Germany, his ashes were reburied in Baden-Baden, next to the grave of his wife.

His intention remained unfulfilled to write the history of the battle on the Volga, as he imagined it. Sharing the plan of the book with Adam, Paulus repeated more than once: “The campaign against Stalingrad was a tragic mistake. Never again should war come from German soil. Let this be my repentance to the Soviet people for the evil committed ... I arrived in Russia as her enemy, and left as her friend.

These words became the political testament of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus.