The Eastern Front (1941-45), also known as the Great Patriotic War in Soviet terms, stands as the bloodiest segment of World War II. This article collates direct memories from soldiers and civilians caught in the conflict, reflecting a shared horror. Early on, German soldiers dismissed the Red Army as weak but were soon faced with brutality that shattered their optimism. The conflict instigated fierce hatred, with Axis troops systematically executing Soviet political officers, driven by the belief they were battling the threat of Bolshevism, further intensifying the clash and human tragedy on this front.
I said 'Listen, we will part now. In a few weeks I'll ring you from Moscow.'...I was utterly convinced that this would happen, and I was in fact proud of our plans.
When they [the Soviets] counter-attacked and we had to leave the wounded behind and then we came back again, we found all the wounded had had their heads split open with short infantry blades. Now you can imagine our soldiers, when you see your wounded friend has been brutally killed, then they were furious.
...when we caught any of them, they just had to be killed. We never really asked about the reasons for anything much.
The commissars just had to be killed...we wanted to prevent the Bolsheviks from conquering the world.
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