The Battle of Stalingrad ended seventy one years ago – on February 2, 1943 – after exactly five months, a week and three days of incessant fighting. The retreat of the Nazis in that particular battle is seen by many historians as the turning point of WWII.

“It is pure hell here.”

That was how Wehrmacht soldiers and officers viewed their plight after they ended up in the middle of the “circle of fire” formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad area.

Trapped inside this “crucible” were the 22 divisions and over 160 different units of the German 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army, numbering to about 330,000 soldiers. After the defeat of the Germans in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets counted among their trophies the former’s large field post office along with the diaries and other writings of the captured German troops. Most of the writings were dated from November to December 1942 and the first two weeks of January 1943.

Letters containing the most information were published by the the military publishing house of the People’s Commissariat of the Defense of the USSR in 1944 – the released volume was condensed bearing the title “The Defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad. Confessions of the Enemy.”

The print run was not detailed, the book printed using the simplest of papers and released as a paperback – clearly it was not meant to be kept for a long time. the said book became an antiquity in bibliography.

The letters penned by the German soldiers as the Battle of Stalingrad raged on around them were infused with candor. The stash showed how they tried to communicate their impressions to their loved ones, how they wanted them to see their situations as they fought in the Stalingrad region and how they see the Red Army.

The letters and diary entries were direct and animated testimonials of the Battle of Stalingrad from the front lines, a long way off from the trenches and the bunkers.

Excerpt from a letter of Private First Class Walter Oppermann, no. 44111, dated November 18, 1942 to his brother:

“. . . Stalingrad is hell on earth—Verdun, beautiful Verdun, with new weapons. We attack on a daily basis. If in the morning we manage to advance 20 meters, in the evening the Russians throw us backward. . . .”

Part of Heinrich Malchus’ letter, a soldier, no. 17189, dated November 13, 1942 to Private First Class Karl Weitzel:

“ . . . When we got to Stalingrad, there were 140 of us, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle, only 16 remained. All the rest were wounded and killed. We don’t have a single officer, and the non-commissioned officer had to take over the command of the division. Up to a thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. . . .”

Portion of a letter from Senior Lance Corporal Joseph Tzimach, no. 27800, dated November 20, 1942 to his parents:

“ . . . It is pure hell here. There are barely 30 men in the company. We have never been through anything like this. Unfortunately, I can’t write everything to you. If fate allows it, someday I will tell you about it. Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. The number of soldiers’ cemeteries is growing… .”

Diary entries of Field Gendarmerie Sergeant Helmut Megenburg:

“ . . . November 19. If we lose this war, they’ll take revenge on us for everything we did. We killed thousands of Russians and Jews with wives and children around Kiev and Kharkov. This is simply unbelievable. But it is for precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win the war.

December 6. The weather is getting worse and worse. Clothing freezes on our bodies. We haven’t eaten or slept in three days. Fritz is telling me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity. . . .”

An excerpt from a letter of soldier Otto Zechtig, 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 227th Infantry Regiment of the 100th Light Infantry Division, no. 10521 V, dated December 29, 1942 to Hetti Kaminskaya:

“ . . . Yesterday we got vodka. At that time we actually cut up a dog, and the vodka really came in handy. Hetti, I have already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades can’t eat their fill. One day I shot a magpie and cooked it. . . .”

Entries from the diary of Officer F. P. of the 8th Light Small-Arms Force of the 212th Regiment:

“ . . . January 5. Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried. It’s just terrible. People who are now sent from transport units to the infantry are as good as sentenced to death.