RedArquebus1917 [he/him]

  • 2 Posts
  • 75 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
cake
Cake day: July 29th, 2020

help-circle





  • RedArquebus1917 [he/him]
    hexagon
    toMainFriedrich Paulus
    ·
    4 years ago

    Basically, Paulus was the leading general during the Battle of Stalingrad, from which he was captured and held as a POW. Most sources that I have seen state that he did not really alter his views until 1944 (after the assassination attempt on Hitler), when he vocally condemned the Nazis and joined the National Committee for a Free Germany. According to the Jewish Virtual Library for example, Paulus called for "German officers to disobey Hitler's orders...Hitler ordered that Paulus' entire family should be imprisoned in a concentration camp". Ultimately, his condemnation of the Nazis did also guarantee his return back to the GDR in 1953, 2 years earlier than other POWs.

    As for his pro-Soviet sentiments, I probably could have worded that slightly better. Most of his sentiments seemed not so much pro-Soviet as more pro-peaceful unification without interference by the United States. While I don't like referring to Wikipedia much, it does provide quotes that show how Paulus advocated for both reconciliation between East and West and the re-unification of Germany (to me, it seems similar to Stalin's Plan from 1952 for German re-unification). But he largely, he played more of a role as a historian rather than a politician until he died in 1957. I'll link some sources below.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Paulus#After_Stalingrad_and_postwar https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/friedrich-paulus