Seventy years after the Battle of Stalingrad, DW's Juri Rescheto travels to the city - and meets a veteran who is seeking reconciliation with the former German enemy. More Journal Reporters: www.dw.de/progr...
Imagine, 16 years old, sent to fight in Stalingrad. The Red Army lost many- many more men than the Germans. But this old man with his great heart survived. Today he is likely dead and has finally found peace.
My Scottish father was in the British Army throughout World War 2, & he "bottled up" a lot of trauma caused by this. His 19-year-old brother was killed in the war. No "counselling" whatsoever was ever offered to him or his comrades. Despite this, he only missed a few weeks of work in his lifetime: as a postman for years, carrying the heavy bag around had damaged his spine, & he had to find another job. After a while he found a job in an engineering factory, where he stayed until his retirement. He was a HERO, just like like the soldier in this video!
Your grandfather was a very strong man, thank freud and Jung we do have counselling and therapy now. Those men had to roll that bolder up that mountain all their lives.
Great report. It's nice to see a German Television Station telling the story from the point of view of their former adversary...To the former Soviet soldier, I would like thank him and his comrades for their service. We couldn't have won the war without them...And what a big man to forgive the Germans after what he went through and witnessed..Even having the courage and conviction to get in front of the school children to let them know that the two countries are now friends and economic partners..
This was a very moving presentation! That beloved Russian veteran of Stalingrad has just given use major lesson in love and reconciliation... if we choose to hear it. Thank you for this uplifting message. Warm regards from the U.S.A.
What a beautiful perspective. This veteran celebrates peace and good relations with the Germans more then anyone else around him. He earned that peace for his future countrymen in blood. They paid their dues, and they know it. The fight was not in vain.
At the end is not being brainwashed, although every soldier in the world, since the beginning of times, is mentally conditioned to obey with asking questions; when people are shooting at you the only way out is to shoot back and the heat of the battle anything that moves wearing a different uniform must be eliminated. A soldiers is, after all, a man, and as a human being he can be brave, a coward, sadistic, generous or just plain scared to death and all of this within one hour.
What a legend of a man and what a beautiful soul Mikhail has! Forgiveness casts off the burden of animosity! I have saved this video to watch again and again!
America never suffered the devastation the other countries did during both world wars. As a result, Americans are less hesitant about wars and less respectful of their military
zen12330 I’ll give credit for the western veterans for WW2 as they were fighting fascism. All the other wars were mostly invading defending countries or getting involved in disputes outside the US.
I know this comment is two years old but oh well. I agree with you, I wanted to slap that teacher, she wouldn’t realise the sacrifices the Germans made as well. Both sides were forced to fight because of their leaders.
The old man has the sense to know that if you do not forgive and move on...well it inevitably leads to another war. 70 years of hate is a huge burden , even if the hate is justified.
i was lucky to visit Volgograd/Stalingrad back in 2008. yes this man is correct that the Germans suffered just like the Russians and many mothers from both sides would never see their beloved sons again a terrible tragedy for all
The Patriotic school teacher does not mention to the young Russian students that the Soviet Union signed a non aggression pact with Adolf Hitler. She also doesn't mention that her nation decided to divide an invaded Poland with Germany.
well , they teach kids about Molotov-Rebintrop pact and dividig the Poland .You can open russian middle school history book and check this out . But why you not mention The German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact (German: Deutsch-polnischer Nichtangriffspakt; Polish: Polsko-niemiecki pakt o nieagresji)IN 1934 and deviding Czechoslovakia???HUH???
Antonio Acevedo true, but pact or not they were invaded, treated as subhumans with a porpoise of slave all of them, so who cares about the freaking pact. At the end the Russian sacrifice made a difference and pact or not pact the Germans were suicidal they asked for it and paid their price 👍
Signing a non aggression pact between two super power was a right thing to do , if Soviet was not betrayed it would have saved 30++ mil lives , yes Poland will be sacrifised but for a much bigger purpose ,. Any leader who want peace would have taken the offer like Stalin did . With great power lies greater responsiblities .
I wish there were more interviews of Russian soldiers of the war. To see this man at the twilight of life is so touching. When you see these men and women, it's hard not to see commonality with those of other nations who experienced the horrors of war.
One of my friends that I met through Facebook and a mutual love of motorcycles was a former Red army soldier. We both know that in our younger years when we wore our respective country’s uniforms ( his being Soviet, mine being American) we would have killed each other and not given it a second thought, because it was our duty to do it. Now we are friends
@@gutsjoestar7450 Fighting in a war your country started is the quintessential stage for brainwashing. Engage that sentience of yours. You'll appreciate it more than comfortable visceral complacency in the long run despite how difficult it may be
@@GarioTheRock if fighting for what your country believe as threat is Brian washed. I think you're brainwashed by a weird ideology who make you restreinte intellectually
"if we had lost at Stalingrad, we would he speaking German now" I'm afraid this teacher is mistaken. More realistically we either would be dead, enslaved or driven to some kind of reservations for "subhumans".
I have a great respect for you Sir. We need more people like you to end this world rivalry that we live nowadays. Thank God for your survival so you can tell us your life story.
God bless his as well as many others' souls. They fought not just for their country, but for humanity! Crushing facism for eternity! God bless their souls!
@@wakeup8052опять мамкин историк? В СССР не было коммунизма, большинство советских людей убила нацистская Германия. Обожаю идиотов, которые утверждают то, чего не знают🤦♀️🤡
Im sure the German soldiers remember them, they were supposed to hold the flanks.... Just breaking your balls. As soon as they wore the uniform they were German
Many empty sits at that concert and few Russian veterans. I admired this gentleman, he has a big heart and I am happy for him but I also understand his comrades hopefully they will forgive the Germans before they die. Not an easy task, sad 😢
At the end of the day were all just humans. The battle of stalingrad was a tragedy. While I'm glad the Russians won and defend their homes the German soldiers suffered there too. The whole of it is just a giant tragedy.
" The scale and grandeur of the Russian effort mark it as the greatest military achievement in all of history" General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Supreme Allied Commander of Southwest Pacific
@@CyanTeamProductions 80% of the German army fought on the eastern front. What do you think, if Germany threw their whole military on the west front during d day? Propably not a successful landing. Remember the US had to fight the Japanese too. Do you think that they would have dragged on, if they had to fight like the Russians did against the Germans?
about my country's participation and the 158,000 dead and Missing from the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies, - not a word.. It's as if they never existed.. Neither mentioned in German or Russian sources
This video wasn't billed as some kind of exhaustive academic treatise on Stalingrad. You're always able to produce your own video instead of criticizing others.
People legit ate wallpaper to survive and continue fighting another day... let that be a symbol of the will of a Russian, extremely determined people, the lengths they’ll go to protect the will of the people.
One of the great battles in Russian soil when 45.000 soldiers died and only one survived. Germans got very high ground bunkers and 15.000 Germans troops were inside the bunkers so Soviet soldiers wave after wave got close by and the battle turned to a slaughter house...Both sides ended up fighting hand to hand combat and all of them died. Soviet soldiers won and took the bunkers but ended up loosing 3 times the numbers...
Don’t forget about the Italians, Romanians and to a lesser extent, Hungary who bore the brunt of the encirclement of 6th army. It’s sad, that we, te working class, have to die for the malignant narcissistic leaders of some , likely most countries.
I always like teasing my wife when my grandad was alive by asking her "hey tell him about your grandad during the war"? I'm American shes German. I'm glad to see this veteran forgive and teach of peace and love.
Americans have a funny way of winning the war in Europe, show up late to the party, cause only 1/5th of German casualties (compared to 4/5ths caused of the Soviets), and let someone else capture the enemy capitol city....and then declare loudly that you won the whole thing.
all the americans here complaining :´-D youre 100% right, Unclevanya21. And they even have the audacity to release movies like Fury or Inglorious Basterds, pure propaganda, accepted by the whole world. Coming from a german.
Rough stuff, Stalingrad. Being boated across the river with 1 gun for every 4-10 soldiers. Given a pocket full of loose shells and forced at gunpoint to run into German machine guns in order to buy time for reinforcements. It paid off. At the cost of a lot of suffering.
To be truthful I would have given back to Germany that Chunk in the East and Kaliningrad as it was on the days of the Weimar republic... I know that being in the wrong side of the war has it's prices and Germany paid for the horrors of the third Reich ... to me it really isn't that fair after paying such an hefty price ... I'm not bashing on Poland and Russia that's just what I would have done
My uncle, an Spanish soldier, fought along the German Army in Stalingrad and his reason was to make Stalin pay back for the death and destruction he brought to Spain during the Civil War, sponsored from the Kremlin. Long live the Blue Division.
What destruction can bring few thousands of volunters from the Soviet in your civil war? I hope your uncle didint back from there .And now his bones feeding our worms . Invaiders must die .
My great uncle was reburied to Rossoschka cemetary, as i recently found out. Unteroffizier Goedsche, Panzergrenadierregiment, shot in the back by cowardish partisans, Jan 13th 1943. Rip.
Being even labeled as a possible partisan is a death sentence. How is being a partisan cowardish if the Germans did the same thing? Double standards dude.
Legate Krownen , Incorrect Totally , the German civil populace never had ie; Partisans as these were viewed by the German army hierachy as something untoward due to the non wearing of uniform etc , the German's then had a bad view of Partisan's along with there tactic's. The nearest the German civil populace came was during the latter year's with the introduction of the Volksturm whereby it was uniform or at least armband to signify that one was in the Volksturm. Alas , if your going to comment at least get it right.
