Hans Schaufler

Panzers on the Vistula – Excellent Book

Like many Polish descendants I have a dog in this fight as you would say, so it was a bittersweet retreat of the Germans, and the Russians went on to replace the Germans they pushed back. Like many Poles I will point out that most of East Prussia was Polish lands they occupied and ethnically cleansed from 1792 to 1914. Hence one of the reasons why Danzig was never Pole free and why there was a compromise at Versailles to accommodate the Poles and Germans.

This account of the retreat of the Panzer divisions from Russia is by a tank commander Hans Schäufler. This book is the harrowing account for those on the wrong side of World War 2, in the final days of combat, when Germans were having to fight street by street in a battle that they knew was doomed.

This is a very blunt account, there is no embellishment, every name and every detail is real. It must be remembered that things were already hard for most Germans but would get worse for anyone that had fought against the oncoming Red Army. This then tells the extent Schäufler had to take to stop being captured by the Soviets. Any soldier or officer that the Red Army captured besides being tortured were often sent back to Russian where they were put into camps and it could take up to ten years after the war for them to leave. Others were lucky, they died in the camps.

This is one of the most honest accounts, that does make tough reading in places, whatever you think about enemy combatants they are still human. It is refreshing to still hear a voice from the past who is no longer with us, but he has put into words what many others felt and their fears.

An excellent book and a message from history.… (més)