Field Marshal Pauls Biography

Friedrich Paulus - biography, news, personal life Age: From the birthday of death: 66 years Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus him. Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus. German military leader. Field Marshal on January 30 commander of the 6th Army, surrounded and surrendering near Stalingrad. Friedrich Paulus was born on September 23 in Huxgagen, Hesse-Nassau. His father was an accountant in a jail of Kassel.

In the year he graduated from the classical gymnasium named after Kaiser Wilhelm and, after receiving a certificate of maturity, entered the Law Faculty of Bavarian University, where he listened to two semesters of law. However, he did not graduate from training and in February he received a fan-junker in the 3rd Baden Infantry Regiment Margraf Friedrich Wilhelm. Friedrich Paulus quickly showed talent for staff work.

At the beginning of World War I, Paulus regiment was in France. Later he served as a head officer in units of mountain infantry of huntsmen in France, Serbia and Macedonia. He ended the war captain. After the war, until the year he served in various military posts, in the years he was the commander of a motorized regiment, in September he was appointed chief of staff of the command of tank formations.

In February, Colonel Paulus was appointed chief of staff of the motorized corps under the command of Lieutenant General Guderian. In May, he was increased in rank to Major General and became the chief of staff of the Army. At the beginning of hostilities, I acted first in Poland, later in Belgium and the Netherlands. After the numbering change, the tenth army became the sixth. In August, he received the title of Lieutenant General, from June to December, he was the deputy chief of the General Staff of the ground forces.

From July 21 to December 18, he worked on the development of a plan for an attack on the USSR. Friedrich Paulus during the Great Patriotic War on January 1 received the rank of general tank troops, and was appointed commander of the 6th Army instead of V. Reichenau, who at that time acted on the Eastern Front and reflected the advance of the Soviet troops in the Kursk-Osoloansky operation.

In August, he was awarded the Knight's Cross. In the summer and autumn of the year, the 6th Army was part of the Army Group B, which fought on the southern section of the front, since September, participated in the battle of Stalingrad, where it was surrounded by Soviet troops. Friedrich Paulus, while in the besieged Stalingrad, tried to assure Hitler that the army would be more correct in this situation to leave Stalingrad and attempt to break through to reunite with the main forces of the Wehrmacht.

However, Hitler in the most categorical form forbade Paulus to leave the besieged Stalingrad. Hitler promised Paulus that the supply of a blocked army on the Air Bridge would be established and, in addition, in the very near future his army would be released. However, in reality, contrary to the assurances of Hitler and Goering, the commander of the Luftwaffe, it was impossible to establish a full supply of the surrounded army with ammunition, ammunition, fuel and food through the "air bridge".

The attempts of the deoblock was undertaken, but also failed. In the last radiogram sent by Hitler Paulus, among other things, it was said that the sixth army should defend “to the last soldier and the last cartridge” and “not a single German feldmarshal was captured”, which actually meant the demand for the suicide of Paulus himself. The surrender of the 6th Army and the captivity of Friedrich Paulus on the morning of January 31 of the year Paulus through the headquarters officers transferred a request for surrender to the Soviet troops.

The German parliamentarians accidentally stumbled upon the military personnel of the Soviet motorized rifle brigade, the senior lieutenant Fedor Ilchenko, deputy chief of staff of the brigade. However, the Germans wanted to negotiate with representatives of the army or front -line command. For negotiations, the deputy commander of the motorized rifle brigade for the political unit, Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Vinokur with several officers, appeared.

Only Vinokur and Ilchenko entered the room in the basement of the central department store, in which the headquarters of the 6th Army was located. Vinokur was conducted with the commander of the Wehrmacht infantry division, Major General Fritz Rosk, with the commander of the IT. Paulus, not wanting to formally be involved in surrender, shifted negotiations on Rosk and his chief of staff of General Arthur Schmidt.

After additional negotiations with the arrived chief of staff of the Army, Major General I. Laskin and two officers Paulus by 12 o’clock on January 31 was taken to Beketovka, where he was met by the commander of the army, Lieutenant General M. On the same day, Paulus was questioned. In the memoirs of the adjutant of Paulus V. Adam, it is indicated that when meeting, Shumilov called the captive commander “von Paulus”, to which the latter indicated that he was not a nobleman.

Soon, Paulus was presented to the front commander, Colonel General K. Rokossovsky, who invited him to issue an order to surrender the remnants of the 6th Army in order to stop the meaningless death of its soldiers and officers.Paulus refused to do this, since he is now captivated, and his generals obey in accordance with the received directive directly to Hitler. Stalingrad battle.

The documentary forced to respond to the Soviet official message about the capture of about 91 thousand soldiers and officers, the Nazi government informed the German people that the 6th Army had completely died. Within three days, all German radio stations conveyed funeral music, mourning reigned in thousands of houses of Germany. Restaurants, theaters, cinemas, all entertainment institutions were closed, and the Reich population was defeated near Stalingrad.

Captured officers still perceived Paulus as their commander. Soon Paulus said: “I am and will remain a national socialist. From me, no one can expect me to change my views, even if I will threaten the danger of spending the rest of my life in captivity. ” Paulus still believed in the power of Germany and that "she would successfully fight." In July, the National Committee "Free Germany" was created in the Krasnogorsk camp.

It included 38 Germans, 13 of which were emigrants Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Peak and others. Soon, the main political administration of the Red Army and the Office for Prisoners of War and International UPVI NKVD reported on their new success: in September of the same year, the Constituent Congress of the new anti -fascist organization Union of German Officers is taking place.

For Paulus and his associates, who were still transferred to the General camp in the Spaso-Evfimed Monastery in Suzdal in the spring, this was a betrayal. Seventeen generals, led by Field Marshal, sign a collective statement: “What the officers and generals who have become members of the Soyuz are doing is a treason. We no longer consider them our comrades, and we resolutely abandon them.

” But a month later, Paulus suddenly recalls his signature from the general “protest”. Soon he is transferred to the village of Chernets 28 km from Ivanov. The highest ranks of the NKVD were afraid that they could abduct from Suzdal Field Marshal, so they sent him to the wilderness of the forests. In addition to him, 22 German, 6 Romanian and 3 Italian generals arrived at the former sanatorium named after Voikov.

In the former sanatorium, Paulus began to progress the disease of the intestines, about which he was repeatedly operated on. However, in spite of everything, he refused individual dietary nutrition, but only asked him to deliver the herbs to Majoran and the stage, which he always drove with him, but he lost his suitcase in battles. In addition, he, like all the prisoners of the “sanatorium”, received meat, oil, all the necessary products, parcels from relatives from Germany, beer on holidays.

The captives were engaged in creativity. For this, he was given all the possibilities: there were plenty of wood around, so many were engaged in wood carving even cut out a rod from linden for the field marshal, the canvases and paints were in any quantity, Paulus himself also did it, wrote memoirs. Nevertheless, he still did not recognize the “Union of German Officers”, did not agree to cooperation with the Soviet authorities, did not oppose A.

in the summer of the year Field Marshal was transferred to a special object in the lakes. Paulus is awarded the appeal of 16 generals. The intelligent, indecisive Paulus hesitated. As a former headquarters, he, apparently, was used to calculating all the pros and cons. But a number of events “helps him in this: the discovery of the second front, defeat on the Kursk Bulge and Africa, the loss of allies, total mobilization in Germany, the entry into the“ Union ”of 16 new generals and best friends, Colonel V.

Adam, as well as death in Italy in April of the year of his son Friedrich. And finally, the attempt on A. Hitler of the officers, whom he knew well.

He was shocked by the execution of the conspirators, among whom was his friend-Field Marshal E. his role was played, apparently, his wife, delivered from Berlin with Soviet intelligence. Four days later, he joined the Union of German Officers. Then - to the National Committee "Free Germany". From this moment on, he becomes one of the most active propagandists in the fight against Nazism.

He regularly performs on the radio, puts his signatures on the leaflets, urging the Wehrmacht soldier to switch to the side of the Russians. After the war, the “Stalingrad” generals were still captured. Many of them were then convicted in the USSR, but all 23, except for one deceased, later returned home from 94 thousand soldiers - about 6 thousand. However, Paulus in his homeland already visited in February as a participant in the Nuremberg process.

His appearance there and a performance in court as a witness was a surprise even for the officers closest to Paulus, not to mention the defendants, A. Yodla and G. Goering, who had to reassure. Some of the prisoners of the generals accused their colleague of baseness and betrayal. After Nuremberg, Field Marshal was a month and a half in Thuringia, where he met with his relatives.At the end of March, he was again brought to Moscow and settled in the country in Ilyinsky near Moscow according to some sources in Zagoryansk.

There, he studied the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, read party literature, preparing for performances to the Soviet generals. He had his own doctor, cook and adjutant. Paulus was regularly delivered letters and parcels from relatives. When he fell ill, they drove for treatment in Yalta. But all his requests for returning home, about visiting the grave of his wife, came across the wall of a polite refusal.

One morning in the year, Paulus was found unconscious, but managed to save.