To be captured by the Soviet partisans, according to the military propaganda of the Third Reich, meant imminent death for the Germans after torture and humiliation. Often, soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, especially at the end of the Great Patriotic War, out of fear of reprisals, gave out valuable information to the partisans and even went over to their side. However, the rules of conduct for the soldiers of the German army, of course, prohibited such actions.
The Germans, as you know, at all times were distinguished by punctuality and love for the regulation of various spheres of life.
The possibility of being captured was touched upon by paragraph 9 of the job description "10 commandments of the German soldier", distributed among the personnel on the Eastern Front. According to the document, during the interrogation, it was only possible to communicate their name and rank. It was strictly forbidden to name one's military unit, as well as to provide the enemy with other data “related to military, political or economic relations” of the German side. It was emphasized that this information should be kept secret, even if it will be fished out with the help of threats or promises.
Since the rank and file were supposed to be silent when captured, the more this was attributed to the command staff, who had much better information. This follows from the general requirements for German officers, which are given in the article by the researcher Yuri Veremeyev (collection of "Anatomy of the Army"). One of these prescriptions was secrecy. The officers, according to the regulations, not only strictly had to observe military and state secrets, but even in their own circle did not have the right to issue "the immediate plans of their leadership." It was forbidden to disclose personal and official information about yourself and your colleagues. Everything that the officer could tell to those around him concerned only the current combat missions.
As the American historian John Armstrong writes in his book Guerrilla Warfare. Strategy and tactics. 1941-1943”, most of the Germans were convinced of the guerrilla's treachery, cruelty and treachery. Since 1942, even the word "partisan" was banned in the Wehrmacht - the Fuhrer ordered to call underground formations nothing more than "gangs". The commanders of the units operating in the occupied territories brought to the attention of the leadership information about the murders of their subordinates captured by the partisans. It is possible, however, that some of these reports exaggerated the scale of the problem.
At the dawn of the movement, the partisan detachments were really not sufficiently disciplined, so the executions of prisoners took place spontaneously, in revenge on the invaders. Bullying was not uncommon. For example, the Ukrainian writer Nikolai Sheremet, who specialized in partisan topics, reported in 1943 in a memo to the party secretary of the Central Committee in Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev about the methods of bullying used by the "people's avengers". Among them are beatings, cuts on the genitals, scalding with boiling water, and burning hair.
As the Soviet authorities took control of the partisans, there were fewer cases of lynching the Germans.
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Sometimes the cases of capturing officers by partisans were covered in reports. For example, on February 27, 1942, "Sovinformburo" published a message from the words of the captive sergeant major Friedrich Steiger. The occupier, contrary to official instructions, not only admitted that he was serving in the 2nd company of a separate battalion of the 293rd German Infantry Division, but also spoke about the circumstances of the incident. According to the sergeant major, having received the order to destroy the partisan detachment, which periodically attacked the convoys with provisions and ammunition, he went on reconnaissance to find the partisan camp. However, the partisans had an advantage - a better knowledge of the area, thanks to which they tracked down the Nazis earlier than they did.
In the last years of the war, the "Fritzes" began to more willingly give out operational information to the partisans. Some Germans even went over to the side and helped them to commit sabotage against their compatriots.
An eye for an eye?
On April 19, 1943, when a turning point was outlined in the course of the Great Patriotic War, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appeared with a long title "On measures of punishment for German fascist villains guilty of murder and torture of the Soviet civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the motherland. from among Soviet citizens and for their accomplices”. According to the decree, "fascist villains convicted of murder and torture of the civilian population and prisoners of the Red Army, as well as spies and traitors to the motherland from among Soviet citizens are punishable by death by hanging." And further: “To carry out the execution of sentences publicly, in front of the people, and leave the bodies of the hanged on the gallows for several days, so that everyone knows how they are punished and what retribution will befall everyone,who commits violence and reprisals against the civilian population and who betrays their homeland."
“The essence of the decree is to treat the fascists the way they treat our people,” says Viktor Ivanov, professor at the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University. - It looked like revenge, but in the harsh conditions of wartime, this position of the Soviet authorities was completely justified.
Although there are some nuances here. According to the professor, the German invaders publicly executed the partisans and those who helped them. However, from the point of view of international law, partisans, in modern terms, are illegal armed groups. As for the prisoners of the Red Army, they were usually not killed, although many died of hunger, disease, and unbearable working conditions. The German command believed that they did not seem to exist, because, unlike Germany, the Soviet Union did not sign the 1929 Geneva Convention, which regulates how prisoners of war should be treated. Joseph Stalin is credited with the following phrase: "We have no prisoners, but there are traitors and traitors to the homeland." Therefore, the fascists treated the captured British, Americans and French more humanely than Soviet citizens.
“Realizing all this, the Soviet authorities strove to ensure that people who did not commit serious crimes did not fall under the decree: enemy soldiers and officers who were only doing their military duty,” says Viktor Ivanov. - Investigators, prosecutors, judges were instructed to prepare these processes very carefully.
After the decree was issued, Smersh investigators began to work in the liberated territories. They tried to identify the persons who committed terrible crimes. Then this information was sent to the camps where the German prisoners of war were. The suspects were detained.
By the way
Anti-partisan operations in 1943 delayed a large-scale German offensive against Kursk. To break the resistance, the German command even had to use elite units such as the 7th Division. More than 500 thousand people died.
On March 10, 1943, the field gendarmerie of the 7th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht noted the following case: a volunteer from the maintenance of public order during the escape wounded one and shot two non-commissioned officers. The conclusion read: "It can be said with almost certainty that he was associated with the partisans and allowed himself to be recruited only to distract attention." Moreover: "It is assumed that the entire civilian population provided assistance to the partisans."
The 7th Infantry Division was soon to come under the command of Colonel General Walter Model and join the 9th Army for the planned offensive on Kursk. Since the attack on the Soviet Union, this unit has fought on the Eastern Front. After the failed attack on Moscow, it was practically destroyed, as was recorded in one of the reports.
It was badly damaged during the battles in 1942, so that by the beginning of 1943 it was already unusable for military operations. Since the 7th division formed in Bavaria belonged to the elite troops, it was given the opportunity, as part of the spring draft, to organize and train its soldiers and put in order its weapons.
In late March, the unit announced its "full combat readiness". With a population of 15 thousand people, it was supposed to hold a section of the front 27 kilometers long. The 7th Infantry Division belonged to the units whose documents have survived, at least those that were drawn up before the beginning of 1944. They are in the military archives of Freiburg im Breisgau. In these papers you can find a detailed chronicle of battles and deaths during the last large-scale offensive of the German army in the East - Operation Citadel - and the subsequent retreat.