German command: "Kill all Russian." Part of 1
At the end of the first year, all students were sent to the village of Zolotaya Kosa, an educational institution that previously belonged to an agricultural institute. The German Uchkhoz was turned into a state estate, the manager of which was a German officer. Military discipline was introduced. The students lived in a barracks position, receiving uniforms of German soldiers. Every day a duty officer was appointed to the state farm, who kept order, and at night the students patrolled the stables. In the mornings, despite the rain, wind, frost or snow, the students ran a few kilometers, “doing sports”. Lacked in the race or did not appear for a jog beat. The head of the uchkhoz (“chief”) often attended classes and interviewed students. Those who did not know the material or who answered in the wrong way were punished for any offenses. Forced to do the dirty work: wash the floors, clean the stables and horses. Lyudmila concludes her essay with gratitude to the Red Army for the liberation of the city, for the fact that the children “returned to school. Our gratitude to the Red Army will be our excellent study, exemplary behavior and assistance to the front. ”
School essays of the Great Patriotic War - a specific type of sources about the wartime and wartime childhood. “Undoubtedly, essays are subjective and cannot be an absolutely reliable source for recreating the school practices of the affected period. The children themselves didn’t see much of this, scooping up information from adult stories from media reports. Personal experience of experiences was represented by schoolchildren not directly, but through the prism of children's memory with all its features, ”says historian A.Yu. Rozhkov. Nevertheless, these materials are unique sources about the epoch, reflecting the subjective experiences of childhood experiences, which have a testimonial value.
Drafts of works for the hand-written magazine “Taganrog in the Occupation”, found in the Taganrog branch of the State Archive of the Rostov Region (hereinafter - TF GARO) were analyzed. The magazine was prepared by teachers and students of schools in the Leninsky district of the city of Taganrog (No. 2, 3, 15) and transferred to the city executive committee at the end of 1943 - the beginning of 1944. In total, 29 essays were analyzed - 27 essays of schoolchildren and two essays written for teachers by the magazine. These are mainly compositions of students of 5 (6 compositions), 6 (5 compositions) and 7 (8 compositions) classes. Three essays were written by tenth-graders and one essay by a student of the 3 class. Authorship of four works could not be established.
Schoolchildren described their experiences after the occupation regime ended. The historian Rozhkov suggests that after being released, "many of their assessments of the experience and tactics of representing emotional reactions were morally constructed, based on the adolescents' awareness of the results of the occupation period, which left deep scars in their memory." A.Yu. Rozhkov also points to the need to take into account the high degree of influence of official Soviet propaganda, the influence of significant adults on the design of children's writings, as well as increased emotionality and active work of the imagination. However, these circumstances do not diminish the value of children's descriptions of the experience, as they allow children to see the perception of the surrounding reality.
The first thing you should pay attention - the names of the works. They convey the overall mood of each work: hatred of the enemy, thirst for revenge, joy of liberation, grief for the dead. Among the analyzed works most often the following titles are found: “Never to forget”, “Taganrog in the occupation”, “Under the Germans”, “The horrors of the occupation”. Other names, although they are found only once, are more original in their meaning: “To fascist penal servitude”, “Komsomol members know how to die for their Motherland”, “Immortal feat”, “How our school died”, “How our father died”.
It can be assumed that the themes of the essay were given by the teacher. At the same time, the children had the opportunity to choose their own topic, not describing the occupation of Taganrog as a whole, but a separate case from their own lives (or the lives of their relatives and friends) in occupied Taganrog. Probably, the children were instructed by the teacher about the main content of the essays. Nevertheless, many students described in their own way the events that took place and the individual experiences associated with them, while remaining within the boundaries set by the teacher or society.
Most of the works contain several typical semantic blocks: 1) the battle for the city and the seizure of Taganrog by the German army, the beginning of the occupation; 2) a description of the crimes of the Nazis; 3) life in the occupation, the hope of liberation; 4) the flight of the enemy and the arrival of units of the Red Army. Part of the essays are devoted to certain aspects of life in occupied Taganrog: 1) crimes of the fascists; 2) hijacking a job in Germany; 3) feats of underground workers and ordinary citizens; 4) life and study in the agricultural school.
The war, which had previously seemed distant and incomprehensible, came close to Taganrog at the end of September 1941. The children saw the reasons for the Soviet defeats in the first months of the war in the suddenness of the attack, the qualitative and quantitative preponderance of the enemy troops: “Sudden attack”; “The unexpected attack of the personnel army of the Germans forced our Red Army to temporarily leave some part of our territory. And this gave a reason for the German leaders to shout about a “blinding” war, and about the “invincibility” of the German army. ” “At that moment, they had a qualitative and quantitative superiority in manpower and equipment, since almost all the countries of Western Europe occupied. Psychological attacks, with the support of the SS, the Nazis moved forward, occupying Soviet cities and villages. "
October 17 the Nazis entered the city. For the residents began the terrible and endless 22 of the month of the “new order” that took the lives of tens of thousands of peaceful Taganrozh people: “You remember this time with horror and shudder”; "22 of the month of heavy sleep, continuous nightmare"; “The Taganrog occupation newspaper Novoye Slovo was straining, urging the population to work to strengthen the German army, wrote about the“ great care of the Führer ”about the Russian people, about the“ unprecedented victories ”of the German troops.” Following in the work to create a contradiction is a quote from the appeal of the German command to the soldiers: "Kill every Russian."
The overwhelming majority of the writings are characterized by emotional coverage of the occupation, a description of the resilience of the will of local residents, and hatred of the enemy. Capturing the city, the "liberators" immediately began to establish a new regime. The overall impression of the fascists and their activities was extremely difficult: “The Germans destroyed the House of Specialists and a number of new schools, and in the park they set up their own cemetery”; “The Germans burned down the Palace of the Pioneers, the commandant’s offices and headquarters organized the school buildings”; “The occupants ravaged their native city, cut down our beautiful park, destroyed schools and many houses”.
Shortly after the beginning of the occupation, the Nazis began to rob the local population: “As soon as the Germans entered the city, the looting began in the city. The Germans, like hungry wolves, were scouring their homes and taking everything that came handy. They covered their robberies with a lie that it was robbed by Russians who were dressed in German uniforms ”; “With anger and hatred, we looked at the German burglars who robbed apartments, chased pigs, chickens, geese, like hungry wolves. We could not evacuate and suffered the need for captivity. ”
Taganrozhtsy had to go through a massive theft of the working population in Germany. The labor exchange was called "the gateway to hell." The word "exchange" frightened students of few schools. To avoid being hijacked for work, young people were shipped by sea to the free territory of the USSR, where they became partisans, joined the Red Army.
In the essay of Viktor Makarov, a description of the trip to work in Germany is given. During transportation, the hijacked persons were tolerated only up to the border with Poland. After leaving Warsaw, it became worse to feed: once every three days they gave one bun for five people. Brought to the city of Wuppertal - the center of the chemical industry. Everyone there was settled in the barracks for 40 people each, fed with soup (“water”) and bread (200 g), beaten about and without cause. People worked from 4 to 22 hours. Those hijacked were allowed to write letters home. People wrote that they were well treated. They did it either voluntarily (because of the fear of punishment), or by agreement reached in advance with the family: if he writes that everything is good, then everything is bad. Viktor managed to deceive the medical commission that checked arrivals before being assigned to work. He pulled his legs with ropes so that they swelled up. For four days he was kept in a quarantine hut, and then sent back home. On the way back, the situation was the same: they began to tolerate treatment only after crossing the Polish border. Victor is one of the few who managed to survive after a trip to work in Germany. And although he spent a little time in Germany, the text implies the attitude of the Germans to those who were hijacked to hard labor.
Some writings describe the feats of local residents and underground workers. So, Tamara Romanova from 5 "A" class describes the incident that occurred on October 17 1941. When the Germans entered the city, one of the locals threw two grenades at the Germans. Three soldiers were injured, one officer was killed. Immediately this unknown person, whose name was not indicated in the essay, put a bullet in his forehead.
In another essay, it is described how, during the preparation of sending to work in Germany, members of the underground secretly slid every leaflet calling for the people to prevent the hijacking to Germany. The turmoil began. The policemen, in whose pockets these leaflets also turned out, began a search, but could not catch anyone.
Lydia Alekseeva from 7 class of school No. 15 writes about the underground workers who studied at the agricultural school: “The school was a model of German“ culture ”,“ order ”and“ education ”. 120 students studied in it, among which 75-80% were members of the Komsomol who made the core of the underground organization. ” 17 students were underground fighters, they were calculated and shot.
In one of the essays is a letter from the underground worker Nikolai Kuznetsov to his mother. On the eve of his execution, his friend in prison had memorized this letter, and then handed Nicholas to his relatives. The letter said: “Soon, lights will be lit on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and the Red Army will be in Taganrog. On that side they know about us and they remember about us. ”
Lyudmila Chazovaya from the 10 class of the 2 school tells about her life and studies in an open agricultural school by the Germans. She points out that "many young men and women of our city, in order to avoid being sent to Germany, entered the agricultural school", in which they trained agronomists. The school taught subjects exclusively related to this specialty. Lyudmila writes: “This teaching was absolutely not like teaching in our Soviet schools and educational institutions. Here they tried to turn us into obedient and unquestioning performers of the will of the German masters. ”
The brightest and happiest memories of children relate specifically to events related to the liberation of the city. 14 February 1943, the Soviet troops liberated the regional center Rostov-on-Don, but for another half a year there were battles on the Mius-front to bring freedom to the Taganrozh people. Leonid Tarovsky wrote an essay "Liberation": "The city felt tense, and every day the tension increased. The Germans were leaving the city: the lead thunderclouds hung over them of popular revenge. Above the city flashed a ray of speedy release. 29 August, on Sunday, began the wholesale flight of Germans from the city. Policemen, “civilized” savages, fled, fleeing, burned down factories, schools and the best buildings of the city ”.
Many essays contain words of gratitude to the Red Army for the liberation of the city: "Everyone was waiting for the arrival of the Red Army, all two years of occupation"; "Joy filled the hearts."
One of the students quotes Stalin's words: “The Red Army has become angrier and merciless. They understood that it was impossible to defeat the enemy without learning to hate him with all the forces of the soul. ” Children call the Red Army "the united fist of the peoples of the USSR". Schoolchildren called on Soviet soldiers to avenge the Germans for them. The children declared that they themselves would take revenge too, but in their own way: “I take my interest in studying well at school.” At the same time, schoolchildren mourned for the dead: "relatives, friends, those who could not meet the Soviet army."
To be continued ...
Использованная литература:
Ageeva V.A. Pages of school everyday life of the city of N ... in 1943-1945. (on the materials of the personal wartime diary by ME Galakh-Muravyova) // Radical change in the Great Patriotic War: the 70 anniversary of the liberation of the Don and the North Caucasus: materials of the International Scientific Conference (Rostov-on-Don, 6-7 June 2013 g.). Rostov-on-Don, 2013. C. 301.
Rozhkov A.Yu. School essays on the experiences during the occupation of Krasnodar (February 1945) // Past years. 2010. No. 2. C. 88.
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