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Kurt Steinger took a photo with his father and sister when he was young.
Kurt Steininger (Kurt Steininger), born in 1930. On April 1, 1945, the Third Reich was on the verge of collapse, and the Nazi authorities were still frantically plundering manpower to fill the defense line. Even the 14-year-old Steinger was recruited into the army and became an Defense Forces soldier...
Today's Kurt Steinger.
html At the end of April, my troops were transferred to Stralsund (Stralsund) for defensive tasks. Everyone marched on foot. After nightfall, they spent the night in an anti-aircraft artillery camp. The next morning, a total of 35 soldiers were sent to the sentry position in Rambin, including two of my fellow countrymen. We are lucky that those who stayed in the barracks went elsewhere and seemed to die.
late war anti-tank unit.
A team of young soldiers at the end of the war, when both Germany and the Soviet Union, human resources were on the verge of exhaustion.
Some veterans ran to us, shouting, "Fuck you run! If you don't run, you will die! The Russians are here!"
I replied, "I won't run, I want to witness the final victory!"
At this time, Greifswald (Greifswald) had announced that they had given up resistance. Everyone over there was running for life. Refugees who had previously escaped from Pomerania had to continue to run away. The streets were full of people carrying large and small bags of luggage. We evacuated our position and took a break in front of a school. At this time, the Soviet army had arrived. They found obstacles set by the German army on the road, so they pushed them over from the fields.
I went back and rode my bicycle and tried to distance myself from the Soviet army. The Soviet army tank had already driven to the entrance of the village. They threatened the defenders in the village to put down their weapons. As long as they dared to fire a shot, no one would want to survive... All surrendered, fuck.
I rode forward for another period, then pushed the bicycle and the bazooka into the ditch, and then ran away. Another comrade also threw down his bicycle and ran after me. I ran towards the forest, and he ran to the main road, and the Soviet army opened fire at us. At this time, I tripped and fell, but luckily dodged the bullet, and then got up and ran into the forest. My fellow countrymen thought I was beaten to death, but later they told my mother that I had died.
People's stormtroopers riding their bicycles to the front line. Their bicycles have been modified and two sets of fixtures for carrying "Iron Fist" anti-tank bazooka were installed on the faucet.
I hid in the woods all day, and at night I met some comrades in my arms, and everyone got together again. On May 1, we were ordered to go to Rügen again. The road was an endless rapeseed field. The rapeseed flowers were in full bloom and shone with golden light under the sunlight.
We are brave soldiers, we are not afraid of anyone, and we can block bullets for the head of state. Even if we die, it doesn’t matter - we have received this kind of education since we were young. Since we started school, we have already started to receive queues and military training. On April 20, the yen's birthday, a military parade was held at our training camp. The comrades were about the same age as me, and they were not even as old as those of the Youth League. This is the last reserve team of the Empire. It depends on us to win!
German Youth League consists of 10-14-year-old German or German male teenagers.
Such people are completely unreliable...
After arriving in Rügen, we were pulled to Sassnitz again, and the ten-ton cargo ship Frederi was parked there waiting for us to board the ship. There are already more than 5,000 people on the ship, there is no lifeboat , no life jacket, nothing. The ship drove from the high seas to Denmark's Copenhagen , and was not allowed to disembark after arriving at the port.
htmlOn May 8, we were finally allowed to leave the ship, but were loaded on another cargo ship and transported back to Laboe, Germany. The conditions of this ship are even worse, there are no beds, blankets and pillows, so everyone can only sleep on the deck. There are exactly a row of rivets under me, which is very uncomfortable.
I took a boat for 14 days. I was so hot during the day and cold at night. The food was only the soup provided by the field kitchen. The meal was very irregular. It was such a virtue to go on a long trip for the first time in such a big time. It was so terrible. On May 18, the freighter was pulled to the shore by a towboat and was immediately captured by the British army. The British army blew up the turbine equipment on the ship. It seems that they don't want to take us back to the local area. There are too many Germans there.
The British army escorted us to a farm cattle shed 35 kilometers away and were imprisoned. To the east was the Soviet occupied area. My hometown, Schönfeld, was also in that direction. The British did not release any prisoners of war living in the east and returned home. Those who lived in the west were released. I had to think of a solution.
I got into the line in front of the POW severance office. I asked the child in front of me. His name was Alfons: "Where is your hometown?"
"Cloppenburg".
"Do you have any uncles or uncles in your hometown?"
I remembered his uncle's name and insisted that I came from Clopenburg and got away with it! The British army sent us food for 4 days, and severance fee , and then used a small truck to pull us to Oldenburg. After getting off the car, Alphons and I walked towards Clopenburg.
After the food is eaten up, we catch the snails along the way to satisfy our hunger. After catching the snail, we throw it into the can box and add water to cook it. In a restaurant, I also used my severance fee to buy a bottle of cider - in fact, our severance fee was the military pay that the Germans had not had time to give us. It was about 5 empire marks a day, and the salary was paid as usual during the detention period, so I had a total of 70 marks. In the restaurant, I also met a few people I met on the boat before, and Paul, a mill apprentice, was going back to Clopenburg, so we walked with him. After arriving at the mill where Paul worked before, Paul stood at the door and muttered a few words, and then the miller came out. When he saw us, he shouted at the inner room: "Mom, mom, our guest is here!"
Steingor's prisoner of war release certificate and military pay collection certificate.
The table was soon filled with delicious food, almost crushing the table. We were so hungry at that time that we ate all the food. We ate too much food, so we couldn't stop vomiting all night... Alphons's father is a farmer here. He has four children and the house is crowded, but he doesn't care about one more.So I stayed to help Alphons' family do farm work. At this time, he was 16 years old and I was 15 years old. We became very good friends.
Our neighbor also took in a veteran. He planned to go home until October. I said, "You have a fucking bird shit in your head, right? Do you want to go back and be your companion with the Russians?" However, later, due to homesickness, I changed my mind. At the banquet where everyone gave him away, I proposed to go back with him.
We took the train to Göttingen (Göttingen), first stayed at the veteran's relative's house for a few days, and then went to his parents' house. After saying goodbye to the veterans' family, I took advantage of the dark and sneaked into the train station in Heiligenstadt and hid in the brake room of a car. When I was about to arrive in Neubrandenburg, I saw a very large prisoner of war camp, and I was still glad that I had escaped. I didn't know that a bigger pit was waiting for me to fall into my hometown.
A German Empire railway freight carriage with a braking room. In the early use of railways, the train would have such a carriage every few sections. The brakes would perform braking operations according to the signal sent by the driver. Their working conditions are very difficult, and the brake room is cold in winter and hot in summer, and the tragedy of brakes freezing to death occur frequently. After the popularization of pneumatic brakes in the 20s, the braking capacity of trains has been greatly improved. The braking of the entire train can be controlled by the driver in the locomotive cab. The braking with the vehicle is cancelled, and the braking room is useless. However, sometimes, the escorts and staff who accompany the vehicle will still stay in the braking room.
After returning to my hometown, I helped my father do farm work and drove the carriage to the fields every day. At this time, my hometown had undergone land reform, and my family also had a piece of land. The original rich peasants had fled, and the people who stayed behind took their land and farm for themselves. One day, I had an argument with the son of an activist. He said, "There will be all mine in the future!" I retorted him: "You kid should just go to pigs with me honestly."
Later I was punished - 80% of the kid sued me! Someone insisted that I was a "wewolf" sent by the remnants of the Nazis (trained sabotage) and returned to the village to cause sabotage. One day, when I got home, my mother hurriedly rushed me out: "Kurt, what evil have you committed outside? The Russians have come to catch you, run away!" I said: "Let the Russians kiss my butt!" - As a result, the Russians are waiting for me in the inner room, "Let's go with us?"
"I won't leave, I did nothing!!!"
The front page headline of the German newspaper "Frontline and Back" in April 1945 was "The Werewolf is here!".
No matter how I resisted, the Russians stuffed me into the jeep and pulled me to the NKVD branch of Bennien. There was no need for trial and I was too lazy to listen to any explanation, so they threw me into the prisoner-of-war camp in Fünfeichen. On the road, a prisoner jumped off the car and ran away. The Soviets went to chase him, but they didn't catch up, so they drove forward for almost a kilometer. They saw two people walking on the road ahead, so they stopped, grabbed one of them and threw them into the truck, and then filled in the number of prisoners, pretending that no one was running away on the road.
Five Oak Prisoners of War Camp detained more than 12,000 people, including more than 500 female prisoners who were detained alone. They were all at a loss and were all at a loss. They were like me, not knowing why they came, and only potato and cabbage soup was drunk every day.
Five Oak Prison Camp, which was previously the IIA Prison Camp in Germany, and later became the 9th Ad Hoc Prison Camp of NKVD, used to detain Nazi sympathizers and various "social instability factors".
The reason is actually very simple - labour camp needs to replenish the labor force. The guards selected the prisoners who were quite despised. They had diarrhea and fever at the time. I was one of them, who was walking step by step. The Russian doctor in charge of the examination just glanced at me and waved his hand to let me go. I was counted as the second-class prisoner of war, and I was a little lucky than the first-class. Those people were transported to Vorkuta, 7,000 kilometers east of Moscow to mine.
Still one meal after another of potato and cabbage soup. As soon as the meal started, everyone sat on the tree stump and ate while it was hot, and lie on the sand after eating. The prisoner-of-war camp was surrounded by barbed wire. Once the Soviet army found that someone crossed the line, they would definitely shoot. Once, a prisoner of war woke up and swung to the barbed wire, stretched out his hand and wanted to pull out the lettuce outside to eat. His behavior was discovered by the guards on the guardhouse, and he was shot without saying a word.
I became a camp firefighter and could walk around, which was somewhat freer than others. Others could only move in the prescribed area. If the fire is found, the people from the camp fire brigade should rush over and put out the fire as soon as possible. If the fire spreads, everyone will have to finish the game.
The beds in the prison camp are all three-layer wooden beds, without mats, and it is extremely cold in winter. There was no firewood in the camp, and someone would steal other people's bed boards as firewood. The whole room was filled with bed bugs and flea . I almost swallowed my life. It was not until I was released that I found a way to get a quilt. I drilled in at night and sealed my mouth. The bugs couldn't come in, so I slept for a few good nights.
The interior of the barracks painted by the Soviet prisoners of war before the camp of the Five Oaks and the scene when the soup was released.
In the prisoner-of-war camp, you can do nothing except starve. Later, a cement wall was built in the camp and divided the camp into two. The North Camp detained criminals. The Soviets did not allow them to work, and the conditions were very poor. The prisoners of war in the Southern Camp were slightly better and could work under the surveillance of the Soviets. We also worked in the camps of the Soviet tank troops.
Before the Soviets took us to work, they would always ask, "Who has worked as an electrician?" As a result, almost everyone in the camp said that they were electricians, and later the work became more and more difficult, and the "electricians" gradually disappeared, but I still went there every time. No matter what, there is no harm in going out for a walk. If you can find an opportunity, you might even ask someone to send a message home.
Once I went to the camp infirmary and went there just to wait for "recovery by yourself". There was nothing, and in the end I was lucky if I didn't go into the mass trap.
The most concerned prisoners are food. They will be given 200 grams of bread every morning and will be eaten up in an instant. At noon, everyone will get about one liter of soup and cook whatever they have, but the most common ones are cabbage soup and potato cabbage soup. As for supper, it doesn't exist.
When I was released from the Five Oaks Prisoners Camp, I was so hungry that I could not walk anymore. I was still wearing the clothes when I was arrested, but there was an extra hat on my head. The hat was sewn by myself with needles and thread and stolen rags. The prisoners' heads were always shaved and there was nothing I could do. The guards did not allow prisoners to exchange things privately, and in winter there was not even a coat.
I was in the Five Oaks Prisoners Camp for 4 years and completely broke off contact with my family, as if I was dead. My parents thought I was taken to the Soviet Union, but I could neither pass on messages nor write letters. In this regard, the prisoners of war locked in Siberia are better than us, and they can at least send letters to their homes.
There are many peers who are detained with me. We are not old, but when we return to society, we act like ancient people who have traveled to the modern times. We would walk around from time to time, and some people still made friends inside, but I and them were all common friends.In the Five Oak Prison Camp, I also met the former mayor of Userin. He liked me as his son-in-law and asked me to go home with him in the future and inherit his farm.
We made some playing cards and chess with waste paper and other things to pass the time. Almost half of the people in the camp failed to get through. The former mayor passed away later. They were all thrown into a mass pit, sprinkled with lime and then filled. So, I couldn't be regarded as his son-in-law. Later, when I was a construction worker, I was still spending a wall for the mayor's daughter... and her husband's house.
The center of the camp is the sink, which is the same as the tank for feeding cattle. Everyone is washing there, without soap, and shaving their heads is more convenient.
After I was released from prison, my release certificate document stated that I was released from the Five Oak Tree and I didn’t dare to ask me anywhere. My wife accompanied me to the shipyard to find a job. When the people in the shipyard looked at the documents, they said, "It came out of Five Oaks. We dare not ask you. You should just make a different goal." Fortunately, my wife is a party member, and she has many ways. Later, we moved to Stralsund together, where I first worked as a municipal worker and then became a construction worker apprentice. A year later, I passed the exam and became a formal construction worker.
Kurt Steinger later became a teacher and is still alive in 2021.
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