Field Marshal Paulus lived out his life with the stigma of Judas. The life of Field Marshal Paulus in Soviet captivity

German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who commanded the 6th Army and surrendered after fierce fighting and encirclement at Stalingrad, actively cooperated with the Soviet Union, which greatly annoyed Hitler. German propaganda arranged a solemn funeral for the living Paulus at home, and Nazi saboteurs repeatedly tried to kill him. Volgograd writer Yury Mishatkin told about how it was.

Wand on the lid

“It is known that the Stalingrad Chekists prevented an attempt on the life of prisoner No. 1 - Field Marshal Paulus,” the writer recalls. - The day before the complete collapse of the encircled 6th Army, Paulus was awarded the highest rank of Field Marshal by Hitler's order. The calculation was simple - not a single top German commander surrendered. The Fuhrer intended to push the "heroic field marshal" at least to continue the resistance and possible suicide.
Already in early February, the Nazi authorities in Germany hastily declared a nationwide mourning for the 6th Army that had died on the Volga. Hitler's propaganda declared Paulus himself to have died heroically. In the hall of one of the Berlin town halls, a luxuriously decorated empty coffin with a Kaiser's helmet on the lid, symbolizing the martyrdom of a German commander. At the symbolic funeral of Paulus, Hitler personally hoisted a symbolic marshal's baton, which was not handed to the ex-commander, on the coffin lid. However, as you know, in reality, Paulus decided to do everything his own way. He personally gave the order to the army entrusted to him to stop resistance and himself surrendered together with the headquarters.

Fake underground

A couple of years after being captured in the basement of a Stalingrad department store, Paulus began to actively help the Red Army in organizing counter-propaganda. Widely known are his anti-Nazi appeals and leaflets, which the Nazis declared fakes. In them, the ex-field marshal called on the German people to eliminate Adolf Hitler and end the war. And right after the crash Nazi Germany it was Paulus who became one of the main witnesses for the Soviet prosecution on Nuremberg Trials, he himself was not charged with any war crimes.

“Few people know, but Hitler did his best to eliminate the captured “comrade-in-arms” physically, I learned this from documentary archives, memoirs of the Chekists,” says Mishatkin. - For example, literally in February 1943, in the rear of the Red Army near Stalingrad from the air, large group Hitler's saboteurs. Twenty well-trained, as they would say now, special forces thugs. They were given the task of physically eliminating all captured German military leaders by any means, Paulus in the first place.
According to the researcher, the KGB figured out the landing point very quickly and eliminated the landing force in battle just as quickly. Literally a few months later, the Nazis repeated an attempt to "get" the captured field marshal with a similar sabotage and fighter group near Suzdal. It was in this city that the camp "VIP - prisoners of war" was located at that time. And again, the complete failure of the fighter mission.

“The details of the extermination of the Paulus liquidator detachment near Stalingrad are still poorly understood,” the writer explains. - In my work "The Hunt for the Field Marshal" I decided to allow a free reception. He talked about how the Nazis, dressed as Red Army soldiers, got used to the rear of "ours" and established contact with the fake "White Guard underground", the role of which was played by experienced Chekists. But in fact, everything was more banal. I don't like violent scenes. He preferred the version that the Chekists "outplayed" the Nazis intellectually.

One of the authors of the Barbarossa plan, field marshal, and finally, the commander of the surrendering army near Stalingrad Friedrich Paulus Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus in German, born September 23, 1890 in Breitenau.

His father was an accountant in the prison of Kassel, the young boy graduated from the Kaiser Wilhelm Gymnasium in this town in 1909 and receives a certificate. Then he enters the University of Munich at the Department of Law, where he attended two semesters in the specialty of jurisprudence. Without completing his studies, young Friedrich, in February 1910, entered the service of an infantry regiment as a fanen-junker, where, with the help of his colleagues, he met his future wife.

Elena Solescu ( full name Elena-Constance Rosetti-Solescu), was much younger than her husband and was a real Romanian aristocrat. Thanks to her skill and tact, she was able to instill real noble manners in her husband. It is safe to say that their marriage was a decisive factor in the subsequent career of the future military leader.

Regiment Paulus met in France, where he continued to serve in the mountain infantry as a staff officer. I met the end of the war as a captain.

After that, he occupies various military posts - from the commander of a motorized regiment to the chief of staff of tank formations. At this time, he serves under the command, who at that time was already a lieutenant general. By May 1939, he was promoted, now he is a major general and chief of staff of the 10th Army.

Second World War. Paulus meets her beginning in Poland, and a little later he acts as part of the army in Belgium and the Netherlands. There is a change in the numbering of the armies and the tenth army will become the sixth. After that, the military leader serves in various positions in the general staff. At this time, he is instructed to develop a plan of attack on the USSR, which he is engaged in from July to December 18, 1940.

Military operations are in full swing against Soviet Union, and Paulus is appointed commander of the army in which he served, because. W. Reichenau was removed from this post. The army at this time is on the eastern front. At this time, Paulus is awarded the Knight's Cross. During the summer and autumn of 1942, the army under his command was part of Group B of the German group, which conducted military operations in the southern sector of the front, and in the autumn of the same year began military operations in the Stalingrad region.

It was here that the army of Paulus was surrounded Soviet troops. Being in the besieged city, the commander is trying to persuade Hitler to leave the city, indicating that this is the only correct decision in this case. He insists that the army under his leadership try to get out of the encirclement. However, Hitler categorically forbade Paulus to even think about leaving the city, promising the latter that an uninterrupted supply of ammunition and food to the army would be established through the air bridge. Despite these assurances, and the promises of Hitler and Göring remained only assurances. The bridge was never built.

At the direction of Hitler in January 1943, Paulus was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Iron Cross, and at the end of the month he was awarded the rank of field marshal. Sending him a radiogram with congratulations, he pointed out that Paulus was the first German field marshal to be captured. Hitler, thus, hinted to him to commit suicide, but Paulus did not go for it, which he never regretted in the future. At the end of January 1943, he was arrested and taken to Beketovka, where he was interrogated on the same day.

After that, the field marshal is held captive in various camps of the former Soviet Union, the last place where he was was a sanatorium in Suzdal. It was in this former sanatorium that the field marshal's bowel disease began to progress; he had been repeatedly operated on for this disease. However, despite his illness, he refused individual nutrition. All the prisoners who were in this "sanatorium" were engaged in creativity.

Every day he was processing about giving consent to cooperation with the authorities, but he did not make a deal with his conscience. Beria received daily reports of his movements. After the conspirators against Hitler were shot in Berlin, he signs an appeal to German soldiers. Presumably their role in decision played a letter received from his wife from Berlin. He begins to actively speak on the radio, calling on German soldiers to fight against Hitler. Now there was no going back. His behavior affected his family as well. The Gestapo promptly arrests his son, a Wehrmacht captain, and his wife because she refused to renounce Paulus. He would never see his wife again, because in 1949 she would die in the American Occupation Zone, in Baden-Baden. About her death, he learns a month later.

Paulus becomes a personal prisoner of Stalin and lives in a dacha in Tomilino near Moscow. After the leader's death in October 1953, Paulus leaves for Berlin with his cook and orderly. Here he starts teaching activities trying to show their loyalty to the socialist system.

Field Marshal Paulus died of sound mind on the eve of anniversary defeat of his army on February 1, 1957. The urn with the ashes of the commander was buried next to the grave of his wife in Baden-Baden.

In icy January 1943, the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht, which once took Paris, and in 1941 victoriously entered Kyiv, could feel like Cinderella, who did not have time to return from the ball before midnight - nothing was left of its former grandeur and splendor, the carriage turned into a pumpkin , and no glass slipper could save the day.

doomed to die

However, in the army of Paulus there are practically no people left capable of beautiful figurative comparisons. After the counterattack of the Red Army in November 1942, the Nazis were isolated in the "boiler". Field Marshal Manstein's attempt to release Paulus's army during Operation Winter Storm in December 1942 failed.

The "air bridge", through which the 6th Army was supplied, did not provide even half of the needs of the German group in the Stalingrad region. In addition, under the blows of the Soviet troops, one after another, airfields that could receive transport aircraft were lost.

To new year holidays troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st Soviet armies reached the line Tormosin, Zhukovskaya, Kommisarovsky, advancing 100-150 km, and completed the defeat of the 4th Romanian army.

As a result, the front moved away from the encircled army of Paulus by almost 200 kilometers.

Surrounded were aware that this was the end. The German group consisted of 250 thousand soldiers, 4130 guns and mortars, 300 tanks, 100 aircraft, but it no longer represented a formidable force.

The norms for issuing food in the 6th Army were constantly reduced. According to the testimony of German prisoners of war, in the last period of the existence of the Stalingrad cauldron, the norms for issuing bread in different units ranged from 25 to 100 grams per day.

Hungry, frostbitten, sick people were in a state close to complete despair.

Operation Ring

At the end of December 1942, the Soviet command completed the development of Operation Ring, a plan to finally defeat the Paulus army. The Don Front, which consisted of 212 thousand people, 6860 guns and mortars, 257 tanks and 300 aircraft, was entrusted with liquidating the Stalingrad group.

The plan of operation "Ring" provided for striking first with western direction, and then from the south, subsequently cut the remaining troops in two and destroy them piece by piece.

On January 8, 1943, the truce handed over to the Germans a surrender proposal signed by Colonel General Rokossovsky and Marshal of Artillery Voronov. Paulus' armies offered “honorable surrender, provision of adequate food, care for the wounded, preservation of weapons officers, repatriation after the war to Germany or any other country.

Paulus, knowing what the answer would follow, nevertheless requested Berlin. Hitler, of course, demanded to defend Stalingrad to the end.

On January 10, 1943, Operation Ring began. German troops put up fierce resistance, but the territory controlled by the Nazis continued to decline steadily.

On January 14, 1943, the advancing units captured the Pitomnik airfield, the main landing site, which was still receiving cargo for the encircled. A week later, Gumrak was captured, the last site that received transport workers.

"Where are your regiments, general?"

Now German aviation tried to help those surrounded by dropping cargo by parachute. Part of the cargo fell on Soviet positions, and the Nazis were ready to attack out of desperation, only to recapture some food.

Discipline in the German units no longer existed. Not spitting on orders, Paulus's soldiers began to surrender in whole units.

On January 25, 1943, units of the 21st Army entered Stalingrad from the west. On January 26, they connected with the troops of the 62nd Army, which had been holding the defense for many months in Stalingrad, in the area of ​​​​Mamaev Kurgan.

The army of Paulus ceased to exist as a single entity, being divided into northern and southern groups.

After that, the surrender took on a mass character.

German General Moritz von Drebber, surrendering, heard from the Soviet officer who accepted the surrender, the question: "Where are your regiments, general?"

Drebber pointed to standing next to a handful of sick and exhausted Germans, and answered: “Do you need to explain where my shelves are?”

“I have no desire to shoot myself for this Bohemian corporal”

The command of the 6th Army, which turned out to be part of the southern group, was relocated to the basement of the building of the Stalingrad department store. This area was defended by the 71st Infantry Division of General Rosske.

In the last days of January, Soviet intelligence knew both the location of Paulus's headquarters and his condition. The commander was on edge nervous breakdown, and also tormented by dysentery. The control of the troops actually passed into the hands of the chief of staff, General Arthur Schmidt, through whose efforts the agony of the 6th Army was delayed.

On the initiative of Schmidt, on January 29, a radiogram was sent to Berlin on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Hitler's coming to power:

“The 6th Army congratulates its Fuhrer on a glorious anniversary! The swastika flag still flies over Stalingrad. May our struggle serve as an edification to present and future generations. Even in a hopeless situation, the Reich soldier does not give up! Heil, my Fuhrer! Paulus".

The next day, Paulus was promoted to field marshal, and Hitler ordered his troops "defend" to the last soldier and the last cartridge.

Assigning the rank of field marshal revived Paulus, but not at all in the way that Hitler expected. The commander said: "I have not the slightest desire to shoot myself for the sake of this bohemian corporal."

“We are representatives of the Red Army. Get up! Surrender your weapons!"

By the morning of January 31, Soviet troops captured the center of Stalingrad, coming close to the building in which Paulus was hiding.

The staff officer of the 38th Infantry Brigade, Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Ilchenko, through an interpreter, transmitted into a mouthpiece: “We propose a ceasefire! We propose to start negotiations on the surrender of the encircled German army!”

Ilchenko was the first to meet with General Schmidt, who stated that Paulus would only negotiate with senior officers equal in rank to him.

The mission was entrusted to the Chief of Staff of the 64th Army, General Ivan Laskin. Here is what he recalled about his visit to the Paulus cellar: “Having found ourselves in a basement full of Nazis, we did not know at all which way we should go. They moved in silence. They were afraid that, having heard the Russian speech, the Germans would start firing in fright.

We walked in the dark, holding on to the wall, hoping that in the end we would stumble upon some door. Finally, they grabbed the handle and entered the lighted room. Immediately noticed on the uniforms of the military who were here general and colonel's epaulettes. I went to the table in the center of the room and loudly told everyone present through an interpreter: “We are representatives of the Red Army.

Get up! Hand over your weapons! Some stood up, others hesitated. I repeated the command sharply again. None of them put up any resistance. One by one, the Germans began to give their names. In the room were the chief of staff, General Schmidt, the commander of the southern group of troops, General Rosske and other senior military officials ...

General Rosske said that Commander Paulus had given him the authority to negotiate. I demanded an immediate meeting with Paulus. " It's impossible", Schmidt said. - “The commander was elevated by Hitler to the rank of field marshal, but in given time does not command the army. Besides, he's not well.".

A thought flashed through my mind: “Maybe there is some kind of game going on here, and Paulus managed to be transported to another place?” However, gradually during the interrogation German generals it turned out that Paulus was nearby, in the basement.

I demanded that Chief of Staff Schmidt go to him and convey our terms of surrender. German troops. On my orders, battalion commander Latyshev followed Schmidt in order to establish our post at Paulus's office. No one is allowed in or out. Private Pyotr Altukhov stood at the door.

The agony of the northern group

There were no special altercations on the part of the Germans. The order of Paulus was agreed upon, ordering the troops to lay down their arms. After that, they entered the office of Paulus himself, who said in broken Russian: "Field Marshal Paulus surrenders to the Red Army."

Around noon, Paulus and Schmidt were taken to the headquarters of the 64th Army. The field marshal who surrendered, however, refused to give the order to the northern group to also lay down their arms, explaining that he was unable to somehow influence the units isolated from him.

The agony of the northern group, the backbone of which was the 11th Corps of General Strecker, lasted another two days.

Soviet artillery and tanks demolished the last fortified points of the Nazis. At four in the morning on February 2, General von Lensky, who commanded the division, informed Strecker that he had begun negotiations for surrender without waiting for his approval.

In a different situation, the corps commander might have declared a subordinate a rebel, but here he simply waved his hand. The question of the final defeat of the remnants of the group was a matter of several hours, and Strecker decided not to continue the resistance.

Hitler is furious

The battle of Stalingrad is over. Until February 22, Soviet troops continued to "cleanse" the Stalingrad ruins and took Nazi soldiers and officers prisoner.

In total, in the period from January 10 to February 22, 1943, 91,545 people were taken prisoner in the city of Stalingrad. Everyone who was not included in this number, and did not have time to evacuate before the "air bridge" stopped working, were destroyed or died themselves - from wounds, hunger and disease.

On February 3, 1943, the Berlin radio broadcast an official message: “The battle for Stalingrad is over. Faithful to your duty to fight until last breath, the 6th Army, under the exemplary leadership of Field Marshal Paulus, was defeated in adverse circumstances by superior enemy forces.

Hitler was beside himself with rage because of the act of Paulus: “The most unpleasant thing for me personally is that I promoted him to field marshal. I thought that he was completely satisfied... And such a person at the last minute defiled the heroic deeds of so many people! He could free himself from all mental suffering and go to eternity, becoming national hero, but he prefers to go to Moscow.

Payback time

In the first and last time mourning was declared in the Third Reich. This was done in order to give majesty to the alleged "feat" of the 6th Army, but it caused quite the opposite effect. Ordinary Germans realized that the elite German Wehrmacht, whose invincibility was glorified by the Nazi leaders, was completely destroyed on the banks of the Volga.

Germany began to understand: the time is coming to pay the bills, and this retribution for everything they have done will be truly terrible.

After captivity

As the captured German generals later recalled, they were sure that they would be shot. If not today, then tomorrow. But the Soviet command showed humanism, which they did not expect.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus was Stalin's personal prisoner. At the end of the war, the Union of German Officers joined the anti-fascist organization. He was a key witness at the Nuremberg trials. He was even allowed to return to Germany, but to the east.

The field marshal settled in the Dresden suburb of Oberloshwitz. He was provided with a villa, service and security, a car. Paulus was even allowed to carry weapons. According to the archives of the secret services of the GDR, Friedrich Paulus led a secluded life. His favorite pastime was taking apart and cleaning his service pistol.

The field marshal could not sit still: he worked as the head of the Dresden Military Historical Center, and also lectured at the Higher School of the People's Police of the GDR.

Practicing a benevolent attitude towards himself, in an interview he criticized West Germany, praised the socialist system and liked to repeat that "Russia cannot be defeated by anyone."

Since November 1956, Paulus did not leave the house, the doctors diagnosed him with cerebral sclerosis, and the field marshal was paralyzed on the left half of his body. On February 1, 1957, he died.

, GDR

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus(German Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus; September 23, Gukshagen, Hesse-Nassau - February 1, Dresden) - German military leader (from 1943 - Field Marshal) and commander of the 6th Army, surrounded and surrendered near Stalingrad. One of the authors of the plan Barbarossa.

In some sources, there is a spelling of his last name with the addition of the predicate background, which is incorrect, since Paulus was not by origin an aristocrat and never used such a prefix to his surname.

Biography

Childhood and youth

period between the wars

Soon, Paulus was introduced to the front commander, Colonel-General K. K. Rokossovsky, who suggested that he issue an order for the surrender of the remnants of the 6th Army in order to stop the senseless death of its soldiers and officers. Paulus refused to go for it, since he is now a prisoner, and his generals are subordinate, in accordance with the directive received, directly to Hitler. On February 2, 1943, the last centers of German resistance in Stalingrad were crushed.

Forced to respond to a Soviet official report that some 91,000 soldiers and officers had been taken prisoner, the Nazi government informed the German people that the 6th Army was completely destroyed. During three days all German radio stations broadcast funeral music, mourning reigned in thousands of German homes. Restaurants, theaters, cinemas, all places of entertainment were closed, and the population of the Reich experienced the defeat at Stalingrad.

In February, Paulus and his generals were brought to the Krasnogorsk Operational Transit Camp No. 27 of the NKVD in the Moscow Region, where they were to spend several months. The captured officers still perceived Paulus as their commander. Soon Paulus declared: “I am and will remain a National Socialist. No one can expect me to change my views, even if I am in danger of spending the rest of my life in captivity. Paulus still believed in the power of Germany and that "she would fight with success."

In July 1943, the National Committee "Free Germany" was created in the Krasnogorsk camp. It consisted of 38 Germans, 13 of whom were emigrants (Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Pieck and others). Soon the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army and the Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees (UPVI) of the NKVD reported on their new success: in September of the same year, the founding congress of the new anti-fascist organization "Union of German Officers" was held. More than a hundred people took part in it, who elected General Walter von Seydlitz as president of the SNO.

For Paulus and his comrades-in-arms, who were transferred to the generals' camp in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal in the spring, this was a betrayal. Seventeen generals, led by the field marshal, sign a collective statement: “What officers and generals who have become members of the Union are doing is treason. We no longer consider them our comrades, and we resolutely refuse them. But a month later, Paulus unexpectedly withdraws his signature from the general's "protest". Soon he was transferred to the village of Cherntsy, 28 km from Ivanovo. The higher ranks of the NKVD feared that the field marshal could be kidnapped from Suzdal, so they sent him into the wilderness of the forests. In addition to him, 22 German, 6 Romanian and 3 Italian generals arrived at the former Voikov sanatorium.

In the former sanatorium, Paulus began to progress with an intestinal disease, for which he was repeatedly operated on. However, in spite of everything, he refused individual diet food, but only asked to deliver marjoram and tarragon herbs, which he always carried with him, but lost his suitcase with them in battles. In addition, he, like all prisoners of the "sanatorium", received meat, butter, everything necessary products, parcels from relatives from Germany, beer on holidays. The prisoners were engaged in creativity. To do this, they were given every opportunity: there was plenty of wood around, so many were engaged in woodcarving (they even carved a baton from linden for the field marshal), canvases and paints were in any quantity, Paulus himself also did this, wrote memoirs.

However, he still did not recognize the "Union of German Officers", did not agree to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, did not oppose A. Hitler. In the summer of 1944, the field marshal was transferred to a special facility in Ozyory. Almost every day, reports are written from the UPVI addressed to L.P. Beria on the progress of the processing of the Satrap (such a nickname was given to him by the NKVD). Paulus is presented with an appeal by 16 generals. The intelligent, indecisive Paulus hesitated. As a former staff officer, he apparently got used to calculating all the pros and cons. But a number of events “help” him in this: the opening of the Second Front, the defeat on Kursk Bulge and in Africa, the loss of allies, the total mobilization in Germany, the entry into the "Union" of 16 new generals and best friend, Colonel V. Adam, as well as the death in Italy in April 1944 of his son Friedrich. And, finally, the assassination attempt on A. Hitler by officers whom he knew well. He was shocked by the execution of the conspirators, among whom was his friend Field Marshal E. von Witzleben. Apparently, a letter from his wife, delivered from Berlin by Soviet intelligence, also played a role.

On August 8, Paulus finally did what they had been trying to achieve from him for a year and a half - he signed the appeal “To the prisoners of war of German soldiers and officers and to the German people”, which literally said the following: “I consider it my duty to declare that Germany must eliminate Adolf Hitler and establish a new state leadership that will end the war and create conditions that will ensure the continued existence of our people and the restoration of peaceful and friendly relations with the current enemy.” Four days later he joined the Union of German Officers. Then - to the National Committee "Free Germany". From that moment on, he became one of the most active propagandists in the fight against Nazism. He regularly speaks on the radio, puts his signatures on leaflets, urging Wehrmacht soldiers to go over to the side of the Russians. From now on, there was no turning back for Paulus.

This also affected his family members. The Gestapo arrested his son, a captain in the Wehrmacht. They send into exile his wife, who refused to renounce her captive husband, daughter, daughter-in-law, grandson. Until February 1945, they were kept under house arrest in the mountain resort town of Schirlichmülle in Upper Silesia, along with the families of some other captured generals, in particular von Seydlitz and von Lensky. The son was under arrest in the Küstrin fortress. The daughter and daughter-in-law of Paulus wrote petitions for release in connection with the presence of young children, but this played the opposite role to expectations - reminding the RSHA Main Directorate of themselves, they were transferred first to Buchenwald, and a little later to Dachau, when the Red Army approached Silesia. In April 1945 they were released from the Dachau concentration camp. But the field marshal never saw his wife. On November 10, 1949, she died in Baden-Baden, in the American zone of occupation. Paulus found out about it only a month later.

Friedrich Paulus was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials.

post-war period

After the war, the "Stalingrad" generals were still held captive. Many of them were then convicted in the USSR, but all 23, except for one who died, later returned home (of the soldiers - about 6 thousand). However, Paulus visited his homeland already in February 1946 as a participant in the Nuremberg Trials. His appearance there and his appearance at the trial as a witness came as a surprise even to the officers closest to Paulus. Not to mention the defendants V. Keitel, A. Jodl and G. Goering, who were sitting in the dock, who had to be reassured. Some of the captured generals accused their colleague of meanness and betrayal.

After Nuremberg, the field marshal spent a month and a half in Thuringia, where he also met with his relatives. At the end of March, he was again brought to Moscow, and soon Stalin's "personal prisoner" (he did not allow Paulus to be put on trial) was settled in a dacha in Ilyinsky near Moscow. There he studied the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, read party literature, and prepared for speeches to Soviet generals. He had his own doctor, cook and adjutant. Paulus was regularly delivered letters and parcels from his relatives. When he fell ill, they took him to Yalta for treatment. But all his requests to return home, to visit his wife's grave, ran into a wall of polite refusal.

One morning in 1951, Paulus was found unconscious, but they managed to save him. Then he fell into a severe depression, did not talk to anyone, refused to leave the bed and eat. Apparently, fearing that the famous prisoner might die in his "golden" cage, Stalin decides to release the field marshal, without giving a specific date for his repatriation.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (German Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus) was born on September 23, 1890 in the town of Breitenau (in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau) in the family of an accountant. His parents, despite their humble origins, were able to give Friedrich a good education (including home education) and develop a broad outlook in an inquisitive boy.

In 1909, Friedrich Wilhelm graduated from the Kaiser Wilhelm Classical Gymnasium. After receiving the matriculation certificate, he made an attempt to enter the naval school and become a cadet of the Kaiser's fleet, but was refused due to insufficiently high social origin. Instead of school, Friedrich went to study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Marburg. But after a year of study, Paulus left the university and on February 18, 1910, he became a fanen junker in the 3rd Baden Infantry Regiment of "Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm" (Rastatt). On August 15, 1911, Friedrich Paulus was promoted to lieutenant and became a platoon commander, and on July 4, 1912, he married a Romanian aristocrat, Elena-Constance Rosetti-Solescu, which gave Paulus the opportunity to make the connections necessary for career growth.

THE BEGINNING OF A FIGHTING CAREER

Paulus began his military service in France during World War I. In 1915, he received the rank of chief lieutenant and was appointed commander of an infantry company. Later he served as a regimental adjutant in the 2nd Jaeger Regiment in France, Serbia and Macedonia. In 1917, Friedrich was seconded to the General Staff, where he became the representative of the General Staff at the headquarters of the Alpine Corps. For distinction in the war F. Paulus was awarded several awards (including the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class). Finished the war with the rank of captain (1918).

After the dissolution of the former Kaiser's army, Paulus was accepted into the army of the Weimar Republic (Reichswehr) and became a company commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment of Stuttgart. In 1919, as part of the Volunteer Corps "Protection of the East Border", he participated in the suppression of the Poles' protests in Silesia. Then he was a staff officer of the 48th reserve infantry division. In 1923 he graduated from the secret courses for officers of the General Staff and was appointed to the headquarters of the 2nd Army Group (Kassel). From January 1, 1929 - Major. In 1930 he was appointed representative of the General Staff in the 5th Infantry Division.

IN THE SERVICE OF THE THIRD REICH

In June 1935, Paulus was promoted to colonel (oberst) and became chief of staff of the Directorate of Armored Forces (replacing G. Guderian in this post). In August 1938, he was already chief of staff of the 16th army corps, which then included all tank forces Wehrmacht. Participated in the Anschluss of Austria (March 12-13, 1938) and the occupation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia (in October 1938). Major General (January 1, 1939). Since the summer of 1939 - Chief of Staff of the 4th Army Group (Leipzig), commanded by General Reichenau. In August 1939, this army group was transformed into the 10th Army, with General Paulus as its chief of staff.

The 10th Army brilliantly conducted a military campaign in Poland, and then in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Lieutenant General (August 1, 1940).

On May 30, 1940, Friedrich Paulus became the 1st Chief Quartermaster of the General Staff of the High Command ground forces(OKH), that is, the first deputy of Colonel-General F. Halder. He was in charge of developing operational plans and organizing the work of the headquarters. And Paulus did an excellent job with his work. From July 21 to December 18, 1940, he prepared a plan for the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR (which later became known as the Barbarossa plan). On January 1, 1942, F. Paulus received the rank of General of the Tank Forces.

COMMAND OF THE 6TH ARMY

On January 5, 1942, at the suggestion of Field Marshal W. von Reichenau, Hitler appointed Paulus commander of the 6th Army, operating on Eastern Front. On January 20, 1942, F. Paulus took command of the army and, first of all, canceled Reichenau's orders on cooperation with SS punitive detachments and SD bodies, as well as the order "On the Conduct of Troops in the Eastern Space", which turned Wehrmacht soldiers into ordinary executioners. Baptism of fire in the role of army commander, General Paulus received at the beginning of 1942 in the battles on the Seversky Donets River, when he managed to stop the advance of Soviet troops in the Izyum region. Then he successfully acted in the Battle of Kharkov (May 1942), when, having repelled the powerful offensive of the Red Army, he launched a counterattack east of Kharkov and connected with the 1st tank army of General E. von Kleist. Then about 240 thousand Soviet soldiers turned out to be in the Kharkov "boiler". In the summer of 1942, the 6th Army took part in the offensive against Voronezh and reached the Don River south of this city. In July - August 1942, the Paulus army fought a fierce battle in the Kalach region, from which it also emerged victorious. On August 23, 1942, the advanced units of the 6th Army reached the Volga north of Stalingrad. And by mid-September, the Germans captured almost the entire city of Stalin, but ... they could not throw the troops of the Soviet 62nd and 64th armies into the Volga - and not through the fault of Paulus. Just Soviet fighters and commanders fought to the death. On November 19, 1942, the Red Army had already launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad, and on November 23, the 6th Army of Paulus and part of the forces of the 4th tank army, operating further south, were surrounded by Soviet troops in the Stalingrad area.

In the Stalingrad "cauldron" was a group of German troops numbering about 300 thousand people. An attempt by Field Marshal E. von Manstein to release the 6th Army in December 1942 ended in complete failure. And the idea with the "air bridge", which was organized by Reichsmarschall G. Goering, only led to the loss of a significant part transport aviation Reich. Nevertheless, Hitler forbade F. Paulus to break out of the "cauldron" himself, and this order became fatal for those surrounded. On November 30, 1942, the Fuhrer promoted Paulus to Colonel General. On January 10, 1943, the troops of the Don Front, General K. Rokossovsky, began to liquidate the enemy group, surrounded near Stalingrad. On January 31, 1943, early in the morning, Field Marshal F. Paulus, together with his headquarters, surrendered Soviet soldiers, and on February 2, 1943, the 6th Wehrmacht Army ceased to exist. Paulus himself spent 11 years in captivity. And only on October 24, 1953, the government of the Soviet Union decided to transfer it to the authorities of the German Democratic Republic(GDR). After his release, Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus settled in Dresden, where he died on February 1, 1957 at the age of 66.