Elbe Day
The Elbe Day is a day of remembrance of the Second World War . The first meeting of US and Soviet troops on German soil took place on April 25, 1945 at 12: 00-13: 00 on the Elbe meadows in Lorenzkirch near Strehla .
Albert Kotzebue , First Lieutenant in the US Army , crossed the Elbe in a sailing boat with three men from his five-man reconnaissance troop, among them the good Russian-speaking soldier Joe Polowsky , as the pontoon bridge had been blown up by German Wehrmacht troops three days earlier ; German refugees who wanted to cross the Elbe at the last minute were killed along with their animals - a terrible sight, as the then 15-year-old chronicler Heinz Schöne wrote. There were further casualties in later artillery fire by attacking Soviet troops.
The American Kotzebue patrol from the 273rd Infantry Regiment, the 69th Infantry Division, 5th US Corps , 1st US Army , encountered the Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordeyev , commander of the advance division of the Soviet 175, amid about two to three hundred bodies . Guard rifle regiment. Since this field of corpses for heroic photos did not seem suitable for a historical encounter, Commissioner Karpowitsch of the 58th Division broke off the meeting and sent the Americans back to the western bank of the Elbe to the city of Strehla opposite. In order to avoid being assigned blame because of the many civilians killed, the meeting in Lorenzkirch was not recorded and not published.
On April 25, 1945, at 1:30 p.m., the American Kotzebue patrol met Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordejew for the second time in Kreinitz near Strehla on the Elbe. The 36-man US patrol under Lieutenant Kotzebue pushed on to Burxdorf to visit the headquarters of the 175th Guards Rifle Regiment of the Red Army. This meeting was recorded on the Soviet side as the first meeting; the next day the war photographer Alexander Ustinov recreated photos of the events with the original protagonists.
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At 3:30 p.m., an American patrol consisting of William Robertson, Frank Huff, James McDonnell and Paul Staub met Soviet soldiers in Torgau . 2nd Lieutenant Robertson and his men were welcomed on the destroyed Elbe bridge by Lieutenant Alexander Silwaschko and Soviet soldiers.
On April 26, at 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., the commanders of the 69th US Infantry Division and the Soviet 58th Guards Division met in Torgau. On this day, preparations were made for the “Torgau handshake” or “East meets West”, which was to take place the next day in front of the Special Film Team 186 photographers . On the occasion of the unification of troops in Torgau there were identical press releases by the governments in London , Moscow and Washington on the evening of April 26 , in which the three allied powers reaffirmed their common will for the complete annihilation of the Third Reich .
On April 27, Lieutenant Robertson and Lieutenant Silwaschko shook hands for the official photo. Better known than this photo document, however, is another photograph that was taken on the destroyed Torgau Elbe bridge and shows how they happily greet each other there. With this symbolic “handshake from Torgau”, the gap between the German eastern and western fronts was closed - visible to the world public . The end of the Second World War in Europe was approaching.
One of the US soldiers attending the meeting at the time, Joe Polowsky, campaigned for the recognition of April 25th as "World Day of Peace" during the Cold War . According to his last will, he was given his final resting place in the Protestant cemetery in Torgau in 1983. On the 50th anniversary of their meeting on the destroyed bridge, Alexander Silwaschko and William Robertson received honorary citizenship of the city of Torgau in 1995.
Monuments can be found at the departure of the ferry from Strehla, in front of the Lorenzkirch cemetery, on the banks of the Elbe from Kreinitz, in Bad Liebenwerda , in Torgau and at the US National Cemetery in Arlington near Washington, DC
literature
- Horst Bilz: The last days of World War II in Strehla. Strehla 1988 (Subtitle: Liberation of the city of Strehla by the Soviet Army in April 1945, The historical encounter of Soviet and American soldiers of the allied armies near Kreinitz, Leckwitz and Strehla on the Elbe, events and meetings after 40 years)
- Karl-Heinz Lange: April 1945 in Torgau . Published by the Torgauer Geschichtsverein eV, Torgau 2005.
- Uwe Niedersen (ed.): Soldiers on the Elbe. US Army, Wehrmacht, Red Army and civilians at the end of the Second World War. Saxon State Center for Political Education. Dresden / Torgau 2008. Pages 103, 170-173, 183-195.
- Günter Schöne (ed.): Bridge between the worlds. Joe Polowsky and his dream. edition ost, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-929161-48-6 .
- Guido Knopp : The big photos of the century - pictures that made history. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-570-12062-7 , pp. 48-61 / "The handshake".
- April 1945 in Lorenzkirch - 1st meeting between Russians and Americans. In: Der Heimatbote - excursions into culture and history between the Elbe and Mulde. Booklet 14. Publishing, Advertising and Phila Service Robert Schmidt. Oschatz
- Mark Scott, Semyon Krasilshchik (ed.): Yanks meet Rote , Militärverlag Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-327-00986-4 . Reports from American and Soviet soldiers who attended the meeting.
- Heinz Schöne: The year 1945 in Lorenzkirch and the surrounding area. Riesa no year (around 2000)
Web links
- The year 1945 in Lorenzkirch and the surrounding area. German contemporary witnesses report. Compiled by Heinz Schöne. Pp. 27–64 (PDF; 2.18 MB)
- American and Soviet soldiers greet each other on the destroyed Elbe bridge.
- Encounter at the Elbe - Museum Kreinitz
- Video collection about the historical event of Dr.-Ing. Tilo Lehnert
Individual evidence
- ↑ Image file: Kotzebue Boot.jpg (tap image information).
- ^ Thomas Schade: Boat trip to the corpse field . In: sächsische.de . ( sächsische.de [accessed on November 23, 2018]).
- ↑ History of 273rd Infantry Regiment at 69th-infantry-division.com (Engl.)
- ^ Sources: April 1945 in Lorenzkirch - 1st meeting between Russians and Americans. In: Der Heimatbote - excursions into culture and history between the Elbe and Mulde. Booklet 14. Publishing, Advertising and Phila Service Robert Schmidt. Oschatz. - Uwe Niedersen (ed.): Soldiers on the Elbe. US Army, Wehrmacht, Red Army and civilians at the end of the Second World War. Saxon State Center for Political Education. Dresden / Torgau 2008. Pages 103, 170-173, 183-195. - Yanks meet reds - encounter on the Elbe , military publishing house Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-327-00986-4 . Reports from American and Soviet soldiers who attended the meeting. The year 1945 in Lorenzkirch and the surrounding area. German contemporary witnesses report. Compiled by Heinz Schöne. (PDF; 2.3 MB) ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Lausitzer Rundschau: Legendary photo with Joe Polowsky returned to its roots after 60 years. Retrieved September 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Handshake of Triumph . In: stern.de . April 25, 2005 ( stern.de [accessed September 5, 2017]). Handshake of Triumph ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
