Torchmen Command

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The Soviet Stawka Order No. 0428, which became known as the “ Torchmen Order ” and was issued on November 17, 1941, demanded at the height of the Wehrmacht's advance in the German-Soviet War “to deprive the German army of the possibility of itself to settle in villages and towns ”.

For this purpose, the command says:

"1. To completely destroy and burn down all settlement points in the hinterland of the German troops at a depth of 40 to 60 kilometers from the main battle line and 20 to 30 kilometers to the left and right of the roads. To destroy the settlement points in the specified radius, immediately call in the air force , use the artillery and grenade launchers on a large scale, also reconnaissance teams, also skier units and diversion groups of the partisans , who are equipped with bottles with fuel, grenades and explosives. 2. To set up hunter squads of 20 to 30 men each in each regiment to blow up and set fire to the settlement points in which the enemy’s troops settle. "

The Russian historian Dimitri Volkogonov emphasizes that Joseph Stalin was responsible for this order. Wolkogonow explains how numerous Soviet villages fell victim to this order and how other villages were set on fire by the Germans in order to punish actual or alleged partisan actions. Christian Hartmann and Jürgen Zarusky , both historians at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History , describe the order and its implementation practice as a "' Scorched Earth Order", which arose from the distressed situation of the Soviet Union in view of the German advance on Moscow "and corresponded to Stalin's position, that human lives count for nothing when it comes to apparent military necessities.

Hartmann and Zarusky show in their special investigation into the Stawka Order No. 0428 that a fake version of the order has been recorded on various websites, but also in the books of Fritz Becker 's Stalin's Blood Trail through Europe and Franz W. Seidler's Crimes against the Wehrmacht a passage was invented according to which the Soviet hunting commandos were to be camouflaged with German uniforms in order to increase "the hatred of the fascist occupiers" and to facilitate "the recruitment of partisans in the rear of the fascists". The Wolkogonow source given by Becker did not contain any such information about the alleged camouflage by German uniforms and Seidler, in turn, referred to Becker as evidence. The information "Archive Series 429, Roll 461" from the files of the Foreign Army East Department , which is widely circulating on the Internet, is just as unfounded as a source . According to Hartmann and Zarusky, the rumored forgeries were “clearly a maneuver to cover up Nazi and war crimes in the occupied Soviet Union”.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Jürgen Zarusky: Stalin's "Torch Men Order" from November 1941. A falsified document . In: Christian Hartmann u. a. (Ed.): The German War in the East 1941–1944. Facets of crossing borders . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, pp. 393-402, quotation p. 399.
  2. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Jürgen Zarusky: Stalin's "Torch Men Order" from November 1941. A falsified document . In: Christian Hartmann u. a. (Ed.): The German War in the East 1941–1944. Facets of crossing borders . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, pp. 393-402, citation p. 399; the command is printed there in full on p. 398 ff.
  3. ↑ Dimitri Volkogonow: Stalin - Triumph and Tragedy. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-612-26011-1 , p. 617 f.
  4. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Jürgen Zarusky: Stalin's "Torch Men Order" from November 1941. A falsified document . In: Christian Hartmann u. a. (Ed.): The German War in the East 1941–1944. Facets of crossing borders . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, p. 397.
  5. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Jürgen Zarusky: Stalin's "Torch Men Order" from November 1941. A falsified document . In: Christian Hartmann u. a. (Ed.): The German War in the East 1941–1944. Facets of crossing borders . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, p. 394 ff .; Hartmann and Zarusky refer to forgeries in Fritz Becker, Stalin's blood trail through Europe, Partner of the West 1933–1945 . Arndt-Verlag , Kiel 1995, p. 268 and Franz W. Seidler (ed.), Verbrechen an der Wehrmacht, war atrocities of the Red Army 1941/42 , 3rd edition. Pour le Mérite , Selent 1998, p. 30 f.
  6. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Jürgen Zarusky: Stalin's "Torch Men Order" from November 1941. A falsified document . In: Christian Hartmann u. a. (Ed.): The German War in the East 1941–1944. Facets of crossing borders . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, p. 397.