Just finished Antony Beevorās Stalingrad. Itās a deeply affecting read, or listen as it was in my case. Itās a brilliant study of arguably the most important battle in world history, a titanic struggle between two totalitarian states. As a reader, the only side I could pick was that of the common soldier, sent into this crucible by armchair megalomaniacs that never knew the hardships they were creating or perpetuating, Hitler being especially prone to his own press. Stalin doesnāt come out of this much better as a human being, even though the Soviet Union was the nation that managed to achieve the imperial expansion it sought pre-war, including a large part of Germany.
Along with Verdun, Stalingrad is up there for one of the least-wanted representations of hell on Earth. Human beings so malnourished that when many eventually got food, it killed them, because the bodyās ability to process fats had atrophied. A Wehrmacht sent into territory they were told was full of sub-humans, with an order to kill all partisans, and a very loose definition of what a partisan actually was.
The SS, operating behind the front lines, applying Nazi āpolicyā to any āuntermencshenā unfortunate to come their way. POW camps that were just barbed wire enclosures, with no shelter, where soldiers were simply left to die. Summary executions and collective punishment meted out by the Nazis, returned in spades by the Soviets.
Insane decisions from the totalitarian leaders. Stalin disappeared from view in the first three weeks of Barbarossa, simply because he couldnāt believe he was wrong (heād been warned for months beforehand and attributed it all to a Churchillian plot to bring the Russians into the war), and probably had cause to dwell on the 30K experienced Red Army officers heād purged in the preceding decade. The last comment Iāll make on the contest between the two leaders, and itās not one made by the book, but Stalin, whatever else he was, was a man learning harsh lessons from huge mistakes. Hitler was someone convinced that previous success made future success inevitable.
The human cost was incredible. Barbarossa took at least 26m lives. Stalingrad was the furthest the Nazis ever got, and from Beevorās account, seems to be an illustration of just how depraved and immoral we humans can be when motivated, properly or otherwise.
Arguably humanityās darkest moment.
