Geography of the USSR. Smolensk under the german occupation

[TabsTabs1964]

[TabsTabs1964]

tabstabs collection




In its back writen: "Haus der Wehrmacht in Smolensk"

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Haus Ostland


Something further down the square.

Initially the building was called by the Germans Haus Ostland, later haus der Wehrmacht.

[TabsTabs1964]

Finally some current images.


To the right a piece of the wall




Already visible the Bolshaya Sovetskaya street (the Hauptstrasse of the Germans) one of the oldest and most important of Smolensk, which descends from the hill in the city center to the central bridge over the Dnieper and passes by the symbol of the city, the Cathedral of the Assumption, which rises on its own hill ......

[Paul D]

I will now try to give a perimeter panoramic view with several images taken almost from the same point of the square.

Attachment 1454730
The destroyed Printing House and the Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda newspaper

Attachment 1454731
Building on Smirnov Square On the left, the NKVD Workers' House (built in 1938-1941), the wooden houses on the right have not survived.

Attachment 1454732
The Press House destroyed, again, and the kiosks in Smirnov Square To the right is the House of the NKVD workers.

Attachment 1454733
another forest of signs next to the BT7 tank.

From the signs it looks like all the Combat units have gone .

[TabsTabs1964]

But a city is not only its streets and buildings. Also, the people who live there every moment.

The truth is that the Russians who had to live in Smolensk under German occupation were unlucky.

Surviving each day was a terrible task that, during those two long years, many thousands of inhabitants failed to do so.

The German authorities, convinced of their racial superiority and of the subhuman condition of the Russians, governed the population under draconian laws that punished countless infractions and disobediences with death.

The most serious initial problem was that of housing, since the city suffered severe and extensive damage during the bombings, which devastated entire neighborhoods of the city.



Looking anywhere, the same panorama: images of a devastated city showing the brick chimneys of houses burned to the ground.





The problem was terrible, because the winter from 1941 to 1942 was very hard and as the Germans occupied the best buildings and houses, the inhabitants of the city had to survive in basements and ruined buildings in really harsh conditions.

[TabsTabs1964]

Citizens capable por work had to sign up at city government offices, where they were assigned to the multiple tasks required for a city to function. This entitled them to their short food rations.



Throughout the summer of 1941 there was a lot of work to clear debris and keep the streets free of rubble.





The queues of women with children to receive certain provisions were another common image in the occupied city.

[TabsTabs1964]

One of the new rules of the occupying authorities to win hearts & minds was the reopening of the cathedral for worship, which the Soviet authorities had closed.







There is a series of images taken on July 16, 1943, on the occasion of the acts of celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the "liberation of the city" by the Germans.







The city maintained a series of civil services such as the fire department and there are more images of that day, at the Bürgermeisterei square, in the Noble assembly building. There is a military marching band and pictures of the city fire trucks.

[TabsTabs1964]

There were also concerts on the street for the German soldiers.


Concert on Ilyinskaya Street

And Nazi propaganda posters in public places...





There is a group of photos also about the celebration of Labor Day, May 1 in Lapatinsky park







But let's not lose sight of the harshness of the occupiers towards Russian civilians.
Here we have two images of a resident detention point. It is the entrance to the Pioneer Park (formerly Sosnovsky Boulevard).





The sign says: those detained here did not obey the orders of the German military forces.

[TabsTabs1964]

Finally, on the harshness of that winter, two photos "on the outskirts of Smolensk" with a snowfall of one and a half meters, perhaps.





And three photos from my collection of German soldiers with snow plows, which I did not imagine existed in the 40s, also says one on the back "near Smolensk"


tabstabs collection


tabstabs collection


tabstabs collection

I finish by putting together two photos: the one of the truck that is heading in convoy towards the city, and the one of the snowplow truck on the outskirts of the city.





Both trucks have almost the same lettering on their boxes. Would they be trucks brought from some German city? I don't know, I don't know its meaning.