Geography of the USSR. Smolensk under the german occupation

[TWS]

Continuing the great photo essay Santi. Very enjoyable. Makes me want to visit Smolensk. I'll have to add it to my list along with Kharkov, Velikiye Luki, Staritsa, Korsun, etc. etc. etc.

[TabsTabs1964]

Thanks for your comment Todd. Smolensk is also on my list of former USSR places.

Santi

[TabsTabs1964]

In 1939, the 14,812 Jews registered in Smolensk, constituted 9.5% of the total population of the city. Many were evacuated or left the city before it was occupied by the Germans on July 16, 1941.

During the first week of the occupation several dozen Jews, the intellectual elite, were killed.

On July 28 or 30, Jews over the age of ten were decreed to wear yellow bracelets and to sew stars of David on their clothing.

On August 5, 1941, the aproximately 2,000 remaining Jews in the city were transferred to the Ghetto.


In this map of the city I have marked the ghetto with yellow lines and with a yellow Star of David with the letter "J" in black

The selected area was in the northeast of the city. In the Sadki district near the Jewish cemetery. Some eighty houses were cleared where the Jews settled without electricity, services and totally overcrowded. The place was fenced with barbed wire, and later with a wooden fence.


A german soldier poses for the camera. Smolensk Ghetto Mauer

Jews were transferred daily to do forced labor in the city.

In the winter of 1941/42 more than 200, mostly the elderly and children, died of hunger, cold or disease. At the same time, they began to be aerated with carbon monoxide from the tailpipes of specially designed trucks (Gaswagen) by Nebe technicians at the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. (Reich Central Security Office-RSHA).


One of the very rare photos of Jews inside the city's Ghetto


This is a photograph of a column of Jews leaving an unidentified Russian city, on their way to the ghetto or to their death.

On July 15, 1942, the Ghetto was liquidated

So about a year after its creation, at the insistence of the occupation administration, a great "Aktion" took place. All the Jews (around 2000) they moved to a village on the outskirts of the city, where they were shot and buried in a mass grave dug beforehand.

[TabsTabs1964]

I wanted to leave two large buildings for last, once again on the southern outskirts of the city.



One almost intact that of the union offices and houses of the railway workers, of the Western Railways, in the Kiewer Chaussee, nicknamed as “Grünes Haus” (the green house)


Kriegslazarett 2-591, Haus der Eisenbahnergewerkschaft, Grunes Haus. Kiewer Chaussee



Right next to it was a small airfield used by Fieseler Storch transporting wounded


Kriegslazarett friedhof

This building together with another large one also intact, that of the School Physical Education Technique, across the street and dubbed "Rote Haus" (the red house), were suitable to serve as a hospital. And indeed, the Kriegslazarett 2/591 was installed in them.


Technical School of Physical Education, the Rottes Haus

About the history of this hospital I wrote a small work three years ago, which I have decided to upload in a different thread, later, although now I show the photographs and let's talk a little about the subject

[TabsTabs1964]

The Technical school of physical education (The red House)






Entrance image




tabstabs collection

Another image of the hospital behind the delousing station sign

All hospitals have a cemetery in their vicinity, because many seriously injured died without recovering. I have managed to collect several photos of the cemetery of this particular hospital in Smolensk


tabstabs collection










tabstabs collection (oct.2022)


Back: Der rote Haus im winter 41/42

[TabsTabs1964]

Let's now see an image of the entrance of the other hospital building (the green House)



And another one of the doctors and nurses who worked on it. Surely you all realize that these uniforms are not German.



These are the medical personnel of the first Swiss medical mission on the Eastern Front, but as I said, that will be another story

Another image of the German hospital cemetery




And some Luftwaffe soldiers outside a city hospital

[wpheaton]

Thank You

William

[TabsTabs1964]

Today we end up on the Roslavl road, with the building of the Academy of Medicine (the university faculty) and the huge cemetery that occupies almost half the space between the two great southern roads: Kiev avenue and Roslavl avenue.



We have already seen that it was used in part as a prison camp.



But the huge cemetery at its rear allows to appreciate the silhouette of the building in the photographs taken during the countless burials.



I have located several photos of the entrance to the cemetery with a birch wood arch and a large iron cross, made of wood










tabstabs collection


I think this group of graves were in this great cemetery

[TabsTabs1964]

Well friends, the story is nearing its end. We still have to talk about the German withdrawal, the liberation of the city, Soviet justice, urban reconstruction during the post-war period, a section of "then and now" of the most famous buildings and to finish, the paintings and the German soldiers who painted the landscapes and monuments of the city during the occupation. And of course recommended reading and sources used.
This weekend we can share it

[TabsTabs1964]

The Second Battle of Smolensk, which lasted from August 7 to October 2, 1943, was a long two-month offensive, carried out by Generals Andrei Yeremenko and Vasyli Sokolovski, which aimed to eliminate any German military presence in the regions. from Smolensk and Bryansk.


Andrey Yeremenko


Vasily Sokolovsky

The German defensive position was very solid and lined up no less than 55 divisions.









The strong German defense paralyzed the offensive on different occasions, although the Red Army managed to open several breaches so that the offensive was actually executed in three different phases. from August 7 to 20, from August 21 to September 6, and from September 7 to October 2.





The strategic result of the battle was that the Red Army definitively expelled the German forces from the Smolensk region eliminating the potential threat of attack in the direction of Moscow from the west.



The city of Smolensk had been under German occupation since mid-July 1941. The brutal occupation was coming to an end