Geography of the USSR. Smolensk under the german occupation

[TabsTabs1964]

The Smolensk Hotel





And Bolshaya Sovetskaya Street (Hauptstrasse) I'm going to try to insert a series of images of this downhill street and its buildings during the German occupation and today








Intersection of Bolshaya Sovetskaya and Leninskaya streets


The clock house


















On the right is the Trinity Monastery.

[TabsTabs1964]

Ascension Church (next to Teapot building)




Saint Nicholas Church




Catedral of Asumption

[TabsTabs1964]

Soldiers and painters.
Three German soldiers stationed in Smolensk are known to have painted pictures of the city and its monuments.

Walter Wichmann (1916-1970)
Berlin-born artist. Assigned as a soldier in Smolensk from 1941 to 1943. He left some diaries from those years.
In addition to documentary interest are the drawings and studies and watercolor sketches in which the artist recorded his visual experiences as a soldier in Russia from 1941 to 1944 and for which he received the Villa Romana Prize in 1944.


Walter Wichmann Kathedrale, Smolensk


Walter Wichmann. Sovjetskaya, Smolensk


Walter Wichmann. Sovjetskaya


Walter Wichmann. Sojetskaya ecke Linisky

[TabsTabs1964]

H. de Cleur
Gefreiter in Smolensk in 1942. He painted a series of ten drawings with a pen. They were edited together in a folder.

[TabsTabs1964]

Franz Niessen (1904-1987)



Cologne Artist. Drafted in 1940, he was stationed in Smolensk as Unteroffizier in 1942/43. With a bureaucratic destiny, he was free to do artistic work and leave sketches and pictures of the city of Smolensk.


The cathedral in spring


Rear view of the Trinity Monastery.


The iconostasis of the cathedral


The Ascension monastery (next the Teapot Building)


Author's self-portrait

[TabsTabs1964]

I know there are these books, about the German occupation of the city. One in English and the other two in Russian. Unfortunately, I have none and I have not been able to consult them to write this work.

I upload the images of the books in case they are interesting for someone.









I have also found a poster of a Historical Recreation Associationof smolensk, for the 75 aniversary; I like it and I also upload it.



I have found on the net a few pages and forums written in Russian that have been useful to me and from which I have obtained a few images, especially of the city and its monuments today. It is fair that I review them here and I thank their authors for their enormous effort in preserving and making the history of this city known:

Форумы Авиации СГВ
The three german maps of the city

Smolensk - Wikiwand
Great photos of the buildings nowadays

Бесславный город Смоленск
Fantastic photos of a tour of the city in winter, today.

Niessen, Franz (†) – Freundeskreis Hagen-Smolensk
The soldiers painters and the watercolors of Franz Niessen (in German)

Смоленск. Встреча зимой, спустя почти 4 года. - Русский киевлянин пишет из Петербурга. — LiveJournal
https://skaramanga-1972.livejournal.com/712418.html
Photos of the German occupation

https://drygoi-smolensk.ru/history/o...y-ryinok_8017/
Incredible market images

https://smolnarod.ru/sn/kniga-po-ist...skom-konkurse/
The Ocupation book in Russian

https://drygoi-smolensk.ru/history/v...olenska_16886/
The city's post-war rebirth

https://drygoi-smolensk.ru/sights/do...o-chaynik_680/
The teapot buildingA

https://drygoi-smolensk.ru/sights/do...sinagogi_8826/
The synagogue

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto_de_Smolensk
https://www.yadvashem.org/untoldstor...ex.asp?cid=675
The ghetto

[TabsTabs1964]

Actually, this that I have shared is a work of collecting images of several years. Then I divide them into large groups related to the same place in a city and try to give them a logical order.


A collage this morning with some of my photographs

I have not visited, nor do I know the city of Smolensk and although in this case the German maps of the city have been of great help to me, really (as I did in other USSR Geography threads such as Kiev) I formed the city and its shape in my head, reading and looking at the photos. The more I research and discover new things, the clearer the city becomes in my imagination.

If anyone knows the city, it is possible that they will find out if I have made a mistake, I hope they will excuse me for that.

I have uploaded and shared about seven hundred photos and maps of this place in Russia and its history under a look as the eyes and camera lenses of German soldiers had it. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, for me it will have been worth the effort

[TabsTabs1964]

The German occupation of the city of Smolensk, like that of any other Soviet city that remained in the German rear during the war, was brutal. Thousands of its inhabitants paid for it with their lives. And my works, like this one, are not intended to whitewash those dark areas of history.

But I like to believe that among so many thousands of soldiers there were many decent guys, young Germans who felt pity for the suffering of Russian civilians and, to the best of their ability, helped those people in those years of steel.

I do not doubt that men with aesthetic sensibilities such as the three soldier painters of whom we have spoken and others like them, understood the nobility of the Russian soul. I want to believe that it was so.

All the soldiers in the photos have already died.

Perhaps some of those children, now elderly, remember a soldier who treated them as all children should always be treated. With love, even in the middle of a terrible war.

I want the farewell of this thread to be with the photo of a German soldier with two little Russians, who knows, maybe those children survived the war.



And with another current image: that of the symbol of that city, the Cathedral of the Assumption



Thank you all for having followed. I wish all the forum friends and their families the best after this tough year.
Stay safe, friends.
Best regards
Santi

[Chopperman]

Well done Santi. You should be proud of the work you did here.
I can't imagine how many hours you must have spent going through
old photos and researching all of this. It is a great thread, that I found
very interesting even if I have no connection to that area what so ever.

[AZPhil]

Excellent work Santi!!!!
Thank you.

Semper Fi
Phil