I presume it is translation made by Andery from Armchair General forum: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=522738&postcount=2
Right?
Anyway, I could not find the Russian original of this article so far… In any case it was not the last one he wrote. The one “Enough!” from 9 of April 1945 was the last one before the “attack” on him. He also continued to write after the war.
Again, may be a slightly dodgy translation. However, if this is indeed his last article and he was banned for writing it then that puts a slightly different complexion on things - Ehrenburg was clearly calling for German civvies to be treated well in this, and for the Red Army to behave to a far higher standard than the Germans ever did.
That is the point. Ehrenburg never openly called for revenge towards civilian Germans. F.ex. his article “Kill!” is from 1942 and has nothing to do with German civilians.
But!!!
You see, Ehrenburg was a writer, an intelectual. But his public was not. It takes sertain effort to read his articles and understand them.
IMO it is likely that considerable number of ordinary RKKA soldiers could get an opposite message from the Ehrenburg’s articles. To my taste they are too emotional, too flamboyant.
My point is that it is much easier to blame (in this case Ehrenburg) than to try to see the relationships in a complex event.
“Kill, brave soldiers of the Red Army, kill! There is nothing innocent about the germans. Follow the orders of comrade Stalin and pestle the fascistic animal in its cave. Break with violence the racial haughtiness of the germanic women, take them as your legitimate prey. Kill, brave soldiers of the Red Army, kill!” Since I translated this with my limited abilites I hope I haven’t taken too much out of the context here again.
So what? It seems to be a habit in the former Soviet Union to drop someone like a hot potato once he served his purpose: Ehrenburg, Stalin, Schukow, Chruschtschow, Beria…
Come on, I was born in 1972 and I’m sure you were born after 1945 as well. No need for Germanophobia. At least I don’t get an awkward feeling hearing “Ubej!” or “Dawai!, Dawai!” although I am a Cold War child who used to check the skies for Sputniks at night with my friends.:mrgreen:
Does Walther Dahl writes about the context of this quote? Does not he mention when it was published, how it was used during war, as well as the comotion about this famous passage after the war?
Hi!
Have been very busy. Still is… Writing from the work office…
Ok. What do I know about it?
To start with let’s listen to what Ilya Ehrenburg has himself to say about this in his book “People, Years and Life” (russian version).
I will tell about one history, connected with myself, but which falls outside the scope of just my personal life.
In 1944 commander of army group “Nord”, desiring to raise its soldiers, discouraged by retreat, wrote in his order: «Ilya Ehrenburg calls the Asians of “to drink blood” of German women. Ilya Ehrenburg requires that the Asian peoples would rape the German women: “Take blond women - this is our military booty!” Ilya Ehrenburg awakes the low instincts of steppe. It would be despicable to step back now, since German soldiers now protect their wives ». After learning about this order, I immediately wrote into “Red Star” news paper: «Once Germans counterfeited the documents of state importance. Now they counterfeited my articles. The quotations, which the German General attributes to me, give out the author - only German is capable to compose similar dirty thing. We go to Germany for something else: for Germany itself».
The legend, created by Hitler’s General, survived the fall the third Reich, and Nuremberg process, and much other. In 1960 the municipality of Vienna invited me to participate in the literary conference.
Soon after this I received a letter from the conference organizer, an Austrian social democrat. In the letter he asked me, if it was true, that during the years of war I issued a called to rape German women. West German magazine “Spiegel” elucidated, that “documentation” on my terrible past were presented to the public by the embassy of German Federative Republic. And recently Mr.Kindler from Munich, the publisher of the German translation of my book “People, years, Life”, passed me those amusing photo documents.
Apparently, someone called Jurgen Torvald published in Stuttgart in 1950 the history of the war, in which he wrote: «Ilya Ehrenburg openly and full of hatred in the course of three years, was telling the Red Army soldiers that that the German women will be their spoils of war.» It appeared that Jurgen Torvalds real name is Heintz Bogarts, who published in 1941 a book in which he praised Hitler and whic was dedicated to the war criminal Admiral Erich Raeder.
In 1962 the Munich newspaper “Soldaten zeitung” began campaign against the publication of my book in West Germany. Of course newspaper recollected about the fake leaflet with the call to rape German women; it threatened the publisher, and called me "greatest criminal in the world history ". Some writers as, for example, Ernst Yunger, supported this Fascist press. Others, however, were agitated. Kindler proved that Torvald repeated Goebbels’s lie; and nevertheless revanchists still continue to repeat: “Memoirs of killer and rapist”. I repeat - the matter not in me. But among fifty million victims of the Second World War one can not be found - the Fascism itself.
Ok. That is what Ehrenburg says him self. Let’s say he is biased…
But I heard from others that
[ol]
[li]In 1961 the Bavarian state library issued proclamation where declared that the text of the leaflet (with the discussed quote) distributed among the right extremists has never been published in “Pravda” newspaper.
[/li][li]in 1996 the Munchen Institute of Modern History issued expert conclusion that: “Even though Ehrenburg was heavily involved in propaganda warfare, we have to highlight that there have not been found any proof that Ehrenburg has been author of the leaflet with call to consider German women as legal spoils of war.
[/li]…
We also know nothing of existence of such leaflet in Russian.”[/ol]
The last 2 facts should be described in the two following articles:[ol]
[li]„Die Vereinfachungen des Genossen Еrenburg“ by Carola Tischler.
[/li][*]„Ubej!“ by Bernhard Fisch.[/ol]
I read about the ominous leaflet too lately. There is indeed no evidence for its existence.
After all one has to ask himself, was it necessary to mention Ehrenburg anyway in the late war stage after all what happened e. g. at Nemmersdorf?
Both Fisch and Tischler are communists in disguise.
Egorka, I will have to go to the hospital by tomorrow morning for some ankle surgery. Let’s discuss this matter further when I am back. I’ll let you know!
Well, apparently it was necessary for Goebbels to mention Ehrenburg. In a way it was one of Ehrenbug’s aim to scary the German public and he succeeded. I would not call this intention of his outright despicable - war is war.
Nemmersdorf is an interesting subject. Please tell what in your opinion is most realistic description of events there.
Both Fisch and Tischler are communists in disguise.
Does it make any difference in regards of them citating Munchen Institute of Modern History. Well I do not care if they are communists. I would not care even if they were nazist as far as they do not bland their political preferences in their work.
Egorka, I will have to go to the hospital by tomorrow morning for some ankle surgery. Let’s discuss this matter further when I am back. I’ll let you know!
Firstly, Igor, thanx for the get-well wishes, I returned much earlier as expected, thanks to modern medicine.
Well, the facts first. Nemmersdorf in East Prussia was conquered by the Red Army on October 21, 1944 (2nd Battalion/25th Guard Tank Brigade). After heavy fightings the village was re-captured by the Wehrmacht.
Here we have already two different versions: eyewitnesses report Nemmersdorf was re-taken the same day, only a couple of hours later. Official reports say german 5th Panzer-Division took the village two days later on October 23.
What happened exactly we will never know. Fact is that
a) the russian soldiers killed between 23 and 65 german civilians (women, kids and old people) as well as some french POWs
b) the Nazi leadership exploited the incident to stiffen the resistance against the advancing Red Army.
It was reported of mass rapes, mass killings, crucified women on barn doors etc. Other (german) sources say there weren’t any rapes at all. Goebbels’ employees lifted skirts and lowered underwear of the dead women.
B. Fisch’s version of disguised germans in russian uniforms to commit the massacre is an insolence though IMHO.
But do you even know pdf, that Ilia Erenburg was a JEW.
And as any Jew probably can’t be loyal to the Germans who like the Nicis jew-hate matter at that time.
Yes he wrote a anti-germans articles in Pravda, but this was happend AFTER the mass- murdering of Jews in Kiev, Odessa and ets.
[/li]
Mate i think this is not so importaint what Erenberd said after the war. He was a SPOKESMAN of Anti-Germans propogand in USSR.He was in head of propogand.
This is FACT.
But who have to blame him?
Germans , who despised and hate all the Jews during the ww2?
What did they hope on?
The Soviet Jew Erenburg will share the “Love and peace” toward the GErmans?
This is senseless question, right.
P.S.
For god sake.
Why have you to defend Erenburg mate.
He was as much “russian” as you or me the “Mongol’s looking boslcshevics” from Goebbels posters:)
[i]Ehrenburg was a revolutionary as a teenager, a disenchanted poet in his youth, writing Catholic poems despite his Jewish background, a follower of Lenin on arrival in Paris, who then became an anti-Bolshevik and sensitive journalist.
Later he returned to Russia where he was hired to write Soviet propaganda, while occasionally defending his views with boldness against Stalin or government mouthpieces. He a was prominent member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.[/i]
He was a prominent bright writer, , although since the 1945 in soviet press his “fierce ani-germanism” has been seriously critized and attacked.
Just an impression from modern Germany: the “Ilja-Ehrenburg-Straße” in Rostock/North-Eastern Germany.
The road sign gets overpainted from time to time.
