The Battle of Stalingrad & the Deadly “Meat Paste”
Being a German soldier trapped in Stalingrad was certainly bad. Not only did one have to deal with bullets and bombs, but also frostbite, hypothermia, disease, and vermin. As Soviet soldiers tightened the noose around the German 6th Army, the food situation grew especially desperate. German soldiers were reduced to 1/3 rations. At its worse, bread rations were reduced to 75g (about a slice) a day. It was not uncommon for soldiers to slaughter horses, dogs, or cats for sustenance. Over time soldiers began to suffer the effects of malnutrition with fighting ability greatly diminished due to the lack of energy and nutrition. Sympathizing with the soldiers of Stalingrad, the staff officer Gen. Kurt Zeitzler reduced his own rations to their level. He lost over 26 pounds in two weeks and began to suffer from illness and fatigue. Eventually Adolf Hitler personally ordered Zeitzler to end the diet.
To make up for the lack of calories ingested by the German soldiers at Stalingrad, high command ordered a new type of ration to be airlifted to the troops. Canned meat was a common ration for German soldiers, however a new “meat paste” was developed to give soldiers a great boost of caloric energy. What provided this concentrated energy was a ridiculously high fat content. Sounds appetizing!
As soon as the new rations were distributed, a new phenomenon began to occur. German soldiers began to collapse and die inexplicably. One minute a soldier could be on sentry duty, the next moment he would be found dead with no apparent wounds or trauma. The rising number of these strange deaths baffled German commanders. To investigate the phenomenon, the German Army flew in a pathologist named Dr. Hans Girgensohn. Under very difficult conditions, Dr. Girgensohn performed autopsies on 50 men who had died of the strange occurrence. After much investigation Dr. Girgensohn pinned the cause of the strange deaths on one culprit; the high fat tinned mystery meat that was being airlifted to the troops. As it turns out, adding a high fat content to the meat was a terrible mistake. Due to the effects of malnutrition, German soldiers at Stalingrad were unable to metabolize the high concentrations of fat within the meat paste. As they continued to consume the meat, vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, and pancreas suffered damage. Eventually, soldiers would collapse and succumb to shock, not unlike a diabetic suffering from hyperglycemia.
The meat paste rations were immediately recalled. However the situation in Stalingrad grew even worse. Eventually the Soviet Army prevented all rations from entering the city. On February 2nd, 1943, 110,000 German soldiers surrendered. Most were sent to labor camps all over the Soviet Union. Only 6,000 would ever return home.
Sources and further reading:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.german/2009-10/msg00013.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
Image via Wikipedia Commons
So sad. Great job as usual by the way. Another great, related read is the Wikipedia article on Operation Barbarossa - fascinating stuff
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference Michael =)
ReplyDeleteОни этого заслужили. Вы просто не знаете ситуации. А я генетически понимаю, что такое немецкая пунктуальность. Это когда бомбардировка начинается в полночь и заканчивается ровно в три часа утра
ReplyDeleteWow, this war almost seems like fiction. I cannot believe the stories I read and hear about WWI and WWII. The lives that were lost and the lives destroyed are unimaginable to me. I hope we never have a war like that again.
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu I'm glad the "meat paste" term didn't turn out to be black humour.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of moralizing, I feel sorry for the German soldiers who met their ends in Stalingrad. Feeling otherwise is about nurturing glowing coals of enduring hatred. The very coals that can get whipped up into exactly the spirit that drove the Germans to do what they did. All societies have it within them to act in coordinated violence. I'm not throwing mud, but as an example, the Chechen war (whether you believe it justified or not) was a pretty brutal affair. Would it make sense to believe that the Russian soldiers that were wounded and killed got what they deserved? Or how about the Russian soldiers in Afghanistan and the American soldiers in Vietnam? Soldiers (witting or unwitting) in these conflicts are little wood chips in the irrational cataracts of societal forces. Condemn the mindset of ill will, the men pulling the strings and stoking the flames. Feel pity for all the poor SOBs in the trenches.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel sorry for Nazi German soldiers...why they were in Stalingrad in the first place?
ReplyDeleteWe can't merge all history wars Sean Walker every war aspect is different.
Not at all sorry for the German Nazis. Lifting sword die by the sword. I annoyed that American friends do not understand those victims who suffered the Russian people and other peoples of the invasion
ReplyDeleteThis is likely not an effective venue for debating this, but I'll put a little but more meat on the bones of my argument.
ReplyDeleteFirst I'll be clear and observe that of course the German soldiers (the Nazis and the many just swept up by the war) had no reason being in all the countries they had invaded including Russia. The violence of their actions, especially in light of the fascist drivers of their behaviour, were abject and deplorable. Russia's victory in Stalingrad and more generally in the war is a great and fortunate achievement. I have deep respect for the Russian men and women who fought under the terrible circumstances of Stalingrad and helped, ultimately, to deliver the world from the menace of the Nazis.
However, sympathy for individual soldiers and developing a rational perspective about their culpability for their actions in war is what I'm arguing for. So thought experiment: what if you took your average Russian male child and brought him up in Nazi German? To help the scenario, let's imagine one with 'Aryan' features to really fit the ideal of Nazi Germany and further assume the child was happily and well integrated. Do you think this boy would have been any more or less likely to have been a passionate Nazi? Do you think he would have been any more or less likely to be especially violent or cruel as a soldier in the German army? I'd say clearly no. I'd say clearly it's not being German or Russian that determines this misbehaviour, it's being human and in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Looked at another way, Russia itself was responsible for some pretty atrocious acts of violent treachery during the war too. For example, consider the pact with Germany and the invasion of Poland. I feel sorry for the poor Russian soldiers who participated in this. I feel especially bad for the few that were hurt or that lost their lives. I can't see them as simply responsible for their actions. In fact many/most probably wished they were back home in their old lives. But for a trick of fate, many of them might have been the ones who fought heroically in Stalingrad,
Although I am likely getting overly abstract for this discussion, I'd even argue that lacking sympathy for violent criminals doesn't make sense. I agree with Sam Harris' position about free will in this respect: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/may/29/will-neuroscience-change-criminal-justice Don't get me (or Sam) wrong, we need to protect ourselves from violent criminals, but hating them is useless and intellectually silly.
I think we are destined to keep repeating war if we don't adopt more rational zeitgeist about it. (Ironic, and unintended, use of a German word for this.)
You're again talking about other scenarios...refer strictly to the Stalingrad battle ...don't generalize =)
ReplyDeleteUnderstand, when the war between the two totalitarian systems is transformed into a war of the people for their survival. At the same time Russian victims were redundant and terrible. Hate can and silly, but it can not be forgotten
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu since the nature of my argument is not bound to the specific theatre of Stalingrad it isn't reasonable to limit it as you suggest. A tight parallel here would be to ask someone to express the second law of thermodynamics in the context of a non-isolated system. Moral principles are applied to specific situations but argued and motivated more generally.
ReplyDeleteМихаил Опенков I hope I haven't offended. Canadians have enjoyed an inequitable luxury of peace and calm on our shores, through no merit of our own. (Especially given our bigoted acts against the aboriginal people!) My attitude might not be so peaceful if my country and my family had been victimized by war as so many in West, central and Eastern Europe have been. It's easy to be 'objective' when you've had a silver spoon in your mouth so to speak. From this perspective, It does seem a little sanctimonious for me to be preaching brotherly love when I haven't had any skin in the game. :)
ReplyDeleteSean Walker this post focus was how a high fat "diet" can kill you, in this case we are talking about german soldiers trapped in Stalingrad.
ReplyDeleteThis was not a debate about how we should perceive soldiers and what's good or bad in a war. In war everything is allowed, everything is bad no matter what side you choose...innocent people will die; human specie is the most destructive one, that's why so far we have 2 WW, Holocaust, Civil Wars pretty much all over the world, Vietnam war, Afghan, Iraq and so on ...so when we talk about a history subject we should refer strictly to that.
Also you should not say so easy how you sympathize with some specific army...in this case german.
If you never lived with fear or with restrictions you can't really understand why defending your own piece of land is so important.
I remember the stories of my grandparents who lived under a strict communist regime for more than 45 years.
When one had to whisper in their own home, when people had no food, when people were shot for the simple fact because they were listening to the radio etc...
So this is a vast subject...the more we try to keep it short, the more expands..because involves many variables.
No one tries to dick russian people, however I should be allowed to do that Михаил Опенков because some russian communists kept the country where my grandparents lived under fear, and under strict restrictions... but of course has nothing to do with you and me, so I'll just smile and drink my cappuccino. =)
ReplyDeleteSean Walker In that war because we were allies. We remember and be grateful to the Americans, Canadians and British in northern convoys. In many ways they have saved Russia.
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu I understand you. Sam has lived most of his life in a communist country
ReplyDeleteAnyway! Again, great post! (lol) Some day I'll get to visit Russia & Eastern Europe. I've lived in Western Europe but would love to live a bit further east for a while.
ReplyDeleteMichael Atkinson So what's the problem?
ReplyDelete