Stalingrad
Flash Fiction
The battle of Stalingrad had been raging on for several months when the Soviets overran Hitler’s sixth army and trapped them inside the city with no food or fuel, or even wood to burn to keep warm. General Friedrich Paulus knew the situation was hopeless and asked permission from Hitler to either attempt a breakout or to surrender, and Hitler angrily denied him that option. But we’re starving, no ammunitions, our horses are dying_. Eat your dead horses, Hitler ordered. The German soldiers began dying off, mainly of the Russian winter. Berlin sent the order to take over the houses of the Russian peasants, demolish them and burn them for heating.
Two exhausted corporals saw a wooden house and thought they’d order the lodgers out. The old peasant couple were about to sit down to a bowl of borsch, and seeing the soldiers invited them to share their lunch, which they did, after which the two Nazis ordered them out of the house. The two Russians were confused and did not understand, and finally the soldiers pointed their guns at them. They all talked with nobody understanding. Finally the old couple decided that they were being asked to leave, and with tears in their eyes they did. To their complete consternation, they saw the invaders begin to attack their house, pulling posts and beams apart. They never understood why, and they froze to death the same night, in the forest.
