Stalingrad during the German-fascist Occupation (July 1942 — February 1943)

Abstract

In the article, archival documents and evidence from contemporaries reveal features of German economic policy in occupied the Stalingrad Region are presented. All economic resources in the occupied areas were used to supply the Wehrmacht and German military industry. Therefore, reconstruction work in the city was carried out only on a scale required for the German army. Local inhabitants were killed in concentration camps or were subjected to looting and terror. A significant number of able-bodied citizens in these occupied areas were forcibly removed to Germany. The article presents archival data on damage inflicted on civilians and on objects of industrial and socio-cultural significance. Material and everyday difficulties of the local population during the occupation are also illustrated. Among them, the food problem was considerably aggravated and led to massive deaths, disease, and swelling from malnutrition. German repression contributed to the development in the field of movement for the disruption of economic, political, and military activities of the fascist invaders. The population shied away from compulsory registration, avoided compulsory labor, and harbored partisans and Red Army soldiers in their homes, who committed sabotage. The struggle against the forcible hijacking of the civilian population to fascist Germany acquired a mass scope. These and other forms of resistance to the brutal occupation regime became one of the most important prerequisites for the victory of Soviet troops at Stalingrad.