Report about the food supplied to Berlin 10.05 - 1.08.1945

REFERENCE

For the period from 10th of May till the 1st of August 1945 the following foods were transferred to supply the inhabitants of city Berlin:

1	Flours	58.771,2 tn
2	Grains	11.015,9 tn
3	Meat	8.199,6 tn
4	Fats	2.116,2 tn
5	Potatoes	97.589,6 tn
6	Salt	3.527,2 tn
7	Sugar	5.221,3 tn
8	Tea	161,6 tn
9	Natural Coffee	382,6 tn
10	Surrogate Coffee	804,7 tn

Com. of the military commendant of Berlin city
of food supplies office Guards Colonel Kalinichenko.

Head of the food supplies office
Major Kuvshinov

13 August 1945

Order to the commander of 20th tank regiment to organize the protection of historical material in Berlin.

To the commander of 20th tank regiment.
Fulfilling the order of the military council of the army.
The division commander has ordered:

Select 7 people from the saergeant and private staff to perform the protection tasks of the archive and precious museum materials of the German writer Goethe. The term is from 17.7 till 23.7.45.

Instructions regarding the guarding as well as places to guard shall be received from the commander of the guarding company of the staff of the 8th Guards Tank Army (Veimar, platz Elefand, Krankenhaus (hospital))

Report the fulfillment about the beginning and end of the service at 18:00 17.7.45 and 18:00 23.7.45.

Cheif of staff of the II tank Radom-Berlin
Red Banner orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov division
Major General of the tank forces
Signed (Gritsenko)

sent 2 copies
copy 1 - to file
copy 2 - to recepient
fulilled by Bavykin

17.7.45 MR

Sent at 15:50

Source: archive index temporary unavailable

Military prosecutor of the 1st Bielorussian Front. About attitude towards the German population.

Report off the military prossecutor of the 1st Bielorussian Front

To the military council of the front regarding the fulfilment of the directive [11072] of the Supreme Command Stavka and Military council of the Front directive about the change of attitude towards the German population.

2 May 1945

Upon receiving the directive of the Stavka of the Supreme Command and the directive of the Military Council of the Front, the military military prosecutor's office has issued a directive requiring the prosecutors of each army and unit to take under personal control the fulfillment of these very important instructions and by all means guarantee their fulfillment.

After that the entire operational staff of the military prosecutor's office of the front has departed to the armies and divisions to carry out this work. Separately, the forces of the military prosecutor's office of the front and the rear, a check of numerous military commandant's offices both in army and in front rear was initialized with the aim to provide a practical help.

The entire mass legal work of the military prosecutors was switched to the topics, connected to changing the attitude towards the German population. Special plans to carry out the msive law activities were developed and agreed with political agencies.

Overall based on the materials gathered by the military prosecutors, in several armies orders containing facts of the incorrect treatment of the German population were issued. The decisions were made to put the guilty persons under trial.

This approximately is what the organizational work of the military prosecutors office is about, regarding the fulfillment of the Stavka of the Supreme command directive and the directive of the Military Council of the front.

Regarding the attitude of our forces towards the German population, significant progress was achieved. Facts of meaningless and [unmotivated] shootings of the Germans, looting and raping have significantly reduced. However even after the issue of the directive of the Stavka and the Front council, several such cases still were registered.

While shootings of the Germans almost never happen now and the cases of robbery are extremely rare, the raping cases still happen. Looting also does occur in the form of our soldiers walking around the abandoned flats, gathering various things.

Here are some facts, recorded in the recent days:

On 25th April iin the city Falkenzee technical unit’s deputy commander of hte 1st battery oof the 334th guards heavy artillery regiment lieutenant Enchivatov was drunk and visitedd houses and raped women.

Enchivatov was arrested, the case was completed by the investigation and handed over to the military court.

Soldiers of the outpost of the 157th separate border guard regiment Ivanov and Manankov, while in the city Fronau, being drunk have entered a German house. In this house Manankov has raped an ill German woman Lizelet Lure. On 22nd of April she was raped by a group of our soldiers, after that she has poisoned her year and a half old son, her mother poisoned herself and she also tried to poson herself, but was rescued. While in poor condition after the poisoning attempt she was raped by Manankov. Ivanov in the mean time has raped another woman Kirhenvic. Both Ivanov and Manankov are arrested, the case investigation is finished and handed over to the military court.

The commander of the mortar company of the 216th rifle regiment of the 76th rifle division lieutenant Buyanov has willingly declared himself leader of the patrol of the city Bernau and while being drunk was stopping all the Germans that passed by, taking away their valuable items. Buyanov was sent to military court.

Chief of staff of the 278th infantry regiment of the 175th infantry division colonel Losev has sent his subordinate lieutenant to the basement to select a woman for him and bring her to him. Lieutenant has fulfilled the assignment and Losiev has raped that woman. By the order of the army council, colonell Losiev was relieved of his position and assigned with lower rank.

On April 22nd at Schenerlind village a gun commander of the 695th artillery regiment of the 185 rifle division petty officer Dorokhin while drunk has raped a 15 year old girl threatening her with a gun and in front of her parents.
Dorokhin was arrested and sent to the military court.

On April 25th head of affairs of the operative staff of the 79th rifle corps lieutenant Kursakov in presence of kids and husband tried to rape an elderly German. Criminal prosecution has been initiated against Kursakov.

I consider it necessary to emphasize several points:

1. The unit commanders and military councils are indeed taking serious measures in order to prevent the disgraceful behaviour of their subordinates. However some of them are calming themselves with the fact that good progress was achieved. They are absolutely forgetting that not all raping, looting, robbing cases are reported to them. Because several units pass through the same region, some commanders are trying to blame the crimes of their subordinates onto other units. This is frequently spotted when talking to the commanders.
2. Rapings and especially robberies and looting are widely practiced by the repatriated or those, proceeding to the repatriation points. Especially Italians, Dutch and even Germans. They all are blaming our soldiers for their crimes.
3. There are cases when the Germans are provoking, reporting a raping case which did not happen. I personally discovered two such cases. The following fact presents an interest: whn I was in the 3rd strike army on April 27th, it was reported that the commander of the 85th tank regiment Chistyakov while drunk was bringing German women with him and raping him. But when one of the victims started screaming and attracted the attention of other soldiers who then tried to enter the building, he ordered the self-propelled gun to turn around and opened fire, killing 4 people and injuring 6. I ordered the deputy military prosecutor of the Army and a military investigator to depart there immediately. On April 29th the prosecutor of the Army reported me with a ciphered message that this fact was not confirmed.

It is necessary to briefly analyze the causes of not fulfilling the directives of the Stavka and the Front council:

1. Not everyone was made acquainted with the directives. In some small separate units, especially where the staff is on the move, these important documents were introduced only formally and many don’t know their content. In units consisting of a considerable number of national soldiers these documents were not explained properly. The political leaders and military prosecutors of the front have established that the 301th rifle division, which has many Latvians and Moldovans, have heard something about the mentioned directives, but don’t know what exactly is written there.
2. The comendants for the settlements taken by our force are assigned very slowly. Patrolling in these settlements is poorly organized with too few people assigned for that task and too large territory given to them. They have to just go along the streets without knowing what is going on inside the houses and on other streets. This way the patrolling has become a fiction.

Here are facts:

In Ebersdorf, occupied by our forces on April 21st, on 27nd of April there were no commendants at Heckfield, Karlshorst, Scheneveide, Adlershof, Rudove and other settlements didn’t have commendants on 28th of April. It is necessary to consider the work of comendants separately. The military prosecutors office of the front has checked the implementation of the directives of the Stavka of the Supreme Command and the directive of the Front Council within approximately 50 commandant's offices. This check has discovered some cases that require attention.

Several commendants do not know about the directive of the Stavka and the Front council (commandant of Petershagen senior lieutenant Paschenko, commandant of Friedrichshegen senior lieutenant Nevolin, commandant of Erker major Lebedev and others), others have heard only rumors about these documents. As mentioned before, I have already pointed out that comendants are assigned with large delay. It is necessary to add to this that in many cases the selection of the comendants is not properly organized.

From the 8th army we have received a notice about the commandant of Ransdorf senior lieutenant Zinovienko, who together with burgomeister has issued an advertisement for our soldiers which states that: “From this date the robbing stops”. The staff of the military unit Nr 70594 has issued a temporary certification to the former ober-lieutenant of the police Max Kiper with a note: “Based on general Major Makhalitsin’s order the bearer of this Max Kiper is assigned temporarily as a commandant of the city Ezechvalde”. Signed by chief of staff lt-col Anisov.

The commandant of one of the districts of Berlin Tempelhof has assigned as a burgomaster a person that was a deputy burgomaster in German time. These facts speak enough about the total lack of preparedness of some candidates to perform such important tasks. And in the economic sense, a number of commandants do not correspond to their position.

At a meeting in the 8th Guards. army commandant of Kepennik Lieutenant Colonel Titov claimed that he had a reserve of bread to feed the population for 3-4 months. By further questioning it was found that in this settlement having over 100,000 inhabitants had only 35 tons of food reserves.

During my time in the army, I received an assignment by phone from a member of the Military Council of the Front, Lieutenant General Telegin, to establish the structure of local government in Berlin and all localities that include to the city area.

I consider it necessary to address this issue in this report: I have spoken to many Germans who are well aware of the principles of functioning of the local authorities. The scheme is as follows: In charge of Berlin there was a main president of the city. Ober-burgomeister is subordinated to him. Berlin and settlements which are included in its area are divided into 20 administrative districts. There was a burgomeister in each of these administrative regions who was subordinated to the Berlin ober-burgomeister. Each administrative region united 5-6 settlements. The district burgomaster's office consists of a number of departments, the main of which are: the food department, which is in charge of the distribution of food, card system, etc .; the economic department which controls the provision of the population with clothing, footwear, utilities; the department for education of youth, which is in charge of schools, issues of education of youth in the fascist spirit; department for work among women, etc. These departments are already directly connected with the population.

This local government was closely linked in its work with the police and carried out its functions through the police.

The scheme of the police institution is as follows:

The head of the Berlin police is the Chief Police President, who is subordinated to the chief president of Berlin and is in the same position as the ober-burgomaster. About 350 police stations are subordinated to him (according to the number of settlements included in the city zone). Every police station had 40-50 police staff, at the head of which was lieutenant, captain or senior officer (depending on the importance of one or another locality).

Considering the functioning scheme of the judiciary, it appears to be the following: the main court is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice; the next judicial link is the regional court, acting within a region.

This is followed by the District Court serving several administrative districts. Thus, in Berlin and its zone there were several district courts.

After examining this issue and speaking with a number of senior executives armies, I came to the conclusion that the most slender would be the following structure.

Berlin should be headed by the military commandant of the city. By his discretion the President of Berlin should be appointed. In 20 city districts military commandants must be appointed.

The President of Berlin, in agreement with the Commandant of Berlin and in accordance with the candidates nominated by the District Commandants, appoints district burgomasters according to the number of districts; district military commandants appoint burgomasters of settlements.

Just as the burgomaster of Berlin is subordinated to the military commander of Berlin, so the district burgomasters and burgomasters of settlements must be subordinated to the district military commandants.

In each locality, a civilian militia of about 10-20 people should be organized (depending on the size of the populated area). This militia should be subordinated to the burgomaster and the military commander.

To communicate with the population in each district, an authorized representative must be appointed from the population and in each house a person responsible for fulfilling all the requirements for residents of the house.

These are the considerations related to the organization of power in Berlin and its zone.

The military prosecutors of the armies and formations, in accordance with the instructions of the front military prosecutor's office, continue to work on checking the implementation of the directives of the Supreme Command Headquarters from April 20 and the Front Military Council from April 22 of this year, about changing attitudes towards the German population.

On May 5th I will present to the Military Council of the Front another memorandum on this matter, in which I will give a detailed analysis of all the facts of incorrect attitudes towards the German population, which will be recorded for the period from the beginning of the publication of these documents.

Military Prosecutor of the 1st Belorussian Front
Major General of Justice L. YACHENIN

On this page of the document there is GK Zhukov's own handwritten resolution: “Comrade ShestakovColonel Shestakov - head of the department for the leadership of military commanders of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany.. I demand from you: to immediately remove from commandant's work all commandants who do not correspond to their appointment. Keep in mind that the Germans, by observing the commandants and their work and behavior, judge our army. Demand that the commandants do not dishonor the "officer corps of the Red Army." Zhukov 4.5.1945"

Source link.

ЦАМО РФ. Ф. 233. Оп. 2380. Д. 40. Л. 1—7.

Stavka of the Supreme Commander directive Nr 11072 to the commanders of 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts about the necessity for humane treatment towards the German population and prisoners of war.

20 April 1945 20:40

Stavka of the Supreme Command orders:

1. To require the forces to change their treatment of Germans both towards prisoners of war and civilians and treat them better.
   Cruel treatment makes them fear and provokes more stubborn resistance without surrendering.
   The civilians, fearing revenge, gather into gangs. This situation is not good for us. More humane treatment of the Germans will make our fighting easier on their territory and without doubt will reduce their stubbornness in the defence.
2. In German regions to the West of the line between river Oder mouth, river Oder until Furstenberg and further until river Neise (western), create German administrations and put Germans as burgomasters.
   Do not touch ordinary members of the national-socialist party, if they are loyal towards the Red Army, only leaders may be taken into custody if they weren’t able to flee yet.
3. Better treatment of the Germansmust not lower your vigilance and cause familiarities with them.

Stavka of the Supreme command
J.Stalin, A.Antonov

ЦАМО. Ф. 148а. Оп. 3763. Д. 212. Л. 13.

Directive Nr 11071 of the Stavka of the Supreme Commander to the Commander of the 1st Belorussian front to strike, surpassing Berlin from the North.

18 April 1945 04:00

Stavka of the Supreme Command orders:

1. After crossing Oder river no later than 22.04 with the main forces, continue the offensive to the South Westin the overall direction towards Graifenberg, Gross-Schenbekk, Birkenverder, performing a strike surpassing Berlin from the North.
2. From 24:00 on 20.04 Set up the following delimiting line with the 1st Belorussian front: until Angermunde as before, then AltHuttendorf (for 2nd Belorussian front inclusive).
3. Report about the issued instructions.

Stavka of the Supreme Command
J.Stalin, A.Antonov

Source: ЦАМО. Ф. 148а. Оп. 3763. Д. 213. Л. 85.

Directive Nr 11060 of Stavka of the Supreme Commander to the Commander of 1st Ukrainian Front about the elimination of the enemy group in the region of Kotbus and to the South of Berlin.

3 April 1945 21:00

The Stavka of the Supreme Commander orders:

1. To prepare and implement an offensive operation with the objective to eliminate the enemy group in the region of Kotbus to the South of Berlin. No later than on 10-12 day of operation take Beelitz, Wittenberg and further along Elbe to Dresden. Later, after Berlin is taken, prepare to advance towards Leipzig.
2. The main strike with forces of five combined arms armies and two tank armies should be made from the Triebel region in the direction towards Shpremberg, Beltzig.
   In the region of breakthrough gather six breakthrough artillery divisions to create artillery density of no less than 250 barrels per kilometer of 76mm and higher.
3. To support the main group from the South perform a supportive strike with forces of the 2nd Polish Army and parts of 52nd Army from the region of Kolfurt to the overall direction of Bautzen, Dresden.
4. The tank armies and combined arms armies of the second echelon must be sent in after the breakthrough is achieved to supplement the success in the direction of the main strike.
5. The left flank of the front must stay in a rigid defence with special caution to the Breslau direction.
   The 5th guards Army must be swapped and used in the offensive in the main direction.
6. Establish the following delimiting line from 15.04.1945 with the 1st Belorussian front: Up to Unrushtadt -as before, then lake Einsdorfer-Ze, Gros-Gastroze, Lubben (all points except Lubben for the Belorussian front inclusive). Responsibility for maintaining the joint as before.
7. The beginning of the operation is according to instructions you have received personally.

Stavka of the Supreme Command
J.Stalin, A.Antonov

Source: ЦАМО. Ф. 148а. Оп. 3763. Д. 139. Л. 231, 232.

Supreme commander Stavka directive Nr. 11059 to the commander of the 1st Belorussian front for preparation and execution of the operation of capturing Berlin.

2nd April 1945

The Stavka of the Supreme commander orders:

1. To prepare and to implement the offensive operation with the objective to take the capital of Germany the city of Berlin and to reach Elbe no later than on the twelfth-fifteenth day of operation.
2. The main strike must be directed from the bridgehead on Oder river to the West of Kustrin by using the forces of four combined and two tank armies. Bring five to six artillery divisions to the breakthrough region to create a density of no less than 250 barrels per 1km of 76mm guns and higher.
3. To support the main group of the front, perform two supporting strikes from the North and South with forces of two armies each. The first one from Bervalde in the general direction towards Eberswalde, Ferbellin. The second from the bridgeheads on river Oder to the North and South from Frankfurt-on-Oder to the general direction towards Furstenwalde, Potsdam, Brandenburg to surpass Berlin from South.
4. Tank armies must be sent in the direction of main strike after defenses will be breached, to facilitate the success of surpassing Berlin from North and North-East.
5. The army of the second echelon must be used to facilitate the success in the main direction.
6. Delimiting lines:
   With the 2nd Belorussian front according to the Stavka directive Nr.110531 ОП 1.04.1945;
   With the first Ukrainian front from 15.04.1945 until Unrushtadt - as before, then lake Ensdorfer-Ze, Gross-Gastroze, Lubben (all points except Lubben for the 1st Belorussian front inclusive)
7. The responsibility for ensuring joints with the 2nd Belorussian front and 1st Ukrainian fronts are the same.
8. Operation start is in accordance with instructions received personally by you.

Stavka of the Supreme Commander.
J. Stalin, A. Antonov.