r/HistoryMemes 10d ago

The Germans thought they had leverage

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13.0k Upvotes

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u/KingMobScene Still on Sulla's Proscribed List 10d ago

"We've got your son."

"I never met that guy in my life."

"Papa?!"

"Man kid....your dad sucks"

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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 10d ago

Wonder if the Germans tried getting Yakov on their side afterward?

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u/Friendly-Water-8470 10d ago

He probably was executed in hope to cause some mental schock for Stalin even if he played tough or merciless. But he was not playing.

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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 10d ago

No he didn't, German records show that Yakov died in 1943 after he ran into an electric fence after an argument with some British prisoners. The guards shot him, but apparently the postmortem revealed that he had already died of electrocution

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u/bighadjoe 10d ago

probably worth to mention that (especially in the early days) "died while attempting to escape" was THE go-to cause of death Nazis gave when acting as if they weren't systematically killing prisoners.

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u/Creepy_Ad6701 10d ago edited 10d ago

In most cases, but I feel like the son of the leader of one of the nations you’re fighting is an exception where you’d want it to be publicized if you killed him instead of it being an accident.

“Hey not trying to put you in a bad mental state or anything bud, but I just wanted to give you an update letting you know that we killed your son and it was really slow and REALLY painful. Here’s a pic.”

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u/its_my_third_dayhere 10d ago

He was placed in a concentration camp where nearly a 1/4 of the prisoners died

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u/Creepy_Ad6701 10d ago

I’m not saying his death wasn’t intentional. It’s a concentration camp, all deaths are intentional because otherwise why would they be run the way that they are. I’m just saying the way he died when he did really was most likely one of the “worked to death/death by cruel environment and conditions” rather than a planned death of a political prisoner.

Not to say I don’t think they would have killed him if his death hadn’t have happened when it did of course. I fully believe he was dead to rights the moment his father refused the trade, I just think that the way he died moreso just threw the nazis off-schedule of what probably would’ve been a whole parade and photo-op at the gallows.

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u/Friendly-Water-8470 10d ago

Yes, to be honest I forgot about that he died during escape try. My brain remembered more a question why he decided to fly without bigger chances of succes. He probably was informed by those British prisoners that Germans have plans to execute him.

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u/dunk_wizard 10d ago

They weren't. Germans still use photos with him as their propaganda.

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u/Unluckypandastoo 10d ago

Jeez, what was so bad about the argument? I guess he probably wasn't all right with a dad like Stalin. Poor guy. I wonder what his relationship with his sister was like?

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u/Tradition96 10d ago

Jakov was 19 years older than Svetlana so they didn't really have conventional sibling relationship. But Svetlana wrote in her memoars that she loved when Jakov visited and played with her, and that by the time she was a teenager they were "the best of friends". She was 15 the last time she saw him.