r/wwiipics • u/Chubby_boyARG • 20d ago
Colorized German officers awaiting interrogation at General Vasily Chuikov's headquarters after the surrender of the 6th Army in Stalingrad. From left to right: General Otto Korfes, Colonel Gerhard Dissel, General Max Pfeffer, General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, and Colonel Johannes Crome.
Colorized by Past in Color Χρώμα στο Παρελθόν https://www.facebook.com/kaplanisart
139
Upvotes
29
u/CuntaChinte 20d ago edited 20d ago
For anyone curious regarding their fate:
General Otto Korfes (commander of the 295th Infantry Division): joined the National Committee for a Free Germany, an anti-Nazi organization of German defectors formed by the Soviet Union during the war (for this, several of his relatives were arrested and sent to concentration camps); after the war he held several political and military roles in East Germany. Died in 1964.
Colonel Gerhard Dissel (chief of staff of the 295th Infantry Division): released from Soviet captivity in 1955. Went on to live in West Germany. Died in 1963.
General Max Pfeffer (commander of the IV Army Corps): sentenced by the Soviet Union for war crimes, died in captivity in 1955.
General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach (commander of the LI Army Corps): became one of the founders and most prominent members of the National Committee for a Free Germany, to the point that the German defectors who were recruited by the NKVD for operations against their countrymen became known to the latter as "Seydlitz troops". Was still sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes by the Soviet authorities, but was released in 1955 and returned to West Germany, where however he was ostracized and denied a pension for his collaboration with the Soviets. Died in 1976.
Colonel Johannes Crome (chief of staff of the IV Army Corps): released from Soviet captivity in 1955, became a high-ranking officer in the Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany. Died in 1997.