Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): Last letters from Stalingrad – Letter from an unnamed German soldier: “The last word belongs to the mother” (Published on 03/08/2026)
In a letter, he writes about the dying soldiers and the growing doubts about the German leadership (source: Letzte Briefe aus Stalingrad [“Last Letters from Stalingrad”], letter no. 12, p. 22 f. [translation from German language]):
“…So now you know that I won’t be coming back. Break the news gently to our parents. I am deeply shaken and have serious doubts about everything. I used to be faithful and strong; now I feel small and faithless. There is much of what is happening here that I will never know; but the little that I am experiencing is already so much that I cannot bear it. No one can convince me that my comrades died with the words »Germany« or »Heil Hitler« on their lips. People are dying – there’s no denying that – but their last words are for their mother or the person they love most, or simply a cry for help. I’ve already seen hundreds fall and die, and many of them, like me, belonged to the HJ [“Hitler Youth”], but they all – if they still could – cried out for help or called out a name that couldn’t help them anyway.
The Führer has firmly promised to get us out of here – that was read to us – and we firmly believed it. I still believe it today, because I have to believe in something. If that isn’t true, what else would I have to believe in? Then I wouldn’t need spring or summer anymore, or anything else that brings joy. Let me keep this faith, dear Greta; my whole life – or at least eight years of it – I have always believed in the Führer and his word. It’s appalling how people here are beginning to doubt, and it’s shameful to hear words against which one can say nothing, because the facts speak for themselves.
If what we were promised isn’t true, then Germany will be lost, because in that case, no promise can be kept anymore. Oh, these doubts, these terrible doubts – if only they could be dispelled soon!”
Information from the publisher on the background of the book “Last Letters from Stalingrad” can be found here.
The authenticity of the “Last Letters from Stalingrad” is disputed.
(Head picture: Sculpture “Mother with her Dead Son” by Käthe Kollwitz,
Neue Wache Berlin, June 2026)
If you wish to support my work on Julius Erasmus, you can do so here. Many thanks!