Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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Today I'm showing you some pictures that are hard to take - but without these photos you can't tell the story as it really was ...
Soja Kosmodemjanskaja
On November 29, 1941, the partisan "Tanja" was murdered by German soldiers in Petrishchvo (Moscow Oblast).
Born on September 13, 1923 in a Siberian village in Osinowyje Gai in Tambov Oblast, "Tanja" - her full name was Soja Anatoljewna Kosmodemjanskaja - lived in Moscow and volunteered for the partisans after the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
Before that, she had learned German well at school, as lines from her exercise book show ...:
Kosmodemjanskaja, who was a member of the CPSU youth organization "Komsomol" ...
... was accepted into partisan troop unit No. 9903 of the staff of the Western Front, whose main task was to carry out acts of sabotage, in particular to destroy German accommodations behind the front line.
At the beginning of November 1941 she crossed the German lines for the first time after a brief training. Their group of eleven partisans operated successfully in the Shakhovskaya area and returned without losses.
The second mission, together with two comrades, Wassilij Klubkow and Boris Krainow ...
... their commander, led them across the front line in the Naro-Fominsk area on the night of November 21.
The partisans were supposed to set fire to houses in the village of Petrishchwo near Wereja where Germans had taken up quarters.
Kosmodemjanskaja was assigned the southern part of the village and, like her comrade Boris Krainov, did this job.
Presumably it was her job to set fire to the village stables. The Germans lost 20 horses.
The Germans then organized a guard among the villagers to prevent further attacks.
On the evening of November 27th, while trying to set a barn on fire, Kosmodemjanskaya was discovered by the landlord Semyon Siridov. He brought Germans over to arrest them.
Kosmodemjanskaja's comrade Vasily Klubkov ...
... betrayed them to the Germans to save his own skin. Klubkow was therefore “only” sent to the POW camp, was liberated by the Americans after the end of the war, extradited to the Soviet Union and executed there in 1945.
Kosmodemjanskaja's commander Krainov also hanged the Germans a few days later.
Kosmodemjanskaja was interrogated and tortured by members of the 197th Infantry Division, but gave no information, except for the code name "Tanya".
Soja Kosmodemjanskaja was taken to the village square of Petrishchvo at 10:30 a.m. on November 29, 1941 and executed.
A sign had previously been hung around her neck that read "Arsonist" in German and Russian.
Even when the noose was around her neck, she called on her countrymen to fight the German invaders and to destroy them.
She turned to her murderer in German with the request to surrender and to go into captivity.
Then she died on the gallows ...:
The half-clothed corpse of Soja Kosmodemjanskaja had to remain unburied in the village square until the end of December, according to an order from the German local commander. During this time, he was violated at least twice by drunks.
On January 22, 1942, Petrishchevo was retaken by Red Army soldiers. Based on descriptions from the villagers, they found the body of "Tanja".
A few days later, the Soviet military journalist Pyotr Lidov came ...
... to the village.
Lidov immediately recognized the "propaganda value" of Soya Kosmodemjanskaya.
The photographer arranged the body of Soja Kosmodemjanskaja, which was almost intact due to the cold, for his later famous photo that amounted to another desecration:
Before he took his picture, he put a stick around her neck, pulled it taut, and also bared her chest ...:
On January 30, 1942, the body of Kosmodemjanskajas was brought to Moscow and a little later identified by her brother, who recognized her in a newspaper photo. She is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow ...:
On February 16, 1942, Soja Kosmodemjanskaja was posthumously honored as a heroine of the Soviet Union. The publication of pictures in front-line magazines that were found on German soldiers and showed their execution contributed to their popularity. It's the pictures that I show above ...
In Moscow a school is named after her, in front of it there is a memorial stone ...:
In Dresden (former GDR), too, the 46th secondary school had its name since 1974 and remembered it until the fall of the Wall ...:
Nothing is forgotten, and nobody is forgotten!
Soja Kosmodemjanskaja
On November 29, 1941, the partisan "Tanja" was murdered by German soldiers in Petrishchvo (Moscow Oblast).
Born on September 13, 1923 in a Siberian village in Osinowyje Gai in Tambov Oblast, "Tanja" - her full name was Soja Anatoljewna Kosmodemjanskaja - lived in Moscow and volunteered for the partisans after the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
Before that, she had learned German well at school, as lines from her exercise book show ...:
Kosmodemjanskaja, who was a member of the CPSU youth organization "Komsomol" ...
... was accepted into partisan troop unit No. 9903 of the staff of the Western Front, whose main task was to carry out acts of sabotage, in particular to destroy German accommodations behind the front line.
At the beginning of November 1941 she crossed the German lines for the first time after a brief training. Their group of eleven partisans operated successfully in the Shakhovskaya area and returned without losses.
The second mission, together with two comrades, Wassilij Klubkow and Boris Krainow ...
... their commander, led them across the front line in the Naro-Fominsk area on the night of November 21.
The partisans were supposed to set fire to houses in the village of Petrishchwo near Wereja where Germans had taken up quarters.
Kosmodemjanskaja was assigned the southern part of the village and, like her comrade Boris Krainov, did this job.
Presumably it was her job to set fire to the village stables. The Germans lost 20 horses.
The Germans then organized a guard among the villagers to prevent further attacks.
On the evening of November 27th, while trying to set a barn on fire, Kosmodemjanskaya was discovered by the landlord Semyon Siridov. He brought Germans over to arrest them.
Kosmodemjanskaja's comrade Vasily Klubkov ...
... betrayed them to the Germans to save his own skin. Klubkow was therefore “only” sent to the POW camp, was liberated by the Americans after the end of the war, extradited to the Soviet Union and executed there in 1945.
Kosmodemjanskaja's commander Krainov also hanged the Germans a few days later.
Kosmodemjanskaja was interrogated and tortured by members of the 197th Infantry Division, but gave no information, except for the code name "Tanya".
Soja Kosmodemjanskaja was taken to the village square of Petrishchvo at 10:30 a.m. on November 29, 1941 and executed.
A sign had previously been hung around her neck that read "Arsonist" in German and Russian.
Even when the noose was around her neck, she called on her countrymen to fight the German invaders and to destroy them.
She turned to her murderer in German with the request to surrender and to go into captivity.
Then she died on the gallows ...:
The half-clothed corpse of Soja Kosmodemjanskaja had to remain unburied in the village square until the end of December, according to an order from the German local commander. During this time, he was violated at least twice by drunks.
On January 22, 1942, Petrishchevo was retaken by Red Army soldiers. Based on descriptions from the villagers, they found the body of "Tanja".
A few days later, the Soviet military journalist Pyotr Lidov came ...
... to the village.
Lidov immediately recognized the "propaganda value" of Soya Kosmodemjanskaya.
The photographer arranged the body of Soja Kosmodemjanskaja, which was almost intact due to the cold, for his later famous photo that amounted to another desecration:
Before he took his picture, he put a stick around her neck, pulled it taut, and also bared her chest ...:
On January 30, 1942, the body of Kosmodemjanskajas was brought to Moscow and a little later identified by her brother, who recognized her in a newspaper photo. She is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow ...:
On February 16, 1942, Soja Kosmodemjanskaja was posthumously honored as a heroine of the Soviet Union. The publication of pictures in front-line magazines that were found on German soldiers and showed their execution contributed to their popularity. It's the pictures that I show above ...
In Moscow a school is named after her, in front of it there is a memorial stone ...:
In Dresden (former GDR), too, the 46th secondary school had its name since 1974 and remembered it until the fall of the Wall ...:
Nothing is forgotten, and nobody is forgotten!
