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A Harbinger of Horrors Teuton, Slav and Jew | Germany and eastern Europe | A small experiment with poison
German Teutons and Russian Slavs had regarded each other as enemies for centuries. The fighting of World War I was only the most recent chapter in an ongoing struggle for supremacy.
Russia's advance into East Prussia in August 1914 was marked by brutality and speed, as tsarist cavalry officer Vladimir Littauer noted in his journals:
'Around seven o'clock in the morning, our squadron reached the objective for the day... The scene on the German side of the border was ... frightening. For miles, farms, haystacks and barns were burning. Like every army under the sun, we looted and destroyed and later hated to admit it.'
Russian Hussar' by Vladimir S. Littauer
published by J.A. Allen and Co. Ltd, London, 1965
Locals suspected of directing artillery fire on Littauer's unit near the village of Santopen were summarily executed:
'Groten completely lost his temper and shouted: 'They are all spies, shoot them!' In a moment, they were all dead.'
'Russian Hussar' by Vladimir S. Littauer
published by J.A. Allen and Co. Ltd, London, 1965
Confronted with such violence, many East Prussians fled west to safety, bringing tales of mutilation and other atrocities with them. Some of these tales were amplified as they circulated among anxious villagers.
'Whole columns of East Prussian refugees came through our town... They say Russians tie German women who stay behind to trees, set up wooden crosses in front of them and nail their little children to them. When the kiddies have died... the Russians mutilate the women and kill them.'
Piete Kuhr
There We'll Meet Again (diary)
Fighting on the Eastern Front was also marked by great ferocity and savagery.
Russia advanced 100 miles inside German territory before the Germans began to organise a counter-attack. Directed by Generals von Hindenburg and Ludendorff, this was focused on the woods just outside Tannenberg, a village (now called Grünwald) 90 miles north-east of Warsaw. It had been the scene of an epic struggle between Teutons and Slavs in 1410.
Taking advantage of internal divisions within the Russian command, the Germans won a stunning victory between 26 and 30 August. A total of 30,000 Russians were killed or wounded and 100,000 captured, while the Germans lost 20,000 men. It was Germany's greatest victory of 1914 and perhaps of the entire war.
Russia's advance into Prussia may have been halted at Tannenberg, but its army remained on German soil and continued to put pressure on the Austro-Hungarians. On 9 November 1914, the Russians began to lay siege - for the second time - to Przemysl, a fortress town in what is now Poland. Przemysl finally surrendered on 22 March 1915 after 133 days of siege.
The Eastern Front's tensions and hatreds bubbled to the surface at Przemysl. When the Austro-Hungarians had controlled the town, Slav residents suspected of sending secret messages to the Russians had been punished with arbitrary brutality. Przemysl resident Helena Yablonska observed the punishment of suspected fifth columnists:
There's execution after execution. [The Austrians] are hanging people by the dozen now, innocent ones too.
When the Russians captured the town in March 1915, the town's Jews experienced a tidal wave of anti-Semitic persecution. The treatment meted out to them presaged the horrors of 1939-45.
'Tuesday 30 March: Jews are treated with no mercy. They cut the beard and sideburns off the old rabbi from Bircza, then strapped him to a horse and dragged him away. They beat his wife. [Jews] are not allowed to own any shops.
Saturday 17 April: The Cossacks waited until the Jews went off to pray... then set upon them with whips... taking them from synagogues, streets and doorsteps... Many hundreds of Jews. What'll they do with them? Some of the older, weaker ones couldn't keep up and were whipped. The round-up will go on till they've caught the lot. Such lamenting and despair! Some hide in cellars, but the Russians will find them...'
Helena Yablonska
Once the veneer of civilisation had been stripped away at places such as Przemysl, it was difficult to maintain it elsewhere.
NEXT: Germany and eastern Europe >