My Grandma fought for the Russian army as an 19 year old in 1942 , and was wounded and luckily survived the war before coming to the USA in 1956 . As a curious high school student , I did an interview with her about her childhood and the war years , and she stated they were advised to shoot themselves rather than taken prisoner of the German army . She had witnessed so much cruelty , that she had no fear of death . She always thanked God for being able to come to America . A remarkable woman .
Thank you for sharing. How was she able to emigrate? Did she come to the states for schooling? Always curious how people living in USSR were able to leave. Was it easier after Stalin died?
My Grandma was able to come to America through marriage to my Grandpa , who incidentally was a partisan fighter in Poland . How that all came about , I do not know , but they settled in Wisconsin after being sponsored by a relative . My oldest brother is in possession of two medals my Grandma earned , but unfortunately she passed in 1985 so her story will never be known completely .
My Mom was born 1928, in Chernovitz Romania, her plight was horrible, as a displaced person along with her Dad, Mom 2 brothers were constantly on the move, they were forced to leave because they didn't have Slavic names. Mo said the Russian soldiers were much more "swine" in their treatment of their victims, as compared to the German soldiers, she suffered, she wasn't blessed with being ugly, is how she put it. She was very forgiving all her life, but used her story to try raise us kids.
i like how you keep reiterating that it was the regular german army, many people think it was just the SS which did horrible things but that wasn't the case. good job!
I read that the violent rape scene in "A Clockwork Orange" was actually inspired by an event that happened to the author and his wife during the war, in Great Britain. Their home was invaded, he was beaten senseless and his wife raped. The perpetrators: awol American GIs.
People are always surprised to learn that many of the army officers involved in the bomb plot against Hitler had blood on their hands from atrocities they had overseen, particularly on the Eastern Front.
My mother-in-law joined the Red army in 1941 and was made commander of an anti-aircraft battery in Leningrad. She survived the siege for 2-1/2 years because they fed the soldiers slightly more than the civilian population. My wife was born in 1964.
Eternal memory ! My great grandmother survived Leningrad siege because her mother gave her rations to her when she was a baby. Her mother didn't make it.
I recently read the memoirs of the great Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. The fate of female snipers who fell into German hands was well known. In addition to her sniper rifle, she carried a pistol and always made sure she had one round left, for herself if she captured.
As a historian myself this channel I cannot stress enough how he teaches history that never gets mention. I've learned more from this channel than any book or classroom. Keep up the amazing work.
@@roberttelarket4934 You took the words out of my mouth lol...Yes, forget books, forget the classroom; Watch Mark Felton Productions and you're an Historian!
I'm a history major and spent many years introducing students to myriad topics. Would have been great if your videos had existed back then as they'd make excellent intro's to a topic.
I've always thought that if I were a history teacher, or somehow ended up in front of a history classroom (such as when I was working as a substitute teacher a year and a half ago) I'd put on either a Mark Felton or History Guy video about something relevant to what the class is studying, we'd then discuss the content of the video. Never had such a chance though.
@@quillmaurer6563 Lots of luck remaining a regular or substitute teacher after showing some of the videos. Public school administrators and some parents would see to that!
@@theplanetofgames I have a guess this is a lead-in to somehow defending or diminishing Nazi actions since the USSR was also led by psychopaths. Close?
Svetlana Alexievich in her book "The unwomanly face of war" writes the memoirs of soviet women from the war. Many were decorated as heroines of the Soviet people but when the war was over they were treated like potential sluts because of the contact they had with men away from their home. It is so sad, and war is for sure the worst thing that happens to humanity.
It seems to have happened in America as well, albeit not with women serving directly. Women in America went from Rosie the Riveter, an essential part of the war economy in 1944, to then being expected to be docile, dainty housewives by 1946. They'd played a major part in sustaining the war effort, doing "men's jobs" in a war time economy of extreme pressure, and then their demonstrated ability was dismissed with the wave of a hand once the war was done, and everyone just pretended like it never happened. Did many women want to be housewives after the war ended? Certainly. Did some women want to keep honing the skills they'd developed during the war, and were shut out of those industries? Certainly.
My father, RIP, was 19 yrs.old when he was wounded and captured by the Germans in France in 1943. He and 1,900 other men were starved and tortured until Liberation. He had the heart not to tell his 8 children of his ordeal but he confided everything in his sister, my aunt. She told me what happened to him. It gave me a a much needed understanding of his PTSD, { they didn't have a name for it back then} The Germans were ruthless on an unimaginable scale. God bless those poor women.
The German soldiers did not torture or rape like the worst people on this planet, the Russians, the Red Army, do you know what they did to German women after the war? read more and learn a little more and don't tell untruths because we don't need them
Hats off to your father, sir. They did have a name for PTSD then. In WW1, it was called shell shock. In WW2, as the need for euphemism took hold in the country, the term was softened to battle fatigue. By the time the Vietnam Conflict came, the military brass decided to further sterilize the condition with the coinage of the phrase, post-traumatic stress disorder. George Carlin discusses the phenomenon in one of his books. Can't remember which one at the moment.
@@racher4593 Yes, 'shell shock' was used when describing soldiers before Viet Nam. Then PTSD came in but no matter what it's called, it's hell. {PS , I'm a female "Glowgirl" not a "sir"😘}
As a formal Czechoslovak my great grandfather was taken to Germany and executed he was Austrian born and fluent German speaker it was his native language and Czech was second ...Gestapo did him a favor because otherwise he would ended up in the camp....You are welcomed to light up candle if you visit Prague main train station on 1st platform is a memorial ...his name was Josef Fiedler ...railroads worker and underground resistance fighter .......most of his mates survived WWII and visited my great grand mother .....they were helping her because they know he did not give up their names ....
@@joepetto9488 Sorry, what? Surrender to whom and exile where? My "side" has at this time the strongest military power in the world. Now if you'd like to surrender go right ahead. Or maybe we should all chill out instead of trying our hardest to destroy everything and kill everyone
A late friend of mine was a Canadian tanker in Italy. He was captured and imprisoned. Next door was a prison for Russian women. He said they really had it bad. One morning he awoke and saw something hanging on the barb wire. As the day got brighter they were able to make out the hide of a German Shepherd dog. The starving women had lured it inside, killed it and eaten it.
I met a lady that was on the run, and one nite in their travels, they were in a farmers yard, It looked abandoned, they were thinking of hiding in the barn over the next daylight hours, they traveled on foot at nite, one of the ladies went to use the outhouse, opened the door, there were snowed over tracks to it, when she opened the door, a human body was in there, hanging, had flesh cut off it, needless to say she said they kept on going. The brutality was insane, yet that's people at their worst. Y prayers are for Jesus to come, as I'm tired of the insanity, yet it's been our sad human history mostly, not many Desmond Doss kind of guys.
France had a particularly close relationship with Russia in WWII, that I think even holds over to today. The Night Witches were a division of French women in the Russian air force. The old bombers they used were too outdated for anything other than night use. For pin point accuracy they would cut the noisy aircraft engine and glide in low and slow over the target whisper quiet and drop their bomb load. Hopefully then restarting the engine...to return home. Obviously, an extremely dangerous maneuver. The history, uniforms, artifacts and the equipment of the Night Witches can be seen today at The National Air and Space Museum of France just outside Paris.
The 588 Bomber group or the Night Witches literally caused so much havoc in the German rear areas that it wasn't funny. They flew the Pe2 biplane that flew slower than the fighters sent up could fly without stalling and falling out of the ground. Then when they would go to bomb their targets they would either fly with engines off or at idle and flew about 30 missions nightly.
It's almost impossible for post WWII generations to understand the immense suffering of millions of people during that war. My own grandfather was sent to the Buchenwalde concentration camp in Germany and barely survived several years of captivity.
@@brucekliewer2623 And vice versa. I watched a video where Ukrainian soldiers had cruficied a Russian POW after which they set him on fire. War always brings out the worst in people.
My Grandmother was a nurse for the Japanese Red Cross during the war. She was stationed first in Tokyo and then in Singapore. She spoke of her experience openly. Both she and the other nurses were trained on how to use a rifle and grenades. I'm trying to imagine this 5'0" woman trying to use a Type 99 rifle that was as big as she was. My Grandmother said that, while they were trained on how to use it, they had hospital guards to maintain order and security. The only time the nurses were ever expected to use their rifles is if the enemy was kicking in the front door of their hospital.
I read a book written by a POW who was captured by the Japanese. I wish I hadn’t because I will never get those visuals out of my mind. The things that the majority of Japanese guards and captors did would make the Nazis puke. And that’s not even touching on what the Japanese did to the Chinese and Koreans and Okinawa. You know it’s bad when the Nazis are less cruel than you. I wish our histories didn’t share these stains..our ancestors showed us how low humanity can take ourselves if we choose to and we must NEVER let ourselves forget! Maybe by remembering and preventing these atrocities from happening again, we can all atone for our ancestors’ shame.
So much for the myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht." For decades following the end of the Second World War, Wehrmacht veterans and other Germans maintained that atrocities and other war crimes were only committed by the SS, Gestapo and "Police Units." But as time passed and historians began more deeply studying the role of the Wehrmacht it became very obvious that many regular army soldiers had neither clean hands or clean consciences when it come to war crimes.
Is not true. There were death units for sure. The partisan war was a war without any mercy on both sides. Most German soldiers were clean and just normal people without heinous tendencies. My grandfather was one of them.
@@enawikenalmao your grandpa was a toilet cleaner for the army, that’s why. He would’ve done evil if they ever gave him a gun or trusted him with orders
Officer : They allow Women to be put in harms way and see combat?! How sickening and barbaric! Soldier : So if we capture any, we should treat them with respect? Officer : No! Shoot them on sight! Torture them if you'd like first, I don't care.
You come into my house , uninvited , with a gun , with intent to annihilate me and all people in the house , Bozo ? Maybe you like some caffee , dummy ?
my Grandmother was a nurse for Tahitian army during the war. She was stationed first in Tahiti and then in Bora Bora. She spoke of her experience sometimes. She was trained on how to use a nurse kit and a doctor thermostat. She is my hero.
My uncle fought in WW2 as a 17 year old. He said the Russians were incredibly cruel to German women as the soldiers moved towards Berlin. Im sure he was unaware at the time the atrocities heaped on these Rusiian women soldiers by the Germans. War has no winners.
Yes unfortunately it was in retaliation of whatthe germans did to russian well educated woman in combat ..sadly the civilian german woman who hadno clue of there countries atrocities had to pay forwhat there german army did to female russian soldiers
@Egorian I also read a german article of a contemporary witness that I trust and it described a german peasant coming to a soviet officer complaining about his daughter(s) being raped by a soviet soldier. The witness described how the officer beat the soldier to death while the peasant was standing next to the scene. Then I read a lot about young German women fleeing (regularly) to the woods, because otherwise they would have been raped (again) by soviet soldiers. Also contemporary witnesses, and for me also trustworthy.
@@jamdeacon to understand the whole picture we should read all evidences. 'Soldaten' by Soenke Naitzel, Harrald Welzer was written by the research of Fischer Ferlag who analysed records made by English intelligence of imprisoned German soldiers. They bragged of atrocities they had made not only in Russia but also in Europe. In one place transcriptor tired of their sharings about women and just ended 'Women... Women... Women...'. The war doesn't make an angel from a man. And I do not think it concerns only Germans or Nazi - there plenty of other evidences about any army. Even today's NATO groups.
Not PC but true all the same; in Italy civilian women were told to stay away from British commonwealth troops from places like South Africa as they frequently raped local women. I've spoken to several elderly women here who witnessed such "heroic" behaviour
I feel like the Soviet female soldiers of WW2 are a missed opportunity of the movie industry to make realistic films with strong female characters, instead of just rebooting films with a female cast like ghost busters. Probably hasn't been touched on heavily due to the negative connotations of the Soviet Union though, which is unfortunate.
Russophobia (a kind of hate/fear against millions of people), is far stronger in Hollywood than its 'woke' fervor. It's something similar to 'classic' Racism and Anti Semitism. And equaly irrational and compulsive.
Thankfully you can watch here on YT a good movie about this matter, like "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" in ts two versions (1972, 2015). for free... Or look for "Battalion" (2015), about the real Russian female soldiers of WW1. Another good film, but it's not in YT.
You have become my go-to for teaching my son about ww2. I used to teach him all from literature i have acquired growing up, but sadly have developed a neurological disorder which inhibits my ability to speak fluidly, im happy to let you speak for me on this subject. Thank you Mr. Felton
a good one is a soviet lady named Mariya Oktyabrskaya who lost husband at war, sent letter to stalin asking for a tank, and stalin gave her one, she went on to the front and took down many germans. died in her tank i think. Shes a hero of soviet union
You have to take all these stories with a grain of salt, because USSR invested heavily in propaganda both during and after the war. My parents had saved newspapers back from that era and every story, every headline, was about some heroic Russian. Reading all these stories makes it seem like every Russian soldier can take out 100 germans. There were probably more stories about heroes, than actual soldiers You see something similar in todays China, where the only things that can be published are things that somehow make China seem in a positive light, even though in reality, Chinese people are some of the poorest people on the planet (over 500 million Chinese make less than 100$ per month)
@@artyomarty391 cant forget they send millions into battle, I know its propaganda but a lot of these stories probably have some truth to them just made to seem a lot bigger than they are
@@kma3647 There's two adverts at the beginning of this video - So it seems YT hasn't demonetised it yet. Nearly all history videos (except those from Mainstream media) on YT have been demonetised, no matter what the topic is - It's why Mark Felton and others have to plug mobile games like Raid Shadow Legends or beg for patreon subscribers.
@@kma3647 no mate, TH-cam would demonitize you even if you make non-controversial content if it's related to anything political or from a mordern or even a colonial war.
The movie "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" is about a Soviet female anti-aircraft artillery unit. There was a version made in 1972 and another in 2015. I've been told that the original Soviet film is the better of the two. The 2015 Russian version is available on TH-cam with subtitles. It has nudity in it, so it is NSFW.
Does this channel have videos on how the Red Army soldiers behaved with German women after they occupied Berlin and East Germany? How they raped and murdered German females between the ages of 8 and 80 indiscriminately? Stalin murdered ten (10x) times more human beings than Hitler. Like Gen. Patton said: "We defeated the wrong enemy."
@@borisbadenov651 although it’s important for people to acknowledge facts like this, it’s absurd to be mad at the video itself. It is an analysis of a specific question, not a broad detailing of women in ww2. If he had to cover what you said, it would either force the video to be longer and oddly directed, or be much less descriptive on the actual topic at hand.
@@ericsilver9401 I am not "mad at the video." I am pointing out a simple fact: the emphasis is always on what Germany did while Russian and Chinese atrocities are nearly always ignored. The Solutions are very simple (and they do not have to be "final"): make an 8-10 minute video on what the Red Army did to and with German females; or make an 8-10 minute video on what Eisenhower did with the German POWs. The Truth is not always pleasant but it has the virtue of being True.
@@borisbadenov651 A lot of us that study WW2 history already know this AFAIK. There a lot of documentaries, or at least parts of other documentaries that cover it well. And although not directly related but similar, the atrocities committed by the Japanese upon the Chinese people; aka the "Nanjing Massacre", etc., (so YT doesn't censor this) too.
@@borisbadenov651 Also right I/we (many anyhow) know this. I've often brought this up of how somehow Hitler is the worst enemy ever. A popular subject as the ultimate "bad guy", etc., in movies. But then statistically there are much worst mass murders, evil people, in world history. Like you say Stalin is responsible for many more deaths than Hitler. Mostly his own people (Ukrainians anyhow) even. Stalin would have entire families killed, etc. Absolute terror and suffering for his own people. Mao Zedong tops the list at a reported *70 million* of his own people murdered. The moral of the story here is to not let a dictator, do not let communism/socialism take over your country. People kept letting themselves be fooled, and history of the last century or two has repeated itself many times over. We are under this assault here now in the USA. There is a good number of our population that actually believes socialism is a good thing and is a viable option to switch to. Books like the "The Gulag Archipelago" (at least one of the volumes) should be a required reading, yet apparently most college and high school students haven't even heard of the book. Not apologizing for Hitler of course. But people often reference him as the most evil person on the planet, not realizing there has been worsetoo. All of these murderous dictators were evil on their own level.
That old lady struggling to get around in the grocery store with her Great Patriotic service pin is more badass than you'll ever be. Give her the respect she deserves and all her girlfriends who never made it home when the Russian people rallied to stop the Nazis.
russian people but not russian government, hadnt it been for the soviets i bet germany and russia would be allies and that ussr wouldnt let 20 million of their own populatuon die to starvation
But we are hiding history. Tearing down statues, rewriting history that has been taught in schools for a hundred years, “leaders” who believe the Holocaust didn’t happen, etc. If we can’t have our children learning true history, how can future generations learn from previous generations mistakes? History repeats…
Indeed, women had it rough. Whether it's as comfort women In Japan, or the german women that were raped in the masses by americans where then it was inappropriate to talk about after because of what Wehrmacht did, to even so much as not being allowed to fight if they wanted to.
Bad treatment of POWs is counter productive: the enemy will fight to death rather than be captured, raped or tortured. On the other hand, humane treatment softens the enemy’s resolve to fight and surrendering becomes a viable option. We saw this during the Gulf War when large groups of Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the Coalition Forces without fear of maltreatment.
We saw it during the 2nd Iraq War, the inevitable 2003 US led invasion of Iraq (known as Operation Iraq Freedom due to the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, signed by Clinton) too. This included the much overrated Republican Guard.
Other than the obvious indoctrination towards hating the people of the Soviet union there was also the lack of resources to house and feed the POWs in a humane way. It's still no excuse for beatings and torture
My wife's grandaunt was in the 1077th anti-aircraft unit in her early-20s. They used the artillery to shoot tanks attacking Stalingrad and was captured and never heard from again. Pretty incredible.
That was a brave last stand by them, it bought time for the defenders to rush in and prevented a quick capture of the city or losing most of it in the first day.
@@velesrise2172 , the comment was about the Russian Women that manned the the aa guns that slowed down the German advance, by the way Stalin had plans to attack Germany too in a few years. So Hitler just jumped the gun really anyway.
@@Wolfen443 And what was this German attack plan called, during what period was it created? What was the point for Stalin to attack Germany if the USSR had all the necessary resources and Germany supplied the USSR with all the necessary technological equipment for the development of the country?
@@velesrise2172 , the German plan was called Barbarossa, Stalin needed a few years to rebuilt his forces at least so there was no plan ready by Russia yet.
@@CampVictoria well, you are right, the sources are not even shown in the description. Ironically, it says something like "credit to U.S. archives" Using the info what the U.S. has, about the Soviet-nazi war. Neither Soviet, nor german sources
Women in the USSR were not mobilized as men, most of them were volunteers who wanted to defend their motherland. A good example is described in the movie "Battle for Sevastopol ".
In some places, but in other places they were conscripted for sure, especially as they lost massive amounts of territory to the west. They may have started behind the lines, but as the losses mounted, they mixed into the front lines. Most of it was out of desperation, like all other acts towards the end of war.
The thing is, IF women were mobilized as men, USSR would never admit this. So the actual truth will always remain a mystery, but I'd wager there was not a single volunteer. As is today, women and others were probably just peer pressured and pressured by society into "volunteering" From the gov, it has always been the case of heavy propaganda. The gov basically makes it out as if you will become a hero, you will get paid, and that true happiness comes from defending your "motherland". I saw the same thing over and over when I was young, now when I'm an adult, and in my parents' stories. And only the poor actually go to the front lines. Anyone from a decent family stays home. So consider that all these women who served came from remote villages and poor families
Its the side of the whole Germany attrocities promulgated not only by Nazis as later propaganda encouraged the World to believe that no one talks about is more to the point. Stalin's Soviet Union was every bit as viscous and nasty, albeit manifest in slightly different ways, than Hitler's Third Reich. Even so. When you realise this was what happened, suddenly, Stalin's paranoia and visceral hatred of the West in general and the Germans in particular makes some sort of sense.
@@lurk7967 And yet the population of the Soviet Union and China increased in the 20th Century. It was only when Russia reverted to capitalism that the life expectancy fell. By contrast, there were 8 million people in Ireland in 1800. In 1900, there were 3 million. But we don't like to talk about how much better capitalism is at genocide than communism.
P.S I am adding this to my post to clear up any confusion or any ambiguity: As others have kindly pointed out, Neuengamme itself is near Hamburg not Hannover. However, I meant that KZ-Limmer was near Hannover. Limmer is most definitely a suburb of Hannover. Also, KZ-Limmer was most definitely an Außenlager of Neuengamme. Also, the image referred to below was most definitely taken at KZ-Limmer. Finally, in making my post below it was in no way intended to be a criticism of Mark Felton’s excellent video (as they always are!) rather it was a small point that I noticed, having recognised that very photograph and knowing where it was taken. I therefore posted this information on the history of that photograph as I thought it might be of interest to other people genuinely interested in this type of history. I certainly did not do it to criticise Mark, nor did I expect it to draw some of the negative comments that it has done. I am sorry if me pointing out the specific location (Hannover-Limmer) and some of the history of that particular photograph has offended some people, as it appears to have done. A small point for Dr Mark Felton (in case he sees this). The photo of the group of women @ 8.03 is in fact not women at the KZ- Ravensbruck. It is an image taken at KZ - Limmer which was one of the Außenlager (satellite camps) to the bigger KZ-Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hannover in northern Germany. Most of the women held there, working for the Continental rubber firm (who are even today one of Hannover’s biggest employers), were in fact former French and Polish Resistance fighters although there were some Soviet, Belgium, Italian and even Spanish women held there. There is a memorial stone to the women of this camp at that spot there today. A memorial meeting was held to remember this just this Sunday gone on the 19th September.
And a small point for Mr .Prof. Derin, Neuengamme wasnt near Hannover but rather Hamburg. Neuengamme KZ, yeap where thousands of prisoners were forced to produce bricks for the Reich. Neuengamme where SS troops were imprisoned at the end of the war and were guarded by British troops. My Opa was one of the many SS-Men imprisoned.
Derin Indeed, lots of prisoners were forced to work in Germans industry. First was ‘mr’ Porsche, he started with using pow in his factories. And let them starf there. Pregnant women where put in an old, stinky appartment building, right after having given birth, they were send back to work. The babies were left unintended and died never getting any food. That was ‘mr’ Porsche…
At 3:30, her name was Natalya Meklin, and was a commander in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment, the “Night Witches.” She completed 980 combat missions. Successfully survived the war... And yes, she's VERY beatiful. Google and find her amazing pic in color... Thanks for the video, Mr. Felton. Good work!
Thanks 4 info. I found her more pics on google. Her full name is Guards Lieutenant Natalya Fedorovna Meklin,No doubt She's is the Hero of the Soviet Union. Lots of Respect for her From India 🇮🇳🌹❤🙏
@@domingodesantaclara1130 Boy is that true. Stalin tried so hard to destroy anything of beauty in Ukraine, but he missed some of the genes that created some very beautiful people.
I love your emphasis on “this was done by the REGULAR German army”, as there’s a lot of people who claim that “only SS officers committed atrocities, regular army were actually good guys!!1!” when they committed atrocities like these too…
Any army invading a sovereign country, and brutally killing its peoples and burning down its land, is not "good." This includes up to present-day - I think you know who I'm referring to.
When the US entered Afghanistan, reports of rape of women and children have been made. When you kill people you some part of yourself dies as well, so you are more likely to do things that are outrageous for normal people.
@@Nairam10 Yeah, once someone has become too familiar with death, it is easy for them to find human life less valuable, specially that of “enemies”… war truly messes people up.
Thank you. My uncle's brother was captured at the Casserine Pass in Tunisia, spending the rest of the war in POW camps. He told me of the Nazi atrocities against the Soviets. Sickening !
@@johnkelly6236 You are absolutely right. History and historiography are two different issues. If politically wanted everything is remembered and preserved in a highly emotional sort of way. If not it is simply erased. History is a lying mixture of exaggerating and omitting.
I've had this intro song stuck in my head for a week, people are starting to star while I'm humming it in line at the convenience store which just makes me pick up the volume and intensity. It's my mistake for falling asleep with this channel on auto play 😂
@@gthaughton5647 "The Nazis: A lesson from history" BBC series fron 1997, has the haunting beginning of Brahms' A German Requiem at the start of each episode.
@@clavichord Thank you for referring Brahm. I can't read, write or compose music, but I can recognize and appreciate musical beauty when I hear it. The older that I become.. The more I find this orchestral music soothing and thought provoking allowing internal reflection.
At times the fighting on the German/Soviet front was of unimaginable brutality at times in a spiral of hate, revenge and counterrevenge. I had the pleasure of having long casual conversations with eyewitnesses from those days, who did participate in the fighting between German units and Soviet all female units. Those stories would not make it into movies or history books as they were pure horror for both sides and not easy to digest. @Mark Felton Productions
"Brutality at times in a spiral of hate, revenge and counterrevenge" - you are traing to put a victims on the same level with agressors. Bosch! Skanley your nasty month! First, replete for millions of Russians killed by germans, and after reasoning about "suffering" of the germans people. Mudak!
@@AlASokolov , no, I am actually not trying to weight anything against anything here. Also I am not talking about the large scale or who is responsible for what on a political level. I am only referring to the hand to hand combat on the ground platoon agains platoon. And that was more cruel than any of us late born can imagine. That is why I talked to people who were actually there and suffered and committed atrocities.
@@AlexanderBlumenau Now imagine that the majority of Russians from childhood had the opportunity to talk with witnesses of that war. That is why it is easier for Russians to discover outright lies about that war. At the same time, people in the West and in the United States are absolutely washed out by the Cold War propaganda.
The war between Nazi Germany and Soviet union was truly a battle of evil against evil. Massive numbers of people were caught in the midst of all the horror. God bless us for not having to live through anything like those people had to.
I wish they showed Mark Felton's series about WW2 in high school. Short, accurate, engaging, and not sensationalized, but conveying the true horror and utter depravity of it all.
I know. You would think that the obvious takeaway from “female soldiers who are captured get raped, duh” would be “do not put women in a place where they will be captured” but apparently some genius instead took away that actually *more* women on the battlefield is the way to go.
Killing those young beautiful Sovyyyiet women soldiers on the spot just for defending their Homeland were acts of barbarism and cowardise by the germans
@Gabi X With the exception of nurses, all women volunteered for the front line. Among them were a huge number strongly motivated personally by this war. Some ideologically (teachers, political officers, real communists, etc.), others simply lost friends, family, or in general everything thanks to the Nazis. On average, most of them were in their 20s. For example, by the end of the first stage of the Great Patriotic War (Between 1941-1943) - only 3% of the people born in 1920 remained in total.
I knew a German soldier that served on the eastern front. He told me men, women and children of all ages would march on his machine gun. He said most of them had nothing. Some he said picked up sticks or stones. Others eating utensils, about 1 In 100 had a gun. He was shot 3 times. Part of his face was shot off. He said it was 22 hours sometimes before his relief would show up. From firing so much the machine gun barrel would turn red hot. He stated that if he tried to leave his machine gun post that there was an ss waiting to put a bullet in this head. I could tell from his expressions how much this bothered him. My dad was with the RCAF in England. He could speak fluent German. 2 months before he died he told me if they had too many German prisoners they would turn them over to the Poles. My dad suffered from ptsd. He was not easy to live with. He was probably told never to mention what happened to those prisoners.
Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately man of the documentaries fail to emphasis how communism and nazism differentiate when it comes to gender. In Russia there was no differentiation between men and women, and even children at times. It was merely another fodder to die... In actual fact, Stalin killed far more of his people than the Germany ever did...that is rarely taught or spoken.
@@dancancade7101 some wars were won by defeating the enemy armies, occupying territories. In ww2 the nazis tried to exterminate whole nations, killing men, women, and children alike. It was another level of dirt, the possible lowest point where people can sink
Cactus. What the hell. Only the Axis declared racial war and a war of annihilation. They got it for sure. 👍 Dresden and Hiroshima are testaments to their punishment.
Half of his story isn't the truth. So you can't hear this before this untruth history. Stalin was a comminist, Felton say this. Stalin was a mussmurder like Hitler and he killed millions long before Hitler it do. And look for 'Wlassow Army ' , which fight on german side against Stalin. This show that it isn't the truth, that the half of russian war prisoner died after they give up fighting. Over a million want fight against Stalin when they are war prisoners,but mussmurder Hitler only let nearly 100 000 fight as soldiers on german side, he was to stupid and so he do this by his ill way of thinking.
Stalin ordered mass executions of polish army officers numbers. Of 22.000 if believed. by the NKVD the ( Katyn massacre) 1940 .... (captured during German /Soviet invasion of Poland 1939 the Russians completely denied any involvement right up to the 1990s the Russians claimed the German army commited theses atrocities) ....... It is sometimes overlooked that both countries signed a agreement. Molctov- Ribbentrop pack basically a deal not to go to war against each other. The treaty also included a secret protocol which allowed both country's to redefine it's boarders (spheres of influence) across Poland Finland Lithuania Latvia Estonia so Stalin ordered the killings of polish officers to eliminate any possible uprisings against the Soviet take over of Poland after the battle of Britain Winston Churchill struck a deal with Stalin to releases all polish officers to help reform the polish army in the UK to help fight the Nazis Churchill at the time probably wasn't aware of the executions of polish prisoners. There you go think doc felton has covered this too
My great grandmother's sister was captured by the Germans as a young girl in her village in central Ukraine, she was not more than 19 at the time. She was a "lucky one", as they sent her to some wealthy German family where she worked as a maid. I don't know details about how they treated her as she didn't like to remember that, she only told how they made her sing all the time while working in the garden or collecting eggs so she couldn't eat anything. She did return home after the war and lived a long life surrounded by family. Never got married though, she had a fiancee before the war but he was killed at the frontline. I've never met her as my grandparents took me to Ukraine for the first time when she already died, but her nieces told me a lot about her.
Mark I so much appreciate you and your work. I congratulate you for consistently producing high quality, serious videos. Thank you for always keeping it real.
I knew a german guy that was a Hitler youth in Berlin during the war. He told me he was apprenticed as a welder in like a train depot where he did repairs on train cars and engines that got bombed but could be repaired. He told me he sometimes worked with some soviet woman that were p.o.w's., that were quite skilled in welding and said he even learned a few things from them, but he didn't go into detail how they were treated or how he treated them. He did say some were very good looking so can speculate how they were treated.
For the series: they are are subhuman degenerates but an hole is an hole after all... But today we have some one who praised those who still carry on the symbols of those times...
Ya I'm sure that pos German wouldn't discuss how he treated slaves. Remarkable how the who German population had nothing to do with the SS, or the army, and they knew of no such horrible things. Just like the Japanese, astounding how those things worked out.
My great grandfather was captured by German solders and transported in Berlin, he was prisoner for almost 2 years he survived. He was in wwi solder and 5 his brothers died in wwi, when he return to home at the 1918 Bulgarian army burned his house and kill all animals. He think to suicide because he lost everything. But thanks God he build new house and start new life and survive ww2. Big thank you Red Army for stop Nazi. I am from Serbia.
Natalya Kovshova On 14 August 1942, Kovshova's regiment was committed to the fighting near the village of Sutoki-Byakovo in the Novgorod Oblast. The machine gunners and snipers resisted the German offensive in trenches. The Soviet soldiers were killed one after another, until only Kovshova and Polivanova remained, both wounded. As being captured was not an option, Kovshova decided to pull the pin of her grenade, and wait to blow the German soldiers up when they reached the trench. When the Germans finally reached the trench, Kovshova detonated the grenades, killing herself, Polivanova and many German soldiers.
This video doesn’t mention: More than 1,000 of female pows in the concentration camps were sent to the Wehrmacht brothel. From：Do we know if the Nazis treated female Soviet Army POWs any differently than the majority of male Soviet POWs? On Reddit
Sadly this can't be true due to the fact that grenades don't work like in movies,she is prob the only one who died maybe injuring some germans nearby,many of the stories were soviet fabrications and exagerations.
@@Romeroifly Killed them all or injured some nearby，The point is there are so many stories in books and memories about them leaving a bullet for themselves or fighting to death and ending up with the Germans. 《The voices from Stalingrad》and 《The Unwomanly Face》and more
Real Heroes and patriots of of their Homland, eternal memory and deep bow from all of us to whom we owe our seren life under peaceful sky, no one is forgotten, nothing is unforgoten.
@@stefanomanferlotti1517 Yes but never in the history of humanity has there been something so terrible and brutal than the eastern front in WW2. Untold amounts of suffering and hardship, by far the single most brutal and destructive front of any war in human history
One german soldier was interviewed after the war by Max Hastings a war novelist, he said when he was moved from the Eastern front to fight on the Western front to fight Americans and British and commonwealth soldiers. He fought he was on holiday because that was the comparison between East and west .
I was asking myself the same thing, some days ago, while reading about Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Thanks for exploring such interesting themes, with such depth, and also shedding a light into the Wermacht war crimes.
Germans were well aware of her apparently, and would threaten that if they ever captured her they'd cut her into 300 pieces, over all the men she killed during her service.
My great aunt was in Ravensbruck. Medical experiments were performed on her. After the liberation she had to emigrate to West Germany (the country that did this to her) because the Soviets conquered our country and they persecuted resistance fighters like her.
Sorry to hear about your great aunt, but it isn't clear did she fight for Hitler? It looks that she fought for fascism, if I right? In other way why should Soviets persecute them?
@@practicalrussianwithtam4816 It's not that the Soviets persecute or prosecute or whatever word you want to use for the meaning of took into custody. No, it's not that they did. It's WHAT they did in the persecution. A 5 year prison sentence while treated humanely? Probably fair? History is so, so nuanced I don't feel comfortable saying for certain what would have been a just sentence for this case. But instead of a 5-year humane confinement, the Soviets....man....they brutally gang r**ed young ch***ren....and those were kids that they weren't even upset with. How do you think they treated enemy women with whom they were HIGHLY upset with, rightly or wrongly?
@@BigDaddy-yp4miI can pull boogie man stories about Germans and children too. Difference is I got sources. Bigger difference is most Germans, Americans, British all got away with everything, but the soviets tracked their own war criminals all the way to the 60s. What westoid red scare dogma are you standing on?
The Nazi-German viewed Slavic people as “Untermenschen”, that is why they allied themselves with Slavic nations like Croatia and Slovakia, why they recruited thousands into their armed forces, including the waffen-SS, why they followed a policy of Germanization of the Czechs and Poles, why Polish orphans with the right looks were adopted into Nazi families, why they had leaders amongst them with Slavic names like Globoknic, Skorzeny, Jeschonek, Bach-Zelewski, Kaminski, Nowotny(fighter Ace). Slavic and Germanic people have common origins. This hostility towards the Slavs is completely overrated and is more propaganda than reality.
@@ericfischer4458 so overated that they killed slavs by the tens millions, but hey they allied with a couple of slavs that played the nazi tune. What a dumb argument
@@bernardobiritiki Anti-Slav sentiments were overrated. It was a war of ideology, not ethnicity, a war between National -Socialism and Bolshevism. The Bolsheviks massacred millions of fellow Slavs like the Ukrainians during the Holodomor and Poles at Katyn, it as a way of life for for them. Btw Many Germans then and now have Slavic last names.
Amazing. I never knew any of this, and for anyone out there that thinks this is too horrifying and it should be taken down then history will be doomed to repeat itself if we erase everything that makes us feel uncomfortable.
The US Senate passed a bill thru Committee just this month that would expand the draft to women. Same people who pushed the abomination of female soldiers in Russia are responsible. Far too late to save USA. In today's Christian Russia by contrast, women are strictly prohibited from combat.
@@scottwillie6389 ..." pushed the abomination of female soldiers in Russia ...".---LOL. The Soviet girls were very eager to fight back your Nazi pals. Especially when the German LEBENSRAUM and GENERALPLAN OST "policies" left 14-17 MILLION ordinary Civilians massacred, only in the Soviet Union. That included a lot of their sisters, moms, kids, granpas, etc., etc...
@@scottwillie6389 ..."in today's Christian Russia by contrast, women are strictly prohibited...".---There are some 100.000 women in the Russian Army today. Hardly a "small" number anywhere.
@@scottwillie6389 Women in Canada and America receive the same rights and privileges as men, so why should they not be expected to bear arms like men in time of war.
@Jake Johansson ..."not in combat ranks...".---They all go through the standard training and would be in close combat only for national defense (like the Soviets did). Russia is not facing a massive invasion to put the 100,000 in "combat ranks" today.
If a Soviet sniper, male or female, was captured, they were ruthlessly killed. Actually, it didn’t matter what front you were on, you weren’t likely to survive if you were a captured sniper.
@@jimreilly6933 , Well , actually no, since bomber teams usually got captured by either civilians or security forces and even though they terrorized the population they weren't killed in nearly the same proportion. From what I have read it has simply to do with the fact that soldiers facing flame thrower weapons and then subsequently capturing the handler of that weapon were in a frenzied, bloodthirsty state which might explain why they often just killed the handler on the spot.
Even Omar Bradley , who was the most reasonable general of WW2 made comment to his soldiers about snipers! "Brad says he will not take action against anyone that decides to treat a sniper a little more roughly than they are being treated at present."
My mother, 93, survived the siege of Leningrad. She became a homeless orthant in the midst of brutal Russian winter. She was lucky enough to get an employment as a general labor. Never tells me any stories except that she didn't take a bath for 1.5 year. I can not even guess what she witnessed. Until now she never drops a crumb of bread but scoops it. She never celebrates the Victory Day or the Day when the siege was broken. She brands as lies any movies or written stories about those events.
I can't even imagine how hard that must have been. My grandma was lucky she survived the German occupation, but her dad and brother were killed in action.
You should see some of the comments, people losing their minds over this 'feminist communist propaganda.' They didn't watch the video, of course, only read the title and got triggered.
Mark even has disclaimer on this video description lmao He knows what his comments usually devolve to, I've seen vids where the comment section is entirely disabled
I saw you on a Stalin documentary doctor. It was pretty cool that I actually knew who one of the guys they were interviewing was. You did a very good job.
For those interested in learning more about the experiences of female frontline Soviet soldiers, I recommend "The Unwomanly Face of War" by Svetlana Alexievich.
Yes, this book is a very good, if rather grim, description of the life of women in the red army. The unbelievable suffering of the Soviet people during WW2 is mind-boggling.
Came here to say this myself - truly exceptional book, and Alexievich has produced many other brilliant books on the Soviet experience from WWII to Chernobyl and Afghanistan to life after the collapse - she truly earned her Nobel Prize.
Great historical content as always. What I can’t fathom is why history was so vague in the valiant war effort woman gave to the war… And why there was never any mention of the heinous treatment they underwent during captivity. Thanks for shedding light on the questions we never asked.
Soviet Union never acnowledged any of there soldiers as prisoner's,they were considered traitor's. After the war Soviet prisoner's were sent to Gulags.
Because most WWII histories we see in the West are by Western historians with a Western point of view. The role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany is often not a focus of these works.
Basically men feel threatened by capable women, it’s easier to denigrate women than acknowledge there is a good Chance , a woman is your equal or even your superior! Having married a Russian woman, I can tell you they are formidable. How many schools actually bother with the history of women in combat ?… really. You would have thought after getting on for 80, male dominance and ignorance might have been on the decline ……. Nope! We’re still whitewashing the truth !,,
Mark Felton should have a regular tv channel like History Channel. His work is excellent. The narrative is an example many that make videos in You Tube could learn from.
I’ve read many books about the Eastern front over the years. I don’t recall this subject being discussed or mentioned? You hit another home run! Thanks again!
My great-grandmother fought in the second world war but honestly I don't know where and what she really did, the only thing I have are some photos of her in uniform and her old rifle, the most incredible thing of all is that I got to know her when I was a child, when I was only 6, the only thing I remember is that it scared me because she was very tall 1.94 (6.2) and very skinny, she looked like a ghost with her long white hair and green eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, I didn't know this but it turns out that she also had a tattoo on her left shoulder of a red star, honestly the more I know the more it hurts me that I couldn't talk to her about her experiences
Both my parents were in WW11 and Grandparents WW1. They didn't want to recite out-loud what they'd seen. If you can imagine witnessing the most horrific barbaric crimes against unarmed people over and over again it was impossible for them to say these out loud. By not repeating what they saw, they hoped the nightmares would eventually fade. If they talked about it all, the nightmares would never fade. They didn't realise that it didn't make any difference because right up until they died the nightmares never went away. That's why a few as they reached their 90's started talking about what went on. That's also why many returned service personnel today, turn to drugs and alcoholic and the military is the last one wanting to help, because then they'll have to admit the atrocities they force our service personnel to commit in the line of 'keeping the world safe'.
My grandfather and grandmother have met at war in Red Army. They were fighting against nazis together and reunited and married after the war. My grandmother went to the army to revenge after her father has been K.I.A My grandfather's family member has been enslaved and sterilized by nazis. So, when somebody is whining about depression - I remind myself about my grandparents' youth. Thanks, Dr. Felton for your work!
Thank you Dr. Felton . For six years , the entire world , was at war . In the 75 yrs. since then, all we heard about women's contribution on any side is that of nurses and some female snipers. Your stories and videos , about the contribution of women to the war effort in WW2 on all sides , is a goldmine of information and new learning . Bravo SIR .
It's just how capitalism works: expanding, capturing new markets until it meets markets of other nation. If military powers behind competing nations are comparable, then it comes to war. When many people died, nations economic powers shrink and then can expand once again till next time. The best outcome for an intersted nation is to enter the war almost at it's end and not to lose too much, but to get most of the victory. That is just what USA did in WWI and WWII.
@@ilivdia yeah its totally capitalism sure same people who started this all in ww2 and ww1 still around massacring people today but its capitalism gotcha
@@ilivdia horseshit, WW2 happened because Hitler was a power hungry egomaniac who was willing to use scapegoats and hateful people to form his own empire. He wanted to be another Genghis Khan to feed his own ego. If this happens again it won't be because of competing markets, it will be because of ruthless autocrats with too much power and influence.
Its crazy that USSR/Russia became the very enemy it once fought: fascist. Vast majority of Russians consider Europeans and Americans as subhuman. Millions of Russians go to bed every day dreaming of 2 things: 1) that USA will experience a nuclear fallout and 2) that they will win a green card
@@ilivdia Yeas its just how socialist countries work I agree. Notice how all the aggressors in the modern world, all the tyrants, are all socialist countries. Back when Russia became capitalistic in the 90's, it was booming. It was booming well into the 2000's, but then it just started to become more and more socialist. First public speech was getting banned, then websites got banned, then protestors got jailed, then private businesses got taken by gov, etc. And the more socialist Russia was becoming, the more aggressive it became towards its neighbors. As Russia became more socialist, its military GDP ratio became one of the highest in the world, and then, surprise, it declared a war on another european power... This tendency to destroy is a direct result of going socialist. From Napoleon, to Hitler, to now Putin. And look at all the other similar socialist countris: North Korea, China, Iran, etc. They're all spending their budgets on military. People are extremely poor, but the leaders are very well armed. The greatest disparities in income is not between Jeff Bezos and you and I, but between the wealthy class in countries like Russia, and their very poor who make $100 a month working 80 hours a week
The term "Flintenweib" was used in Nazi-lingo before Barbarossa. I own a book from 1940 depicting the advance to Dunkirk by the 18th Infantry Division. In it is a pic of a female PoW with the caption of "Flintenweib".
A second opinion is always a good thing. So long as it is not a result of the first but from a different source. Three are even better. Many possibilities, many in common, many unique... the Truth is in there somewhere... perhaps! I speak in general in public and not in private (military puns). Multiple meanings is a whole new ball game, and hidden in plain sight.
@@jesterlead Yeah can you imagine Nazi stand up? If you don't laugh you will be shot? or If you laugh at me you will be shot... too confusing... CLASSIFIED Illegal Weapon. lol
I'm very grateful to you for uploading all this footage of the women and pow pits. It's simply heartbreaking. It speaks volumes as to what has driven the Russian people to be completely prepared militarily. It's a complex situation and I pray people see this
Clearly they didn't prepare enough and are still losing...I'm sorry they don't get a pass from inflicting atrocities, just because they suffered them in the past. Complex situation my a**.
Because throughout all their history they were pregnant with war? Because for hundreds of years they have been waging wars on every neighbor, people, territory and country possible? Because they brought Hitler to power and were allies with him and signed a treaty about dividing Europe in half? That’s why they were preparing intensively for war. Because they have started ww2 together with Hitler, capturing half the Poland, Baltic states, attacking Romania, Finland. That is a good reason to be prepared, when you are always in the state of war
Same here. The exact word that came to my mind. We are probably more connected to each other than we recognise. The borders and fences never existed till our species made them.
@@NicholasAdamDemonte Quite so. But a lot of effort has gone into erasing the inhumane Soviet behaviour from the history books. A clear case of the winners deciding how posterity will remember them. A textbook example. I have (and I'm pretty sure you've too) come across many people interested in the Second War who insist that the Red Army did nothing wrong. Forget the average German woman: Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge was raped by the first troops to enter Berlin. Junge escaped, of course, and now we have that fantastic movie "Der Untergang" based on her memoirs as a member of AH's inner circle.
@@krishanuA Perhaps you could be more specific about this great effort of 'erasing'. Which historians? I am not aware that it is anything other than easy to source solid reference material on the barbarous treatment of German civilian women by the Soviets. Page for page, there is actually less English language material on the numerically larger but similarly barbarous campaign perpetrated against Soviet civilian women by the Germans three and a half years earlier. Not being a rapist, I cannot comprehend war rape anymore than I can comprehend rape in peacetime but the horrors visited upon girls and women in that first German campaign undoubtedly contributed to the vindictive frame of mind metastasising throughout Soviet husbands/boyfriends/brothers/cousins by the time they reached Germany in 1945.
Thank you for your willingness to share the difficult parts of history as well as the heroic and uplifting. We have no way to prevent such happening again without the knowledge of what has happened in the past. Unfortunately, little of this history is taught in our schools or acknowledged by our governments.
7:19 "All of this was done by the regular German army." Thank you for pointing this out twice. The Good Werhmacht theory is pervasive among amateur "historians"
Only the naive and childishly misinformed ones. Armies exist solely to enforce the political imperatives of their country, nothing else. "Fighting for the motherland/fatherland/king/country" or "Defending freedom" are canards to fool simpletons and useful idiots.
@@HO-bndk the USA and Canada also had concentration camps and racist ideologies. I do not and will speak against those who do. Regardless, That is completely aside from the point I made which is regarding the ideology that implies the German army was innocent of atrocities as they were committed by the nazi army when in reality they both deserved worse then they ever got. Starving the prisoners is one thing and understandable as railway and supply chains were bombed but making a spectacle of fighting over scraps is inhumane.
My grandfather was a German soldier and he said as a soldier he wasn't afraid of the regular male opponents but he was afraid of the Soviet women. They were tough.
My Grandma fought for the Russian army as an 19 year old in 1942 , and was wounded and luckily survived the war before coming to the USA in 1956 . As a curious high school student , I did an interview with her about her childhood and the war years , and she stated they were advised to shoot themselves rather than taken prisoner of the German army . She had witnessed so much cruelty , that she had no fear of death . She always thanked God for being able to come to America . A remarkable woman .
Thank you for sharing. How was she able to emigrate? Did she come to the states for schooling? Always curious how people living in USSR were able to leave. Was it easier after Stalin died?
My Grandma was able to come to America through marriage to my Grandpa , who incidentally was a partisan fighter in Poland . How that all came about , I do not know , but they settled in Wisconsin after being sponsored by a relative . My oldest brother is in possession of two medals my Grandma earned , but unfortunately she passed in 1985 so her story will never be known completely .
@@chrisozzy56 thank you for sharing. Such crazy times for Europe, and I suppose unfortunately once again. Glad that she could make the U.S. her home.
My Mom was born 1928, in Chernovitz Romania, her plight was horrible, as a displaced person along with her Dad, Mom 2 brothers were constantly on the move, they were forced to leave because they didn't have Slavic names.
Mo said the Russian soldiers were much more "swine" in their treatment of their victims, as compared to the German soldiers, she suffered, she wasn't blessed with being ugly, is how she put it.
She was very forgiving all her life, but used her story to try raise us kids.
@@chrisozzy56 many people were able to come to USA after the war
i like how you keep reiterating that it was the regular german army, many people think it was just the SS which did horrible things but that wasn't the case. good job!
Crazy that people still believe. The "Clean German Army" myth.
War is hell and makes all men do things they wouldn't other wise. 'Lucifer effect' and all that.
I read that the violent rape scene in "A Clockwork Orange" was actually inspired by an event that happened to the author and his wife during the war, in Great Britain.
Their home was invaded, he was beaten senseless and his wife raped.
The perpetrators: awol American GIs.
People are always surprised to learn that many of the army officers involved in the bomb plot against Hitler had blood on their hands from atrocities they had overseen, particularly on the Eastern Front.
Crazy how people glance over what Stalin did to his people. Damn Commie's
My mother-in-law joined the Red army in 1941 and was made commander of an anti-aircraft battery in Leningrad. She survived the siege for 2-1/2 years because they fed the soldiers slightly more than the civilian population. My wife was born in 1964.
Eternal memory ! My great grandmother survived Leningrad siege because her mother gave her rations to her when she was a baby. Her mother didn't make it.
it was not slightly more it was way more.
Kill a Commie for Mommy.
I think I'm most impressed by the 23-year hiatus.
@@aidankirby8412 Go to sleep kid, your parents will be pissed off if they caught you surfing youtube without their permission.
I recently read the memoirs of the great Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. The fate of female snipers who fell into German hands was well known. In addition to her sniper rifle, she carried a pistol and always made sure she had one round left, for herself if she captured.
Yes, the Ukrainian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Who died in 1974.
@@MrZombayuRussians and Ukrainians are pretty much the same ,
@@ludmilawheeler2001 Yes. So are the French and English. :/
@vyhozshu who, what?
A filthy jew communist. Unreal how you people think the communists were somehow on the side of good.
As a historian myself this channel I cannot stress enough how he teaches history that never gets mention. I've learned more from this channel than any book or classroom. Keep up the amazing work.
Comment on the video, not just the uploader.
@@DrJones20 Make an original comment. Not just copying and pasting the same comment.
@@mrobermind I already have. Why make a unique one for every reply.
@@roberttelarket4934 You took the words out of my mouth lol...Yes, forget books, forget the classroom; Watch Mark Felton Productions and you're an Historian!
@@wolfmauler
what can make you a ww2 historian then?
Reading Germany history books?
I'm a history major and spent many years introducing students to myriad topics. Would have been great if your videos had existed back then as they'd make excellent intro's to a topic.
I've always thought that if I were a history teacher, or somehow ended up in front of a history classroom (such as when I was working as a substitute teacher a year and a half ago) I'd put on either a Mark Felton or History Guy video about something relevant to what the class is studying, we'd then discuss the content of the video. Never had such a chance though.
@@quillmaurer6563 Lots of luck remaining a regular or substitute teacher after showing some of the videos. Public school administrators and some parents would see to that!
Do you have records of gulag victims of USSR? How many people might be dead from 1929 to 1991? Any guess?
Intros.
@@theplanetofgames I have a guess this is a lead-in to somehow defending or diminishing Nazi actions since the USSR was also led by psychopaths. Close?
Svetlana Alexievich in her book "The unwomanly face of war" writes the memoirs of soviet women from the war. Many were decorated as heroines of the Soviet people but when the war was over they were treated like potential sluts because of the contact they had with men away from their home. It is so sad, and war is for sure the worst thing that happens to humanity.
It seems to have happened in America as well, albeit not with women serving directly. Women in America went from Rosie the Riveter, an essential part of the war economy in 1944, to then being expected to be docile, dainty housewives by 1946. They'd played a major part in sustaining the war effort, doing "men's jobs" in a war time economy of extreme pressure, and then their demonstrated ability was dismissed with the wave of a hand once the war was done, and everyone just pretended like it never happened. Did many women want to be housewives after the war ended? Certainly. Did some women want to keep honing the skills they'd developed during the war, and were shut out of those industries? Certainly.
There is another one from the author: "Last Witnesses. Unchildlike Stories" . Recommend, but be careful.
War is always great thing to push the history forward,
Βρύσης Παντελής, ты нас с французами перепутал.
@@МихаилИванов-ч6е1э английский
My father, RIP, was 19 yrs.old when he was wounded and captured by the Germans in France in 1943. He and 1,900 other men were starved and tortured until Liberation. He had the heart not to tell his 8 children of his ordeal but he confided everything in his sister, my aunt. She told me what happened to him. It gave me a a much needed understanding of his PTSD, { they didn't have a name for it back then} The Germans were ruthless on an unimaginable scale. God bless those poor women.
The German soldiers did not torture or rape like the worst people on this planet, the Russians, the Red Army, do you know what they did to German women after the war? read more and learn a little more and don't tell untruths because we don't need them
Hats off to your father, sir. They did have a name for PTSD then. In WW1, it was called shell shock. In WW2, as the need for euphemism took hold in the country, the term was softened to battle fatigue. By the time the Vietnam Conflict came, the military brass decided to further sterilize the condition with the coinage of the phrase, post-traumatic stress disorder. George Carlin discusses the phenomenon in one of his books. Can't remember which one at the moment.
@@racher4593 Yes, 'shell shock' was used when describing soldiers before Viet Nam. Then PTSD came in but no matter what it's called, it's hell. {PS , I'm a female "Glowgirl" not a "sir"😘}
Don'tworry, the reds were also beyond ruthless, even if they are depicted as saints, by the usual people.
And the Russians, French and Brits were saints?
As a formal Czechoslovak my great grandfather was taken to Germany and executed he was Austrian born and fluent German speaker it was his native language and Czech was second ...Gestapo did him a favor because otherwise he would ended up in the camp....You are welcomed to light up candle if you visit Prague main train station on 1st platform is a memorial ...his name was Josef Fiedler ...railroads worker and underground resistance fighter .......most of his mates survived WWII and visited my great grand mother .....they were helping her because they know he did not give up their names ....
dang that sucks bro. hopefully you and germany can be allies in the next war
@@joepetto9488 How about let's not have a "next war". Sound good?
@@jakeg3733 Ok, if your side wants to surrender and accept exile/execution without a fight, that is fine with me.
@@joepetto9488 Sorry, what? Surrender to whom and exile where? My "side" has at this time the strongest military power in the world. Now if you'd like to surrender go right ahead. Or maybe we should all chill out instead of trying our hardest to destroy everything and kill everyone
@@joepetto9488 Agaist Evil Empire across the sea ?
A late friend of mine was a Canadian tanker in Italy. He was captured and imprisoned. Next door was a prison for Russian women. He said they really had it bad. One morning he awoke and saw something hanging on the barb wire. As the day got brighter they were able to make out the hide of a German Shepherd dog. The starving women had lured it inside, killed it and eaten it.
Damn
Dog is nothin, peoples ate each other in leningrad. I don't know, i dont feel much remorse whenever i feel obout rapings by soviets.
Wow...so Russians eat Shepherd Pie too! 😋
I met a lady that was on the run, and one nite in their travels, they were in a farmers yard, It looked abandoned, they were thinking of hiding in the barn over the next daylight hours, they traveled on foot at nite, one of the ladies went to use the outhouse, opened the door, there were snowed over tracks to it, when she opened the door, a human body was in there, hanging, had flesh cut off it, needless to say she said they kept on going.
The brutality was insane, yet that's people at their worst.
Y prayers are for Jesus to come, as I'm tired of the insanity, yet it's been our sad human history mostly, not many Desmond Doss kind of guys.
@@davidthompson1529 I'm going to Hell for laughing at this and moreso for the fact the pun is there for a *GERMAN* shepherd's pie.🥴
Dr. Mark Felton, always coming up with answers to the questions no amateur historian asked him/herself but needs an answer to.
i also enjoy Mr Feltons style and topics chosen
I often have asked these questions, but they usually went unanswered until this channel came around haha.
@@oilersridersbluejays 110% with you
I find myself saying, "I've never thought about that before but I really want an answer."
You don’t have to say “him/herself”.
Вечная память нашим воинам, бабушкам и дедушкам, погибшим за нашу Родину. 27 миллионов наших граждан, мы их помним. Граждан СССР.
Только советский народ, вооружённый самой сильной идеологией в мире, мог победить самую сильную армию в мире.
@@evabraun1354what's that powerful ideology?? The failed communism and socialism?
@@kraken_dash With tons of american and british trucks, tanks, airplans, not to mention material and resources lol.
ONORE E GLORIA ETERNA AL POPOLO SOVIETICO!!!
@@kraken_dashMa di cosa discute?
'Nightwitches' sounds far more badass than derogatory, if that's the nickname your enemies come up with for you that's high praise indeed
Derogatory term is "rifle broad".
Night witches is said more out of fear.
There's a recent Soviet TV Miniseries featuring them on YT, if you do a little searching.
France had a particularly close relationship with Russia in WWII, that I think even holds over to today.
The Night Witches were a division of French women in the Russian air force. The old bombers they used were too outdated for anything other than night use. For pin point accuracy they would cut the noisy aircraft engine and glide in low and slow over the target whisper quiet and drop their bomb load. Hopefully then restarting the engine...to return home. Obviously, an extremely dangerous maneuver.
The history, uniforms, artifacts and the equipment of the Night Witches can be seen today at The National Air and Space Museum of France just outside Paris.
@@georgemckenna462 The Night Witches were not French. They were Soviet.
The 588 Bomber group or the Night Witches literally caused so much havoc in the German rear areas that it wasn't funny. They flew the Pe2 biplane that flew slower than the fighters sent up could fly without stalling and falling out of the ground. Then when they would go to bomb their targets they would either fly with engines off or at idle and flew about 30 missions nightly.
It's almost impossible for post WWII generations to understand the immense suffering of millions of people during that war. My own grandfather was sent to the Buchenwalde concentration camp in Germany and barely survived several years of captivity.
If only your father was German and was sent to a us pow camp
Other
Each of my four grandparents has lost half his sibblings to the war. One of those was shot dead in the last day of the war
Not really. Just look how Russians are treating Ukrainians.
@@brucekliewer2623 And vice versa. I watched a video where Ukrainian soldiers had cruficied a Russian POW after which they set him on fire. War always brings out the worst in people.
My Grandmother was a nurse for the Japanese Red Cross during the war. She was stationed first in Tokyo and then in Singapore. She spoke of her experience openly. Both she and the other nurses were trained on how to use a rifle and grenades. I'm trying to imagine this 5'0" woman trying to use a Type 99 rifle that was as big as she was. My Grandmother said that, while they were trained on how to use it, they had hospital guards to maintain order and security. The only time the nurses were ever expected to use their rifles is if the enemy was kicking in the front door of their hospital.
obviously a harder woman than the soft,plastic week as piss young people coming of age right as we speak charles
Personal question. Did you ask what her reaction was when she would have encountered american soldiers post ww2 ?
American soldiers never got to singapore.. it was a british colony lol
I read a book written by a POW who was captured by the Japanese.
I wish I hadn’t because I will never get those visuals out of my mind.
The things that the majority of Japanese guards and captors did would make the Nazis puke.
And that’s not even touching on what the Japanese did to the Chinese and Koreans and Okinawa.
You know it’s bad when the Nazis are less cruel than you.
I wish our histories didn’t share these stains..our ancestors showed us how low humanity can take ourselves if we choose to and we must NEVER let ourselves forget!
Maybe by remembering and preventing these atrocities from happening again, we can all atone for our ancestors’ shame.
@@spiralrose ok, this isn’t realky what this is about
So much for the myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht." For decades following the end of the Second World War, Wehrmacht veterans and other Germans maintained that atrocities and other war crimes were only committed by the SS, Gestapo and "Police Units." But as time passed and historians began more deeply studying the role of the Wehrmacht it became very obvious that many regular army soldiers had neither clean hands or clean consciences when it come to war crimes.
Clean hands in a war? Not going to happen.
The bigger crime is the amount that they just let loose and scattered all over North and South America 🤦🏻♂️
Is not true. There were death units for sure. The partisan war was a war without any mercy on both sides. Most German soldiers were clean and just normal people without heinous tendencies. My grandfather was one of them.
Only total idiots ever believed the Wehrmacht wasn’t complicit in SS crimes. Idiots and people who love the taste of fascist boot polish.
@@enawikenalmao your grandpa was a toilet cleaner for the army, that’s why. He would’ve done evil if they ever gave him a gun or trusted him with orders
Officer : They allow Women to be put in harms way and see combat?! How sickening and barbaric!
Soldier : So if we capture any, we should treat them with respect?
Officer : No! Shoot them on sight! Torture them if you'd like first, I don't care.
The russians capturing you wouldn't be much different.
@@tarektechmarine8209 Yeah not different at all. The Eastern Front saw insane brutality from both sides
You come into my house , uninvited , with a gun , with intent to annihilate me and all people in the house , Bozo ? Maybe you like some caffee , dummy ?
@@cron1165 lol who were the invaders? Compared to what Germans did, Russians were soft.
Exactly right. Spot on post.
Almost 1 million views in 2 days. Nothing short of what Mr. Felton deserves for his dedication
Good pick up !.. and agreed 100%.
The allegations of plagiarism against him are a bit unsettling, but I still like his videos.
@@NostalgicGamerRickOShay is that true? Never heard any of them
Yet he still has a need to sell himself for some stupid effing ads.
@@LebaneseBaron Though they are a couple of years old, I have only recently heard of these accusations myself.
I wonder how many people you've inspired to study history with this channel. It's wonderful work and I appreciate it.
Filling in the giant hole left behind by the History channel. Filled the hole and overflowed with awesome content
[ISAC]Warning! An agent nearby has become rogue!
I sure am one of them.
Never considered I’d be looking at buying a subscription to a “history Netflix” but damn am I excited that I found this channel!
History is not ww2
my Grandmother was a nurse for Tahitian army during the war. She was stationed first in Tahiti and then in Bora Bora. She spoke of her experience sometimes. She was trained on how to use a nurse kit and a doctor thermostat. She is my hero.
Supr❤
the island of tahiti?
My uncle fought in WW2 as a 17 year old. He said the Russians were incredibly cruel to German women as the soldiers moved towards Berlin. Im sure he was unaware at the time the atrocities heaped on these Rusiian women soldiers by the Germans. War has no winners.
Yes unfortunately it was in retaliation of whatthe germans did to russian well educated woman in combat ..sadly the civilian german woman who hadno clue of there countries atrocities had to pay forwhat there german army did to female russian soldiers
@Egorian I also read a german article of a contemporary witness that I trust and it described a german peasant coming to a soviet officer complaining about his daughter(s) being raped by a soviet soldier. The witness described how the officer beat the soldier to death while the peasant was standing next to the scene.
Then I read a lot about young German women fleeing (regularly) to the woods, because otherwise they would have been raped (again) by soviet soldiers. Also contemporary witnesses, and for me also trustworthy.
@@jamdeacon to understand the whole picture we should read all evidences. 'Soldaten' by Soenke Naitzel, Harrald Welzer was written by the research of Fischer Ferlag who analysed records made by English intelligence of imprisoned German soldiers. They bragged of atrocities they had made not only in Russia but also in Europe. In one place transcriptor tired of their sharings about women and just ended 'Women... Women... Women...'. The war doesn't make an angel from a man. And I do not think it concerns only Germans or Nazi - there plenty of other evidences about any army. Even today's NATO groups.
@@jamdeacon The peasant+officer versus soldier is something I have heard too but with the officer killing the soldier by shooting him in the head.
Not PC but true all the same; in Italy civilian women were told to stay away from British commonwealth troops from places like South Africa as they frequently raped local women. I've spoken to several elderly women here who witnessed such "heroic" behaviour
I feel like the Soviet female soldiers of WW2 are a missed opportunity of the movie industry to make realistic films with strong female characters, instead of just rebooting films with a female cast like ghost busters. Probably hasn't been touched on heavily due to the negative connotations of the Soviet Union though, which is unfortunate.
There are films awesome Russia films.
Russophobia (a kind of hate/fear against millions of people), is far stronger in Hollywood than its 'woke' fervor. It's something similar to 'classic' Racism and Anti Semitism. And equaly irrational and compulsive.
Thankfully you can watch here on YT a good movie about this matter, like "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" in ts two versions (1972, 2015). for free... Or look for "Battalion" (2015), about the real Russian female soldiers of WW1. Another good film, but it's not in YT.
Please do not do it now because Russian women would be played by black actors today.
@@magiorazkomarom9551 I know Hollywood can be stupid, but hell they probably would respect history.
Edit: I was wrong.
You have become my go-to for teaching my son about ww2. I used to teach him all from literature i have acquired growing up, but sadly have developed a neurological disorder which inhibits my ability to speak fluidly, im happy to let you speak for me on this subject. Thank you Mr. Felton
I think you found a great teacher in Mark Felton!
You're doing great work! A involved father every kid deserves.
♥️👍
well i hope you are teaching him about the mid 1800s where all the wars fought and still to be fought were planed .
May God bless you.
a good one is a soviet lady named Mariya Oktyabrskaya who lost husband at war, sent letter to stalin asking for a tank, and stalin gave her one, she went on to the front and took down many germans. died in her tank i think. Shes a hero of soviet union
You have to take all these stories with a grain of salt, because USSR invested heavily in propaganda both during and after the war.
My parents had saved newspapers back from that era and every story, every headline, was about some heroic Russian. Reading all these stories makes it seem like every Russian soldier can take out 100 germans. There were probably more stories about heroes, than actual soldiers
You see something similar in todays China, where the only things that can be published are things that somehow make China seem in a positive light, even though in reality, Chinese people are some of the poorest people on the planet (over 500 million Chinese make less than 100$ per month)
@@artyomarty391 cant forget they send millions into battle, I know its propaganda but a lot of these stories probably have some truth to them just made to seem a lot bigger than they are
**reads title**
"TH-cam, please have mercy on Mr. Felton's channel..."
@@kma3647 There's two adverts at the beginning of this video - So it seems YT hasn't demonetised it yet. Nearly all history videos (except those from Mainstream media) on YT have been demonetised, no matter what the topic is - It's why Mark Felton and others have to plug mobile games like Raid Shadow Legends or beg for patreon subscribers.
@@kma3647 no mate, TH-cam would demonitize you even if you make non-controversial content if it's related to anything political or from a mordern or even a colonial war.
@@kma3647 female snipers were effective in combat during the war in the USSR, you make it sound like that hasn't been proven apparent by now.
You all are not getting his messaged. The Female Soviet POWs probably got creamed.
@@Tanks_In_Space Ah yes. Theft.
The movie "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" is about a Soviet female anti-aircraft artillery unit. There was a version made in 1972 and another in 2015. I've been told that the original Soviet film is the better of the two. The 2015 Russian version is available on TH-cam with subtitles. It has nudity in it, so it is NSFW.
Can you share the link?
The 1972 version is available with English subtitles:
part 1 th-cam.com/video/dfftHKf164E/w-d-xo.html
part 2 th-cam.com/video/-5mf6tTBNq8/w-d-xo.html
@@abhindas th-cam.com/video/9v8v1GUjwLc/w-d-xo.html
@@abhindas
Here is Part 1: th-cam.com/video/9v8v1GUjwLc/w-d-xo.html
And Part 2: th-cam.com/video/go2BRNbyIp8/w-d-xo.html
Original is better because of better actors and great music score imho. Newer one has far better camera shots.
This channel addresses some of the most interesting, and often obscure, aspects of WWIi. Highly appreciated.
Does this channel have videos on how the Red Army soldiers behaved with German women after they occupied Berlin and East Germany? How they raped and murdered German females between the ages of 8 and 80 indiscriminately? Stalin murdered ten (10x) times more human beings than Hitler. Like Gen. Patton said: "We defeated the wrong enemy."
@@borisbadenov651 although it’s important for people to acknowledge facts like this, it’s absurd to be mad at the video itself. It is an analysis of a specific question, not a broad detailing of women in ww2. If he had to cover what you said, it would either force the video to be longer and oddly directed, or be much less descriptive on the actual topic at hand.
@@ericsilver9401 I am not "mad at the video." I am pointing out a simple fact: the emphasis is always on what Germany did while Russian and Chinese atrocities are nearly always ignored. The Solutions are very simple (and they do not have to be "final"): make an 8-10 minute video on what the Red Army did to and with German females; or make an 8-10 minute video on what Eisenhower did with the German POWs. The Truth is not always pleasant but it has the virtue of being True.
@@borisbadenov651 A lot of us that study WW2 history already know this AFAIK. There a lot of documentaries, or at least parts of other documentaries that cover it well. And although not directly related but similar, the atrocities committed by the Japanese upon the Chinese people; aka the "Nanjing Massacre", etc., (so YT doesn't censor this) too.
@@borisbadenov651 Also right I/we (many anyhow) know this. I've often brought this up of how somehow Hitler is the worst enemy ever. A popular subject as the ultimate "bad guy", etc., in movies. But then statistically there are much worst mass murders, evil people, in world history. Like you say Stalin is responsible for many more deaths than Hitler. Mostly his own people (Ukrainians anyhow) even. Stalin would have entire families killed, etc. Absolute terror and suffering for his own people. Mao Zedong tops the list at a reported *70 million* of his own people murdered. The moral of the story here is to not let a dictator, do not let communism/socialism take over your country.
People kept letting themselves be fooled, and history of the last century or two has repeated itself many times over. We are under this assault here now in the USA. There is a good number of our population that actually believes socialism is a good thing and is a viable option to switch to.
Books like the "The Gulag Archipelago" (at least one of the volumes) should be a required reading, yet apparently most college and high school students haven't even heard of the book.
Not apologizing for Hitler of course. But people often reference him as the most evil person on the planet, not realizing there has been worsetoo. All of these murderous dictators were evil on their own level.
That old lady struggling to get around in the grocery store with her Great Patriotic service pin is more badass than you'll ever be. Give her the respect she deserves and all her girlfriends who never made it home when the Russian people rallied to stop the Nazis.
russian people but not russian government, hadnt it been for the soviets i bet germany and russia would be allies and that ussr wouldnt let 20 million of their own populatuon die to starvation
Considering the brutality and abuse most faced in the camps, getting shot might’ve been actually more “humane”… such are the horrors of war
Not to mention the captured soldier and civilians of the japanese that even the germans tell them to calmdown.
Gettjn rped everyday. U act like the soviets didnt do the same
@@theresurrection33 no they didnt kill tens of millions of germans
everytime a war crime gets brought up, it becomes a war crime contest «butttt da soviets didit so itss ssjustifiex!!!!!»
@@theresurrection33 The Soviets didn't start the war the Germans did. Never forget that.
Unlike the past two videos about dogs doing cool stuff, this was rather depressing. But history often is, and we shalt not hide that away.
War is depressing
War is hell.
@@ottomeyer6928 yep the only people who enjoy it, have never been in it.
But we are hiding history. Tearing down statues, rewriting history that has been taught in schools for a hundred years, “leaders” who believe the Holocaust didn’t happen, etc. If we can’t have our children learning true history, how can future generations learn from previous generations mistakes? History repeats…
Indeed, women had it rough. Whether it's as comfort women In Japan, or the german women that were raped in the masses by americans where then it was inappropriate to talk about after because of what Wehrmacht did, to even so much as not being allowed to fight if they wanted to.
Dr Felton shines the torch of knowledge at the war's darkest moments. And his concise style is very welcome.
AGREED!:-) 🖖
Exactly, I hate to have to watch 1 hour of video with 10mins of real content. This is short and crisp, no bla bla
Well said . . .
The channel is a pure revenge on Germans. That is the only purpose.
@@frunsebischkek1050 Oh, well.
Sister of my mother Valeria Khomiakova was a pilot based in Engels. They guarded the brige acros the Volga river. She downed a German bomber.
your aunt
Was she in night bomber regiment.
Salut your sister of Mother brother.Always happy
10 bombers. All russians are famous for always telling the truth
Bad treatment of POWs is counter productive: the enemy will fight to death rather than be captured, raped or tortured. On the other hand, humane treatment softens the enemy’s resolve to fight and surrendering becomes a viable option. We saw this during the Gulf War when large groups of Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the Coalition Forces without fear of maltreatment.
We saw it during the 2nd Iraq War, the inevitable 2003 US led invasion of Iraq (known as Operation Iraq Freedom due to the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, signed by Clinton) too. This included the much overrated Republican Guard.
brilliant comment martin
We also saw it in WW2- with armies actively trying to surrender to western units as opposed to soviet ones
And when the enemy gets the upper hand, they will likely take revenge.
Other than the obvious indoctrination towards hating the people of the Soviet union there was also the lack of resources to house and feed the POWs in a humane way. It's still no excuse for beatings and torture
My wife's grandaunt was in the 1077th anti-aircraft unit in her early-20s. They used the artillery to shoot tanks attacking Stalingrad and was captured and never heard from again. Pretty incredible.
That was a brave last stand by them, it bought time for the defenders to rush in and prevented a quick capture of the city or losing most of it in the first day.
@@Wolfen443 Very brave to attack and destroy a foreign country, very brave ... yes ...
@@velesrise2172 , the comment was about the Russian Women that manned the the aa guns that slowed down the German advance, by the way Stalin had plans to attack Germany too in a few years. So Hitler just jumped the gun really anyway.
@@Wolfen443 And what was this German attack plan called, during what period was it created? What was the point for Stalin to attack Germany if the USSR had all the necessary resources and Germany supplied the USSR with all the necessary technological equipment for the development of the country?
@@velesrise2172 , the German plan was called Barbarossa, Stalin needed a few years to rebuilt his forces at least so there was no plan ready by Russia yet.
History springs to life when conveyed through the words of Dr Felton. It's always enlightening when unknown aspects of history are brought to light.
"unknown aspects" - these are bloody nazi war crimes, either they are recognized by TH-cam or not
@@CampVictoria well, if he shows up his sources in the description, its ok to cite some writings, isn't it?
@@CampVictoria well, you are right, the sources are not even shown in the description. Ironically, it says something like "credit to U.S. archives"
Using the info what the U.S. has, about the Soviet-nazi war. Neither Soviet, nor german sources
Comment on the video, not just the uploader.
@@CampVictoria Where’s your PHD and how many books have you published? Get the fk out of here.
Women in the USSR were not mobilized as men, most of them were volunteers who wanted to defend their motherland. A good example is described in the movie "Battle for Sevastopol ".
In some places, but in other places they were conscripted for sure, especially as they lost massive amounts of territory to the west. They may have started behind the lines, but as the losses mounted, they mixed into the front lines. Most of it was out of desperation, like all other acts towards the end of war.
The thing is, IF women were mobilized as men, USSR would never admit this. So the actual truth will always remain a mystery, but I'd wager there was not a single volunteer. As is today, women and others were probably just peer pressured and pressured by society into "volunteering"
From the gov, it has always been the case of heavy propaganda. The gov basically makes it out as if you will become a hero, you will get paid, and that true happiness comes from defending your "motherland". I saw the same thing over and over when I was young, now when I'm an adult, and in my parents' stories. And only the poor actually go to the front lines. Anyone from a decent family stays home. So consider that all these women who served came from remote villages and poor families
This is the side of the whole female Soviet soldier story that no one talks about
Its the side of the whole Germany attrocities promulgated not only by Nazis as later propaganda encouraged the World to believe that no one talks about is more to the point.
Stalin's Soviet Union was every bit as viscous and nasty, albeit manifest in slightly different ways, than Hitler's Third Reich.
Even so.
When you realise this was what happened, suddenly, Stalin's paranoia and visceral hatred of the West in general and the Germans in particular makes some sort of sense.
@@Farweasel yeah that doesn't excuse killing peasants and burning villages bro
If you hate communism then go for the head of the snake, the government
@@Farweasel not innocent civilians
@@comradekenobi6908 copy that
@@lurk7967 And yet the population of the Soviet Union and China increased in the 20th Century. It was only when Russia reverted to capitalism that the life expectancy fell. By contrast, there were 8 million people in Ireland in 1800. In 1900, there were 3 million. But we don't like to talk about how much better capitalism is at genocide than communism.
P.S I am adding this to my post to clear up any confusion or any ambiguity:
As others have kindly pointed out, Neuengamme itself is near Hamburg not Hannover. However, I meant that KZ-Limmer was near Hannover. Limmer is most definitely a suburb of Hannover. Also, KZ-Limmer was most definitely an Außenlager of Neuengamme. Also, the image referred to below was most definitely taken at KZ-Limmer.
Finally, in making my post below it was in no way intended to be a criticism of Mark Felton’s excellent video (as they always are!) rather it was a small point that I noticed, having recognised that very photograph and knowing where it was taken. I therefore posted this information on the history of that photograph as I thought it might be of interest to other people genuinely interested in this type of history. I certainly did not do it to criticise Mark, nor did I expect it to draw some of the negative comments that it has done. I am sorry if me pointing out the specific location (Hannover-Limmer) and some of the history of that particular photograph has offended some people, as it appears to have done.
A small point for Dr Mark Felton (in case he sees this).
The photo of the group of women @ 8.03 is in fact not women at the KZ- Ravensbruck. It is an image taken at KZ - Limmer which was one of the Außenlager (satellite camps) to the bigger KZ-Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hannover in northern Germany.
Most of the women held there, working for the Continental rubber firm (who are even today one of Hannover’s biggest employers), were in fact former French and Polish Resistance fighters although there were some Soviet, Belgium, Italian and even Spanish women held there.
There is a memorial stone to the women of this camp at that spot there today. A memorial meeting was held to remember this just this Sunday gone on the 19th September.
Thank you .
Thank you, Derin.
Another fact lost to history
And a small point for Mr .Prof. Derin, Neuengamme wasnt near Hannover but rather Hamburg.
Neuengamme KZ, yeap where thousands of prisoners were forced to produce bricks for the Reich. Neuengamme where SS troops were imprisoned at the end of the war and were guarded by British troops. My Opa was one of the many SS-Men imprisoned.
Derin
Indeed, lots of prisoners were forced to work in Germans industry. First was ‘mr’ Porsche, he started with using pow in his factories. And let them starf there. Pregnant women where put in an old, stinky appartment building, right after having given birth, they were send back to work. The babies were left unintended and died never getting any food. That was ‘mr’ Porsche…
At 3:30, her name was Natalya Meklin, and was a commander in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment, the “Night Witches.” She completed 980 combat missions. Successfully survived the war... And yes, she's VERY beatiful. Google and find her amazing pic in color... Thanks for the video, Mr. Felton. Good work!
Thanks 4 info.
I found her more pics on google.
Her full name is
Guards Lieutenant Natalya Fedorovna Meklin,No doubt She's is the Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lots of Respect for her
From India 🇮🇳🌹❤🙏
@@domingodesantaclara1130 Boy is that true. Stalin tried so hard to destroy anything of beauty in Ukraine, but he missed some of the genes that created some very beautiful people.
Part of propaganda. Same as US snipers bullshit
I find it complete bollocks since no one could complete 980 combat missions from 1939 to 1945 especially in that length of time
@@ravenpenguin8884 Why couldn't they? 6 years is 2190 days so 1 mission every 2.2 days I would think is easily achievable.
My grandfather also died in a concentration camp 😞
…
He felt down a watchtower as he was drunk
😂
It never happened.
I love your emphasis on “this was done by the REGULAR German army”, as there’s a lot of people who claim that “only SS officers committed atrocities, regular army were actually good guys!!1!” when they committed atrocities like these too…
Any army invading a sovereign country, and brutally killing its peoples and burning down its land, is not "good." This includes up to present-day - I think you know who I'm referring to.
When the US entered Afghanistan, reports of rape of women and children have been made.
When you kill people you some part of yourself dies as well, so you are more likely to do things that are outrageous for normal people.
@@Nairam10 Yeah, once someone has become too familiar with death, it is easy for them to find human life less valuable, specially that of “enemies”… war truly messes people up.
The soviets committed far more atrocities.
@@walterbrunswick who where the communists? Where they Russian? And what did they do to Russians? Such a sad world.
A topic that isn't talked about enough, thank you Mark for bringing this
@George Washington no need to be political here
@@shouryajitbhattacharya2900 dada apni daal bath kheye shuki thakun. Peace
@@dante666jtwhat, you wanna be political in a history vid? Anpnar ke political thakar ache to apni political video te jete paren, peace
@@shouryajitbhattacharya2900 only when leaving current politics out of the picture will you understand history.
@@michaelkovacic2608 yep, correct
Thank you.
My uncle's brother was captured at the Casserine Pass in Tunisia, spending the rest of the war in POW camps. He told me of the Nazi atrocities against the Soviets. Sickening !
@God Bless you He was like an uncle to me.
Excellent content, well delivered……LEST WE FORGET.
So much of history is lost to time, thank you for reviving the memories of the past!
agreed! now hundreds of thousands know of them!
Unfortunately today the only history worth remembering is if it serves a political purpose, or it must be erased
@@johnkelly6236 You are absolutely right. History and historiography are two different issues. If politically wanted everything is remembered and preserved in a highly emotional sort of way. If not it is simply erased.
History is a lying mixture of exaggerating and omitting.
HISTORY is a lie agreed upon. Napoleon Bonaparte.
As ABBA sang, "The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself."
I've had this intro song stuck in my head for a week, people are starting to star while I'm humming it in line at the convenience store which just makes me pick up the volume and intensity. It's my mistake for falling asleep with this channel on auto play 😂
Treat yourself to the full package
It's on TH-cam
Elijah Robert " Redemption's Last Chance "
Read the comments, full of MF fanboys
The World At War series intro. music is another haunting orchestral tune.
Nice when they get the reference
"Let's get this out on a tray."
@@gthaughton5647 "The Nazis: A lesson from history" BBC series fron 1997, has the haunting beginning of Brahms' A German Requiem at the start of each episode.
@@clavichord Thank you for referring Brahm. I can't read, write or compose music, but I can recognize and appreciate musical beauty when I hear it. The older that I become.. The more I find this orchestral music soothing and thought provoking allowing internal reflection.
At times the fighting on the German/Soviet front was of unimaginable brutality at times in a spiral of hate, revenge and counterrevenge. I had the pleasure of having long casual conversations with eyewitnesses from those days, who did participate in the fighting between German units and Soviet all female units. Those stories would not make it into movies or history books as they were pure horror for both sides and not easy to digest. @Mark Felton Productions
"Brutality at times in a spiral of hate, revenge and counterrevenge" - you are traing to put a victims on the same level with agressors. Bosch! Skanley your nasty month! First, replete for millions of Russians killed by germans, and after reasoning about "suffering" of the germans people. Mudak!
@@AlASokolov , no, I am actually not trying to weight anything against anything here. Also I am not talking about the large scale or who is responsible for what on a political level. I am only referring to the hand to hand combat on the ground platoon agains platoon. And that was more cruel than any of us late born can imagine. That is why I talked to people who were actually there and suffered and committed atrocities.
You had the PLEASURE??? Very poor wording.
@@AlexanderBlumenau Now imagine that the majority of Russians from childhood had the opportunity to talk with witnesses of that war. That is why it is easier for Russians to discover outright lies about that war. At the same time, people in the West and in the United States are absolutely washed out by the Cold War propaganda.
The war between Nazi Germany and Soviet union was truly a battle of evil against evil. Massive numbers of people were caught in the midst of all the horror. God bless us for not having to live through anything like those people had to.
I wish they showed Mark Felton's series about WW2 in high school. Short, accurate, engaging, and not sensationalized, but conveying the true horror and utter depravity of it all.
This truth is so sad... We humans never learn from our past.
We willingly forget everything for our "gains"
*Rest in peace brave women, salute*
I know. You would think that the obvious takeaway from “female soldiers who are captured get raped, duh” would be “do not put women in a place where they will be captured” but apparently some genius instead took away that actually *more* women on the battlefield is the way to go.
I really admired the courage and fighting spirit of those Soviet women against all the odds. God bless their souls.
Courage and fighting spirit ?
I am pretty sure they have no choice , most probably forceed by the Communist regime to go and " fight"
Iam all for equal rights 👏👏
Killing those young beautiful Sovyyyiet women soldiers on the spot just for defending their Homeland were acts of barbarism and cowardise by the germans
@Gabi X
With the exception of nurses, all women volunteered for the front line. Among them were a huge number strongly motivated personally by this war. Some ideologically (teachers, political officers, real communists, etc.), others simply lost friends, family, or in general everything thanks to the Nazis. On average, most of them were in their 20s. For example, by the end of the first stage of the Great Patriotic War (Between 1941-1943) - only 3% of the people born in 1920 remained in total.
There are many examples of volunteer
Just telling history like it was. Mark, your contribution is valuable!
Comment on the video, not just the uploader.
@@DrJones20 should I comment on the original comment or your comment?
@@DrJones20 or should you also comment on the video, not other people’s comments 🧐
More great content thank you
@B M can I comment on comments? What if I comment on a comment that’s not been commented on yet?
I knew a German soldier that served on the eastern front. He told me men, women and children of all ages would march on his machine gun. He said most of them had nothing. Some he said picked up sticks or stones. Others eating utensils, about 1
In 100 had a gun. He was shot 3 times. Part of his face was shot off. He said it was 22 hours sometimes before his relief would show up. From firing so much the machine gun barrel would turn red hot. He stated that if he tried to leave his machine gun post that there was an ss waiting to put a bullet in this head. I could tell from his expressions how much this bothered him.
My dad was with the RCAF in England. He could speak fluent German. 2 months before he died he told me if they had too many German prisoners they would turn them over to the Poles. My dad suffered from ptsd. He was not easy to live with. He was probably told never to mention what happened to those prisoners.
Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately man of the documentaries fail to emphasis how communism and nazism differentiate when it comes to gender. In Russia there was no differentiation between men and women, and even children at times. It was merely another fodder to die... In actual fact, Stalin killed far more of his people than the Germany ever did...that is rarely taught or spoken.
@@Bahamuttiamat whoever created the virus might have killed more at this point.
@@Bahamuttiamat what a BS, geez.
@@BahamuttiamatStalin was a Georgian Lutheran. Russians are Orthodox...they are not Stalin's people. Never were.
Ни кто детей и женщин в атаку не посылал, твой родственник участвовал в массовых расстрелах и казнях
A stark reminder of how brutal that war was
All wars are brutal.
@@dancancade7101 yea but in most wars, people aren't trying to exterminate another group of people, or in the case of ww2, dozens of groups.
@@dancancade7101 some wars were won by defeating the enemy armies, occupying territories. In ww2 the nazis tried to exterminate whole nations, killing men, women, and children alike. It was another level of dirt, the possible lowest point where people can sink
Cactus. What the hell. Only the Axis declared racial war and a war of annihilation. They got it for sure. 👍 Dresden and Hiroshima are testaments to their punishment.
@@jozseftoth9368 then there's Pol pot
As always, Dr. Felton comes up with a gem. Well narrated as always.
I thought I knew quite a lot about the war, but you always seem to find new and interesting things.
Half of his story isn't the truth. So you can't hear this before this untruth history. Stalin was a comminist, Felton say this. Stalin was a mussmurder like Hitler and he killed millions long before Hitler it do. And look for 'Wlassow Army ' , which fight on german side against Stalin. This show that it isn't the truth, that the half of russian war prisoner died after they give up fighting. Over a million want fight against Stalin when they are war prisoners,but mussmurder Hitler only let nearly 100 000 fight as soldiers on german side, he was to stupid and so he do this by his ill way of thinking.
@@marcosegna2951 Why would the germans want to use labor camp prisoners, aka untrained civilians from a forgien country, in a war?
This is foolish.
Stalin ordered mass executions of polish army officers numbers. Of 22.000 if believed. by the NKVD the ( Katyn massacre) 1940 .... (captured during German /Soviet invasion of Poland 1939 the Russians completely denied any involvement right up to the 1990s the Russians claimed the German army commited theses atrocities) ....... It is sometimes overlooked that both countries signed a agreement. Molctov- Ribbentrop pack basically a deal not to go to war against each other. The treaty also included a secret protocol which allowed both country's to redefine it's boarders (spheres of influence) across Poland Finland Lithuania Latvia Estonia so Stalin ordered the killings of polish officers to eliminate any possible uprisings against the Soviet take over of Poland after the battle of Britain Winston Churchill struck a deal with Stalin to releases all polish officers to help reform the polish army in the UK to help fight the Nazis Churchill at the time probably wasn't aware of the executions of polish prisoners. There you go think doc felton has covered this too
@@marcosegna2951 You are talking absolute nonsense.
Germans were so kind letting those women stay behind lines lol. 10/10
My great grandmother's sister was captured by the Germans as a young girl in her village in central Ukraine, she was not more than 19 at the time. She was a "lucky one", as they sent her to some wealthy German family where she worked as a maid. I don't know details about how they treated her as she didn't like to remember that, she only told how they made her sing all the time while working in the garden or collecting eggs so she couldn't eat anything. She did return home after the war and lived a long life surrounded by family. Never got married though, she had a fiancee before the war but he was killed at the frontline. I've never met her as my grandparents took me to Ukraine for the first time when she already died, but her nieces told me a lot about her.
Mark I so much appreciate you and your work. I congratulate you for consistently producing high quality, serious videos. Thank you for always keeping it real.
I knew a german guy that was a Hitler youth in Berlin during the war. He told me he was apprenticed as a welder in like a train depot where he did repairs on train cars and engines that got bombed but could be repaired. He told me he sometimes worked with some soviet woman that were p.o.w's., that were quite skilled in welding and said he even learned a few things from them, but he didn't go into detail how they were treated or how he treated them. He did say some were very good looking so can speculate how they were treated.
For the series: they are are subhuman degenerates but an hole is an hole after all...
But today we have some one who praised those who still carry on the symbols of those times...
@@gabrieleguerrisi4335the Israelis. I agree.
Ya I'm sure that pos German wouldn't discuss how he treated slaves. Remarkable how the who German population had nothing to do with the SS, or the army, and they knew of no such horrible things. Just like the Japanese, astounding how those things worked out.
@@jimmythe-gent -.-
Guess we found the person with no functioning braincells, and it's you.
Well we do know how the German woman were trained after they lost........
I truly appreciate the objective explanation of the context. High quality stuff!
My great grandfather was captured by German solders and transported in Berlin, he was prisoner for almost 2 years he survived. He was in wwi solder and 5 his brothers died in wwi, when he return to home at the 1918 Bulgarian army burned his house and kill all animals. He think to suicide because he lost everything. But thanks God he build new house and start new life and survive ww2. Big thank you Red Army for stop Nazi. I am from Serbia.
Natalya Kovshova
On 14 August 1942, Kovshova's regiment was committed to the fighting near the village of Sutoki-Byakovo in the Novgorod Oblast. The machine gunners and snipers resisted the German offensive in trenches. The Soviet soldiers were killed one after another, until only Kovshova and Polivanova remained, both wounded. As being captured was not an option, Kovshova decided to pull the pin of her grenade, and wait to blow the German soldiers up when they reached the trench. When the Germans finally reached the trench, Kovshova detonated the grenades, killing herself, Polivanova and many German soldiers.
This video doesn’t mention: More than 1,000 of female pows in the concentration camps were sent to the Wehrmacht brothel.
From：Do we know if the Nazis treated female Soviet Army POWs any differently than the majority of male Soviet POWs? On Reddit
Sadly this can't be true due to the fact that grenades don't work like in movies,she is prob the only one who died maybe injuring some germans nearby,many of the stories were soviet fabrications and exagerations.
@@Romeroifly Killed them all or injured some nearby，The point is there are so many stories in books and memories about them leaving a bullet for themselves or fighting to death and ending up with the Germans.
《The voices from Stalingrad》and 《The Unwomanly Face》and more
@@Romeroifly The Germans left them with no choice. As mentioned in these books that I posted above，Gouged eyes out and sexual violence
Real Heroes and patriots of of their Homland, eternal memory and deep bow from all of us to whom we owe our seren life under peaceful sky, no one is forgotten, nothing is unforgoten.
This video told everything I expected from the title. The eastern front was brutal !
It was massive and brutal front.
War is always brutal. Every war. The human race at its worst. I know no exception to this.
@@stefanomanferlotti1517 Yes but never in the history of humanity has there been something so terrible and brutal than the eastern front in WW2. Untold amounts of suffering and hardship, by far the single most brutal and destructive front of any war in human history
@@stefanomanferlotti1517 And not quite true, there has been plenty of wars have with relatively little brutality.
One german soldier was interviewed after the war by Max Hastings a war novelist, he said when he was moved from the Eastern front to fight on the Western front to fight Americans and British and commonwealth soldiers. He fought he was on holiday because that was the comparison between East and west .
I was asking myself the same thing, some days ago, while reading about Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Thanks for exploring such interesting themes, with such depth, and also shedding a light into the Wermacht war crimes.
Let's not forget, all were guilty of horrific war crimes except the British
@@jacobseed6537 Irony check.
Germans were well aware of her apparently, and would threaten that if they ever captured her they'd cut her into 300 pieces, over all the men she killed during her service.
@@jacobseed6537 lol good joke
@Internet Research Agency by the logic Wehrmacht did not kill women just bolsheviks and commissars
My great aunt was in Ravensbruck. Medical experiments were performed on her. After the liberation she had to emigrate to West Germany (the country that did this to her) because the Soviets conquered our country and they persecuted resistance fighters like her.
Sorry to hear about your great aunt, but it isn't clear did she fight for Hitler? It looks that she fought for fascism, if I right? In other way why should Soviets persecute them?
@@practicalrussianwithtam4816 It's not that the Soviets persecute or prosecute or whatever word you want to use for the meaning of took into custody. No, it's not that they did. It's WHAT they did in the persecution. A 5 year prison sentence while treated humanely? Probably fair? History is so, so nuanced I don't feel comfortable saying for certain what would have been a just sentence for this case. But instead of a 5-year humane confinement, the Soviets....man....they brutally gang r**ed young ch***ren....and those were kids that they weren't even upset with. How do you think they treated enemy women with whom they were HIGHLY upset with, rightly or wrongly?
@@BigDaddy-yp4miI can pull boogie man stories about Germans and children too. Difference is I got sources. Bigger difference is most Germans, Americans, British all got away with everything, but the soviets tracked their own war criminals all the way to the 60s. What westoid red scare dogma are you standing on?
In the book 'Ravensbruck ' by Sarah Helm they were called the rabbits. women from Poland
@@practicalrussianwithtam4816because russians do that without any reason
Considering how the "Herrenmenschen" viewed slavic peoples in general, this really wasn't going to go any other way.
The Nazi-German viewed Slavic people as “Untermenschen”, that is why they allied themselves with Slavic nations like Croatia and Slovakia, why they recruited thousands into their armed forces, including the waffen-SS, why they followed a policy of Germanization of the Czechs and Poles, why Polish orphans with the right looks were adopted into Nazi families, why they had leaders amongst them with Slavic names like Globoknic, Skorzeny, Jeschonek, Bach-Zelewski, Kaminski, Nowotny(fighter Ace). Slavic and Germanic people have common origins. This hostility towards the Slavs is completely overrated and is more propaganda than reality.
@@ericfischer4458 so overated that they killed slavs by the tens millions, but hey they allied with a couple of slavs that played the nazi tune. What a dumb argument
the favor was repayed by the soviets
@@bernardobiritiki Anti-Slav sentiments were overrated. It was a war of ideology, not ethnicity, a war between National -Socialism and Bolshevism. The Bolsheviks massacred millions of fellow Slavs like the Ukrainians during the Holodomor and Poles at Katyn, it as a way of life for for them. Btw Many Germans then and now have Slavic last names.
@@frankrenda2519 The Soviets started this cycle of violence long before Hitler even came to power in 1933
Amazing. I never knew any of this, and for anyone out there that thinks this is too horrifying and it should be taken down then history will be doomed to repeat itself if we erase everything that makes us feel uncomfortable.
The US Senate passed a bill thru Committee just this month that would expand the draft to women. Same people who pushed the abomination of female soldiers in Russia are responsible. Far too late to save USA. In today's Christian Russia by contrast, women are strictly prohibited from combat.
@@scottwillie6389 ..." pushed the abomination of female soldiers in Russia ...".---LOL. The Soviet girls were very eager to fight back your Nazi pals. Especially when the German LEBENSRAUM and GENERALPLAN OST "policies" left 14-17 MILLION ordinary Civilians massacred, only in the Soviet Union. That included a lot of their sisters, moms, kids, granpas, etc., etc...
@@scottwillie6389 ..."in today's Christian Russia by contrast, women are strictly prohibited...".---There are some 100.000 women in the Russian Army today. Hardly a "small" number anywhere.
@@scottwillie6389 Women in Canada and America receive the same rights and privileges as men, so why should they not be expected to bear arms like men in time of war.
@Jake Johansson ..."not in combat ranks...".---They all go through the standard training and would be in close combat only for national defense (like the Soviets did). Russia is not facing a massive invasion to put the 100,000 in "combat ranks" today.
If a Soviet sniper, male or female, was captured, they were ruthlessly killed. Actually, it didn’t matter what front you were on, you weren’t likely to survive if you were a captured sniper.
Yes, also soldiers carrying flamethrowers were rarely spared or personnel handling any other type of weapon spewing fire.
@@hermanspaerman3490 That should include bomber teams as well then.
ztiwhcsuA hturT chat tel e gram chan el
@@jimreilly6933 , Well , actually no, since bomber teams usually got captured by either civilians or security forces and even though they terrorized the population they weren't killed in nearly the same proportion. From what I have read it has simply to do with the fact that soldiers facing flame thrower weapons and then subsequently capturing the handler of that weapon were in a frenzied, bloodthirsty state which might explain why they often just killed the handler on the spot.
Even Omar Bradley , who was the most reasonable general of WW2 made comment to his soldiers about snipers!
"Brad says he will not take action against anyone that decides to treat a sniper a little more roughly than they are being treated at present."
UNDETECTED, UNEXPECTED, WINGS OF GLORY, TELL THEIR STORY
AVIATION, DEVIATION, UNDETECTED, STEALTH PERFECTED
@@electricvan3283 FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL IN SILENCE
@@markusklyver6277 cast their spells explosive violence👊😡👊
Sabaton mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥
My mother, 93, survived the siege of Leningrad. She became a homeless orthant in the midst of brutal Russian winter.
She was lucky enough to get an employment as a general labor.
Never tells me any stories except that she didn't take a bath for 1.5 year. I can not even guess what she witnessed.
Until now she never drops a crumb of bread but scoops it.
She never celebrates the Victory Day or the Day when the siege was broken.
She brands as lies any movies or written stories about those events.
I can't even imagine how hard that must have been. My grandma was lucky she survived the German occupation, but her dad and brother were killed in action.
I’d like to talk to her!
A strong woman, bless her.
@@rayjames6096 Thank you
I can't imagine the the trauma people have suffered and carried it through their entire lives.It's heart breaking.
Pure un-adulterated history. Knowledge in it's purest form. Thank you Dr. Felton. By far the best History channel on youtube!
You should see some of the comments, people losing their minds over this 'feminist communist propaganda.' They didn't watch the video, of course, only read the title and got triggered.
@@loonloon9365 true, true. TH-cam comments are often a human cesspool.
Comment on the video, not just the uploader.
Mark even has disclaimer on this video description lmao
He knows what his comments usually devolve to, I've seen vids where the comment section is entirely disabled
I saw you on a Stalin documentary doctor. It was pretty cool that I actually knew who one of the guys they were interviewing was. You did a very good job.
What's the name of the documentary?
For those interested in learning more about the experiences of female frontline Soviet soldiers, I recommend "The Unwomanly Face of War" by Svetlana Alexievich.
Yes, this book is a very good, if rather grim, description of the life of women in the red army.
The unbelievable suffering of the Soviet people during WW2 is mind-boggling.
Came here to say this myself - truly exceptional book, and Alexievich has produced many other brilliant books on the Soviet experience from WWII to Chernobyl and Afghanistan to life after the collapse - she truly earned her Nobel Prize.
Great historical content as always. What I can’t fathom is why history was so vague in the valiant war effort woman gave to the war… And why there was never any mention of the heinous treatment they underwent during captivity. Thanks for shedding light on the questions we never asked.
Soviet Union never acnowledged any of there soldiers as prisoner's,they were considered traitor's. After the war Soviet prisoner's were sent to Gulags.
Because most WWII histories we see in the West are by Western historians with a Western point of view. The role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany is often not a focus of these works.
@@jonnieinbangkok I see it quite a bit. I don’t know why you all don’t.
@@jonnieinbangkok because the history is always written by the victor's.
Basically men feel threatened by capable women, it’s easier to denigrate women than acknowledge there is a good
Chance , a woman is your equal or even your superior! Having married a Russian woman, I can tell you they are formidable.
How many schools actually bother with the history of women in combat ?… really.
You would have thought after getting on for 80, male dominance and ignorance might have been on the decline …….
Nope! We’re still whitewashing the truth !,,
Mark Felton should have a regular tv channel like History Channel. His work is excellent. The narrative is an example many that make videos in You Tube could learn from.
I’ve read many books about the Eastern front over the years. I don’t recall this subject being discussed or mentioned? You hit another home run! Thanks again!
Have you ever thought why it had miraculously been brought up now? And without any solid proofs
@@anatoliypankevych4853put the trolling stick away
One of my favorite TH-cam channel. Thanks Dr Felton for making my day
It such a good channel I even pray for the limey that he doesn’t go to Hell like the rest of the Limey Euro Commies!
"Rifle Broads" would make a good name for a punk band.
The Night Witches
@@daveyboy_ also yes
There is a band called The Celibate Rifles. lol.
It's falsely translated. I think "wife" is correct. The similarity to German "Weib" is no coincidence.
According to Solzhenitsyn the Russians called female soldiers "field mattresses".
Great stuff as always
the woman or the?
How do you think they treated them 😂 😂 😂
The Germans impregnated them 9x a day
Not sure this is the type of comment to leave on here 😂
The whole thing is just a cheap narration with photo and film clips a lot of which have nothing to do with the subject Mr Felton is talking about.
My great-grandmother fought in the second world war but honestly I don't know where and what she really did, the only thing I have are some photos of her in uniform and her old rifle, the most incredible thing of all is that I got to know her when I was a child, when I was only 6, the only thing I remember is that it scared me because she was very tall 1.94 (6.2) and very skinny, she looked like a ghost with her long white hair and green eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, I didn't know this but it turns out that she also had a tattoo on her left shoulder of a red star, honestly the more I know the more it hurts me that I couldn't talk to her about her experiences
...у каждого человека - 4 прабабушки, и 4 прадедушки....
Both my parents were in WW11 and Grandparents WW1. They didn't want to recite out-loud what they'd seen. If you can imagine witnessing the most horrific barbaric crimes against unarmed people over and over again it was impossible for them to say these out loud. By not repeating what they saw, they hoped the nightmares would eventually fade. If they talked about it all, the nightmares would never fade. They didn't realise that it didn't make any difference because right up until they died the nightmares never went away. That's why a few as they reached their 90's started talking about what went on.
That's also why many returned service personnel today, turn to drugs and alcoholic and the military is the last one wanting to help, because then they'll have to admit the atrocities they force our service personnel to commit in the line of 'keeping the world safe'.
@@Aussie_Truth I didn't know there was a world war 11.
dang i bet your grandma was a great lay. back in the day of course
Your parents should have shared information about her.
Dr. Felton: the history teacher we all wish he had back in high school.
History teachers have to be careful what they teach sometimes. The government does not like teachers that teach out of there approved materials.
@@ThePhantom712 ....where do you live? Beijing?
...I had THAT History Teacher... Mr. Kneefsey San Pedro. Got A's BOTH times. He really brought it to life.
My US teachers messed up history. I personally had to correct them a few times, much to their disdain.
@@1badjesus most Asian country is
This is a brilliant and extremely important video. Thank you.
may the world never see such horrible wars again...
Love this channel! I’ve learned so much about history that’s never spoken of in schools or college history classes
My grandfather and grandmother have met at war in Red Army.
They were fighting against nazis together and reunited and married after the war.
My grandmother went to the army to revenge after her father has been K.I.A
My grandfather's family member has been enslaved and sterilized by nazis.
So, when somebody is whining about depression - I remind myself about my grandparents' youth.
Thanks, Dr. Felton for your work!
OMG That generation went through so much suffering, My heart
goes out to all the dear souls who suffered so much ! God bless!
Thank you Dr. Felton . For six years , the entire world , was at war . In the 75 yrs. since then, all we heard about women's contribution on any side is that of nurses and some female snipers. Your stories and videos , about the contribution of women to the war effort in WW2 on all sides , is a goldmine of information and new learning . Bravo SIR .
the whole world is at war now , world war 2 only ended on paper . the results never ended
Barbaric
The Russian female battalions go far back to WW1. Look for the Russian women's "Battalion of Death". Perhaps Mr. Felton will do a video about them.
It’s crazy to think we’re are once again sliding towards this madness with the recent events in the world.
It's just how capitalism works: expanding, capturing new markets until it meets markets of other nation. If military powers behind competing nations are comparable, then it comes to war. When many people died, nations economic powers shrink and then can expand once again till next time. The best outcome for an intersted nation is to enter the war almost at it's end and not to lose too much, but to get most of the victory. That is just what USA did in WWI and WWII.
@@ilivdia yeah its totally capitalism sure same people who started this all in ww2 and ww1 still around massacring people today but its capitalism gotcha
@@ilivdia horseshit, WW2 happened because Hitler was a power hungry egomaniac who was willing to use scapegoats and hateful people to form his own empire. He wanted to be another Genghis Khan to feed his own ego. If this happens again it won't be because of competing markets, it will be because of ruthless autocrats with too much power and influence.
Its crazy that USSR/Russia became the very enemy it once fought: fascist. Vast majority of Russians consider Europeans and Americans as subhuman. Millions of Russians go to bed every day dreaming of 2 things: 1) that USA will experience a nuclear fallout and 2) that they will win a green card
@@ilivdia Yeas its just how socialist countries work I agree. Notice how all the aggressors in the modern world, all the tyrants, are all socialist countries. Back when Russia became capitalistic in the 90's, it was booming. It was booming well into the 2000's, but then it just started to become more and more socialist. First public speech was getting banned, then websites got banned, then protestors got jailed, then private businesses got taken by gov, etc. And the more socialist Russia was becoming, the more aggressive it became towards its neighbors. As Russia became more socialist, its military GDP ratio became one of the highest in the world, and then, surprise, it declared a war on another european power... This tendency to destroy is a direct result of going socialist. From Napoleon, to Hitler, to now Putin. And look at all the other similar socialist countris: North Korea, China, Iran, etc. They're all spending their budgets on military. People are extremely poor, but the leaders are very well armed. The greatest disparities in income is not between Jeff Bezos and you and I, but between the wealthy class in countries like Russia, and their very poor who make $100 a month working 80 hours a week
This was an astonishing video Mark. Thank you for the history lesson.
Would you, Mark, do a video on captured Soviet generals. Thank you.
Where is the video about General Vlasov ?
The term "Flintenweib" was used in Nazi-lingo before Barbarossa. I own a book from 1940 depicting the advance to Dunkirk by the 18th Infantry Division. In it is a pic of a female PoW with the caption of "Flintenweib".
I bet a historian might be interested in seeing that book.
🤔
A second opinion is always a good thing. So long as it is not a result of the first but from a different source. Three are even better. Many possibilities, many in common, many unique... the Truth is in there somewhere... perhaps! I speak in general in public and not in private (military puns). Multiple meanings is a whole new ball game, and hidden in plain sight.
They called them 'shotguns'? Somewhat amusing, actually....who knew the Germans could be funny, even in war?
@@jesterlead Yeah can you imagine Nazi stand up? If you don't laugh you will be shot? or If you laugh at me you will be shot... too confusing... CLASSIFIED Illegal Weapon. lol
Allies: We can win the war if we can give the Nazis a sense of humour!
I'm very grateful to you for uploading all this footage of the women and pow pits. It's simply heartbreaking. It speaks volumes as to what has driven the Russian people to be completely prepared militarily. It's a complex situation and I pray people see this
Clearly they didn't prepare enough and are still losing...I'm sorry they don't get a pass from inflicting atrocities, just because they suffered them in the past. Complex situation my a**.
Because throughout all their history they were pregnant with war? Because for hundreds of years they have been waging wars on every neighbor, people, territory and country possible? Because they brought Hitler to power and were allies with him and signed a treaty about dividing Europe in half? That’s why they were preparing intensively for war. Because they have started ww2 together with Hitler, capturing half the Poland, Baltic states, attacking Romania, Finland. That is a good reason to be prepared, when you are always in the state of war
A disturbing story, but a necessary one. Thanks for bringing truth and clarity out of the dark.
As soon as I saw the lede, "How did Germans treat captured Soviet female soldiers"? I thought, "Badly".
Same here. The exact word that came to my mind.
We are probably more connected to each other than we recognise. The borders and fences never existed till our species made them.
The way the soviets treated German women was far worse.
@@NicholasAdamDemonte Quite so. But a lot of effort has gone into erasing the inhumane Soviet behaviour from the history books.
A clear case of the winners deciding how posterity will remember them. A textbook example.
I have (and I'm pretty sure you've too) come across many people interested in the Second War who insist that the Red Army did nothing wrong.
Forget the average German woman: Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge was raped by the first troops to enter Berlin. Junge escaped, of course, and now we have that fantastic movie "Der Untergang" based on her memoirs as a member of AH's inner circle.
@@NicholasAdamDemonte Not really. There were around 10 million cases of rape in USSR and around 2 million in Germany.
@@krishanuA Perhaps you could be more specific about this great effort of 'erasing'. Which historians? I am not aware that it is anything other than easy to source solid reference material on the barbarous treatment of German civilian women by the Soviets. Page for page, there is actually less English language material on the numerically larger but similarly barbarous campaign perpetrated against Soviet civilian women by the Germans three and a half years earlier. Not being a rapist, I cannot comprehend war rape anymore than I can comprehend rape in peacetime but the horrors visited upon girls and women in that first German campaign undoubtedly contributed to the vindictive frame of mind metastasising throughout Soviet husbands/boyfriends/brothers/cousins by the time they reached Germany in 1945.
Thank you for your willingness to share the difficult parts of history as well as the heroic and uplifting. We have no way to prevent such happening again without the knowledge of what has happened in the past. Unfortunately, little of this history is taught in our schools or acknowledged by our governments.
Winners write history. Thats all you need to know. The Allies were clean as chruch mice, innocent to the core.
Indeed. They can change the history to far opposite because they want all that reputation
Exactly
7:19 "All of this was done by the regular German army."
Thank you for pointing this out twice. The Good Werhmacht theory is pervasive among amateur "historians"
About the food problem if you can't feed your own soldiers you differently can't feed pow's
@@Flamechr they still made it a spectacle and had pleasure in the events. They were never innocent of humanitarian crimes as some try and portray
Only the naive and childishly misinformed ones. Armies exist solely to enforce the political imperatives of their country, nothing else. "Fighting for the motherland/fatherland/king/country" or "Defending freedom" are canards to fool simpletons and useful idiots.
@@THIS---GUY All armies perpetrated humanitarian crimes. Even yours (no matter what it is).
@@HO-bndk the USA and Canada also had concentration camps and racist ideologies. I do not and will speak against those who do.
Regardless, That is completely aside from the point I made which is regarding the ideology that implies the German army was innocent of atrocities as they were committed by the nazi army when in reality they both deserved worse then they ever got. Starving the prisoners is one thing and understandable as railway and supply chains were bombed but making a spectacle of fighting over scraps is inhumane.
My grandfather was a German soldier and he said as a soldier he wasn't afraid of the regular male opponents but he was afraid of the Soviet women. They were tough.
yer they cut your balls off my father fought them as well
Being shot immediately upon capture may actually have been a blessing for many of them considering.
Well, unless of high rank, they were likely abused before being shot
The Japanese Army routinely raped female POW (like nurses) before killing them.
What do you think happened to German troops captured by partisans or soviet army?
@@michpemberton2487 like the movie "come and see"
@@allangibson2408 Don't you think the Germans did the same?
So important the lessons of that time not be forgotten, as painful as it is to recall them. Good job on this.
"the nighwitches" for a demeaning nickname the germans really couldn't have picke a cooler name for them
"Nachthexen" probably sounds even cooler. But then things in German always either sound unnecessarily ugly or extremely cool.
@@chasm671 Most often, extremely cool and badass.
Depends on your view of a witch
Nothing demeanind about being called the night witches at all
The night bitches would have been a better choice for dehumanizing them.
The man is on a tear this week. Weall rejoice!