25. Dezember 1941
| GEO & MIL INFO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rai Gorodok | 
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| II./477 subordinated to I.R. 466 | ||||
24 Dec 41.[1] Get ready to march off. On Christmas Eve of all days! I’m furious. We start packing. When everything is almost ready and my platoon starts to line up, the vehicles are not yet there. They had not been notified. I race to the drivers to make up for what I missed. Hadn’t they noticed that the other trains were packing? Hadn’t the sergeant major notified them? Whatever, it was my fault too, because I should have notified my drivers in any case. So now the battalion, ready to march, has to wait almost an hour in the cold until my platoon arrives. A fine mess. The battalion leaves the city late in the afternoon. The sun is already setting, and when we march out of the city into the wide, snowy plain, it is already dark. Christmas silence lies over the white landscape. Only the crunching sounds of the vehicles and the marching column interrupt the silence of the winter night. No one speaks. The Christmas atmosphere is spoiled for me, because there has been a row with the boss because of the delay in marching off. I mean, the sergeant major is also a bit to blame, but since Fritz Schulz is a decent guy, I didn’t drag him into the affair.
After several hours of marching, we see the dark strip of a settlement appear in the white snowy landscape in the half-light of the winter night. It is Rai Gorodok, our destination. The village is situated on the edge of the flat Donets plain, about a kilometre from the river. The Torez, a tributary of the Donets, flows past the eastern edge of the village. I quarter in a tiny little house. The woman who lives here is extremely grumpy, but as I am in the same mood, I don’t mind. I look at one more of my platoon quarters and then retire to my lodgings. I finally want to get something out of Christmas Eve. It is already late anyway. So I dig my little Christmas angel out of my luggage and put it on the table. It is a tiny wooden angel with a light holder for doll candles. I light the little candle and gaze dreamily into the weak light...
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- ↑ According to KTB 257. I.D., the transfer was only ordered for the night 25/26; transfer of authority in the sector new to the division took place on the 26th at 8.00 a.m. and execution was reported the same evening (KTB 257th I.D., NARA T-315 Roll 1804 Frame 000746/747/979/981).