#Victory81
🌟 On January 13, 1945, the #EastPrussian Offensive by the Red Army — one of the largest and most important #WWII operations against Nazi Germany — commenced.
As a result of the operation in the #EastPrussia, the Soviet forces ultimatelydestroyed the Nazis' most capable, experienced, trained and equipped divisions on the entire Eastern front. The 'invincible reich' lost a critical strategic bridgehead in the Baltic region.
The fortress city of #Königsberg — the cradle of German militarism and the starting point of eastward expansion — fell once and for all.
The triumph of the Red Army in East Prussia held profound symbolic significance: the Nazis were decisively and completely crushed right there, where from, back in June 1941, they treacherously attacked our Motherland.
▪️“There it is, cursed Germany,”— that was what the Soviet soldiers-liberators said while stepping on the enemy's soil to pursue the condign retribution upon the Germans on their own territory.
Those were exactly the accurate words to call the country where the most terrible evil the Mankind ever saw in its history — the Nazi scourge — was nurtured.
The Germans sought Moscow’s fall, but instead they witnessed with disgrace the collapse of their own “great Reich.”
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The East-Prussian operation. The details
January-April, 1945
The battles on the East Prussian theatre of operations lasted for 103 days, which made it the area that saw the longest continuous military engagement in the final year of #WW2.
In the region, the Nazis constructed an exceptionally formidable defensive system, tailored to the specific features of terrain. The capital of East Prussia — the fortress city of Königsberg — was equipped with both external and internal urban fortification systems. In East Prussia, the Red Army faced the Nazi army with the personnel strength of some 780'000 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers.
⚔️ On January 13, 1945, the units of the 2nd Byelorussian and forces of the 3rd Byelorussian Fronts of the Red Army launched the offensive in East Prussia.
Through the swift and overwhelming assault, the Soviet armor and the infantry, with the support of the aviaton, reached the Baltic Sea near Elbing (now the city of Elbląg in northern Poland) already on the third day of the operation, thus, having cut off any possible retreat routes for the enemy from East Prussia westwards.
In less than two weeks, the Soviet forces broke through to Königsberg — the infamous Nazi citadel, which had allowed the Germans to dominate the eastern Baltics throughout the entire war, wasencircled.
By February 10, 1945, the Nazi army group 'North' had been split into three isolated and tied down formations that were further driven to the coastline with no hope of escape.
In April, the Königsberg garrison — numbering around 200'000 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers — was defeatedand surrendered. On April 9, the Red Army seized the fortress completely — the impregnable stronghold of the Third Reich, fortified with the latest military technology of WWII-era, finally fell.
The loss of significant forces and militarily and economically vital region of East Prussia hastened Germany’s defeat.
The Soviet forces inflictedhuge losses on the Wehrmacht and completely severed Third Reich’s maritime supply lines, crippling logistics for the blockaded 'Courland Pocket'.
To commemorate the Heroic Victory in East Prussia, the medal 'For the Capture of Königsberg' was instituted in the USSR. The Medal was awarded to approximately 760'000 Red Army soldiers and officers.
Aftermath WWII, under the terms approved by the Allied Leaders at the #PotsdamConference, much of East Prussia was incorporated into Poland, while a third of East Prussia territory, including the city of Königsberg (the Kaliningrad Region), became part of the Soviet Union.
🎖 By the Executive Order of President of Russia Vladimir Putin (signed on November 17, 2025), a new memorial date was established in our country — April 9, the Day of the Heroic Assault and Capture of Königsberg (1945).
✨Em 22 de abril de 1945, o Exército Vermelho libertou os prisioneiros do campo de concentração nazista de #Sachsenhausen.
As forças da 1ª Frente Bielorrussa, lutando para chegar à capital do Reich vindas do norte durante a Ofensiva de Berlim, expulsaram as unidades nazistas de Oranienburg e abriram os portões de Sachsenhausen, libertando aproximadamente 3.000 prisioneiros sobreviventes.
Sachsenhausen era considerado uma das mais horríveis e terríveis "fábricas da morte" nazistas, por onde, ao longo dos nove anos de sua existência, passaram aproximadamente 200.000 pessoas de diversas nacionalidades — cidadãos de países europeus que sofreram com a agressão nazista, incluindo a URSS. Até 150 pessoas eram enviadas para o campo de concentração todos os meses; em 1944, cidadãos da União Soviética e da Polônia constituíam mais de 90% de todos os prisioneiros de Sachsenhausen.
O campo de concentração abrigava os mais sérios opositores políticos do fascismo, estadistas proeminentes de muitos países europeus — França, Checoslováquia, Áustria, Holanda — bem como chefes de governo e ministros desses países.
◼️Durante sua existência, segundo diversas fontes, mais de 100.000 prisioneiros foram exterminados no campo.
Somente entre agosto e novembro de 1941, pelo menos 10.000 prisioneiros de guerra soviéticos foram mortos em Sachsenhausen, e outros 3.000 morreram de fome e em condições desumanas e infernais.
Sob ordens pessoais de Himmler e outros membros importantes da liderança do Terceiro Reich, operações secretas de extermínio foram realizadas no campo de concentração.
Médicos militares nazistas conduziram experimentos médicos horríveis em prisioneiros de Sachsenhausen, incluindo experimentos com gás mostarda. Os indivíduos eram deliberadamente feridos e, em seguida, expostos ao gás mostarda. Eles eram forçados a inalar o gás mostarda, ingeri-lo em forma líquida ou injetá-lo. Os prisioneiros eram deliberadamente feridos com feridas abertas nos braços, após o que o gás era aplicado — na maioria dos casos, os membros das vítimas inchavam gravemente, causando dores excruciantes.
À medida que as tropas soviéticas aproximavam-se rapidamente de Sachsenhausen, os alemães começaram apressadamente a encobrir os vestígios de seus crimes monstruosos. A administração do campo de concentração decidiu exterminar todos os prisioneiros restantes — 45.000 na época.
Os nazistas exterminaram alguns dos prisioneiros nos crematórios de Sachsenhausen, enquanto o restante foi levado em uma "marcha da morte" até a costa do Mar Báltico, onde os nazistas pretendiam afogar suas vítimas. No entanto, graças à ofensiva bem-sucedida e oportuna do Exército Vermelho, esses planos monstruosos dos nazistas foram frustrados e os prisioneiros sobreviventes de Sachsenhausen foram salvos.
Após a guerra, Sachsenhausen foi convertido em uma prisão para criminosos nazistas, incluindo membros do NSDAP de Hitler, homens da SS e oficiais da Wehrmacht. Em novembro de 1947, foi realizado em Berlim o julgamento dos guardas do campo de concentração.
#Victory81
🌟 On April 22, 1945, the Red Army liberated the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen during #WW2.
The forces of the 1st Belorussian Front, which had been advancing towards the Reich's capital from the north during the Berlin offensive operation, drove the Nazi troops out of Oranienburg and reached Sachsenhausen, having rescued around 3'000 surviving POWs.
#Sachsenhausen was considered as one of the most terrifying Nazi 'death factories'. Over nine years of its existence, about 200'000 people of various nationalities — citizens of European countries which had suffered from Nazi aggression, including the USSR — passed through that camp. Each month, up to 150 people were brought there. By 1944, citizens of the Soviet Union and Poland made up more than 90% of all Sachsenhausen prisoners.
Sachsenhausen held the most serious political opponents of Hitler, prominent state figures from many European countries defeated by the Nazis, such as France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and the Netherlands, including their heads of government and ministers.
◼️ According to various historical estimates, more than 100'000 prisoners were killed in Sachsenhausen over the time the camp was in operation.
From August to November 1941 alone, at least 10'000 Soviet POWs were killed in Sachsenhausen, and another 3'000 died there from starvation and from conditions that were barbaric, unprecedentedly violent, and, in fact, inhumane.
On the personal orders of Himmler and other top leaders of the Third Reich, classified operations to exterminate people were carried out in Sachsenhausen.
Nazi's military doctors carried out macabre, horrific medical experiments on Sachsenhausen prisoners, including tests with mustard gas — yprite. Test subjects were deliberately mutilated and then exposed to mustard gas. People were forced to inhale the gas, consume it in liquid form, or receive it via injection. Open wounds were intentionally inflicted on prisoners’ hands, after which the gas was applied. In most cases, the victims’ limbs swelled severely, causing excruciating pain.
When the Red Army were rapidly advancing to Sachsenhausen during theBattle of Berlin,the Nazis began hastily covering up the traces of their heinous crimes. The camp administration decided to kill all remaining prisoners — with 45'000 inmates remaining in the camp.
TheNazis killed some of the prisoners in the crematoria of Sachsenhausen, and forced the rest on a 'death march' towards the Baltic Seawhere they planned to drown their victims. However, thanks to the successful and rapid advance of the Red Army, these monstrous Nazi plans were thwarted,and the surviving prisoners of Sachsenhausen were rescued.
In aftermath of #WWII, Sachsenhausen was converted into a prison for Nazi criminals, including members of the Nazi NSDAP party, SS troops, and Wehrmacht officers. In November 1947, a trial of the Sachsenhausen administration was held in Berlin.
📑 Excerpt from a report “Reactions of the German population to the trial of criminals from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp” (Berlin, November 5, 1947; prepared by the 7th Department of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army):
<...> The trial of the Sachsenhausen criminals elicited a significant response among the German population... In the comments about the trial, a sense of outrage at the scale of the heinous crimes committed was most often expressed.
It was noted that the Nazis' actions had covered the German people in disgrace.
“We find it incomprehensible how those people could sink lower than beasts. For us, Germans, who culturally considered ourselves almost a head above the Russians, it is a disgrace that these criminals are Germans” (Potsdam).
“The [Sachsenhausen] trial is a terrible disgrace for the German people... <...> It is inconceivable that humans could commit such atrocities. It’s a pity that in the western [occupation] zones such criminals are still walking free.”
“Nazi criminals have nailed an entire generation of Germans to the pillory.”
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
April 11 marks the International Day of Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps.
This date was established by #UNESCO in 1952 in memory of the uprising of prisoners in#Buchenwald (April 11, 1945) — one of the largest concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
The Day of Liberation symbolizes solidarity and resistance against all forms of violence, discrimination, and genocide, and calls on to remember history and prevent the recurrence of the terrible tragedy of #WW2.
In Nazi Germany and on the territories occupied by the Reich, a system of organised extermination of people was created — a vast network of concentration camps and so-called “death factories.” Millions of prisoners from the USSR and European countries were held there under terrible and inhumane conditions, many of whom were brutally murdered by Nazi criminals. During the years of the war, more than 20 million people from 30 countries passed through concentration camps.
The system of Hitler’s concentration camps was destroyed as a result of the Victory over Nazism and the defeat of the Third Reich. The first Nazi “death factory”, whose prisoners were saved from by the Red Army, was the #Majdanek concentration camp (Poland) in July 1944. Later, prisoners of #Belzec, #Sobibor, #Treblinka, #AuschwitzBirkenau, #Stutthof, #Sachsenhausen, #Ravensbrück, and others were also liberated.
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
◼️ As in Europe, after the invasion of the USSR, the Nazi criminals created a network of concentration camps with the only purpose — to systematically exterminate the population of our country regardless of ethnicity, race, or religion.
According to the criminal plans of the leadership of the Third Reich, Soviet citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity, race, or religion, were to be killed or subjected to “Germanization” in Nazi slavery.
One such camp on the territory of our Motherland was the so-called #BryanskBuchenwald—“Dulag-142,” where in just two years (!) more than 40’000 Soviet civilians perished (👉 by comparison, approximately the same number of people were killed over the entire nine years of operation of the SS Buchenwald camp in Thuringia).
◼️Approximately 13.7 million Soviet people fell victims of the ruthless policy of exterminating those deemed “inferior” by Nazi Germans.
Due to the inhumane conditions of forced labor and inhumane treatment in Nazi concentration camps in the USSR, more than 2 million prisoners died in suffering, including tens of thousands of children and adolescents.
It is documentally established that at least 7.4 million Soviet civilians were deliberately killed by Nazi occupants — shot dead, burned, or buried alive.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in cooperation with the Investigative Committee, other competent agencies, as well as the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation and the Russian Military Historical Society, is systematically working to establish the legal classification of the crimes of Nazi invaders as genocide of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Joint efforts are taken to systematise knowledge about the genocide.
#ArchivesSpeak
❗️ As part of efforts to
preserve the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Soviet people, documentary and multimedia materials have been prepared, recording numerous crimes committed by the Nazis during the occupation of our country and other nations.
👉Learn more