Stalingrad casts shadow 75 years after fight WWII

Thick snowflakes whirl across the inscriptions on the gravestones. The icy air makes it difficult to breathe.On this hill, in what was once Stalingrad, the silence is interrupted only by the heavy paces of Russian soldiers changing the guard at the Eternal Flame.One of the world’s largest statues, a sword-wielding woman representing a victorious motherland, overlooks this city on the Volga River.During the political thaw that followed the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, the city was renamed Volgograd.Standing taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty, the Motherland Calls commemorates the Soviet victory that concluded the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the cruellest chapters of World War II.Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany’s Sixth Army, led by General Friedrich Paulus, and with it the end of the battle.A middle-aged Russian woman, Valentina, raises her head to take in the magnificence of the statue, 85 metres high.She gently places her hand on the base. “It keeps on bringing me back here, like a magnet,” she says. Valentina was born in the city after her family survived the siege. A visit to her home town evokes deep emotions.Nazi German troops for months had occupied most of Stalingrad when in the winter of 1942-43 more than 300,000 of them were encircled by the Red Army.The Soviet victory came arduously, with an estimated death toll of 700,000, and is considered a turning point in the war. This strategically and ideologically important industrial city, bearing Stalin’s name until 1961, was completely destroyed and almost completely rebuilt.Today people stroll down the city’s main street. Children pose smiling next to colourful letters spelling out “Volgograd” on the riverbank.This metropolis of over 1 million residents will host matches of the football World Cup in the summertime. Still, everywhere, there are reminders of the devastating battle.From the Avenue of Heroes, to the Square of Fallen Soldiers and the Street of the Red Army, almost every location rekindles the memory.“The city will be connected with the battle forever. This is our fate,” says the director of the Stalingrad Museum, Alexei Vasin.The window of his modern office directly overlooks the ruins of the brick Pavlov House in the city centre, which experienced heavy fighting between Soviet and German troops, amid trapped civilians fearing for their lives.“This is not just about patriotism and heroism,” Vasin told dpa. “Our grandmothers and grandfathers are no longer alive. All the remaining witnesses of this battle are dying. Soon they will no longer be able to tell us the story of our city.”The Stalingrad Museum hosts one of the most popular exhibitions in Russia. More than 2 million people visited last year.Rocket launchers, assault rifles and uniforms line the museum’s round interior. On the walls hang enormous portraits of Stalin and Soviet generals in heroic poses. The fighting is documented with short films depicting the horrors of the war. Bombing raids leave the city in flames.In contrast the Rossoshka military cemetery, about 40 kilometres away, is almost inconspicuous. Only a narrow, little-used road leads to the lonely memorial. Red Army and Nazi German soldiers are buried here, former enemies separated by the bumpy road.Hundreds of helmets line the individual gravestones of the Soviet soldiers. On the German side, large granite blocks bear the names of the dead.Here are the graves of more than 60,000 people whose lives were claimed by combat or hypothermia in the harsh winter, says Peter Lindau of the German War Graves Commission.For a quarter-century, the organization has been searching for remains along the former front line, in collaboration with Russian authorities.Visitors come to pay their respects in this secluded battleground, inscribed in the histories of Germany and Russia.“Young people died here, a few of them were just 20 years old, like my son,” says John, 51, an Australian, as he looks at one of the many gravestones.He lays a red carnation at the cemetery’s gate. The petals quickly freeze in the cold. “It’s breathtaking,” he says, “and I don’t mean the fresh air.”

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