Blame it on the Germans …

… or add another faked document to Sergey’s list of forgeries that those oh-so-critical "Revisionists" uncritically fall for.



The following message appeared on the former discussion forum of CODOH (the Cesspit’s predecessor) one day in April 2001 (my records say it was April Fool’s Day, which would be quite appropriate):

«The topic of the pre-emptive nature of the German attack on the communist USSR is relatively well know known among Revisionist scholars, but what is fairly new, to me anyway, is Stalin Directive No. 04218.
The order, issued November 17, 1941 , also known as the 'Torch-Men Order', decreed that Russian partisans wearing German uniforms - especially uniforms of the Waffen-SS:
"... shall destroy and set on fire all settlements where German troops are located, to 40-60 km from the main battle front, (namely) 20 to 30 km to both the left and right of the roads ... This incites the people's hatred of the Fascist occupiers and makes it easier to recruit partisans in the Fascists' hinterland. It is important to ensure that there are survivors that can report about the 'German' atrocities. Among the people the report is to be put about that the Germans set towns and villages on fire in order to punish the partisans."...
(Source: Archives Series 429, Roll 461... 3/70 Fr. 6439568,
Washington National Archives.)
- vH »

"vH" is Mr. Jonnie "Hannover" Hargis, the yellow prick who, true to a saying of Goethe’s quoted by a Cesspit poster using that handle (The coward threatens when he is safe , see Goethe’s post of Tue May 23, 2006 11:38 am) keeps claiming that critics of "Revisionism" have been "utterly demolished", etc., at the online Führerbunker he never dares to venture out of (how this "demolishing" is done, i.e. by deleting or retaining inconvenient posts and/or banning inconvenient posters, is well known to anyone who has visited the Memory Hole section of the RODOH forum, which Hargis avoids linking or allowing a link to).

And the supposed text of «Stalin Directive No. 04218» (read: 0428, Hargis’ source didn’t even get the number right), which at first glance looks like a godsend for "Revisionist" true believers eager to claim that whatever atrocities occurred in the German-occupied Soviet territories during World War II where committed by the Soviets themselves, is just another sack full of horse manure.

Here’s a transcription of my reply to Hannover’s message, which my records tell me was posted on 6 May 2001 and fortunate enough not to be retained by the CODOH moderator:

QUOTE
-----------------------------
Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme Command about the destruction of settlements in the area close to the front

0428 17 November 1941
The experience of the last month has shown that the German army is badly prepared for war under winter conditions; it is lacking warm clothing, and due to the colossal difficulties that the upcoming frost has caused it, it is taking shelter in settlements in the area close to the front. The shamelessly arrogant enemy had counted on spending the winter in the warm houses of Moscow and Leningrad, but that was prevented by the action of our troops. On extended sectors of the front where they encountered tough resistance by our units, the German troops were forced to go over to the defensive and have taken quarter in the settlements located in a depth of 20 to 30 kilometers on both sides along the roads. The German soldiers generally live in cities, towns and villages, in peasant houses, barns, grain stores and bathing houses near the front, while the staffs of the German units take quarter in bigger settlements and cities, where they hide in cellars which they use as protection from our air force and our artillery. The Soviet population of these places is usually displaced and thrown out by the German occupiers.
To deny the German army the possibility of settling down in villages and cities, to chase out the German occupiers from all settlements into the cold of the field, to smoke them out of all living quarters and warm shelters and to force them to freeze to death under the open sky - that is an task not to be postponed, from the accomplishment of which the acceleration of the shattering of the enemy and the destruction of his army depends to a great extent.
The Headquarters of the Supreme Command orders:
1. To completely destroy and burn down all settlements in the rear area of the German troops in a depth of 40 to 60 kilometers from the main line of combat and 20 to 30 kilometers to the left and right of the roads. To immediately employ the air force to destroy the settlements in the indicated radius, to use artillery and grenade launchers to a great extent, as well as reconnaisance commandos, ski units and diversion groups of the partisans equipped with bottles filled with burning substances, hand grenades and explosives.
2. To form special units of 20 to 30 men each in every regiment for blowing up and setting on fire the settlements where the troops of the enemy take quarter. For the special units there must be chosen the fighters, commanders and political workers that are the most daring and strongest under political and moral aspects, to whom the task and its importance for the destruction of the German army must be explained in detail. Courageous fighters who distinguish themselves in daring actions for the destruction of the settlements where there are German troops are to be recommended for distinction.
3. In case of forced retreats of our units on this or that sector, to take along the Soviet population and in any case to destroy without exception all settlements so that the enemy may not use them. The special units formed in the regiments are to be primarily used for this.
4. To the war councils of the fronts and the single armies, to systematically verify how the tasks of destruction of the settlements are accomplished in the above mentioned radius measured from the front line. Stavka is to be given a special report every three days about how many and which settlements have been destroyed in the past days and by which means these results have been achieved.
The Headquarters of the Supreme Command
I. Stalin
B. Šapošnikov
-------------------------------------------------
END OF QUOTE
The above is a rendering of the full text of Stalin Order 0428 of 17 November, 1941. It is a translation by the author of this message from a transcription in German which in turn is a translation from the Russian original, which can be found in the Central Archive of the Russian Federation (Central’nyj Archiv Ministervo Oborony RF) in Podols’k, Fond 4, Opis’11, Delo 66, List 221. German historians Christian Hartmann and Jürgen Zarusky went there to have a look at the document, which has also been transcribed in various Russian publications, including Dmitri Volkogonov’s biography of Stalin (“Triumph and Tragedy”), always with the contents rendered above. The German translation from the Russian original can be found in the article “Stalins ‘Fackelmänner-Befehl’ vom November 1941 - Ein verfälschtes Dokument” by Christian Hartmann and Jürgen Zarusky, published in the October 2000 issue of the quarterly “Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte” of the German Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Institute for Contemporary History. For those who read German, here is a transcription:
QUOTE
-----------------------------------
Befehl des Hauptquartiers des höchsten Oberkommandos über die Vernichtung von Siedlungspunkten in der frontnahen Zone

0428 17. November 1941
Die Erfahrung des letzten Monats hat gezeigt, dass die deutsche Armee für den Krieg unter winterlichen Bedingungen schlecht vorbereitet ist; es fehlt ihr an warmer Bekleidung, und infolge der kolossalen Schwierigkeiten, die ihr der hereinbrechende Frost bereitet hat, nistet sie sich in den Siedlungspunkten in der frontnahen Zone ein. Der bis zur Unverschämtheit überhebliche Gegner hatte sich darauf eingerichtet, in den warmen Häusern von Moskau und Leningrad zu überwintern, aber das hat der Einsatz unserer Truppen verhindert. An ausgedehnten Frontabschnitten, an denen sie auf den zähen Widerstand unserer Einheiten gestossen sind, wurden die deutschen Truppen gezwungen, in die Defensive überzugehen, und sie haben sich in den in einer Tiefe von 20 bis 30 Kilometer beiderseits entlang der Strassen gelegenen Siedlungspunkten niedergelassen. Die deutschen Soldaten leben in der Regel in Städten, Weilern und Dörfern in Bauernhäusern, Scheunen, Getreidespeichern und Badehäusern nahe der Front, während sich die Stäbe der deutschen Einheiten in grösseren Siedlungspunkten und Städten einquartieren, wo sie sich in Kellerräumen verbergen, die sie als Schutz vor unserer Luftwaffe und unserer Artillerie benutzen. Die sowjetische Bevölkerung dieser Orte wird gewöhnlich von den deutschen Okkupanten ausgesiedelt und hinausgeworfen.
Die deutsche Armee der Möglichkeit zu berauben, sich in Dörfern und Städten niederzulassen, die deutschen Besatzer aus allen Siedlungspunkten in die Kälte der Felder hinauszujagen, sie aus allen Wohnungen und warmen Zufluchtsmöglichkeiten auszuräuchern und sie zu zwingen unter freiem Himmel zu erfrieren - das ist eine unaufschiebbare Aufgabe, von deren Lösung in vieler Hinsicht die Beschleunigung der Zertrümmerung des Feindes und die Zerstörung seine Armee abhängt.
Das Hauptquartier des höchsten Oberkommando befiehlt:
1. Alle Siedlungspunkte im Hinterland der deutschen Truppen in einer Tiefe von 40 bis 60 Kilometer ab der Hauptkampflinie und 20 bis 30 Kilometer links und rechts der Strassen vollständig zu zerstören und niederzubrennen. Zur Zerstörung der Siedlungspunkte im angegebenen Radius unverzüglich die Luftwaffe heranzuziehen, in grossem Massstab die Artillerie und Granatwerfer zu nutzen, ferner Aufklärungskommandos, Skiläufereinheiten und Diversionsgruppen der Partisanen, die mit Flaschen mit Brennstoffen, Handgranaten und Sprengstoffen ausgerüstet sind.
2. In jedem Regiment Jagdkommandos von je 20 bis 30 Mann zur Sprengung und Inbrandsetzung der Siedlungspunkte zu bilden, in denen sich die Truppen des Gegners niederlassen. Für die Jagdkommandos sind die kühnsten und in politisch-moralischer Hinsicht stärksten Kämpfer, Kommandeure und Politarbeiter auszuwählen, denen die Aufgabe und ihre Bedeutung für die Zerstörung der deutschen Armee gründlich zu erklären ist. Verwegene Kämpfer, die sich bei kühnen Einsätzen zur Vernichtung der Siedlungspunkte hervortun, in denen sich deutsche Truppen befinden, sind zur Auszeichnung vorzuschlagen.
3. Bei erzwungenen Rückzügen unserer Einheiten an diesem oder jenem Abschnitt die sowjetische Bevölkerung mit sich zu führen und auf jeden Fall ausnahmslos alle Siedlungspunkte zu vernichten, damit der Gegner sie nicht benutzen kann. In erster Linie sind hierzu die in den Regimentern gebildeten Jagdkommandos einzusetzen.
4. Den Kriegsräten der Fronten und der einzelnen Armeen, systematisch zu überprüfen, wie die Aufgaben der Vernichtung der Siedlungspunkte im oben angegebenen, von der Frontlinie aus gemessenen Radius erfüllt werden. Der Stavka ist alle drei Tage gesondert Bericht darüber zu erstatten, wie viele und welche Siedlungspunkte in den vergangenen Tagen vernichtet und mit welchen Mitteln diese Resultate erzielt worden sind.
Das Hauptquartier der höchsten Oberkommandos
I. Stalin
B. Šapošnikov
-----------------------------------------
END OF QUOTE

The actual text of Stalin’s Order 0428 rendered above is interesting not so much for what it contains as for what it does not contain. No passages about Soviet troops disguised in German uniforms committing atrocities against their own population are contained in that order. This means that the version of that order containing such passages is not authentic, and that said passages are the product of a falsification of the original document.
Hartmann and Zarusky even took the trouble to check the alleged source of the falsified version, which is supposed to be filed as a filmed document in the United States National Archives in Washington in a roll film with other wartime German documents under the reference Archiv Serie 429, Rolle 461, Generalstab des Heeres, Abteilung Fremde Heere Ost (II) H 3/70 Fr. 6439568. They found this roll film under National Archives, T-78, Roll 461 (the correct reference of the National Archives), but no trace of Stalin Order 0428 there. No trace of it could be found at the German Federal Archive - Military Archive (Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv) in Freiburg either.
So it should be clear that Stalin Order 0428 was a ruthless “scorched earth” order, but never an order to produce false evidence of German atrocities for propaganda purposes. The passages referring to such actions were obviously introduced by falsifiers in order to raise unfounded doubts about the authors of countless well-documented atrocities committed by German troops against the civilian population of the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
Volume 4/2000 (Heft 4/2000) of the “Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte”, which contains the above mentioned article, can be ordered from the Institut für Zeitgeschichte under the following link:
http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/vierteljahrshefte/index.html

What was the reaction to this clear evidence that the purported text of Stalin Order 0428 of 17 November 1941 is a fake and that this order, while expressing a criminal lack of concern on Stalin’s part about the effects his "scorched earth" policy would have on Soviet civilians, contained nothing about Soviet detachments committing atrocities disguised as Germans in order to make the Soviet people hate the oh-so-gentle invaders (readers interested in information about Nazi policies and behavior towards Soviet prisoners of war and civilians may find some on the threads The Nazi Hunger Plan for Occupied Soviet Territories, The Siege of Leningrad, Leykauf's Letter to Thomas, 2 December 1941, The Fate of Soviet Prisoners of War, Kharkov under Nazi Occupation and The Nazi struggle against Soviet partisans of the HC forum, among others)?

Did Mr. Hargis, any other poster on the CODOH discussion forum, or any other "Revisionist", bother to inform the webmasters of "Revisionist" sites that they were parading a forged document?

Did any of the "scholars" that Hargis and other true believers are so proud of, namely Germar Rudolf (whose "Vierteljahreshefte für Freie Geschichtsforschung" were apparently inspired by the "Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte", the publication of the German Institute for Contemporary History that Rudolf has referred to in rather derogatory terms) bother to inform himself about the article by Hartmann & Zarusky and either remove the faked version of Stalin Order 0428 from his website or explain why it was kept there all the same?

No, it doesn’t look like any of this happened. I know of no "Revisionist" article challenging the findings of Hartmann & Zarusky, yet more than five years after my above-quoted post, and even longer after Hartmann & Zarusky published evidence requiring a revision (to put it mildly) of the thesis that Stalin had his troops perform atrocities disguised as Germans, the faked text of Stalin Order 0428 is still featured, in German, on the VHO website.

But then, who believes that "Revisionism" has got anything to do with revisionism?

[Edited on 08.04.2008 to update links to the RODOH forum.]

[Edited on 04.04.2012 to replace broken links to the former RODOH forum.]