Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

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wm
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Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#1

Post by wm » 07 May 2023, 01:10

According to Franz Blättler, a Swiss medical volunteer to the German Army (part 1).
They come to Warsaw in poorly heated freight cars to get the necessary help as soon as possible. This is only possible when not the hospitals in Warsaw are overcrowded, and the trains do not have to be sent somewhere else.

The wounded have had a long, tiring ride behind them. Many of them have been lying naked in the straw for 10-15 days, in their own feces; the stench that emanates from such a wagon is indescribable.
Many of those who die on the way are carried out of the wagons. It happens, however, that the dead lie for many days next to the living.
Dressings, which are often infested with worms, leak pus because almost every wounded person suffers from frostbite. Everyone is lice-ridden too.
If one's hands are bandaged for frostbite or an injury, and lice are under the bandage, the poor fellow can't scratch himself; such a wounded man is half mad with pain.
They are all horribly emaciated.
Some lie apathetically in the carriages, while others, the tiresome ride drives almost to madness.

These transports are usually transported to the field hospitals at night so that the civilian population cannot determine how great the losses are in the East.
Since the war against Russia started, a large unit of chauffeurs and paramedics has been constantly busy transporting the wounded to hospitals.
Eternal monotony leads to dulling of sensitivity; many are quite indifferent to the terrible sufferings of their colleagues.
Although "comrade" is the most commonly used word in the military, I can't shake the feeling that it, too, has become an empty phrase, a slogan like so many others.
Warszawa 1942. Zapiski szofera szwajcarskiej misji lekarskiej by Franz Blättler [google translated]
The editor explains that according to Polish Underground in that period (two weeks), 10,017 wounded German soldiers arrived in Warsaw in 490 freight cars.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#2

Post by wm » 08 May 2023, 01:18

The first activity of those entrusted with transporting the wounded is - before proceeding to rescue them - to search the railway cars.
First, shoes left behind, utensils belonging to those who died on the way, canned meat and fish, which the wounded received as provisions for the journey, are searched for.

Also, war trophies captured in Russia are a much sought-after commodity. All these things become the subject of a lively trade in Warsaw and provide the money needed for expensive nightlife. Food products are sent to families in the Reich.
The seriously wounded are often so exhausted from the long railroad journey that they do not care about their possessions.
In many cases, the more valuable things are also taken from them and exchanged for cigarettes, which can still be obtained behind the front lines.

Once, in a conversation with a German chauffeur, Karl, I was indignant at their behavior towards injured colleagues.
As he is a quiet and elderly soldier, I could not understand his participation in these "looting expeditions."
He explained that his wife and children could barely survive at home because of their rations there and that they are very grateful to him for these canned meat and rice allowances.


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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#3

Post by wm » 10 May 2023, 22:40

The loot is first deposited in the ambulance to be sold in an alley or smuggled into quarters, although theft of military goods is punishable by death.
The Warsaw commandant's office, which knows what is going on, posted appropriate posters on the ramps where the wounded are unloaded also.
But the soldier behind the front quickly changed Führer's mendacious slogan: "Everything that benefits us is right is right," with "Everything that benefits me is right," and the results are visible at every step.
I drive the car through the closed-to-civilians unloading yard to Ramp 5. The Poles who always sneak in here are busy stacking lice-infested blankets on the ramp.
Paramedics are rather happy when Poles do this work for them (for this reason, they are tolerated here despite the ban), because lice, which are typhus carriers, crawl on you during unloading work, especially when touching blankets.
As a reward, the Poles are allowed to search the wagons again, although the Germans have already taken everything of any value from them.
The prey then consists most often of leftovers of bread and opened cans lying in feces, pus, and straw, crawling with lice.
These fouled food scraps are not that terrible in the face of starvation.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#4

Post by CogCalgary » 11 May 2023, 01:37

The beginnings of what people will do to survive.Successive steps will take place.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#5

Post by wm » 12 May 2023, 21:08

I cannot understand why the young soldier so completely submitted to the methods of his command, losing all critical sense and the ability to think independently. Every day I watch here how a seriously wounded soldier returning from the front has nothing to do with those I meet in the evening at the "Deutsches Haus" and are going to the Eastern Front for the first time.

Anyone who has experienced first-hand what war really is in cold, unforgiving Russia becomes more critical for a moment and starts to think. But after a few weeks in the military hospital, everything is back to the old way.
The clarity of thinking disappears, and it is again an honor for them that they left their hands and feet in Russia for the Führer.

From the conversations I had with the wounded that night, it appears that many of them made it to the outskirts of Moscow's bus stops. The retreat, costing them enormous losses, later proved to them that the Russians were neither cowardly subhumans nor an undisciplined horde, but tough, merciless fighters.

I told a German doctor with whom I often travel together that the soldier who returns from the front is not quite the same man as before.
“Dear friend, you underestimate us,” he replied to me.
"If a soldier leaves the hospital alive, you can be sure that he is also morally sound. The year 1918 will never happen again. If one of them, contrary to all expectations, does not recover spiritually, he will not be granted sick leave to home."

I realized that the doctor was right. Everything was thought of here.
In the hospital, the press and radio, doctors and sisters so harden the wounded that his possible doubts about the final victory are quickly dispelled.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#6

Post by wm » 14 May 2023, 22:01

Tonight, during one of the journeys between the station and the lazaret, I already had an ambulance loaded; that is, I put four seriously injured people on stretchers.

I'm about to leave the freight car to leave, and here a skeletal Feldwebel rises on his elbows and begs me to take him; if he continues to freeze, he will inevitably die in this car.
I see that immediate help is needed here, and I ask him if he can stand to ride in the front seat next to me.
"I guess so," he stammered, "my both legs were amputated."

I pick him up from the puddle of feces and pus and carry the 40 kilos he may still weigh to the front seat. I almost vomited, that's how the man smelled, but I clenched my teeth to not show anything.
"Do you want a cigarette?" I ask the Feldwebel.
"If you have, give. I haven't seen a cigarette in a long time."
I offer him a Lauren, and the guy inhales greedily. Both of his legs have been taken off below the knee.
I'm trying to cheer him up a bit.
"These pigs..." he says.
I think he means Russian or Polish pigs, as that is the German term for these nations.
Without prompting on my part, he continues:
"While I lay wounded and unconscious in the central first aid station, my wallet with money was stolen.
A shitty, damned bunch!"

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#7

Post by wm » 17 May 2023, 01:30

I am coming by ambulance to the Czyste hospital, like many others, requisitioned by the Germans.
In front of the barracks where the delousing station is located, there are already many ambulances loaded with the wounded waiting for the arrival of the paramedics.
Despite the thumping and screaming of the wounded, who, with only one blanket, are woefully freezing in the 25-degree cold, still no one comes.
Here, too, the dedication of the paramedics has diminished greatly.

I walk in front of the ambulance to warm up my cold, numb feet.
I see one of the wounded making the sign of a cross in the ice on the small frost-covered window pane inside my ambulance. I instinctively sense that this man is dying. I run to the delousing room to find a paramedic there. One has just got up from his chair and is opening a bottle of fruit juice in the next room.
"Comrade, help me; there's a man dying in my ambulance; we'll at least get him warm here."
"If he's in this condition, he's going to die anyway," he replies and sips his drink, bored.
I imagined a heroic death a bit more romantic.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#8

Post by henryk » 17 May 2023, 21:16

wm wrote:
17 May 2023, 01:30
Despite the thumping and screaming of the wounded, who, with only one blanket, are woefully freezing in the 25-degree cold, still no one comes.
I resume someone changed the original German -4°C to American 25°F.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#9

Post by wm » 17 May 2023, 22:40

Although a Swiss wouldn't use the Fahrenheit scale.
That winter and the earlier one were one of the harshest ever, and that included the lowest temperature ever recorded in Poland (-41°C, -42°F).
So -25°C wasn't actually that bad.

Even more, the entire city had to survive both winters basically without heating and frequently without windows (because window glass wasn't available.)

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#10

Post by henryk » 18 May 2023, 21:49

OK. 25 degrees cold means -25 degrees C.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#11

Post by wm » 25 May 2023, 23:47

The train, which had just arrived at the station, brought a seriously injured volunteer, a Latvian, unfit for further transport. So we have to drop him off here and take him to the lazaret.

They bring me this man on a stretcher. The wounded man's head is covered with gauze. Through the layer of bandages, I can see bright red, bloody bubbles forming around his mouth and nose.
His medical card was placed on the man's chest, which shows that the bullet hit him in the head; however, it did not penetrate the back of the steel plate of the helmet, but bounced off it, through the neck, passed through the body again, piercing the lungs and exited through the chest outside. There is also an additional note that the injured person must be treated immediately; otherwise, he will bleed out.

At the wounded distribution point, I get an order to take him to the lazaret on Salzstrasse [Solna], which specializes in the treatment of head gunshot wounds. There, however, the guard orders me to stop in front of the gate. He appears soon, a non-commissioned officer, and tells me that, unfortunately, he cannot accept the wounded man because he no longer has a place there, and besides, the wounded man is not a German at all.

I open the ambulance door and show the NCO the pool of blood that has already formed under the stretcher. The wounded man groans, whimpers in his broken German:
"Comrade, leave me here; please keep me."
The staff of the field hospitals behind the front, however, are tough and, as I have seen many times, very comfortable. Even the groans of a German soldier wouldn't move him, let alone the whining of some volunteer.

I have a feeling this wounded man only has a few quarters of an hour to live, but the non-commissioned officer flatly refuses to admit him to his lazaret:
"Try putting him in Lazaret No. 3," and disappears.

After a long search, I manage to reach the lazaret recommended by an officer in a darkened city. The moans of a dying man coming from behind made me very nervous. With the greatest effort, I try to control my rising anger and calmly present my request to receive the wounded soldier.
The duty doctor points out to me, in a slightly less controlled tone, that the sick man's medical card is issued for Lazaret No. 1. Now I can't contain my indignation any longer:
"I think it's dirty that you let your people die so miserable!"
The doctor slams the door behind him, and I'm back in the street, alas, as helpless as before. I see only one solution: Lazaret No. 1 must accept him!
Again, I struggle to drive the ambulance through the streets of a dark and deserted city.

After two hours after taking over the wounded man at the Eastern Railway Station, I stand with him again in front of the gate of Lazaret no. 1 in Solna. Wanting to rule out any discussion in advance, I decided to unload the stretcher with the help of the sentry.
When I open the ambulance door, the injured man makes no sound. I shine my flashlight on his face. One brief glance is enough: this young man has already ended his suffering.

It suddenly turns out that they can and want to keep a dead Latvian here because he is suitable for a dissecting room. Two men quickly found themselves and took him to the rooms next to the room where the autopsy is performed.
I leave the hospital courtyard in silence and go to the garage in the ambulance.

On the way to my quarters, I think that soon some minister will be announcing to the world how many volunteers fighting the Bolsheviks died a heroic death fighting on the side of Germany for the good of Europe.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#12

Post by wm » 13 Jun 2023, 18:12

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#13

Post by CHRISCHA » 22 Jun 2023, 14:12

Hello

Thank you for posting this. Quite shocking, I suppose a quick victory didn’t allow for so many wounded.

What’s the source for this please, I’d like to read more if it’s in English text.

Chris

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#14

Post by wm » 25 Jun 2023, 12:36

This is what the book itself (published in 1945) says:
Warschau 1942
Tatsachenbericht eines Motorfahrers der zweiten schweizerichen Aerztemission 1942 in Polen.
Verlag F. G. Micha & Co. Zürich
© Copyright by N. Mawick, Meikirch, Switzerland
And the book is seriously obscure; even here it was translated a long ago, during the communist era, thanks to a historian specializing in the history of Warsaw.
He needed several years to find anything about the book and the author.

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Re: Unromantic death - treatment and care of wounded German soldiers in occupied Warsaw (1942)

#15

Post by ROLAND1369 » 25 Jun 2023, 19:28

I have resisted commenting on this post however I feel I have to make a few points. While the treatment of the wounded is on th e surface and to those who have never fought or been involved in a war criminal. I feel that to the inexperienced eye the actions of medical personnel are oper to misinterpretation. In war as in peacetime mass causality situations there are finite medical resources. In both cases the medical personnel first perform Triage. This generally consists of evaluating the wounded/injured into roughly three catagories. Those who are dead,those who are going to die with the time and resources available, and those who can be saved with the available resources. They then place their resources on treating the last catagory. I have seen and on occasion performed such action in War. As to the collection of food , clothing, blankets from the evacuation trains, while I don't discount simple greed in the human animal, the collection of such unused or abandoned resources is a normal military action to include collection of uniforms, boots and other equipment from the dead for reuse. I certainly would be stupid to let it go to waste in a time of shortage.

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