I believe the reason it was published in the Soviet Union was because it was one of the few, if not the only, war memoir in which the author admitted freely that the German conduct of the war was "a crime against humanity." Nonetheless it is a fascinating eyewitness account of the encirclement. One thing that's always bothered me; Weider writes that he and the other members of the staff of VIII Army Corps spent the final days of January/early February in a cellar in Spartakovka. I do not believe this is accurate. He vividly describes having survived the shelling of the northern pocket which occurred on or around Feb 1. Yet this picture: http://www.stalingrad-info.com/aerial2-35.jpg shows clearly that Spartakovka was not shelled much, if at all, at that time. Does anyone know where in the northern pocket Wieder was dug in? I've always wondered about that...
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