What did happen to Gen. Paulus and the rest of the 6th army?

Where were the survivors sent? I heard that there were thousands of German 6th Army survivors and i was wondering where were they sent. I also wonder what happened to Paulus, What was his fate?

 

Hello Sniper604,

Well, many of the survivors perished in Soviet captivity. When the pocket fell, many Germans (and other nationalities) were already starving and sick or wounded. Many were lost in the prisoner columns marching back in the Soviet rear.

General Paulus became disillusioned with Nazi Germany and Hitler, and eventually agreed to make propaganda broadcasts and pleas to German soldiers to surrender and end the war earlier. The Soviets were pretty pleased with this. Paulus lived the rest of his life in Dresden, East Germany, where he died in 1957. Apparently he died unhappy and bitter, having recieved so much blame by von Manstein and others for failing to disobey orders and break out, etc.

 

90.000 prisoners were taken from the remains of the German VI Army until February 3rd 1943. Out of those 90.000, only 5.000 survived and went back to Germany until many years later...

Field marshal Friedrich Paulus was captured on February 1st 1943 when Soviet troops reached his headquarters inside the pocket. He had to sign a formal surrender the next day of his no longer existent Army. He was captured along with other 23 generals, including general of artillery Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach who later became the head of the German opossition. Paulus refused to cooperate with them, but when he knew that his son, II Lt. Friedrich Paulus had been killed in action at Anzio and the whole German situation, he accepted to participate in the opossition.

In 1946, he testified at Nuremberg's war trials. He was kept in prison in the Soviet Union until 1953.

He was allowed to go back to Eastern Germany, which he did. He lived in Dresden. But he found out that his beloved Elena had died in 1949. The last time he saw her was in late 1942… The social rejected field marshal became an a slated person always alone at home, living in psychological misery his last years. In 1955 he got amyelstrophic sclerosis (motor neuron disease) and he died in a Dresden’s clinic on 1st February 1957, exactly 14 years after the day he lost the major battle of WWII.

 

Hello Friedrich,
when you say "... was captured on February 1st, 1943 when Soviet troops reached his headquarters in the pocket", what do you mean by 'in the pocket"?

 

The area in and around Stalingrad that was encircled by the Red army is often referred to as the "Stalingrad pocket" or when it's clear we're talking about Stalingrad as simply "the pocket". The term is in common usage with reference to military history.


*** edit for ***
PLS do note that the post you referenced was posted in 2003.

 

Hello lwd,
thank you for the clarification. that really clears things up.
and yes, i did notice that the post referenced was from 15 years ago.
-ARandomDude