Operation Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Operation Barbarossa saw a clash of arms between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union of unprecedented scale and savagery, but what was it really like to serve on the front lines of the Eastern Front? The historian Rob Schäfer has given History Hit exclusive access to the diaries of Lt. Friedrich Sander, a Panzer officer and one of the 3 million German troops involved in Operation Barbarossa. The diaries are brutal in their honesty openly describing the atrocities Sander was involved in and his opinions about Jews and the Soviet population. They also describe the horror of combat and his doubts about the cause, in whose name, he fights. In this episode, Rob describes how he came into possession of the diaries and why they offer such a unique insight into the mindset of someone fighting for the Wehrmacht.

At the end of this podcast, you will also hear extracts from the audiobook History Hit recently released based on Lt. Sander's diaries read by Stephen Erdman. Listen to The Barbarossa Diaries.

History Hit has also created what we believe to be the most historically accurate Operation Barbarossa documentary ever made with accurate footage and sound effects from the period which bring this titanic struggle to life. Watch part one of Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, very welcome to Dance of History. Now we have just launched a TV show on our
0:05.9	television channel History Hit TV which has broken all the records. We have been able to
0:09.8	source a German diary of a combat officer, a Panzer commander during Operation Barbarossa
0:16.7	80 years ago this year. He's written one of the most candid, one of the most striking
0:21.7	diaries of any to emerge from the Fairmarked during the Second World War. I say we found
0:26.6	it, of course, in fact Rob Schaefer found it. He's a brilliant German military historian,
0:30.7	who's been in this podcast many times before, and he found this on an auction site. It was
0:35.0	basically being auctioned off like it was just junk, really, by someone hoping to clear
0:40.6	their father's house after his death. Rob immediately saw its value, secured it, and approached
0:47.4	us as you'll hear in this podcast. It really is truly remarkable. We went to extraordinary
0:52.8	lengths, our documentary about these diaries, and you're actually going to hear some of the
0:57.3	diaries dramatized by the actor who reads them out on the TV show. You're going to hear
1:02.1	that at the end of this episode. So please stay tuned for those. As Rob tells us in this
1:07.1	podcast that we recorded a few days ago, these diaries differ from so many other diaries
1:12.7	and records of Second World War from the German side, and they do lay bare. They do discuss
1:17.5	the war crimes. They do discuss the Holocaust that was unfolding in the aftermath of the
1:23.3	German advance. It is truly an extraordinary project to have worked on. The documentary
1:28.7	for its birth, we went to enormous efforts to make sure that it was as accurate as possible.
1:32.4	We used the correct archive, and we'll use it every single frame. If there was no images
1:37.1	available to illustrate what the diaries to it was called, Lutland Friedrich Sande, we
1:41.4	borrowed from as near to that period that year and date as we could. The sound effects
1:46.9	are all accurate. We've had a group of military historians who we've used to peer review it
	...

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