POLAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 359When the Soviet Army crossed the frontiers of the Greater Reich, into Silesia,
Prussia, and Pomerania, all caution was thrown to the winds. It is matter of com-
mon fact that Danzig was gutted long after the German withdrawal, and that
many towns in Prussia and Silesia were destroyed in acts of apparently wanton
vandalism. Scenes of unrestrained rejoicing were marred by a campaign of unre-
strained savagery against German civilians. The distinction between friend and
foe were often overlooked. The laughing Soviet trooper of the propaganda films,
with a Polish child on his knee, was no more typical than the drunken looter with
stolen watches on his arm and blood on his hands. German soldiers were hunted
down like vermin. Members of the Volksstunn, young and old, were denied com-
batant status, and were killed out of hand. German graves, no less than German
womenfolk and farm animals, were indiscriminately assaulted. The significance
of the invaders' limited vocabulary, of Davay and Frau, komm, was known to
everyone. Arson, battery, murder, group rapes, and family suicides marked the
passage of the liberating armies on a scale unparalleled elsewhere in Europe. The
well-documented devastation of Silesia, which was so much more severe than
comparable events in the provinces of central Germany, has led some historians
to suspect a calculated policy of driving the German population from their
homes in anticipation of the Potsdam Agreement.^45 Everywhere, Soviet repara-
tion squads set to work to collect industrial and economic hardware. They were
interested in anything from factories to foodstores. Operating on an autonomous
basis, they took no care to distinguish hostile from friendly territory. One of their
many spectacular operations was to dismantle and to carry off to Russia the
entire electrification system of the Silesian railways.
The most brilliant and candid evocation of the final advance through Poland
was written by one of the Russian liberators, at that time an artillery officer of
the Second Byelorussian Front. As the Soviet Army's last winter offensive took
off from fortified positions on the River Narew in the vicinity of Warsaw, the
observer was duly impressed by the tide of T34 tanks, mounted Cossacks, self-
propelled guns and rocket batteries, and the long lines of motorized infantry in
their Dodge, Chevrolet, and Studebaker trucks, which poured westwards across
Mazovia and northwards into East Prussia. On 20 January 1945, he reached
Neidenburg (now Nidzica in the district of Olsztyn):The conquerors of Europe swarm,
Russians scurrying everywhere.
In their trucks they stuff their loot:
Vacuum cleaners, wine, and candles,
Skirts, and picture frames, and pipes,
Brooches, and medallions, blouses, buckles,
Typewriters (not with Russian type),
Rings of sausages and cheeses,
Small domestic ware and veils,
Combs, and forks, and wineglasses,
Samplers, and shoes, and scales...