German Memories: Letters of Truth | RT Documentary

We didn't understand each other very well, but they invited us to eat soup and bread. And for that, no words are needed,” recalls German Wolfgang Bidermann, as he describes meeting Russian soldiers during World War II, when he was a child living with his family in Frankfurt (Oder).

Wolfgang Bidermann and the other people featured in this film are among the hundreds who sent letters to RT’s German editorial office. RT DE invited its readers to participate in a special project to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. German and Austrian residents were encouraged to share their views on the USSR and the defeat of Nazism, as well as their memories of Soviet soldiers.

One letter recounts how a Russian prisoner of war marching in a column gave his medal to a German boy as a token of gratitude for a piece of bread. Another reader recalls how Soviet soldiers fed hungry German children hot bread in Berlin, Dresden, and Magdeburg. There is also a story about a Russian soldier saving a girl who was playing with a grenade. Some admitted that they regularly lay flowers at a memorial dedicated to fallen Soviet soldiers.

All of the letters will be compiled in a book of memories, and possibly more than one, as stories expressing gratitude to Soviet soldiers continue to arrive.