Paulus Surrenders at Stalingrad: Germany's Turning Point
The frozen corpses of 250,000 German soldiers littered the streets. Paulus, the first German Field Marshal ever to surrender, walked into Soviet captivity with 91,000 remaining troops—a moment Hitler considered the ultimate betrayal. "A Field Marshal does not surrender," the Führer had raged. But Paulus was done. Starved, frostbitten, and decimated, the once-mighty Sixth Army had been ground to dust in the brutal Russian winter. Stalingrad wasn't just a battle. It was the moment Nazi military invincibility shattered forever.
January 31, 1943
83 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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