Years later, Hans Runger, a farmer from the village of Bärfelde in the district of Soldin in Brandenburg, described his experiences at the beginning of 1945, starting his account with the observation that ‘until 1945 our village was spared the effects of war’. Then, at the end of January, refugee treks passed through on their way westwards from the ‘Warthegau’ and West Prussia. On 29 January, Russian tanks were a mere 12 kilometres distant; the villagers could hear shooting and ‘just about everyone became uneasy’. Nevertheless, reported Runger:
The word from official Party offices remained only that the Soldin district will not be evacuated. So no one dared to flee, although many had their wagons ready for departure. The men conferred with one another and decided to follow along with retreating German military units. However, we waited in vain for the German military. They simply had withdrawn to Pomerania.
Then suddenly and unexpectedly on 31 of January, between 2:15 and 3:00 in the afternoon, the Russians entered Bärfelde.
In the days that followed, Soviet tanks were stationed in the village, German civilians were shot, women and girls were raped by drunken Soviet soldiers, and half the village was burned down; Soviet infantry passed through the village and looted whatever they could. Germans were ordered to clear the streets of dead horses and spent war material, and German men who had been members of the Nazi Party were deported.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “Fleeing for Their Lives.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 80-1. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa, Band 1/1, ‘Einleitung’, pp. 26-27E.
See also Nitschke, Vertreibung und Aussiedlung, p. 75.
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