"Nightmares Of Memel – The Re-creation of Klaipeda,..." Topic

… Lithuania & The End Of East Prussia.

"In the dead of winter on January 28, 1945 the Red Army captured a dead city. As the East Prussia Offensive moved forward into what the famous Soviet journalist and author Vasily Grossman called "the lair of the fascist beast" the civilian population in the city of Memel (Klaipeda, Lithuania) had all but vanished. The once bustling port city was eerily quiet. Nearly the entire population of 45,000 had fled westward towards the heart of Germany and supposed safety. Soviet forces found only fifty civilians left in Memel. As the Red Army advanced into the city, the streets were silent. The soaring St. Johanniskirche (St. John's Church), a landmark since the mid-13th century, stood alone and austere awaiting an uncertain fate. The eclectic Art Nouveau Central Post Office was left to impress no one. Its carillon of 48 bells did not even toll on this mournful day. In the beautiful old town, a square fronting the opera house where the all-powerful Fuhrer had thundered in triumphant oratory only five years before in front of hundreds was totally vacant. What had been the sixth largest city in the German province of East Prussia was left with a population smaller than that of even the tiniest village. This vanishing of the ethnic German populace was not a temporary state of affairs. It was the start of something new and horrible. Memel that morning was relatively calm despite an advancing, inexorable storm that would consume and transform it, along with all of East Prussia…"
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Amicalement
Armand