A U.S. military official on Thursday presented a granddaughter of Josef Stalin with copies of World War II documents about the death of her father, Stalin's oldest son, who died in a Nazi prison camp after being captured by German forces.
Posted on 09/12/2003 12:08:45 AM PDT by RussianConservative
A U.S. military official on Thursday presented a granddaughter of Josef Stalin with copies of World War II documents about the death of her father, Stalin's oldest son, who died in a Nazi prison camp after being captured by German forces.
Jerry D. Jennings, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/missing personnel affairs, handed a simple blue folder packed with papers to Galina Dzhugashvili in a ceremony during a visit to discuss ongoing U.S.-Russian efforts to find missing servicemen from World War II and Cold War conflicts.
Dzhugashvili's father was Yakov Dzhugashvili, a senior Soviet lieutenant who died at the Sachsenhausen camp in 1943 after Stalin declined to swap him for a captured German general.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the documents would clear up long-standing confusion surrounding the circumstances of his death by indicating he was shot trying to escape.
Stalin's granddaughter had contacted Russian members of the U.S.-Russian commission that is seeking to determine the fate of U.S. and former Soviet prisoners of war and missing servicemen, asking them to request U.S. help in finding documents about her father, Jennings said.
The originals of the documents that Dzhugashvili was given have been returned to Germany, but a researcher found copies in the National Archives in Washington, Jennings said.
They included documents from SS files, U.S. State Department cables, a copy of the protocol of Yakov Dzhugashvili's interrogation, a death notice signed by SS chief Heinrich Himmler and statements about the circumstances of his death from guards and a physician at the camp.
"We on the American side are honored today to bring some answers to a Russian family member -- you, Ms. Dzhugashvili -- and some measure of closure on the unfortunate loss of your father in World War II," Jennings said Thursday.
He said one cable included a footnote saying that the United States and Britain had decided not to share the information it had about Dzhugashvili's death with Stalin because it would "not bring him comfort."
Dzhugashvili, who lives in Moscow, said she was "extraordinarily grateful" and called the swift response to her request a "display of goodwill." She expressed regret it occurred on Sept. 11, a "day of mourning" for the victims of the attacks two years ago.
The handover served as a modest symbol of renewed cooperation between Washington and Moscow, Cold War foes that fought Nazi Germany together and have drawn closer again since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
"We fought together as allies during that great and terrible war, and it's never too late to honor the sacrifice and service of those who never came home," Jennings said. The joint commission on POW/MIAs is a product of post-Cold War cooperation.
Stalin, whose original surname was Dzhugashvili, ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist until his death in 1953. Tens of millions of people were executed or deported to prison camps under his rule.
Stalin considered Soviet soldiers who were taken captive as traitors and sent many who survived to the gulag after the Nazi defeat.
Dzhugashvili said that she last saw her father when she was 3 years old, shortly before the war, and that her recollections of her grandfather were "a child's memories -- the best and most tender." She said Stalin had been "very tender" with her because she was a girl.
Isn't that just like the media to slander a man's name after he's dead and can't defend himself?
I'm willing to bet that if the NY Times runs this article, this little tidbit is omitted.
That would be OK, but I suspect that he is in a very hot place right now, and is getting what he has coming.
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