The Great Rabbit Hunt - Soviet POW Breakout Mauthausen 1945 (Episode 2)
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- In February 1945, 800 brutalised and starving Red Army officers staged a daring mass breakout from Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Find out how they managed it and how the breakout succeeded against all odds.
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Thanks Mark, this story has special interest to me. My late father served in the 11th Armored Division during WWII and he participated in the liberation of Mauthausen-Gusen camps in Spring 1945. Dad never discussed his war experiences but if pressed he'd offer an anecdote or two. He mentioned he along with other GI's threw their rations down from vehicles to the skeletal inmates along the roadside. My Dad was extremely thin so I asked if the refugees threw the rations back. My weak attempt at humor failed miserably. The sad expression on his face silenced me. Dad passed away in 2004 and I miss him terribly.
it is a shame the allies entered the war so late. better late then never i guess.
Best wishes mate and respect to your father.
@@aceous99
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@@aceous99 Hmm, the British were in it from the start, aided, soon, by their allies.
Eisman57 Thank you for this. When he said 11th Armored, I was thinking 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. My brother served in that unit in Germany 1979 to 1983, I haven't heard of the 11th Armored Division.
God bless those farmers and their families for risking themselves to help those so desperately in need. True heroes!
Too few but, yes, heroes.
It is scary to think what evil people are capable off.
Yes 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
@@isaacsilverman9976 See Palestine.
@@sandozpop6017 why?
A compelling account of shocking cruelty and systematic brutality versus desperate courage and ingenuity. Thank you again, Dr Felton!
Mr. Felton you are a invaluable human bringing knowledge and understanding about one of the bloodiest times in human history thank you... have a great day everyone.
Thank you Robert, all the best, my boy.
*Dr Felton
The lack of energy I have after being sick for 4 days.. imagine malnourishment for 4 years!?
I would just cause trouble to get shot.
@Wise and Free Oh, the irony.. it's been called NSDAP.. national Socialist German worker's party ..
@Wise and Free than there is no difference between u and them
Wise and Free are you an idiot?
@Wise and Free lol what are they doing to u..
My father Karl Speneder survived Mauthausen because of the 11th Armoured Tank Division. He was put to work as slave labor having been a machinist for Daimler Puch before the War. He was beaten and starved, having lost all his teeth by rifle butt. He got fed up and started to sabotage items but got caught. He later developed "acquired schizophrenia" and severe PTSD. My Mother and I lived through HELL with him so at 14 I had to kick him out of the house. He wanted to destroy my mother. My Mother lived in Alkoven where the infamous Hartheim Castle conducted their T4 Extermination of the mentally feeble and handicapped children were brought. Her own sister died there and the town lived in fear. Burnt flesh and raining burnt hair was a daily occurrence for years. So you can imagine what a fine upbringing I had! There are millions of second generation "children" who bear the scars of being raised by mad and broken parents, on the Europen front. I have never developed the interest to marry or have children. I take a keen interest in psychology and delight in authors such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Viktor Frankl. At 30 I became a serious Christian and that healed my mind. If only I would have had the wisdom at 14 as I have now, I might have been strong enough to help my father rather than attack him. Before the War he was a fine fellow who loved life, sang Schubert songs accompanied by piano and showed class. The Third Reich destroyed this Austrian Machinist as it destroyed so many others.
Some wounds never heal. Terrible that your father had to live through that. I hope he eventually found peace.
The things that humans do to each other .... sad .
Big respect to those few individuals that risked their lives and helped the victims , true hero’s that no one remembers today .
Shame on all the cowards .
I never knew about this thank you so much for this as usual you are the best.So sorry for the loss of the Pows and everyone in these camps.
Only just noticed that Mr Felton is now Dr Felton, another cracking episode! Well done mate
Sorry David but I think you may have failed the observation test. He has had his doctorate for some time.Good news it you passed the other observation test as you are here watching his videos.😀
I've actually been Dr. Felton since 2005!
@@WarStorieswithMarkFelton But you'll always be Mark to us long term subscribers!
@@WarStorieswithMarkFelton was waiting that lol #Quite
@@WarStorieswithMarkFelton Since 2005?! Well surely you have earned a few more titles since that time, Dr. General Sir Felton. As always - thank you for the great work, guv'na comrade.
The farmer families were truly amazing, they should be named and written in history as true heroes. The most wonderful of people .
The saddest post script would be that Russian POW's who returned to the Soviet Union after the war were treated like traitors and sometimes even imprisoned again by Stalin
Exactly. My great grandfather spent 10 years in gulags after saving the life of his commander.
@Konstantin Vesselovskii BS what?
@Konstantin Vesselovskii No, but why do you think it's BS? 1945-55 is 10 years.
@Konstantin Vesselovskii YOu don't have evidence to prove that it's false but you "know it is", meaning you jump to conclusions too quickly. I never said he wasn't a Soviet POW captured by the Nazis but he happened to save a life or a few before he got hit with artillery and captured by the Germans. And by the way it has everything to do with the topic because op was talking about the Russian POWs meaning people who were captured by the Germans.
Yes, it was awful for them. The Nazi concentration camps were matched only by the Soviet Gulags.
A heart-wrenching story that I hoped would have had a better ending.
Mark, the quantity and quality of your presentations are amazing. You bring out the humanity and brutality in high relief. I enjoyed your book, Zero Night, very much. As a life long military buff for over fifthy years, I can without reservation that your work ranks among the great military historians of all time.
thanks
At first, I though it was a re-upload. Was gonna re-watch it anyway. .... Matter of fact, now I'm going back to re-watch Episode 1 again, before watching this.
... Mark Felton's story telling is thay good.
This is episode 2 of the series
@@bullholder Oh, didn't see the full title. THANKS.
Your exceptional writing and delivery brings the subject to life, even without visuals. Thanks for this enlightening piece of work.
Thank You for this episode, my grandfather spent two and a half years in this camp.
He survived?
@@Noname-ur4ct Yes he was around 17 when germans captured him and arond 20 when americans liberated him. He was in Mauthausen but not in the same part of camp like soviets mentioned in this video. He was a yugoslavian partisan captured somewhere arond Timislavgrad. They marched from there to Gradiška camp in Croatia where they put them on train to Mauthausen. When americans liberated them he and other prisoners were isued a handwriten passport and they marched back home. Prisoners had a choice after liberation to go home or to go to live in USA.
Three very loud cheers for the common WW2 American GI. Heroes.
I salute the POWs.
The soviet steam roller was fast approaching Austria at this point, taking in a Russian POW would have been a good move to save your own ass and farm from getting destroyed
Better to note ‘taking in a Soviet POW’ as there were many non Russian personnel in the Soviet Union military.
@@jixuscrixus1967 True.... but it was a Russian so lol
This is from Dr Felton's great book, " Holocaust Heroes" , which I am currently reading. It is a fascinating book and hi highly recommend it. His writing style is very much like his video style. So you just can't put the book down.
I will join you on that read. Many thanks
People who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat their former mistakes. Thank you from Holland! Blessings!
I would love to read the autobiographies of any of these Soviet officers who actually survived this.
They were probably sent to the gulags for allowing themselves to be captured.
@@freedomfries6618 I hate to break it to you, but Enemy at the Gates was not a documentary.
@terry waller no sources ever confirmed these claims
It'd be real short considering all of them would have been send to a gulug upon return.
They survived and go back to their families. After that they go back in Austria and meet the people who saved them.
Outstanding! Just outstanding, Mark Felton! Bravo!
Thank you kindly!
What courage and will to live! I am simply amazed at the will to live of these people. With the exception of a small number of Yugoslav partisans, block 20 contained only captured red Army soldiers and officers. It was about those who could not be broken, those who in their former camps gathered underground groups and prepared escapes. The prisoners of barrack 20 were not afraid of death. The worst thing for them was oblivion. Giving their clothes to those who could still run, saying goodbye before the attack, covering their comrades, they asked one thing: tell us about us. When they died, they whispered their names and held out pre-written sheets with addresses. They didn't want to become "crossed out sticks".Prisoners of the 20th block are people whose names should be called streets. They are heroes of the great Patriotic war, they are my heroes, and I, a Russian, am proud of them! Great memory to them
""Antony Beevor describes it as the "greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history", and has concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.[14] According to Soviet war correspondent Natalya Gesse, Soviet soldiers raped German females from eight to eighty years old. Soviet and Polish women were not spared either"
These are your heroes?
@@alexandersturm3033 Your emotional confusion and ignorance far outpace your reading comprehension. Back to school!
@@alexandersturm3033 Author Ursula Schele estimates that up to ten million women in the Soviet Union could have been raped by the Wehrmacht, and one in ten could have become pregnant as a result.[30]According to a study by Alex J. Kay and David Stahel, the majority of Wehrmacht soldiers deployed to the Soviet Union, participated in committing war crimes.[31]
@@gibraltersteamboatco888 Cool stats bro but what does that have to do with Bolsheviks raping children exactly?Just because a guy named Hans killed your dad doesn't mean you should rape a little girl. Pretty simple really. But anyways, who is this Ursula Schele? Seems like she's not even an historian. She's an elementary school teacher and activist. Also, what exactly is being defined as a "war crime" in this "study". Remember that the Soviets refused to sign the Geneva Convention so I'm not sure what you're getting at.
@@alexandersturm3033, You are writing to me on a different subject. But I will answer you. It is stupid to say that there were no rapes in Germany at all. It's just a matter of degree. But rape was an exception to the rule, the inevitable excesses that happen in war in any army in the world. But that wasn't the norm, and it certainly wasn't part of the system. If we take the total number of those convicted of these crimes to the entire population of Soviet troops in the liberated territories, the percentage will be quite small. In addition, the Strong German socialist state of the GDR (the 6th economy in Europe in 1980) was created on the territory of Germany controlled by the USSR. And "raped Germany" was the most loyal and self-sufficient ally of the Soviet Union in Europe. If all the crimes that write about were actually committed, it is unlikely that good-neighborly and allied relations lasting more than four decades would be possible in principle. Now try to figure out the numbers. In East Germany in 1945, there were about 20-21 million people. If we take the proportion of women at 60-65% (obviously, in the war and post-war period, the number of women was more than men), we get 12-13. 7 million women of all ages .It is obvious that at least for these reasons, 2 million cannot be raped. - that would mean that one in six Germans, regardless of age or physical attractiveness, was raped. Proponents of the theory of mass rape never refer to the sociological research of that time, and prefer to take the numbers" from the ceiling."
Eleven out of five hundred survived. Like I stated in Episode 1 Mark, this would make a brilliant film. Thanks for sharing!
There is already a pretty good Austrian movie from 1993 about this infamous "Mühlviertler Hasenjagd":
*_Hasenjagd Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen_*
*ruclips.net/video/HKoQzsoS0TU/видео.html*
@@arnonuhm4022 Yeah, that's right, and it's a pretty good one, too! You can even watch it on RUclips:
*_Hasenjagd - Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen_* .
What a great way to brighten a dull Monday. Thank you Mr Felton.
I've never heard of this event. Really interesting.
You should make a 6 hour multi part video documentary and win an oscar sir! Your work is epic. Great history lessons in all of your videos!
Documentary.... 6 hrs.....He would make millions..$$$$
Just remember history is written by the victors....Mark Felton productions never disappoint
Best WWII content on ANY media platform!
Thank you so much for telling this tragic story. I have never heard of this. Greetings from Russia.
Can always count on mark for obscure but super interesting WWII stories.
We love you, Mark! Keep up the great work.
An incredible story thank you for researching and telling us of this episode of the plight of the prisoners in Block 20
I just finished watching The Photographer of Mauthausen on Netflix several days ago. I highly recommend checking that movie out to learn about a different aspect on this topic.
Nerver underestimate the ability of one human to be extremely cruel to another human, thanks for reminding us how brutal that war actually was!!!
Mark, thank you for sharing your historical knowledge.
Thanks Mark for the upload
The music intro and inserts with underdog/ heroic stories . Great productions ! History Lives on Through all who remember and spread the knowledge.
Though these videos are tough going to listen to, there is, on the other hand, the testament to the human spirit when hearing of the courage of people to fight against such desperate odds and the courage of people to risk their own lives to help them
Mark I never realized you were a doctor of history.. But then I should have known by the wonderful and detailed videos and audio stories you come up with.. thanks my friend. It reminds me of when I was younger.. my grandfather fought in WW1 for the canadians, my father ww2 and I in vietnam.. sometimes we would get together (before my grandfather passed on) and swap stories of our experiences.. Some funny some very serious and scary. But listening to your audio stories sometimes brings back those memories.. Carry on my brother.. thanks again.
Great documentary, yet another story that I wasn't aware of during the waning days of the War.
Always an automatic thumbs up for mark Felton audios and videos
Enjoyed this audio documentary.
Awesome, been waiting for this! Automatically liked it before watching!
As always mark is great as a story teller and he really does his research.
Absolutely love the longer episodes. Keep up the amazing work.
Perhaps the most disturbing content of this episode for me was the visceral hatred that had been conjured up between regular Austrians and the Soviet officers, anchored by brutal reprisals against anyone sheltering escapees. Should give all people groups and nations cause to examine their own underlying fears, hatreds and bigotry.
Closer to home and time, one should examine carefully any government pronouncements that feed their own fears.
Makes me wonder how much of the fear was caused by the Soviets war crimes (to be clear I'm not trying to downplay or compare with nazi crimes, though it would make sense to me why they would hold disdain if they heard how the soviets treated the places they conquered)
Even worse was that after the war everyone pretended Austrians were victims of Nazis when in reality they were enthusiastic supporters of every aspect of Nazi ideology.
Most of Austria today remains very right-wing unlike Germany.
You could say the police chiefs was in “cahoots” with the POW’s
As someone interested in etymology I decided to look up cahoots. Turns out it's a cocktail bar in London. Well wartime London was quite cosmopolitan.
Excellent!
Caesar ‘ .. or maybe he was not murderous .. maybe he had knowledge of God and maybe just murdering people in cold blood didn’t seem right to him
Kahoot?
Big Blue
Yes, it's in Soho. Years ago I used to work behind the bar of a restaurant at the top of Kingly Court, just a bit upstairs from Cahoots. Went in a few times after closing. I remember it being quite nice.
Sir Mark. Not the ending I was hoping for. Although more great work. It is amazing to me how you find out all of these stories film and pictures. You are my favorite Bar None. 🇺🇸
Excellent Dr. Felton !
Had no idea ....
Watched this last night, great production Mark
Bless the 489 soles lost, just a fraction of those the nazis brutally murdered
489 souls, 978 soles approximately.
@@Abdal-RahmanI dark humor is the best humor tbh
@@Abdal-RahmanI In part one we find some prisoners threw their clogs at the guard towers: are these soles lost or simply MIA?
fertisus that one warmed my heart a bit, thx mate :D
Bloody interesting, both episodes. Thank you.
There should be a well-directed movie about this
Yes, as long as they avoid the usual, Hollywood tendency, to alter historical truths. Despite all the war movies dealing with POW's, these guys are overlooked.
Mr Felton tells a great story ..🇺🇸🇺🇸
Long live the memory of our heroic comrades. Cлава CCCP!
Ура!!!!
Great story. I didn’t expect you to crank this out so quickly.
Fantastic work once again, Doctor Felton. Ripping stuff! Much love from the colonies.
That's how a proper English should be spoken! Gorgeous accent
Another excellent narrative, thanks Dr.Felton❕🥂
What goes around comes around...good example are these. 🤗🎶🎵🎶🎵
Those were really cruel times
Thank you for splendidly reviewing it as usual :)
Just one remark on how the locals reacted; for those that joined the hunt voluntarily there is no excuse. This was a very cruel act and murder.
But those that ignored the prisoners and did not give them shelter i fully understand them. One may say that this is the same as to murder them yourself if you do not provide aide, but if the life of my whole family is on the line i also would not have sheltered anyone.
I highly value the valor of those that did, but also fully understand that many ignored the pows out of fear.
I was excited that part 2 came so quickly after part 1. But the reality that only 11 survived (out of the 500 who launched the daring escape) was depressing (nott to mention that there was originally 4,500 at the camp, if i recall correctly).
If they had stayed in the camp .. none would have survived.
Excellent story Mark!
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography picture 📷 enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was Describing A research project!!! A fiercely rough diabolical situation those escapees found themselves in.
Another excellent video Dr. Felton. Perhaps in the future you could make a video about Prague uprising/german surrender to the US near Pilsen 1945. Not many know this but when the nazis were on mass retreat to the west they werent afraid to brutally crush any resistance they met. A lot of "smaller" scale atrocities happened in former Czechoslovakia during the last days of the war. Also you could perhaps mention the strange role of general Vlasov and his russian troops fighting for germans.
Great video as always!
Amazing bestiality among the Germans, great bravery on the part of the Soviets, and terrible war stories well-remembered and not to be forgotten.
Excellent as always ty mark
Sometimes I like the Audio only and sometimes I like the pictures too. Either way whatever Mark Felton puts out I enjoy
God bless that farmer who hid those two Soviet escapees!
Another well presented slice of history..
Amazing story! Thank you!
Keep up the great work. Your videos always fill my day with Fascination and education
You touched on it, Mark, as the war progressed, even common criminals arrested in Germany and many throughout the German armed forces along with civilian criminals arrested throughout the Reich were sent to "Brigade Dirlewanger"! They were expected to die in combat... If Dirlewanger didn't shoot them himself!
What that bastard inflicted on inhabitants of Warsaw who were unfortunate enough to have been captured by his thugs was beyond belief. Still, he got his just desserts in the end.
@@nottmjas Unfortunately to many other criminals such as he didn't! One notorious SS officer who was directly involved in atrocities committed in Poland in 1944, was not tried or extradited to Poland was Heinz Reinefarth, he had a successful career in German politics after the war. p.s. I edited this as I had forgotten the guys name.
@Hammerschlägen M thank you grammarfuhrer for correcting me.
@Hammerschlägen M I'm too lazy to press down the u button on my phone for long enough to choose it
Awesome content, thanks so much Mark👍
AHA. Another WW2 Concentration Camp mass escape to join those of Sobibor & Treblinka's escapes! Good stuff, Dr Felton!
In 1960, my family hosted a young exchange student from Austria. Can't help wondering about her & her family...
Until I tuned into these videos, I thought I had heard about all the depravity of war. But Felton seems to have a fresh trove of atrocities. Kind of wish this weren't so.
Never heard of this event. Thanks!
Thank You.
Something I wasn't aware of, although I have heard the story of a similar breakout at Sobibor
Any chance of an episode(s) covering the escape from Sobibor? I’ve seen the film, but good as it is, I have no idea of how accurate it is.
They couldn't find any actors looking emaciated enough. Watching those movie scenes is like a modern day re-enactment of Pickett's Charge, performed by dedicated but rather overweight looking re-enactors.
thanks for the history prescription doc!
Thank you for this sad story, but you've got so few of them about Soviet Army fighting the Nazis.
Thanks
These historic accounts make me very sad that we as humans can stoop so low.
@Hammerschlägen M . Humanity has in the past has acted in some very pitiful ways but to stoop as low and behave as horrendous as the the Nazis did in the second world war is thankfully a very rare occurrence.
@Hammerschlägen M That's debatable ....ask the Chinese and Koreans' opinions about that.
@Hammerschlägen M it matters not how long depravity has existed, it's still quite sad
Sad reality is that these guys who escaped back home would probably be sent straight to the gulag.
Dirty commies
Tragic, really. To think, after all they sacrificed for their country they never even got the chance to partake in the mass orgy and slaughter of German women and children. Smh
@@alexandersturm3033 do i sense some resentment?
@@alexandersturm3033 like how the Germans slaughtered millions of families? I don't get your point.
@@JackHGUK It's a simple point. Don't romantize an army of child rapist. And no, just because a guy name Hans killed your father doesn't make it okay to rape little girls. Why is this so difficult to comprehend.
Awwww yeaaaah! Part 2! Keep em coming Mark!
Thank you very much!
I went to this camp and they didn’t mention any mass breakout on the tour. I just learnt something.
A daily Felton Video (FV) is good for morale. A standard battalion should be allocated 500FVs per campaign.
Without Soviet bravery, we would all be speaking German now.
Don't think that really. And the Soviets were little better when they were on the winning side.
Excellent! 👍
More outstanding content. Thanks Mark
Well done Dr F !
well i dont know about you, but im going straight over to 'mark felton productions' channel as ha has put up a new video...happy days :)
One particular act of barbarity has always stayed with me, from watching the 'War & Remembrance' TV series around 1988. They mixed real footage in with the story, and in one video clip, it show the Nazis somewhere in the East, setting a small cottage on fire with the family inside......a little girl got out, while the house started to blaze, with all the SS laughing and smiling.....one SS officer grabbed the little girl, she was about only 2 or 3, and threw her in threw the small window alongside the top of the cabin door ...... how was that war? What kind of animals do that? No since of humanity whatsoever
The German invasion of Russia was barbaric with complete Ukrainian villages annihilated. They thought the Germans would liberate them from the Russians. You can see where the hate came from. All these unnecessary acts of barbarism disgust me and should not be forgotten.
You would think that all these documented evidence would serve to discourage us from falling for the lies told by silver-tongued political leaders but, alas, many continue to buy into lies coated with a lick of "patriotism".
So, I'm not confident that we have really put behind us the sort of nationalistic hysteria that led humanity into these evil acts, in the first place.
Sadly, there exist today people in high low places who insist that these evil acts never took place. And when confronted with undeniable evidence, they simply proceed to argue that it wasn't as bad as the stories that had been told of the Nazi years.
@@sonnyxlbright5904 good now go dig into communist atrocities, it makes the Nazis look like Boy Scouts
@@hercg1967 "B-b-but, but muh cOmMUnIsT AtrOciTiEs!!!" 👌😂
I mean yeah, you're right. The commies murdered 13 million German civilians;
killed 3.3 million German POWs;
tried to exterminate the entire population of Berlin by starvation;
completely destroyed 1,710 German cities;
burned more than 70,000 German villages, 5,295 of them along with all their residents, including women and children, the elderly and the disabled;
instituted a system of sexual slavery in the occupied territories;
left about 40% of Germany as a burned out uninhabitable wasteland.
Oh! And the commies also developed and successfully implemented a plan for a full-scale genocide of the German people, and the few survivors were planned to be subjected to chemical castration and used as slaves *until they all fucking die.*
Wait a minute..oh....oh no! They didn't.
Well shit. This is awkward 🙊
It is truly sad so few successfully managed to evade capture from this hell inside hell and that many people hunted these men like trophies in the woods and engaged in such inhumane practices.
It’s understandable how, during and after the war, the German POWs would be treated with such contempt and bitterness by the Russians.
Yes, but not all Wehrmacht members were Nazis, there was something called Wehrpflicht, and at the end of the war the Volkssturm. Not all Germans were beasts, remember that.
@@Noname-ur4ct Not all Germans were beasts, agreed. Not all German soldiers were Nazis, agreed. However Nazi ideology did pervade through many ordinary German troops, and was present at all levels of the Germany army, and many non-Nazi party member soldiers were complicit in committing war crimes, especially in Poland and the USSR.
hello all oh I agree, I didn’t suggest that but it’s understandable that the perception of the German military by the allied forces would be tainted by the SS’ barbarity!