In the last months of 1942, only a few yards of bitterly contested ground stood between Hitler and the prize which he valued above all others - Stalingrad. The fighting for Stalingrad was intense, protracted and took place under the worst imaginable conditions, including the iron grip of a Russian Winter. After the battle the wretched survivors of a beaten German army surrendered to the Red Army. They had once been 350,000 strong but only 90,000 of these frost bitten, starving scarecrows remained to make the painful forced march into Russian captivity.
In the weeks to come 85,000 of these pathetic prisoners would die from disease, starvation, brutality, neglect and despair. Only 5000 survivors from the doomed 6th Army endured the long years of captivity in slave labor camps and lived to see Germany again. This is their story.