[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age

Thu Jun 21 06:16:33 PDT 2007

An excerpt from the book that is being written about my mother and father.
Her father August Ritz was drafted into the Russian army and was also later 
moved to the Turkish front.  His four years of mandatory service dragged into 
eight (1910 to 1918) because of the WWI

August Ritz's war stories:

My father told us many stories about the war.  "It was funny," he said, "When 
everything was quiet and there was not fighting, the two sides met in the 
middle and played cards - the German with the Russian."  Then a General would 
come and say, "You are supposed to be fighting."

When the guns would start again, the Russian soldiers would begin, too, 
shooting toward the enemy.  But they just played.  My dad said, "I never tried 
to shoot a soldier.  I always shot in the air.  It was not really a deadly war 
like the last world war."  WWII was too much already, with the bomb.  When 
they flew over, they smashed the whole town up.

My father was in the Russian army because he lived in Russia then, what was 
later Poland.  but he did not stay long on the German front.  Because he was 
German, they sent him to the Turkish front.

Another story later said that August Ritz became part of 100 or 200 elite 
soldiers to protect the Tsar.  He was awarded a medal.  We have a picture of 
him with several medals on his chest.  He said that he later sold that medal 
for a loaf of bread.

Rita Lyster

Quoting Richard Benert <benovich at imt.net>:

> Ray has brought up a subject that interests me greatly by mentioning
> that "so many Russian German soldiers were defecting" in World War
> I, that they were transferred to the Turkish front where their
> suspected unwillingness to fight against their German "brothers"
> wouldn't interfere with the war's success.
> 
> After the war, German writers were unanimous in claiming the
> injustice done to the colonist soldiers by this transfer.  They
> insisted that these troops had been totally loyal and willing to die
> for the Tsar, and their transfer was purely the result of anti-German 
> meanness.
> This version of events has basically come down to
> us as the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  But the sources
> I've been reading are giving me increasing reason to wonder about
> this, for there can be no denying that many Russian Germans, when
> called to the colors in 1914, were extremely conflicted over the
> idea of fighting against other Germans.  Many of them may also have
> been reluctant to fight FOR a country that didn't always appreciate
> them, and who could blame them for this?
> 
> I'd like to ask, Ray, if your grandfather related any more about
> this than you've mentioned, and I'd like to ask in general if other
> people can offer from their family histories or other reading any
> evidence one way or the other.  Did the Russian German soldiers
> fight bravely for the Tsar or didn't they?  No doubt many, if not
> most, of the 250,000 did.  But I'd not be surprised if some, if not
> many, did not.  I've gotten into trouble asking this question
> before, so I hasten to point out that I don't think this in any way
> calls the soldiers' character into question.  That war was stupid to
> begin with, and it takes quite a stretch to claim that either side
> was worth laying down one's life for.  I respect the belief that
> loyalty to country is a high virtue, even though I don't always agree with 
> it.
> 
> So no flaming, please.  In the interest of historical truth, I'd
> just like to see evidence either for loyalty to Russia or for lack
> of it in W.W. I.
> 
> Dick Benert
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Bloch" <rbloch at columbus.rr.com>
> >>To: "Donna Schultz" <dschultz120 at gmail.com>; 
> >><ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> >>Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:51 AM
> >>Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age
> >>
> >>
> >>>My father remembers watching the Volksturm marching down the road to 
> >>>Berlin
> >>>and as they passed, the kids joked, "Da gehen die alten Affen mit die 
> >>>neuen
> >>>Waffen."
> >>>
> >>>Loosely translated as "There go the old apes with the new weapons."  It's
> 
> >>>a
> >>>funny rhyme but the truth is that these soldiers had very little in the 
> >>>way
> >>>of armaments.
> >>>
> >>>Later my father found out that his father had been conscripted into the
> >>>Volksturm and captured and returned to the Soviet Union.  My grandfather
> >>>fought in the Russian Army against the Turks in  WWI in the Caucuses.  He
> >>>originally was assigned to the front against the Germans but so many 
> >>>Russian
> >>>German soldiers were defecting that the Russian generals moved many of 
> >>>them
> >>>to the Turkish front.
> >>>
> >>>Ray Bloch
> >>>
> >>>----- Original Message -----
> >>>From: "Donna Schultz" <dschultz120 at gmail.com>
> >>>To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> >>>Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:55 AM
> >>>Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] conscription age
> >>>
> >>>>Greetings:
> >>>>
> >>>>I have a source that states the upper age limit for conscription into 
> >>>>the
> >>>>German Army during WWII was age 54. I have a relative who lived there
> >>>>during
> >>>>the war years and believes that men as old as 65 were conscripted.
> >>>>
> >>>>Comments?
> >>>>
> >>>>Thanks.
> >>>>
> >>>>Donna
> >>>>Michigan
> >>>>
> >>>>_______________________________________________
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> >>>>Mailing list info at http://www.sggee.org/listserv
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>_______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>--
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> >>
> >
> > Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
> > FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
> >
> >
> >
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> > 
> 
> 
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