Un lieutenant juif protégea 151 officiers allemands lors de leur reddition à Stalingrad (1943)

L'historien britannique Antony Beevor décrit cette scène qui se passe lors de la reddition du maréchal Friedrich Paulus à Stalingrad le 31 janvier 1943 dans son magistral ouvrage The Second World War (traduit en français).  Le comportement du lieutenant Zakhary Rayzman est remarquable compte tenu du comportement inqualifiable de l'armée allemande envers la population russe et la population russe juive condamnée à être exterminée.  C'est ce que reconnu à haute voix un colonel de l'armée allemande fait prisonnier.

"On 31 January, Red Army soldiers entered the Univermag building; "Paulus was completely unnerved," wrote the Soviet interpreter, a Jewish lieutenant called Zakhary Rayzman.  "His lips were quivering.  He told General Schmidt that there was too much commotion going on, that there were too many people in the room." Rayzman escorted 151 German officers and soldiers back to their divisional headquarters.  He had to stop Red Army soldiers from trying to humiliate them on the way.  "Such is the irony of fate," a German colonel announced, intending to be overheard.  "A Jew is seeing to it that we are not harmed."  Paulus and Schmidt were taken to the 64th Army headquarters of General Shumilov, where their surrender was filmed."

Le Generalfeldmarschall Paulus (à gauche), avec son état-major, lors de sa reddition à Stalingrad le 31 janvier 1943. (Source Wikipedia)