General Rokossovsky, commander of Soviet forces on the Don Front, demanded the surrender of the German 6th Army defending its encircled position at Stalingrad. The demand included an offer of food and medical care for all German troops taken into the Russian lines and a promise that prisoners of war would be repatriated at the end of the war.
Colonel-General Von Paulus, commander of the defending German forces, formally refused the demand on orders from OKH, OKW and der Furher himself. Eventually, of course, the German lines collapsed and the 6th Army was captured by the Soviets with German losses totaling more than 250,000 men.
[January 8, 1943]
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