Re-investigation
After 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union, new sources of Russian military records were made available to scholars. The historian Bernhard Fisch, himself from East Prussia and a Wehrmacht soldier during the war had been in Nemmersdorf a few days after it was re-taken and remembered a different scene than that portrayed by the Wochenschau cinema. He resolved to research the matter and separate the facts from the Propaganda Ministry fiction. In his book Nemmersdorf, October 1944: What Actually Happened in East Prussia he incorporated the material from Russian records and statements from the many witnesses from both sides, including Soviet General Kuzma N. Galitsky, former commander of 11th Guards Army.
Fisch documented 23 civilian murders at Nemmersdorf and another 38 in nearby villages, leaving ten unexplained deaths. He was unable to locate the names of some of the photographed victims, presents the possibility that some photographs were altered, shows that some of the victims came from other areas of East Prussia, (which suggests but does not prove that they were not murdered in Nemmersdorf) and states that the account of barn doors being used for the crucifixion of women did not occur in Nemmersdorf, but elsewhere. Fisch's account was presented on TV by German TV Channel ZDF in 2003.
Another writer, Joachim Reisch, claims to have been at the very scene of the bridge personally when the event was supposed to have occurred. He claims that the Soviet Brigade was at the bridge for less than four hours.
Most historians, such as Ian Kershaw, now generally believe that a massacre by Soviet forces is beyond reasonable dispute. The German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) contains many contemporary reports and photographs by officials of Nazi Germany of the victims of the Nemmersdorf massacre, as well as on other Soviet massacres in East Prussia, notably Metgethen. Information is also provided by the expert in international law, Alfred de Zayas, who interviewed a large number of German soldiers and officers who were in and around Nemmersdorf in October 1944. de Zayas also interviewed Belgian and French prisoners of war who had been in the area and fled with the German civilian population. See Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam (Routledge 1977, 7th edition Picton Press 2003), and A Terrible Revenge (Macmillan 2006).
Read more about this topic: Nemmersdorf Massacre