Introduction

This work is largely based on the works of Herr Fritz Kohlase and Herr Hermann Thrams with their most kind permission. In the 1990s Herr Kohlase published his experiences in the latter part of the siege and his work attracted a lot of feedback from other Küstrin survivors, whose accounts are included here. The late Herr Thrams was a Küstrin teenager at the time of the siege and later wrote a diary-based history of the siege that provided much of the background information.

I am also grateful to the management and staff of the Seelow Museum, who proved extremely helpful in my research.

A.H. Le Tissier

Lymington, Hants

May 2008