Excerpt from the instructions of Hitler’s high command on the destruction of Leningrad, dated 29 September 1941.

"...2. The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of St Petersburg from the face of the earth. We have no interest in the preservation of even a part of the population of that city.

4. It is proposed to tightly encircle the city and by shelling from artillery of all calibres and constant aerial bombing to raze it to the ground..."

In our program we tell about the siege in the words of those who bore the burden of the war years, those who remained in Leningrad and saved the museum, and also those who preserved the treasures of the Hermitage in Sverdlovsk, the Urals city (now Yekaterinburg) where 1,118,000 exhibits were evacuated in July 1941.

next

View of the Hermitage nowadays
Larger view

The Hermitage with
its walls ravaged by shells and bombs
Wartime photograph
Larger view