Battle of Stalingrad of January 1943, though positive media reports had stopped in the weeks before the announcement. Stalingrad marked the first time that the Nazi government publicly acknowledged a failure in its war effort. On 31 January, regular programmes on German state radio were replaced by a broadcast of the somber Adagio movement from Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, followed by the announcement of the defeat at Stalingrad. On 18 February, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels gave the famous "Sportpalast" speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total war that would claim all resources and efforts from the entire population. Based
Last Letters from Stalingrad Last Letters from Stalingrad Last Letters from Stalingrad (German: "Letzte Briefe aus Stalingrad") is an anthology of letters from German soldiers who took part in the Battle for Stalingrad during World War II. Originally published in West Germany in 1950, the book was translated into many languages (into English by Anthony G. Powell in 1956), and has been issued in numerous editions. The German High Command wished to gauge the morale of the troops of the encircled 6th Army, so they allowed the soldiers to write and send the letters which became the basis for "Last Letters from Stalingrad". The