CHAIN OF COMMAND

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26121, 25 May 1950, Page 5

CHAIN OF COMMAND

The department stated that there was a direct chain of command from Zaisser to General-Major Petrakovsky of the Soviet Control Commission • n Germany. Russian supervision of the units was carried out by assigning a Russian fio d officer to unit and officers’ school. These Russian officers were called “Sovietniks” by the Germans, and they wore the standard German police uniforms when on duty. There was. generally, a low slate of morale in the force because of poor housing and training facilities, of severe restrictions on personal freedom, and a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the enlisted men. many of 1

I whom had been coerced into enlisting. Th? morale of tho German officers appeared to be as low and “undoubtedly a high degree of attrition is expected.” The denartment stated that the key men in the force consisted largely of persons who had: (1) Served with General Zaisser ’then known as General Gomez) in tho Spanish Civil War. •2) Were old line G.'rman Communists who had spent the time in voluni tarv exile in Russia from 1933 to j 19*5; or (3) Were German Army officers who : had graduated from Soviet prisoner-of-war camns.