Stalingrad in the crosshairs

In the midst of the inhuman and brutal battle for Stalingrad, German and Russian snipers roam the ruins like angels of death, spreading fear and terror.

Katja Kalikova lost her husband to German bombs and her youngest son, Boris, to a Soviet bullet. Since then, she and her 8-year-old son, Grisha, have been fighting for their daily survival.

Major Erwin Koenig is an officer in the Wehrmacht and was stationed in Stalingrad. When his son Rolf is also sent to Stalingrad and falls victim to Russian snipers, Koenig has only one goal left. To avenge his son's death, the former sniper instructor sets his sights on living Russian sniper legend Vasily Saizev. Koenig blazes a bloody trail through dying Stalingrad, quickly turning from hunter to hunted.

When Katja and Major Koenig's paths fatefully cross, they make a pact to defeat Saizew.

The fate of the soldiers fighting in Stalingrad, as well as that of the Russian civilians forced to remain in the city, is portrayed bleakly, coldly, and without pathos.

A few exemplary original photos from the Second World War and accompanying drawings illustrate the Battle of Stalingrad and the legendary sniper duel between Saizev and Koenig.

W. T. Wallenda's debut novel "Die Frontsoldaten von Monte Cassino" was already a minor international success. It tells the story of Mathias Wallenda, who was forcibly recruited in 1939 and served in theaters of war in France, the Balkans, Africa and Italy.

The author went on to write some 40 novels of various genres for two major German publishers.

In his books about the Second World War, he deals with difficult contemporary history in an informative way.

The Author comments:

The Second World War was one of the darkest chapters in the history of mankind. There must never be another holocaust or genocide like in Rwanda. The sad example of the bloody civil war in Yugoslavia, which kept the whole of Europe in suspense in the 1990s, shows how forgetful humanity is. We must shed light on the situation, we must not deny anything and we must take rigorous action against injustice.

While researching my books, I also talked to war veterans. As someone born after the war, I am not in a position to judge individual fates - I do not express collective guilt, but let the stories be told by the people who experienced them, and tell them without judgment.

Nowhere did I see brilliance or heroism in the eyes of the narrators. I only saw men who had experienced terrible things and had received no psychological support. Telling their story is/was perhaps the only way for them to detach themselves from it all, without trying to redeem themselves.

Many of the young men who were drafted at that time can also be seen as victims of the Nazis. They were fed false ideologies, torn from their families, and burned out on the front lines. Their tenacious struggle at the front, their suffering and death, made the actions of the death squads in the hinterland possible.

The Author:

"EVERY WAR IS A CRIME! I can only repeat myself: NEVER AGAIN WAR - NEVER AGAIN WAR - NEVER AGAIN NAZI REGIME - NEVER AGAIN HOLOCAUST - NEVER AGAIN CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY - WE MUST NOT FORGET BUT LEARN FROM HISTORY !!!!".