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In langer Reihe über das Haff: die Flucht der Trakehner aus Ostpreußen
Eine dramatische Geschichte, lebendig und eindrücklich erzählt
Am 16. Oktober 1944 flohen vom ostpreußischen Gut Trakehnen Pferde und Menschen über das zugefrorene Frische Haff nach Westen. Das 200 Jahre alte, weltberühmte Gestüt musste sich vor der Roten Armee retten. Tausende von Pferde legten ohne Futter und Wasser Hunderte von Kilometern zurück, viele von ihnen verendeten. Sie brachten ihre Lasten durch bittere Kälte, Eis und Schnee, durch Feuer und Bombenhagel. Die Pferde bewahrten die Ostpreußen schließlich vor Tod, Vergewaltigung, Gefangennahme, Deportation und Zwangsarbeit. Und die Ostpreußen retteten ein großes ihre Pferde.
Am 16. Oktober 1944 flohen vom ostpreußischen Gut Trakehnen Pferde und Menschen über das zugefrorene Frische Haff nach Westen. Das 200 Jahre alte, weltberühmte Gestüt musste sich vor der Roten Armee retten. Tausende von Pferde legten ohne Futter und Wasser Hunderte von Kilometern zurück, viele von ihnen verendeten. Sie brachten ihre Lasten durch bittere Kälte, Eis und Schnee, durch Feuer und Bombenhagel. Die Pferde bewahrten die Ostpreußen schließlich vor Tod, Vergewaltigung, Gefangennahme, Deportation und Zwangsarbeit. Und die Ostpreußen retteten ein großes ihre Pferde.
- GenresHorsesWarWorld War II
180 pages
First published September 30, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 29, 2020
So yes, the main reason I decided to read Patricia Clough's The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses was because my parents used to breed Trakehners when we still lived in Germany (but we are actually and in fact not originally from East Prussia) and was therefore interested how Patricia Clough would describe everyday life on the stud farm of Trakehnen (and elsewhere in East Prussia) both before and during WWII as well as how she would consider and approach the aptly named flight across the ice, the treks of the East Prussians and their horses in the dead of winter and across frozen salt water lagoons to the West (all the while relentlessly and with purpose being pursued by the Red Army, like a group of mice being stalked by a huge army of cats, armed to the hilt and full of anger).
And indeed, The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses has been a more than worthwhile personal reading experience, not a pleasure by ANY stretch of the imagination and actually considerably more a lesson in horror and anguish, but very much enlightening and appreciatively and thankfully also quite balanced with regard to Patricia Clough casting and assigning blame. For while Ms. Clough never once loses sight of the fact that the main and root cause of the terror visited by the Red Army on the fleeing East Prussians was totally and utterly the fact that the Nazis had previously slaughtered, raped and pillaged en masse on their march through Russia (or rather what was then Russia), she also still considers the fleeing and caught in the Middle East Prussians (and of course their horses, their Trakehners) as for the most part being victims and that both the Red Army and the Nazis are villains, are joint perpetrators (but yes, always Patricia Clough does point out that without the Nazis ransacking villages, slaughtering and basically considering ALL Russians, Ukrainians etc. as sub-human and worthless, there might very well never have been the equally horrible destruction of East Prussia and the hounding and killing of fleeing or rather of trying to flee civilians, farmers mostly, but also aristocratic landowners who were fleeing with their entire entourage, who were basically trying to flee and escape from Red Army tanks and terror bent of destruction and revenge).
Most highly and warmly recommended is The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses (and yes, there is also a German translation), but bien sûr with the necessary caveat that there are very many (but of course totally and utterly based on actual and bona fide reality) scenes of tragedy, destruction and both human as well as in particular equine suffering presented (not something many might indeed want to read about and to look at photographs of dead or dying horses, but yes, The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses is in my opinion a massively important historical document and one that should be read and discussed when there is talk about WWII and about what happened to many of the refugees fleeing from areas such as East Prussia at the end of WWII).
And indeed, The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses has been a more than worthwhile personal reading experience, not a pleasure by ANY stretch of the imagination and actually considerably more a lesson in horror and anguish, but very much enlightening and appreciatively and thankfully also quite balanced with regard to Patricia Clough casting and assigning blame. For while Ms. Clough never once loses sight of the fact that the main and root cause of the terror visited by the Red Army on the fleeing East Prussians was totally and utterly the fact that the Nazis had previously slaughtered, raped and pillaged en masse on their march through Russia (or rather what was then Russia), she also still considers the fleeing and caught in the Middle East Prussians (and of course their horses, their Trakehners) as for the most part being victims and that both the Red Army and the Nazis are villains, are joint perpetrators (but yes, always Patricia Clough does point out that without the Nazis ransacking villages, slaughtering and basically considering ALL Russians, Ukrainians etc. as sub-human and worthless, there might very well never have been the equally horrible destruction of East Prussia and the hounding and killing of fleeing or rather of trying to flee civilians, farmers mostly, but also aristocratic landowners who were fleeing with their entire entourage, who were basically trying to flee and escape from Red Army tanks and terror bent of destruction and revenge).
Most highly and warmly recommended is The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses (and yes, there is also a German translation), but bien sûr with the necessary caveat that there are very many (but of course totally and utterly based on actual and bona fide reality) scenes of tragedy, destruction and both human as well as in particular equine suffering presented (not something many might indeed want to read about and to look at photographs of dead or dying horses, but yes, The Flight Across the Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses is in my opinion a massively important historical document and one that should be read and discussed when there is talk about WWII and about what happened to many of the refugees fleeing from areas such as East Prussia at the end of WWII).
February 9, 2014
Very readable, very interesting. Photos and maps included. Makes me want to go over there and visit these changed-forever-places in former East Prussia. The suffering of these horses is another tragedy of that awful time. And that self-centered Nazi, Gauleiter Erich Koch, got to live to age 90. Life is not fair! Even if you're ignorant of horses, like me, this book is highly recommended.
February 28, 2012
one of my favourite books. if you are interested in trakehner and in east prussia this book is a must read.
November 2, 2014
A piece of WWII history I never knew.
May 10, 2021
A gripping and gruelling account of the survival of the Trakehner horse breed at the end of the second world war and the years after. Absolute must read for any horse lover.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews