Alfred Liskow (also spelled Liskov or Liskof; first name sometimes given as Albert; ; 1910 – unknown) was a German soldier and deserter who swam across the

Bug River uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг , name_etymology = , image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg , image_size = 250 , image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland , map = Vi ...

at 9:00 pm on the eve of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

near Sokal, just north of

Lwow Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, in 1941 to warn the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

of imminent attack the next morning.

Biography

Early life

Alfred Liskow was born in 1910. Before joining the German military in 1939, he worked as a furniture maker at a furniture factory in Kolberg. He was a dedicated

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and at one point a member of the

Roter Frontkämpferbund The (, translated as "Alliance of Red Front-Fighters" or "Red Front Fighters' League"), usually called (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. It was off ...

Military career

Liskow served at Infantry Regiment 222 of the 75th infantry division stationed on the eve of the invasion north to the town

Sokal Sokal ( uk, Сокаль, romanized: ''Sokal'') is a city located on the Bug River in Chervonohrad Raion, Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Sokal urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population is appro ...

(north to

). After learning about Germany's plans to invade the Soviet Union, he left his military unit to warn the Soviets. He swam across the Bug river on 21 June 1941 and surrendered to the Soviet border patrol soldiers of the 90th Border Unit at about 9:00 pm. During a question, he said that at dawn on 22 June, the German Wehrmacht would attack.

Defection

After his defection, the Soviet authorities used Liskow for their propaganda. One of the quotes attributed to him was "I am from a family of workers, from Kolberg. My parents and I hate

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

and his

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

. For us, the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

is a friendly country, and we don't want to fight with the Soviet people. There are many such families in Germany. They don't want a war with you." Despite this, he was arrested in January 1942 and sent to a Soviet prisoner camp. During his time in prison, Liskow showed signs of mental illness, though it is unclear if such mental illness was real. Liskow was rehabilitated on 16 July 1942 and sent to Siberia, where all traces of him were lost. It is believed that Liskow died in unknown circumstances near Novosibirsk in late 1943; however, this has never been confirmed. Stalin later ordered the execution of a German deserter for "misinformation", though it is unclear if this refers to Liskow or another German deserter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liskow, Alfred German Army soldiers of World War II Communists in the German Resistance German defectors to the Soviet Union 1910 births Year of death unknown Deserters Soviet rehabilitations