Chernov's Diary, Seelow Heights, April 17, 1945
Today, I saw some of my comrades gun down a German who was trying to surrender. Yesterday I saw bodies of children being thrown into a fire by our own soldiers. Is this what we have become? Have we lost all of our humanity at Stalingrad along with our innocence. Sergeant Reznov tells the men, "kill them all, the women the children, the old, they deserve no mercy". I have seen so many things that I wish I could unseen. Mounds of corpses, both soldiers and civilians. German soldiers hanged from tree by their own generals. War can bring out the evil in our hearts and turn us into animals. Our own leader Stalin does not have to be here fighting, he does not know how terrible it is down here. I must make sure nobody finds this diary or else they will hang me for treason.
Chernov