A photo from World War II shows a tired, thin man being mocked by Nazi soldiers.


 They’re laughing at him, not knowing—or maybe knowing too well—that he’s not just any prisoner. He looks like he could be a regular soldier or a Jew, but he’s actually Jakov Josifovich Džugašvili, the oldest son of Joseph Stalin. Not many people know about him or his tragic story.

Jakov never had a good relationship with his father. After one more fight with Stalin and feeling hopeless, Jakov tried to take his own life by shooting himself. He survived, only wounded. Stalin coldly said that his son couldn’t even shoot properly.

When World War II broke out, Jakov joined the Red Army and served as a lieutenant in the artillery. In 1941, the Germans captured him.

The Nazis thought they could trade Jakov for one of their own: Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, who had been captured by the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad. But Stalin refused the deal, saying, “I don’t trade a soldier for a general,” and even worse, “I don’t have a son.”

At that time, Stalin had a harsh rule: if a Soviet soldier was taken prisoner, he was seen as a traitor or spy. Instead of being welcomed home, most were punished, sent to prison camps, or executed—even if they had escaped the enemy. Jakov, even as Stalin’s son, was treated the same.

Jakov later died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but how he died is still unclear. The Germans claimed that on April 14, 1943, he killed himself by running into the electric fence. When Stalin was told the news, all he said was, “He finally acted like a man.”

What are some examples of "the last known photo of"?

How would Poland react if Russia offered them an alliance and Western Ukraine where many historic Polish cities are located?

How did some Jews manage to avoid Nazi detection and executions in occupied areas like Ukraine during the Holocaust?


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