Hans Klapa

After previous combat experience fighting on the front, Wehrmacht soldier Hans Klapa was sent on an officer's course at the V School of Infantry Cadets in Poznań (Schule V für Fahnenjunker der Infanterie Posen) in November 1944. Following the Red Army’s offensive in January 1945, Klapa, along with 1,300 cadets of the V School and other German soldiers, was conscripted into the Festung Posen garrison (Poznań Fortress) to take part in merciless, month-long battles for the Polish city.