The Nazi leadership also gave out that every last soldier in the Sixth Army had died heroically resisting Soviet forces, leaving the families of those soldiers to discover the actual whereabouts of their loved ones when the Soviets dropped propaganda leaflets listing the names of all the captured soldiers. German soldiers on the front would send news to the families, unsigned, because they weren't supposed to be reading the leaflets at all let alone let the families know "Hans is now in prison camp outside Moscow!" or whatever.