The Battle for the Commissar's House occurred on 13 November 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, when the German Sturmkompanie 44 and a company from Panzer-Pionier-Bataillon 50 assaulted the 70-man 650th Rifle Regiment garrison (which included a 6-man NKVD squad and 12 Militsiya) at the Commissar's House. The German Sturmgesschutz-Abteilung 245 pounded the house with three Sturm 33B self-propelled guns and one long-barreled StuG III, setting the building ablaze and forcing the surviving defenders into the basement. Once inside the building, it took more than three hours for the Germans to clear the structure. Only 10 defenders escaped the building, but the Germans suffered 100 casualties during its capture.