Today I want to share this image with you - I found this picture in the US National Archives many years ago. It was taken on March 25th, a day after units of US Ninth Army had crossed the Rhine just upstream of Wesel. Soldiers of US 30th Infantry Division were passing this house when a US Army photographer was alert enough to preserve this sad scene for later generations. The original caption does not give much information - but some years ago I met a gentleman who is pictured here as a little boy. He’s the one in shorts and standing on his socks. He told me what the story behind this picture was: The dead soldier was an NCO who was in charge of a group of young and inexperienced German „boy soldiers“. They had waited out the artillery fire in the cellar of this house and he had decided that it was time to surrender himself and his boys to the approaching Americans. When other - more fanatical - German soldiers noticed that he was about to surrender they shot him in the head. The NCO and his boys had been billeted in this house for a few days - and so the inhabitants had gotten to know these soldiers a little. They knew that the murdered NCO was from the Cologne area - the youngest of three brothers. His two older brothers had been killed in the war and he wanted to make sure that his parents had one son who would come back… This was one aspect of the stark realities of war in the German Wehrmacht in 1945. My eye witness was a credible source, a well respected citizen who even served as the mayor of Hünxe, the small town he lived in. The location where this photo was taken is Bergschlagweg, a small road leading east between the cities of Wesel and Dinslaken. The civilians are all looking at an American armored column passing at some distance.
In my forthcoming book Theirs the Strife, I mention a British armoured unit witnessing German soldiers (probably engineers from Pionier-Sperr-Brigade 1100) being shot at by soldiers from SS-A.u.E.Btl.12 ‘HJ’ when they were surrendering. This took place on the Weser on 7 April 45.
A time of unnecessary killing of fellow Germans by Germans when the war was lost. At the collapse of the Third Reich,it was the SS and such like who carried killing of any persons they thought had abandoned the regime by giving up resistance against the Allies.Those who were suspected as being deserters were shot or hanged with propaganda warning placards attached to their bodies that they had failed to protect German women and children against Russians as the Red Army stormed Berlin. In the west the Allied appointed mayor of Aachen was murdered by so called members of the Werewolf organisation.This organisation issued pamphlets in the closing days of the war threatening revenge on those who would not support them..."we shall punish every traitor and his entire family with deadly revenge" On the Eastern Front as the Wehrmacht succumbed to the Red Army meat mincing machine.Hitler's last Field Marshal to be appointed, Ferdinand Schoerner murdered thousands of the Wehrmacht through his drum head courts martial and executions without trial His moral courage was not up to that he required from his command.He deserted his command,changed into civilian clothing and flew by light plane to Austria where he gave himself up to US forces.
I read about several such instances on the German side. I also know from eye witnesses that German officers threatened German famers who were about to hang out a white flag to save their families, their property and their livestock from being fired upon - this caused bitter arguments between courageous civilians and especially para officers who had their own idea of courage. There are many examples of this especially after the Rhine crossing. The area on the east bank of the river had not been evacuated and the defenders of many positions east of the Rhine were confronted with the civilian population in their midst... Threats of execution aimed at "traitors" were not uncommon when the defenders decided to stand their ground. And they mixed with the civilians out of very practical reasons - when an area was targeted by enemy artillery fire the German defenders used the same cellars to sit it out - side by side with their "hosts"...
Joseph Goebbels was given responsibility of establishing and setting up the werewolf organisation. His diaries and other papers show considerable frustration on his part at the general lack of enthusiasm shown by the general population for the concept and the foot dragging and procrastination by those officials that he tasked. Hitler issued a fuhrer command forbidding surrender on pain of death and there were still some who believed that their personal oath to him compelled them to act even anyone with two brain cells to rub together could see how futile it all was. Sometimes a mis-placed sense of honour creates dishonourable deeds.
I just read an excellent book on the mentality of German soldiers and officers in WW2: Comrades: The Wehrmacht from Within by Felix Romer
I've never understood how the majority of the SS were just allowed to go about their lives after the war as if they had done nothing wrong. And they were not elite, that's for sure. SS VETERANS' GROUP PLANNING A REUNION IN WEST GERMANY
There were simply too many and the man power/skills were needed to get Germany back on its feet in time to act as a buffer to the Soviet bloc. Truman didn't want Americans tied up having to run internment camps either.
Or, as West Germany's first post-war chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, once said: "You don't pour out dirty water if you don't have any clean water."
Well, true. But you don't make an ice sculpture out of the dirty water by allowing them to openly have a reunion either.
Well Germany post war adopted some of the ' first amendment' type provisions that allow your own neo nazis to parade openly although they do ban certain symbols
Adolf Prutzmann,a member of Himmler's senior staff was appointed head of the Werewolf organisation when it was established in October 1944.Propaganda Minister Goebbels came into the picture as the prime mover in urging Germans to join the organisation in the new year of 1945. Prutzmann was never effective in his appointed role. He accompanied Himmler to seek favour with the second Fuhrer,Donitz in Flensberg. Refused a role in the Donitz "government", Himmler and his party wandered south disguised as discharged Wehrmacht hoping to reach Bavaria...recognised by a British army contingent,all went into the bag in the Bremen area and Himmler evaded justice by committing suicide. The new Fuhrer instructed the Werewolf organisation by wireless to disband and they followed his order.The threat of guerrilla warfare did not materialise and was not a problem for the Allies occupational authorities as first anticipated.
I was not condoning this but just trying to point out what the reasoning was behind the West German mildness towards former Nazis. SS-veterans gathering for a reunion was one of the more extreme - and marginal - phenomena. More ominous was the role of ex-Nazis in all spheres of everyday life - jurisdiction, education, administration. They were not overtly Nazi - but their thinking, their values and sometimes their decisions and utterances betrayed their ideological background. We're talking about the 50s and 60s here - then things began to change. And even in the early years the more extreme forms were often called out by the predominantly liberal press - and I am using "liberal" in the more positive European definition...
On this topic I can contribute something to the Jurisdiction of that time: OKW announcement of January 14, 1945 The endangerment of the fighting comrades and the war efforts of front and home by defectors who try to evade the fight and bring their lives to safety requires ruthless action against defectors and their clan. The chief of the OKW has therefore ordered, based on the instructions of the Führer, that soldiers which after proper observation defect to the enemy, immediately open fire On February 15, 1945, Reich Justice Minister Thierack issued the Decree on establishing "Flying Tribunals" to sentence the "deserters" to death immediately after their capture. In Berlin, such courts had already been formed two days earlier. A decree of 25 February 1945 extended this jurisdiction to the civilian population. On April 11, 1945, the "Völkischer Beobachter" announced the establishment of summary courts, where any criminal charge can be brought, "by which the German fighting force or determination to fight can be endangered". Additional message of the OKW of 12 APRIL 1945 Cities are located at important traffic junctions. They must therefore be defended to the utmost and held, without any consideration for promises and threats made by parliamentary or hostile radio broadcasts. For the observance of this command, the combat commanders appointed in each city are personally responsible. Act they contrary to this military duty and task, they become, like all civilian officials who try to keep the combat commander away from this duty or even try to obstruct the performance of his duties, sentenced to death. Exceptions to the defense of cities are determined exclusively by the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. On April 13, 1945, the public was informed from the Führer's headquarters that Persons who try to protect villages from senseless destruction by surrender without a fight to preserve, be sentenced to death. Leaders and subleaders of the Wehrmacht were furthermore authorized to "to make use of the weapon, if the situation or the discipline is not to be restored otherwise". Day Order OB West, Field Marshal Ernst Busch, April 17, 1945 "The war goes on! Only weaklings can believe, by doing nothing and giving up to be able to save something. Our northern front stands from the Dutch channel coast to the Elbe and defends every meter of home soil doggedly and fanatically. The goal is made clear by the guide: The freedom of the German soil!" Such orders were simply ignored by the majority of the front officers. But there were more than enough fanatics who enforced such measures consistently (and sometimes completely arbitrarily) A very special case was the Kriegsmarine, which carried out death sentences even long after the surrender
On April 16, 1945, the Führer issued an appeal to the fighters on the eastern front! In these hours and days the decision of the war is being made, i.e. the East means DECISION AND CHANGE! While the Anglo-Americans have occupied far more than half of our fatherland, you soldiers between the Weser and the Ems, with few, weak and poorly equipped forces, offer resistance to the enemy again and again, despite the fact that the belief in final victory is slightly shaken. Today we know where the division, the weapons and the ammunition have gone! They serve the decision in the east, WHICH NOW WILL DECIDED! If the Bolshevik is suffocated in his blood, then the spook in the West will be eliminated soon anyway, and VICTORY IS OURS! In this hour, comrades of the front between the Weser and the Ems, we show ourselves worthy of the comrades of the eastern front, the immense sacrifices of the homeland, and fight with a fanaticism such as no people have ever fought before SOON THE VICTORY IS OURS
The civilian population was in the majority war-weary, but was also afraid of what was coming: "Enjoy the war, peace will be terrible!" was a common phrase. Nevertheless, there were more and more reports about negative attitude toward the Wehrmacht, because one was anxious to avoid destruction of the home towns by fighting. Many residents hung white cloths from the windows as a sign of surrender, despite the existing strict prohibitions The population was simply no longer willing (and able) to follow senseless calls for resistance; they longed rather the end of the hostilities and the war. But also the fighting morale of the the majority of soldiers was mostly low: By "scattered", "defectors" and captured soldiers were far higher losses than the combat operations themselves: In the first two thirds of March, the Anglo-Americans took 129,000 prisoners of war, in the last 11 days another 198,000 - with an average of 18,000 men per day, almost three times the first 20 days. In the first 18 days of April there were already 806,000 – about 42,500 per day. The population and ordinary soldiers fulfilled the regime's appeals for a fanatical warfare by the majority no longer. (General Unrein concluded his report with the laconic remark: "It is better not to talk about the mood of the troops and the population!“) But the relationship to the state leadership was marked by that peculiar ambivalence, which was so often found in the III. Reich: On the one hand one still hoped for "the Führer" or speculated on wonder weapons; on the other hand, the party had largely gambled away every credit. The mainstay of the struggle in this phase was therefore predominantly the mostly very young recruits of the training units, who after 12 years of national socialist indoctrination paid for misguided youthful idealism with often horrifying losses.
Well Columbo would say "that's a very tight alibi ........................ ...........................There's just one thing bothering me..."
Goebbels Goebbels hoped to win control of Unternehmen Werwolf, and then reorient it in a more radical direction, an initiative which also fit with Goebbels general effort to get almost all matters of domestic policy under his own control. He approached Hitler with this suggestion in late March 1945, and was rewarded with the transfer of initiative for Werwolf propaganda away from the Gauleiters and toward the Propaganda Ministry. Although he had presumably asked for more, Goebbels was pleased with this partial victory, which at least gave him a toehold from which to further expand his grip — in early April he noted that he still had plans "to get the organization of the Werwolf movement into my own hands", Perry Biddiscombe The Last Ditch, An Organizational History of the Nazi Werwolf Movement 1944-45, University of London Biddiscombe sums up the reasons for failure of Werwolf as In the final analysis, however, the Werwolf failed because of two basic weaknesses which undercut the movement. First, it lacked popular appeal, which doomed guerrillas and fanatic resisters to a difficult life on the margins of their own society such an existence was simply not feasible in a country heavily occupied by enemy military forces. Second, the Werwolf was poorly organized, and showed all the signs of internal confusion that have been identified by the so-called "functionalist" school of German historiography. In practice its operations were more successful in the East than in the West. It took three divisions of Soviet security troops to suppress them in the Soviet sector. The biggest area of damage in the West was the introduction of poison into Allied troops food, almost 200 American soldiers died because of poisoned alcohol and many more were incapacitated. In one area it almost did succeed. Its economic arm was intended to operate well under the radar posing as legitimate businesses to finance the active operational elements. This had begun to build a commercial empire, sometimes using the black market and strong arm tactics, taking over genuine concerns. It operated in the American sector with links into the British zone and survived into 1946 when it was finally penetrated by US undercover agents and brought down otherwise it might have emulated the Italian nationalists of the 19th century that turned a resistance movement into an international crime syndicate of today. Interestingly one of those agents was Jack D Hunter, later author of "The Blue Max" who later incorporated some of this into his first novel "The Expendable Spy"
