Exorcising Hitler (65 page)

Herr Wolfgang Gückelhorn, Bad Breisig, Germany, 12 June 2009.

Herr Lothar Löwe, Berlin, Germany, 25 March 2008.

Herr Helmut Nassen, Koblenz, Germany, 11 June 2009.

Herr Egon Plönissen, Koblenz, Germany, 12 June 2009.

Herr Helmut Schnatz, Koblenz, Germany, 11 June 2009.

Mr Maurice Smelt, Penzance, United Kingdom, 4 October 2008.

Herr Joachim Trenkner, Berlin, Germany, 24 March 2008.

Frau Marlies Weber, Koblenz, Germany, 12 June 2009.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1
 See Michael Balfour, ‘Another Look at Unconditional Surrender’, in
International Affairs
, vol. 46, no. 4 (October 1970), p. 720n. The Russian dictator had been invited but, pleading preoccupation with defeating the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad, declined. The first conference of the ‘Big Three’ did not take place until late November of that year in Tehran.

2
 Cited in Balfour, ‘Another Look at Unconditional Surrender’, p. 728.

3
 See Michael Beschloss,
The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany 1944
–
1945
, p. 13. Beschloss points out (ibid., p. 11) that Roosevelt, as a young Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had also taken a hard line at the end of the First World War, insisting that the Germans must be ‘cut down and purged, and arguing unsuccessfully for an Allied advance into Germany’. ‘The one lesson the German will learn is the lesson of defeat’, he had proclaimed.

4
Hansard
,
HC Deb 22 February 1944, vol. 397, cc663–795 (Adjournment Debate): Prime Minister’s Address on The International Situation.

5
 Roughly translatable in the English phrase ‘. . . then I’m a Dutchman’.

1 INTO THE REICH

1
 Klaus-Dietmar Henke,
Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
(Quellen und Darstellungen zur Zeitgeschichte, Herausgegeben vom Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Band 27), p. 122.

2
 Charles B. MacDonald,
The Siegfried Line Campaign
,
Washington, 1961, p. 3. And for the following.

3
 Quoted in Volker Koop,
Besetzt: Amerikanische Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland
, pp. 25f.

4
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, pp. 169f.

5
 Eyewitness description of the border crossing in A. Eaton Roberts,
Five Stars to Victory: A True Story of Men and Tanks,
ch. III, ‘Rhineland’ (no page number), an account of Task Force Lovelady’s exploits, privately published 1949 and now available online at
http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/feature.pages/five.
stars.htm
. Captain Roberts, a qualified doctor, served as the Task Force’s Chief Medical Officer throughout its campaigns.

6
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 170.

7
 Roetgen town website http://de./lokales/geschichte03.php.

8
 See Kudryashov, Sergei, ‘Stalin and the Allies: Who Deceived Whom?’,
History Today
,
vol. 45, no. 5, May 1995. Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, British Ambassador in Moscow, described him to Churchill as ‘a rude, inexperienced and bad-mannered fellow’.

9
 For the early part of the battle for East Prussia see Evan Mawdsley,
Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941–45
, pp. 374f.

10
 See Bernhard Fisch’s contribution, ‘Nemmersdorf 1944, nach wie vor ungeklärt’, in Gerd Überschär, ed.,
Orte des Grauens: Verbrechen im Zweiten Weltkrieg
, pp. 161f.

11
 For a discussion of this question and others see Fisch, ‘Nemmersdorf 1944’, pp. 155 ff. Fisch even seriously considers – though ultimately does not embrace – the possibility that the entire event was a German provocation, carried out by undercover units. See also Guido Knopp,
Die grosse Flucht: Das Schicksal der Vertriebenen
, pp. 37ff.

12
 Quoted in
Der Spiegel
, 2.2002 1.6.2002, ‘Der Treck nach Westen’, p. 10.

13
 Report of Major Hinrichs, 26.10.1944 – facsimile copy in the possession of the author.

14
 Cf. Isabel Denny’s
The Fall of Hitler’s Fortress City: The Battle for Königsberg, 1945
, 2007, p. 177. Ms Denny claims that ‘all the women were captured and raped and some were left crucified on the doors of houses and barns . . . When the German Army retook the village two days later they claimed to have found nearly all the 635 inhabitants dead.’ Since it is well established that almost all Nemmersdorf’s inhabitants had left before the Soviet incursion, it is hard to know where she obtained this information or why she chose not to question it. It also seems well established that, while women were indeed tortured and murdered in this way, the atrocities occurred elsewhere. Nemmersdorf, like other symbolically important scenes of violence, was fated to have a whole amalgam of extra horrors loaded upon it.

15
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 155.

16
 Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs and Detlef Vogel, eds,
Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg,
Bd 7:
Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive
, p. 615.

17
 Cf. Max Hastings,
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944–45
, p. 107.

18
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 142.

19
 Perry Biddiscombe,
Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement 1944–1946
, p. 23.

20
 Boog, Krebs and Vogel, eds,
Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive
, p. 615.

21
 Perry Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany: A History 1945–1950
, pp. 44f.

22
New York Times/
AP, 31 October 1944: ‘Aachen Mayor Sworn In; Anti-Nazi’s Office in Cellar’.

23
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, pp. 45ff. unless otherwise stated.

24
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 158.

25
 Ralf Georg Reuth, ed., Josef Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, Bd 5, 1943–45, p. 2108.

26
 See Boog, Krebs and Vogel, eds,
Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive
, p. 622.

27
 Paul Fussell,
The Boys’ Crusade – American GIs in Europe: Chaos and Fear in the Second World War
, p. 126.

28
 Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, pp. 158f.

29
 See Frederick Taylor,
Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945
, p. 155.

30
 G-5 report of September 1944, cited in Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 151.

2 HOO-HOO-HOO

1
 See Biddiscombe,
Werwolf!
, pp. 12ff. and for the following unless otherwise stated.

2
 Quoted in Rolf-Dieter Müller, ed.,
Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg – Der Zusammenbruch des Deutschen Reiches 1945, Band 10
,
Zweiter Halbband: Die Folgen des Zweiten Weltkrieges
, p. 14.

3
 Biddiscombe,
Werwolf!
, p. 18.

4
The Times,
20 October 1944: ‘Nazi Force for Last Stand’ (From Our Military Correspondent).

5
 Quoted in Robert Gellately,
Backing Hitler
, pp. 253f.

6
 Ibid., p. 231.

7
 Quoted in Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands
, p. 265.

8
 Perry Biddiscombe,
The Last Nazis: Werewolf Guerrilla Resistance in Europe 1944–1947
, p. 126. And for Himmler’s threat.

9
 Ibid., pp. 127f. And, especially if the putative sex lives of the squad are of interest, Charles Whiting,
SS Werewolf: The Story of the Nazi Resistance Movement –
written in racy thriller style with suspiciously comprehensive dialogue, but based in part on interviews with surviving participants during the 1960s – pp. 103ff.

10
 Biddiscombe,
The Last Nazis
, p. 129.

11
New York Times
, 11 February 1945: ‘Hitler Youth Learns of American Justice’.

12
 See Richard Matthias Müller, ed.,
Der Krieg, der nicht Sterben Wollte: Monschau 1945
, especially ch. 7, ‘Ardennenschlacht’ by Joseph C. Doherty, pp. 243ff.

13
New York Times
, 16 February 1945: ‘German Girl Vows Vengeance on U.S.’. See also Henke,
Die Amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands,
pp. 167ff. Maria Bierganz’s later reflections date from 1983, when she wrote a memoir of her experiences, and are also found in Henke.