Ian Kershaw - The End

81. BAB, NS6/353, fo. 151, Anordnung of Bormann to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter and Verbändeführer, 1.4.45; also in IfZ, Fa-91/4, fo. 1099.

82. Ferdinand Stadlbauer, ‘Die letzten Tage des Gauleiters Wächtler’, Waldmünchner Heimatbote , 12 (1985), pp. 3–10; Höffkes, pp. 360–61; Joachim Lilla, Die Stellvertretenden Gauleiter und die Vertretung der Gauleiter der NSDAP im ‘Dritten Reich’ , Koblenz, 2003, pp. 100–101.

83. Text in Justiz und NS-Verbrechen: Sammlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945–1966 , Register , ed. C. F. Rüter and D. W. De Mildt, Amsterdam and Munich, 1998, p. 199; Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands , Munich, 1995, p. 787. Himmler’s draft of 29.3.45, and the OKW telex and draft sent to him, are in BA/MA, RH/20/19/196, fos. 103–5.

84. Reproduced in Fritz Nadler, Eine Stadt im Schatten Streichers , Nuremberg, 1969, p. 41; Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , Register , p. 199. Himmler’s decree of the same day, ordering that ‘every village and town will be defended and held with all possible means’ is printed in Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , Register , p. 200 and in Rolf-Dieter Müller and Gerd R. Ueberschär, Kriegsende 1945: Die Zerstörung des Deutschen Reiches , Frankfurt am Main, 1994, p. 171.

85. See, for example, the good local study by Herfried Münkler, Machtzerfall: Die letzten Tage des Dritten Reiches dargestellt am Beispiel der hessischen Kreisstadt Friedberg , Berlin, 1985.

86. Heinz Petzold, ‘Cottbus zwischen Januar und Mai 1945’, in Werner Stang and Kurt Arlt (eds.), Brandenburg im Jahr 1945 , Potsdam, 1995, pp. 121–4.

87. Norbert Buske (ed.), Die kampflose Übergabe der Stadt Greifswald im April 1945 , Schwerin, 1993, pp. 15–30, 37.

88. Henke, pp. 843–4; Zimmermann, Pflicht , pp. 360, 363.

89. Paul Sauer, Württemberg in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus , Ulm, 1975, pp. 492–4; Andreas Förschler, Stuttgart 1945: Kriegsende und Neubeginn , Gudensberg-Gleichen, 2004, pp. 8–19; Jill Stephenson, ‘ “Resistance” to “No Surrender”: Popular Disobedience in Württemberg in 1945’, in Francis R. Nicosia and Lawrence D. Stokes (eds.), Germans against Nazism , Oxford and Providence, RI, 1990, pp. 357–8; Jill Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis , London, 2006, pp. 324–5.

90. Hildebrand Troll, ‘Aktionen zur Kriegsbeendigung im Frühjahr 1945’, in Martin Broszat, Elke Fröhlich and Anton Grossmann (eds.), Bayern in der NS-Zeit , vol. 4, Munich and Vienna, 1981, pp. 650–54; Fritz, pp. 140–49.

91. Serger, Böttcher and Ueberschär, pp. 255–7, diary entry of Gertrud Neumeister, 17.4.45.

92. See Henke, pp. 844–61; Fritz, ch. 5; Elisabeth Kohlhaas, ‘ “Aus einem Haus, aus dem eine weiße Fahnen erscheint, sind alle männlichen Personen zu erschießen”: Durchhalteterror und Gewalt gegen Zivilisten am Kriegsende 1945’, in Cord Arendes, Edgar Wolfrum and Jörg Zedler (eds.), Terror nach Innen: Verbrechen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges , Göttingen, 2006, pp. 51–79; Egbert Schwarz, ‘Die letzten Tage des Dritten Reiches: Untersuchung zu Justiz und NS-Verbrechen in der Kriegsendphase März/April 1945’, MA thesis, University of Düsseldorf, 1990, pp. 14–19, 23–7, 35–8 (a regional study of Northern Rhineland-Westphalia); and DZW , 6, pp. 652–4, for numerous examples.

93. Troll, p. 652; Fritz, p. 146.

94. Zeitzeugen berichten… Schwäbisch Gmünd , pp. 43, 49, 77, 83–4; Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , vol. 2, ed. Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann and C. F. Rüter, Amsterdam, 1969, pp. 77–101; Albert Deible, Krieg und Kriegsende in Schwäbisch Gmünd , Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1954, pp. 26–8, 34–5, 66–8; Kohlhaas, p. 51.

95. Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , vol. 1, ed. Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann and C. F. Rüter, Amsterdam, 1968, pp. 505–29; Henke, pp. 848–9; Kohlhaas, p. 51, has fourteen victims, though this figure must include those shot at but not actually hit. As in so many cases, the Kreisleiter had given the order ‘to defend the town to the last drop of blood’, whereas most people were wholly opposed to such a stance.—Robert Bauer, Heilbronner Tagebuchblätter , Heilbronn, 1949, p. 46. Drauz was executed in 1946, his main accomplice sentenced to fifteen years in a penitentiary. For Drauz, notable for his fanaticism, see also Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front , pp. 332–3.

96. Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , vol. 10, ed. Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, H. H. Fuchs and C. F. Rüter, Amsterdam, 1973, pp. 205–40; Henke, pp. 851–3.

97. BBC Archives, The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997), written and produced for BBC2 by Laurence Rees, interview of Walter Fernau by Detlef Siebert, n.d., c. 1997, roll 219, pp. 211, 213; roll 221, pp. 352–3. See also the book of the series: Laurence Rees, The Nazis: A Warning from History , London, 1997, pp. 232–4 and 247. Much of the lengthy interview (rolls 217–21, 403pp., in German, with English translation) gives Fernau’s own account of the operation of Helm’s ‘flying court martial’ and the trial and execution of Karl Weiglein. Fernau was sentenced in 1952 to six years in a penitentiary for his part in the affair (and in a further case).

98. Jürgen Zarusky, ‘Von der Sondergerichtsbarkeit zum Endphasenterror: Loyalitätserzwingung und Rache am Widerstand im Zusammenbruch des NS-Regimes’, in Arendes, Wolfrum and Zedler, pp. 116–17; Andreas Heusler, ‘Die Eskalation des Terrors: Gewalt gegen ausländische Zwangsarbeiter in der Endphase des Zweiten Weltkrieges’, in Arendes, Wolfrum and Zedler, p. 180.

99. Zarusky, p. 113.

100. For numerous cases of mass killing of prisoners in April 1945, see Gerhard Paul, ‘ “Diese Erschießungen haben mich innerlich gar nicht mehr berührt”: Die Kriegsendphasenverbrechen der Gestapo 1944/45’, in Gerhard Paul and Klaus-Michael Mallmann (eds.), Die Gestapo im Zweiten Weltkrieg: ‘Heimatfront’ und besetztes Europa , Darmstadt, 2000, pp. 554–60.

101. Nikolaus Wachsmann, Hitler’s Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany , New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 336–7.

102. Eberhard Kolb, ‘Bergen-Belsen: Die Errichtung des Lagers Bergen-Belsen und seine Funktion als “Aufenthaltslager” (1943/44)’, in Martin Broszat (ed.), Studien zur Geschichte der Konzentrationslager , Stuttgart, 1970, p. 151; Eberhard Kolb, Bergen-Belsen 1943 bis 1945 , Göttingen, 1985, pp. 47–51. For Himmler’s orders, see Eberhard Kolb, Bergen-Belsen: Geschichte des ‘Aufenthaltslagers’ 1943–1945 , Hanover, 1962, pp. 157–60.

103. Kolb, Bergen-Belsen 1943 bis 1945 , p. 48; Katrin Greiser, Die Todesmärsche von Buchenwald: Räumung, Befreiung und Spuren der Erinnerung , Göttingen, 2008, p. 134.

104. Karin Orth, Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager: Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte , Hamburg, 1999, pp. 301–5, 308, 311–12; Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: Biographie , Munich, 2008, p. 745.

105. Orth, p. 307.

106. Orth, pp. 307–8, 311; IMT , vol. 11, p. 450 (testimony of Rudolf Höß). The order to ‘secure’ the concentration camps in an emergency—presumed to be a prisoners’ uprising—had been first issued on 17 June 1944, though this made no explicit mention of what should happen to the prisoners.—IfZ, Nbg-Dok., PS-3683, ‘Sicherung der Konzentrationslager’ (not in the published trial volumes), by which Himmler gave responsibility for security measures involving the concentration camps to the Higher SS and Police Leaders; Orth, p. 272. According to the testimony of Höß, this left up to them the question of whether a camp should be evacuated or handed over. In early 1945, with the approach of the enemy, the situation changed. In January and February 1945 commandants carried out new instructions to kill ‘dangerous’ prisoners. Himmler’s agreement in March, with the intention of using Jews as pawns in possible negotiations with the western Allies, then temporarily blocked ideas of killing all concentration camp prisoners.—Orth, pp. 296–305. But in April there was another shift. The order indicating that there had been a reversion to the earlier stance was apparently issued on 18 April (not 14 April as often stated) and received in the camp at Flossenbürg the following day. A German text of this order has never surfaced, though its authenticity has been ascertained on the basis of several near contemporary partial translations.—Stanislav Zamecnik, ‘ “Kein Häftling darf lebend in die Hände des Feindes fallen”: Zur Existenz des Himmler-Befehls vom 14–18. April 1945’, Dachauer Hefte , 1 (1985), pp. 219–31. See also DZW , 6, pp. 647–8.