The End

14. BHStA, MA 106695, report of RPvOB, 9.2.45. And see further examples in Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands, Munich, 1995, pp. 819–20, and Marlis Steinert, Hitlers Krieg und die Deutschen, Dusseldorf and Vienna, 1970, pp. 546ff.

15. BAB, R55/620, fos. 129–131^v, SD report to State Secretary Dr Naumann, Propaganda Ministry, ‘Situation in Wien’, 1.3.45. The popular mood in Vienna had been especially poor, according to a report the previous September, when it was claimed that there was widespread defeatism, making the population open to Communist agitation.—BAB, NS6/166, fos. 23–7, Kaltenbrunner to Bormann, 14.9.44. And see Ludwig Jedlicka, ‘Ein unbekannter Bericht Kaltenbrunners uber die Lage in Osterreich im September 1944’, in Ludwig Jedlicka, Der 20. Juli 1944, Vienna, 1985, pp. 82–6; and Timothy Kirk, Nazism and the Working Class in Austria, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 130–32.

16. StAM, LRA 29656, fo. 573, SD-Au?enstelle Berchtesgaden, 7.3.45.

17. NAL, WO219/1587, SHAEF summary of intelligence reports from informants, 20–25.2.45.

18. Goebbels noted that ‘the fiasco of the East Prussian treks is mainly put down to the Party, and the Party leadership in East Prussia is thoroughly lambasted’.—TBJG, II/15, p. 374 (13.2.45).

19. BAB, NS19/3833, fo. 1, Gottlob Berger to SS-Standartenfuhrer Rudolf Brandt, 18.2.45.

20. BAB, NS6/135, fo. 44, report from Gauleitung Magdeburg-Anhalt, 16.2.45.

21. StAM, NSDAP 35, unfoliated, Gauorganisationsleiter Munchen-Oberbayern to Kreisleiter, etc., 21.2.45. At the beginning of January, the Gauleiter had sharply criticized the wearing of ‘fantasy uniforms’ and ‘costuming’ as Party officials created their own colour or cut of uniform.—StAM, NSDAP 52, unfoliated, Gauorganisationsleiter Munchen-Oberbayern to Gauamtsleiter and Kreisleiter, 3.1.45.

22. See Henke, p. 829.

23. Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe, London, 2008, pp. 528–9. Frank was eventually arrested by American troops on 4 May, tried at Nuremberg, and hanged for his part in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

24. IfZ, NO-3501, report of SS-Staf. Hubner, 16.3.45; National Archives, Washington, NND 871063, arrest and interrogation reports on Greiser, 17.5.45, 1.6.45; Jurgen Thorwald, Es begann an der Weichsel: Flucht und Vertreibung der Deutschen aus dem Osten, pb. edn., Munich, 1995 (1st edn., 1949), pp. 69–79; Catherine Epstein, Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland, Oxford, 2010, pp. 298–304.

25. TBJG, II/15, pp. 223 (25.1.45), 231–2 (26.1.45), 357 (11.2.45); von Oven, Finale Furioso, p. 551 (23.1.45)

26. BAB, R55/622, fos. 181–2, survey of letters sent to the RPA. And see BAB, NS6/135, fos. 30–32, report of 20.2.45 from Lieutenant Klein, NS-Fuhrungsstab OKH Potsdam, on negative impressions of Party members, notably an SS-Obersturmfuhrer, during treks from the Wartheland between 19 and 25 January. Remarkably, as late as 20 February, a month after he had fled, Greiser submitted a final report, from the security of Karlsbad, to Himmler and Bormann on the setting up and deployment of the Volkssturm in the Warthegau.—BAB, R43II/692b, fos. 109–24 (20–21.2.45).

27. BAB, NS6/353, fo. 30–30^v, PK Rundschreiben 65/45, 12.2.45. Only a few days later the Party Chancellery received another dismal report of the failings of the authorities in the Warthegau in January.— BAB, NS6/135, fos. 30–32, report by Lieutenant Horst Klein, NS-Fuhrungsstab OKH Potsdam, with an attached recommendation for Pg. Willi Ruder for the Party, in order to restore confidence in it, to take drastic action against all leading Party members seen to have failed in their duties.

28. Von Oven, Finale Furioso, p. 572 (7.2.45).

29. IfZ, Fa 91/4, fos. 1075–8, GBV an die Obersten Reichsbehorden, 1.2.45; 1945: Das Jahr der endgultigen Niederlage der faschistischen Wehrmacht, p. 152.

30. 1945: Das Jahr der endgultigen Niederlage der faschistischen Wehrmacht, pp. 152–4.

31. e.g. BAB, NS6/353, fo. 15, PK Rundschreiben 43/45, 30.1.45; fo. 49, PK Rundschreiben 86/45, 17.2.45; fo. 106, Anordnung 23/45, 21.1.45.

32. BAB, NS6/354, fo. 134, PK Anordnung 48/45g, 1.2.45.

33. BAB, NS6/353, fos. 121–2, PK Anordnung 98/45, 23.2.45.

34. BAB, NS6/353, fos. 65–66^v, PK Rundschreiben 113/45, ‘25. Jahrestag der Verkundung des Parteiprogramms’, 24.2.45.

35. BAB, NS6/353, fos. 157–8, PK Bekanntgabe 28/45, 26.1.45 and Anlage.

36. One of these, Feldjagerkommando II, based behind the lines of Army Group Centre, reported picking up 136,000 soldiers in February, leading to almost 200 facing trial and 46 death sentences. It regarded the ratio of those arrested to the number of troops fighting as unexceptional, given the military situation.— DRZW, 9/1 (Forster), p. 638.

37. Ursula von Kardorff, Berliner Aufzeichnungen 1942–1945, pb. edn., Munich, 1981, p. 228 (25.1.45).

38. IfZ, Fa-91/5, fo. 1239, Aufruf Himmlers, 31.1.45; BAB, R55/610, fos. 161ff., RPA Danzig to State Secretary Dr Naumann, Propaganda Ministry, 31.1.45, attaching Himmler’s proclamation.

39. BAB, NS6/354, fos. 60–61^v, PK Rundschreiben 59/45g, ‘Erfassung von versprengten Wehrmachtangehorigen’, 6.2.45, and attached Anlage reproducing OKW order of 2.2.45. A month later, on 5 March, Field-Marshal Keitel passed on Hitler’s order that all financial support for the families of prisoners entering captivity without being wounded or having demonstrably fought to the last was to be halted.—Printed in Rolf-Dieter Muller and Gerd R. Ueberschar, Kriegsende 1945: Die Zerstorung des Deutschen Reiches, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, p. 163.

40. Andreas Kunz, ‘Die Wehrmacht in der Agonie der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944/45: Eine Gedankenskizze’, in Jorg Hillmann and John Zimmermann (eds.), Kriegsende 1945 in Deutschland, Munich, 2002, p. 103 n. 26.

41. BAB, NS19/3705, fos. 1–5, Bormann to Himmler, ‘Vorbereitungen fur die bevorstehende Feindoffensive im Westen’, and attached Rundschreiben to the western Gauleiter, 8.2.45.

42. BAB, NS6/354, fos. 135–6, PK Anordnung 67/45g, 13.2.45.

43. BAB, NS6/354, fos. 81–4, PK Rundschreiben 92/45g, Rs., 20.2.45.

44. StAM, NSDAP 35, Gauleitung Munchen-Oberbayern, Rundschreiben Nr. 5, 22.2.45.

45. BAB, NS19/2721, fo. 4–4^v, Oberbefehlshaber der Heeresgruppe Weichsel, 12.2.45.

46. TBJG, II/15, p. 459 (9.3.45). Bodies of uniformed German soldiers hanging from a bridge across the Oder near Frankurt in mid-February were said to have led to thousands of ‘stragglers’ reporting for further frontline service.—Wilfred von Oven, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende, vol. 2, Buenos Aires, 1950, p. 246 (16.2.45).

47. BAB, NS6/756, fos. 2–6, Bormann, ‘Verstarkung der kampfenden Truppe’, 28.2.45.

48. Norbert Haase, ‘Justizterror in der Wehrmacht’, in Cord Arendes, Edgar Wolfrum and Jorg Zedler (eds.), Terror nach Innen: Verbrechen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Gottingen, 2006, pp. 84–5, reckons that half a million German soldiers might have been sentenced by military courts over the duration of the war, implying, therefore, that the numbers down to the end of 1944 doubled in the last four months. There were eighteen times as many death sentences as in the period from June 1941 to November 1944. Fritz Wullner, NS-Militarjustiz und das Elend der Geschichtsschreibung, Baden-Baden, 1991, p. 461, estimates a figure of around 300,000 deserters down to the end of 1944. For the organization of the terror apparatus within the Wehrmacht, including the extended use of the Geheime Feldpolizei, see John Zimmermann, Pflicht zum Untergang: Die deutsche Kriegfuhrung im Westen des Reiches 1944/45, Paderborn, 2009, pp. 139–65.

49. Benjamin Ziemann, ‘Fluchten aus dem Konsens zum Durchhalten: Ergebnisse, Probleme und Perspektiven der Erforschung soldatischer Verweigerungsformen in der Wehrmacht 1939–1945’, in Rolf-Dieter Muller and Hans-Erich Volkmann (eds.), Die Wehrmacht: Mythos und Realitat, Munich, 1999, pp. 594–6, 599; Otto Hennicke, ‘Auszuge aus der Wehrmachtkriminalstatistik’, Zeitschrift fur Militargeschichte, 5 (1966), pp. 442–50; Manfred Messerschmidt and Fritz Wullner, Die Wehrmachtjustiz, Baden-Baden, 1987, p. 91; Richard Bessel, Germany 1945: From War to Peace, London, 2009, p. 63. The figure of 35,000 underestimates the scale of desertion. One estimate