The End

Pflicht, p. 293.

49. BAB, R3/1623a, fo. 71a, Bormann to the Gauleiter, Reichsleiter, Reich Youth Leader, etc., 30.3.45, passing on Jodl’s circular of the previous day to commanders of the Army Groups and the Defence Districts in the west. Jodl still believed that any sacrifice was worthwhile to win time and bring about a split in the unnatural enemy coalition.—Bodo Scheurig, Alfred Jodl: Gehorsam und Verhangnis, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main, 1991, pp. 313–14, 319.

50. For the unprompted initiatives of the generals in the last phase to ensure the continued, utmost military effort, see DRZW, 10/1 (Zimmermann), pp. 307–36.

51. BAB, NS6/134, fo. 19, Donitz, Kurzlagebericht vom 4.3.45.

52. DRZW, 9/1 (Forster), pp. 554, 584–6. See, for Donitz’s fanatical leadership of the navy, Sonke Neitzel, ‘Der Bedeutungswandel der Kriegsmarine im Zweiten Weltkrieg’, in Rolf-Dieter Muller and Hans-Erich Volkmann (eds.), Die Wehrmacht: Mythos und Realitat, Munich, 1999, pp. 259–62.

53. Kathrin Orth, ‘Kampfmoral und Einsatzbereitschaft in der Kriegsmarine 1945’, in Hillmann and Zimmermann, pp. 137–55.

54. BA/MA, N574/22, NL Vietinghoff, ‘Die Generale’, 25.7.49.

55. BA/MA, N574/19, NL Vietinghoff, ‘Kriegsende in Italien’, fos. 44–5 (1950). See also DRZW, 10/1 (Zimmermann), p. 321; and Zimmermann, Pflicht, pp. 297–8.

56. Neitzel, Abgehort, pp. 180–81, 185 (quotation, p. 186) (28–31.1.45, 18– 20.2.45) (Eng. edn., Tapping Hitler’s Generals, p. 138). Also NAL, WO208/4365, reports of monitored conversations of prisoners of war, nos. 251–3, 28–31.1.45. A former corps commander, a lieutenant- general, later told his British captors that Rundstedt had favoured capitulation after the failure of the Ardennes offensive, and reckoned with the support of a majority of the higher ranking members of the officer’ corps, but knew that the hold of the Nazi regime meant that there was no chance of undertaking negotiations and that no member of the Wehrmacht would be authorized to contact the Allies for such a purpose.—LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 317 pt. II, p. 5, (16.4.45).

57. Neitzel, Abgehort, pp. 184–5, 187 (14–15.2.45, 2–3.3.45) (Eng. edn., Tapping Hitler’s Generals, pp. 137, 139).

58. NAL, WO208/5543, interrogation reports on German prisoners of war, 16.4.45, ‘Enemy Expectations, Intentions and Sources of Information’, 16.3.45.

59. BA/MA, N712/15, NL Pollex, fos. 43, 44, 47, 49–51, 54, 57, 59–61, 65, entries for 3.3.45, 5.3.45, 8.3.45, 12.3.45, 21.3.45, 25.3.45, 27.3.45, 31.3.45.

60. BA/MA, N265/118, NL Heinrici, fo. 74a–b (1952).

61. Karl Donitz, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days, Da Capo edn., New York, 1997, p. 432.

62. LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 307, pt. II, app. A (6.4.45).

63. Andreas Kunz, ‘Die Wehrmacht in der Agonie der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944/45: Eine Gedankenskizze’, in Hillmann and Zimmermann, p. 131.

64. See Kunz, Wehrmacht und Niederlage, pp. 36–44.

65. Neitzel, Abgehort, p. 189, 9.3.45 (Eng. edn., Tapping Hitler’s Generals, p. 141).

66. Steinert, pp. 570–71.

67. StAM, LRA 29656, fo. 576, report of SD-Au?enstelle Berchtesgaden, 4.4.45; fo. 592, report of Gendarmerie-Posten Markt Schellenberg, 24.3.45.

68. MadR, 17, pp. 6732–40 (report to the Propaganda Ministry, 28.3.45, undated SD report from the end of March); see also Steinert, pp. 572–6; and Henke, pp. 815–16.

69. BAB, R55/603, fos. 533–8, extracts from weekly Tatigkeitsberichte der Reichspropagandaamter of 20–23 March (4.4.45).

70. Quoted Steinert, p. 570.

71. NAL, FO898/187, Summary of and Comments on German Broadcasts to Germany, fos. 79–80, 140–41, monitoring of German press reports (26.2.45–4.3.45, 26.3.45–1.4.45).

72. Das letzte halbe Jahr, pp. 281 (3.3.45), 311 (31.3.45); LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 291 pt. II, p. 5, (21.3.45), citing a report of 7 March sent by the Berlin correspondent of a Swedish newspaper.

73. NAL, WO219/4713, SHAEF reports on conditions in the newly occupied areas, 14.3.45.

74. StAM, LRA 29656, fos. 574, 580, report of SD-Au?enstelle Berchtesgaden, 7.3.45.

75. BHStA, Reichsstatthalter Epp 528, unfoliated, Bayerische Staatsminister fur Wirtschaft, Landesernahrungsamt Bayern, Abt. B, 22.3.45.

76. BAB, NS6/353, fo. 146, Anordnung 184/45, 26.3.45.

77. LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 308, pt. II, p. 8 (7.4.45), citing a letter from Vreden, a small town close to the Dutch border, from 19 March as an example typical of the situation just east of the Rhine before the Allied offensive.

78. IWM, EDS, F.3, M.I. 14/369, correspondence of Krosigk and Education Minister Bernhard Rust, etc., 23– 6.3.45.

79. BAB, NS6/353, fo. 75, Bormann, Rundschreiben 125/45 (10.3.45).

80. BHStA, Reichsstatthalter Epp 686/1, unfoliated, draft order of Bormann, in cooperation with the Reichsfuhrer-SS and the Reichsgesundheitsfuhrer, Heranziehung der Gefolgschaftsmitglieder der Krankenhauser, Kliniken usw. zum Dienst im Deutschen Volkssturm, 9.3.45.

81. BAB, R55/603, fo. 529, Reichspropagandaamt Mark Brandenburg, Referat Volkssturm, to Reichsministerium fur Volksaufklarung und Propaganda, Berlin, 5.3.45.

82. An example: the owner of two major newspapers, the Munchener Neueste Nachrichten and Munchen-Augsburger Abendzeitung, desperate to receive reports from the Deutsches Nachrichtenburo but unable to contact Berlin could only do so when the Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria, Paul Giesler, gave him special permission to telephone from his command post twice a day—StAM, NSDAP 13, fos. 144530–33, exchange of letters from Gauleiter Giesler and Herr Direktor A. Salat, Firma Knorr & Hirth, 2–14.3.45.

83. BAB, R470 altR48/11, Reichspostminister an die Presidenten der Reichspost-Direktion, 26.3.45.

84. See Dietmar Su?, ‘Der Kampf um die “Moral” im Bunker: Deutschland, Gro?britannien und der Luftkrieg’, in Frank Bajohr and Michael Wildt (eds.), Volksgemeinschaft: Neue Forschungen zur Gesellschaft des Nationalsozialismus, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, pp. 129–35.

85. DZW, 6, p. 628; Oron J. Hale, The Captive Press in the Third Reich, Princeton, 1973, pp. 306–7.

86. DRZW, 9/1 (Blank), p. 415.

87. For example, instructions were sent out in early March to local authorities in Bavaria to alter arrangements for budgetary plans for 1945, emphasizing that local taxes should be passed on time to the towns and rural districts.—StAM, LRA 31908, unfoliated, Deutscher Gemeindetag, Dienststelle Bayern, Haushaltsplane der Gemeinden und Gemeindeverbande fur 1945, 7.3.45. The Landrat in Berchtesgaden was still enquiring on 28 April 1945 when building work on new barracks, commissioned the previous August to extend accommodation for evacuees, would begin.—StAM, LRA 31645, unfoliated, Landrat Berchtesgaden to OT-Sonderbauleitung, 28.4.45.

88. On the policing of air-raid shelters, see DRZW, 9/1 (Blank), pp. 385–8.

89. By late March firemen in small communities of Sachsen-Anhalt were complaining that they were being called away from their work, where they were urgently needed, almost daily and often unnecessarily, at the ‘pre- alarm’ stage by the frequency of air raids.—IWM, EDS, F.3, M.I. 14/369, Krosigk to Goebbels, 26.3.45. Some people registered for voluntary fire service to try to escape recruitment to the Volkssturm.— StAM, LRA 31919, Gauleitung Munchen to HSSPF Muhe on training of Volkssturm and air protection, including attempted regulation by the Regierungsprasident of Oberbayern of air protection service and service of voluntary firemen in the Volkssturm of 30.12.44 and the dispute of firemen