Posted on 05/01/2015 4:20:22 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers
Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
In late April, 1945 as the war in Europe was nearing its end, the Russians were approaching from the east and the British and Americans from the West in a race to get to Hitler's headquarters in Berlin. Stalag Luft I was north of Berlin, so it was unsure at first which of the Allied fronts would reach them first. As the reports came in and the fighting got closer and closer to Barth, they soon realized that the Russians would be the ones liberating them. They soon began to hear the heavy cannon fire sounds of the Russian artillery getting closer and closer to them.
At night the POWs would lay in their darkened barracks and there would be shouts of "Come On Joe" (for Joseph Stalin - the Russian leader) coming from all over the camp. At this time it became apparent to the German Commandant and the guards at Stalag Luft I that the Russians were at their doorstep and they must make a move. So they approached the Senior Allied POW Officer of the camp, Col. Hub Zemke, and told him to prepare his fellow prisoners to march in an effort to escape the approaching Russians. Col. Zemke refused to do so.
He informed the Commandant that even though there were over 200 of them with guns, that there were 9,000 POWs and they were prepared to fight rather than march. He told the commandant that he realized this may cause high losses among the POWs but ultimately they would overcome the Germans and with the Russian allies so close he knew this was an acceptable risk.
The German command evidently realized that the end of Germany was near and so he accepted this decision by Col. Zemke. The German command then informed Col. Zemke that he and the guards would be leaving the camp at midnight that night (April 30, 1945). Col. Zemke had made plans in case such a scenario arose to take over the camp, as it was evident to him that as Senior Allied Officer he would be responsible for of the safe return of the POWs to Allied control. He had already organized a group of hand selected men which he called the "Field Force" to help him keep the camp in order until they were all safely back in Allied hands.
So when the POWs at Stalag Luft I awoke on May 1, 1945 they looked around and noticed that all the Germans were gone and now there were POWs with armbands that said "FF" manning the guard towers. Col. Zemke explained that the POWs could not just start leaving the camp on their own, as there was a war going on all around them and they could be shot. He felt it best to keep the camp secure in an effort to protect the POWs. (You can imagine not many of the POWs liked this idea, they were tired of being imprisoned behind barbed wire!)
Col. Zemke sent a scouting party out to meet the approaching Russians to inform them that there was a POW camp of Allies located in the area, so the Russians would not be shelling them! Later in the day the Russian commander entered Stalag Luft I and meet with Col. Zemke and the British Senior Officer. The Russian commander did not like the idea of the Allied POWs still being behind barbed wire, so he ordered that Col. Zemke have the fences torn down. Zemke refused at first, but was later convinced (some say by force, with a gun) to tear down the fences. The POWs enthusiastically tore them down. Many POWs then left camp and went into Barth and the surrounding areas. Some of them (approximately 700) took off on their own to make their way to the approaching British lines (my Dad being one of those!). In the ensuing confusion of a war still in progress all around them some of the POWs were accidentally killed.
It was the 2nd White Russian Front of the Red Army that entered Barth on May 1, 1945 and liberated the prisoners of war at Stalag Luft I. After the fences were down the Russians then learning of the meager food supply the POWs had been existing on soon rounded up several hundred cows and herded them into the camp for the hungry POWs to slaughter and eat. This they did immediately. At night they entertained the POWs with their "USO" type variety show that traveled with them. There was much joy and celebration among the newly freed POWs and the Russian soldiers.
The Russian Army stayed in Barth for only a couple of weeks. After the POWs were evacuated from Barth, the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) took over the empty barracks at Stalag Luft I and used them for a repatriation camp for their countrymen that had been used as slave labor by the Germans. Those slave workers that were in the territory occupied by the Western Allies were transferred to the territory occupied by the Soviets. They came into repatriation camps where they were interrogated by the Soviet Secret Service (GPU) and this organization decided whether the former slave workers were sent home to their families or into stalinistic camps (Gulags) to do slave work in coal mines in Siberia or somewhere else. Even some of the newly freed concentration camp survivors which were Soviet citizens were transferred into Gulags because they had been forced to work in the German warfare industry, like in Barth where they were forced to work in the Heinkel plane factory and were imprisoned in the small concentration camp at the territory of the Barth airfield.
http://www.merkki.com/russians.htm
May 1st, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The prototype Auster A.O.P. 6 (TJ 707) makes its maiden flight. It is a light-cabin monoplane designed to equip the Air Observation Post squadrons. (22)
Minesweeper HMS Niger launched.
GERMANY: German General Krebs visits Zhukov to attempt to negotiate the surrender of Berlin. He is informed that surrender must be unconditional.
Berlin: General Weidling’s diary (90) courtesy of Russ Folsom:
The situation was extremely acute by late afternoon. The defenders of Berlin were crowded into an extremely small space. There could no longer be any hope of a successful breakout. Any attempt at a breakout would have cost more valuable blood, and would have had not the least success. It was perfectly clear to me what the decision must be. Regardless of that, however, I was not going to take this responsible decision on my own, and I asked my closest collaborators to state their views frankly. They all agreed with me: there was only one solution
- Surrender.
We quickly succeeded in making radio contact with the local Russian commanders. At midnight Colonel von Dufving once again crossed our lines as a peace envoy. During the night we did our utmost to inform as many formations as possible of our intentions but our attempts failed almost completely, owing to poor signals communications.
At 0500 hours I crossed a sort of suspension bridge that had been rigged up from undamaged cables of the destroyed bridge over the Landwehrkanal. From Russian Divisional HQ we drove to Army HQ. From there I addressed for the last time those German soldiers still fighting in some parts of Berlin, with orders to lay down their arms. The orders were also passed on by some officers of my staff, accompanied by Russian interpreters.
When we reached Army HQ a delegation from the German Ministry of Propaganda appeared. The Permanent Under-Secretary of the Ministry, Dr.Fritzsche, also addressed an appeal to all German soldiers, urging them to stop fighting at once in the interests of the Berlin population. The Russian command did everything they could to help us put as quick an end as possible to this senseless and lunatic struggle.
Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt is captured by US troops.
From the deck of the Aviso (sloop) GRILLE Dönitz announces the death of Hitler. (Russ Folsom)
Hamburg Radio announces that Hitler is dead. Dönitz is announced as the second Fuhrer of the Reich. He then makes a radio address which seems to listeners as very weak.
Grand Admiral Dönitz, Hitler’s appointed successor, orders the German troops to fight to the end while Himmler, who has no authority, is attempting to negotiate favourable surrender terms with the Allies. British troops advance on Lubeck and Hamburg, and US forces are dug in on the west bank of the Elbe.
The Fuhrerbunker, in Berlin, empties as Martin Bormann leaves with others. Josef Goebbels and his wife die after killing their six children. First the children had to be poisoned, all six of them: Helga, 12; Hilda, 11; Helmut, nine; Holde, seven; Hedda, five; and Heide, three. Having given them lethal injections. Josef Goebbels and his wife Magda left the bunker and asked an SS orderly to shoot them in the back of the head.
U-4710 commissioned.
U-3006 scuttled at 0700 at Wilhelmshaven. Wreck broken up.
U-3009 scuttled near Wesermünde. Wreck broken up.
AUSTRIA: The US 7th Army continues advancing into Austria.
ITALY: German General Vietinghoff agrees to the terms signed at Caserta.
Partisans under Tito capture Trieste a few hours before Britain’s Eighth Army.
BURMA: British forces in the Sittang Valley approach Pegu. There are also paratrooper landings on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River with the intention of taking Rangoon.
BORNEO: General Whitehead and 18,000 troops of the 26th Australian Brigade land on
Borneo.
The assault landing by Australian troops on Tarakan, off the coast of east Borneo, is the first move to free the Dutch East Indies from Japanese occupation. The naval assault is under the command of VAdm Barbey. The 26th Infantry Brigade of the 9th Division stormed ashore today, thrusting aside a Japanese garrison of 2,100. The Australian government does not like to see its troops used in the Borneo campaign, which it regards as a mopping-up operation. It wants them to take part in the main offensive against Japan.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force arrives to fight alongside the USAAF in the Philippines.
U.S.A.: Escort carrier USS Lingayen laid down.
Oh joy millions and millions get to live under the communist boot for decades. And Americans are impoverished fighting the cold war.
Should have been an American Flag.
Even though the Wehrmacht had no concrete plans to fortify the mountains, nonetheless it was a great propaganda tool, as shown by the amount of space the NYT gave it.
I had a research project involving the Redoubt - real or rumor? In small pockets and always under the local commands, there were low-level officers who were setting up hide sites for themselves and the troops under their immediate command.
There was even an SS detachment garrisoning Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, using that beautiful castle as an ammo dump. When the GI's rolled up, the garrison surrendered without incident.
http://www.anesi.com/east/bormann.htm
The Escape Route of Martin Bormann
May 1-2, 1945
Telegram sent from The Fuehrerbunker at 15:15 on May 1, 1945:GRAND ADMIRAL DOENITZ —
Most secret — urgent — officer only
The Fuehrer died yesterday at 15:30 hours. Testament of April 29th appoints you as Reich President, Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels as Reich Chancellor, Reichsleiter Bormann as Party Minister, Reich Minister Seyss-Inquart as Foreign Minister. By order of the Fuehrer, the Testament has been sent out of Berlin to you, to Field-Marshal Schoerner, and for preservation and publication. Reichsleiter Bormann intends to go to you today and to inform you of the situation. Time and form of announcement to the Press and to the troops is left to you. Confirm receipt.
— GOEBBELS.
Goebbels’ tenure as Reich Chancellor was brief. A few hours after sending this telegram, he poisoned his six children with cyanide capsules. At 20:30 he and his wife emerged from the Fuehrerbunker into the chancellery garden where they were shot, at their own request, by an SS orderly.
At the same time, in the bunker of the New Chancellery, a miscellaneous group of women, soldiers, party officials, and hangers-on gathered in preparation for a mass escape. Nominally under the command of Martin Bormann, they planned to follow tunnels from the chancellery to the subway line, and then follow the subway line north, under the Friedrichstrasse, to the Friedrichstrasse station a few hundred yards south of the river Spree. At that point they would surface, link up with what was left of Brigadefuehrer Mohnke’s battle group, and attempt to force their way across the Weidendammer Bridge. Then they would proceed north-west, through the Russian lines, and save themselves as best they could.
At 23:00 hours the mass escape began. Moving in small groups, they proceeded underground, as planned, to the Friedrichstrasse station. Here they emerged to find the ruins of Berlin in flames, and Russian shells bursting everywhere around them. The first group managed to cross the river Spree by an iron footbridge that ran parallel to the Weidendammer Bridge. The remaining groups likewise emerged at the Friedrichstrasse Station, but there became confused and disoriented. They made their way north along the Friedrichstrasse to the Weidendammer Bridge, where they found their way blocked, at the bridge’s north end, by an anti-tank barrier and heavy Russian fire.
They next withdrew to the south end of the bridge, where they were soon joined by a few German tanks. Gathering about the tanks, they again pressed forward. Bormann, Artur Axmann (head of the Hitler Youth), Ludwig Stumpfegger (Hitler’s surgeon), and others followed the lead tanks as far as the Ziegelstrasse. There a panzerfaust struck the lead tank. The violent explosion stunned Bormann and Stumpfegger, and wounded Axmann. All retreated to the Weidendammer Bridge.
Now it was every man for himself. Bormann, Stumpfegger, Axmann, and others followed the tracks of the surface railway to the Lehrter station. There Bormann and Stumpfegger decided to follow the Invalidienstrasse east. Axmann elected to go west, but encountered a Russian patrol and returned on the path Bormann and Stumpfegger had taken. He soon found them. Behind the bridge, where the Invalidienstrasse crosses the railroad tracks, they lay on their backs, the moonlight on their faces. Both were dead. Axmann could see no signs of an explosion, and assumed that they had been shot in the back. He continued on his way, escaping from Berlin and spending the next six months hiding out with the Hitler Youth in the Bavarian Alps, where he was eventually captured.
For a full, fascinating, lucid, and authoritative account of the fate of Messrs. Bormann, Goebbels, Hitler, and other denizens of The Bunker, consult The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor-Roper (University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-81224-3). Late in 1945, British Intelligence appointed Mr. Roper to investigate the evidence surrounding the death of Hitler. His book followed in 1946 as a result of this investigation, and was updated by him over the years as new evidence emerged.
Roper left the issue of Bormann’s death open in early editions of the work, because evidence of Bormann’s death rested solely on the testimony of Artur Axmann. Although Axmann’s testimony regarding other events was truthful so far as it could be independently verified, Roper realized that Axmann might be giving false evidence to protect Bormann from further search.
In December, 1972, during construction near the Lehrter Station (near to where Bormann’s diary had been found in a discarded leather jacket in 1945, and close to the spot where Axmann said he had seen Bormann’s body in the moonlight of that fatal night) two skeletons were unearthed. After extensive forensic examination, using the dental records of Bormann’s dentist (Prof. Hugo Blaschke, who was also Hitler’s dentist) the shorter of the two skeletons was identified as that of Martin Bormann, and West German authorities officially declared him dead. The forensic identification was validated by Dr. Reidar F. Sognnaes, a celebrated U.S. expert in such matters. (Reidar F. Sognnaes, “Dental Evidence in the Postmortem Identification of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and Martin Bormann”, in Legal Medicine Annual, 1976.) This new evidence caused Roper to write in the 1978 edition of The Last Days of Hitler that “...in view of new evidence which has recently been found, I believe that it [the question of Bormann’s death] can now be closed.”
As stated in the Final Report of the Frankfurt State Prosecution office under File Index No. Js 11/61 (GStA Ffm.) in “Criminal Action against Martin Bormann on Charge of Murder”, dated April 4, 1973:
XI. Result
Although nature has placed limits on human powers of recognition (BGHZ Vol. 36, pp. 379-393-NJW 1962, 1505), it is proved with certainty that the two skeletons found on the Ulap fairgrounds in Berlin on December 7 and 8, 1972, are identical with the accused Martin Bormann and Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger.
The accused and Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger died in Berlin in the early hours of the morning of May 2, 1945 — sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 A.M.
XII. Further Measures
1. The search for Martin Bormann is officially terminated....
WW2 Presentation Of Medals, Braunschweig, Germany, May 1, 1945
https://archive.org/details/ADC-4268a
"Benito Mussolini was arrested by Communist partisans in April 1945 as he tried to flee to Austria disguised as a German soldier.
The partisans shot him on April 28. Subsequently, his body, along with that of his mistress--Clara Petacci--and five other close confidants, was hanged in Milan, Italy's Piazzale Loreto and mutilated by an angry mob.
Ironically, Mussolini ignored the advice of his son and others when he refused to fly out of the country to temporary safety.
Petacci, too, was foolishly stubborn, and refused to abandon Il Duce."
"These emaciated children survived the Ravensbrück, Germany, concentration camp. >br> Though Ravensbrück imprisoned mostly women, it also included a children's camp at Uckermark and a separate section for men.
In December 1944 and January 1945, Uckermark was recognized as a selection and extermination camp for Ravensbrück.
At the end of January, a large selection took place; old, sick, or weak women were taken to Uckermark and murdered, many by gassing.
These selections continued into spring, leading to the deaths of at least 5,000 women."
"A sparse complement of guards leads numerous prisoners in a death march from the Dachau, Germany, concentration camp on April 29, 1945.
This photograph, surreptitiously taken by a German civilian, shows the emaciated prisoners as they march through the Bavarian countryside down the Nördlichen Münchner Strasse in Grünwald. Few civilians tried to help the suffering marchers."
"These physically and psychologically abused men were among those liberated from the Dachau, Germany, concentration camp by the U.S. Army on April 29, 1945.
One American soldier said the camp's inmates 'were skin and bones.'
Many of the survivors had lived for months on starvation rations.
A large percentage of them died even after being liberated."
"Former prisoners often seized opportunities for revenge against camp guards.
This German, previously a guard at Dachau, was beaten by inmates who, against the odds, had survived his cruelty."
"Thirty minutes after the camp's liberation, a human body continues to burn in one of Dachau's crematorium ovens.
As the death toll mounted, the Nazis kept Dachau's ovens operating night and day.
Still, it was not nearly enough to dispose of the bodies of the hundreds who were dying each day."
"Two British soldiers guard the infamous Alex Bernard Hans Piorkowski, former commandant of Dachau.
While relatively few of the inmates at Dachau were gassed, Piorkowski assured that conditions there were so appalling that inmates died by the thousands of starvation, disease, and abuse (including outright execution) at the hands of the camp's personnel."
"Jack Hallett, an American soldier who helped liberate Dachau, noted that the 'first thing I saw was a stack of bodies--oh, 20 feet long and about, oh, as high as a man could reach....
And the thing I'll never forget was the fact that closer inspection found people whose eyes were still blinking maybe three or four deep inside the stack.'
A particularly haunting aspect of the terrible scene photographed here is the clothed young woman among the dozens of shaven, naked male bodies."
http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/to-general-of-the-army-douglas-macarthur-8/
General George C. Marshall To General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, May 1, 1945
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Date: May 1, 1945
Subject: World War II
Collection: Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Volume 5: The Finest Soldier
Summary
To General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
May 1, 1945 Radio No. WAR-75548. Washington, D.C.
Secret
General Marshall to General MacArthur EYES ONLY.
The President has just talked to me regarding Civil Affairs in the Philippines.1 He is to see Osmena on Friday [May 4] and will probably see Mr. Stimson Wednesday or Thursday.2
Mr. Truman is being pressed by Mr. Ickes to appoint a High Commissioner but is opposed to such action.3 Osmena proposes that Mr. Truman designate some civilian to be his special representative in the Philippines but without the title of High Commissioner. He doubts whether this should be done.
He proposed to me the following procedure: The immediate appointment of a special commission headed by Senator Tydings and to be composed of one representative each of the War Production Board, the Shipping Board, the Veterans Bureau, and the Foreign Economic Administration, to proceed to the Philippines and prepare a report for his guidance. He felt that Senator Tydings and this board would make unnecessary the appointment of any special representative as suggested by Osmena, though their stay in the islands would only be temporary.4 Radio me EYES ONLY your reaction to this procedure.5
Document Copy Text Source: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (RG 165), Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (OCS), 093, Philippines, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.
Document Format: Typed radio message.
1. On May 1 General Marshall met with President Truman at the White House at 3:00 P.M. They discussed issues regarding the Philippines such as providing relief supplies, whether there should be an American resident representative there, postwar bases, and reconstruction. (Marshall took to the White House meeting a map and three double-spaced pages of notes drafted by O.P.D. titled “Philippine Islands,” May 1, 1945, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].)
2. President of the Philippines Sergio Osmeña had first met with President Truman on April 19, and they were scheduled to meet again at the White House on May 4. (Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, vol. 1, Year of Decisions [Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1955], pp. 65–66, 275–76.) Secretary of War Stimson met with President Truman on May 2, and among the topics discussed was the Philippines. (May 2, 1945, Yale/H. L. Stimson Papers [Diary, 51: 91–92].)
3. Harold L. Ickes had served as secretary of the interior since 1933. When the Japanese forces occupied the Philippines, President Roosevelt transferred to Secretary Ickes the duties of the U.S. high commissioner there. (T. H. Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952 [New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990], pp. 781–83.)
4. Senator Millard E. Tydings (Democrat from Maryland) served as chairman of the Filipino Rehabilitation Commission and had supported Philippine independence.
5. See the following document (Papers of George Catlett Marshall, #5-111 [5: 164].
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945–January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 163–164.
May 1, 1945:
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