Posted on 07/24/2003 7:58:27 PM PDT by Angelus Errare
Minutemen of the Third Reich.(history of the Nazi Werewolf guerilla movement) Author/s: Perry Biddiscombe Issue: Oct, 2000
AS WORRIES INCREASE about neo-Nazi and skinhead violence in Germany, it is worth remembering that this type of terrorism is a nasty constant in the history of the German radical-right. A case in point is the Nazi Werewolf guerrilla movement founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1944, which fought the occupying forces of Britain, America and Russia until at least 1947.
The Werewolves were originally organised by the SS and the Hitler Youth as a diversionary operation on the fringes of the Third Reich, which were occupied by the Western Allies and the Soviets in the autumn of 1944. Some 5,000 -- 6,000 recruits were raised by the winter of 1944-45, but numbers rose considerably in the following spring when the Nazi Party and the Propaganda Ministry launched a popular call to arms, beseeching everybody in the occupied areas -- even women and children -- to launch themselves upon the enemy. In typical Nazi fashion, this expansion was not co-ordinated by the relevant bodies, which were instead involved in a bureaucratic war among themselves over control of the project. The result was that the movement functioned on two largely unrelated levels: the first as a real force of specially trained SS, Hitler Youth and Nazi Party guerrillas; the second as an outlet for casual violence by fanatics.
The Werewolves specialised in ambushes and sniping, and took the lives of many Allied and Soviet soldiers and officers -- perhaps even that of the first Soviet commandant of Berlin, General N.E. Berzarin, who was rumoured to have been waylaid in Charlottenburg during an incident in June 1945. Buildings housing Allied and Soviet staffs were favourite targets for Werewolf bombings; an explosion in the Bremen police headquarters, also in June 1945, killed five Americans and thirty-nine Germans. Techniques for harassing the occupiers were given widespread publicity through Werewolf leaflets and radio propaganda, and long after May 1945 the sabotage methods promoted by the Werewolves were still being used against the occupying powers.
Although the Werewolves originally limited themselves to guerrilla warfare with the invading armies, they soon began to undertake scorched-earth measures and vigilante actions against German `collaborators' or `defeatists'. They damaged Germany's economic infrastructure, already battered by Allied bombing and ground fighting, and tried to prevent anything of value from falling into enemy hands. Attempts to blow up factories, power plants or waterworks occasionally provoked melees between Werewolves and desperate German workers trying to save the physical basis of their employment, particularly in the Ruhr and Upper Silesia.
Several sprees of vandalism through stocks of art and antiques, stored by the Berlin Museum in a flak tower at Friedrichshain, caused millions of dollars worth of damage and cultural losses of inestimable value. In addition, vigilante attacks caused the deaths of a number of small-town mayors and, in late March 1945, a Werewolf paratroop squad assassinated the Lord Mayor of Aachen, Dr Franz Oppenhoff, probably the most prominent German statesman to have emerged in the occupied fringes over the winter of 1944-45. This spate of killings, part of a larger Nazi terror campaign that consumed the Third Reich after the failed anti-Hitler putsch of July 20th, 1944, can be interpreted as a psychological retreat back into opposition, even while Nazi leaders were still clinging to their last few months of power.
Although the Werewolves managed to make themselves a nuisance to small Allied and Soviet units, they failed to stop or delay the invasion and occupation of Germany, and did not succeed in rousing the population into widespread opposition to the new order. The SS and Hitler Youth organisations at the core of the Werewolf movement were poorly led, short of supplies and weapons, and crippled by infighting. Their mandate was a conservative one of tactical harassment, at least until the final days of the war, and even when they did begin to envision the possibility of an underground resistance that could survive the Third Reich's collapse, they had to contend with widespread civilian war-weariness and fear of enemy reprisals. In Western Germany, no one wanted to do anything that would diminish the pace of Anglo-American advance and possibly thereby allow the Red Army to push further westward.
Despite its failure, however, the Werewolf project had a huge impact, widening the psychological and spiritual gap between Germans and their occupiers. Werewolf killings and intimidation of `collaborators' scared almost everybody, giving German civilians a clear glimpse into the nihilistic heart of Nazism. It was difficult for people working under threat of such violence to devote themselves unreservedly to the initial tasks of reconstruction. Worse still, the Allies and Soviets reacted to the movement with extremely tough controls, curtailing the right of assembly of German civilians. Challenges of any sort were met by collective reprisals -- especially on the part of the Soviets and the French. In a few cases the occupiers even shot hostages and cleared out towns where instances of sabotage occurred. It was standard practice for the Soviets to destroy whole communities if they faced a single act of resistance. In the eastern fringes of the `Greater Reich', now annexed by the Poles and the Czechoslovaks, Werewolf harassment handed the new authorities an excuse to rush the deportations of millions of ethnic Germans to occupied Germany.
Such policies were understandable, but they created an unbridgeable gulf between the German people and the occupation forces who had pledged to impose essential reforms. It was hard, in such conditions, for the occupiers to encourage reform, and even harder to persuade the Germans that it was necessary.
By the time that this rough opposition to the occupation had started to soften, the Cold War was under way and reform became equally difficult to implement. As a result, both German states created in 1949 were not so dissimilar to their predecessor as might have been hoped, and changes in attitudes and institutions developed only slowly. Thanks partly to the Werewolves there was no German revolution in 1945, either imposed from above or generated from below.
The Last Nazis by Perry Biddiscombe, is published this month by Tempus. The book explores the background to the movement, its operations and its wholly negative legacy to the history of reconstruction in postwar Germany.
The Last Nazis is available in bookshops, priced 19.99/$32.50 [pounds sterling], or by calling 01453 883300 (UK) or 001-888-313-2665 (North America).
COPYRIGHT 2000 History Today Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group
I take some comfort in reading this, because it sounds as if the Werewolves were better organized than the groups in Iraq. Yet they didn't slow history down one bit, thank God. Helps us keep the faith while continuing to pray for our troops.
The facts on the ground of German occupation in 1945-46 are nearly identical in all respects to Iraqi occupation in 1003-2004. The number of Americans involved, the casualty rates, the rates of sabotage, the rates of attacks on "collaborators" are all statistical matches between Germany and Iraq.
You are correct that Japan does not apply. However, that is because they revered the Emperor, and McArthur (wisely) left the Emperor in place and the Emperor (wisely) urged no resistance to the occupation. Your question about Italy shows you've missed a few historical points. Much of Italy fell, in the last days, to Italian partisans, rather than Allied troops. It was Italians who hung Mussolini's body from a lamppost in Milan.
America has not attempted any "nation-building" in the last twenty years that was remotely comparable to Iraq, today. But it did do precisely that, under nearly identical circumstances, in Germany in 1945-46. You need to read some more history books from WW II.
Congressman Billybob
The parallels between that history and what is happening in Iraq today (including the fact that Hitler was not proven to be dead until December, 1945, and was widely believed to be alive and still leading the resistance) will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Iraq is nothing new. We've been there, done that, succeeded -- before.
Congressman Billybob
What is with these historical revisionists that REFUSE to understand that NAZI means National Socialist!!!
Exactly. I love to see the reaction from some of my liberal aquaintences when I point that out. (Usually after they have accused a Republican of being a Nazi.) The libs go crazy. It's really funny to watch their deranged denial.
I also point out that Hitler and Stalin signed a pact in which much of the wording stated how similar their governments were.
Of course, Hitler betrayed and attacked Russia and Russia had to rely heavily on the evil capitalist Allies for money, arms, supplies and support. Without the US/British help, the USSR would have fallen to Hitler and Japan according to most military historians. Until the Germans invaded the Motherland and rallied around their leaders in self-defense, the Russian economy was in a shambles and Stalin and his thugs were extremely unpopular due to the murderous purges and mismanagement of the 1930's.
What most people also don't know is that, according to some documents found in the former USSR archives, Stalin also had hopes of invading and/or undermining Germany eventually and adding it to it's "purer" socialist empire. No honor amongst thieves...
Absolutely, right down to the soles of their feet. Indeed, the tactic of indoctrinating their youth into the Hitler youth, was simply a manifestation of the tactics of other German Socialist groups, that had earlier established similar youth organizations, to indoctrinate the youth into Socialist dogma.
My attitude can best be summed up with the Chris Rock joke about OJ. "I do not condone what OJ did...but I understand"
They were Right Wing and Left Wing all in one.
Being a Nationalist does not say anything about where you are on the political spectrum. To see a graphic representation of the Left/Right lineup: Political Spectrum.
William Flax
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