The End Read online

  The End

  IAN KERSHAW

  The End

  The Defiance and Destruction of

  Hitler’s Germany, 1944 – 45

  THE PENGUIN PRESS

  New York

  2011

  THE PENGUIN PRESS

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  First published in 2011 by The Penguin Press,

  a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © Ian Kershaw, 2011

  All rights reserved

  Illustration credits appear on pages vii–ix.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

  Kershaw, Ian.

  The end : the defiance and destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945 / Ian Kershaw.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-59420-314-5 (hardback)

  1. World War, 1939–1945—Germany. 2. Sociology, Military—Germany—History—20th century. 3. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945—Military leadership.

  4. Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945—Public opinion. I. Title.

  D757.K38 2011

  940.5343—dc23 2011020135

  Printed in the United States of America

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  Dramatis Personae

  Introduction: Going Down in Flames

  1. Shock to the System

  2. Collapse in the West

  3. Foretaste of Horror

  4. Hopes Raised – and Dashed

  5. Calamity in the East

  6. Terror Comes Home

  7. Crumbling Foundations

  8. Implosion

  9. Liquidation

  Conclusion: Anatomy of Self-Destruction

  Notes

  List of Archival Sources Cited

  List of Works Cited

  Index

  List of Illustrations

  1. Martin Bormann, c. 1942 (photograph: akg-images)

  2. Heinrich Himmler, c. 1943 (photograph: Scala,

  Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  3. Joseph Goebbels, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  4. Albert Speer, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  5. Captured German prisoners near Falaise, September 1944 (photograph: Topfoto)

  6. German civilians evacuate Aachen, October 1944 (photograph: Bettmann/Corbis)

  7. Wilhelm Keitel (undated) (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  8. Alfred Jodl, 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  9. Heinz Guderian, 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  10. Karl Dönitz, c. 1943 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  11. Digging a trench near Tilsit, September 1944 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

  12. Erich Koch on inspection in East Prussia, August 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  13. German soldiers viewing corpses, Nemmersdorf, October 1944 (photograph: akg-images)

  14. The Ardennes offensive, December 1944 (photograph: Heinz Rutkowski (Scherl)/Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

  15. Walter Model, 1941 (photograph: akg-images/Ullsteinbild)

  16. Georg-Hans Reinhardt, 1939 (photograph: Scala,

  Florence/BPK)

  17. Ferdinand Schörner, 1942 (photograph: Scala,

  Florence/BPK)

  18. Gotthard Heinrici, 1943 (photograph: Scala,

  Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  19. Volkssturm men on the eastern front, October 1944 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  20. Volkssturm men march past Goebbels, November 1944 (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

  21. Arthur Greiser, 1939 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

  22. Josef Grohé, 1944 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

  23. Karl Hanke, c. 1942 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  24. Karl Holz (undated) (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

  25. Refugees crossing the Frisches Haff, February 1945 (photograph: Vinzenz Engel/ Scala, Florence/BPK)

  26. Abandoned wagon in East Prussia, January 1945 (photograph: Mary Evans/ Suddeutscher Verlag)

  27. Flying court-martial, location unknown, probably 1944/5 (photograph: Ullsteinbild/Topfoto)

  28. Hanged German officer, Vienna, April 1945 (photograph: akg-images/Interfoto/AWKZ)

  29. Overcrowded boat from Pillau crossing the Baltic Sea, March 1945 (photograph: akg-images)

  30. Dresden, February 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK/Walter Hahn)

  31. Nuremberg, March 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  32. Young Germans cycling to the front, February 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

  33. Berlin, April 1944 (photograph: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (Inv.-Nr.: F 66/911))

  34. Photograph from a series taken by the US Army immediately after the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimar, April 1945 (photograph: ITS Archives, Bad Arolsen (Exhibit B-1, Numbers 1-28, Set No 5, Picture No. 2))

  35. Prisoners on a death march from Dachau, April 1945 (photograph: private collection, courtesy KZ Gedenkstätte Dachau)

  36. Germans surrender to the Red Army, Königsberg, April 1945 (photograph: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (Inv.-Nr.: F 61/1661))

  37. Houses display white flags in Worms, March 1945 (photograph: Scala, Florence/BPK)

  38. Heinrich von Vietinghoff, 1944 (photograph Scala, Florence/BPK)

  39. Karl Wolff, 1942 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  40. Keitel signs the complete German capitulation, 8 May 1945 (photograph: Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)

  41. An angel on the spire of Freiburg minster, 1946 (photograph: Scala, Florence/Walter Frentz Collection)

  List of Maps

  1. The European fronts, July 1944

  2. The Allied breakthrough in the West, June to Sept
ember 1944

  3. The Red Army’s advance, June to August 1944

  4. East Prussia

  5. The Ardennes offensive

  6. The Red Army’s January 1945 offensive

  7. The Collapse of the Third Reich, March 1945

  8. Dönitz’s Reich, 1 May 1945

  9. Europe at the final surrender

  Acknowledgements

  One of the most pleasant parts of finishing a book is to thank those who, in different ways, have contributed to the making of it.

  My thanks first of all to the British Academy for a grant which helped me to undertake the initial, exploratory research. I am also grateful to the archivists and staff of the various record repositories where I have worked: the Bundesarchiv in Berlin/Lichterfelde, the Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg, the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in Stuttgart, the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv and Staatsarchiv München, the Staatsarchiv Augsburg, the International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen, the National Archives in London, the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives in King’s College, London. At the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in Stuttgart, part of the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, I had every reason to be most grateful for the help and advice of the library’s director and good friend of mine, Professor Gerhard Hirschfeld, and the head of its archival collections, Dr Irina Renz. Dr Susanne Urban was most helpful in guiding me through the extensive sources related to the death marches – only recently opened to researchers – at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, where I would also like to express my thanks to the director, M. Jean-Luc Blondel. At Duxford, I benefited greatly from Dr Stephen Walton’s expert assistance in consulting the valuable holdings of German documents. I started, and finished, the research for the book in the incomparable Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich, where I have had the good fortune to be a welcome guest for many years, and I would like to express my warmest thanks to the director, Professor Horst Möller, and his colleagues, especially the library and archives staff, who as always dealt with my many requests with unfailing courtesy and friendliness.

  Professor Otto Dov Kulka (Jerusalem), a highly esteemed colleague and friend with whom I have shared a lengthy and fruitful correspondence over many years, first pointed me in the direction of the records at Bad Arolsen. Beyond that, as ever I have been extremely grateful for his interest in my work, and for his valuable suggestions. Laurence Rees, good friend and brilliant producer of television documentaries, was kind enough to make available to me relevant transcripts of interviews, kept in the BBC Archives in London, from one of the series on which we collaborated, offered excellent advice, and was as always stimulating company, cheerfully helpful and most encouraging.

  Numerous other friends and colleagues also helped, sometimes perhaps without being aware of how helpful they had been. Among them, I owe thanks to Professor Daniel Blatman (Jerusalem), for answering a number of queries about the death marches, and for related material which he kindly sent me. Dr Andreas Kunz, of the Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg, gave me some valuable tips on relevant archival holdings on my first visit there in connection with this project. Dr Heinrich Schwendemann of the University of Freiburg most generously went to great lengths to send me documents related to the French occupation of south-west Germany in 1945 and other relevant material that was not easy for me to access. Other colleagues who also supplied me with documents, papers or other materials, provided answers to my questions, or made me think more clearly about what I was attempting include Professor John Breuilly, Dr Michael Buddrus, Mr George Burton, Dr Simone Erpel, Dr Wolfgang Holl, Dr Holger Impekoven, Professor Tim Kirk, Dr Michael Kloft, Dr Alexander Korb, Mr Michael D. Miller, Professor Bob Moore (who went to undue trouble to send me a batch of documents on a specific point related to the Netherlands, his chief area of expertise), Professor Jonathan Steinberg, Dr Klaus Wiegrefe and Dr Benjamin Ziemann. I am glad of the opportunity to extend my warm thanks to all and apologize to anyone whom I have inadvertently omitted.

  As I was feeling my way into the project, I benefited enormously, as always, from lengthy discussions with long-standing German friends, Professor Hans Mommsen (Feldafing), Professor Norbert Frei (Jena), Dr Hermann Graml and Dr Elke Fröhlich (Munich), all of whom helped me greatly in shaping my ideas. I am most grateful to each of them.

  Two scholars and friends I want to thank especially. Dr Jürgen Förster, a fine historian and notable expert on the Wehrmacht at the Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg, answered numerous queries, directed me to important records, and, not least, read and commented on the completed typescript. Dr Nick Stargardt, Magdalen College, Oxford, who is currently working on what will be an important study of German society during the war, has been full of penetrating insights throughout. He also took the time and trouble to read the entire typescript and make numerous valuable suggestions. I am most grateful to both. Of course it needs to be added, as always, that responsibility for any remaining errors is my own.

  An important debt of gratitude for their valuable suggestions on the typescript is also owing to splendid editors at Penguin – Simon Winder in London, and Laura Stickney in New York – while Andrew Wylie has been, as before, a wonderfully supportive agent. I would also like to thank all at Penguin who have helped to produce the book, Elizabeth Stratford for her excellent copy-editing and Cecilia Mackay for researching the photographs.

  Finally, there are the personal debts of gratitude. Traude and Uli Spät have, as on so many occasions in the past, been extraordinarily generous in their hospitality during my stays in Munich, and taken a keen interest in my work over many years. Throughout this project Beverley Eaton, my long-serving secretary, has continued to provide excellent support, even now that I have left the University of Sheffield, and I am particularly grateful to her for undertaking so efficiently the laborious task of compiling the List of Works Cited. Last of all, my family remain the foundation on which all is built. My thanks and love to Betty, to David, Katie, Joe and Ella, and to Stephen, Becky, Sophie, Olivia and now Henry – the latest wonderful addition to the family roster.

  Ian Kershaw

  Manchester, November 2010

  Preface

  As disastrous defeat loomed in early 1945, Germans were sometimes heard to say they would prefer ‘an end with horror, to a horror without end’. An ‘end with horror’ was certainly what they experienced, in ways and dimensions unprecedented in history. The end brought destruction and human loss on an immense scale. Much of this could have been avoided had Germany been prepared to bow to Allied terms. The refusal to contemplate capitulation before May 1945 was, therefore, for the Reich and the Nazi regime not just destructive, but also self-destructive.

  A country defeated in war almost always at some point seeks terms. Self-destruction by continuing to fight on to the last, down to almost total devastation and complete enemy occupation, is extremely rare. Yet that is what the Germans did in 1945. Why? It is tempting to give a simple answer: their leader, Hitler, persistently refused to entertain any thought of surrender, so there was no option but to fight on. But this simply poses other questions. Why were Hitler’s self-destructive orders still obeyed? What mechanisms of rule enabled him to determine Germany’s fate when it was obvious to all with eyes to see that the war was lost and the country was being utterly laid waste? How far were Germans prepared to support Hitler to the end, even though they knew he was driving the country to destruction? Were they in fact still giving him their willing backing? Or were they merely terrorized into doing so? How and why did the armed forces continue fighting and the government machine keep on functioning to the end? What alternatives did Germans, civilians and soldiers, have in the last phase of the war? These and other questions soon arise, then, from what seems at first to be a straightforward query inviting a simple answer. They can only be tackled by examining structures of rule and mentalities as the catastrophe inexorably engulfed Germany in 1944–5. That is what this
book seeks to do.

  I first thought of writing such a book because, to my surprise, I couldn’t think of another book which had tried to do what I had in mind. There are, of course, libraries of books about the end of the war, written from different perspectives, and widely varying in quality. There are important studies of the top Nazi leaders and, increasingly, of some of the regional chieftains, the Gauleiter.1 Biographies exist also for many of the leading military figures.2 There are literally thousands of accounts of events in the final climactic weeks of the Third Reich, both at the front and, it sometimes seems, for practically every town and village in Germany. Many local studies give graphic – often horrific – descriptions of the fate of individual townships as the unstoppable advance of the Allied and Soviet military juggernauts enveloped them.3 Memoirs of experiences at the front or in the homeland, in cities pounded by Allied bombs, or facing the ordeals of flight and homelessness, abound. Detailed, often localized, military histories or accounts of specific Wehrmacht units or major battles are also commonplace, while the battle for Berlin, in particular, has naturally been the focus of numerous works.4 The sixth volume of the German Democratic Republic’s official history of the war, produced in the 1980s, despite its obvious ideological slant, provides a valuable attempt at a comprehensive military history, not confined to events on the front.5 And more recently, the last volumes of the Federal Republic’s own outstanding official military history series offer excellent detailed studies of the Wehrmacht, often stretching far beyond operational history.6 Even so, these and other fine works on military history7 touch on only some – if important – aspects of what I thought was necessary to answer the questions I wanted to tackle.