Tapping Hitler's Generals

RAMCKE: Well, for one thing Allied bombing destroyed the harbour installations and naturally hit the town as well. I had evacuated the population. The Americans bombarded the town ruthlessly too, and I said to myself: It’s as much their blame as ours; those swine must not be allowed to establish themselves here on any account; they mustn’t be allowed to use the town as a harbour and must be prevented from quickly establishing quarters for reconstruction personnel. Well, I set fire to it and burned it down. I was furious because 75 per cent of my hospital cases who were lying in field hospitals… on the 8th, before the siege started, had been caused by terrorists; I was livid with rage.

CHOLTITZ: How did you manage it? I should be interested, because of PARIS. How do you set a town on fire?

RAMCKE: For one thing I didn’t allow any fires caused by bombs or artillery fire to be extinguished, on the contrary, we fed the fires.

CHOLTITZ: How is that done?

RAMCKE: You enter a neighbouring house and throw in some kindling material. Then you open doors and windows, creating a draught.

CHOLTITZ: Yes, you can do that with one house, but you can’t set the whole town on fire that way, can you?

RAMCKE: We were stationed all around BREST; we had a defence zone in depth and our main defence installations were in BREST; we had to blow up houses to give us a field of fire; we had to clear a space for the ‘Bunker’ and above all we had to prevent the narrow streets being blocked by bombing or artillery-fire. We therefore blew up any houses standing at dangerous corners, so as to keep the streets clear.

CHOLTITZ: Who did all that for you?

RAMCKE: There was a ‘Pionierzug’ at the Garrison HQ and then there were naval personnel, a demolition squad from the fortress garrison; I fetched them all from their ‘Bunker’ and formed them into ‘Kompanien’; then there was a railway ‘Kompanie’, which demolished the entire railway; then there were all the military police, consisting of 163 men, who had arrived there from the field HQ; I ordered them to do it and thus had a really large detachment operating.

CHOLTITZ: Did you destroy the town completely?

RAMCKE: It was entirely wiped out!

CHOLTITZ: But that’s a war crime!

RAMCKE: No. I demolished the electric railway…

CHOLTITZ: No one worries about that, that’s obvious. But why did you destroy civilian houses?

RAMCKE: I told you the reason; I blew them up whenever they were an obstruction and whenever military necessity called for it.[273]

CHOLTITZ: But RAMCKE, that, of course, is a war-crime!

RAMCKE: Of course! But I was only following the example of the English round about 1793, when NELSON burned down the whole of TOULON.[274]

CHOLTITZ: Why did he do that?

RAMCKE: Because he didn’t want the French to have the use of the harbour.

Document 113

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 221

Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 10–12 Nov. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4364]

ELFELDT: When we were in the KIEV district, my CO of signals(?) came back quite horrified… spoken… it was an engineer ‘Bataillonskommandeur’–and this engineer ‘Bataillon’ had the task of blowing up that… in which were these 32,000 Jews including women and children.

HEIM: Even if the figures are not correct, I mean, there are things which can absolutely be characterised as criminal, or even as completely crazy and mad.

ELFELDT: In just the same way as I have obligations towards my family and my nation, so have we of course, as a nation, certain rules which we must observe towards the rest of humanity, there’s no doubt at all about that. I can’t behave like a wild beast.[275]

Document 114

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 225

Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 18–19 Nov. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4364]

BASSENGE: I’ve got the impression that MEYER will not be in the least in the way here.

WILDERMUTH: No, he won’t. But one never knows what a man like that has done in the past.

BASSENGE: No, he must be treated with reserve.

WILDERMUTH: One is never sure with a man like that whether he may not have done things which are not in keeping with the code of behaviour of an officer.

BASSENGE: I shall not make a point of seeking his company but he mustn’t get the feeling that he is being boycotted here.

WILDERMUTH: No, we can’t boycott him if he behaves correctly.

BASSENGE: I agree. That is my personal impression.

WILDERMUTH: He doesn’t make a good impression on me.

BASSENGE: No.

WILDERMUTH: His face! Would you like a face like that in your regiment?

BASSENGE: No, I know that type well and I always go by their fingers; I look at their hands.