Tapping Hitler's Generals

Neither age, rank, branch of service, regional origin nor religion indicate whether a man was likely to have attached himself to the pro-or anti-Nazi clique. Political leaning was personal to the officer, in combination with front experience. Living through a military disaster might lead to extensive reflection on politics, strategy and the character of the National Socialist system. The ‘Napoleon winter’ before Moscow in 1941, the catastrophe at Stalingrad, the defeat in Tunisia or the struggle in Normandy left many with a critical view of the leadership and the Nazi State. Such an experience was not necessarily a precondition for an anti-Nazi stance. General der Panzertruppe Heinrich Eberbach had never been a Party member, but was considered before his capture to be a convinced National Socialist, ‘brave, loyal and firm’, according to Guderian. He spent almost the entire war in the FührerReserve or as a field-commander in France. He experienced no great defeats, but at Trent Park spoke out against the war and Nazism. CSDIC (UK) held Eberbach to be ‘a strong personality with clear opinions’ who now believed that the Nazi regime was a criminal organisation and so no longer considered himself bound by his oath of allegiance.

3. The Main Subjects of Discussion

3.1 Politics, Stategy and the Different Camps at Trent Park

When Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma arrived at Trent Park in November 1942, the only other inmate was Ludwig Crüwell, captured five months previously. Both were of about the same age, highly decorated and each had commanded a panzer division on the Eastern Front and in 1942 with the Afrika Korps. The first evening they sat up talking until 2 a.m. Further long conversations followed in the next few days. After a week the first differences of opinion made themselves felt. Crüwell accused Thoma of being ‘negative’. ‘Frankly,’ Crüwell said, ‘talking to you, one gets the impression that you accept all the criticisms of Greater Germany, and that if it had been left to you from the very beginning, everything would have been done so much better.’[78] From the outset, Thoma had condemned the overall situation because the economic resources of the Allies were increasing while those of the Axis powers were diminishing. He had criticised the decision to attack the Soviet Union,[79] denigrated Hitler and the Party,[80] described in drastic terms dreadful German war crimes committed in Russia (Document 83) and reported on the programme by which the Jews were to have been removed from Europe by the end of 1942. It was a ‘tragedy of obedience’[81] that German soldiers had gone along with the National Socialist regime. They had let too much go unchallenged, said von Thoma. Of course, no general could simply rebel by himself but the three C-in-Cs could have acted jointly against the outgrowth of the National Socialist State, particularly at the time of the Fritsch affair.[82]

Crüwell however had another opinion. He was proud that the Army generals of the Third Reich had served so loyally.[83] He emphasised that he had not gone through life blinkered, but considered it impossible that a German soldier could commit a foul deed.[84] It was obvious to him that the war could last very much longer yet,[85] but in the final analysis it had to be won, for otherwise it would be ‘Finis Germaniae’.[86] Crüwell was thinking of his four children and their uncertain future,[87] but also of the hundreds of thousands of Germans who would have fallen in vain should the war be lost.[88]

How did these two generals, whose military careers at first sight ran such similar courses, manage to develop such divergent points of view? A closer look at their lives may provide the clue.

Thoma ended World War I as Oberleutnant in No. 3. Bavarian Infantry Regiment. On the Eastern Front during the Brossilov offensive in 1916 he won the Military Order of Max Josef, the highest Bavarian decoration for an officer. The award brought with it a title. Between 1936 and 1939 he led the Legion Condor ground forces in the Spanish Civil War. In the Polish campaign he commanded a panzer regiment; from March 1940 to July 1941 he served as General der Schnellen Truppen (motorised units). During this latter appointment at OKH he obtained a comprehensive overview of the general war situation and associated with the most senior military commanders.[89] Thoma met Hitler on numerous occasions and got on very well with him, since they conversed in the same Bavarian dialect. Thoma’s assertion that he knew Hitler in the Great War cannot be confirmed, but seems unlikely.[90]