Tapping Hitler's Generals

SON: Well, not in big numbers, of course. It won’t be a ‘Freikorps’ like the ‘Eiserne Division’ and the ‘Oberland’ (Post-1918 group of partisans in Eastern Germany[96]) marching through the district with bands, but groups of partisans who will support the East German population in large numbers and the refugees. In every village at the moment, and afterwards too, there will be some old ‘Ortsgruppenleiter’ or an old SS man, or something odd like that. There are people who will give the partisans shelter for a night and who will slip them some food. We belong to a GERMANY which is still National Socialist today, and 10 per cent of the population, or we’ll say 50 per cent, will continue to be National Socialist.

FATHER: Well, I believe that when this collapse occurs their own population will beat the ‘Ortsgruppenleiter’ and so on to death.

SON: Yes, but those are the unsavoury elements, my dear father. I was severely shaken by the effect of 20 July on the German population, amongst, for instance, the work people in my father-in-law’s business, where I was; they were staunch Nazis–that was very pleasing but showed themselves against the officers in that they said: ‘We killed too few officers in 1933.’ These work-people are out and out radical National Socialists, perhaps too radical. It almost borders on the National Bolshevist. But they are definitely people who would wring the necks of the small time local ‘Gruppenleitern’. There are, of course, any number amongst them who would swing round purely on account of external circumstances and who would say: ‘I must earn my money and support my family’–but there are others amongst them, foremen, for example, in whom I would have complete faith; not that they will make much fuss outwardly, of course, but… a sort of movement–active member, let’s say, who will work in secret.

FATHER: What good is that?

SON: There are many farmers and so on who, in my opinion would do the same. It depends, of course, on the district.

SON (re demobilisation of German units): Take the best mountain ‘Divisionen’, take the paratroop ‘Divisionen’, the ‘Waffen-SS-Divisionen’, the better ‘Panzerdivisionen’, those are all units which mainly have considerable fighting spirit left, and to a certain extent still have capable, young, idealistic officers, the greater number of whom are experienced, old mountain troops, paratroops and so on, and who are mainly or exclusively volunteers. How are you going to demobilise these units when you can’t even promise them decent treatment at the hands of the occupying troops? You can rely on it that I wouldn’t give up my tommy-gun either, even though I didn’t know at the moment for what purpose I needed it. I should stick a few thousand rounds of ammunition in my dispatch case and also my tommy-gun, nicely taken apart, and take it with me. Who knows for what I may need it. If I were demobilised I should collect so-and-so many Swabian soldiers from the neighbourhood and say to them: ‘Come along, we don’t know what’s going on down there, but it’s quite possible that we can do something in one way or another, and if there are a few tommy-guns lying around, take them along by all means. My men would have done that.

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Document 38

GRGG 201 (c) [TNA, WO 208/4364]

Provisional report on CS/443 Generalleutnant HEIM (Commander, Boulogne)–Captured 23 Sept. 44 in Boulogne.

RAMCKE: We know perfectly well that if we capitulate now, we should experience the same consequences, whether from the east or from your side, as are expressed in the old Roman saying ‘vae victis’ (woe to the conquered!). For that reason I maintain that it is better to go down with honour, that’s to say, better to fight to the end, and then you can wipe us off the face of the earth. But in my frank opinion I should consider it to be a mistake to capitulate without more ado. I did not just capitulate in BREST, but fought to the last round of ammunition, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that my German people at home will maintain sufficient strength to the end to defend every foot of ground, every bridge, every mountain ridge, and every town to the last. Then, as far as I’m concerned you can blot us off the map and destroy us, that would not matter, as then at least we should have gone down with honour. That’s my personal point of view. I hope that my people and nation at home–regardless of whether they are under the leadership of Adolf HITLER or some other statesman–will find the strength to defend themselves to the last under these conditions, because from the situation in 1918 we learnt the lesson that if we capitulate we are supervised and have everything taken away from us anyhow.

ELSTER: It is time for us to make peace. What are we still fighting for?