Tapping Hitler's Generals

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

BROICH: That is the last attempt. If that comes to nothing, then it is all up. If they are attacking on a 50 km front, that can never develop into a big break-through, besides here are the ARDENNES and you can’t get any further there–I don’t know what the Americans there are like–perhaps if they are taken by surprise they may be able to capture 20,000 Americans, if all goes well, but all I would say is that it will cause great inconvenience but I don’t think that it will make much odds in the long run.[123]

Document 53

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 235

Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 21–2 Dec. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4364]

HEIM: It will be like this: as with all his other illusions HITLER has really put his heart and soul into this affair and has done everything to this end. Perhaps it will be the last.

EBERBACH: It won’t be his last. This man will never stop having illusions. When he is standing under the gallows he will still be under the illusion that he’s not going to be hanged.

MEYER: I just hope that our offensive will succeed in finally splitting the British and Americans.

EBERBACH: I fear the opposite will be the case.

MEYER: I don’t consider the offensive strong enough to bring about the decision in the West, and I consider an offensive in the West which is not strong enough to undermine all the Western partnerships to be very dangerous for us.

EBERBACH: Of course.

RAMCKE (to CHOLTITZ): This offensive is enormous. The German people will not be defeated. You watch, we will pursue the Allies right across France and hurl them into the Bay of Biscay.”

Document 54

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 237

Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 21–2 Dec. 44 [TNA, WO 208/4364]

MEYER: It is like this with the FÜHRER: I was with him and he began talking: one had to watch like a lynx in order to get a word in, and at that moment he began again and talked and talked and talked until–for half an hour, three-quarters of an hour–he brings up problems and shows you that things are not right after all. You go away and say to yourself: ‘That’s all right, he knows better.’

CHOLTITZ: No. I went away saying: ‘I’m afraid he is mad.’ (Laughter).[124]

MEYER: Then I found out one thing, that KEITEL and all the people there said on principle: ‘Yes, my FÜHRER!’ ‘Yes, my FÜHRER!’ ‘Yes, my FÜHRER!’ No matter what he said, they replied: ‘Yes, my FÜHRER!’ The moment a man arrived from the front–I don’t know how it was with Generals–but KEITEL and the rest tried to influence the man as to what he should say.

CHOLTITZ: No, that didn’t happen to me, of course I think I would have told him where he got off. (Laughter).

MEYER: I can truthfully say that I told the FÜHRER what I considered to be right. The last time I was there was in 1943. A great part of the blame lies with the FÜHRER’s immediate entourage.[125]

CHOLTITZ: My dear fellow, I know a little too much about that to be able to agree with you and I must tell you of an excellent proverb which says: ‘Every man gets what he deserves.’ If I dismiss seven field-marshals because they tell me the truth, if I dismiss about thirty commanding generals because they tell me the truth–that’s asking too much–If I dismiss all those who tell me the truth–and who afterwards turn out to be right, and I still won’t admit–When civilians at home say to me: ‘You Generals are to blame,’ I say: ‘We? We didn’t vote for him, it’s you who always voted for him. We can’t do anything about it if he’s become legally Supreme Commander. We can’t mutiny, you know!’ ‘Well then, who is to mutiny?’ The Army knew it wouldn’t work that way. This ‘Putsch’ of 20 July will be regarded as an event of historic significance. Those 1,500 men, hanged by these criminals, will all get a memorial dedicated to them, for they were the only patriotic, resolute and ‘ready to act’ men that we had. For they foresaw the utter desolation we were being led into, if things went n as they were.

Document 55

CSDIC (UK), GRGG 242

Report on the reaction of Senior Officers (PW) in Camp no. 11 to Hitler and Goebbels’s New Year speeches, 31 Dec. 44/1 Jan. 45. [TNA, WO 208/4364]

THOMA: He was remarkably quiet today; he didn’t shout once.[126]

BASSENGE: One may be biased–I hardly like to put it into words, but was really HITLER?

WAHLE: Oh, yes, definitely.

BASSENGE: Everything can be faked, even his voice.

WILCK: It keeps cropping up, in fact it’s become a settled there with him: ‘We survive as many things: such a People and such a Leader, who has patently been preserved by Providence, can never perish.’

WILDERMUTH: Yes, that’s the straw to which he clings.

WILCK: Of course, and so do the others.

WILDERMUTH: All the same one can say that our present position looks exactly like our downfall.

WILCK: That’s true enough. And when he speaks of ‘thousands of “Volkssturmbataillone”’–