Read Hitler's Bandit Hunters Online
Authors: Philip W. Blood
Tags: #History, #Europe, #Germany, #Military, #World War II
88
. NCA, document 2610-PS, sworn testimony of US army Major Frederick W. Roche judge advocate in the case against General Dostler. Karel Margry, “The Dostler Case,”
After the Battle Magazine
, no. 94 (1996), 1–19; see also NARA, RG-319, German General Staff vol. IV, boxes 13 and 14.
89
. Eric Hosbawm,
On History
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997), 267.
90
. PRO, WO32–12206, Crimes by German Forces Against Italian Partisans. NCA, document UK-66, Report of British War Crimes Section of Allied Force Headquarters on German Reprisals for Partisan Activities in Italy, undated (probably 1945).
91
. PRO, WO208-4295, Interrogation of Luftwaffe Gefreiter Mattias Kerschgens, from Aachen, October 25, 1944.
92
. Michael Geyer, “Civitella Della Chiana on June 29, 1944,” in Heer and Naumann,
War of Extermination
, 175–216.
93
. Roger James Bender and Hugh Page Taylor,
Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS
, vol. 3 (San Jose, Calif.: Bender Publishing, 1975), 105–26.
94
. Stein,
Waffen-SS
, 298 and PRO, WO208-4359, History of the Waffen-SS division: MI.14 notes on the composition and history of the SS divisions.
95
. NARA, RG238, IMT, T1270/23/0367-0386, Heinrich Blaser, interrogation (27 February 1946), case S0799.
96
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP57, June 5, 1944.
97
. NARA, IMT, T1270, roll 23, interrogation Friedrich Dupont, August 24, 1945.
98
. PRO, WO311/359. Voluntary statement by PWD LD 1573 Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, The Partisan War in Italy from 1943 to 1945.
99
. PRO WO 208-3648, PWIS(H)/LF/429, PWIS Interrogations, Lingfield Park, August 1944. Report written on August 4, and signed by Major MacCloud.
100
. Wolfgang Vopersal, “Die SS-Ersatzbataillone in Breslau und das SS-Ersatzbataillon “Ost”,” in
Der Freiwillige
, April 1973, issue 5, vol. 19, 18–19. This is the in-house journal of the association of former SS (HIAG).
101
. PRO WO 208–3634, PWIS(H)/LF/440, PWIS Interrogations, Lingfield Park, August 1944. Report written on August 5, and signed by Major MacCloud.
102
. PRO WO 208–3647, PWIS(H)/LDC/429, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, August 1944. Report written on August 5, and signed by Captain G.C. Sinclair.
103
. Sarah Farmer,
Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); Robert Hebras,
Understand Oradour-sur-Glane drama
(Editions C.M.D. site pamphlet).
104
. Richard Marillier,
Vercors 1943–1944: Le malentendu permanent
(Clamecy: Armançon, 2003), 114-5.
105
. Michael Pearson,
Tears of Glory
(London: Macmillan, 1978), 89.
106
. E. H. Cookridge,
They Came from the Sky
(London: Corgi, 1976), 156–62.
107
. Pearson,
Tears of Glory
, 90.
108
. Ibid, 91.
109
. Sydnor,
Soldiers of Destruction
, 320.
110
. Otto Weidinger,
Comrades to the End: The 4th SS Panzer-Grenadier Regiment “Der Führer” 1938–1945
(Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Pub., 1998).
111
. PRO WO 208–3624, PWIS(H)/KP/95, PWIS Interrogations, Kempton Park, July 1944. Report written on July 3, and signed Captain T.X.H. Pantcheff.
112
. PRO WO 208–3647, PWIS(H)/LDC/294, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, August 1944. Report written on August 28, and signed by Captain H.K. Kettler.
113
. PRO WO208–3624, PWIS(H)/KP/113, PWIS Interrogations, Kempton Park, July 1944. Report written on July 3, and signed Captain T.X.H. Pantcheff.
114
. PRO WO 208-3648, PWIS(H)/LDC/327, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, September 1944. Report written on September 9, and signed by Captain H.K. Kettler.
115
. PRO WO 208-3648, PWIS(H)/LF/334, PWIS Interrogations, Lingfield Park, July 1944. Report written on July 21, and signed by Major MacCloud.
116
. PRO WO 208-3649, PWIS(H)/LDC/406, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, October 1944. Report written on October 11, and signed by Captain H.K. Kettler.
117
. PRO WO 208-3649, PWIS(H)/LDC/439, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, October 1944.
118
. PRO WO 208-3657, PWIS(H)/LDC/741, PWIS Interrogations, London District Cage, June 14, 1945.
119
. JNSV, DDR, case no. 1009.
120
. Foot,
Resistance
, 208–9. Reitlinger,
The SS
, 377–80; and Karel Krátký and Antonin \nejdárek, “The Slovak Rising,”
Purnell’s History of the Second World War
7, 1968, 2157–66.
121
. Reitlinger,
The SS
, 377–8.
122
. Krátký et al., “The Slovak Rising,” 2157–67.
123
. Walter Laqueur,
Guerrilla: A Historical and Critical Study
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977), 220–221.
124
. IWM, USMT-11, Berger’s testimony, 6094.
125
. Maclean,
The Cruel Hunters
, 199.
126
. IWM, USMT, case 11, Berger’s testimony, 6095–9. He went to some pains to deny that the operations included anti-Jewish operations: “There were no anti-Jewish operations—not at the time and Himmler’s declaration that it was a Jewish rising is not true.” German Wochenshau newsreels from the period went to great efforts to depict captured Slovakian Jewish partisans with Bolshevik intentions.
127
. PRO, WO204–10184, Slovakia, letter from Henry Stimson, March 6, 1945.
128
. NARA, RG242, OKH records, T77, roll 556. Vortragsnotiz. Abrücken jüdischen-kommunistischer Bandengruppen von Galizien nach Ungarn, March 16, 1944.
129
. Birn,
Die Höheren SS-und Polizeiführer
, 297–304; Black,
Kaltenbrunner
, 150–1; Yerger,
Allgemeine-SS
, 48; Reitlinger,
The SS
, 350–51. Reitlinger incorrectly attributed Winkelmann as Daluege’s replacement in 1942; Winkelmann represented Daluege at conferences when the bouts of sickness forced his absence.
130
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 66, June 30, 1945.
131
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 60, September 7, 1944.
132
. NARA, RG238, T1270/1. The relationship between these two men became hostile once they were in America in captivity after the war. Skorzeny remained one of Bach-Zelewski’s loyal subordinates; in the last days of the war, they fought together in Schwedt on the Oder.
133
. Otto Skorzeny, trans. David Johnson,
My Commando Operations
(Atgeln, Pa.: Schiffer Press, 1995), also Perry Pierik,
Hungary 1944–1945: The Forgotten Tragedy
, (Nieuwegein: Aspekt, 1996).
134
. In preparation for the Ardennes offensive, Hitler requested that Skorzeny conduct covert operations behind the American lines in U.S. Army uniform. Another circumvention of the laws of war that suited Hitler.
135
. BZ-USMT, April 14, 1947; and TVDB, 116.
136
. “Details of The Testimony of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski,” Nizkor Project Website,
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf
.
137
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 61, November 5, 1944.
138
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP63, February 13, 1945.
139
. Felix Steiner,
Der Freiwillige: der Waffen-SS Idee und Opfergang
(Rosenheim: Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1958). Overall, a tedious tome by a former senior SS officer.
140
. Ibid, 339–58. Steiner along with his former comrades depicts a heroic retreat into eventul captivity. The evidence is savory, as German forces fled in a rout to escape from capture, particularly by Tito’s partisans or the Red Army, firing wildly on civilians and randomly destroying amenities, not so much to implement “scorched earth” as to cause misery.
141
. NARA, RG319, IRR, Gottlob Berger, appendix I-A, SS-Hauptämter. There are grounds to suggest Kaltenbrunner had become responsible for all policing.
142
. PRO, HW16/98, History of the German Police W/T Network July 1945, 40. The police signals traffic only began to decline in April; the last messages were sent out on May 8.
143
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP64, April 2, 1945.
144
. NARA, T78/562/000402-54, Übersicht über die Bandenlage in der Zeit (November 1944–February 1945), March 6, 1945.
145
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP63, February 13, 1945.
146
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP66, June 30, 1945. Perry Biddiscombe,
Wehrwolf! The History of the National Socialist Insurgent Movement, 1944–1946
(Cardiff: University of Wales, 1998), 29.
147
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 66, June 30, 1945.
148
. Bradley F. Smith and Elena Agarossi,
Operation Sunrise: The Secret Surrender
(London: Andre Deutsch, 1979), 62.
149
. David Clay Large,
Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1997), 344–5.
150
. JNSV, Final Phase Crimes, cases 005,037, 073, 103 and 599.
151
. JNSV, Final Phase Crimes, case 062.
152
. Skorzeny,
My Commando Operations
, 429.
153
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP 65, May 29, 1945.
154
. Hoettl,
The Second Front
, 317.
155
. Black,
Kaltenbrunner
, 242–3.
156
. NARA, RG238, T1270, roll 26, Ernst Rode interrogation report, October 22, 1945.
157
. NCA, document PS-3734, Hanna Reitsch summary of interrogation, October 8, 1945.
158
. Charles McMoran Wilson,
Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940— 1965: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran
(London: Constable, 1966), 250.
159
. Hugh R. Trevor-Roper,
The Last Days of Hitler
(London: Pan, 1973), 277–8: Trevor-Roper committed an appendix (1) of his well known book to the execution of Fegelein. He questioned whether the execution was due to Fegelein’s cowardice or “guilt by association” with the treasonous rumblings among the SS. NARA, BDC, A3343, SSO, 198, Hermann Fegelein. Fegelein’s personal failure in the last hours of the war does not quite reconcile with his “bravery” earlier in the war that led to the awards of the Knights’ Cross and close-combat assault badges.
160
. PRO, HW16/6, MSGP66, June 30, 1945.
161
. Logusz,
Galicia Division
, 360.
162
. Lepre,
Himmler’s Bosnian Division
, 302–14.
163
. Kumm,
Prinz Eugen
, 266.
Chapter 10: Deniability164
. Gitta Sereny,
The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections 1938–2000
(London: Penguin, 2000), 195–215.
1
. Claud Mullins,
The Leipzig Trials
(S.I, H.F. & G. Witherby, 1921).
2
. Timothy R. Vogt,
Denazification in Soviet-Occupied Germany: Brandenburg 1945— 1948
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000).
3
. Constantine Fitzgibbon,
Denazification
(London: Norton, 1969); H.st.D. Entnazifizierung files; and RO FO record groups 935, 942, and 1013.
4
. Richard Breitman, Norman J. W. Goda, Timothy Naftali, and Robert Wolfe,
U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
5
. Wolfgang Kahl, “Vom mythos der ‘Bandenbekämpfung’: polizeiverbände im zweiten weltkreig,”
Die polizei. zentralorgan für das sicherheits-und ordnungswesen aus
, 1998, J. 89, Nr.2, 47–56.
6
. MSO, Judgement of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of the German Major War Ciminals Nuremberg September 30 and October 1, 1946, Miscellaneous no. 12 (1946).