by Helen Fry
THE FAKE MEDAL
On 19 September 1944, General Hermann Ramcke was captured in his bunker at Brest and found to be in possession of a large quantity of French brandy and liqueurs, a French mistress, an Irish setter, at least twenty uniforms, and a whole dinner service. Major General Hans von der Mosel was captured with him. They were taken to an airfield near the coast and separated. Ramcke was taken to barracks, surrounded by half a dozen guards and held in isolation. He recalled later: ‘An officer with a pistol lying within reach kept watch over me in a room where the walls were covered with pictures of German aircraft. I was kept there for two days completely isolated.’69
Ramcke was brought to Wilton Park just two days after capture and housed in a cottage on site, along with Lieutenant Generals Heyking and Heim, and Vice Admiral Weber.70 He wrote about this period in his memoirs:
The following morning, I found myself in a small summerhouse in the upper rooms of which I discovered three generals, von Heyking, Heim and Weber. The house was bordered on two sides by high walls, topped by [barbed] wire and very well guarded. Next to the small yard was a tennis court, in some disrepair, upon which we were permitted to stroll. Two office buildings surrounded this area. In the ground floor of the gardener’s house were two British soldiers who prepared our meals, which we took together in a small neighbouring room.71
Ramcke was a regular soldier who had risen up through the ranks; in MI19 files he is described as being ‘inordinately vain and has a most extensive knowledge of distorted history’.72 Ambitious, ruthless yet naive, he was an opportunist who began to change his views with the decline of the Nazi Party. It was noted that he could have led an underground movement if he felt it benefited him personally. He believed that Germany would go to war again within thirty years, and would fight ‘for every stick and stone to the last man, woman and child’.73 MI19 noted his view that ‘it was better to be annihilated honourably, than to be defeated’.74
In his assessment of Ramcke, Lieutenant Colonel Corner concluded: ‘If there is to be such a thing as a list of specially dangerous men to be kept under surveillance, General Ramcke ought to qualify as one of the first candidates.’75 Ramcke’s rudeness to his batman was recorded by the M Room. Ramcke asked his batman, ‘Why are you always doubled up like that?’
BATMAN: I’ve had two ribs removed, sir.
RAMCKE: That’s no reason. A lad of eighteen should be able to stand upright even without ribs.76
During his career, Ramcke made no secret of the fact that he was determined to win the highest decorations from the Führer, and had striven to do so by recommending his subordinates for high decorations – knowing that he would then have to be awarded higher decorations than them.77 He did not initially open up in conversation with the other generals.
US interrogator ‘Lt Col. Jenkins’ (aka Heimwarth Jestin), an expert on German paratroops, was sent to interrogate him. He found Ramcke in the cottage with General von Heyking; the latter had been captured when he wandered too close to the frontline. Ramcke was dismissive of Jestin and boasted that he knew Jestin was an intelligence officer who had been sent to interrogate him. Years later in his memoirs, Ramcke wrote that Lt Col. Jenkins was ‘a young American Lt Colonel of a Swedish type and elegantly clothed’.78 Ramcke recalled his interrogation:
I listened to some of his questions, without answering before saying, ‘Colonel, I am aware that the Commander of the Corregidor fortress near Manila in the Philippines is a prisoner of the Japanese. Do you, as an American officer, believe it is right if General Wainwright gave details of the organisation and strengths of the US forces?’
He stopped, visibly affected. ‘Please don’t expect anything different from me as you would expect from your own generals and officers, as I find it insulting’. He changed the subject to generally uninteresting subjects and then let me go.79
After the interrogation, Jestin wrote on Ramcke’s personal MI19 file that he was ‘an egotistical conceited Nazi. He is a firm believer in Hitler’.80 Jestin found him cold and uncooperative. He needed to find a way for Ramcke to relax and talk. It was Ramcke’s love of awards and decorations that played right into the hands of MI19, as Jestin recalled:
Captain Hamilton and myself drafted an artificial press release supposedly from a German newspaper. It announced an award to General Ramcke from Hitler himself, not merely the coveted Order of the Iron Cross, but the very highest level of the Order, the Knight’s Cross with diamonds. The citation, which we invented, mentioned the general’s bravery in defense of Brest. With this false release in hand and several of his own bottles of cognac, I visited General Ramcke that evening in the cottage. Saluting smartly, I informed Ramcke of the honor Hitler had bestowed upon him and suggested we celebrate the award. I produced the cognac which he did not recognise as his own. Despite obvious pleasure, he declined for a moment or two, but pride in his new distinction overcame his reticence and we proceeded to celebrate in great style.81
As more cognac was drunk throughout the evening, the more Ramcke, Heyking and Jestin talked about the superiority of Ramcke as a commander and the reasons why he had received the award.82 Unfortunately, the generals could hold their drink better than the young American interrogator – for they were used to drinking cognac. By 11 p.m., Jestin found himself rather inebriated and had to call a guard to help him stand up. As Ramcke was spilling the beans, the secret listeners stood up in the M Room and cheered: he had inadvertently given away all the military strategy, details of glider installations, and troop information that Jestin had tried to gain in interrogation.83 There was a postscript to the story, as Jestin explained:
A few days later, when General Ramcke learned that I was engaged to be married, he generously announced that from his possessions routinely confiscated from prisoners of war, I was to have his Luger and field glasses as a wedding present as well as his case of champagne for the reception. His statement was recorded by the M Room operators and could not be questioned by my commanding officer. The champagne, a rare luxury in war time London, was much enjoyed by the bride (MI19’s Catherine Townshend) and groom and their guests.84
Ramcke’s own version of his wartime decoration for bravery appeared in his memoirs years later:
That evening, he [Lt Col. Jenkins] came to me and General von Heyking. He asked for permission to join us for a little while. He unfolded a newspaper, which contained the news that Hitler had elevated me to the Iron Cross with Diamonds. He congratulated me on the award of this high honour and suggested that it should be celebrated. With the knowledge that our Fatherland was on the brink of collapse, I was in no mood to celebrate anything. The award, which had pleased me above all else, had also the bitter taste of the words, ‘In vain, all in vain’, which I had heard on the capitulation in 1918. However, with his friendly words, the Lt Colonel took out of his pocket two bottles of cognac which we knocked back with some excitement.85
Ramcke died in 1968, and never found out that his medal from the Führer had been fake.
ARNHEM TO ARDENNES
During August and September 1944, interrogation work became intense because of the relentless influx of POWs and senior German officers coming through CSDIC sites. One key priority was for interrogators to urgently locate 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions that seemed to have disappeared. They could not be plotted in the map room. Senior German officers captured in this period were interrogated for any knowledge of their whereabouts.
Lieutenant General Otto Elfeldt was captured south of Trun on 20 August 1944, during fighting in the Falaise Pocket. An affable, happy-go-lucky warrior type, with a fairly well-developed sense of humour and an easy manner, he was the first of the German generals to give a Nazi salute on arrival at Trent Park.86 During interrogation, he was able to confirm the number of German troops that he knew had escaped the Falaise Pocket to fight another day. It included large elements of the Panzer and motorised divisions, but most of the infantry had suffered a dreadful fate there.87 He stated to British int
errogators his willingness to cooperate with Western Allies if Germany was defeated.88
Lieutenant General Paul Seyffardt, captured on 7 September 1944, was brought to Trent Park on 21 September, having been held at Wilton Park for ten days.89 Since February 1944, Seyffardt had been in command of 348 Infantry Division stationed on the coast at Calais. In their character analysis, MI19 established that he took no active part in politics, but believed that one of the big mistakes made by the German Officer Corps was to have allowed themselves to become politically subservient to the Nazi Party.
On the same day as Seyffardt’s capture, SS Oberführer Meyer was taken near Liège. The 34-year-old son of a factory worker had worked his way up the ranks of the SS and seen active service in Romania, Greece, Holland, Belgium and France. During late 1941, he was transferred to the Eastern Front until, suffering from jaundice, he was forced to take some sick leave. By 1944, he was back in action and commanded the 12th Panzer Division until wounded and captured by the Americans. During his captivity at Trent Park, details of terrible atrocities committed by him would come to light.
On 8 September, Major General Bock von Wuelfingen decided to surrender to the Allies at Liège rather than have his men wiped out. On arrival at Trent Park, he was assessed as being rather egocentric and not very bright.90 His main interest appeared to be the survival of the German nobility. He told British army officers that Nazi ideology was firstly against the Jews, secondly against the nobility, and thirdly against professional officers.
Eberhard Wildermuth, the commandant of Le Havre, was wounded before finally being captured on 12 September 1944. He had defended the port and region to the last, resisting all requests by the Allies to surrender. The 54-year-old colonel was, according to MI19, fundamentally a liberal and ‘a staunch German patriot, a brave officer, and violently opposed to the present regime’.91 He showed an eagerness to re-educate the young Nazis and, in his own words, ‘lead them back to the truth’.92 He had been sounded out before the assassination attempt on Hitler and had expressed his willingness to cooperate.
Just days before Operation Market Garden, the Allied airborne assault on Arnhem, progress was made at Wilton Park on the location of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions from the interrogation of a dispatch rider captured in Belgium. Heimwarth Jestin recalled:
Having noted the exact positions of the SS Panzer Divisions, I immediately sent an urgent message to higher authorities. Nevertheless, a few days later, on 17 September, the British Airborne Division, together with some Polish forces, dropped by parachute and descended by gliders at Arnhem. Immediately they were surrounded and almost totally annihilated by the German panzers hidden in nearby woods … The Allied losses at Arnhem and Nijmegen and the damage done to the British Armored Division on the road from Neerpeldt are recognised as a major – and unnecessary – disaster.93
Jestin never understood why this vital strategic intelligence coming out of Wilton Park just days before Arnhem was ignored. His future wife, Catherine Townshend, also recalled the despair felt in the office at Camp 20 at Wilton Park ‘that the airborne operation had not been cancelled or postponed’.94
November 1944 saw the capture of Major General Bruhn who had been surrounded by American forces and seized west of Saverne whilst on reconnaissance. During his captivity at Trent Park, he used his time to write an autobiography, from which MI19 was able to extract his full detailed military career. He was seen as ‘the most intelligent of the generals, combining personal charm with an air of integrity’.95 During captivity, he had time to reflect on the brutality of the Nazi regime. He came to see that Germany would lose the war as a result of this brutality and now believed that Nazism had to be rooted out to allow ‘good’ Germans to put their house in order. He switched allegiance to the anti-Nazis at Trent Park and saw himself as one of the ‘good’ Germans who must rebuild Germany. Like other senior officers there, he was ardently anti-Communist.
Lieutenant Colonel von der Heydte was unexpectedly captured at Monschau (West Germany) on 23 December 1944, during the German winter offensive that became known as the Battle of the Ardennes. He was brought to Wilton Park four days after capture, and interrogated by Heimwarth Jestin. A Catholic, with a splendid castle, Schloss Egglkofen in Upper Bavaria, the 37-year-old von der Heydte was a professional soldier who had proven his skills as a paratroop commander in France, Italy and Crete. Originally an enthusiastic Nazi, he became disillusioned by 1943/44, turned anti-Nazi and genuinely wished to cooperate with the British in bringing about the end of the war.
Jestin initially found him tough in interrogation: ‘A fine officer and gentleman, he was a difficult prisoner of war for me to “break” and I found it was only possible to do so politically.’96 Von der Heydte felt he had been let down by his troops, and this was the weak point on which Jestin could play. MI19 files say that von der Heydte eventually gave interrogators a significant amount of information on German paratroops in the Ardennes counter-attack, and sketched a plan for an Allied airborne landing in north-west Germany.97
Lieutenant General Heinrich Kittel (captured on 22 November 1944, whilst defending Metz) was characterised by MI19 as ‘a professional soldier of exceptional intelligence who, in the course of the war, had been connected with most of the major political happenings in Nazi Germany’.98 He detested the SS and a Nazi state within a state; however while in custody, he was not prepared to go against his oath to Hitler or say anything which might damage the war effort and the Reich. He had ‘a strong sense of humour and takes a philosophical outlook on life’.
In April 1942, Kittel had received promotion to the rank of major general and became commandant of Stalino (Ukraine). In August 1942, he was transferred to Rostov as commandant during a period of mass murder of Jews – something which he discussed in some detail with the other generals at Trent Park. Kittel was on the Russian list of war criminals and was held responsible for the poisoning of 18,000 Russians. These were not the only war crimes levelled against him. During his time stationed north of Dvinsk (Latvia), the SS and SD carried out mass executions of Jews in the region. Kittel denied all responsibility for the slaughters.
After capture, many of these military men tried to distance themselves from their past by claiming they were only obeying orders – a defence which would re-emerge during the Nuremberg Trials.99 Others were not so quick to renounce their Nazi loyalties. Major General Hans von der Mosel, captured at Brest, gave the impression that he was ‘100% behind the Nazi regime and underlined this fact by a clicking of heels and a Hitler salute’.100
A summary intelligence report was eventually written up by CSDIC on the Ardennes Campaign, outlining and analysing the intelligence gained from those commanders with direct experience of it, including Field Marshal von Rundstedt (also being held by CSDIC).101 He told Kendrick’s officers that the campaign was bound to fail because, although the Battle Order had been planned by Hitler and the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW), all counter-proposals were rejected. Under these circumstances, the campaign was bound to fail, commented von Rundstedt.102
As the Allies made successful advances through France, secret listener Fritz Lustig received a telephone call from Lieutenant Colonel Cassels, the officer in charge of the M Room. He told Lustig that he was improperly dressed. Lustig did not reveal it, but he knew the phrase to be a jocular way of informing someone of their promotion.
‘How is that, sir?’ Lustig replied. ‘Well, Lustig, I understand that you still have a crown on your sleeve, although now you are a RSM.’ Lustig had been promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major or Warrant Officer First Class, the badge of which was a coat-of-arms. He was extremely proud. He had come to England as a refugee from Nazism, and had now reached the most senior non-commissioned rank. Like any officer rank, and ironically like the German generals, he was now entitled to a batman to polish his boots, make his bed and wake him in the morning.
CHAPTER 12
War Crimes and the Holocaust
On 17 December
1942, concern about the fate of Jews in Poland and other Nazi-occupied countries received the full attention of the British parliament when Anthony Eden read the Allied Declaration to the House of Commons. The declaration included words of condemnation from other nations, including the United States, Soviet Union and various governments-in-exile: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia. All were united in condemnation, ‘in the strongest possible terms of this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination . . . None of those taken away are ever heard of again. The infirm are left to die of exposure and starvation or are deliberately massacred in mass executions.’ In reference to the deportation of Jews, MPs were shocked to hear from foreign secretary, Mr Eden: ‘I regret to inform the House that reliable reports have recently reached His Majesty’s government regarding the barbarous and inhuman treatment to which Jews are being subjected in German-occupied Europe.’
The House rose to its feet for a two-minute silence for the victims of Nazism. At London’s Wigmore Hall, the Women’s International Zionist Organization was being addressed by Prime Minister Churchill’s wife. She referred to Hitler’s ‘satanic design to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe’. Affirming complete solidarity, she told the female audience: ‘I wish to associate with you in all your grief, and I pray your meeting may help to keep the attention of the British people focussed upon the terrible events which have occurred and are impending in Nazi Europe.’
At MI9/MI19’s secret bugging sites, details of war crimes were overheard from lower-rank prisoners at Latimer House and Wilton Park, and the generals at Trent Park.1 In his summary intelligence report for the first six months of 1942, Kendrick wrote that most prisoners spoke about the severity of German measures in Poland.2 General von Thoma was well aware of the horrors and spoke about it to his fellow generals in bugged conversations in 1942.3 He argued that the name of Germany had been disgraced by the mass extermination programme and Germany would have to pay. The intelligence report noted: