23. Procès du M. Pétain (Paris, 1945), p. 202—Laval’s testimony.
24. The Ciano Diaries, pp. 541–42.
25. Gen. Zeitzler’s essay on Stalingrad in Freidin (ed.), The Fatal Decisions, from which I have drawn for this section. Other sources: OKW War Diary (see note 22 above), Halder’s book, and Heinz Schroeter, Stalingrad. Schroeter, a German war correspondent with the Sixth Army, had access to OKW records, radio and teleprinter messages of the various army commands, operational orders, marked maps and the private papers of many who were at Stalingrad. He got out before the surrender and was assigned to write the official story of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad, based on the documents then in the possession of OKW. Dr. Goebbels forbade its publication. After the war Schroeter rescued his manuscript and continued his studies of the battle before rewriting his book.
26. The Ciano Diaries, p. 556. Mussolini’s proposals are given on pp. 555–56 and confirmed from the German side in the OKW War Diary of December 19.
27. Felix Gilbert, Hitler Directs His War, pp. 17–22. This is a compilation of the stenographic record of Hitler’s military conferences at OKW. Unfortunately only a fragment of the records were recovered.
28. Goerlitz, History of the German General Staff, p. 431.
CHAPTER 27
1. NCA, IV, p. 559 (N.D. 1919–PS).
2. Ibid., III, pp. 618–19 (N.D. 862–PS), report of Gen. Gotthard Heinrici, Deputy General of the Wehrmacht in the Protectorate.
3. Bormann’s memorandum. Quoted in TMWC, VII, pp. 224–26 (N.D. USSR 172).
4. NCA, III, pp. 798–99 (N.D. 1130–PS).
5. Ibid., VIII, p. 53 (N.D. R–36).
6. Dr. Bräutigam’s memorandum of Oct. 25, 1942. Text in NCA, III., pp. 242–51; German original in TMWC, XXV, pp. 331–42 (N.D. 294—PS).
7. NCA, VII, pp. 1086–93 (N.D. L–221).
8. TMWC, IX, p. 633.
9. Ibid.,
10. TMWC, VIII, p. 9.
11. NCA, VII, pp. 420–21 (N.D.s EC–344–16 and −17).
12. Ibid., p. 469 (N.D. EC–411).
13. Ibid., VIII, pp. 66–67 (N.D. R–92).
14. Ibid., III, p. 850 (N.D. 1233–PS).
15. Ibid., p. 186 (N.D. 138–PS).
16. Ibid., pp. 188–89 (N.D. 141–PS).
17. Ibid., V, pp. 258–62 (N.D. 2523–PS).
18. Ibid., III, pp. 666–70 (N.D. 1015–B–PS).
19. Ibid., I, p. 1105 (N.D. 090–PS).
20. NCA, VI, p. 456 (N.D. 1720–PS).
21. Ibid., VIII, p. 186 (N.D. R–124).
22. Ibid., III, pp. 71–73 (N.D. 031–PS).
23. Ibid., IV, p. 80 (N.D. 1526–PS).
24. Ibid., III, p. 57 (N.D. 016–PS).
25. Ibid., III, p. 144 (N.D. 084–PS).
26. Ibid., VII, pp. 2–7 (N.D. D–288).
27. Ibid., V, pp. 744–54 (N.D. 3040–PS).
28. Ibid., VII, pp. 260–64 (N.D. EC–68).
29. Ibid., V, p. 765 (N.D. 3044–B–PS).
30. Eider’s Secret Conversations, p. 501.
31. Based on an exhaustive study from the German records made by Alexander Dallin, German Rule in Russia, pp. 426–27. He used figures compiled by OKW-AWA in Nachweisungen des Verbleibs der sowjetischen Kr. Gef. nach den Stand vom 1.5.1944. AWA are the initials for the General Armed Forces Department of OKW (Allgemeines Wehrmachtsamt).
32. NCA, III, pp. 126–30 (N.D. 081–PS).
33. Ibid., V, p. 343 (N.D. 2622–PS).
34. Ibid., III, p. 823 (N.D. 1165–PS).
35. Ibid., IV, p. 558 (N.D. 1919–PS).
36. TMWC, XXXIX, pp. 48–49.
37. Ibid., VI, pp. 185–86.
38. NCA, III, pp. 416–17 (N.D. 498–PS).
39. Ibid., pp. 426–30 (N.D. 503–PS).
40. NCA, VII, pp. 798–99 (N.D. L–51).
41. TMWC, VII, p. 47.
42. NCA, VII, pp. 873–74 (N.D. L–90).
43. Ibid., pp. 871–72 (N.D. L–90).
44. Harris, Tyranny on Trial, pp. 349–50.
45. Ohlendorf’s testimony on the stand at Nuremberg, TMWC, IV, pp. 311–23; his affidavit, based on Harris’ interrogation, NCA, V, pp. 341–12 (N.D. 2620–PS). Dr. Becker’s letter, ibid., III, pp. 418–19 (N.D.501–PS).
46. NCA, VIII, p. 103 (N.D. R–102).
47. Ibid., V, pp. 696–99 (N.D. 2992–PS).
48. Ibid., IV, pp. 944–49 (N.D. 2273–PS).
49. Case IX of the Trials of War Criminals [TWC] (N.D. NO–511). This was the so-called “Einsatzgruppen Case,” entitled “United States v. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.”
50. Ibid. (N.D.NO–2653).
51. Cited by Reitlinger in The Final Solution, pp. 499–500. Reitlinger’s studies in this book and in his The S.S. are the most exhaustive on the subject that I have seen.
52. NCA, III, pp. 525–26 (N.D. 710–PS). The English translation here of the last line misses the whole point. The German word Endloesung (“final solution”) is rendered as “desirable solution.” See the German transcript.
53. TMWC, XI, p. 141.
54. TWC, XIII, pp. 210–19 (N.D. NG–2586–G).
55. NCA, IV, p. 563 (N.D. 1919–PS).
56. Ibid., VI, p. 791 (N.D. 3870–PS).
57. Ibid., IV, pp. 812, 832–35 (N.D. 2171–PS).
58. Hoess affidavit, NCA, VI, pp. 787–90 (N.D. 3868–PS).
59. N.D. USSR-8, p. 197. Transcript.
60. TMWC, VII, p. 584.
61. Ibid.,
62. Ibid., p. 585 (N.D. USSR 225). Transcript.
63. Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, I, p. 28. London, 1946. This is a summary of the twelve secondary Nuremberg trials, covered in the TWC volumes.
64. The above section on Auschwitz is based on, aside from the sources quoted, the testimony at Nuremberg of Mme. Vaillant-Couturier, a Frenchwoman who was confined there, TMWC, VI, pp. 203–40; Case IV, the so-called “Concentration Camp Case,” entitled “United States v. Pohl, et al.,” in the TWC volumes; The Belsen Trial, London, 1949; G. M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary, op. cit.; Filip Friedman, This Was Oswiecim [Auschwitz]; and the brilliant survey of Reitlinger in The Final Solution and The SS.
65. NCA, VIII, p. 208 (N.D. R-135).
66. NCA, Suppl. A, pp. 675–82 (N.D.s 3945–PS, 3948–PS, 3951–PS).
67. Ibid., p. 682 (N.D. 3951–PS).
68. Ibid., pp. 805–7 (N.D. 4045–PS).
69. The text, ibid., III, pp. 719–75 (N.D. 1061–PS).
70. TMWC, IV, p. 371.
71. Reitlinger, The Final Solution, pp. 489–501. The author analyzes the Jewish exterminations country by country.
72. TMWC, XX, p. 548.
73. Ibid., p. 519.
74. Examination of Josef Kramer, Case I of the Trials of the War Criminals—the so-called “Doctors’ Trial,” entitled “United States v. Brandt, et al.”
75. Sievers’ testimony, TMWC, XX, pp. 521–25.
76. Ibid., p. 526.
77. The testimony of Henry Herypierre is in the transcript of the “Doctors’ Trial.”
78. NCA, VI, pp. 122–23 (N.D. 3249–PS).
79. Ibid., V, p. 952 (N.D. 3249–PS).
80. Ibid., IV, p. 132 (N.D. 1602–PS).
81. Report of Dr. Rascher to Himmler, April 5, 1942, in the transcript of the “Doctors’ Trial,” Case I, “United States v. Brandt, et al.” Dr. Karl Brandt was Hitler’s personal physician and Reich Commissioner for Health. He was found guilty at the trial, sentenced to death and hanged.
82. NCA, Suppl. A, pp. 416–17 (N.D. 2428–PS).
83. Letter of Prof. Dr. Hippke to Himmler, Oct. 10, 1942, in transcript, Case I.
84. NCA, IV, pp. 135–36 (N.D. 1618–PS).
85. Testimony of Walter Neff, transcript, Case I.
86. Letter of Dr. Rascher to Himmler, April 4, 1943, transcript, Case I.
87. Testimony of Walter Neff, ibid.
88. Himmler’s letter and Rascher’s protest, ibid.
89. 1616–PS, in transcript of Case I. The
document is not printed in TMWC, and the English translation in NCA is too brief to be of any help.
90. Alexander Mitscherlich, M.D., and Fred Mielke, Doctors of Infamy, pp. 146–70. This is an excellent summary of the “Doctors’ Trial” by two Germans. Dr. Mitscherlich was head of the German Medical Commission at the trial.
91. Wiener Library Bulletin, 1951, V, pp. 1–2. Quoted by Reitlinger in The S.S., p. 216.
CHAPTER 28
1. The Goebbels Diaries, p. 352.
2. FCNA, 1943, p. 61.
3. The Italian minutes of the Feltre meeting are in Hitler e Mussolini, pp. 165–90; also in Department of State Bulletin, Oct 6, 1946, pp. 607–14, 639; Dr. Schmidt’s description of the meeting is in his book, op. cit., p. 263.
4. The chief sources are the stenographic records of Hitler’s conferences with his aides at his headquarters in East Prussia on July 25 and 26, published in Felix Gilbert, Hitler Directs His War, pp. 39–71; also The Goebbels Diaries, entries for July 1943, pp. 403–21; and the Fuehrer Conferences on Naval Affairs [FCNA], entries for July and August 1943, made by Adm. Doenitz, the new commander of the German Navy.
5. The Memoirs of Field Marshal Kesselring (London, 1953), pp. 177, 184. I have used this British edition of Kesselring’s memoirs; they have been published in America under the title A Soldier’s Record.
6. See Kesselring, op. cit., and Gen. Siegfried Westphal, The German Army in the West, pp. 149–52.
7. Firsthand accounts of Mussolini’s rescue are given in Otto Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Secret Missions, by the Duce himself in his Memoirs, 1942–43, and by the Italian manager and manageress of the Hotel Campo Imperatore in a special article included in the British edition of the Memoirs.
8. Hitler quotation from FCNA, 1943, p. 46; the item from Doenitz’ diary is quoted by Wilmot, op. cit., p. 152.
9. Halder, Hitler als Feldherr, p. 57.
10. I have quoted the lecture at length in End of a Berlin Diary, pp. 27086. The text (in English) is in NCA, VII, pp. 920–75.
11. The above excerpts from Goebbels’ diary are from The Goebbels Diaries, pp. 428–42, 468, 477–78. Hitler’s talk with Doenitz in August 1943 was noted by the Admiral in FCNA, 1943, pp. 85–86.
CHAPTER 29
1. Dorothy Thompson, Listen, Hans, pp. 137–38, 283.
2. Hassell, op. cit., p. 283.
3. Zwischen Hitler und Stalin. Ribbentrop’s testimony, TMWC, X, p. 299.
4. George Bell, The Church and Humanity, pp. 165–76. Also Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis, pp. 553–57.
5. Allen Dulles, op. cit., pp. 125–46. Dulles gives the text of a memorandum written for him by Jakob Wallenberg on his meetings with Goerdeler.
6. The account of this whole episode is based largely on the report of Schlabrendorff, op. cit., pp. 51–61.
7. To Rudolf Pechel, who quotes him at length in his book, Deutscher Widerstand.
8. There are a number of accounts, some of them firsthand, of the students’ revolt: Inge Scholl, Die weisse Rose (Frankfurt, 1952); Karl Vossler, Gedenkrede fuer die Opfer an der Universitaet Muenchen (Munich, 1947); Ricarda Huch, “Die Aktion der Muenchner Studenten gegen Hitler,” Neue Schweizer Rundschau, Zurich, September-October 1948; “Der 18 Februar: Umriss einer deutschen Widerstandsbewegung,” Die Gegenwart, October 30,1940; Pechel, op. cit., pp. 96–104; Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis, pp. 539–41; Dulles, op. cit., pp. 120–22.
9. Dulles, op. cit., pp. 144–45.
10. Quoted by Constantine FitzGibbon in 20 July, p. 39.
11. Desmond Young, Rommel, pp. 223–24. Stroelin gave Young a personal account of the meeting. See also Stroelin’s Nuremberg testimony, TMWC, X, p. 56, and his book, Stuttgart in Endstadium des Krieges.
12. Speidel emphasizes the point in his book Invasion 1944, pp. 68, 73.
13. Ibid., p. 65.
14. lbid., p. 71.
15. Ibid., pp. 72–74.
16. Dulles, op. cit., p. 139.
17. Schlabrendorff, op. cit., p. 97.
18. The telephone log of the Seventh Army headquarters. This revealing document was captured intact in August 1944 and provides an invaluable source for the German version of what happened to Hitler’s armies on D Day and during the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
19. Speidel, op. cit., p. 93.
20. Ibid., on which this account is largely based. Gen. Blumentritt, Rundstedt’s chief of staff, has also left an account, and there is additional material in The Rommel Papers, ed. by Liddell Hart, p. 479.
21. The text of the letter is given in Speidel, op. cit., pp. 115–17. A slightly different version is in The Rommel Papers, pp. 486–87.
22. Speidel, op. cit., p. 117.
23. Ibid.,
24. Ibid.,
25. Schlabrendorff, op. cit., p. 103. He was still attached to Tresckow’s staff.
26. The sources for these meetings of the conspirators on July 16 are the stenographic account of the trial of Witzleben, Hoepner et al.; Kaltenbrunner’s reports on the July 20 uprising; Eberhard Zeller, Geist der Freiheit, pp. 213–14; Gerhard Ritter, Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung, pp. 401–3.
27. Heusinger, Befehl im Widerstreit, p. 352, tells of his last words that day.
28. Zeller, op. cit., p. 221.
29. Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 275–77.
30. A number of guests at the tea party, Italian and German, have given eyewitness accounts of it Eugen Dollmann, an S.S. liaison officer with Mussolini, has rendered the fullest description both in his book, Roma Nazista, pp. 393–400, and in his interrogation by Allied investigators, which is summed up by Dulles, op. cit., pp. 9–11. Zeller, op. cit., p. 367, n.69, and Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis, pp. 644–46, have written graphic accounts, based mostly on Dollmann.
31. The transcript of this telephone conversation was put in evidence before the People’s Court. Schlabrendorff, op. cit., quotes it on p. 113.
32. Zeller, op. cit., p. 363n., cites two eyewitnesses to the executions, an Army chauffeur who observed them from a nearby window, and a woman secretary of Fromm.
33. This account of what went on in the Bendlerstrasse that evening is taken largely from General Hoepner’s frank testimony before the People’s Court during his trial and that of Witzleben and six other officers on Aug. 6–7, 1944. The records of the People’s Court were destroyed in an American bombing on Feb. 3, 1945, but one of the stenographers at this trial—at the risk of his life, he says—purloined the shorthand records before the bombing and after the war turned them over to the Nuremberg tribunal. They are published verbatim in German in TMWC, XXX-III, pp. 299–530.
There is a great deal of material on the July 20 plot, much of it conflicting and some quite confusing. The best reconstruction of it is by Zeller, op. cit., who gives a lengthy list of his sources on pp. 381–88. Gerhard Ritter’s book on Goerdeler, op. cit., is an invaluable contribution, though it naturally concentrates on its subject. Wheeler-Bennett’s Nemesis gives the best account available in English and uses, as does Zeller, Otto John’s unpublished memorandum. John, who after the war got into difficulties with the Bonn government and was imprisoned by it, was present at the Bendlerstrasse that day and recorded a great deal of what he saw and what Stauffenberg told him. Constantine FitzGibbon, op. cit., gives a lively account, based mostly on German sources, especially Zeller.
Also invaluable, though they must be read with caution, are the daily reports on the investigation of the plot carried out by the S.D. Gestapo, which date from July 21 to Dec. 15, 1944. They were signed by Kaltenbrunner and sent to Hitler, being drawn up in extra-large type so that the Fuehrer could read them without his spectacles. They represent the labors of the “Special Commission for July 20, 1944,” which numbered some 400 S.D.-Gestapo officials divided into eleven investigation groups. The Kaltenbrunner reports are among the captured documents. Microfilm copies are available at the National Archives in Washington—No. T–84, Serial No. 39, Rolls 19–21. See also Serial No. 40, Roll 22.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Page 188