The last edition of the Schlesischen Tageszeitung. In the chaos of the fighting it was printed with a faulty corner
The relatively ‘peaceful’ hours of 1 May were not to last. Each day until 5 May, the raids on Breslau increased. Massed enemy squadrons killed and wounded as many as 1,000 civilians with each raid, according to the priest Ernst Hornig. There were two raids every day. Russian tanks tried their luck to break through to the centre of the city once more, but failed. Our counter-attacks were just as strong as before. Their conclusions that we believed their empty promises of safe passages home, or that prisoners would be released as soon as the end of the war was announced, and that these would influence us to throw in the towel, must have been disappointing.
The headlines of the Schlesischen Tageszeitung, whose 6 May issue was to be the last, read, “The resistance against the Soviets carries on!” It was followed by a report from the Wehrmacht regarding the armistice agreement in Holland, Denmark and northern Germany. The article ended, “Festung Breslau is still defended with unbroken endurance and courage against continual attack, causing the Soviets high losses in material and men. In Moravia and Slovakia the resistance also continues”. The following article appeared on the same page. “ German radio announced yesterday that Breslau is a brilliant example to the whole of the German nation. We received a recent report from our soldiers in Breslau, who were proud that they once more refused yet another demand of capitulation from the Soviet Commander-in-Chief. Breslau is standing fast! The heroic defenders of the city are a brilliant example for the German people and have been for some time. For endurance and bravery, in face of overwhelming masses of material, they are an everlasting example for all of us fighting on the Silesian front.”
This was followed with the information that Hamburg had been taken by the British who had then ordered a curfew for the civilian population. Radio Hamburg ended their broadcast with the words “Long live Hamburg! Long live Germany! From now on ‘Radio Hamburg’ is to be assessed by the Germans as an enemy channel”.
On 6 May, an interview took place with the well-known Swedish researcher Sven Hedin Stockholm who said, “I will hold deep and unforgettable memories of Adolf Hitler as one of the greatest men in world history and whose life’s work will live on. He made Germany into a world power. Now Germany stands on the edge of a chasm, because his antagonism could not carry the weight of his strength and power. A land, larger except for Japan, with a population of 80 million and who opposed the whole world for six years and against a power 25 times larger, can never be erased. The legacy of this great leader of people will live on in the German people”.
The walking wounded were allowed outside the medical centre throughout the day and I used the daytime hours to walk, to inspect the city and to be by myself. Not that I went very far away. There were hardly any civilians on the streets. Military vehicles cruised around the man-made mountains of rubble and the craters left by exploding shells. When I met a civilian on the street I was always surprised by their appearance. Despite the catastrophic conditions, all were clean, all were neat and tidily dressed and it was most noticeable. Resigned to their fate, nonetheless they were still proud folk. This also applied to any of the military when I saw them, they were disciplined and greeted each other according to his rank.
Astounded and perplexed at this time, I could only stare in disbelief one day, as a car with both German and Russian officers sitting in it, cruised around the walls of the city moat. I thought they were probably negotiators. Now there were no doubts left for me — the end of the fighting was very near, and I hurried back to the centre. There I was to learn that on 6 May, at 2 o’clock Moscow time (1 o’clock German time) the ‘honourable surrender of the city of Breslau, would take place’. I don’t think that I have to describe the depressed atmosphere among the wounded in the cellar. Some would just not believe it and many wept, brought to tears after months of tension, and felt no shame. Had it all been for nothing? The years of giving life and limb on the front, of deprivation, privation and of sacrifice, the suffering, the air raids back home? We were face to face with the hopeless prospect of POW camp and for how long? It depressed us all and I, I felt bitter, rejected and defiant.
Gauleiter Hanke, in his national pride and arrogance, declared that he would have General Niehoff arrested for his defeatist decision, and then changed his mind. He very quickly accepted the situation, making the equally quick decision of ordering a Fiesler Storch. The plane was only for the personal use of the city’s garrison commander, General Niehoff, but behind his back Hanke used it to fly himself out of Breslau. General Niehoff wanted to share the fate of the city with his men, and was glad, upon finding out, that he and the negotiations for the capitulation were not to be disrupted by Hanke’s presence. Perhaps at the end of the day that could have severely influenced events to the extent of disadvantages for the defeated. On 6 May, at around six in the morning, many of the Breslau inhabitants saw the Storch in the air. During the course of the morning, a radio message was received by General Niehoff from Kirschberg. “Gauleiter Hanke has landed here, slightly wounded in a defective machine.” Nothing more has ever been heard of that man. Rumours circulated, whether based on fact or not, that he escaped to South America. There are others who believe that he escaped to Czechoslovakia, but was shot as he tried to escape from a prisoner transport.
Red posters on house walls announced the surrender of the city of Breslau. General Niehoff announced that negotiations were already in hand for the Soviets to take over the city. The great ‘Finale’ took place on 7 May 1945, in Rheims. General Jodl, under orders from a new Government signed an unconditional surrender, at 2.41, on the 2075th day of the war. There was a final ceasefire on 9 May at 00.01 hours in Europe. This ‘Un-conditional Surrender’ has never been followed with a peace-treaty, to this day!
The Germans lost more than 4.3 million people in the great wrestling match that was taking place on the fronts. Approximately 600,000 Germans became casualties during Allied air raids. Over 3,000,000 German soldiers died in POW camps under the Western Allies, or in Communist gulags, as well as refugees, from forced expulsion from their land. (Information from the Berlin Wehrmachts-Auskunftsstelle Berlin)
Estimates of the losses from both sides suffered during the defence of Breslau vary. According to the Regiment’s commander, Hanf, the battle for the Silesian capital Breslau took second place to Stalingrad, for the longest and worst siege of WWII. City doctors assessed that 1,000 patients died every day and that the numbers of civilians who lost their lives totalled 80,000. From those 80,000, 13,000 lost their lives working on the provisional airstrip in the city, says Paul Piekert in his book Festung Breslau. The previously-mentioned Polish authors Majewski and Sozanska assess that every second civilian in Breslau lost their life. At least 90,000 Silesians died in the hasty evacuation from Breslau in January 1945, through starvation, exhaustion or from freezing to death.
General Niehoff s own assessment from the troops within the fortress was 6,000 killed and 23,000 wounded. Taking into account that we only had 50,000 men in the fortress, then we had a loss of 58%. Having said that, this does not take into account the wounded who lost their lives whilst being flown out of the city, or the wounded prisoners, or the prisoners of the Soviets who died.
The losses on the other side were very much higher. The number of Soviet troops around Breslau was 150,000 men, from which the siege cost them the lives of 5,000 officers and 60,000 of their men. Today one may visit a cemetery in the southern part of the city, where alone 5,000 Russian soldiers found their last place of rest.
General Niehoff received a telegram be fore the capitulation, which read, “Germany’s flags sink slowly, in proud sorrow and homage to the endurance of the brave defenders, and the civilian inhabitants of Breslau”. Signed General Wilhelm Hasse 17th Army.
One really cannot speak about ‘pride’ or ‘sorrow’ at this time. Other words from our vocabulary have to be used when referring to the
mood of the brave defenders within the fortress. They were angry, they were deeply disappointed and full of doubt, especially the men on the front-line. When envisaging the prospects of becoming a prisoner of the Russians, some of the officers committed suicide, men smashed their weapons on the nearest stones, whilst others threw their weapons in sheer frustration into the Oder. For three whole months they had been encircled by an enemy who had not broken their spirit. They had had a constant companion, by day and by night, for the previous five years, namely ‘death’. The surrender was a sacrilege in their eyes.
Catastrophe reigned in the city. The female personnel of the Wehrmacht changed out of their uniforms and thereafter wore civilian clothes. In the staff offices, mountains of paperwork were being burned, files and important documents being thrown into the flames. The warehouses were opened and supplies issued to the civilian population.
In the medical centre we were forced, under the watchful eye of the surgeon, to throw our pistols and side-arms into a wooden box. A condition of surrender was that no weaponry or equipment was to be destroyed. I, in my frustration demolished the inside of my 7.65mm Walther pistol so that it could never ever be used again. After all those years we all suddenly felt naked and utterly defenceless.
From one day to the next, everything had changed. Now we stood under the laws of the enemy. Now we were the subjects of tyrannical Communist rule, exposed to their arbitrary justice and revenge, and it was to be so. It began with the delivery of our weapons. The Russians would not believe that we had fought with so little. “You could not have held out for so long with only this. Where is the rest?” Very suspicious, they accused us of hiding weapons.
The surrender terms for Breslau as printed by the Red Army
It was now very quiet in Breslau, deathly quiet. Everyone waited for the Soviets to march into the city. The silence was disturbed however. There were sounds of tank motors, and when one cocked one’s ear in the direction from where it came, it must have been sweet music for some, for those who cottoned on, as to what was going on, perhaps those who had been part of a tank crew? Some impudent tank drivers were to be seen driving their tanks round and round, and round and round in small senseless circles, to the observers when there were any, some around the same block of houses, which, when not in the know, made one scratch one’s head. The drivers held their tank in first gear, overheating piston and piston rings, to the extent that the tank was then no longer usable.
Despite the conditions of surrender in the whole of Germany, General Niehoff s negotiations for the surrender of the Silesian capital were to be viewed as agreeable, correct and just. They held promises. Promises for the safety of civilians, medical help, guarantees of life and care of the military and above all the return to the homeland upon the ending of the war. The officers were allowed to hold their status symbols, i.e. military decorations and their revolver, without ammunition and, what was more important, all of these guarantees included those from the Waffen SS.
The following was suggested as the basis of the agreement:
The Honourable Surrender of Festung Breslau
Corresponding to your assurance of an honourable surrender of the besieged Fortress of Breslau, together with your military units, I suggest the following conditions:-
All of the troops under your command, stop military activities at 2 o’clock Moscow time, on 6 May 1945 (1 o’clock German time).
You surrender the total number of troops, weapons and war material, transport vehicles and technical equipment undamaged.
We guarantee on our part that all officers and men who have stopped military activities, the safety of life, nourishment, right to hold private possessions and decorations, and passages home after the official end of the war. The corps of officers have permission to wear their revolvers, unloaded but befitting their status.
All wounded and sick will be given immediate medical help.
The inhabitants are guaranteed the safety of their person and normal living conditions.
You personally, and others of the rank of General, will be allowed your own personnel, and conditions allowing, in POW camp too.
Signed by Commander-in-Chief 6th Russian Army Chief-of-Staff General Panov, and 1st Ukrainian Front General Gluzdovski.
The Soviet Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet 6th Army was General Gluzdovski. He gave his consent to this agreement in the presence of the Russian Chief of Staff, General Panov, in the Russian HQ, a villa, ‘Villa Colonia’ in the Breslau suburb of Krieton. General Niehoff gave his signature to these terms of surrender in the belief that it was an agreement between high-ranking officers which would be honoured. He was at this time a German Officer who was in full belief that it would be so. Perhaps it would, if left between officers and gentlemen. However, it was not to be.
The Soviets just could not resist the temptation. It was just too much to be denied and so General Niehoff and his Staff were invited to a celebration dinner. The ‘victors’ and the vanquished sat at the same table, which was bedecked only with the best. It was ostentatious plenitude. Candles flickered over the mountain of cold specialities including caviar, complimented with meat, vol-au-vents, and vodka flowed. Bottles of it stood by the dozen in between the dishes and General Niehoff’s water glass was continually filled to the rim with it, although no one could expect him to enjoy the celebration. His military correctness dictated that he suffer this gala dinner and not spoil the fun of the Soviets, but outside, he knew that long columns of his men were being driven in the direction of the East. He had however, as a prisoner of war, nothing to say. So the loud celebrations carried on with long speeches and toasts. Many toasts, with the ever-full glass of vodka, were to Stalin, but also perhaps out of respect from one soldier to another, to General Niehoff and his brave defence of Breslau.
The friendly atmosphere and correctness that the German officers found on that evening, was definitely an honest gesture from the side of the Soviet military. But at the end of the day, the ruling politicians had the last word. From the high-grade political commissioners present, there was an icy reception.
They made it quite clear to the ‘guests’ that they stood at the door of a future without any rights. The Soviets had no intention of respecting the conditions of surrender that had been agreed to. The soldiers were given no rations, the civilian inhabitants were fair game for the whim and fancy of the Russian soldiers, and the Waffen SS were systematically sorted out from the rest. General Niehoff was to spend in total, ten and a half years as a prisoner of the Soviets. Five were spent in solitary confinement in the notorious Moscow NKVD prison, Lubyanka. The rest were spent in labour camps. The document that was designed to protect him from harassment, bodily search, and abuse, was respected by prison guards at first. It worked like a magical formula, until a German Communist in the form of a new camp commander arrived, and tore the said document into pieces. Niehoff’s protests, when bumping into a political commissioner, were answered with a sarcastic comment. “These so-called ‘conditions’ were nothing but a successful trick of war”. He was right.
It was during the night of 7 May that the Russians marched into the inner ring of the city. The first of the Soviet units, with assault troops, marched in at 1 o’clock in the morning and took their positions at the Oder bridge, and other strategic positions. Of the inhabitants, there were none to be seen. They were waiting, waiting in fear in the cellars of the ruins, for the first Russian faces to appear. Outside there was a thunder of motors, tanks and every other imaginable vehicle from motorised units. That thunder increased as more and more vehicles stormed through the city in a disorderly column. In our medical centre, the wounded waited. Sit ting or lying, they waited together for what was to come, without words, each one within himself.
The noise invaded the cellars, and amongst the roar of motors, we heard the hooves of uncountable horses on the cobblestones and the victory cry of the drunken Reds. I wanted to imprint a picture into my memory and so I ventured up stairs, to the ground
floor empty rooms of the Hotel Monopol. I was enveloped straight away with an uncomfortable bitter feeling. I saw the enemy that I had fought for so many years, so close by, and for the first time I was unarmed.
The scene was similar to a colourful waiting caravan, moving over the rubble-covered streets. Lorries were damaged and filthy and in between were tanks, with large red flags hung from their turrets, and dangerously near the vehicles were the typical Russian Panje pony-drawn carts. I really had to wonder at the mass of tanks that we had held at arm’s length for three months. I was not there long, for I heard the cries of the women and girls nearby, and single revolver shots from Soviets searching for solitary soldiers, cut off from their units. I had seen enough and hurriedly re turned to my comrades in the cellar.
Two photos showing the author on the roof of the Hotel ‘Monopol’ in Breslau, 1 May 1945
Not long after, a gigantic fireworks show lit the skies over the dying city from tracers, flares and shells. The trigger-happy drunken Reds were firing salvo after salvo from machine-pistols, and even from light and heavy anti-aircraft guns, into that balmy May night. Some of the shells hit unexploded mines, for we heard them too. The walking wounded had watched the spectacle from the cellar entrance. Even in our totally depressed state one could imagine a New Year’s celebration in Breslau in peacetime being something similar, the people having flocked to the inner ring of the city, to wish their neighbour “Cheers and Happy New Year, good health and peaceful times”, on the stroke of midnight. On that May night however, in 1945, the show was a prelude to brute force and lack of rights.
In the Fire of the Eastern Front Page 26