19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Comments of Colonel Truman Smith on Program for Reorientation of German General Officers, February 1, 1945, RG 165, Entry 383.6, Box 590, NARA.
23. Franklin M. Davis Jr., Come as a Conqueror: The United States Army’s Occupation of Germany, 1945–1949 (New York: Macmillan, 1967), 34.
24. Edward Peterson, The American Occupation of Germany: Retreat to Victory (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977), 31–34; Robert Wolfe, ed., Americans as Proconsuls: United States Military Government in Germany and Japan, 1944–1952 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), 53–54.
25. Ibid.
26. Peterson, American Occupation of Germany, 32–34.
27. Elster, Botho-Henning; von Liebenstein, Kurt (Baron); Graf von Sponeck, Theodor, POW Camp Dermott, Arkansas, May 16, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1640, NARA.
28. Report of Visit to Prisoner of War Camp, Dermott, Arkansas, June 4–6, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1612, NARA.
29. Memorandum from Headquarters, Prisoner of War Camp, Dermott, Arkansas, to the Provost Marshal General, September 12, 1945, and Report on Field Service Visit, August 29–30, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1612, NARA.
30. Memorandum from Headquarters, Prisoner of War Camp, Dermott, Arkansas, to the Provost Marshal General, September 12, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1612, NARA.
31. Prisoner of War Camp, Camp Dermott, Arkansas, October 17–20, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2660, NARA; Report of Visit to Prisoner of War Camp, Dermott, Arkansas, October 17–18, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1612, NARA.
32. Prisoner of War Camp, Camp Dermott, Arkansas, October 17–20, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2660, NARA.
33. Ibid.; POW Camp, Dermott, Arkansas, October 2, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2593, NARA; Transfer of German Officer Prisoners of War, September 8, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2478, NARA; Transfer of German Prisoners of War, October 15, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2482, NARA.
34. Lord Russell of Liverpool, The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes (London: Cassell and Company, 1954), 35–36; Josef Folttmann and Hanns Müller-Witten, Opfergang der Generale: Die Verluste der Generale and Admirale und der im gleichen Dienstrang Stehenden sonstigen Offiziere und Beamten im Zweiten Weltkrieg (1952; repr., Berlin: Verlag Gernard and Graefe, 1959), 169.
35. “Camp Ruston, Louisiana, has been designated for the internment of German Army Officers and enlisted men, POWs,” RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2484, NARA; Field Service Visit to Prisoner of War Camp, Ruston, Louisiana, March 2, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1621, NARA.
36. Report of Visit to Prisoner of War Camp Ruston, Louisiana, May 20–21, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1621, NARA.
37. Report of Inspection of Prisoner of War Camp, Camp Ruston, Louisiana, August 9, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2593, NARA. Curiously, Camp Ruston’s commanding officer in 1945 is listed as Colonel Thomas A. Bay, a name amazingly similar to that of Colonel Thomas A. Bays, the commanding officer at Camp Mexia whom General von Vaerst had held in such high regard. It seems likely that these two were the same man, which might further explain the efficient operation at Ruston, although this has not been corroborated.
38. Theodor Graf von Sponeck, Meine Erinnerungen, p. 182, MSg 1/3329, BAMA. Unfortunately, von Sponeck’s memoir contains some factual inaccuracies. For instance, he wrote that he was accompanied to Dermott by General Krause, who actually remained at Camp Clinton for the duration of his time in the United States, and General von Broich, who remained in England for the duration of the war.
39. Report of Visit to Prisoner of War Camp, Ruston, Louisiana, October 15, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1621, NARA; Jason Kendall Moore, “Between Expediency and Principle: U.S. Repatriation Policy toward Russian Nationals, 1944–1949,” Diplomatic History 24 (Summer 2000): 386.
40. Transfer of German Officer Prisoners of War, September 11, 1945; Transfer of German Prisoners of War, October 15, 1945; Transfer of German Officer Prisoners of War, October 23, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Boxes 2482 and 2484, NARA.
41. Transfer of German Officer Prisoners of War, April 12, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2477, NARA.
42. Report from Colonel Callie H. Palmer, Director, Security and Intelligence Division, to Commanding General, Army Services Forces, August 29, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1614, NARA; Prisoner of War Branch Camp Clinton, November 3, 1945, RG 59, Entry 1353, Box 24, NARA.
43. Ibid.
44. Hermann Bernard Ramcke, Fallschirmjäger: Damals und Danach (Frankfurt am Main: Lorch-Verlag, 1951), 89–90 (translated for the author by Anja Schwalen).
45. Report on Information Obtained from Senior Officer PW, G.R.G.G. 184, August 30, 1944, WO 208/5017, TNA.
46. “4000 Veterans of SS Cheer Blast at Allies,” Washington Post, October 27, 1952, 3.
47. American History Course and English Language Course in PW Officers’ Compound, July 23, 1945, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1611, NARA.
48. Prisoner of War Branch Camp Clinton, November 3, 1945, RG 59, Entry 1353, Box 24, NARA.
49. Ramcke, Fallschirmjäger, 91–92.
50. Ibid., 92–94.
51. Ibid., 94–97.
52. Ibid., 97–99; Allard, “History of the Clinton Prisoner of War Camp,” 119–21.
53. In his memoirs, Ramcke wrote that he chose to send one of his letters to “U.S. Senator” Byron Price because President Harry S Truman had appointed him “Commissioner for German Affairs.” In truth, Price was never a U.S. senator, although he spent ten weeks studying American occupation policies in Germany in November 1945 at President Truman’s behest and issued a report to the president upon his return. His previous responsibility as director of the U.S. Bureau of Censorship had ended when the office was closed in August 1945.
54. “Jackson Men Recall Duty at Clinton Camp,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger–Jackson Daily News, February 20, 1983, 8F.
55. Ibid.
56. Terrence J. Winschel, “The Enemy’s Keeper,” Journal of Mississippi History 57 (Winter 1995), 331–32.
57. Colonel A. M. Tollefson, Director, Prisoner of War Operations Division, to Mr. W. K. Uhlenhorst-Ziechmann, November 9, 1945, RG 389, Entry 467, Box 1532, NARA.
58. Prisoner of War Branch Camp Clinton, November 3, 1945, RG 59, Entry 1353, Box 24, NARA.
59. Report on Visit to Prisoner of War Camp Clinton, Mississippi, March 1–2, 1946, RG 389, Entry 459A, Box 1621, NARA; Allard, “History of the Clinton Prisoner of War Camp.”
5. Cold War Allies
1. Report from Captured Personnel and Material Branch, Military Intelligence Division, U.S. War Department, May 30, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
2. Ibid.; “Mystery Man Arrives in Big German U-Boat,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1945; Joseph Mark Scalia, Germany’s Last Mission to Japan: The Failed Voyage of U-234 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000), 44–59.
3. Scalia, Germany’s Last Mission to Japan, 44–46.
4. Report of Interrogation, No. 5193, May 22, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA; Report of Interrogation, No. 5318, June 9, 1945, RG 337, Entry 15A, Box 69, NARA; Report from Captured Personnel and Material Branch, Military Intelligence Division, U.S. War Department, May 30, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
5. Report from Captured Personnel and Material Branch, Military Intelligence Division, U.S. War Department, May 30, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.; Scalia, Germany’s Last Mission to Japan, 92–95.
9. Hildebrand, Die Generale der deutschen Luftwaffe, 1:27–28. Aschenbrenner’s interrogation file from Fort Hunt is still security classified by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. A request for classification review under the Freedom of Information Act has been submitted and the material is currently being considered by NARA officials for possible declassification.
10. The comments of an American intelligence
officer after listening to the POWs, who were housed in Room 1A, further suggest that the prisoners at Fort Hunt were aware that they were being listened to: “Judging from the meager monitoring results of 1A, it seems probable that [the prisoners] are carefully avoiding conversation on any topic that might be interesting to us!” Room Conversation, Vierow and von Tippelskirch, July 23, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 556, NARA; Room Conversation, Aschenbrenner and Kessler, June 24, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
11. Room Conversation, Aschenbrenner and Kessler, June 21, 1945; Room Conversation, Aschenbrenner and Kessler, August 3, 1945; Report of Interrogation, No. 5440, June 3, 1945; Report of Interrogation, No. 5665, August 10, 1945, all in RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
12. Record of Interrogation, Walter Vierow, July 16, 1945; Record of Interrogation, Walter Vierow, August 25, 1945; Recommendations concerning Interrogation of P/W, W. Vierow, all in RG 165, Entry 179, Box 556, NARA.
13. The roster of senior Wehrmacht officers who were sent to Fort Hunt, Virginia, is difficult to accurately determine. Many of the transfer orders intentionally omit Fort Hunt as either a destination or point of departure for prisoners of war. The orders often substitute Fort George Meade, Maryland, because of a perceived need for secrecy. The rare exception is Rear Admiral Eberhardt Godt, whose presence at Fort Hunt can be verified more definitively because he was transferred out of the camp and then recalled for an unspecified reason. Complicating matters, there are no interrogation records for many of these men in the U.S. National Archives and, therefore, it is also difficult to determine what kind of information, if any, was gathered from these prisoners. Memorandum for Brigadier General B. M. Bryan, Return of Admiral Godt to Fort Hunt, January 11, 1946, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2482, NARA.
14. Report of Interrogation, No. 5236, May 23, 1945, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 495, NARA.
15. Mary Ellen Reese, General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1990), 40–52; Biographic Data Report on Ex-General Reinhard Gehlen, RG 263, Entry 86, Box 17, NARA.
16. “Report of Initial Contacts with General Gehlen’s Organization,” by John R. Boker Jr., May 1, 1952, in Kevin C. Ruffner, ed., Forging an Intelligence Partnership: CIA and the Origins of the BND, 1945–49: A Documentary History (CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, European Division, Directorate of Operations, 1999), 1:19–34, NARA.
17. Ibid.
18. Report of Interrogation, No. 5725, August 28, 1945, Gehlen, Reinhard, volume I, RG 263, Entry 86, Box 17, NARA; Reese, General Reinhard Gehlen, 52–58, 71–75; preface to Ruffner, Forging an Intelligence Partnership, 1:xii–xxix, NARA.
19. “Debriefing of Eric Waldman on the U.S. Army’s Trusteeship of the Gehlen Organization during the Years 1945–1949,” September 30, 1969, in Ruffner, Forging an Intelligence Partnership, 1:45–50, NARA.
20. Memorandum from Col. R. L. Hopkins to Col. Sweet, September 24, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
21. Memorandum, Establishment of German Research Group near Camp Ritchie, MD, August 1, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1292, NARA; GMDS, Report for the Month of January (1946), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA; Memorandum to Commanding Officer, Camp Ritchie, MD, November 15, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
22. Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Report of Operations, Period July 1—September 30, 1945, RG 498, Entry 681, Box 1, NARA.
23. Seymour J. Pomrenze, “Policies and Procedures for the Protection, Use, and Return of Captured German Records,” in Robert Wolfe, ed., Captured German and Related Records: A National Archives Conference (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1974), 14–16.
24. GMDS, Report for the Month of June–July (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Administrative Control of the Hill Project, Camp Ritchie, MD, January 14, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Memorandum for Col. G. F. Blunda, Chief, GMDS, Camp Ritchie, MD, February 7, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
31. GMDS, Report for the Month of September (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA; RG 319, Entry 1206, Box 1, NARA. The collections held by the GMDS also eventually included Wehrkreis libraries V, VII, and XIII as well as the Nazi library. Documents Shipped and Ordered Crated for Shipment, Report of Operations, July–September 30, 1945, RG 498, Entry UD 681, Box 1, NARA.
32. Roster of Officer Escorts for Prisoners of War Enroute to War Department, Washington, D.C., September 20, 1945, and The “Hill Project,” November 6, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; Peter Hoffmann, Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905–1944 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 131.
33. Roster of Officer Escorts for Prisoners of War Enroute to War Department, Washington, D.C., September 20, 1945, and The “Hill Project,” November 6, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; Personalakten: Das deutsche Militärwesen—Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1949–1990 (PERS 1), “Laegeler,” files 103928 and 2885, BA-MA.
34. The “Hill Project,” November 6, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
35. Memorandum to Commanding Officer, Camp Ritchie, MD, November 15, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; “Prisoners of War,” Memorandum to Col. Tollefson, Office of the Provost Marshal General, September 27, 1945, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2482, NARA.
36. Memorandum from Col. Alfred McCormack, Director of Intelligence, MIS, September 25, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
37. Timothy K. Nenninger, “Leavenworth and Its Critics: The U.S. Army Command and General Staff School, 1920–1940,” Journal of Military History 58 (April 1994), 214; Memorandum from Col. Alfred McCormack, Director of Intelligence, MIS, September 25, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
38. GMDS, Report for the Month of October (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA.
39. Ibid. For more on the use of this procedure and its implications, see Kevin Soutor, “To Stem the Red Tide: The German Report Series and Its Effect on American Defense Doctrine, 1948–1954,” Journal of Military History 57 (October 1993): 653–88; and James A. Wood, “Captive Historians, Captivated Audience: The German Military History Program, 1945–1961,” Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005), 123–48.
40. GMDS, Report for the Month of November (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA.
41. GMDS, Report for the Month of December (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA; GMDS, Report for the Month of January (1946), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA.
42. Procurement of PWs for GMDS, December 20, 1945, and Procurement of PWs for GMDS, January 8, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
43. POW Roster PW Camp, Camp Ritchie, MD, January 10, 1946, and Brief Notes on the Career and Background of the Twelve German Staff Officers Selected to Remain with GMDS, April 9, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; “Gundelach,” MSg 109, and “v. Trotha,” MSg 109, BA-MA.
44. “Troops Smuggle in Boy, 13, as Mascot,” New York Times, March 17, 1946; POW Roster PW Camp, Camp Ritchie, MD, January 10, 1946, and Brief Notes on the Career and Background of the Twelve German Staff Officers Selected to Remain with GMDS, April 9, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; “Thomale,” MSg 109, and “Thomale,” PERS 1/957, BA-MA.
45. The “Hill Project,” June 15, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; Prisoner of War Camp Labor Reports, Camp Ritchie, MD, January 15–March 31, 1946, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2484, NARA.
46. GMDS, Report for the Month of January (1945), RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 135, NARA.
47. German Operational Intelligence: A Study of German Operational Intelligence, p. 138, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 105, NARA.
48. Ibid.; The German General Staff Corps: A Study of the Organization of the German General Staff, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 106, NARA; The German Army Quartermaster and Finance Organization, pp. 1–4, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 119, NARA.
49. The German Operation at
Anzio: A Study of the German Operation at Anzio Beachhead from 22 January 1944 to 31 May 1944, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 111, NARA; Armored Breakthrough: War Diary of German First Armored Group, 5 February—10 July 1941, p. i, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 122, NARA.
50. German Army Mobilization: A Study of the Mobilization of the German Army, pp.iv, 10, 34, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 112, NARA.
51. Ibid., 19, 36–37, 46.
52. German Training Methods: A Study of German Military Training, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 116, NARA.
53. German Military Transportation, RG 242, Entry 282BC, Box 116, NARA.
54. Ibid., 55.
55. Officer Efficiency Reports in the German Army; Officer Candidate Selection and Training in the German Army; Ration Administration in the German Army; German Officer Courts-Martial; Screening of German Enlisted Personnel for Officer Appointments; Infantry in the Sixth Year of the War; and German Chemical Warfare, all in RG 242, Entry 282BC, Boxes 121–22, 124, NARA.
56. The “Hill Project,” November 6, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
57. General der Infanterie Buhle to Colonel Lovell, December 15, 1945, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA; “Statement of Lt. Col. Gerald Duin on Early Contacts with the Gehlen Organization,” in Ruffner, Forging an Intelligence Partnership, 1:35– 41, NARA.
58. Memorandum from Col. Hopkins to CHIEF, GMDS, January 15, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
59. General Buhle, P/W Camp Fort Meade (Hospital), April 24, 1946, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 456, NARA.
60. Discontinuance of Prisoner of War Camps, May 9, 1946, RG 389, Entry 461, Box 2484, NARA; Procedures to Be Taken in Connection with Return of Prisoners for Hill Project to Germany, April 5, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA.
61. Intra-Office Memorandum from Chief, MIS, to A.C. of S., G-2, March 14, 1946, RG 319, Entry 47C, Box 1294, NARA. No newspaper articles that directly mention the Hill Project could be found. Only one mentions the German Military Document Section at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, and it makes no mention whatsoever of the Hill Project or the use of German General Staff officers. See “Secret Nazi Papers Bare Economic Plans,” New York Times, February 9, 1946, 7.
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