Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich (review)

Although the fate of Germany seemed sealed after the crossing of the Rhine, resistance to Anglo-American troops actually increased, especially in Franconia. SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon cobbled together every available man and boy to turn most towns in Franconia into small fortresses. Deceived by carefully orchestrated evidence for the threat of an "Alpine Fortress" in Austria, American commanders rushed into Bavaria to prevent its realization. Stephen Fritz does not dismiss the potential danger or criticize the American response: "Without the determined American movement to the south, German military leaders might well have sought to make a virtue of necessity and turn the redoubt into a reality" (p. 21). According to Fritz, the Americans' very success ensured that this campaign would remain a little-known chapter of the war. The survivors on both sides, but especially among the local German population, knew otherwise:

By throwing a mixed bag of men into battle, many with little training and all with insufficient weapons, supplies, and equipment, German commanders had sent their troops to the slaughter.... No rationality or military purpose attended this decision, for Germany was going to lose the war in any case. Rather it represented the destructive will of Nazi political and military leaders, both against the enemy and their own population. In directing terror at all, Nazi authorities took little notice of the military situation and betrayed no regard for the well-being of the local civilian population .

(p. 192)

Beginning with a somewhat murky effort to apply chaos theory to the death throes of the Third Reich, Fritz more admirably undertakes the double task of adding to the literature on the last weeks of the war on the Western Front, and to that on the impact of Nazism at the local and regional level. For those who enjoy platoon- and company-level combat narratives, Fritz fulfills his first task well. His descriptions conjure vivid images. Since combat is a spatial phenomenon, however, no combat narrative is truly comprehensible without adequate maps. Unfortunately, the depth of Fritz's narrative far exceeds what can be portrayed on maps of the scale provided. Although several maps illustrate the regions discussed, they are more suited for portraying the corps- and division-level narration, but not the small-unit tactics so vividly described. Nothing on these maps illustrates the troop movements or encounters at any level, however, nor is the reader ever referred to appropriate maps during the narratives. The same is true of the photographs. Thus both the maps and the pictures seem more like afterthoughts than integrated components. Nevertheless, the two photographic sets are mostly well-chosen to carry some sense of the stories told, and a proactive reader usually can find on the maps the towns mentioned and can trace the evolution of the campaign.

Several chapters offer detailed analysis of the tribulations of the civilian population resulting from contacts with both German and Anglo-American troops. One key element in these contacts was the ambivalent and shifting attitude of American troops toward the German population. After encounters with the concentration and labor camps, obvious conclusions about the complicity of the general population complicated the otherwise generally empathetic feeling of American troops. Even that wore off quickly. Although they were annoyed by the American penchant for looting ("souvenir collecting"), if German civilians survived the often brutal bombardments thatpreceded an advance, they were pleased to discover that GIs did not live up to Goebbels's propaganda. Instead, their encounters with the demoralized, angry, and frustrated retreating German troops were more negative.

By focusing on the process of disintegration, Fritz explores the relative power of Nazi ideological appeals and the relations between people, party, and military. To what extent did the people become disillusioned, turn against the system, and come to believe themselves its victims? The efforts of locals to save their lives and property from pointless destruction could bring down vicious punishment from local officials, the Gestapo...