Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich

Chapter 5

RUNNING AMOK AGAINST THE REALITY OF DEFEAT 115

5 RUNNING AMOK AGAINST THE REALITY OF DEFEAT WiththeAmericanbreakthrough,theGermanscouldnolongermaintain the Steigerwald line, so now began a hasty withdrawal southeast to the next line of defense, which ran along the Frankenhöhe (Franconian heights) toward Nuremberg, itself thirty miles to the southeast . Wary of the German ability to spring nasty surprises, American troops advanced slowly and cautiously. Although German commanders, aware of their own pitiful weakness, alternately expressed amazement or a mocking contempt for this American practice, the average GI, hoping only to survive this final phase of the war, was determined to make good use of his overwhelming artillery and air superiority. As a platoon approached even a small farm village in the area, the GIs customarily dismounted their vehicles, fanned out across a field, and gingerly made for the buildings at the edge of the town. If shots rang out from the German side, the Americans responded with a shattering burst of small arms and mortar fire (supplemented with tanks and artillery if available), directed not so much at a specific target as at the town itself. Then, amidst the ragged blast of grenades and a sharp volley of rifle fire, a squad of men from one direction or another would storm the village and take control. ENDKAMPF 116 A few dazed and bedraggled Germans in uniforms, normally old men or young boys,would be marched off as prisoners.The GIswould then move off to the next village, hoping that white flags instead of rifle fire would greet them. In this fluid situation, the civilian population in this predominately rural area of rolling farmland and small towns found themselves swept up in the blast of war, threatened as much by actions of their own officials as those by Americans. Under the grip of an apocalyptic aura and clinging to the hope of prolonging the war until inevitable disagreements intheAlliedcoalitioncausedittodisintegrate,Hitler,Goebbels,andothers in the Nazi hierarchy viewed every town, village, and hamlet as a potential bastion from which to fight a delaying action. This, however,ran contrarytothewidespread civiliandesireforanimmediateendtothefighting. As SD reports from Lower Franconia made clear, ordinary Germans viewed the efforts at last-ditch resistance as leading only to a catastrophe —one inspired, moreover, for reasons known only to the Nazi leadership and to promote their own self-interest. Despite Nazi propaganda, average citizens could see with their own eyes the constant retreat of German troops, the overwhelming superiority of enemy forces, and the omnipresence of Allied aircraft. Moreover, in an area that had largely been spared the ravages of war, reason and self-interest dictated that a rapid end to the fighting meant a greater chance for personal survival and avoidance of massive destruction of property. In turn, many civilians realized that the surest way to speed an end to the war was to oppose or sabotage defensive measures and seek a speedy capitulation to the oncoming enemy.1 By war’s end, however, Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft had come full circle and now began to devour its own. It had originated as a racialnational community with the utopian promise of renewing a Germany battered and torn by World War I and the Great Depression, as well as exacting revenge on those held responsible for Germany’s tribulations. Initially using violent measures to “cleanse” the German national body of “unfit” citizens, during the war it had turned to the elimination of the alleged racial enemy of Germany, the Jews. Now, in the spring of 1945, the Nazi leadership directed terror at those “healthy” Germans who no longer wished to prolong this obviously lost war. Since Hitler saw the war as being precisely for the survival of this racial Volksgemeinschaft, such an attitude was impermissible, and Germans thus had to be com- RUNNING AMOK AGAINST THE REALITY OF DEFEAT 117 pelled to continue the struggle. Many in the Nazi establishment, especially Goebbels, made desperate comparisons with the Kampfzeit, the struggle for power in the early 1930s during which apparently hopeless situations were ultimately overcome through sheer persistence and effort —and faith in the Führer, who had always found a way out.2 Faced with the reality of a crumbling army, within which even the extraordinary bonds of camaraderie that had helped sustain its fighting ability for so long were disintegrating, the Nazi leadership had long since resorted to the harshest measures to maintain discipline. Already by mid1944 more...