Heinrich Himmler : A Life (182 page)

62
. Braham,
Politics
, 957 ff.

63
. Ibid. 976 ff.

64
. Alexandra-Eileen Wenck,
Zwischen Menschenhandel und ‘Endlösung’. Das Konzentrationslager Bergen-Belsen
(Paderborn, etc., 2000), 78 ff.

65
.
Dienstkalender
,10 December 1942, 637 ff. Himmler’s entry read: ‘4. special camp for Jews with relatives in America. 5. Resettlement of the Jews—release in return for foreign currency—not in favour—more important as hostages.’ To the phrase ‘release in return for foreign currency’ Himmler, plainly as a result of the discussion, later added the words ‘from abroad’. In a note made the same day Himmler recorded that Hitler had given him permission for the ‘release of Jews in return for foreign currency’ if they ‘bring in notable [
sic
:
namhaften
] amounts of foreign currency from abroad’, quoted ibid. 639. On the building of the special camp: BAB, NS 19/2159, RFSS to Müller, December 1942.

66
. Wenck,
Menschenhandel
, 102 ff.

67
. Bauer,
Freikauf
, 149 ff.

68
. Wenck,
Menschenhandel
, 289 ff.; Bauer,
Freikauf
, 231 ff.; Braham,
Politics
, 1069 ff.

69
. Wenck,
Menschenhandel
, 294; Braham,
Politics
, 733 ff. and 1088 ff.; Bauer,
Freikauf
, 309 ff.

70
. Bauer,
Freikauf
, 353 f.

71
. This is what he said to Bernadotte (PRO, Prem 3/197/6, Ambassador Mallet to the Foreign Office concerning Bernadotte’s confidential report, 13 April 1945) and to his Jewish interlocutor, Masur (see note 144). Before the meeting with Masur Schellenberg had advised him that it would be a good idea ‘if he made it clear that he was disobeying Hitler and acting directly contrary to his wishes and those of his camarilla, but that was what he finally had to take it upon himself to do in recompense for his personal behaviour’ (Ifz, Ed 90/7, Schellenberg-Manuscript, 51).

72
. Orth,
System
, 272 f.

73
. On the clearing of the concentration camps and the death marches see ibid. 270 ff.; Daniel Blatman, ‘Die Todesmärsche—Entscheidungsträger, Mörder und Opfer’, in Ulrich Herbert (ed.),
Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur
, vol. 2 (Göttingen, 1998), 1063–92; Yehuda Bauer, ‘The Death Marches, January–May 1945’, in Michael R. Marrus (ed.),
The Nazi Holocaust: Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews
, vol. 9:
The End of the Holocaust
(Westport, etc., 1989), 491–511.

74
. Angrick and Klein,
‘Endlösung’
, 419 ff.; Christoph Dieckmann, ‘Das Ghetto und das Konzentrationslager in Kaunas 1941–1944’, in Ulrich Herbert (ed.),
Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur
, vol. 1 (Göttingen, 1998), 439–71, at 458; Streim, ‘Konzentrationslager’, 184.

75
. Angrick and Klein,
‘Endlösung’
, 436 ff.

76
. Orth,
System
, 282 ff.; Angrick and Klein,
‘Endlösung’
, 442 ff.

77
. Orth,
System
, 271 ff.

78
. Ibid. 276 ff.; Andrzej Strzelecki, ‘Der Todesmarsch der Häftlinge aus dem KL Auschwitz’, in Ulrich Herbert (ed.),
Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur
, vol. 2 (Göttingen, 1998), 1093–1112.

79
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 2, 3, and 4 September 1944.

80
. BAB, NS 19/4015, 21 September 1944.

81
. The Countryside Guard (Landwacht) was created by a RFSS edict of 17 January 1942, the Town Guard (Stadtwacht) by a RFSS edict of 9 November 1942 (BAB, NS 6/338, Party Chancellery circular of 9 December 1942, no. 192/42). See Rudolf Absolon,
Die Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich
, vol. 6:
19. Dezember 1941 bis 9. Mai 1945
(Boppard a. Rh., 1995), 72 f., and Klaus Mammach,
Der Volkssturm. Das letzte Aufgebot 1944/45
(Cologne, 1981), 31.

82
. Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 32.

83
. Published in ibid. 168 ff. The edict was dated 25 September 1944.

84
. BAB, NS 19/4015, speech of 21 September 1944.

85
. BAB, NS 19/4016.

86
. Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 54.

87
. See ibid. 56 f.; see also Franz W. Seidler,
‘Deutscher Volkssturm
’.
Das letzte Aufgebot 1944/45
(Munich and Berlin, 1989), 56 ff.

88
. Published in Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 60 f.

89
. Ibid. 57 f.

90
. Henke,
Besetzung
, 128 ff.; Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 134.

91
. Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 62 ff.

92
. Ibid. 63.

93
. Ibid. 70 f. and 108 f.

94
. Ibid. 72 f.

95
. Ibid. 110 ff.

96
. Henke,
Besetzung
, 131; Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 34 f.

97
. BAB, NS 19/4016.

98
. The older assessment is, for example, given in Henke,
Besetzung
, 943 ff. For a revision of this picture see in particular Perry Biddiscombe,
Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944–1946
(Toronto, 1998); see also Cord Arendes, ‘Schrecken aus dem Untergrund. Endphaseverbrechen des “Werwolf”’, in id. (ed.),
Terror nach innen. Verbrechen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges
(Göttingen, 2006), 149–71.

99
. Aachen State Court, judgment of 22 October 1949, published in
Justiz und NS-Verbrechen
, vol. 5 (Amsterdam, 1970), no.173.

100
. Rainer Mennel,
Die Schlussphase des Zweiten Weltkrieges im Westen (1944/45). Eine Studie zur politischen Geographie
(Osnabrück, 1981), 317 ff.

101
. Karl Volk, ‘“Gell, seller B’suech!” Heinrich Himmler in Triberg’, in
Die Ortenau
(1997), 509–38; see also BAB, NS 19/1793, lists of appointments.

102
. BAB, NS 19/1793, lists of appointments.

103
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 20 January 1945.

104
. Ibid. 22 January 1945.

105
. Ibid. 23 January 1945.

106
. BAM, N 265/127, notes of Colonel in the General Staff Eismann: as operations officer [Ia] of the Army Group ‘Vistula’, Historical Division, US Army. I am grateful to Andreas Kunz for alerting me to the existence of this document.

107
. BAB, NS 19/4015, Grafenwöhr speech, 25 July 1944.

108
. Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 281, quoted telex Himmler to Fegelein, 30 January 1945.

109
. Mammach,
Volkssturm
, 81.

110
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 8 February 1942.

111
. BAM, N 265/127, notes of Colonel in the General Staff Eismann.

112
. Kunz,
Wehrmacht
, 236 ff.

113
. Hans-Dieter Schmid, ‘Die Geheime Staatspolizei in der Endphase des Krieges’,
Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
, 51/9 (2000), 528–39.

114
. Kershaw,
Hitler
, vol. 2:
1936–1945
(Stuttgart, 2000), 948 f.;
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 20, 21, and 23 September (the text of the memorandum also bears this date).

115
. Hansjakob Stehle, ‘Deutsche Friedensfühler bei den Westmächten im Februar/März 1945’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 30 (1982), 538–55, here 538, based on Pierre Blet
et al
. (eds),
Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre mondiale
, vol. 11 (Vatican City, 1981), no.371.

116
. BAB, NS 19/1447.

117
. PRO, HW 1/3196.

118
. PAA, Inland IIg 6a, Kaltenbrunner to Wagner (AA), 9 May 1944. Kaltenbrunner provided Wagner with a copy of the letter, which had been written about three months before, so that ‘if necessary it could be used for foreign policy purposes’.

119
. It could refer to a telegram that was not sent to Churchill which the British bugging system may have picked up, in which case it is not clear why Churchill destroyed it.

120
.
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 23, 26, and 28 January, 1, 12, and 13 February, 5, 12, and 22 March 1945.

121
. Ibid. 5 March 1945.

122
. Ibid. 8 March 1945.

123
. Ibid. 12 March 1945.

124
. Ibid. 15 and 16 March 1945.

125
. Ibid. 14 March 1945.

126
. Ibid. 15 April 1945.

127
. Ibid. 16 March 1945.

128
. Ibid. 22 March 1945.

129
. BAM, N 265/127, notes of Colonel in the General Staff Eismann.

130
. On the so-called armband order see
Tagebücher Goebbels
, 28 March 1945; Messenger,
Gladiator
, 168.

131
. The original version of the Kersten–Himmler agreement no longer exists; it has only been recorded by Kersten (Kersten,
Totenkopf
, 343). Allegedly a document was signed on 12 March 1945. However, unlike other documents from his correspondence with Himmler, this one was not published as a facsimile. There is only (on pp. 353 f.) a facsimile of a letter from Kersten to Himmler of 20 March 1945 in which he lists the points in the agreement.

132
. As he did to Bernadotte (transmitted by the head of the Secret Service, Walter Schellenberg), see Folke Bernadotte,
Das Ende. Meine Verhandlungen in Deutschland im Frühjahr 1945 und ihre politischen Folgen
(Zürich and New York, 1945), 71, as well as to the former Swiss president, Musy (IfZ, ED 90/7, Schellenberg Manuscript, 30). Schellenberg’s statements are among the most important sources for this last phase. Schellenberg, who at the end became heavily involved in trying to rescue Scandinavian and other prisoners, initially remained in Sweden after the German capitulation and while there wrote a report on the events of the previous months. During this period he was in contact with Bernadotte; see the ‘Final Report’ on Schellenberg composed by the British Secret service in 1945, published in Reinhard R. Doerries,
Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence: Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg
(London, etc., 2003), 200 f. During his interrogations by the British Secret Service in London in 1945, after his stay in Sweden, Schellenberg based his recollections substantially on his original manuscript and appeared so plausible that the British ‘Final Report’ was largely shaped by his. While in prison—he was sentenced to six years imprisonment and was freed in 1951—he wrote his memoirs, which were published in English translation. The final chapter of these memoirs is in parts identical with the report he composed in 1945. In general, therefore, Schellenberg’s statements are consistent. However, inevitably the question must be asked whether, in particular, he exaggerated his allegedly increasing attempts towards the end of the war to persuade Himmler to try to bring the war to an end, in order to provide himself with a strong defensive position for the future.