Nigel Cawthorne (15 page)

Paul Rudin, director general of NASG, attacked the generals present in a most unbecoming manner, demanding that the city be defended to the last, in accordance with the Führer Order and that the
Wehrmacht
commander, who was a sick man and inexperienced in service with field units, be replaced by another officer. The commanding general refused to discuss the matter further. Soon afterwards, however, General Reinhardt and Major General Kiegesar were removed from their posts and Leipzig was assigned to a new ‘Combat Commander’, Colonel von Poncet, an officer no one knew and who was unfamiliar with the city. A few days later Director General Rudin and his wife committed suicide with
Panzerfausts
– the first instance of a rapidly developing suicide psychosis.

He did not know what action was contemplated for the defence of the city and stated that he personally regarded any military measures as madness. The new combat commander, who was not familiar with the local situation, apparently intended to fight, but he had not a single cannon at his disposal. Hence the city and its population were seriously endangered, and for no defensible reason.

The
Kreisleiter
[county leader] pointed out that the enemy could only come from the west, so the city would only have to be defended to that side. He went on to explain that the Hitler Youth, under its own commanders, would defend the city from a first defensive position 3km from the city limits. Its mission was to stave off the approaching enemy with
Panzerfausts
. At the very edge of the city was a second defensive position. Upon the approach of the enemy they were to fight a delaying action and slowly retreat toward the main line of defence, represented by the eastern bank of the Elster River. The bridges would be destroyed; preparations to blow them up had already been completed. The police were to open fire on individual enemy targets within their own precincts.

This estimate of the situation by the
Kreisleiter
of the NSDAP in his capacity of local
Volkssturm
commander and the defence measure outlined by him were the most incredible thing I had ever heard. They could only have originated in the mind of a man who had never been a soldier himself, and thus had no concept of military responsibility, or who was ready to die … In fact, the Kreisleiter and his assistants, around ten in number, did commit suicide when US troops entered Leipzig.

In view of the general confusion and the unbelievable lack of responsibility, I felt obliged, in spite of the personal danger involved, to speak up against his appraisal of the situation and the use of tactics typical of those used by children playing cowboys and Indians. At first I protested about the commitment of untrained adolescents, calling it tantamount to the murder of children, and asked the
Kreisleiter
what he thought he was doing. He replied that German youth would be annihilated in its entirety anyhow, hence death under these circumstances would be the best thing. Further protest against this view was pointless, I could only call it madness. The other people present agreed with me … I explained that it did not take much military knowledge to see that a strong enemy would not come into so large a city as Leipzig from one side only. He would be much more likely to encircle the city, and then converge on it when ready. I pointed out that it was quite within the realm of possibility that any attempt to defend the city might be met by an air raid, the consequences of which were inconceivable. In any case, our own forces were much too weak for effective resistance, since they were completely without heavy arms. Therefore efforts to defend Leipzig were incapable of achieving practical end, but the city itself and hundreds of thousands of men and women would be uselessly exposed to grave danger. I also protested vigorously against the police being employed without my knowledge by any other agency.

I urgently requested Colonel von Poncet to save the bridges, otherwise the city would be divided in two and the western part could not survive since it would have no water, gas or electrical power. The combat commander promised to consider my request …

On Sunday 15 April, the encirclement of Leipzig began … In Leipzig itself everything remained quiet. The
Volkssturm
contented itself with establishing inadequate anti-tank obstacles at the bridges by placing trolley cars filled with stones across their exits … The government agencies ceased work and the larger shops were closed …

On 17 April the enemy converged on Leipzig and in part penetrated as far as the city limits. Sporadic shooting could be heard. It was accepted as inevitable that US troops would occupy the city the next day. No further defensive measures were taken. The city hall in the centre of town was occupied by about 500 men of the
Volkssturm
, headed by the
Kreisleiter
of the NSDAP and his staff. These men showed no evidence of enthusiasm for combat. The closer the Americans came, the more members of the
Volkssturm
departed by the numerous side entrances of the town hall. There were a great many Panzerfausts available, but hardly anyone had been trained in the use of this very effective weapon. Discarded, they lay about the streets and constituted a danger in themselves.

On the afternoon of this day the combat commander came to my office in great agitation, accompanied by a strong military escort. He had learned, he said, that the mayor, Dr Freyberg, was planning to sabotage the measures ordered by him. He asked me officially to tell him what I knew. I could only make the statement that I was not aware of any such plans. After the departure of Colonel von Poncet I immediately requested the mayor to come in. I had him escorted into my office by a security detail. After I had orientated him on what had happened I advised him to place himself under my protection; he refused, however, to do so. In unforgettable words, he described his present life to me and, in conclusion, seized the opportunity, as an old friend, to bid me farewell. After his only son had been killed in action, he said, life under the conditions to come no longer held any purpose for him. He, his wife and their 17-year-old daughter had resolved to take poison when the occupation of Leipzig began. Hence he was placing the fate of the city in my hands with the request that I exert myself to the best of my ability for the protection of the population.

To be able to effect anything at all, I had to try to find out the intentions of the combat commander. In the evening, therefore, I went to see him with a strong army escort, but could only gather that some operation or other still had to be carried out. It is grotesque to think that the two leading men of the city knew nothing of each other’s plans, and that there was such mistrust between them that they met only after taking extensive protective measures.

That evening I spent with my fiancée and the mayor and his family in the town hall. His deputy, the municipal treasurer, was also there with his wife and 17-year-old daughter. I tried to get Freyberg to reconsider his decision to commit suicide, appealing both to his conscience and his duty to stand by his country as long as it was in danger. When I was called away towards midnight, I believed that I had talked Freyberg into staying alive. A few hours later the criminal police reported to me that both the mayor and his deputy, with their families, were lying dead in their offices.

Upon my arrival at the police presidency I found about 30 US soldiers who had been brought to me as prisoners of war, the combat commander having refused to accept custody of them. I spoke to the soldiers and told them that I regarded them as free men and as my guests. I advised them to remain with me until the city was occupied, which they did.

My father’s driver and my mother picked me up and put me in this little three-wheel transporter and took me to the railway station. I remember coming out. It was a phosphor bomb, so there was water all over the place and the flames skimming across the top of the water. As we went down the street I saw the balcony coming down. The next thing I remember was my uncle’s farm in Pomerania [now largely in Poland]. I remember very, very clearly November 1944 when the Russians were approaching. I was playing outside and my grandmother came and told me that my father was coming to pick us up. You could hear the big guns already in the distance, rumbling away. There was a level crossing and I remember German lorries coming back with wounded people and tanks going up to the front. And then my father arrived and said we had to go that night. The Russians were already near. We caught the last train. As we left a couple of shells hit the railway station. The train went off. It was the last train that ever left there. I remember being at the railway station at Frankfurt an der Oder. There were only forces there. We had to wait a couple of hours. Next to us was a train full of men in bandages.

As the Russians approached Berlin, my father – he had lost an arm during the war – his driver and my mother were going up the street in his car and my mother covered my eyes all the time. This was because there were soldiers hanging from the lampposts – deserters obviously. Everybody tried to run away. Hitler had his death squads in the streets up to the very end.

We lived near a railway station. It didn’t handle passengers so much. There was a commuter station but next to it was a station for goods. This was the place the Jews were deported from, I found out later. Beside it was a big bunker. We went to this bunker when the Russians began to shell. Before the Russians came, there was an SS unit defending the railway station. There was fierce fighting. The bunker was divided in two. They put us all together in one room. It was very tight. The next room, they put the wounded soldiers. I still have that memory of the smell of burnt flesh – a lot of them had been heavily burned. They were brought there screaming. There was only one door between which was opened and closed all the time. And then one afternoon, the SS officers ran off leaving the heavily wounded behind. They were shouting: ‘The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!’ Then a little later Russian soldiers came, had a look around and left.

My cousin, she was then 14, went missing. The Russians took her, raped her for four or five days, then let her go again. She was a broken woman for the whole of her life.

Where we lived there was this family. The father was Jewish and the mother was Christian. They had a daughter. One night the Gestapo came and arrested him. They were taking him down the stairs when the girl grabbed him and would not let go. One of these Gestapo men kicked the girl down the stairs. The girl broke her back and was crippled for life.

Behind the director’s house there was a beautiful house, undamaged, and the Russians took it as their headquarters. The Russians got drunk and came to rape my mother and the other women around. But my grandmother took a poker and hit the first Russian, breaking his arm. In the meantime, someone ran across to the headquarters. The commanding officer came and threw him out. The next day, the soldier came with his broken arm in plaster to apologize.

In the house we had before there was a family of an SS officer living above us. He used to have champagne and brandy, stuff nobody had. In 1943, he got drunk and started screaming and jumped out of the window. His wife gave my father his trousers and my father would wear them. The Russians looked at his trousers and wanted to put him against the wall.

The Russians put people in charge of the local districts. Most were Communists. The others were well-known people who had opposed Hitler. We had this Jewish family who lived in the basement of the Catholic priest for two and a half years. Everybody knew about it, but nobody talked. My parents had a corner shop and when the housekeeper came shopping they gave her a little bit more to feed them. The man was a famous journalist before the war. My mother ran to get him. It was only two blocks. He came and stood in front of my father and said: ‘If you want to kill this man, you have to kill me first.’ So my father survived.

A couple of days later, the Russians made a search of the shop. They found beer bottles full of petroleum on one shelf. They opened it, smelt it and they drank it. The next day, an officer and men came again and my father thought: ‘Jesus Christ, now I am in trouble.’ And they said: ‘Have you got more of that stuff?’

Then the British came. There was a big Sikh guy sitting in a British scout car. We were children and we wanted a look. And we were allowed to sit in the car and he drove us around the block. A British major moved in. He spoke very good German. In summer time, he invited us children into his garden. We had cookies and he had a book of Grimms’ fairy tales and read them to us.