On April 28, Hitler and his entourage returned to Berlin, but a moment of peace had past. The Balkan campaign messed up the Führer’s original timetable for operation “Barbarossa.” Now preparations for the eastern campaign became very urgent; the battles of extermination had to be won and Stalin’s country crushed before the muddy season at the end of October, and the winter that would paralyze the German motorized divisions.
Only one day after their return to the capital of the Reich, Himmler and Wolff were once again in the spotlight. Candidates for officers in the army, the air force, the marines and the Waffen SS were ordered to the Sportspalast in Berlin so that Hitler, in a great speech, could prepare them for the future. He made them promise that these 9,000 men would “die heroically.” After five more days, Wolff, sitting in his Reichstag armchair, experienced how the Führer celebrated victory in the Balkan war.
May and June were rather turbulent times at headquarters. The setting was mostly at the Berghof above Berchtesgaden where Hitler was given the news that his party deputy, Rudolf Hess, flew to Scotland alone in an ME109 fighter Messerschmidt plane because he mistakenly believed he could bring about peace with Great Britain. Admiral Darlan, vice president of the French Council of Ministers, came to the Obersalzberg because a battalion of volunteer fighters from France had been accepted into the Wehrmacht.
In Iraq, a rebellion instigated by the foreign department of the SD broke out against British mandate rule. A few German soldiers were flown to Baghdad, but if at headquarters they had hoped that the entire Arab world would rush into armed revolt, they were mistaken. Already after one week the resistance had been defeated. Several Arab leaders fled and were taken to Berlin by the SD where their main characteristic was to be their incessant hunger for women.
The English suffered yet another setback during the second half of May; Crete was occupied, mainly by German parachute troops, but with huge losses. Besides that, there were still state occasions; Hitler met with Mussolini once more, with Romanian head of state General Antonescu, as did Ante Paveliæ, the dictator of Croatia (established out of the remaining Yugoslavia).
Did Himmler and Wolff already know that three hours after midnight on June 22, 1941, the attack on Stalin’s empire along the 1,500-kilometer-long border running from the Baltic to the Black Sea would begin? That the Soviet Union was the intended victim of the next campaign had long been an open secret in their circles, but the exact date was of the utmost secrecy. According to one of Hitler’s general orders, each person was only allowed to know what was required to fulfill his assignments, and that person was not allowed to know anything until it became absolutely necessary. Dr. Otto Dietrich, Reich Chief Press Officer, claimed to have noticed that “something monstrous was underway against Russia” because of the hectic bustle in the Reich Chancellery on the day before the attack. Dietrich belonged to the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS with the honorary rank of gruppenführer and (what is to be regarded even more highly) was among the leadership of the NSDAP, just as comfortable there as in the ministry of propaganda. On the other hand, however, a German non-commissioned officer, who deserted to the Russians a few days before, revealed the imminent attack and the date—but of course, he was not taken seriously.
In the first few days after June 22, the German people paid little attention to the developments in the eastern campaign. Hitler waited because he wanted to announce a great victory as a prelude, and because the generals did not want to inform the fleeing enemies about the situation at the front. The Reich chancellery remained as headquarters for another thirty-six hours. Not until June 23 at noon did the convoy of cars drive out through the Wilhelmstrasse, this time to the Anhalter train station. The destination of the special train was East Prussia, near the small town
of Rastenburg, with its 15,000 residents, some eighty kilometers from the Russian border. Eight kilometers from there, in a thick forest, a more permanent headquarters had been prepared. Hitler named it “Wolfsschanze.” Gruppenführer Karl Wolff would make it his permanent home for the next twenty months.
However romantic Wolff may have felt about living in the middle of the forest, in constant physical contact with his Führer, during the initial days after moving to the “Wolfsschanze,” the monotonous surroundings, the same faces, and the fixed routine must have affected his disposition. Also the strict security measures had to be bothersome after a while. There were several levels of security. The innermost was number III, surrounding the Führer bunker where only a select few were allowed to enter.
Approximately one kilometer away a fence and a watch station guarded the entrance to Security Level I; the forest warden’s lodge, named “Görlitz,” checked the identification and the person of anyone seeking to come through the gate. Wolff knew almost all of the SS guards of the watch detail; most of them were from Munich, or he had met them in the course of his duties as Himmler’s adjutant. With him, they often disregarded the cumbersome and time-consuming procedures to which every visitor was subjected. One reached the accommodations by a well-paved forest path. They were divided into two complexes to the right and left of the main path, loosely scattered among the trees. There were several different circles of wooden Wehrmacht barracks, but within the security barriers II and III a few were built in concrete, with ceilings and walls up to six feet thick. This massive method of construction was used, of course, only for the protection of the bedrooms. The workrooms in the front part of the accommodations were only safe from fragments.
Wolff’s quarters were in Security Level III, only 200 meters away from Hitler’s bunker. Nazi party Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, Chief Press Officer Dr. Dietrich, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, and General Alfred Jödl were housed in the immediate proximity. Hitler’s adjutants, secretaries, and servants also lived within that level of security. Everyone knew everyone else in the area of about 500 by 250 square meters, but differences in rank mostly prevented people from getting to know each other on a personal level. Inevitably cliques were formed with their members exchanging information and forming alliances. The highest ranks met daily at the officer’s mess when Hitler had his meals. Keitel, Jödl, and Bormann constantly sat at regular places at a table near Hitler. In the first few months, his midday meal was taken to the table regularly at 2:00 p.m. The
evening meal was at 7:30 p.m. and very often, after the meal, Hitler began his long monologues; if he even got into conversation he hardly allowed anyone to interrupt him. And no one dared contradict him.
Anyone sitting for the first time at one of the twenty oak seats at the massive table made of the same wood was disappointed. Very often vegetable soup was served with bread, sometimes a little bit of soft curd cheese, and even less butter. As in Berlin, the cooks were only allotted what each soldier was actually getting. Every Sunday, for which the Party had planned a stew, the same frugal meal was served. Hitler got used to dragging out the evening get-together until late at night, and in his monologues he constantly repeated himself. Several listeners only listened to their master’s voice while half asleep.
Wolff spent the mornings mostly studying the files and mail received by courier from his Main Office. Because he had no designated secretary, he wrote only brief notes on the letters and the office in Berlin composed the answers. They were returned to East Prussia for signature. At noon the official business began with the situation reports, where the military incidents of the preceding twenty hours were presented. In good weather, Wolff would meet people strolling on the streets and footpaths before the meeting. His high military rank allowed him to hold a conversation with most people he met; however, these were usually with Hitler’s adjutants, with questions about news items. Because he was not allowed to be present at the situation reports, he had to collect information in this manner. The younger generation soon irreverently called him “General What’s New.” Also at the afternoon situation reports at 4:00 p.m. the Wehrmacht leadership preferred to be among themselves. They could then be absent most of the time during the evening conversations lasting until well past midnight, where Hitler’s voice was practically the only one heard. Wolff was among the Führer’s welcome guests—possibly because he remained silent. In the existing record of these conversations, his name is never mentioned.
According to his own description, it was his task to pass along Hitler’s orders to Himmler and to present Himmler’s wishes to Hitler. Besides that, he negotiated with the Wehrmacht, the Party, and the State in the name of the Reichsführer SS, as long as there was a representative at headquarters. Negotiations like this were necessary because Hitler only gave the blessing of his signature to a suggestion when all institutions involved had agreed. Wolff was kept extremely busy by the unending battle between the Reichsführer SS and Minister of Foreign Affairs von Ribbentrop.
Many people who experienced Hitler closely certified to his winning, even charming, friendliness, which completely contradicts the historical picture of the violent ruler and mass murderer. Wolff, who had known the Führer for years, honored and admired him even more when Hitler occasionally singled out the tall SS Gruppenführer by treating him as a confidant, asking him to accompany him on his short morning walks in the forest of Security Level III. Hitler even agreed to hear contradicting views on such occasions, because no one could witness his authority being placed into question. Also Wolff hit exactly the right tone of voice with his pretentious officer’s club phraseology that his Führer valued as the mark of an honest and devoted follower.
It would have been a miracle if Wolff had only met with understanding at headquarters in such a situation. Once everything depends on the will of a potentate, then the people around him are always scheming as to how they can get rid of their competition. With rumors, half-truths, and innuendo friends and enemies come and go, and the climate and scenery did not help in loosening up the tense atmosphere at the center of power. High trees with thick crowns towered above the barracks and bunkers. They served as protection from aircraft, but also blocked out the light. The forest itself was monotonous. On the other side of the last fence there were two lakes with charming banks, but within the camp there were wide patches of marshland that from spring into late fall were breeding grounds for swarms of insects. The concrete bunkers had no windows and the walls were mostly cool and damp. The chief interpreter of the foreign office, Dr. Paul Schmidt, could see that “in Hitler’s rooms under the dark shadows of the forest trees, the electric light was often turned on all day.” He found the gloomy atmosphere “depressing” and breathed a sigh of relief when he “could leave that dark forest again.”
Schmidt pitied all those who “had to live and work like prisoners in the thick forest for weeks or even months.” During his examination at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, General Alfred Jödl described the headquarters as “midway between a cloister and a concentration camp.” Wolff was better off than most other residents: at regular intervals, he could go on leave to Berlin for days on end, return to his office, and visit his lover on the side. The widowed Countess Bernstorff had rented an apartment in Berlin. Just as often, he drove to see Himmler, who stayed at his own headquarters, the special train “Heinrich” stationed about thirty kilometers from the “Wolfsschanze.” Every now and then Himmler asked him along on a trip. During those absences, he was not missed at headquarters
because his role in those circles, if anything, was more as an observer than an actor. Whoever lived at the “Wolfsschanze” and later wrote about it, either never mentioned Wolff at all or did so only in passing. The reason could be that despite his jovial friendliness, people did not trust him; since he was after all the adjutant of the man who controlled the Gestapo, the SD, and the concentration camps. Furthermore, the hushed conversation about the SS units during the first weeks of the campaign was not conducive to creating trust in the general who represented them.
As early as March 1941, long before the beginning of the campaign, Hitler had announced to the heads of the Wehrmacht, the Party, and the SS that what was about to begin soon in the east was to be “more than just a battle with weapons.” This was contained in his so-called “Commissar Order.” All Red Army political commissars, “whether captured in battle or after the fighting… must as a rule be eliminated immediately and completely.” Special commandos of the SS had been set up with the assignment of identifying and liquidating all active Communist elements among the prisoners of war in concentration camps. The Jews were also to be eradicated as the source of all the misery in the world. As in the Polish campaign, only in greater numbers and even more brutally, the Einsatzgruppen were raging behind the front lines since the beginning of the war. Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the RHSA, sent four Einsatzgruppen of 3,000 men behind the advancing soldiers to prepare for “an assignment of extreme harshness.” During the Russian campaign they immediately entered towns with tanks so that no one would have time to flee or hide. Their victims were Communist, state employees, and Jews. Naturally they also fought the partisans who were blowing up train tracks behind the Wehrmacht, attacking transports on the roads, or massacring guard posts and other units. As in the Polish campaign, Wolff’s assignment again was to keep the SS’s bloodstained image as clean as possible—at least in those instances when officers of the Wehrmacht became incensed.
During the first weeks of the campaign, the Einsatzgruppen in the central section of the eastern front were already very busy. By mid-July, 300,000 soldiers of the Red Army were already behind barbed wire as prisoners of war. According to a directive from Hitler, they were not allowed to be treated as “comrades” and remained enemies, even though they were disarmed, and were meant for extermination. SS Brigadeführer Otto Ohlendorf commanded one of the four Einsatzgruppen in the central section of the front. In 1946 at his examination before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, he described how the commando
leaders “before marching out were given oral instructions” that “in Russian territory the Jews were to be liquidated like the Soviet political commissars.” Himmler announced that this order was based on Hitler’s instructions and that the heads of the Wehrmacht had been informed.