Werwolf

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John Wilson
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Werwolf

Post by John Wilson »

Here's two interesting views on the German resistance, none of it is my work, but I thought it may be of interest to some who are unaware of this side of WW2.

The Werewolves were originally organised by the SS and the Hitler Youth as a diversionary operation on the fringes of the Third Reich, which were occupied by the Western Allies and the Soviets in the autumn of 1944. Some 5,000 -- 6,000 recruits were raised by the winter of 1944-45, but numbers rose considerably in the following spring when the Nazi Party and the Propaganda Ministry launched a popular call to arms, beseeching everybody in the occupied areas -- even women and children -- to launch themselves upon the enemy. In typical Nazi fashion, this expansion was not co-ordinated by the relevant bodies, which were instead involved in a bureaucratic war among themselves over control of the project. The result was that the movement functioned on two largely unrelated levels: the first as a real force of specially trained SS, Hitler Youth and Nazi Party guerrillas; the second as an outlet for casual violence by fanatics.

The Werewolves specialised in ambushes and sniping, and took the lives of many Allied and Soviet soldiers and officers -- perhaps even that of the first Soviet commandant of Berlin, General N.E. Berzarin, who was rumoured to have been waylaid in Charlottenburg during an incident in June 1945. Buildings housing Allied and Soviet staffs were favourite targets for Werewolf bombings; an explosion in the Bremen police headquarters, also in June 1945, killed five Americans and thirty-nine Germans. Techniques for harassing the occupiers were given widespread publicity through Werewolf leaflets and radio propaganda, and long after May 1945 the sabotage methods promoted by the Werewolves were still being used against the occupying powers.

Although the Werewolves originally limited themselves to guerrilla warfare with the invading armies, they soon began to undertake scorched-earth measures and vigilante actions against German `collaborators' or `defeatists'. They damaged Germany's economic infrastructure, already battered by Allied bombing and ground fighting, and tried to prevent anything of value from falling into enemy hands. Attempts to blow up factories, power plants or waterworks occasionally provoked melees between Werewolves and desperate German workers trying to save the physical basis of their employment, particularly in the Ruhr and Upper Silesia.

Several sprees of vandalism through stocks of art and antiques, stored by the Berlin Museum in a flak tower at Friedrichshain, caused millions of dollars worth of damage and cultural losses of inestimable value. In addition, vigilante attacks caused the deaths of a number of small-town mayors and, in late March 1945, a Werewolf paratroop squad assassinated the Lord Mayor of Aachen, Dr Franz Oppenhoff, probably the most prominent German statesman to have emerged in the occupied fringes over the winter of 1944-45. This spate of killings, part of a larger Nazi terror campaign that consumed the Third Reich after the failed anti-Hitler putsch of July 20th, 1944, can be interpreted as a psychological retreat back into opposition, even while Nazi leaders were still clinging to their last few months of power.

Although the Werewolves managed to make themselves a nuisance to small Allied and Soviet units, they failed to stop or delay the invasion and occupation of Germany, and did not succeed in rousing the population into widespread opposition to the new order. The SS and Hitler Youth organisations at the core of the Werewolf movement were poorly led, short of supplies and weapons, and crippled by infighting. Their mandate was a conservative one of tactical harassment, at least until the final days of the war, and even when they did begin to envision the possibility of an underground resistance that could survive the Third Reich's collapse, they had to contend with widespread civilian war-weariness and fear of enemy reprisals. In Western Germany, no one wanted to do anything that would diminish the pace of Anglo-American advance and possibly thereby allow the Red Army to push further westward.

Despite its failure, however, the Werewolf project had a huge impact, widening the psychological and spiritual gap between Germans and their occupiers. Werewolf killings and intimidation of `collaborators' scared almost everybody, giving German civilians a clear glimpse into the nihilistic heart of Nazism. It was difficult for people working under threat of such violence to devote themselves unreservedly to the initial tasks of reconstruction. Worse still, the Allies and Soviets reacted to the movement with extremely tough controls, curtailing the right of assembly of German civilians. Challenges of any sort were met by collective reprisals -- especially on the part of the Soviets and the French. In a few cases the occupiers even shot hostages and cleared out towns where instances of sabotage occurred. It was standard practice for the Soviets to destroy whole communities if they faced a single act of resistance. In the eastern fringes of the `Greater Reich', now annexed by the Poles and the Czechoslovaks, Werewolf harassment handed the new authorities an excuse to rush the deportations of millions of ethnic Germans to occupied Germany.

Such policies were understandable, but they created an unbridgeable gulf between the German people and the occupation forces who had pledged to impose essential reforms. It was hard, in such conditions, for the occupiers to encourage reform, and even harder to persuade the Germans that it was necessary.

By the time that this rough opposition to the occupation had started to soften, the Cold War was under way and reform became equally difficult to implement. As a result, both German states created in 1949 were not so dissimilar to their predecessor as might have been hoped, and changes in attitudes and institutions developed only slowly. Thanks partly to the Werewolves there was no German revolution in 1945, either imposed from above or generated from below.

And from another point of view...

Actually, the accomplishments of the German werewolves are grossly exaggerated and conflicted. Most of them were maurauding Waffen SS/Gestapo who obviously had an incentive not to give up to the Allies. They lived in the woods and once and a while would go into villages to get supplies...often at gunpoint if needed, if the local people were not interested in helping them out.

The one major accomplishment of the werewolves was making the Americans fear that they were assembling a sizeable defensive force in the mountains to the south of Germany (can't remember the exact region) and thus diverted the attention of many US military units. The Americans feared that any such underground army would link up with remaining German units or other wandering Waffen SS stragglers and form a last defensive force. And since mountain terrain is perfect for a defense, the Allies wanted to nip that in the butt before they could settle into position.
But when the Americans arrived there was absolutely no resistance and not much in the way of any guerilla fighters. It was deserted. (I think it was Berchestgaden, the mountains where Hitler's personal retreat was located..)
The whole thing turned out to be just a rumor.

The fact remains that the great majority of the werewolves (those civilians who were trained and given the whereabouts of weapon caches by the SS near the end of the war) simply walked away from their duties and tried to reintegrate into German society. The German people as a whole were tired of war and not many of them were willing to go out and catch a bullet for a regime that obviously ruined them on all fronts.
There were a few fanatics of course. But on the whole i'd say most Germans had enough and were willing to just pick up the pieces and move on.

Werewolf activity was much more prominent in the Soviet sectors. German resistance against the Russians was all the more stiff in comparison to the Western allies. Many Germans believed (false hope perhaps) that the Western allies would eventually turn on the communists and help Germany beat them back...that was the dying Nazi party's wish anyways. It never happened.

Many of the former SS even turned their attention to more realistic and profitable venues: Working for the KGB or CIA or taking over local rackets. Many former SS were prominent in the local blackmarkets.
It appears that even the SS personnel realized that throwing one's life away for this dead regime was pointless. Instead, they became entrepeneurs!!!
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Helmut Schegel
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Re: Werwolf

Post by Helmut Schegel »

You should take Werewolf activity in the Soviet zone of occupation with a pinch of salt, there are numerous cases of the NKVD reporting Werewolf cells being arrested, when in fact it was no more than kids playing with abandoned weapons. The NKVD were more interested in arrests than determining the truth of the matter.
Russian occupation policies were as draconian in practice as Eisenhower's decrees were in theory.
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Wilder Feger
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Re: Werwolf

Post by Wilder Feger »

Very interesting stuff, John and HS, thanks for sharing.

Kelly
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