Famous Nazi Officers

[Jeannine Lander]

On7 May 1945, after months of fierce fighting, the Germans agreed to Allied demands for unconditional surrender, finally ending six years of warfare that had left millions dead and much of Europe in ruins. The following day, Tuesday 8 May 1945, was declared 'Victory in Europe' (VE) Day, and marked the formal end of the European war. The Allies were now faced with occupying a conquered and destroyed nation.

It had already been agreed that Germany and Austria would be divided into four occupation zones: Soviet, American, French and British. Each of the major powers was the sole political and legal authority in its zone.

The German capital of Berlin, despite being deep inside the Soviet occupation area, was also to be split into four separate zones. The four powers would also work together via the Berlin-based Allied Control Council, formed in August 1945, which would oversee matters relating to the whole of Germany.

On 25 August 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group was renamed the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). It was made responsible for the occupation and administration of the British Zone in north-west Germany. In this task, it was assisted by the Control Commission Germany (CCG). This consisted of British civil servants and military personnel. It took over aspects of local government, policing, housing and transport.

Following their victory, the Allies feared that Nazi fanatics might wage a partisan war against the occupation, and gather in the mountains of Bavaria and Austria, in the so-called 'Alpine Redoubt'. These concerns proved unfounded and were largely the result of German propaganda fooling Allied intelligence services.

Another last-ditch Nazi resistance effort, the Werewolf plan, was also something of a damp squib. This was aimed at encouraging acts of sabotage and reprisals against collaborators in areas occupied by the Allies. Despite its limitations, it was a useful propaganda device that helped convince the most ardent Nazi supporters to carry on fighting in the final weeks of the war.

In any case, the Allies took the threat seriously and had interned around 100,000 civilian suspects by the end of 1945. They also kept many German officers in prisoner-of-war camps for longer to prevent them supporting the Werewolf campaign on release.

Thousands of men and women suspected of involvement in the concentration camp system and other crimes across Europe were rounded up by Allied forces. The key Nazi leaders were to be dealt with jointly by the main Allied powers, while the rest would be punished in those countries where they had committed their atrocities. Apprehending these lesser-known Nazis became the responsibility of the Allies depending on which zone of Germany or Austria they controlled.

The BAOR was responsible for pursuing suspected war criminals in its zone of north-west Germany. It established the British Army War Crimes Investigation Teams (WCIT), which was assisted by other units, including the Special Air Service (SAS).

Among those brought to trial were the SS personnel of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which had been liberated by the British in April 1945. Those found guilty included Commandant Josef Kramer who was sentenced to death by a military court and hanged on 13 December 1945.

The most famous Nazi caught by the British was Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He was arrested, while in disguise, at a checkpoint and taken to an interrogation camp near Lneburg on 23 May 1945. Under interrogation, Himmler admitted who he was, but avoided trial by committing suicide with a concealed cyanide pill.

Political support for war crimes prosecutions soon declined. As relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated, it was considered more expedient to make friends with Germany rather than keep prosecuting its people and alienate them from the West. As early as April 1946, the British government was calling for cuts to the WCIT. Many investigating officers were demobbed without being replaced. By early 1948, only a handful of cases were being pursued.

By then, the WCIT had brought around 350 cases to trial involving over 1,000 accused Nazis. Of these, 667 were convicted of crimes and 230 sentenced to death. War crimes trials were also brought by many other countries, including the Soviet Union and Poland, but only a small fraction of guilty Nazis were ever punished.

The hunt for war criminals was accompanied by a campaign to rid German and Austrian politics, industry, media, arts, and the judiciary of Nazis. Former party and SS members were removed from positions of power and influence, and Nazi organisations were abolished.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Germans were detained in internment camps while their backgrounds were investigated. There were nine such camps in the British zone, all guarded by British troops.

By late 1946, growing tensions with the Soviet Union, the economic importance of western Germany and a lack of Allied manpower to run the de-nazification effort, saw the campaign wind down. In their zone, the British handed over de-nazification panels to German authorities.

The BAOR and Control Commission Germany also had to restart German economic life. Years of bombing and the recent fighting had left agriculture, industry and transport in ruins. Industrial output was down by a third from 1939 levels. There were shortages of food, clothes and fuel. Millions of people had been made homeless by the war.

In 1945-46, the British mobilised released German prisoners of war to assist in gathering the harvest (Operation Barleycorn) and to work in the Ruhr coal mines (Operation Coalscuttle). But this only provided limited assistance. For most Germans, life in the immediate post-war years was one of rationing, shortages and poverty.

Initially, there was a reluctance among the wartime Allies about fully rebuilding the German economy. Some planners argued that Germany should be reconstructed purely as an agrarian state, one that lacked the heavy industry needed to wage a future war.

Germany's economic rebirth was assisted by the British Army. Major Ivan Hirst and his comrades of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers took over the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg in 1945, initially to make and repair cars for the British. The CCG provided raw materials and labour.

Eventually, Hirst helped turn Volkswagen into today's well-known brand. Most of the factory's workforce initially consisted of displaced persons from across Europe, but more Germans were employed as time went on. By the end of 1947, 20,0000 cars had been made.

Other German businesses were assisted by the Army, including the KWS Grain Factory and the Huth-Apparatebau radio factory in Hanover. The latter concern employed locals to make radio sets manufactured primarily from components salvaged from German military equipment.

The British Army also helped found 'Der Spiegel' magazine. The latter was co-founded in Hanover by Major John Chaloner who was assigned to the Public Relations and Information Services Control, a unit rebuilding the German media industry under the supervision of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He worked with recently released German prisoner of war Rudolf Augstein.

The BAOR also mobilised former enemy soldiers into the German Civil Labour Organisation (GCLO). This provided paid work and accommodation for thousands of men. By late 1947, over 50,0000 Germans were employed as labourers, drivers, mechanics and in many other roles. In 1948-49, the GCLO played a major part in supporting the Allied effort during the Berlin Airlift.

Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer served as Director of Military Government in the British occupation zone after the war. In this British Army training film, he explains the motivations for the reconstruction of western Germany.

At the end of the war, the Allies also had to deal with millions of displaced persons (DPs). These included former concentration camp inmates, forced labourers taken from their homelands by the Nazis to work in Germany, and Allied prisoners of war (POWs) who had to be sent home.

The military in the various zones of Germany did what they could for DPs, many of whom were sick or malnourished. They were housed in makeshift camps where they were fed, medically checked and processed. But eventually, in October 1945, the Allies and Soviets handed responsibility for DPs to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) .

In the British zone, the Army assisted UNRRA by providing transportation, supplies and security. Dealing with so many people took time. But by the end of 1945, over six million refugees had been repatriated by the military of the four occupied zones and UNRRA. The last German DP camps closed in the early 1950s.

Many displaced persons who were former residents of the Soviet Union, or from nations in Eastern Europe and the Balkans recently taken over by Communists, had no wish to return. Some had collaborated with the Germans and could expect little mercy. But even those forcibly taken by the Germans would still be suspects in the eyes of the Communist authorities.

The British, in their zone of occupation, formed some of these people into the Civil Mixed Watchman Service. They were tasked with guard duties in the camps set up to deal with the tide of humanity moving through Germany. The British also established the Civilian Mixed Labour Organisation to undertake reconstruction work.

In 1959, both organisations were merged into the Mixed Service Organisation (MSO), which would continue to work for the BAOR for many years. MSO units had a British Army commanding officer and senior non-commissioned officers overseeing a multi-national rank and file.

The western Allies also had to assist millions of German refugees. Many were from Germany's eastern provinces and had fled the vengeful Red Army, or were ethnic Germans forcibly expelled from countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Their numbers were swelled by thousands of German POWs returning from abroad.

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