Das Reich, Hitler's death squads - Part 2 (10 June 1944 - 8 May 1945) UNCENSORED

Reich switched to the Western Front from operations in the Soviet Union received the order to move to the Normandy front. Elimar Schneider 17 was part of a large Alsatian contingent recently integrated by the Das Reich. 15,000 strong and with more than 200 tanks the division which came under constant attack from the resistance journeyed up through France leaving a trail of violence summary executions and massacres of the civilian population. While the staff of the Das Reich in the person of General Heinz Lameding had decreed the death by hanging of 99 people in Tulle, Violette Sabot a London based SOE agent parachuted a few days earlier into the south of France to coordinate resistance actions was captured by the Das Reich at Salon Latour. Not far away the disappearance of Major Kempf abducted by George Gingouin's communist FTP angered the commander of the 1st Führer Battalion Adolf Dieckmann. The village of Oradour-sur-Glane was chosen arbitrarily as a target for reprisals. The battalion followed methods used against civilian populations in Belarus where in less than four years occupation 628 villages were razed and their inhabitants exterminated by formations of the SS. June the 10th 1944 as in Belarus the Das Reich shot the men in the barns of Oradour-sur-Glane while the women and children were burned alive in the church. On the general staff map dated June the 11th the Germans drew a ring around the area where the butchery was committed the day before and in red ink noted the figure of 500 dead. In actual fact 642 people were murdered in Oradour-sur-Glane on June the 10th 1944. Of the men locked in barns and sheds there were only five survivors. Of the women and children burned alive in the church only Marguerite Mouffange survived. For Dieckmann this was also about completing the training of the rookies under his orders. These young Alsatians, Ukrainians and Hungarians had only just joined the Das Reich. Before the massacre they hadn't been bloodied as extermination strategists in the East called it. None of them now could claim to be innocent of the crimes of the SS. Oradour wasn't an isolated case in Western Europe. In Italy, in Belgium, in Greece SS divisions sent to the West after operating in the Soviet Union perpetrated similar slayings using methods employed daily in Ukraine and Belarus. In Italy, August the 12th 1944, the battalion of the 16th Panzer Division led by Valterreda, veteran of the Totenkopf Division and the Battle of Kharkov executed the 560 women children and old men of the Tuscan village of before setting it alight. Several weeks later near Bologna this same unit executed the 955 inhabitants of Marzapoto. As in Oradour, no link was established between the civilian population and any group of partisans. When leaving Oradour-sur-Glane, Dieckmann asked his men to say nothing of the events of the day. If necessary they would say they had discovered an arms cache belonging to the resistance to justify the repression. As for Helmut Kampf, whose disappearance triggered the massacre, he was executed on the direct orders of Georges Guingouin after the head of the communist FTP heard of the SS crimes in Oradour. His body was never found. The next day a contingent of the Das Reich returned to Oradour to erase all traces of the massacre. The sheds were cleared, the charred bodies of women and children buried in a mass grave. Kahn and Barth's men were already back in the main unit. The order had been given to waste no time in reaching the Normandy front. June the 12th, 845 a.m. The Der Fuehrer regiment was on route north to the cities of Tour and Poitiers. Not without difficulty, rounding up a division spread over a 30 kilometer radius had been no easy task. What's more, its equipment and combat vehicles were in an alarming state. 60% of tanks and 30% of half-tracks were unserviceable. The defective Panzers should have been ditched between Montauban and Tulle. Lamedin complained to his superiors. Despite these annoyances, the Das Reich still held a few trump cards, in particular the dozens of Panzers that left Montauban on flatbed cars heading for Normandy. The SOE was aware of this. Based on information delivered by André Malraux, the Allied commander in the region of Dordogne, bombers were sent to pound them in the cities of Angoulême and Poitiers. Philippe Lever, head of Violette Sabo's commando unit, asked the Gaulish secret army to step up sabotage operations. The electricity supplied to the German submarines based in Rochefort was cut. The Paris to Limoges railway line was dynamited. In Salon Latour, the same place that days earlier Violette had tangled with the Das Reich, Lever and Molubiez derailed two trains launched one against the other. It took the Germans two months to repair the rails. By June the 13th, 91% of the 1055 operations against the railway programmed by Allied command had been carried out. As for Violette Sabo, she was in deep trouble. Captured by the Das Reich, she had been handed over to the Gestapo in Limoges. Her true identity had quickly been discovered, and the task of interrogating her had fallen to the executioner of Tulle, Aurel Kovacs. Her SOE comrades couldn't bring themselves to abandon her. A rescue operation was planned for June the 16th. Twice a day, Violette was taken out of her cell and walked between two policemen to Gestapo headquarters. They had to take advantage of those 200 meters during which she was not handcuffed. Molubiez was to fire at the two policemen from the backseat of a car before taking Violette. The day came, but SOE commandos drew a blank. That same morning, Violette had been transferred to Gestapo headquarters in Paris. By June the 18th, the Das Reich division was only kilometers from the Normandy front. With its regiments gathered in Saint-Luc, it readied itself for battle. The Allies still only occupied a thin strip of land along the coast. Though the Americans gained ground heading towards Cherbourg, the Germans defended better than expected and held General Montgomery's British troops in check at Caen. While equipment was being unloaded on the landing beaches by the Allies, Charles de Gaulle, just back on French soil, was given an ovation in the liberated town of Bayeux. But nothing was yet decided. Taking advantage of a storm to cut the Allies' supply lines, the Germans took back the advantage. This was the decisive moment for the Das Reich, which had only lost 40 men on its slow climb toward the north. Erdemas Schneider, the Alsatian from the Deutschland Regiment, had a heavy heart as the fighting drew near. On the way, a huge aircraft flew over us. At the same time, we heard explosions. It didn't bode well and my heart began to beat faster. I thought it must be an American bomber getting rid of its last bombs, that it couldn't drop over Germany. Hitler, who by now was directing operations personally, decided to attempt a breakthrough between Caumont and Saint-Luc. On June the 29th, four Panzer SS divisions were mobilized to take back Bayeux with the Das Reich in the vanguard. Lameding sent in the 1st Battalion of the Der Fuehrer Regiment, that of Diekmann and Kahn, two of the main culprits of the massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane. German propaganda emphasized the decisive nature of the battle and the fighting spirit of the troops on the ground. In reality, the operation was a dismal failure. It ended in carnage for the Germans. After two days fighting, the Der Fuehrer Regiment had lost 600 men. Diekmann was dead, decapitated by a Sherman tank. Kahn had his left arm ripped off. He was repatriated to be treated at the rear. Next day, the Das Reich positions were pounded by 250 bombers from the Royal Air Force. During the month of July, the Wehrmacht fell back but held firm. The Das Reich units, in support of the German army, constantly shifted around to contain the Allied offensives, were at the end of their tether. Sometimes the enemy was British, sometimes American. Successes were short-lived and the balance of power was shifting daily in the Allies' favor. The Das Reich had joined battle too late, but for the resistance ambushes and the abuses committed on the way, it could have made the difference. It had to make do with plugging the holes. Operation Cobra commenced on July the 24th. No fewer than 4,000 tons of bombs rained down on Normandy in what was the largest display of carpet bombing in the Second World War. Das Reich Commander General Heinz Lamedinck, wounded during the bombing, was evacuated from the front. The Americans, maintaining their positions, gained ground everywhere. In four days, Coutances, Avranches, and then Grandville were liberated. In the region of Saint-Lô, a welcoming committee awaited Kahn, who was recovering from his wounds. A military SS judge had come to hear his version of events in Oradour-sur-Glane. The apostolic Nuncio and the prefect of the Limoges region, who visited the scene of the massacre, had complained to Pierre Laval's government of collaborationists. I want to emphasize that the village of Oradour was one of the quietest towns in the region and its hard-working, peaceful population was known for its moderation. These details enable you to renew your protest to the government of the Reich, insisting on the appallingly heinous nature of such reprisals, the huge emotion they have aroused, and the terror in which the people now find themselves. The Vichy government demanded explanations. The Marshal was greatly moved to learn about the cruel and inhuman treatment meted out to the town of Oradour-sur-Glane and its population. Having made a solemn protest to the head of the German government about such acts that nothing can justify, he proposes to send, as soon as circumstances permit, a member of his cabinet to bow in his name at the scene where so many innocent victims and even children met with the most appalling death. The members of the resistance who entered Oradour on June the 12th filmed the village in ruins. The discovery of charred corpses and ruined buildings was an unprecedented shock. They sent a damning report to London based on the testimonies of the survivors and evidence provided by forensic examiners. In his statement, Kahn stuck to the line dreamed up by Dieckmann. Oradour was hiding stocks of weapons for the resistance. The SS judge who delivered his verdict six months later aligned with this version of events. Internally, the case was dismissed. French protests were not passed on to Hitler. The Fuhrer's special envoy refused to disturb him for something so trivial. Hitler had other fish to fry. Outraged by what he saw as his general's defeatism and the military setbacks on the Normandy front, Hitler decided that the counter-attack would take place at Mortain. It would be led by the 2nd Panzer Das Reich division. Its mission, beyond all reality, was to throw the Allies back into the sea. The Mortain counter-offensive, quickly halted by the Royal Air Force, was another fiasco. Heinz Barthes was evacuated from the front to have his wounded leg amputated. The Das Reich was decimated. From over 200 operational panzers, it was reduced to 15. Eléonore Schneider was caught up in the turmoil. Wherever the going was tough, our company was involved. All these names remind me of episodes, but I can't place them exactly. With hunger gnawing away at us, we climbed the apple trees. But the apples were always too green and weren't good for you. In fact, everything here was too green. The soldiers too young, the officers too young. Even the weapons we couldn't try out before for lack of ammunition. There were so many dead and wounded that one more or less made no difference, unless we're talking about comrades. Even in the heart of the battle, the Waffen-SS divisions continued to hunt down partisans and notch up war crimes. On August the 13th, 1944, 18 people were eliminated in Tour-Rouvre-d'en-Lorne and part of the town burnt. American prisoners of war were summarily executed by the Das Reich on the pretext that they looked Jewish. A German defeat was no longer in doubt. The 100,000 soldiers in the field, the remains of around 30 divisions in tatters, were overwhelmed by the Allied battering. On August the 14th, the Wehrmacht chiefs of staff gave the order for a general withdrawal. Already weakened by the loss of 28,000 prisoners of war and 12,000 deaths in July, the Germans lost an additional 10,000 soldiers in the Falaise pocket. 50,000 were taken prisoner. The Das Reich was but a shadow of the elite division it once was. Those who miraculously survived the Battle of Falaise slipped through Allied fingers at the last minute. They crossed the Seine at Elbe before crossing the Ardennes. They then disappeared the other side of the Siegfried Line while the Allies were making for Paris. On August the 15th, the Allied landings in Provence on the French Mediterranean coast opened a new front to the west and accelerated the disintegration of the German forces, putting an end to any remaining hopes of recovery. In Paris, the staff prepared to withdraw. The Gestapo's most valuable prisoners, resistance leaders and SOE agents, were evacuated. Exhausted by the harsh interrogation, Violette Sabot had lost none of her determination. While incarcerated, she had met up with two SOE comrades, Denise Bloch, 28, a first-class secret agent whose Jewish family had been rounded up by the Gestapo in 1942, and Lilian Rolf, 30, half-Russian, half- British radio operator arrested during a French police crackdown. Violette spared no effort to come to their aid and comfort them. The nightmare was coming to an end, she promised them. In reality, it had only just begun. On August the 8th, the three women were taken to the Gardelais station where a cattle train awaited them, destination Ravensbruck. Located some 90 kilometers from Berlin, this concentration camp for women was overcrowded. Thousands of female forced workers were piling up there. Resistance fighters of every nationality as well as race internees, both Jewish and Gypsy. They served as an easily exploitable workforce for German industries in the region. Violette Sabot, Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolf were sent to the munitions factory in Torgau. Working conditions were apocalyptic. For the three resistance women, all that mattered was surviving the camp. They never imagined that Belarus had been liberated by the Red Army, which was now marching on Berlin. While Paris had been liberated on August the 25th, the outline of the Great Reich was shrinking with each new Allied victory. But the war was not yet over. In September, US paratroopers failed to break through the front in the Netherlands. The following month, it was the Canadians who struggled to free up access to the port of Antwerp and fought a difficult battle at Esko. Germany was bending, but not yielding. Hitler decided to attack the Anglo-Americans in the Ardennes, where they were billeted. The mountain range is close to the Siegfried Line, the equivalent of the Maginot Line, which runs along the border with the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Reputedly impassable, it had just been reinforced on the orders of the Führer. The German attack would be a chance to pierce the Allied front and retake Antwerp. This was the last-chance saloon. It wasn't about winning the war anymore. It was about signing a separate peace on the Western Front. Back in Germany, where it had taken refuge, the Das Reich was licking its wounds. Alsatian Elima Schneider, like the rest of the division, was recovering from the harsh fighting of the summer. I celebrated my 18th birthday in Rossebeck. It was the first time we had some relative peace. The ranks of our battalion were swelling visibly. Young Hungarians and Germans joined us. The news came in December. Hitler had given the order to take back the Ardennes To the surprise of the enemy, in the early hours of 16th December, strong German forces advanced from the West Wall to a completely unexpected attack. Hundreds of batteries of all calibers carried him dead to the enemy. American infantry was shot at. The American losses were already high in the first hours. Heinz Lameding, who had recovered after being wounded in Normandy, was keen to get back on the horse. The Das Reich was renewing its offensive. With the Rundstedt offensive triggered, it was action stations once again. After tasting the joys of life, we were scared again. Very scared of dying. On December the 23rd, while the fighting raged around Bastogne and St. Vith, the Das Reich division made a sensational entry onto the battlefield. It fought without moderation to keep the Americans at bay. But once the front was set, the SS made no headway. Doubt set in. Alsatian Elimar Schneider sank, like the rest, into the American quagmire. At night, while the corporal and I were sleeping the sleep of the just, our company received the order to take back a hill from the Americans. Another third of the company was out of action, and the Americans were still there. Once the surprise had worn off, and the dire weather that prevented reinforcements being dropped and support bombing had dissipated, the Allies restarted air attacks and threw all their forces into the battle. In three days, German hopes were destroyed. On December the 26th, the Das Reich was defeated in St. Vith. defeat, the men of the Das Reich were no more than cannon fodder. Dismantled into three groups to face the Soviet advance in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Dresden, the SS division was wiped out by the Soviets in the last exchanges of spring 1945. Like so many others, Orel Kovacs, who had picked out the hanged men in Tüll, was killed in the fighting. Those who escaped death and the Red Army fell back to Prague to surrender to the Americans. The whole of Germany was a heap of ruins. After Hitler's suicide in his bunker, Lameding, whose last mission had been to defend Berlin, managed to slip through the mesh of the Allied net. Germany capitulated on May the 8th, 1945. Violette Szabo would not taste the victory to which she devoted her young life. Along with her SOE comrades, Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolf, she was executed behind the Ravensbruck crematorium in February 1945. Two months before the liberation of the camp by the Red Army. Three months before the German surrender. Of 130,000 women deported to Ravensbruck, only 40,000 survived the forced labor and the medical experiments carried out in the camp. Violette's daughter, Tanya, awaiting her return in London, wasn't three years old. She would later receive the most prestigious decorations awarded to her mother by the British and French authorities. The war was over, but the crimes of the Das Reich lived on in memory. From 1946, the tulle hangings in the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane were mentioned in post-war courtrooms. At the Nuremberg trials, the prosecution tried in vain to find out who had given the order for the massacres. None of the Das Reich officers was present. The question remained unanswered. Until the beginning of the next decade. In January 1953, after seven years investigation, the Oradour-sur-Glane trial opened in Bordeaux. A law, passed in September 1948, enabled the collective responsibility of the accused to be tried. It had been passed in order to sentence the SS for its crimes, for it had been established at the Nuremberg trials that it was a criminal organization. Robert Ebrasse and Marguerite Ruffanche, two of the six survivors, came to present their testimony. The military court in Bordeaux had to investigate the responsibilities of 21 accused, including 14 Alsatians who claimed they were innocent. They were press ganged into the SS, they protested. They were known as the Malgré nous, which means, against our will. The verdict, delivered on the night of February the 12th, triggered a wave of protests. There was only one death sentence and some hard labor. The victims' families deplored the leniency of the judgment. Those of the Alsatians, sentenced to hard labor or prison, cried injustice. They were all amnestied the following year on the altar of national reconciliation. Outraged, the families of the Oradour martyrs engraved the names of the 319 members of Parliament who voted to pass the amnesty law on the sign at the entrance to the ruined village. Up until 1968, they would not allow any representatives of the French Republic to attend commemorations. The protests also concerned those hanged in Tulle. The victims' families pushed for the extradition of Heinz Lammerding, the Das Reich General, who had issued the order for the hangings. Sentenced to death in absentia at the trial in Tulle in 1949, the former Waffen-SS officer was living a quiet life in West Germany, as this December 1965 report shows. Despite several extradition requests, all rejected by the German federal authorities, Lammerding was never bothered. He died aged 66 in Bavaria on January the 13th, 1971. His comrades in the SS and the Das Reich paid him a glowing tribute at his funeral. Seven years later, Otto Kahn, one of those responsible for the Oradour-Sur-Glane massacre, died in his turn near Munich without ever having to answer charges for his acts. He was 69. Heinz Barth, his subordinate, although sentenced to death in absentia in Bordeaux in 1953, made a career in an industrial cooperative. But his past did catch up with him, and he was finally tried in 1983 by a West German court. Robert Ebrard, the Oradour survivor who had come to testify in Bordeaux, made the journey. Heinz Barth's trial was also followed in France. The media and the TV news gave it prominent coverage. Heinz Barth is 63 years old. His entire head is an absolutely perfect memory. He is allowed to sit down because he was amputated one leg after the battle of Normandy. He speaks in front of the tribunal as in front of the blackboard, that is, he says his story wisely and precisely. It is the banal story of a despicable SS who became a torturer and murderer for the only reason that he wanted to be promoted to an officer. Sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the Lydies and Oradour massacres, Barth was released in 1997. He died ten years later in Grancy, town of his birth, after a quiet retirement at the age of 87. Of the 15,000 men who took to the road with the Das Reich, only a handful had to answer for its crimes. Death sentences and life sentences were all amnestied or commuted to less severe penalties. The reasons cited were rebuilding, national reconciliation and the Cold War. Of the Alsatian volunteers and the against-our-wills that made up the lion's share of the troops in 1944, none served the slightest prison sentence. The Alsatian Elmer Schneider was one of them. Convinced he had saved a man from hanging, Schneider wasn't charged at the Thule trial, and because he wasn't present in Oradour during the massacre, his case was never tried. Yet doubts persisted about his enlistment in the SS. In 1982, he expressed no regrets. I don't agree when people say the Waffen-SS were murderers. There's a question of honour at play here. What I saw being done by the Red Resistance of the Limousin didn't encourage me at all to become a deserter. I stayed in the troops to avoid becoming a murderer. ...receives a moral and political instruction...