Werwolf

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Werwolf (German for "werewolf", the spelling "Wehrwolf" is incorrect) was a World War II Nazi plan for a clandestine resistance force which would carry out guerrilla attacks against occupying forces in the event that the Nazi regime came to an end. It is an extreme example of a stay-behind or partisan organization.

Werwolf had a mythological reputation which was deliberately fostered by Nazi propaganda and its perceived influence went far beyond its actual operations, especially after the end of the Nazi regime; it is an unfounded allegation that Werwolf endured as a terrorist force for many years after the end of the war.[1] Despite its historical and mythological significance, Werwolf was not the only post-war guerrilla insurgency in Europe – see the section "Other organizations" below.

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[edit] Nomenclature

The word "Werwolf" itself is the German cognate of werewolf, in the sense of lycanthropy; it is also a pun on Wehrwolf, the German word Wehr meaning defense (the armed forces of Nazi Germany, for example, were collectively called the Wehrmacht ("defense force"). "Werwolf" was the favoured name of the movement, although "Wehrwolf" was also sometimes used. In the end, the name was chosen after the title of a novel about the 30 Years War, written by Hermann Löns in 1914. Löns was admired by the higher spheres of Nazism because of the nationalist ideas in some of his writings.

It may also be of relevance to the naming of the organisation that in 1942 OKW and OKH's field headquarters at Vinnitsa in the Ukraine were christened "Werwolf" by Adolf Hitler.[2]

[edit] Plans

In late summer/early autumn 1944, Heinrich Himmler initiated Unternehmen Werwolf (Operation Werwolf), ordering SS Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann to begin organising an elite troop of volunteer forces to operate secretly behind enemy lines. As originally conceived, these Werwolf units were intended to be legitimate uniformed military formations trained to engage in clandestine operations behind enemy lines in the same manner as Allied Special Forces such as Commandos.[3] Prützmann was named Generalinspekteur für Spezialabwehr (General Inspector of Special Defense) and assigned the task of setting up the force's headquarters in Berlin and organizing and instructing the force. Prutzmann had studied the guerrilla tactics used by Russian partisans while stationed in the occupied territories of the Ukraine and the idea was to teach these tactics to the members of Operation Werwolf.[1]

Gauleiters were to suggest suitable recruits, who would then be trained at secret locations in the Rhineland and Berlin. The chief training centre in the West was at Hulchrath Castle near Erkelenz, which by early 1945 was training around 200 recruits mostly drawn from the Hitler Youth.[4]

The tactics available to the organization included sniping attacks, arson, sabotage, and assassination. Training was to include such topics as the production of home-made explosives, manufacturing detonators from common articles such as pencils and "a can of soup", and every member was to be trained in how to jump into a guard tower and strangle the sentry in one swift movement, using only a metre of string. Werwolf agents were supposed to have at their disposal a vast assortment of weapons, from fire-proof coats to silenced Walther pistols but in reality this was merely on paper; the Werwolf never actually had the necessary equipment, organization, morale or coordination.

Werwolf originally had about five thousand members recruited from the "SS" (Schutzstaffel) and the Hitler Youth (Hitler-Jugend). These recruits were specially trained in guerrilla tactics. Operation Werwolf went so far as to establish front companies to ensure continued funding after Germany was occupied (all of the "front companies" were discovered and shut down within eight months). However, as it became increasingly clear that the Alpine Redoubt was yet another grandiose delusion, Werwolf was converted into a terrorist organisation and in the last few weeks of the war, Operation Werwolf was largely dismantled by Heinrich Himmler and Wilhelm Keitel.[citation needed]

Disorganized attempts were made to bury explosives, ammunition and weapons in different locations around the country (mainly in the pre-1939 German–Polish border region) to be used by the Werwolf in their terrorist acts after the defeat of Germany, but not only were the amounts of material to be "buried" prohibitively low, by that point the movement itself was so disorganized that few actual members or leaders knew where the materials were, how to use them, or what to do with them. A large portion of these "depots" were found by the Russians and virtually none of the materials were actually used by the Werwolf.[5]

On March 23, 1945, Joseph Goebbels gave a speech, known as the "Werwolf speech", in which he urged every German to fight to the death. The partial dismantling of the organized Werwolf, combined with the effects of the "Werwolf" speech, caused considerable confusion about which subsequent attacks were actually carried out by Werwolf members, as opposed to solo acts by fanatical Nazis or small groups of SS.

[edit] Operations

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Antony Beevor and Earl F. Ziemke have argued that Werwolf never amounted to a serious threat, in fact they are regarded by them as barely having existed. This view is supported by the RAND Corporation, which surveyed the history of U.S. occupations with an eye to advising on Iraq. According to a study by former Ambassador James Dobbins and a team of RAND researchers, the total number of post-conflict American combat casualties in Germany was zero.[6] German historian Golo Mann, in his The History of Germany Since 1789 (1984) also states that "The [Germans'] readiness to work with the victors, to carry out their orders, to accept their advice and their help was genuine; of the resistance which the Allies had expected in the way of 'werewolf' units and nocturnal guerrilla activities, there was no sign."[7]

In his Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944–1946 (1998)[1], historian Alexander Perry Biddiscombe asserts that after retreating to the Black Forest and the Harz mountains, the Werwolf continued resisting the occupation until at least 1947, possibly to 1949–50. However, he characterizes the German post-surrender resistance as "minor"[8], and calls the post-war Werwolfs "desperadoes" [9] and "fanatics living in forest huts"[10]. He further cites U.S. Army intelligence reports that characterized partisans as "nomad bands"[11] and judged them to be less serious threats than attacks by foreign slave laborers[12] and considered their sabotage and subversive activities to be insignificant[13]. He also notes that: "the Americans and British concluded, even in the summer of 1945, that, as a nationwide network, the original Werwolf was irrevocably destroyed, and that it no longer posed a threat to the occupation."[14]

Biddiscombe also says that Werwolf violence failed to mobilize a spirit of national resistance, that the group was poorly led, armed, and organized, and that it was doomed to failure given the war-weariness of the populace and the hesitancy of young Germans to sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyre of the former Nazi regime. He also, however, states that although the group failed to assume a popular character, its influence was still great and that its revolutionary sentiments would have grave implications for the future.

One often overlooked aspect of Werwolf is that the Hitler Youth component was also responsible for developing a new political youth movement which was intended to outlast the war, and which was called "neo-Nazism". Some current German neo-Nazi groups refer to themselves as "Werwolf" or "Wehrwolf."[citation needed]

The post-war longevity of tales of German resistance movements, such as the Werwolf, was partly due to the continued desperation of the German people who for two years suffered under the U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067.[15] [16].

[edit] Alleged Werwolf actions

  • It has been claimed that the destruction of the United States Military Government police headquarters in Bremen on June 5 1945 by two mysterious explosions which resulted in 44 deaths [17] was a Werwolf-related attack. There is, however, no proof that it was due to Werwolf actions rather than to unexploded bombs or delayed-action ordnance.
  • Dr. Franz Oppenhoff, the newly appointed anti-Nazi mayor of Allied-occupied Aachen, was murdered outside his home in March 1945, allegedly by Werwolfs, but was in fact assassinated by an SS unit flown in at the order of Heinrich Himmler.[18]
  • Major John Poston, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery's liaison officer was ambushed and killed a few days before Germany's surrender by unidentified assailants; again, no proof exists that it was due to the action of Werwolfs.[19]
  • Colonel-General Nikolai Berzarin, Soviet commandant of Berlin is often claimed to have been assassinated by Werwolfs, but actually died in a motorcycle accident on June 16 1945.[20]
  • The Werwolf propaganda station "Radio Werwolf" (which actually broadcast from Nauen near Berlin during April 1945), also claimed the assassination of General Maurice Rose[21], who was killed in action by regular troops before the war ended.

[edit] Allied reaction and reprisals

According to Biddiscombes research General Eisenhower in April 1945 ordered that all partisans were to be shot.[22] As a consequence some summary executions without trial followed. Contrary to the Hague rules of War (1907) the SHAEF "counter insurgency manual" included provisions for forced labor and hostage taking.[23]

  • At Seedorf UK forces randomly selected and burned 2 cottages on April 21.[24]
  • At the town of Sogel the Canadian first Army evacuated the civilians from the city center whereupon it was systematically demolished.[25]
  • In 1945, it is believed that Canadian forces set civilian houses and a church on fire in reprisal for the death of the unit's commanding officer in battle. Maj.-Gen. Christopher Vokes, commanding the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division ordered the town to be destroyed. "We used the rubble to make traversable roads for our tanks," Vokes wrote later.[26]
  • Unless the citizens of the city of Stuppach within 3 hours produced the German officer that the U.S. forces believed was hiding there they were informed that: all male inhabitants would be shot, women and children expelled to the surrounding wilderness and the city razed.[27]
  • U.S. combat troops destroyed the town of Bruchsal, in retaliation for SS activities.[28]
  • At the city of Constance in the French occupation zone in mid-May 400 hostages were taken, two persons who resisted French orders had been shot, part of the city evacuated and threats were made to burn the evacuated part down.
  • French forces expelled more than 25,000 civilians from their homes. Some of them were then forced to clear minefields in Alsace.[29]
  • Killing of hostages by the French took place amongst others in Markdorf and Reutlingen.
  • The city of Lichtental was pillaged and the female population raped by the French. [30]
  • Jarmin was demolished by Soviet troops. [31]
  • At the town of Schivelbein all men were shot and all women and girls raped by Soviet troops. [1][32]

Due to harsh repression such as that, the German resistance movement was successfully suppressed.[33] However, collective punishment for acts of resistance, such as fines and curfews, was still being imposed as late as 1948.[34]

Biddiscombe estimates the total death toll as a direct result of Werewolf actions and the resulting reprisals as 3,000–5,000.[35]

[edit] Werwolf references in recent politics

The history of Werwolf has been compared to Islamic insurgents by the Bush Administration and other American war supporters to justify the American-led occupation of Iraq [36] [37] [38].

[edit] Similar organizations

From 1946 onward the Edelweiss Piraten (Edelweiss Pirates) were regarded as a more serious menace to order than the Werwolf by US officials. Mainly made up of former members and officers of Hitler Youth units, ex-soldiers and drifters, the loosely organized Edelweiss Piraten was described by an intelligence report as "a sentimental, adventurous, and romantically anti-social [movement]". A raid in March 1946 captured 80 former German officers who were members, and who possessed a list of 400 persons to be liquidated, including Wilhelm Hoegner, the prime minister of Bavaria. Further members of the group were seized with caches of ammunition and even anti-tank rockets.[39]

[edit] Werwolf in fiction

  • In the manga Hellsing, a secret British organisation fights against a Nazi battalion based in Brazil. It moved there during the last months of the war and some of its officers are referred as being Werwölfe. They fight to overthrow Britain using a battalion of artificially created vampires.
  • In the Lars von Trier film, Europa (released in North America as Zentropa), Werwolf terrorist plots play a prominent role in the story.
  • Samuel Fuller directed the 1959 film Verboten! about the love between a GI (James Best) and a German woman (Susan Cummings) whose brother is active in the Werewolves.
  • In the French comic book "Anton Six" (José Louis Bocquet/Arno) the U.S Secret Service sent an agent to meet Werwolf soldiers in Ukraine which possessed information about Stalin and the Red Army.
  • In the 2007 movie, Grindhouse, Rob Zombie directed a short fictional movie preview, titled "Werewolf Women of the SS".
  • Operation Werwolf is referred to in passing in the both the book and movie The ODESSA File.
  • In the James Bond novel Moonraker, the villain Hugo Drax is described as having been part of a Werwolf operation behind Allied lines during World War II.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Biddiscombe, Perry (1998). Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944–1946. University of Toronto Press, 464. ISBN 978-0802008626. 
  2. ^ Warlimont, Walter (1964). Inside Hitler's Headquarters, 1939–45. F.A. Praeger, p. 246. 
  3. ^ Klemperer, Victor 077348681X; Roderick H. Watt (1997). An Annotated Edition of Victor Klemperer's LTI, Notizbuch eines Philologen. E. Mellen Press, p. 305. 
  4. ^ Dearn, Alan; Elizabeth Sharp (2006). The Hitler Youth 1933–45. Osprey Publishing, p. 16. ISBN 184176874X. 
  5. ^ Beevor, Antony (2002). The Fall of Berlin 1945. Viking, 490. ISBN 978-0670030415. 
  6. ^ Dobbins, James; McGinn, John G.; Crane, Keith; Jones, Seth G.; Lal, Rollie; Rathmell, Andrew; Swanger, Rachel M. & Timilsina, Anga, America's Role in Nation-Building From Germany to Iraq, RAND Corporation, <http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1753/index.html>. Retrieved on 3 August 2007 
  7. ^ Mann, Golo (1984). The History of Germany Since 1789. Vintage/Ebury, 560. ISBN 978-0701113469. 
  8. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 275
  9. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 151
  10. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 80
  11. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 197
  12. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 152
  13. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 115
  14. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 51
  15. ^ "The Road Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan for Postwar Iraq" by Ray Salvatore Jennings May 2003 Peceworks No. 49 United States Institute of Peace pg. 26
  16. ^ Cost of Defeat, Time Magazine, April 8, 1946
  17. ^ Roehner, Bertrand M., RELATIONS BETWEEN ALLIED FORCES AND THE POPULATION OF GERMANY 
  18. ^ Rempel, Gerhard (1989). Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS. UNC Press, p. 244. ISBN 0807842990. 
  19. ^ Mather, Carol (1992). Aftermath of War: Everyone Must Go Home. Macmillan Publishing, p. 247. ISBN 0080377084. 
  20. ^ Voice of Russia: Commandant of Berlin 
  21. ^ The occupation of Germany, the occupation of Iraq, many parallels. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
  22. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 254
  23. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 256
  24. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 257
  25. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 258
  26. ^ Canadian Legion – The End Of Darkness
  27. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 259
  28. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 259
  29. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 261
  30. ^ Biddiscombe, Werwolf p. 263. In the footnote further referred to Hillel, "L'Occupation Francaise en Allemagne", p.85
  31. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 270
  32. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 270
  33. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 263
  34. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 265
  35. ^ Biddiscombe, p. 276
  36. ^ US Depertment of Defense speech [1]
  37. ^ White House Press Release [2]
  38. ^ Slate magazine [3]
  39. ^ Fritz, Stephen G. (2004). Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich. University Press of Kentucky, pp. 218 – 219. ISBN 0813123259. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

The Werwolf made an impact

The Werwolf were insignificant

Other

[edit] Bibliography