Endkampf

I recently read Endkampf by Stephen G. Fritz. Endkampf provided a thorough overview of the final months of World War II in Germany as well as life in Germany under American control following the conclusion of World War II. The book began by discussing Alpenfestung, or the fear that the Allies had about the possibility that German forces would try to wage guerrilla warfare in the Alps in Northern Italy and Southern Germany and Austria. These were justifiable fears as the Germans stoked these concerns and the Swiss were able to use their mountainous terrain to stave off a German invasion.

Among the interesting points brought out in the book included:

• While American forces were much more humanitarian than the Germans at all stages of the war, some Americans killed German POWs in cold blood because the Americans were furious that the Germans continued fighting after it became obvious that the war would soon end in German defeat. The Americans were disappointed that the Germans senselessly refused to surrender and admit defeat when such as the inevitable outcome. In fact, approximately 1.23 million German military personnel died in the final four months of the war.
• When the fighting took hold in Germany, the German townspeople were in a Catch-22 situation. Allied forces demanded that these towns surrender and fly white flags. However, the SS insisted that all Germans fight to the last man and considered surrender to be treason, punishable by death.
• When Americans entered German towns, their behavior was so humanitarian that the good behavior of the American forces undermined Nazi propoganda (regarding the supposed determination of Americans to brutalize and destroy the Deutsche Volk). Some German townspeople took the Americans' side and tried to derail the German war machine (e.g. interfering with supply lines).
• By mid-1944, more than 26,000 death sentences had been imposed on Wehrmacht personnel for desertion or undermining the war effort. Between January and May 1945 the number of soldiers sentenced to death in the regular military court system has been estimated at 4,000, while the figures for those executed by the "flying courts-martial" are likely closer to six or seven thousand. The Nazis even began arresting relatives of deserters, while in early 1945 another Fuhrer decree ordered the arrest of relatives of soldiers who surrendered without fighting.
• For Hitler, the end of the Nazi regime and the end of the German people and nation were to be synonymous. The Nazis wanted post-war conditions to be as bad as possible for the German people because they believed the German people would look back longingly on better times during Nazi rule and therefore might create a resurgence of Naziism.
• In Germany, Werewolves cropped up. Werewolves were Germans that tried to undermine Allied authority in Germany and endeavored to bring back a Nazi government.
• Immediately after the war, the American military tried to enforce an anti-fraternization policy vis-a-vis the Germans. However, American GIs soon began to consort with German women. This caused tremendous resentment of German women by German men. When the American GIs began consorting with German women, the perception (and oftentimes the reality) of displaced persons was that the Americans were friendlier to the Germans than the displaced persons.
• Small groups of Jewish survivors tried to seek revenge against the Germans. One group, led by Abba Kovner, wanted to poison the water supply of a number of German cities. This, of course, didn't happen. However, a group of Jewish revenge seekers came very close to poisoning bread that was to be provided to SS POWs.