Catastrophe reigned in the city. The female personnel of the Wehrmacht changed out of their uniforms and thereafter wore civilian clothes. In the staff offices, mountains of paperwork were being burned, files and important documents being thrown into the flames. The warehouses were opened and supplies issued to the civilian population.
In the medical centre we were forced, under the watchful eye of the surgeon, to throw our pistols and side-arms into a wooden box. A condition of surrender was that no weaponry or equipment was to be destroyed. I, in my frustration demolished the inside of my 7.65mm Walther pistol so that it could never ever be used again. After all those years we all suddenly felt naked and utterly defenceless.
From one day to the next, everything had changed. Now we stood under the laws of the enemy. Now we were the subjects of tyrannical Communist rule, exposed to their arbitrary justice and revenge, and it was to be so. It began with the delivery of our weapons. The Russians would not believe that we had fought with so little. “You could not have held out for so long with only this. Where is the rest?” Very suspicious, they accused us of hiding weapons.
It was now very quiet in Breslau, deathly quiet. Everyone waited for the Soviets to march into the city. The silence was disturbed however. There were sounds of tank motors, and when one cocked one’s ear in the direction from where it came, it must have been sweet music for some, for those who cottoned on, as to what was going on, perhaps those who had been part of a tank crew? Some impudent tank drivers were to be seen driving their tanks round and round, and round and round in small senseless circles, to the observers when there were any, some around the same block of houses, which, when not in the know, made one scratch one’s head. The drivers held their tank in first gear, overheating piston and piston rings, to the extent that the tank was then no longer usable.
Despite the conditions of surrender in the whole of Germany, General Niehoff s negotiations for the surrender of the Silesian capital were to be viewed as agreeable, correct and just. They held promises. Promises for the safety of civilians, medical help, guarantees of life and care of the military and above all the return to the homeland upon the ending of the war. The officers were allowed to hold their status symbols, i.e. military decorations and their revolver, without ammunition and, what was more important, all of these guarantees included those from the Waffen SS.
The following was suggested as the basis of the agreement:
Corresponding to your assurance of an honourable surrender of the besieged Fortress of Breslau, together with your military units, I suggest the following conditions:-
All of the troops under your command, stop military activities at 2 o’clock Moscow time, on 6 May 1945 (1 o’clock German time).
You surrender the total number of troops, weapons and war material, transport vehicles and technical equipment undamaged.
We guarantee on our part that all officers and men who have stopped military activities, the safety of life, nourishment, right to hold private possessions and decorations, and passages home after the official end of the war. The corps of officers have permission to wear their revolvers, unloaded but befitting their status.
All wounded and sick will be given immediate medical help.
The inhabitants are guaranteed the safety of their person and normal living conditions.
You personally, and others of the rank of General, will be allowed your own personnel, and conditions allowing, in POW camp too.
The Soviet Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet 6th Army was General Gluzdovski. He gave his consent to this agreement in the presence of the Russian Chief of Staff, General Panov, in the Russian HQ, a villa, ‘Villa Colonia’ in the Breslau suburb of Krieton. General Niehoff gave his signature to these terms of surrender in the belief that it was an agreement between high-ranking officers which would be honoured. He was at this time a German Officer who was in full belief that it would be so. Perhaps it would, if left between officers and gentlemen. However, it was not to be.
The Soviets just could not resist the temptation. It was just too much to be denied and so General Niehoff and his Staff were invited to a celebration dinner. The ‘victors’ and the vanquished sat at the same table, which was bedecked only with the best. It was ostentatious plenitude. Candles flickered over the mountain of cold specialities including caviar, complimented with meat, vol-au-vents, and vodka flowed. Bottles of it stood by the dozen in between the dishes and General Niehoff’s water glass was continually filled to the rim with it, although no one could expect him to enjoy the celebration. His military correctness dictated that he suffer this gala dinner and not spoil the fun of the Soviets, but outside, he knew that long columns of his men were being driven in the direction of the East. He had however, as a prisoner of war, nothing to say. So the loud celebrations carried on with long speeches and toasts. Many toasts, with the ever-full glass of vodka, were to Stalin, but also perhaps out of respect from one soldier to another, to General Niehoff and his brave defence of Breslau.
The friendly atmosphere and correctness that the German officers found on that evening, was definitely an honest gesture from the side of the Soviet military. But at the end of the day, the ruling politicians had the last word. From the high-grade political commissioners present, there was an icy reception.
They made it quite clear to the ‘guests’ that they stood at the door of a future without any rights. The Soviets had no intention of respecting the conditions of surrender that had been agreed to. The soldiers were given no rations, the civilian inhabitants were fair game for the whim and fancy of the Russian soldiers, and the Waffen SS were systematically sorted out from the rest. General Niehoff was to spend in total, ten and a half years as a prisoner of the Soviets. Five were spent in solitary confinement in the notorious Moscow NKVD prison, Lubyanka. The rest were spent in labour camps. The document that was designed to protect him from harassment, bodily search, and abuse, was respected by prison guards at first. It worked like a magical formula, until a German Communist in the form of a new camp commander arrived, and tore the said document into pieces. Niehoff’s protests, when bumping into a political commissioner, were answered with a sarcastic comment. “These so-called ‘conditions’ were nothing but a successful trick of war”. He was right.
It was during the night of 7 May that the Russians marched into the inner ring of the city. The first of the Soviet units, with assault troops, marched in at 1 o’clock in the morning and took their positions at the Oder bridge, and other strategic positions. Of the inhabitants, there were none to be seen. They were waiting, waiting in fear in the cellars of the ruins, for the first Russian faces to appear. Outside there was a thunder of motors, tanks and every other imaginable vehicle from motorised units. That thunder increased as more and more vehicles stormed through the city in a disorderly column. In our medical centre, the wounded waited. Sit ting or lying, they waited together for what was to come, without words, each one within himself.
The noise invaded the cellars, and amongst the roar of motors, we heard the hooves of uncountable horses on the cobblestones and the victory cry of the drunken Reds. I wanted to imprint a picture into my memory and so I ventured up stairs, to the ground floor empty rooms of the Hotel Monopol. I was enveloped straight away with an uncomfortable bitter feeling. I saw the enemy that I had fought for so many years, so close by, and for the first time I was unarmed.