Hans Dalbkermeyer related:
On the 1st January 1945 I was 15½ years old, a pupil in the 5th Class of the Deutsche Heimschule in Birnbaum in the Warthegau. This chain of senior schools educated us up to Arbitur level. We were called ‘Jungmann’, were boarders, and wore Hitler Youth uniform and a narrow armband with the words ‘Deutsche Heimschulen’ on the left forearm. The pupils came mainly from bombed cities or, like me, from the countryside. My parents’ home was in a small village about 30 kilometres east of Birnbaum. Birnbaum itself, a small town of some 15,000 inhabitants, lay 90 kilometres east of Küstrin on the Warthe. From 1919 to 1939 Birnbaum was located just beyond the old Reich boundary on the then Polish side.
The Christmas holidays ended during the first days of January, after which the whole boarding school was back, but only Class 4 and below had school classes. We pupils in the 5th Form and upwards were given warlike organisational tasks in the town. Our 5th Form was still at full strength, but the 6th Form was reduced to half and the 7th Form down to about three pupils, and the 8th Form ceased to exist as they were assigned as Luftwaffe auxiliaries or conscripted into the Wehrmacht.
Our task in the town, equipped with horses and carts, was to do as much as possible for the German people flowing through the town. At first we were dealing with only small and individual groups, but this changed. As helpers for the Red Cross, NSV, Party and other organisations, we distributed food, warm drinks, arranged schools and gymnasiums as overnight accommodation and looked after them. There was much to do from morning to evening, so much that we would gladly have exchanged it for normal school classes. But we had to do our duty.
On about the 20th January the situation became serious and threatening. Russian troops were getting closer and were unstoppable. Wehrmacht units were mixed in with the treks, moving west. There was snow on the ground and the temperature dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Now schoolwork also ended for the younger classes. A Luftwaffe transport unit moved the school in closed transport, including most of the staff, to Cottbus. From here they went on by train to Thuringia. For us older ones the situation altered for us correspondingly. With the school dissolved, we were attached to the local Volkssturm but still accommodated in the school. The police gave us carbines of all types. In a second issue I acquired one of the desirable short Italian ones. It looked good but often failed later in action. One of my classmates was given among other things a muzzle-loader, possibly from the 1870/71 war, with three rounds of ammunition. We tried it out in a pit behind the school from behind safe cover. From fear of a bursting barrel or false action, we tied the gun to a post and fired it using a long string. A big bang relieved our tension and established that the old weapon still worked.
I was detailed as a messenger and even given a light motorbike. The fuel lasted for three days, long enough in those temperatures. During this time my Volkssturm chief sent me late one evening in an easterly direction to Zirke, some 20 kilo-metres away, to find out where the Russians were. Over snow-covered roads, devoid of humanity and in icy temperatures I rode in total darkness, every so often stopping and restarting. Right on the edge of Zirke I turned round. I had carried out my task and could ride back in an easier frame of mind not having seen anyone.
On the 25th January we left Birnbaum and moved about 2 kilometres west to the Vorheide forester’s lodge. As a messenger I had to maintain contact with the organisations in Birnbaum and travelled to and fro. On one of these trips between the lodge and town, partly by footpath through the woods, I saw the first dead German soldiers. As the Russians had not got so far forward yet, they must have been shot by Polish partisans.
On the 27th January while on duty in the town I saw Russian tanks arrive. The town was cleared virtually without a fight and the bridge over the Warthe leading to the west was blown. On the same day we left the Vorheide lodge and marched about 10 kilometres to Waitze, where we accommodated ourselves in the local school with the veteran Volkssturm men.
On the morning of the 29th January, while being allocated to the defence of an imaginary front line, we received our first artillery or tank fire. Our Volkssturm veterans with their experience of the First World War gave us some very helpful rules that later were life-saving. No one was injured and so we took up our positions along the road to Birnbaum. We could hear the noise of tanks all day and once saw a group of Russians in the distance.
At nightfall our comrades to the west came back to join us bringing the news that the Russians had entered Waitze, and that we were cut off. Led by our old Volkssturm men, who were familiar with the area, we went in single file in a wide curve to the north of Waitze through deeply snowed woods.
Unmolested we came to the Waitze–Schwerin (Warthe) road leading west, which we followed all night. Dead tired, with blisters on our feet, we reached Schwerin at dawn. There the barracks offered us the chance of having a shower, breakfast, a change of clothing and sleep. We felt safe, let the relief overcome us, but were hardly asleep before we were woken up again at noon by enemy artillery fire.
The whole, but nevertheless meagre garrison appeared to have been completely taken by surprise. Disorganised, they fled the barracks and town and, from necessity, we joined in this disorder with the proviso of reporting to specific offices in Küstrin, 65 kilometres away. In view of our previous strenuous journey and the varying individual abilities to march, there was no question of marching in formation. We would have to see how we would get to Küstrin. So, we were on the move once more, now on crowded roads among the fleeing civilian population with and without horses and carts, and among them groups of Wehrmacht stragglers, some with vehicles. The clear thunder of the guns drove us forward.
Here we lost sight of some of the Birnbaum schoolboys. I only met five of them again. Whether the remainder reached Küstrin or were overrun by the Russian armoured spearheads, I cannot say. I have not heard of any of them, and the same applies to the old Volkssturm men. I never saw them again.
After marching a few kilometres, there came an opportunity of riding on the back of a slowly moving Wehrmacht truck for my fellow schoolboy Manni Roeder from the 6th Form and me, as we were marching along together. At first the crew tried to stop us jumping on, but then saw how young we were and let us on. Unfortunately this truck only went as far as Kriescht, 30 kilometres from Küstrin. There we were able to obtain some food. Looking for another means of continuing we found a train about to leave Kriescht station. Although it was packed with refugees, we managed to find places to sit and reached Küstrin late in the afternoon.[13]
Others were less fortunate, as Councillor Staercke of Güstebiese, downstream from Küstrin on the east bank of the Oder, reported:
I had been in communication with both [the village mayor] Habermann and [Ortsgruppenleiter Fritz] Lorenz about the evacuation until the last moment. I was also in communication with the young commandant during the German occupation. All three said that the civilian population would get the news in time. When asked about the alleged or actual Russian presence near Bärwalde all three were uncomfortable and said that the departure of the population was only possible with their permission. No information or instructions then resulted, as both the Ortsgruppenleiter and the mayor fell into the hands of the Russians.[14]