Document 77
CSDIC (UK) GG-REPORT, SRGG 1171 (C) [TNA, WO 208/4169]
Generalleutnant SIRY (Commander 347 Infantry Division) – Captured 10 Apr. 45 in Friedrichsroda.
Generalleutnant KIRCHHEIM (Führerreserve OKH) – Captured 12 Apr. 45 near Quedlingburg.
Information received: 30 Apr. 45
KIRCHHEIM: Do you consider yourself bound by your military oath?
SIRY: Well, really, the military oath is valid as long as the FÜHRER is alive.
KIRCHHEIM: Do you consider the FÜHRER to be mentally normal?
SIRY: It isn’t for a subordinate to lay down whether his superior is mentally normal or not.
KIRCHHEIM: If the fate of the nation hangs in the balance, then yes.
SIRY: Picture the time when FREDERICK THE GREAT, in the now ever-quoted speech to his generals at LEUTHEN, saying that he would ignore all the rules of the game,[164] then any number of his generals could also have said: ‘The man is mad,’ and could have broken their military oath.
KIRCHHEIM: Surely we have seen now that all resistance is hopeless. In the last years we have always been up against superior forces; we have always gone backwards, and now our army is completely routed and in the meantime the others have become much stronger, so that the ratio in strength has changed to our disadvantage, and when they have advanced to the heart of our Fatherland and smashed all our industries – well, how can the tide be turned—
SIRY: Naturally there will be no turning of the tide now, but it is possible that political developments are to be expected. I hope that the business has come to an end, that in the next few days HIMMLER really—
KIRCHHEIM: It has come to an end.
SIRY: But it is a very, very different chapter.
KIRCHHEIM: To ease my mind I confided in one man – a thing I usually never do, and which I afterwards regretted having done – that was General HÖHNE, with whom we lived.[165] HÖHNE told me the following – a point of view of which I thoroughly disapprove – he said: ‘You are right in everything; I also agree that all resistance is senseless, it is utterly useless. I also admit that in the next few weeks the last of our remaining national wealth will be destroyed. I also agree that hundreds of thousands more perhaps millions, will die and also stocks and dwelling places will be destroyed, but,’ he said, ‘I would urge you most emphatically not to do anything, as over there they are looking for just such a one on whom they can put the blame. Afterwards they will, although our army has now already completely collapsed’ – he said, ‘as in the last months I commanded a “Korps”, I know a complete collapse has already occurred and it is hopeless to continue to fight. But,’ he said, ‘people in general don’t know it. It will be twisted round, just as they did it on 20 July, to mean that it was you who stabbed our army in the back and you are dishonoured to the end of your days.’ I said: ‘If that is the only danger, if, as you say, perhaps millions of lives might still be saved, then from fear of being accused of that, should I watch these millions being annihilate? No, I won’t do that.’ Thereupon I asked the six Generals, of course in quite an unobtrusive way: ‘Gentlemen, I’d like to hear your opinion. Don’t you think it is right for the Army commanders, now that they can see the seenselessness of resistance, simply to stop the fighting and offer the surrender of their Armies of their own accord?’ No one said it was not right. They then suggested one didn’t know whether the families of those concerned might not be in the hands of the FÜHRER. But I said: ‘No – I’d like to know whether you consider such action as dishonourable or necessary.’ All six of them said it was the only possible thing to do.
SIRY: A point like that, of course, was perfect for a debate, because no one person was obliged to make the decision for himself.
KIRCHHEIM: That’s why I didn’t bring the subject up any more, because, when anyone says to me: ‘Your suggestion is the right one but you must look out for yourself’ – well, I won’t argue with such men. A man that considers that to be the right course but is afraid of the consequences—
SIRY: It’s not so much fear as the natural dread of a falsification of the facts of history, a thing which had already become widespread.
Document 78
CSDIC (UK), GRGG 292
Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 1–2 May 45 [TNA, WO 208/4177]
SCHLIEBEN: DÖNITZ is such a damned fool.[166]
FISCHER: After the announcement: ‘The FÜHRER is dead,’ the ‘German Hymn’ was played, then came the Order of the Day, of which we heard only the end, saying that the oath of allegiance which all members of the forces had taken, was now carried over to his successor.
SCHLIEBEN: Well, that’s not binding.
FISCHER: No, by no means. It seems that the foreign powers didn’t want to continue negotiating with HIMMLER after all; that’s why DÖNITZ and BUSCH have taken over.[167]
PFUHLSTEIN: I wonder whether he will do anything at the last minute?
FISCHER: A blessing if he does.
SCHLIEBEN: It’s quite clear to me now what a tragedy it was that 20 July didn’t come off.
REIMANN: That hysterical fool DÖNITZ!
HEYDTE: That charlatan!
BASSENGE: Are we supposed to say ‘Heil DÖNITZ’ now?
BROICH: Can I transfer my oath to anyone else? Can one swear allegiance to DÖNITZ over the telephone?
WILDERMUTH (re HITLER’s death): I think it means someone just has to give the order.
BROICH: Above all HIMMLER wants to keep out of it.
BASSENGE: That young ass DÖNITZ.
WILDERMUTH: Well, he is senior to BUSCH.
BROICH: Next to KEITEL he is the most senior one and KEITEL has probably said: ‘For God’s sake not me!’
FISCHER (after DÖNITZ’s radio address): DÖNITZ has gone haywire!
BROICH: It’s as if ‘Little HITLER’ were speaking.
FISCHER: Now it will be: ‘FÜHRER’s HQ speaking’ – it’s daft!
ELFELDT: I don’t by any means believe the whole business.
FISCHER: I wonder whether HIMMLER will recognise it?
HEYDTE: There ought to be some statement issued concerning the formation of a government now.
FISCHER: DÖNITZ will form one out of Nazis and create a military dictatorship.
BROICH: In order to get special (peace) offers again. With those fellows anything and everything is possible.
WAHLE: The condition would have to be that we were no longer National Socialists. Then they could say that a new government has been set up, but it hasn’t now.
FISCHER: He’s following the same course. It’s a one-day government. It needn’t be in the least true that the FÜHRER is dead.
BASSENGE: No, it needn’t.
HEYDTE: Anyone who says: ‘I will conquer the Russians,’ must, logically, be thinking of the other side of the question too.
ELFELDT: He still believes that he will screw better conditions out of them, that the Allies will be split, that the English will suddenly announce: ‘That is our man; we will negotiate with him.’ […]
HEIM: I tell you, I know DÖNITZ: where’s the logic of it? How does he think he’ll do it? By saying: ‘Those who don’t fight to the end are cowards and traitors!’?
164
For the speech by Frederick the Great to his generals and regimental commanders on 4.12.1757, the eve of the Battle of Leuthen, see Kroener, ‘Nun danket alle Gott’.
165
General der Infanterie Gustav Höhne (17.2.1893–1.7.1951), from 1.12.1944 Cmmdg Gen. LXXXIX.Pz.Korps.
166
In a radio broadcast on the late evening of 1 May 1945, Grossadmiral Dönitz announced the ‘hero’s death’ of Adolf Hitler and issued a proclamation to the armed forces in the following terms, ‘German Wehrmacht! My comrades! The Führer has fallen. Loyal to his grand concept to save the people of Europe from Bolshevism, he has sacrificed his life and found a hero’s death. One of the greatest heroes in German history has left us. In proud veneration and mourning we lower our flags before him. The Führer has named me as his successor as Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht and Head of State. I assume supreme command of all services of the German Wehrmacht with the intention of continuing the struggle against the Bolshevists until such time as the fighting forces and the hundreds of thousands of families in the German East have been saved from slavery and extermination. I am compelled to fight on against the British and Americans insofar as, and as long as, they hinder me in the execution of the struggle against Bolshevism. From you, who have already performed such great historical deeds and who now long for an end to the war, the situation demands further unconditional service. Only by carrying out my orders without reservation can chaos and defeat be avoided. That man is a coward and traitor who precisely now abandons his duty and by so doing leaves German women and children to die or become slaves. The oath of loyalty sworn to the Führer is still valid henceforth for each one of you without anything further from me as the successor appointed by the Führer.’ The complete text of the proclamation is reproduced in Domarus, ‘Hitler’, Vol. 2, p. 2250f. For Dönitz’s role as Hitler’s successor see Hillmann, ‘Reichsregierung in Flensburg’. For other reactions to the speech see SRGG 1177(c), 2.5.1945, TNA WO 208/4169.
167
Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch (6.7.1885–17.7.1945) was C-in-C, North-West from March 1945. On 1.5.1945 Dönitz nominated him C-in-C, North, with the task of leading the struggle in the North outside Norway and Denmark. Short biography at Mitcham, ‘Busch’. Contrary to the statement in the protocol, he was not a signatory to the partial capitulation in northern Germany. OKW War Diary, Vol. 8, p. 1670f.