Wehrwolf: German resistance to the Allied occupation

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Larry D.
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#136

Post by Larry D. » 29 Aug 2005, 19:14

Dassarri -

Don't feel bad. I can NEVER find anything using the Search function. Moderator David Thompson, an expert at locating threads using Search, needs to hold an on-line seminary for dummies like me who can't seen to make the damn thing work for them. If this was an all-religious web site and I entered "Jesus Christ" in the Search box, it would still come back "Nothing Found"!! :? :x



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Dassarri
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#138

Post by Dassarri » 29 Aug 2005, 21:58

Well, Andreas, thank you VERY much for that set of links to previous topics. Quite a few of those have already given me more information than I had through "Kommando". Congratulations also on using the search engine so expertly.

Cordially,
Dassarri

Andreas
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#139

Post by Andreas » 29 Aug 2005, 22:03

You are welcome, glad I could help. I just typed 'Wehrwolf' into the search engine, and it came up with these and a few more that seemed less relevant. On my Mac the search engine normally works fine, on PCs I find I have trouble not in searching but in accessing found threads.

All the best

Andreas

Phil Nix
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#140

Post by Phil Nix » 30 Aug 2005, 11:37

Without checking each link I do not know if this book was mentioned. "the Last Nazis" by Perry Biddiscombe published byb tempus publishing In 2 Cumberland St Charlston SC 29401 ISBN Nr 0 7524 1793 2. It is an account of the werewolf operations
Phil Nix

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freiwillige
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#141

Post by freiwillige » 30 Aug 2005, 11:57

Hello Dassarri,

Here some sources about Werwolf:

Books:

Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946 (455 pages) University of Toronto Press (1998)

The Last Nazis: Ss Werewolf Geurilla Resistance In Europe 1944-1947 (304 Pages) Tempus Publishing, 2004 (I think that exist a previous edition)

-they are NOT the same book.

Papers:

About the Freikorps Adolf Hitler and other irregular formations:

The End of the Freebooter Tradition: The Forgotten Freikorps Movement of 1944/45.Central European History, 1999 Vol.32, 1


About the French version of the “Werwolf”:

"The Last White Terror: the Maquis Blanc and its Impact in liberated France, 1944-1945," Journal of Modern History 73 (2001)

The same for Romania:

Prodding the Russian Bear: Pro-German Resistance in Romania, 1944-5, European history quarterly v. 23, 1993, 2

About the german pro-communist guerrilla in Germany:

“Freies Deutschland” Guerrilla Warfare in East Prussia, 1944-1945: A Contribution to the History of the German Resistance, German Studies Review 27 (2004), 1



Regards,
Ferran

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freiwillige
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#142

Post by freiwillige » 30 Aug 2005, 12:08

Sorry,

All the books and papers above are from the Professor Perry Biddiscombe.


F.

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logibear64
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Werwolf

#143

Post by logibear64 » 30 Aug 2005, 12:42

US Army G-2 records are full of reports on werwolf activities. About 85% were rumors. The rest were genuine resulting in detentions of alledged werwolf members and the confiscation of arms and amunitions. The types arrested were usually Hitler youth or SS men. I have several reports in my collection one of which shows a diagram of a werwolf hide out.
Most werwolf operations failed because the local German inhabitants informed on the werwolf members. They were afterall sick of the war.

Larry D.
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#144

Post by Larry D. » 30 Aug 2005, 14:14

Werwolf!

FWIW, their main claim to fate was the assassination of the Bürgermeister (mayor) of Aachen, IIRC. A special hit team of teenage Werwolves infiltrated Aachen to kill the mayor for collaborating with the Americans, but I think this occurred before the war ended. Postwar Werwolf activity was minimal - a few assassinations, a few minor acts of sabotage and some clandestine nighttime "postering" (affixing pro-Nazi propaganda posters to walls around village and town squares). But I am sure this is all thoroughly covered in those links provided by Andreas.

rbartho
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"Hier spricht der Sender Werwolf"

#145

Post by rbartho » 02 Mar 2006, 04:04

Apparently Werwolf radio broadcasts would begin something like:

"Hier spricht der Sender Werwolf. Wer als deutscher Staatsbürger dem Feind Vorschub leistet, wird auf eine Schwarze Liste gesetzt. Der Werwolf findet immer Mittel und Möglichkeiten, um den Verbrechern an unserer Volksehre doch zu Leibe zu rücken."

("Transmitter Werwolf speaking here. Any German citizen who aids and abets the enemy will be blacklisted. The Werwolf always finds ways and means to harass the criminals against our national honor.")

Hitlers Werwölfe, http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/2/0,1872,2292994,00.html

or

"Hier spricht der Sender Werwolf, der Sender der deutschen Freiheitsbewegung in den vom Feind besetzten Gebieten. Wir sind die Stimme der deutschen Freiheitskämpfer…"

("Transmitter Werwolf speaking here, the transmitter of the German freedom movement in enemy occupied territories. We are the voice of the German freedom fighters...".

Als Stünde die Zeit Still. http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/mai45/369808

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Heimatschuss
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#146

Post by Heimatschuss » 22 Oct 2006, 17:18

Hello,

the police officer shot dead by Führ and Lotto in Wilhelmshaven was Kriminaldirektor Nußbaum.

Source:
Henning Köhler.; Der 'dokumentarische' Teil der 'Dokumentation' - Fälschungen am laufenden Band.;
in: Backes/Janßen/Jesse/Köhler/Mommsen/Tobias: Reichstagsbrand - Aufklärung einer historischen Legende, Piper Verlag, Munich, 1987, pp.167-215 (esp. p.186)


David Thompson wrote:Fuehr (Führ), Helmut Friedrich – service, Wehrwolf Command at Weser-Ems {arrested and put on trial by a West German court at Oldenburg on charges of murdering 2 German citizens and a police Criminal Director (eines Kriminaldirektors) at Wilhelmshaven 2 May 1945; convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment (lebenslänglich) 27 Oct 1948 (JuNSV Verfahren Lfd.Nr.091; LG Oldenburg 481027; OGHBZ 490927).}

...snip

Lotto, Friedrich Wilhelm – service, Wehrwolf Weser-Ems {arrested and put on trial by a West German court at Oldenburg on charges of murdering 2 German citizens and a police Criminal Director (eines Kriminaldirektors) at Wilhelmshaven 2 May 1945; convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment (lebenslänglich) 27 Oct 1948 (JuNSV Verfahren Lfd.Nr.091; LG Oldenburg 481027; OGHBZ 490927).}

...

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#147

Post by AdolfDettmer » 25 Oct 2006, 18:17

panzertruppe2001 wrote:The German Freedom Fighters who fought against the enemy rule. The opression of the Allied madness and the dream of see his lovely country free of intruders.
An example for future generations. The Wehrwolf were poets, were dreamers. They fought for an utopical idea. They fought against the deportation of theirs comrades, the rape of their women. Oh, they were heroes.

It is strange but why not. The same the people said about the Resistance in the Axis occupied countries. Or it is a duty consider the Wehrwolf fighters as sadist blood thirsty.

Panzertruppe2001
Well someone has a romantic view of die-hard Nazi thugs... I can only suppose why..

Educate yourself, these were murderers who wanted the restoration of a murderous regime. Your argument that will be used will be "defending" from the rapes of Russians... Then why murder Americans?

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

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Kurt_Steiner
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#148

Post by Kurt_Steiner » 01 Jan 2007, 11:29

Which one was the function of the "Kommando 16"?

Von Schadewald
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Werewolves in the 60s?

#149

Post by Von Schadewald » 29 Jun 2007, 00:48

This by Steven Plaut.

Is it correct that Werewolf activity still occurred into the 60s?

" The anti-terror campaign that succeeded

"After their military defeat by regular forces, the occupied
population produced terrorists who engaged in bombings, sniping,
poisonings, and other attacks on occupation forces and on the
civilian population. They operated as irregulars in small terror
units, armed with automatic weapons and bazookas.


Women and minors as young as eight participated in the terror
attacks. They attempted to build weapons of mass destruction, using
chemical poisons. They assassinated officials of the occupation
regime. They had a special obsession with torturing and murdering
"collaborators." They murdered hundreds of civilians, while thousands
of the terrorists themselves were killed by the occupation armed
forces. The occupiers responded to terror with brutality and force,
sometimes using collective punishment.


The above does not refer to or describe the anti-American and
anti-British terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor does it describe
Palestinian terrorism against Israel launched from the West Bank and
Gaza.

What it does refer to is the campaign of terrorism directed against
Allied forces in Europe in the aftermath of the defeat of Nazi
Germany. The terrorists were members of a number of underground
"resistance" organizations attempting to punish the Allied
"occupiers" and drive them out. The most important of the terror
groups was known as Werwolf (German for werewolf).

Until recently, relatively little was known about groups like
Werwolf. But several books, particular those authored by Perry
Biddiscombe, a professor of history at the University of British
Columbia, have shed light on the activities of the groups and on the
anti-terror strategies that ultimately defeated them.

Most of what follows is based on the research of Biddiscombe. There
are valuable lessons to be learned from the campaign against the
Werwolf, both for the U.S.-led coalition fighting in Iraq and for
Israel in its battles against Arab terrorism.

For many years now the conventional wisdom has been that terrorism
cannot be defeated militarily, that it can only be stopped when its
underlying grievances are redressed and appeased. Moreover, the
entire strategy of dealing with terrorism militarily has long been
under assault by the Western chattering classes as ineffective and
unjust.

Anti-terror tactics used by the contemporary Allies in Iraq and
Afghanistan or by Israel against its enemies have been denounced by
the media and by countless public figures, especially in Western
Europe. But the claim that terrorism and guerilla warfare cannot be
defeated militarily is false, as illustrated by the campaign against
the Werwolf.

Origins and Tactics

Nazi preparations for a campaign of terrorism against the invading
Allies were underway by 1943. At first the intention was for
irregular fighters to serve as a diversionary force operating behind
enemy lines. The name "Werwolf" (also spelled "Wehrwolf") was chosen
from a book by Hermann Lons (Der Wehrwolf) glamorizing a 17th century
German guerilla fighter.



The Werwolf developed into a large full-fledged terrorist
organization, operating under the command of the SS. It operated in
"groups" consisting of 4 to 6 fighters, with 6 to 10 groups forming a
"sector" and 6 to 8 sectors forming a "section." At its height, the
Werwolf organization probably had about 6,000 fighters, though it
could call on the support and cooperation of other units such as the
Volksturm, a militia of the elderly and very young set up by Hitler
near the end of the war. Himmler took personal control of operations
starting in 1944.

The technology of those terrorists was of course far more primitive
than that used by modern Middle East terrorists, but some of the
similarities in technique are striking. Beheadings were a common
Werwolf tactic. Decades before the pilfering of the museums of
Baghdad, the Werwolf were under orders to sabotage and destroy art
galleries, museums and other cultural institutions. While Germany
never produced a campaign of suicide bombers, Werwolf terrorists were
equipped with cyanide tablets and expected to commit suicide rather
than be taken captive.

In the campaign against the Werwolf, an estimated 3,000-5,500
terrorists were killed. Werwolf terrorism continued well after formal
hostilities ended and Germany had surrendered. In the German area of
Italy, South Tyrol, where a German separatist movement was active,
sabotage, bombings and Werwolf guerilla violence continued into the
1960's.

As part of the campaign of terrorism, German Red Cross ambulances
routinely carried arms and munitions, long before the Palestinians
perfected that technique. Buildings thought to be designated for use
as Allied barracks were mined, especially in Lorraine (where the
attacks were directed against the U.S. Third Army). Werwolf
terrorists collected caches of poison gases and chemical weapons,
most of which were discovered by Allied forces before they could be
used.

The Werwolf used death squads and assassination hit teams, often
against German civilians whom the terrorists suspected of
collaboration or defeatism. Civil authorities in German towns under
Allied occupation were favorite targets. Priests, public officials,
and even German villagers flying white surrender flags were attacked.

Werwolf terrorists were each typically equipped with 15-20 pounds of
explosives and small arms, often including bazookas. Generally they
operated stealthily without uniform, in civilian clothes. They set up
caches of armaments in farms, caves, forests, and abandoned mines.
Interestingly, there was a female contingent of terrorists, a unit of
which, equipped with bazookas, played an important role in the last
weeks of fighting around Berlin.

Children were also frequently used in terror attacks. The
Hitlerjugend, or Hitler Youth, was one of the main sources of
recruits for the Werwolf. Entire units of Werwolf consisted of
minors. Teenage Werwolf terrorists were involved in bombing the Red
Army barracks near Hindenberg. Child snipers shot and threw grenades
at advancing American forces. Himmler himself invented an incentive
system for Hitler Youth serving in the Werwolf: 100 cigarettes for
ten sniper kills; 20 days' leave for twenty kills; a watch and Iron
Cross for fifty kills.


A unit of 14-year-olds attacked U.S. forces near Nuremberg.
"Operation Nursery," a campaign against Werwolf terrorism by minors,
was mounted by U.S. and British troops and continued well into 1946.

The terrorists used a variety of techniques. In addition to sniping
and bombings, decapitation wires were popular - thin piano wire
stretched across a road just at the height of the necks of drivers of
Allied vehicles or motorcycles. Allied forces sometimes retaliated
against such attacks by beheading captured terrorists. In
Schleswig-Holstein, the British lopped off the heads of a dozen
terrorists.

Mass poisoning was another favorite terrorist method. It was used
with horrific success especially, but not exclusively, against Red
Army troops. Between February and July 1945, 180 American troops were
murdered with poisoned liquor. The Werwolf would spike liquor and
food with odorless poison and wait for the troops to indulge. A
special entity called the KTI, or Criminal Technical Institute, would
prepare the poisons.

While the armed conflict raged, Werwolf terrorists were active in
capturing, torturing and murdering enemy troops. But as the war drew
to a close, the Werwolf began to specialize in terrorizing German
civilians suspected of collaborating with or failing to resist the
Allies' advance.

Werwolf terrorism was strongest on the Eastern front, as Soviet
forces threatened East Prussia, Silesia, and other areas regarded by
Germans as part of their heartland. The Werwolf even ran its own
radio station.

Ferocious Response

How were those terrorists eventually defeated? With brutal military
force and counter-terrorism combined with a long-term program of
denazification of German civilians.

The Soviets were by far the least squeamish of the Allies when it
came to suppressing Werwolf terrorism. According to a Vatican report,
"Russian reprisals were terrible. Using flame-throwers the Russians
destroyed entire blocks of houses causing the deaths of hundreds of
the inhabitants."

Soviet troops dealt with the threat through mass executions, mass
arrests, marauding, and arson directed against German civilians.
Hostages were grabbed from areas where any Werwolf sabotage took
place and often were summarily executed. Any Germans - even hunters -
possessing any weapons were shot on the spot as terrorists. Any
German witnessing terror attacks who did not come forward to testify
about them was shot. Those hiding terrorists or weapons were shot and
their homes burned to the ground.

As of October 1946, the Soviets were holding 3,336 Werwolf terrorists
in prison within the Soviet zone. The Soviets also crowded 240,000
suspected Werwolf sympathizers into a prison camp (where fully a
third simply perished). In Jarmin in Pomerania, when German
terrorists killed two Soviet troops, the entire town was demolished.
In Schivelbein, after a Soviet general was killed by a sniper, the
Soviets murdered every man in town.

Soviet looting and marauding in occupied German areas continued
unrestrained into 1947. While such behavior may strike us as
barbarous retaliation, Biddiscombe describes it thus: "None the less,
given what the Werwolf was doing, or trying to do, the responses of
the occupiers do not lay beyond the realm of comprehension." The
Soviets were still concerned about threats of Werwolf sabotage and
terror in Eastern Europe during the 1950's.

The French were second to the Soviets in the viciousness and ferocity
of their suppression of Werwolf terrorism. French soldiers pillaged
German areas as they fell under their control. Random beatings of
Germans by the French were common. The French forcibly expelled all
German civilians from numerous towns and villages in their area of
control. General Le Clerc issued an edict on November 25, 1944 to
shoot five Germans for every act of sniping near Strasbourg.

Following some Werwolf activity around Constance, French forces
grabbed 400 hostages and executed two. Any building in the French
zone with Werwolf graffiti on it was immediately demolished. Owners
had at most an hour to remove such graffiti once it appeared in order
to avoid such a fate. Collective fines were imposed on German
civilians for sabotage activities in their area. Wholesale travel and
curfew restrictions were imposed on the entire German population.

While American troops generally avoided the excesses of the Soviets
and French, they were sharply criticized by the British for using
excessive brutality and force in suppressing the Werwolf. General
Eisenhower ordered the execution of all Werwolf fighters captured in
civilian garb.

It was understood among U.S. troops that they had a green light for
applying frontier justice to terrorists, with no lawyers or trials.
The counterinsurgency manual issued by the Supreme Headquarters
Allied Expedition Force (SHAEF) recommended that troops simply ignore
Geneva Convention rules when dealing with the Werwolf.

SHAEF instructions allowed using captive Germans in forced labor;
seizure of German civilians as hostages; collective punishment;
shooting of hostages; and massive bombings of civilian areas
containing terrorists. Threats to shoot all curfew violators were
commonly made. At Lutzkampen, Allied troops threatened to burn down
the village if there were any violations of curfew.

When U.S. troops were attacked at Aschaffenburg in Lower Franconia,
the entire town was annihilated by Seventh Army artillery. In the
fall of 1945, well after the surrender, U.S. forces still regarded
Werwolf bands as "one of the biggest potential threats to security in
both the American and Allied Zones of Occupation."

Around Stuttgart, members of Werwolf bazooka teams were shot on sight
by American troops. Massive artillery bombardment of civilian areas
with snipers was used whenever it was thought such action could
prevent Allied troop casualties. In Krefeld, one of the first towns
taken by the Americans, 120,000 civilians were rounded up and held in
detention camps.

Other Allied forces were vicious in suppressing the Werwolf. The
Czechoslovaks routinely tortured and abused captured terrorists. The
most dramatic Czechoslovak actions took place in the Sudetenland.
After some Czechs were murdered by the Werwolf, local authorities
threatened to shoot all German refugees there who had arrived from
Silesia.

In July 1945 a large explosion took place in Aussig an der Elbe,
killing 50 people. Blaming local ethnic Germans, the authorities
killed German civilians in reprisal. The remaining German population
was expelled from the town. Slovaks and Poles often treated Germans
little better.

Canadian forces were also brutal in suppressing terrorism. Canadian
General Chris Vokes carried out large-scale destruction of German
property in retaliation for guerilla activities. Towns from which
sniper fire was directed against Canadian troops were reduced to
rubble. Orders were given to demolish buildings housing snipers
rather than risk the lives of troops. German homes were bulldozed. No
"solidarity" protesters picketed the corporate headquarters of the
companies manufacturing the bulldozers.

As is the case with the terrorism directed against U.S. troops in
Iraq and against Jews in Israel, Werwolf terror was never in and of
itself an existential threat, nor did it represent a serious military
strategy capable of defeating regular armies. Rather, it was designed
to demoralize - to defeat the enemy by generating growing casualties
over long periods and trigger defeatism among the enemy's home
population.

While no one in his or her right mind would advocate some of the more
excessive means used to suppress the German terrorists of the late
1940's, that era nevertheless teaches us that a determined
no-nonsense campaign of wiping out terrorism with armed force is
capable of succeeding, even against the most brutal of opponents.
Determined denazification of fanatic violent populations was also
shown to work.

Such success is not easy, nor does it come cheaply."

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Peter H
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#150

Post by Peter H » 29 Jun 2007, 05:40

Where are the Allied Occupation force veteran accounts that verify that something was wrong in Germany 1945-1948?


The US Constabulary in operation in Germany 1946-1950:

http://www.army.mil/cmh/lineage/Constab-IP.htm

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