The days after Hitler

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Movie
German title The days after Hitler
Original title De Dagen na Hitler
Country of production Netherlands
original language Dutch ,
German ,
English
Publishing year 2014
length 45 minutes
Age rating FSK unchecked
Rod
Director Reinier van den Hout
production Laura Kaandorp ,
Soleil Filarski
camera Kester Dixon
cut Caroline Baan

The days after Hitler (original title: De Dagen na Hitler ) is a television documentary of the Dutch public television (NPO) from 2014.

content

The film deals with the last days of the " Third Reich " in Flensburg - Mürwik . The film summarizes the events around the last Reich government under Karl Dönitz , roughly in chronological order:

April 20th to April 30th

On his birthday, April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler once again lent his bunker in the middle of Berlin to honor the city's Hitler Youth who served in the Volkssturm . Shortly afterwards, the dictator appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reich President and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht . In the past, Doenitz had always shown himself to be loyal and optimistic towards Hitler. Nevertheless, the military situation was unmistakably disastrous. The British and American troops stood in the middle of Germany. Berlin was on the verge of being completely taken over by the Russians. Only a few remnants of German troops fought at all. Finally, on April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide.

Early May 1945

On May 1, 1945, Dönitz gave a radio address in which he announced that Hitler is dead and that he had previously been chosen as his successor.

The Mürwik Naval School and the surrounding military area belonged to the Mürwik special area , the scene of the events described.

The German Reich was badly affected by the war, with the exception of the province of Schleswig-Holstein , which was significantly less damaged by the war. Karl Dönitz withdrew with the last imperial government from the advancing allies to Flensburg-Mürwik. The port city on the Danish border had weathered the local air raids well. Many civilian refugees also poured into the city, which was largely spared from bomb damage. In April / May 1945 there were a large number of smaller boats, naval warships and 250 merchant ships with which many refugees from the east who had fled the Red Army were transported to Flensburg in the inland port and the rest of the inner fjord . Flensburg, in which less than 70,000 people lived before the war , quickly became a city with over 100,000 inhabitants (see population development of Flensburg ). Dönitz already knew Flensburg's suburb of Mürwik from earlier. In 1910 Emperor Wilhelm II built a brick Gothic castle, the Mürwik Naval School , in Mürwik . Dönitz received parts of his naval training there. The Murwiker naval base with the Naval Academy was founded in early May 1945 to the central retreat of the German Government and the High Command of the Wehrmacht (see. Special range Mürwik ).

The Reich government was followed by the elites of the NSDAP , including the entire top of the SS (see Rattenlinie Nord ). Schleswig-Holstein was regarded as a province that was friendly to the National Socialists and where hiding and going into hiding would be possible. Himmler had come to Flensburg with a staff of 150 to 200 higher SS functionaries. Many high-ranking officers, senior SS and police leaders were in the city, including Alfred Rosenberg . There were also people like the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and those responsible for euthanasia, Karl Brandt and Karl Gebhardt, in the city. The war, their great adventure, was irrevocably over for these SS men, their future was uncertain. The Grenzlandmuseum became the starting point . During the day they were stored in the Black Whale , an old restaurant in Flensburg. They got drunk there and enjoyed themselves with Wehrmacht helpers . Rumors circulated among the population that the members of the SS were given appropriate civilian clothes and false ID cards in the city so that they could go into hiding comfortably. In fact, around 2000 senior SS and police officials in the police headquarters and naval school were given new identities, with new ID cards and new uniforms. They then went into hiding among the thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers found in Schleswig-Holstein. Himmler is also said to have put on a simple soldier's uniform soon after his arrival. The inspector of the concentration camps , Richard Glücks , committed suicide on May 10th in the naval hospital in Flensburg-Mürwik and was then buried in Flensburg.

The sports school on the edge of the naval school, where the last Reich government was located, is also shown in the film.

The newly appointed head of state Karl Dönitz was given quarters in the commander's villa of the naval school, in which the commander of the naval school regularly lived with his family. Dönitz staff was apparently also housed on the school premises. A battalion with the bodyguard from Dönitz joined them. There were also refugees and remnants of the military in Mürwik, including the navy . A small naval hospital with many wounded soldiers had been set up on the site, in the immediate vicinity of the villa . The last Reich government had its seat on the edge of the area of ​​the naval school, in the sports school . 350 to 400 people, military and civilian workers, worked there. In the upper rooms of the so-called command wing of the sports school were the rooms that Dönitz himself used.

At around eight in the morning, Dönitz was driven from his commanders' villa 500 meters to the sports school. He consulted there with his adjutant Walter Lüdde-Neurath regarding the current situation. Doenitz had long since understood the defeat, but initially let the fighting continue. An immediate surrender would apparently have meant that the German troops and many refugees would have stayed where they were. Many would have been taken prisoner by the Soviets. There was considerable fear of the Russians among the Germans. Therefore the German side tried to delay the surrender. Dönitz wanted to have as many people as possible evacuated from East Prussia by ship. In the days when people could still be removed from eastern areas, however, it appears that 10,000 people per day died in fighting. In addition, there were the standing courts , which were there when a white flag was hoisted, for example .

Ultimately, however, the surrender was inevitable. Dönitz decided to capitulate step by step.

Film recordings of the documentary show this scene of the surrender on the Timeloberg from a slightly different angle. In the middle of the picture Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, who received the order from Dönitz to capitulate. Second from left: British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery .
May 4, 1945

In the handwritten, internal daily chronicle of the city ​​of Flensburg it was recorded on May 4th that rumors had surfaced in the city that a major attack was imminent. The city should be defended to the utmost by the commandant Lüth . The situation in the city was tense. More and more refugees reached the city. More and more ships with refugees and wounded arrived from the eastern region. Some of the wounded were in a deplorable condition. At the same time the hospitals were overcrowded. Long lines formed in front of the grocery stores. The mood among the civilian population is extremely bad.

On the same day, all German troops surrendered in the Allied headquarters in the Lüneburg Heath in Northwest Germany, Denmark . The surrender took effect at 8 a.m. the following morning. The German troops on the British eastern flank surrendered accordingly. Half a million Germans were then taken prisoner of war. The German troops in Denmark marched back into the country. Their route led along the Flensburg harbor and then across the Norderhofenden street .

The surrender also had an impact on the service of the German soldiers, for example on Asmus Jepsen , the commander of a special train from Karl Dönitz, which was to be brought to Flensburg. But after the train was attacked by British aircraft on May 4th at the small station in Sörup (about 10 kilometers southeast of Flensburg), it was unable to continue. Asmus Jepsen, who lived not far from the train station, then went home on foot. To be on the safe side, he reported back to the local mayor. The next day, he was arrested by the secret field police at his home in the presence of his family. Two days after the official surrender in northern Germany, he was executed on a firing range near Flensburg (see Twedter Feld ). One of his daughters still suspects that her father knew something significant. The special train contained important documents from the Navy as well as apparently many private items belonging to Dönitz himself. She suspects that the execution was a kind of act of revenge by Dönitz. There were also other executions of young soldiers who misinterpreted the end of the war as the end of their service, which it just wasn't. Discipline should be maintained. Thousands of soldiers were still marching back to Germany from Scandinavia. If they had done what they had in mind, it could have created big problems. In such cases, action was taken, with the aim of generally maintaining order.

The documentation also contains film sequences from the surrender in Reims .
May 7-9, 1945

Up to this point Germany had not yet completely surrendered. On behalf of Dönitz, Jodl signs the document of unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on May 7th in Reims . But the Russians wanted the surrender to be the way they wanted it. The ceremony therefore had to be repeated in Berlin two days later. On May 8, 1945, the day the capitulation came into force, Dönitz drove with his entourage to the post and telecommunications office in downtown Flensburg . They parked the car in the building's now glass-roofed courtyard. Doenitz got out of the car. With a stern face, holding up the admiral's staff, he entered the post office. Then he announced the surrender from there over the radio (see Reichssender Flensburg ). After Germany surrendered, British units also reached the city of Flensburg on May 9, 1945 (see Herefordshiere Regiment ). Many of the citizens of Flensburg had already been awaiting the British with joy. The war had resulted in losses and suffering for them too.

Period from May 10th to May 22nd

The city was taken by the troops, with the exception of Mürwik, which now formed a so-called enclave . Dönitz stayed there in his office. The German soldiers located in Mürwik were not allowed to leave the surrounded naval complex and the English were not allowed to enter it without registration. German soldiers continued to control their area and kept watch. The controls could only be passed with a password. During this time the following incident occurred, which is still remembered today by a memorial stone.

On a dark and apparently stormy night, the commander of the naval school, Wolfgang Lüth , a highly distinguished submarine commander of the Second World War - he had sunk most of the gross register tons - went for a walk for "some reason". A midshipman on guard called him when he entered the Naval School and demanded the slogan. From the midshipman's point of view, Lüth did not seem to have answered. Why exactly is unclear. On the one hand there is the claim that Lüth was intoxicated and on the other hand there is an allegation that the guard did not understand him because of the wind. The midshipman fired a warning shot because of the missing slogan, but with which he fatally hit Lüth. Shortly afterwards there was a memorial service for the most highly decorated commanding officer. A platoon of German soldiers stood in line with rifles. The coffin was carried by six bearers of the knight's cross from the submarine weapon. The memorial service for the National Socialist Lüth angered the English.

In the meantime, Dönitz hoped that he and the government he appointed would be officially recognized by the Allies and that there would be a partnership. At that time there were still many refugees, German soldiers and now British soldiers in the city. There were also thousands of soldiers and refugees in the naval complex. The last Reich government resident there “played government”. She fantasized about plans for the country. The old experts and ministers wrote down expert reports on questions of food security, the restoration of a functioning agriculture and the reconstruction of the transport infrastructure. The government tried to regain influence. They tried to hand over the expertise to the English, but they were not at all interested in them. The members of the imperial government in the Mürwiker barracks were evidently unaware that they were basically only viewed as war criminals. Doenitz hoped to be able to continue as long as possible. However, the government appointed by Dönitz was not recognized.

The Allies initially disagreed about what should happen to Dönitz. The Americans and British had initially seen Dönitz a contact person. The Russians don't want to have anything to do with him from the start. Churchill initially considered Donitz useful. Dönitz was able to ensure that the German army in Europe capitulated and was disarmed. Churchill was initially afraid of chaos if the government were arrested. Doenitz, in turn, hoped to ally himself with the Western Allies in order to march with them against the Soviet Union. Indeed, Churchill was considering such a move (see Operation Unthinkable ). Donitz was still at his post three weeks after Hitler's death, approved by Churchill. For the Russians this was a nuisance, and the Americans were also skeptical of the situation. Eisenhower found the situation ridiculous and urged the government to arrest. Churchill reluctantly gave in at last.

The higher military ranks arrested in Mürwik were brought to the Flensburg police headquarters. In the documentation, this photo from May 23, 1945 is almost identical, in the form of moving images.
In the back yard of the police headquarters, Dönitz (in the middle), Jodl (right) and Speer (left) were presented to the press. The said event is shown at the beginning and end of the documentation.
May 23, 1945

The last Reich government was finally arrested on May 23, 1945, days after May 5, the day of liberation in the Netherlands . The British soldiers in Flensburg surrounded the naval complex in Mürwik that day. At that time, Dönitz, Jodl and von Friedeburg were invited to a meeting on the Patria , where they were informed of their arrest. In addition to Grand Admiral Dönitz, the Armaments Minister Speer , the entire German government, the generals and field marshals , the officers of the OKW in Flensburg , all the other soldiers in the naval barracks were arrested. A total of 6,000 prisoners were transferred to prisoner-of-war camps that day. The British treated their prisoners with respect. Dönitz's last official act of the "Third Reich" was negotiating his suitcase and how much underwear he would take with him when he was a prisoner of war. Doenitz disliked the fact that he was taken to the police headquarters in the city center in an army van and not in his own chauffeur-driven car. Once at the police headquarters, Dönitz had to get out of the military transporter and walk through the access to a back yard behind the building. In the late afternoon he was presented to the press together with Speer and Jodl. About two dozen press photographers, radio reporters and film reporters from all over the world were flown in, some of them via Paris, to document this episode of the end of the war and the end of the “Third Reich”. A small information board in the back yard reminds of this event.

The time after

Dönitz was taken prisoner of war at Camp Ashcan in Luxembourg . On May 26, 1945, three days after his arrest, something was heard from Dönitz again. From Luxembourg wrote a letter to Field Marshal Montgomery. He complained that his admiralty staff had been stolen from him. Dönitz's marshal 's baton , a symbol of his authority, is now in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry regimental museum near London. On August 31, Dönitz defended himself against the main war crimes during the Nuremberg trial with the words: “I want to do the same thing again.” Dönitz was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Spandau prison in Berlin. He then lived in freedom for 24 years and often received old naval friends. He wrote his memoirs. He didn't want to know anything about the persecution of the Jews . He died in 1980 in a village near Hamburg.

background

The television documentary today is the only comprehensive film presentation on the subject of the last Reich government. A German documentary on a similar subject only exists under the title: Der Führer went - the Nazis stayed - post-war careers in Northern Germany from 2001.

The documentary was directed by Reinier van den Hout on behalf of NTR and VPRO . The voice-over narrator wrote Hasan Evrengün. The film consists of newly shot material on site, in particular interview - Einspielern of witnesses and experts. The following have their say: the German historian Gerhard Paul , Klaus Franke from Karl Dönitz's bodyguard, the naval historian Dieter Hartwig , the British historian Richard Overy , Gertrud Eriksen, who worked at the Alte Post , Broder Schwensen, the head of the Flensburg city archives, Ernst Lorenzen, a former Wehrmacht soldier from Flensburg, Ingeborg Scharnofske, daughter of Asmus Jepsen and Ray Grifiths, a former British soldier who was stationed in Flensburg. In addition, film material from old cinema newsreels was used. In particular, the film reports "The Flensburg Fiasco" and "Flensburg - The last Round-up" were used. Some of the old film material used, which illustrates the turmoil of the war and post-war, does not come from Flensburg. For example, the town sign for the district of Kaunitz in East Westphalia can be seen briefly in the film.

The documentary was first broadcast on Dutch television in 2014 and then repeated several times. The documentation was integrated as a special edition of the series Andere Tijden (German: Other Times). The original version of the documentary was obviously cut slightly after it was first broadcast on Dutch television. At the beginning and the end of the film, Hans Goedeskoop was part of the moderator. On April 28, 2015, at 7 p.m., on the occasion of the end of the war 60 years ago , the film was shown publicly under the German title: "The days after Hitler", apparently for the first time in Germany, at the Schleswig-Holstein representative office in Berlin . During a conference organized by the Sankelmark Academy on the topic: "The end of the Nazi dictatorship in Schleswig-Holstein and Flensburg" in June 2018, the documentary was presented to the participants again in Germany at the Flensburg Police Department .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : 70 years of the end of the war: "Werewolves" as Hitler's last contingent , from: April 30, 2015 and Focus : On his birthday, April 20, 1945, Hitler honored members of the Berlin Hitler Youth , from: April 1 , 2015 . May 2005; each accessed on: June 22, 2018
  2. ↑ During the radio address recorded in the film, a transmission mast of the fleet command in Meierwik is displayed. In the last few days, Meierwik was part of the Mürwik special area, but the transmitter mast did not exist at the time. At that time, the speech could still be broadcast on the Reichsender Hamburg (see also: Sender Billwerder-Moorfleet ).
  3. ↑ The contemporary witness Ernst Lorenzen suspects in the film that there were 150,000 inhabitants after the war, which is obviously too high a figure.
  4. ↑ In the documentation, the year 1912 is incorrectly stated as the construction date.
  5. ↑ In the film, pictures of marines celebrating, including Karl Dönitz, are shown in the film to underline the facts described. Gerhard Paul, who describes the facts in the film, only attributes it there to SS people.
  6. ↑ The historian Dieter Hartwig , who speaks in the documentation , evidently confirms these figures with statistics that say that an average of 10,000 people died per day in the last three months.
  7. ↑ The Danish documentary Da englænderne kom - maj 1945 was made on the subject as early as 1980 .
  8. ↑ The Flensburg train station is falsely faded in in the film .
  9. ↑ About 25 minute of the film.
  10. ↑ Mostly called Marshal's Staff : Cf. Dönitz-Erbe: Where is his staff? , Year 1983, edition: 35, accessed on: July 1, 2018
  11. ↑ The channel shown during the speech is not the Flensburg channel. Incidentally, the Flensburg transmitter at that time had the shape of a wooden Eiffel Tower .
  12. ↑ Named as such in the film by contemporary witness Klaus Franke. The term enclave in this context is common in literature and articles on the subject. See for example: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag : Historical series on the end of World War II: The end of the “Third Reich” in the enclave of Flensburg , from: May 11, 2015; Retrieved on: July 2, 2018
  13. ↑ The old film recordings used in the documentation in this context are obviously from a wreath-laying ceremony at the Neue Wache in Berlin (presumably from a memorial day for heroes ). Lüth was buried in the Adelby cemetery.
  14. ↑ In this context, a correspondence dated May 14, 1945 is displayed in the documentation.
  15. ↑ In the documentation, the book with the memoir "Ten Years and Twenty Days" is also shown briefly. Klaus Franke shows his copy signed by Dönitz (around the fourth minute).
  16. ↑ The place not mentioned is Aumühle in the Sachsenwald .
  17. ↑ a b c d De dagen na Hitler. Other Tijden Special , accessed: June 21, 2018
  18. ↑ See IMDb entry by: Reinier van der Hout
  19. ↑ Gemistvoornmt Other Tijden Special: De Dagen na Hitler 4 mei 2018 , accessed on: June 21, 2018
  20. ↑ VPRO. Other Tijden Special: De Dagen na Hitler , accessed June 21, 2018
  21. ↑ See IMDb entry by: Hasan Evrengün
  22. ↑ Karl Franke was also interviewed as part of the Nation's Memory project. For example, he made the short film contributions: Klaus Franke: Commitment to the war blind , Klaus Franke: Loyalty to Dönitz , Klaus Franke: Surrender in the enclave , Klaus Franke: Lieutenant with an uncertain future and Klaus Franke: Liftboy available for Kennedy .
  23. ↑ Spreekbuis. Other Tijden: De dagen na Hitler , of: December 13, 2014; accessed on: June 21, 2018
  24. ^ Pathé News : The Flensburg Fiasco 1945 as well as unused footage of the production: Flensburg Fiasco: Dissolving a Nazi Government
  25. ^ British Movietone : Flensburg - The last round-up
  26. ↑ About the thirty-third minute.
  27. ↑ Broadcast dates were for example: on December 18 at 9:05 p.m. on NPO 2 (source: De Groene Amsterdammer : Wereldvermaarde toespraken, De dagen na Hitler, en other tips van onze critici , from: December 11, 2014), on: December 31 at 4.10 p.m. on NPO 2 (source: De dagen na Hitler. Other Tijden Special ) and on May 4, 2018 at 5.10 p.m. on NPO 1 (source: TVGids. Other Tijden special: De Dagen na Hitler ); Accessed on: June 19, 2018
  28. ↑ TVblik. Special: De Dagen na Hitler , accessed on: June 19, 2018
  29. ↑ See nl: Other Tijden in the Dutch Wikipedia
  30. ↑ The film ends with some explanations. In one version, the following Dutch text is displayed, which deals with the whereabouts of Dönitz: “Dönitz wordt veroordeeld tot 10 jaar cel in de Spandau-gevangenis in Berlijn. Daarna leeft hij nog 24 years in vrijheid on ontvangt veelvuldig oude marine-vrienden. Hij overlijdt in 1980 in een dorpje nabij Hamburg. ”- In the other version, Hans Goedeskoop is shown, who briefly outlines the further life of Dönitz.
  31. ↑ May 45th End of the war. Spring in Berlin. 2015 program , accessed: June 20, 2018
  32. ↑ Topography of Terror. Tuesday, April 28, 2015 7:00 p.m. Documentary "The Days After Hitler" , accessed on: June 20, 2018
  33. ↑ Invitation. The end of the Nazi dictatorship , from: March 1, 2018; accessed on: June 20, 2018