Führer headquarters werewolf
Werewolf was a so-called leader's headquarters north of Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia) in a forest near the Ukrainian town of Stryschawka in the Podolia region .
History of the plant
During the Second World War, Rudolf Schmundt , the chief adjutant of the Wehrmacht to Adolf Hitler , explored a location for a new Führer headquarters (FHQ), which should be closer to the front line compared to the FHQ Wolfsschanze in East Prussia. Since November 1, 1941, the plant near the village of Stryschawka was built under the code name "Oak Grove" by 8,000 workers from the Todt organization and 1,000 local Ukrainians by September 1942. From January to July 1942, 1,250 workers erected additional parts of the building. There was an airfield near Kalinowka.
The barracks of the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel , and those of the Wehrmacht command staff under General Alfred Jodl were also nearby .
The facility was located in a fir forest eight kilometers north of Vinnitsa. It consisted of 20 wooden barracks and up to three "Class B" bunkers, some of which were underground, surrounded by barbed wire fences and defensive positions connected by tunnels. Some observation positions were on platforms in oaks outside the fir forest. There was also a tea house, hairdresser, bath, sauna, cinema and swimming pool available.
The German Führer headquarters was located there between July 1942 and February 1943 . Adolf Hitler stayed mostly in the FHQ Wolfsschanze ; he was only three times in the FHQ werewolf:
- July 16 to October 30, 1942 , here on September 24, Hitler received the Croatian head of state Ante Pavelić
- February 19 to March 13, 1943
- August 27, 1943
In March 1944 the Führer Headquarters was taken by the Red Army . Before that, German soldiers blew up the bunkers.
memorial
In July 2011, a historical memorial was set up on the site of the former Werwolf bunker and the area was made accessible as a museum with bilingual information boards (Ukrainian and English). The memorial is a branch of the Vinnytsia Regional Museum and is financed by the Vinnytsia Regional Association.
Massacre of Jews
Task forces of the Security Police and the SD killed at least 10,000 Jews in the city of Vinnitsa in September 1941 . In and around Vinniza in 1942, despite the German massacre, there were still a number of Jewish forced laborers who were classified as a security risk for Hitler . On January 5, 1942, the SS ordered the Jews to come together for “ resettlement ”. They were sent home, however, because the ground was frozen so hard that they had not been able to dig pits. Thereupon the SS placed 227 Jews against the wall of the local NKVD prison in the village closest to the Führer Headquarters , blew up the wall and buried these people. On April 16, 1942, another 4,800 Jews were killed. By the time Hitler arrived at the FHQ in July 1942, SS Brigade Leader Max Thomas was supposed to have the last Jews in forced labor "disappear".
Field command post Hegewald and planning of the "Hegewald" colony
Not far from Vinnitsa, Heinrich Himmler, in his function as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Volkstum, planned the establishment of a colony under the name " Hegewald ", in which 10,000 ethnic Germans were resettled in its place after the expulsion of 15,000 Ukrainians . Hegewald was initially just the name of the field command post near Zhytomyr (Zhitomir) for the Reichsführer SS . Here was a former Soviet air force base, the building of which was also used by Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and the head of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers .
photos
Remains of the former swimming pool of the bunker system
Individual evidence
- ↑ Історико-меморіальний комплекс пам'яті жертв фашизму. Вінницький краєзнавчий музей. Архів оригіналу за 2013-08-13. Процитовано 2013-08-06.
- ↑ Ставка Гитлера под Винницей стала филиалом музея. On www.vinnitsa.info , from July 18, 2011.
- ^ Richard Rhodes : The German Murderers. The SS Einsatzgruppen and the Holocaust. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, ISBN 3-7857-2183-8 , p. 330 f.
- ^ Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Munich, Siedler 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 605.
- ↑ Wendy Lower : Nazi Empire Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC et al. 2005, ISBN 0-8078-2960-9 , pp. 162-179.
literature
- Franz W. Seidler , Dieter Zeigert : The Führer Headquarters. Facilities and planning in World War II. With overview tables. 3rd edition, special production. Herbig, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7766-2154-0 .
- Christa Schroeder : He was my boss. From the estate of Adolf Hitler's secretary. Published by Anton Joachimsthaler . Langen Müller, Munich et al. 1985, ISBN 3-7844-2059-1 .
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 18 ′ 27.6 ″ N , 28 ° 29 ′ 40.2 ″ E