I remember one German to whom Nazism meant midnight arrests and rubber truncheons, while to another it meant Autobahns and parades and good jobs.
JACK HUNTER1
Christmas came early for the CIC in 1945. On December 15, agents were in place along with soldiers from the Third Army to arrest Axmann and two of his top men. Jack Hunter and the other CIC agents had carefully prepared for this moment.
CIC Special Agent Irving J. Lewis was one of the agent’s handling the informant Günter Ebeling from the CIC office in Rosenheim, Bavaria. He wrote that the “Third Army established a series of interlocking road blocks covering all possible road exits, including the borders of French-Occupied Germany and Austria. Blocks were instructed to allow the vehicle driven by SLIM [Ebeling’s codename] to pass into the area unhindered, but to arrest all passengers on the exit. CIC/Rosenheim provided descriptions of passengers and the vehicle.”2
The CIC wanted Axmann to enter their trap, and then not be able to leave it. These soldiers stationed on roadblocks were there as precautions, nothing more. If things went according to plan, they wouldn’t be involved other than to let the target into the area. But if things went wrong, and Axmann somehow evaded them despite his driver working for the CIC, then they would be ready to arrest him. The same was true for his fellow passengers—Gustav Memminger and Ernst Overbeck, both high-level leaders of the HJ.
Agent Walter Kaufman (from the CIC office in Rosenheim) and a partner were in disguise as skiers. A thick layer of snow covered the buildings, roads, and trees equally. The Bavarian Alps were popular with skiers, and with all this snow on the ground, the agents looked like just another pair of tourists up for the weekend from Munich to hit the slopes.
Their job was to keep an eye on things in Oberstaufen, the village from where Axmann would be leaving. With the help of local American soldiers, they had secured a room from which they could monitor the situation starting December 14, the day before the arrest. They monitored the situation until Axmann left the following morning.
Agent Reis was there as well, to provide Kaufman with support. This was Third Army territory, and Reis was with the Seventh Army, but he was still a key part of this operation. During the day of the operation, he would help tail Ebeling.
Kaufman’s usual partner, Lewis, was with another agent that day. It made sense to divide these agents up so that those who had experience with this operation could work with those who did not. This way at least one person would be familiar with what their targets looked like. Lewis also had an important job—to follow Ebeling from Oberstaufen as he drove Axmann to his final destination. Since the driver, Günter Ebeling, was in on it, this would most likely be an easy task.
The CIC told Ebeling that it was important for him to drive in a manner that made it simple for the trailing agents to stick with him. While the CIC did this primarily to keep track of their targets, Ebeling was told that the trailing agents were also there to provide him with protection if something went wrong.
These agents wore civilian clothes in case Axmann spotted them.
Having a tail proved useful before Axmann had even entered the vehicle. While driving on the morning of December 15, Ebeling was stopped by an American military checkpoint that was unrelated to this operation. He was nearly arrested for carrying American gasoline, which the soldiers assumed he had obtained illegally on the black market. Gasoline was dyed red at the time to signify that it belonged to the occupying authorities; a German civilian should not have been driving around with it.
This was a tricky situation, though, as Ebeling was not alone—Ernst Overbeck was also in the car. However, the trailing CIC agent managed to get Ebeling released from this roadblock without raising Overbeck’s suspicions.
Another problem arose before the trap could be sprung. Once near Oberstaufen, Ebeling’s car got stuck in the snow. Agent Reis had been trailing him and so got out and pretended to be a Good Samaritan. He helped Ebeling and Overbeck out of the snow so that they could continue on their way. He even talked a bit with Overbeck. As Reis later recalled, “Overbeck thanked me courteously and seemed to have no suspicion of me.”3
Yet another close call occurred at a roadblock when instructions got confused, and the soldiers manning the checkpoint thought that they were supposed to arrest Ebeling. Fortunately, they didn’t have his full plate number, and they let him through.
If they had had his correct plate number, it would have spelled disaster for the operation. The soldiers would have arrested him and Overbeck. Then it would have been difficult to explain why Ebeling no longer had Overbeck with him. Perhaps the CIC would have then simply arrested Axmann and Memminger before they could begin their planned road trip. However, such an outcome would have been less than ideal, as the CIC preferred to make these arrests in a controlled, isolated environment.
While waiting for Axmann to show up, those in the arrest area started to panic. They later reported that “As the hours passed, tension naturally mounted, for AXMANN had been at 1000 hours in OBERSTAUFEN.…Eventually word was received that AXMANN had come into town. Speculated plans for climbing the mountain were dropped immediately and all forces were alerted for the departure from OBERSTAUFEN.”4
While Axmann was taking his time to arrive in town, there had been talk of going into the Alps to look for him at his lodging there. Plus, there was a fear that Axmann might have gotten wind of their scheme and retreated into the mountains, in which case soldiers would have to comb through these snow-filled heights to try to find him. This would have been a difficult search operation with the Alps providing a fugitive many places in which to hide. If Axmann had panicked and fled away from civilization, and into the mountains, he would have had a very good chance of getting away.
Once in Oberstaufen, Ebeling was unable to locate Axmann. This problem was also averted. An undercover CIC agent, wearing civvies, surreptitiously let Ebeling know that Axmann was waiting for him nearby. In fact, Axmann was very close by, but he was behind Ebeling, and somehow they had missed seeing each other.5
To make his passengers more comfortable, Ebeling showed up with fake IDs for Overbeck and for Axmann’s brother Kurt. They had previously requested them from Ebeling, so it was not a surprise that he had them. Kurt Axmann had earlier made contact with Artur Axmann through the Tessmann group, and Artur Axmann knew that his brother needed a good cover identity. The Rosenheim CIC was only too happy to provide these documents, as they knew they would get them back shortly if everything went according to plan.
Around 1 P.M., later than expected, Ebeling was finally on the road out of Oberstaufen with his three passengers—Artur Axmann, Gustav Memminger, and Ernst Overbeck. Two sets of CIC agents tailed them. The signal went out over the radio that things were in motion with the code: “Christmas is coming.”6
As the CIC dryly noted, “Christmas came for Arthur [sic] AXMANN, former Reichsleiter and Reichsjugendfuehrer, leader of the planned revival of the Hitler Jugend, at 1410 hours, 15 December 1945.”7
It was then, about four miles south of Kempten, that the trap was sprung. Ebeling had just passed the small village of Waltenhofen. Once Ebeling drove around a curve on the road from Oberstaufen, a roadblock checkpoint stood in front of them. They had driven about twenty miles since starting their trip. Ebeling stopped the car and everyone got out.
Agent Reis noted that “although the roadblock check was not used as often as immediately after [the] cessation of hostilities, the German populace had been so regimented and indoctrinated during Hitler’s regime they were not surprised at anytime for identity check. This attitude served us well.”8
Near this checkpoint stood an inn that the army had taken over. It was below freezing outside, so it made sense that travelers would be escorted inside to have their papers inspected and answer questions. The Americans had previously emptied out this inn; now the only ones inside were soldiers and CIC agents, including Jack Hunter.9
With the notable exception of Ebeling, these Germans had no idea that they were about to step into the command post of the operation planning their arrest.
As Reis later wrote, “We passed by [Ebeling] and hurried into the building to make certain that our medic friends were ready. Axmann was one of the first to be brought into the building and as he entered, the two medics stepped forward, one on each side of him, and thrust their fingers into his mouth and searched for cyanide tablets and on other areas of his body.”10 The others “were also given the same treatment.”11
This blitz attack as soon as they entered the building surprised the arrestees before they had time to react. The CIC was especially worried that Axmann might try to kill himself using a cyanide pill.
While Axmann did not have a suicide pill, having long ago given his to Mrs. Goebbels, the CIC didn’t know that. Also, Axmann had no interest in killing himself. If he was the sort to kill himself, rather than risk capture, he would have already done it in the bunker after Hitler and Goebbels did. Or when Bormann took his own life when faced with the overwhelming dangers posed by the Russians during the breakout attempt.
The Allies had learned the hard way though not to take any chances with high-ranking Nazis. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had famously used a cyanide pill to kill himself after the British captured him. The CIC took every precaution with Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann. Axmann remembered what happened a bit differently; he felt that the medics had “immediately attacked my lower jaw.”12
Ebeling and his three passengers were stripped and thoroughly searched. With the exception of Axmann’s prosthetic arm, all of their belongings were taken away, including a stash of documents. Axmann had on him the diagram he’d drawn based on Heidemann’s explanations of the group’s business interests. During the arrest, Ebeling was treated the same as the others in an attempt by the CIC to conceal from them that he was an informant.
Axmann later wrote that during this strip search, “Ebeling was standing next to me and protested loudly and indignantly. I felt that this outrage was phony. He was our betrayer.”13
Two blurry photographs exist of Artur Axmann taken during his capture. He was stripped down to his white long johns and surrounded by CIC personnel. In well-known portraits of him from his time in charge of the Hitler Youth, he had always been clean-shaven. Now, he had a thick mustache. In one of the photos, a gag has been put into his mouth. It looks like a large white cloth that has been stuck in there and allowed to hang out, like he is throwing up an oversized white sock.
After this search, the captives were taken upstairs and put into American military uniforms. They were even given helmets to wear. Axmann tried to argue that his fake ID was legitimate and that he was not Artur Axmann. Of course, no one believed him.
Hunter and Axmann finally came face-to-face when Axmann entered into the requisitioned inn. There was no time for introductions though—it was a quick operation and specialized interrogators would question Axmann later.
The goal at this point was to keep these arrests secret so that the Tessmann operation didn’t receive word of what had happened. Even if a local saw one of the prisoners being spirited away from the inside of the building to the street, they would just see someone in a U.S. uniform with part of his head covered.
The prisoners were rushed away. Axmann and Memminger were taken to Third Army territory. A soldier kept a Tommy gun trained on Axmann while he entered a light tank in the middle of a convoy.14 The CIC was not taking any chances with the former Reichsjugendführer.
Overbeck went to the Seventh Army at Heidelberg; Agents Reis and Hochschild escorted him there personally.15 Decades later, Reis remembered this trip well: “Overbeck was silent on the ride to Heidelberg except when Agent George [Hochschild] asked him if he knew who had helped him push his vehicle out of the snow in Allgau. When Overbeck replied that he didn’t but thought it was one of the natives in Allgau, George enlightened him by pointing to me, and then Overbeck said he had badly underestimated the Americans. He seemed to be in shock.”16 Overbeck told them that he now had the deepest respect for the CIC.17
Ebeling, of course, was free to go on his way. He would tell his erstwhile comrades at Tessmann that he’d experienced serious car troubles on the road from Oberstaufen to Lübeck. In what would have been about a six-hundred-mile journey, Ebeling would claim that he’d only made it as far as Stuttgart. This was about a quarter of the way.
As his story went, his passengers had then taken a train the rest of the route. In order to help protect Ebeling, CIC Agents Lewis and Kaufman asked that when Axmann’s arrest was announced someday, that the date and location of his capture be kept secret.18 Otherwise, Ebeling would be exposed.
The CIC had managed to pull off arresting the former leader of the Hitler Youth along with two of his top men. Despite some hiccups, this carefully planned operation was a resounding success.