401.Meyer, Kurt: Grenadiere, München, 1956, p.172 (English edition: Grenadiers: The story of Waffen-SS General Kurt ‘Panzer’ Meyer, Mechanicsburg, 2005).
402.A Russian 7.62cm cannon was called ‘Crash-Bang’ (‘Ratsch-Bum’ in German) because when it fired, first the sharp bang of the shot was heard, like a ‘crash’, and only then the dull thud of the cannon thunder. It was the Russian weapon that we tank people feared the most.
403.This culvert is shown in the ZDF film mentioned below about the Prokhorovka tank battle, albeit in a different context.
404.To return again to the allegedly better arming and equipment of the Waffen-SS divisions: the Panther units for Unternehmen Zitadelle remained reserved for the army; the Waffen-SS divisions acquired Panther units only later.
405.In a ZDF film about the battle at Prokhorovka, a Russian tank commander describes both shots.
406.This too is mentioned in the ZDF film by a Russian tank officer who had taken part in the action. The Grenadiers, who were positioned to our right at the secure railway embankment, were able to observe what went on. One of them wrote to me after the war: ‘All four of us saw exactly what happened … all four could not understand what was going on. I also watched your carousel around the T-34, which was earlier. We had a good laugh about how you outwitted them … I saw how you drove ahead in your P-IVs [Panzer IV] and that they were shot out one after another, not without scoring richly against the attackers. All at once I saw how a P-IV suddenly joined in with the Russians. It drove fully in with their attack in the direction of the anti- tank ditch, while firing all the time in the direction of its comrades. Until suddenly the penny dropped and I realized that “mad dog” was firing one fatal shot after another at his new friends. The Russians absolutely did not catch on.’ (Letters from former Technical Sergeant Wilhelm Rogmann [Freiberg i. Sa.] dated 7 January 1991 and 3 February 1991.)
407.My radio operator Bergner’s diary was placed at my disposal only in July 2001 by his brother. In the war Bergner himself was later taken out of a tank, gravely wounded, and carried onto an armoured ambulance which received a direct hit immediately afterwards, to which Bergner too fell victim. For 12 July 1943 he writes: ‘General tank alarm. Immediate attack necessary … With our 7 tanks remaining in the past days from the initial 22. We drive fast to the rise where the infantry is shooting off violet flare cartridges in such numbers that we have to assume a major tank attack is underway. And suddenly, there they are. A T-34 at 20 metres next to us and then, in front of us more and more tanks, like a stampeding herd. Far and wide a rumbling, rattling, booming, dust and smoke. It was near night-fall. Did it mean the end for us all? A sudden scare … We quickly recovered from this shock. And soon out of the mass one fell by the wayside. We fired from the shortest distance. Right in the middle of the pack of tanks we turned head to tail and fired from behind. Without attracting much attention. A few times the Russian infantrymen sitting on the tanks noticed us but it was already too late for them and my MG contributed to that. The great risk was to weave through the burnt-out tanks without being hit; also by the tanks of the other companies that for their part had taken up positions in the anti-tank ditch. Within half an hour our gunner at that time, Kurt Hoppe, had shot out 14 Russian tanks. An hour later, in the portion of the battlefield of about 500 x 1,000 metres of our unit … more than 125 enemy tanks had been downed. At noon we drive up to the rise where the Russians wanted to catch us by surprise. But they didn’t manage it. We regard ourselves as having emerged the victors over a super-power.’
408.Cf Klein, Burton: op. cit.
409.Fritz Todt (from 1940 Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions) wanted to see that ‘the issue of women’s military service was not taken into consideration for the time being, out of political reasons’. See Schustereit, H: op. cit., pp.27, 159, Note 72, Chef Rü, Aktenvermerk bei (Memorandum to) Reichsminister Dr Todt dated 9.1.1941, Berlin, 10 January 1941, Sheet No. 3, ibid.
410.See entry in Hewel’s diary dated 28 May 1941.
411.Cf Hitler’s famous speech to the Reichstag of 28 April 1939, in which he replied to a ‘message’ from Roosevelt who had addressed provocative ‘enquiries’ to the Reich government. It was a brilliant speech that he evidently had fun with! Whether it was appropriate to the diplomatic situation may be doubted; see Domarus, M.: op. cit., p.1,148 et sequ.
412.Ribbentrop, J. v.: op. cit., p.47 et sequ. and p.233.
413.Hitler, A.: Mein Kampf, p.958 (English edition).
414.Kluge, Dankwart: Das Hoßbach-’Protokoll’. Die Zerstörung einer Legende, Leoni am Starnberger See (The Destruction of a Legend, Leoni at Lake Starnberg) 1980, p.36 et seq. Kluge’s book moreover gives a detailed description of how the Hossbach Note came about as well as its background, and the changes the text underwent, leading to diverse versions being published.
415.It was a consistent theme of Hitler’s dinner-table discourse in the war years. Cf Picker, Dr Henry: The Hitler phenomenon: An intimate portrait of Hitler and his entourage, Newton Abbot, 1974, passim.
416.I remember an editorial on the front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the Party’s official paper, entitled ‘Das Erbe Karl des Großen’ (‘The Heritage of Charlemagne’) (author Dr Nonnenbruch).
417.Keitel, W.: op. cit., p.424 et seq.
418.Hitler, A.: op. cit., p.958.
419.See Guderian, Heinz: Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (A Soldier’s Memories), Heidelberg, 1951, p.26 (English edition: Panzer Leader, New York, 1952).
420.Lipgens, Walter (ed.): Documents on the History of European Integration, Vol. 1, Continental Plans for European Union 1939-1945, Berlin, 1985, p.123 et seq.
421.Mazower, Mark: Hitlers Imperium, München 2009, p 331.
422.See Schustereit, H.: op. cit., p.10 et seq.
423.Klein, Burton: op. cit., p.24 et seq.
424.Reinhardt, Fritz (publ.: Ralf Wittrich): Die Beseitigung der Arbeitslosigkeit im Dritten Reich. Das Sofortprogramm 1933/34 (The elimination of unemployment in the Third Reich. The immediacy programme).
425.Röhricht, Edgar: Pflicht und Gewissen. Erinnerungen eines deutschen Generals 1932 bis 1944 (Duty and Conscience. Memories of a German general), Stuttgart, 1965; quoted from the note by Colonel Günther von Below (brother of the Luftwaffe adjutant Nicolaus von Below).
426.Halder’s statement in the proceedings at his denazification tribunal on 15 September 1948 (BA/MA N 220/64), quoted from Hartmann, Christian: Halder – Generalstabschef Hitlers 1938-1942, Paderborn, 1991, p.346.
427.Keitel, W.: op. cit., p.316.
428.Name of a Russian spy ring.
429.See Der Spiegel, 13 April 1998, p.76.
430.The concept was already current at the time of the First World War as a characteristic of the modern battlefield.
431.Guderian writes in his memoirs that the commander of the Leibstandarte, Sepp Dietrich, was the first to present himself to Guderian after Guderian’s dismissal as commander and had vouched for Dietrich’s solidarity with him against ‘those up there’! See Guderian, H.: op. cit., p.247.
432.See the alleged ‘Note for the Führer’ that Reinhard Spitzy copied from von Papen. Cf with p.141, Footnote 153.
433.Mann, Heinrich: Zur Zeit von Winston Churchill (At the time of Winston Churchill), new edition, Frankfurt, 2004.
434.Savoy, Bénédicte: Kunstraub – Napoleons Konfiszierungen in Deutschland und die europäischen Folgen, Vienna, 2011, pp.193, 461, Note 173; Sauvier, Charles: Les conquêtes artistiques de la Révolution et de l’Empire, Paris, 1902, p.159.
435.Chatelain, Jean: Dominique Vivant Denon et le Louvre de Napoléon, Paris, 1973, p.253.
436.See also FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) of 3 January 2004; Savoy, Bénédicte: op. cit., p.163 et seq. and p.457, Note 49; Cullen, Michael and Kieling, Uwe: Das Brandenburger Tor, ein deutsches Symbol, Berlin, 1999, pp.44-45.
437.Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (publ.): Gespräche mit Marx und Engels (Discussion with …), Vol I, Frankfurt/Main, 1973, p.30 et seq.
438.Eckermann, Johann Peter: Conversations with Goethe in the last years of his life, Boston, 1839, p.151. Mucius Scaevola is said to have been taken, as a prisoner of the Etruscans, to the Etruscan king Porsenna who was besieging Rome. To demonstrate the courage of the Romans to the king, he burned his hand in a brazier. The king is said to have been so impressed that he abandoned the siege.
439.Grandfather used variously to mention the name of General Max von Gallwitz and his setbacks in connection with the influence – not always fortunate – of the Imperial Military Cabinet, by which Ludendorff too will no doubt have been affected. I found the confirmation in Wilhelm Keitel’s memoirs: op. cit., p.113.
440.Bismarck for his part is said to have stated: ‘… one cannot be absolved from mutilating it [a nation] and history, that great teacher of statesmen, tells us it is always regretted.’ from Documents Diplomatiques Français (1871-1914), 1st Series, Vol. II, 476 (1879), quoted from Ingrim, Robert: Bismarck selbst. Tausend Gedanken des Fürsten Otto von Bismarck (Bismarck himself. Prince Otto von Bismarck’s Thousand Thoughts), Stuttgart, 1950, p.60.
441.The exact title of the dissertation was Das Wachstum der Berliner Flaschenbier-Industrie (The growth of the Berlin bottled beer industry), compiled in 1900.
442.Spitzy tries yet another trick and maintains that the Club Secretary had been a Herr von Lieres, who had to inform Father of his rejection. Thereupon, when Father undertook the Auswärtiges Amt, he dismissed Lieres. As a matter of fact Lieres had misbehaved in that he defied attending a meeting of all the department employees – convened because of Father’s posting – and had as a consequence been suspended.
443.Cf Keynes, John M.: ‘The German Transfer Problem’, in Economic Journal Vol. 39 (1929), pp.1–7; Lüke, Rolf E.: Von der Stabilisierung zur Krise (From stabilization to crisis), Basle Centre for Economic and Financial Research (publ.), Series B, No. 3, Zürich, 1958, p.56 et seq.
444.When in May 1940 it was thought to halt General Guderian, who with his armoured Corps had broken through to the coast of the Channel, because of a threatening flank movement, he had rejected the order, couched in the words: ‘I cannot make any good use here of a Hentsch mission.’
445.Quoted from Haffner, Sebastian: Von Bismarck zu Hitler, p.65; see also Steinberg, Jonathan: Bismarck: A life, ch.5, New York, 2011.
446.Ribbentrop, J. v.: op. cit., p.47.
447.Information from the then competent chief of the Press and Information Department of the Auswärtiges Amt Delegate Dr Paul Schmidt to the author.
448.The video tape of the interview is in my possession.
449.After the war I tried in vain to contact Dürckheim through a close collaborator of his whom I knew well. Apparently meditation and East Asian serenity, which Dürckheim exercised as therapy, are no protection against the fear of ‘politically correct’ contact!
450.See the book Les avertissements qui venaient de Berlin (The warnings that came from Berlin) by the Belgian historian Jean Vanwelkenhuyzen, Paris, 1982, pp.22 and 365, Note 28.
451.Confirmed by the Steengrachts’ son to the author.
452.Spitzy mentions the intention to incriminate Baroness Steengracht so as to trip up Steengracht as a ‘Ribbentrop acolyte’. He does, however, take judicious care not to mention the betrayal of the dates for the outbreak of the Western campaign as incitement in connection with it. Cf. Spitzy, R.: op. cit., p.408.
453.Cf Magenheimer, H.: Entscheidungskampf 1941 (Decisive Battle 1941).
454.I have referred here to the notes of Colonel von Geldern in my possession.
455.Janssen, K.-H., and Tobias, F.: Der Sturz der Generäle (The overthrow of the generals).
456.Schall-Riaucour, Heidemarie Gräfin von: Generaloberst Franz Halder, Beltheim, 2006, pp.142, 435.
457.Envoy Dr Paul Schmidt (Press) informed me that Himmler had wanted to launch the head of the SS foreign news agency, Walter Schellenberg, as state secretary in the Auswärtiges Amt. Himmler’s major ‘Luther intrigue’ against Father had been the result of Father’s refusal to accede to Himmler’s wish.
458.Ribbentrop, J. v.: op. cit., p.46.
459.See also Junge, Traudl: Hitler’s Last Secretary, New York, 2011, p.66. Junge writes that Hewel retorted to a joking observation Hitler made to him, that Hewel was after all ‘no diplomat! More of a giant diplomatic cowboy!’, saying: ‘If I weren’t a diplomat I couldn’t stand between you and Ribbentrop, my Führer.’ Hitler had to acknowledge the truth of this, for he knew what a difficult character the Foreign Minister was.
460.Matlok, S. (ed.): Dänemark in Hitlers Hand (Denmark in Hitler’s hands. Report by the Reich Plenipotentiary), pp.140, 202.
461.We have unfortunately been unable to obtain a copy of the entry, or even permission of access for inspection.
462.Matlok, S. (ed.), op. cit., p.146 et seq.
463.After the war, Dr Werner Best was initially condemned to death by the Copenhagen municipal court, the sentence then commuted by the court of appeal to five years’ imprisonment, and was finally released as early as 29 August 1951.
464.Ribbentrop, J. v.: op. cit., p. 256.
465.Counsellor Gottfriedsen orally reconfirmed this instruction to the author.
466.This formulation, directly addressed to Hitler, contradicts the contentions advanced for example by the interpreter Schmidt and by Spitzy that Father wanted to be State Secretary but had instead been fobbed off to London by Hitler.
467.On the occasion of a dinner at friends of the family in Bergisch-Gladbach.
468.A note of a talk with David Irving about Herr von Etzdorf at the author’s home.
469.From Colonel von Geldern’s notes.
470.Information transmitted to the author by the envoy and head of the Press Department Dr Paul Schmidt.
471.Confirmation in writing to the author through Otto Kranzbühler, the defendant of High Admiral Dönitz at the Nuremberg trials.
472.See: ‘Es stand in der “WELT”’ (‘It was published in Die Welt’), in Die Welt, 31 January 1993, and ‘Die Zeit’/Online-Politik.
473.As maintained by R. Spitzy.
474.Cf. Konrad Morgen’s declaration in: IMT, Vol. XLII, p.559 et seq. In addition: Hoffmann, Hans: Hast Du diese Tötungen befohlen? (Did you order the killings?), Bad Harzburg, 1997.
475.Federal Press Office, Bulletin 52/S. 441: Speech of 8 May 1995 on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
476.See The Times, 5 September 1939, as well as the London Jewish Chronicle, 8 September 1939.
477.In the winter of 1943/44 in Staff quarters it was discussed that in the foreseeable future weapons of mass destruction would be at disposal against the British Isles. They were evidently rumours spread by propaganda with the object of hindering the invasion plans of the Allies.
478.Hitler, A.: op. cit., p.897.
479.Quoted from Scheil, Stefan: Fünf plus Zwei (Five plus Two), p.304 and footnote 177; Jackson, Robert H. (ed.): International Conference on Military Trials, A documentary record of negotiations, Washington, 1949, p.306.
480.Reynolds, Michael: Steel Inferno, New York, 1998, pp.16, 353.
481.Karl Epting was for many years the head of the Paris German Culture Institute. During his time in Cherchemidi he published Aus dem Cherchemidi. Pariser Aufzeichnungen 1947-1949 (From the Cherchemidi. Parisian Notes 1947–1949), Bonn, 1953.
482.Ref. to: Schiller, F. v.: Maria Stuart, I, 2; V.
483.Letter dated 17 December 1952.
484.An amusing fellow-inmate had said that the Allied prisons and internment camps were as well known to the German intelligentsia as the good hotels and restaurants were to globetrotters.
485.Schlabrendorff, Fabian von: Revolt against Hitler – The personal account, London, 1948, from Ribbentrop, J. v.: op. cit., p.270.