bruceburgdorf

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Krebs is threatened with the Pencils of Doom

The Fall of Berlin (1950)

[bruceburgdorf]

The Germans of Stalag Luft III

One of the films which got me interested in WW2 from an early age is The Great Escape (1963) which is based on the 1944 escape from Stalag Luft 3.

The escape was famous for the sheer number of men who escaped at one time but also the unlawful execution of 50 of the escaped prisoners by the Gestapo on Hitler’s orders.

Apart from the inventiveness of the escape itself, one thing what drew me to the film was the way in which the German officers and guards of the POW camp were depicted. Instead of being cruel and cold these Germans were shown as understanding and considerate. Given that the film was supervised by former POWs and having read several books and articles on the subject there is evidence to show much of this was true for the Luftwaffe camp staff of Stalag Luft 3 and conditions were reportedly a lot better than in other POW camps.

The books talk about life in the camp and also describe the staff of the camp in detail. The person that stands out the most is the Commandant who was based at the camp from 1942 up until the escape in 1944 which led to his court martial. He was remembered by the prisoners for adhering to the Geneva Convention but was also someone they had respect for although they did occasionally pull pranks on him and his staff.

I think it’s important to remember him as a man who did his best given the position he was in but also for being a genuinely good person.

Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau 1880 - 1963

Lindeiner had opposed the Nazi party from as early as the first elections. One reason for this was he had lived with his Dutch wife in the Netherlands in the early 1930’s and could see the effects the Nazis were having on Germany from an outsider’s perspective.

He had been a Colonel in the First World War and had tried to retire before accepting his position as the Commandant of Stalag Luft 3 but was refused due to his high rank. Although not the best outcome he was relieved to be away from the front lines. He was already 62 years old when he took command of Stalag Luft 3.

From his arrival at the camp he sought to improve living conditions for the POWs. Although food rations were beyond his control he discovered Red Cross Parcels were going missing and put a stop to this. He liaised with the senior officers to ensure the men had access to adequate leisure facilities and worked with the YMCA to see this was done. He discussed ways to improve sanitation and a saw that a sewer system was built for the camp, something the nearby German town of Sagan didn’t have.

Orders from High Command were often confusing and contradictory however Lindeiner instructed his staff to treat prisoners as they would wish to be treated. Orders denied prisoners who had died in the camp the right to be buried with military honours but Lindeiner still insisted on this. The orders also depicted on how prisoners should be treated according to country depending on each country’s status. For example Russians could be used for manual labour and were denied by the German government the conditions of the other prisoners had a right to. Lindeiner improved their conditions the best he could despite warnings of close friends that the High Command was keeping tabs on him. He was certain there were men on his staff who were reporting his behaviour.

When he learned through British POWs that the Gestapo was holding a number of prisoners in their custody he began action which would see the prisoners transferred to the Luftwaffe’s care and to his camp. He also intervened when Dutch prisoner Bram Van Der Stok was almost tricked into leaving the camp with the Gestapo, fortunately both Van Der Stok and Lindeiner guessed what they were up to.

When orders from the OKW in early 1944 stated the escaped prisoners should be handed to the Gestapo, Lindeiner feared he may be given an order to execute prisoners within his camp. He later told his deputy Major Gustav Simoleit his concerns about receiving such orders and they both concurred they would rather be executed themselves for insubordination than carry out such an order.

The actual order for the gestapo to execute the escaped prisoners was protested by Göring and a number of senior Wehrmacht officers.

At his court martial in 1944 he was charged with transferring staff whose views were too National Socialist. He denied these claims but said he did remove any staff whose conduct was not morally correct or who didn’t adhere to the Geneva Convention which he made a point of following. He was also charged with being too friendly with the POWs, it was noted he had spent much time speaking with the prisoners and given some of them gifts on their birthdays. He had had a very good relationship with the Senior British Officer.

He was tried by the allies after the war and a number of former POWs testified to his character during his time as the Commandant. Letters were exchanged between himself and former prisoners after the war up until his death.

Stalag Luft III Staff

Lindeiner’s deputy Major Gustav Simoleit, and Captain Hans Pieber were of similar minds and also well respected by the POWs. Simoleit attended the prisoner re-union in 1965 and Pieber was reported to have been visibly upset when he learnt of the executions. It was also said that Pieber turned a blind eye to a few of the escape related activities including lending his camera to the POWs without asking questions.

Another man who was extremely popular with the POWs was Oberfeldwebel Hermann Glemnitz, the sergeant of the Trackers (Ferrets). Unlike his counterpart in the film he was a likeable character showing more curiosity about methods than anger over foiled escape attempts. He attended several of the reunions and even visited a former POW in Canada.

The camp employed hundreds of staff and many of these were too old for military duty, recovering soldiers with injuries and sole survivors in families. Food rations for the staff were similar to that of the prisoners minus the Red Cross parcels so actually worse overall. It was due to this so many of the guards were able to bribed into assisting with the 1944 escape, around 100 in all, but several actually went out of their way to assist including a guard in the watchtower who distracted his colleague while an escape took place but the plan failed and another guard whose wife made stencils for official documents and mailed them back to the camp from her home in Hamburg. It was unfortunate that the relationship between some of the guards deteriorated after the heavy bombing of German cities later in the war.

Recommend books about Stalag Luft 3

The Great Escape: The Full Dramatic Story with Contributions from Survivors and Their Families - Anton Gill

Escape from Stalag Luft III: The True Story of My Successful Great Escape: The Memoir of Bob Vanderstok - Bram Van Der Stok

The True Story of the Great Escape: Stalag Luft III, March 1944 - Jonathan Vance

From Commandant to Captive: The Memoirs of Stalag Luft III Commandant Col. Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner genannt von Wildau - Marilyn Jeffers Walton

[bruceburgdorf]

The German resistance to the Nazis and Hitler

A common criticism of the now well known 20th July plot was that many of the German conspirators were opposed to how Hitler was leading the war but not the Nazi regime as a whole or only opposed the Nazis once the fate of the war had already been decided. This was however certainly not the case for all who resisted Hitler within Germany.

These two men form part of the exception to this criticism and were consistent in their opposition from the early days of the 1930‘s and throughout the Nazi rule in Germany.

For me one of the greatest tragedies was learning of their names through wartime fiction and not through school, TV documentaries or books about WW2.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 -1945

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian who was part of a well educated and connected family. In his early years he travelled and had witnessed the poor treatment of black Americans.

He returned to Germany in the early 1930’s and spoke out against the Nazis before they were elected and became a founding member of the Confession Church. This new church opposed the Nazi interference in religious teachings which sought to revise the bible to exclude Jewish influences and also remove pastors of Jewish descent.

When Bonhoeffer drew the attention of the Nazi party he was banned from public speaking and later banned from the city of Berlin but continued to gather support to oppose the Nazi influence on the church in secret.

He was informed of the 1938 plot to arrest Hitler by his brother in law Hans von Dohnányi who use his position in the Abwehr to keep him informed of the Nazi atrocities and to also get Dietrich himself a position in the Abwehr which protected him from conscription and allowed him to continue his work. He became aware that his brother in law had moved to conspiring to kill Hitler not just arrest him which as a pastor Bonhoeffer was originally against but eventually agreed that they needed to stop Hitler at any cost.

His role was to be a courier, assigned to engage in covert talks with foreign church leaders who could communicate with the Allies. He had hoped his position could allow for peace terms for Germany to be discussed however Allied wartime policy would ignore resistance from with Germany. This was party due to the allies needing to remove any ambiguity when it came to placing the blame on the Germans for the war but also because they had been fooled in the past by an SD agent pretending be be with the resistance and passing on false information. It was nethertheless unfortunate that communication from the real German resistance would be then be ignored.

Bonhoeffer was eventually arrested on grounds of sedition and sent to Tegel prison where he used his teachings and faith to comfort other prisoners and he even impressed some of the guards with his courage and strength and a few of these guards were persuaded to assist him by allowing letters to be sent to his family and one even offered to help him escape although he refused as he was worried of the consequences it may have on his family.

When the diaries of Admiral Canaris of the Abwehr (another key member of the resistance) were discovered he was found to be linked to the 20th July plot and was moved to Buchenwald and eventually Flossenburg concentration camp where he was hanged on 9th April 1945.

Hans von Dohnányi 1902 - 1945

Hans von Dohnányi was like his brother in law, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, well educated. He was a lawyer and also someone who opposed the Nazis before they had come to be elected. He began to write down the Nazi parties crimes which he planned to use as evidence if they were overthrown.

He was recruited into the Abwehr, the military intelligence service, by Hans Oster, a Wehrmacht colonel at that time and later a general but more importantly someone who also opposed the Nazis before the war had began and worked under Admiral Canaris.

The Abwehr had recruited a number of opposers to the Nazis who would work legitimately within the intelligence service but who would secretly also work against their own government. Hans would have access to their archives and he soon learned of Hitler’s military plans for Europe as well as atrocities which were being perpetrated against the Jews and on the eastern front. He became part of the active resistance to arrest Hitler in 1938 along with Hans Oster and others and would later be involved in an assassination attempts on Hitler’s life including in 1943 where a bomb was smuggled onto Hitler's plane but unfortunately didn't detonate.

The previous year Hans had taken part in a secret Abwehr operation to smuggle 13 Jews out of Germany and had illegally transfered government funds to support the Jews who were now living in Switzerland. This transfer of money would then led to his arrest in 1943 and eventual transfer to Sachsenhausen. Hans had worked to bring together civilians and military personnel who opposed the government in an effort to establish a more organised resistance. This lead to his conviction for his involvement in planning of the 20th July plot.

He was executed in Sachsenhausen likely on the same day as Bonhoeffer was executed in Flossenbürg, 9th April 1945 . He is now recognised as one of the righteous among Nations by Israel.

One more note in this great man's legacy is that his grandson is actor Justus von Dohnányi who I admire very much.

[bruceburgdorf]

A slightly different WW2 German blog. I want to share with you the more honourable side of Germany in WW2 and the people behind it. Not everyone I post about will be morally perfect but I think it’s important to respect any effort made to stand up to the Nazis or deliberately defy orders given. I won’t post about senior Nazi party members unless they have some connection to the resistance or in the context of parodies although I don’t judge those who do.

I also want to share the best Downfall parodies since they have been going for nearly as long as the film itself but get new fans all the time. I remember the very first parodies and they have made me laugh ever since.

I don’t ship all of the characters but I do love Krebs x Burgdorf so I may share content I can find for these two.

Lastly I have a soft spot for Justus von Dohnányi (Burgdorf from Downfall) and will share stuff about his other films.