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“Nazi Werwolves”

Soon after the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, the Allies became concerned the Nazis had created an elite Schutzstaffel (SS) underground organization to continue fighting after the Germans were defeated. This secret organization was named “Werwolf.”

Werwolf organization pennant. Photo by Xufanc (2010). PD-Author release. Wikimedia Commons.
Werwolf organization pennant. Photo by Xufanc (2010). PD-Author release. Wikimedia Commons.

No one knows how and why Werwolf was used as the name for Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s guerilla resistance force. However, there are perhaps some dots we can connect.

Nazi Germany Werwolf member badge. Photo by Wolfmann (May 2019). PD-CCA Share-Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
Nazi Germany Werwolf member badge. Photo by Wolfmann (May 2019). PD-CCA Share-Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.

Hitler named his Ukraine field headquarters, Werwolf and on occasion, Hitler would refer to himself as “Wolf.” His Eastern Front military headquarters was known as Wolfsschanze or, Wolf’s Lair. A novel written in 1910 by Hermann Löns was Der Wehrwolf. It was a story of revenge whereby a group of men called Wehrwölfe became mercenaries and eventually began to enjoy killing people. The book became popular with the German right-wing so naturally, the Nazis embraced it.


Did You Know?

Did you know that the Place de la Concorde in Paris was once a giant sundial? Most of us are aware of the three-thousand-year-old Luxor Obelisk that stands in the center of this giant roundabout. It was given to France in 1833 by the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad Ali. All the Pasha wanted in return was a big mechanical clock for the Citadel in Cairo ⏤ it’s there but reportedly, doesn’t work. While you walk around the Place de la Concorde, look down at the pavement and you might see Roman numerals. The founder of the Société de France, Camille Flammarion, decided to create the largest sundial in the world and in 1913, plans were drawn up to use the Obelisk as a gnomon (the pin of a sundial). Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 1999 when the plans were finally approved by the mayor of Paris and the sundial was created. Time was not kind to the Paris sundial and by 2001, most of the pavement imprints had faded or worn away. However, there still are some numerals left and if you look closely at certain times of the day, the Obelisk can tell you the time. I think I’ll rely on my trusty Seiko watch. If you’d like to explore more about the history of the Obelisk, please be sure to read our next blog (7 December 2019), Cleopatra in Paris and Full Frontal Baboons (click here to read). We’ll also talk a little bit about our recent trip to Egypt where we saw the Paris Obelisk’s twin.

Roman numeral on the pavement at the Place de la Concorde. Photo by Claudine Hemingway (date unknown). Bonjour Paris.
Roman numeral on the pavement at the Place de la Concorde. Photo by Claudine Hemingway (date unknown). Bonjour Paris.

Unternehmen Werwolf

Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the SS, decided to form the Unternehmen Werwolf or, Operation Werwolf in late 1944. The purpose of this secret volunteer force was to operate behind enemy lines. Himmler envisioned them to be similar to the Allied Special Forces known as “Commandos.” SS Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann (1901-1945) was assigned the responsibility of organizing and training Operation Werwolf volunteers. Prützmann was a veteran of fighting Soviet guerilla soldiers and partisans in the Ukraine and he intended to use their guerilla tactics in training his Werwolf men and women. Prior to the Werwolf campaign, Prützmann, a fanatic Nazi, led the mobile extermination group, Einsatzgruppe A, which murdered thousands of Latvian Jews and Ukrainian civilians. Watch the movie clip SS Werwolves – The True Story here. Read More “Nazi Werwolves”

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“Hang ‘Em or Hire ‘Em”

One of the byproducts of doing research for my next two books, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi Occupied Paris, is learning how many war criminals (Nazi as well as collaborators) were either never brought to justice or received relatively light sentences compared to the enormity of their crimes. Underground rat lines (click here to read Odessa:  Myth or Truth) provided notorious Nazis with escape routes to South America. Protection was offered to some by Catholic Church officials. Many escaped during the chaos at the end of the war and returned to Germany to live out their remaining lives under either their given or assumed names. Politicians and government officials pardoned many of them after their convictions. However, it was only after 1998 that we became fully aware of the American, British, and Soviet recruitment of former Nazi scientists, engineers, and doctors during the immediate aftermath of the war. The American efforts were known as Operation Paperclip while the Soviet counterpart was Operation Osoaviakhim. 

Dr. Wernher von Braun (left) and Dr. Kurt Debus (right), director of Kennedy Space Center, attend the Saturn 500F rollout. Photo by NASA (26 May 1966). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
Dr. Wernher von Braun (left) and Dr. Kurt Debus (right), director of Kennedy Space Center, attend the Saturn 500F rollout. Photo by NASA (26 May 1966). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

Did you Know?

Did you know the U.S. Government began declassifying World War II documents in the 1960s? However, it wasn’t until 1998 when President Clinton signed into law the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act that historians began to fully understand the involvement of the Allies in protecting certain Nazis who were clearly either directly or indirectly responsible for war crimes including crimes against humanity.  The purpose of the act and its “Interagency Working Group” (IWG) was to fully disclose the remaining millions of pages of classified documents pertaining to war crimes committed by the Nazis and the Japanese. One of the results was the complete declassification of OSS documents (the OSS was the wartime American intelligence agency that morphed into the CIA after the war). The IWG also disclosed the involvement of the former Allied governments (United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union) in a post-war competition to see which country could recruit the most valuable Nazi scientists, engineers, technicians, and doctors. In all, the United States recruited more than 1,600 former Nazis while the Soviet Union forcibly recruited more than 2,200.


Subsequent Nuremberg Trials

After the first Nuremberg trial was finished (click here to read Court Room 600), some of the most ruthless and complicit Nazis captured by the Allies were tried in twelve Nuremberg follow-up trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Convicted defendants received prison sentences or were sentenced to death. However, in many cases, death verdicts were eventually reduced to life imprisonment and finally, to shorter and finite prison terms. Some were even given full pardons. By the mid-1950s, with the exception of the original Nuremberg prisoners in Spandau Prison, all imprisoned Nazis had been released including ten SS officers convicted and sentenced to death for their participation in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile SS death squads). Two men recruited by Operation Paperclip, Kurt Blome and Otto Ambros, went to trial. Included in the Doctors’ Trial (Case 1) was Dr. Blome, responsible for all Nazi biological warfare research while Ambros was a defendant in the I.G. Farben Trial (Case 6). We will meet both of these men later.

A guide shows jars containing human organs removed from prisoners in Buchenwald to Jack Levine, an American soldier. Photo by anonymous (27 May 1945). National Archives and Records Administration/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
A guide shows jars containing human organs removed from prisoners in Buchenwald to Jack Levine, an American soldier. Photo by anonymous (27 May 1945). National Archives and Records Administration/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

From the end of the war to around 1959, there were several categories of ex-Nazis who hid from justice with the assistance of the United States government. They included the scientists and engineers who worked on the development of V-2 rockets in Peenemünde and later, Nordhausen-Mittlewerk-Dora as well as the doctors who developed biological germ warfare. Read More “Hang ‘Em or Hire ‘Em”