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For educational purposes
The determination of the German forces to keep on fighting in the face of defeat had disastrous consequences.
After the Allied landings in the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht was on the defensive on all fronts. It was clear to the German generals interned at Trent Park that Germany would soon lose the war.
In mid-1944, Gerhard Graf von Schwerin chose to use common sense instead of blindly obeying Hitler's orders.
He decided to surrender the city of Aachen to the US army to avoid bloodshed. Other commanders such as Field Marshal Ferdinand Schorner kept on pushing their soldiers to give their all.
Despite being outnumbered by the Soviet forces, Schorner forced his soldiers to hold out in Sworbe, a 200 square kilometre peninsula on the coast of Estonia. Thousands of soldiers died.
Yet Schorner's attitude and the urging by Hitler and Goebbels to hold out were accepted by a large number of young soldiers.
By April 1944, the Ruhr pocket was completely surrounded, yet Field Marshal Model refused to surrender, so that 1.2 million German soldiers and a large number of Allied soldiers died between January and May 1945.
The determination of the German forces to keep on fighting in the face of defeat had disastrous consequences.
After the Allied landings in the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht was on the defensive on all fronts. It was clear to the German generals interned at Trent Park that Germany would soon lose the war.
In mid-1944, Gerhard Graf von Schwerin chose to use common sense instead of blindly obeying Hitler's orders.
He decided to surrender the city of Aachen to the US army to avoid bloodshed. Other commanders such as Field Marshal Ferdinand Schorner kept on pushing their soldiers to give their all.
Despite being outnumbered by the Soviet forces, Schorner forced his soldiers to hold out in Sworbe, a 200 square kilometre peninsula on the coast of Estonia. Thousands of soldiers died.
Yet Schorner's attitude and the urging by Hitler and Goebbels to hold out were accepted by a large number of young soldiers.
By April 1944, the Ruhr pocket was completely surrounded, yet Field Marshal Model refused to surrender, so that 1.2 million German soldiers and a large number of Allied soldiers died between January and May 1945.
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LearningTranscript
00:25The
00:27beginning of the end.
00:32After the Allied landings in the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht is on the defensive on all fronts.
00:38The fight is now hopeless, yet it is pursued with increased intensity.
00:49But most German soldiers do not recognize the hopelessness of Germany's situation
00:53until after they have been captured.
01:04VIP prisoners arrive at camp.
01:08Since the middle of 1943, captured German generals have been held at the English country estate
01:14of Trent Park, near London.
01:16They still talk about the war and the Wehrmacht, even though the front line seems very distant
01:22in these comfortable surroundings.
01:25Stripped of their power among friends, the generals express themselves freely.
01:33They have no idea that their conversations are being secretly recorded, providing a unique
01:38record of what they were really thinking at the time.
01:44It's time to make peace.
01:46What are we still fighting for?
01:48I can answer that.
01:49The party, they can't make peace.
01:53Because they know only too well that they will be hacked.
01:57That's right.
01:58Nobody wants to discuss peace with them.
02:04Even if our government resigns, it still wouldn't be over.
02:08Then, the Allies will come to us to negotiate.
02:13Because they can't get any further.
02:15I don't think we're going to agree about that.
02:19Either we die, or they fall apart.
02:23The Americans don't know what they are fighting for anymore.
02:27And when they suffer too many casualties, they will ask, what in hell are we doing here?
02:34No, no.
02:35It will be all over by spring.
02:39They break through by spring at the latest.
02:42And then it's all over.
02:44Come along, Herr Wildermuth.
02:47After all, at the end of the day, we are still German officers.
02:55What does it take to be a good German soldier?
02:59Does your honor force you to hold out in a hopeless situation?
03:04Every frontline soldier, whatever his rank, his character, or his posting,
03:10will struggle with this question in the final year of the war.
03:15The answers will be as varied as the men themselves.
03:22Commanders.
03:24Like Field Marshal Ferdinand Scharner, who pushes his men in every way to give their all.
03:35Ordinary soldiers like Private Kurt Vetter.
03:38Only a bullet can save his life.
03:45Or a senior officer like Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, torn as the war progresses, between his duty to obey and
03:53his common sense.
03:56The 45-year-old Lieutenant General is known to be willful, but he doesn't usually question orders.
04:26In mid-1944, under the overall command of Field Marshal Walter Mordel, Schwerin leads his military officers.
04:32In mid-1944, under the overall command of Field Marshal Walter Mordel, Schwerin leads his military officers.
04:32He brings his panzers into battle against the advancing allies in the West.
04:38His division is always sent where the action is hottest, to put out the flames.
04:43But through that summer, crushing Allied superiority forces them back, closer and closer to the German frontier.
04:56With this in mind, Schwerin unveils a new plan to his officers at his temporary headquarters at a medieval Belgian
05:03manor near Aachen.
05:05Or at least that's the story he tells after the war.
05:09I, at least, had the intention to finish the war, to end the war, that he was looking for.
05:16That means to try, the city of Aachen, the old Kaiserspace, out of the campgrounds from the campgrounds.
05:25Man can say that he was very eigenwillig.
05:28He had a strong opinion and that he had also met.
05:33He was not yet to meet the city of Aachen.
05:35He was willing to pass the city to fight against the war,
05:42despite the same command of the enemy.
05:46For this border town steeped in history,
05:50is to be held as a fortress at any cost.
05:53Hitler has given strict orders.
05:58If the enemy should enter Aachen,
06:00every house will be defended.
06:03There will be no retreat.
06:09When they reach Aachen, the Wehrmacht are greeted by chaos.
06:13City and Nazi party officials have long since left the city,
06:16after issuing a vague order to evacuate.
06:21When I came to Aachen, I saw the whole population
06:28with children and hands and hands and hands.
06:32Everything was angry and crying.
06:35The city would immediately get rid of all the people.
06:42And then the officers, who were with him,
06:49have called them to go to the city,
06:53and to calm the people,
06:57and to force them to go back again.
07:03In the meantime, Schwerin makes arrangements
07:05for the peaceful surrender of Aachen.
07:08Apart from a few advanced guards,
07:10he keeps his division outside the city.
07:12He wants to avoid pointless street fighting.
07:15Looking for a way to communicate with the enemy,
07:18he goes to the city's telegraph office.
07:20Here he dares to break a military taboo.
07:23He leaves a message for the Americans,
07:25whose arrival he expects imminently.
07:29He writes in English.
07:31I stopped the stupid evacuation of civil population
07:34and ask you to give her relief.
07:36I am the last commanding officer here,
07:38Gerhard Graf von Schwerin.
07:45Has this Wehrmacht officer distinguished himself
07:48with this act from the ranks of obedient servants of the regime?
07:53To become the savior of Aachen,
07:56as he likes to be called after the war.
08:08But he failed.
08:11Schwerins plan did not work.
08:14For US forces do not enter Aachen.
08:17After a grueling chase,
08:19they've stopped to catch their breath.
08:26The protector of the city now has a serious problem.
08:29His deliberate defiance of an order will be exposed.
08:33As Schwerin, a few hours after his actions,
08:37the morning of the 13th,
08:38he realizes that the Americans are not coming,
08:40he revives his decision immediately.
08:43And sends his Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment
08:46to the city in exactly this field
08:48that he wanted to avoid today.
08:50Aachen does become a battleground,
08:53with everything that means for the inhabitants.
08:58In order to maintain discipline in the fortress city,
09:01the division now sets up a summary court-martial.
09:05It sentences two suspected looters to death.
09:10They had been caught on the streets.
09:13They're only 14 years old.
09:17In a sudden,
09:19it went around.
09:20in the square foot,
09:20it went around.
09:21In the square foot,
09:22there were children erschossen.
09:23I was of course nervous, and then the children of the children were out of the house.
09:30I was very, very shocked, because I knew both of them.
09:34I couldn't understand that.
09:36Then the young people had the eyes with so big glasses and glasses.
09:41And Karl rief always, Mama, Mama, Mama, I don't want to die.
09:46I have nothing to die. Mama, I don't want to die.
09:51And then suddenly someone called fire, and then he was shot.
09:57And Karl Schwarz, he fell down, but he fell off and fell in the direction of the field.
10:07And then there was a young man behind him and said,
10:13you don't want to die.
10:15And then he gave him the shield.
10:19On the authority of an order issued by Schwerin from his headquarters.
10:24Looters will be subject to summary execution by the Wehrmacht.
10:30Later he would attempt to justify this directive.
10:57The day after the event, things looked a bit different in Schwerin's report to his superiors.
11:03I ordered looters to be tried. Two looters were executed. Signed Schwerin.
11:13Was hier geschehen ist, ist, dass die Wehrmachtseinheiten an die Bürger von Aachen eine sehr deutliche Botschaft geschickt haben.
11:21Durch diese extreme Form von Gewaltanwendung, Tötung von Kindern, dass nun Herrschaft zurückgekehrt ist.
11:28Diese Hinrichtungen sollten die Menschen von den Straßen treiben und der Wehrmacht Handlungsfreiheit verschaffen.
11:32Das steht natürlich in einem sehr scharfen Kontrast mit dem, was Schwerin angeblich am Morgen vorhatte, nämlich Aachen und seine
11:39Bevölkerung zu retten.
11:42Now Schwerin's priority is to save his own skin.
11:45His letter to the enemy could be a death sentence.
11:48He tries to get it back, but it's too late. Party officials have long been informed.
12:00Schwerin's superior, Field Marshal Model, opens proceedings against his insubordinate divisional commander for high treason.
12:07But Schwerin has influential supporters.
12:14Instead of being punished, he's transferred to the Italian Front and later even promoted to full general.
12:24Schwerin was Aachen's Hamlet.
12:27He wanted to save the city, but he wasn't prepared to face the consequences.
12:46Schwerin's original plan had failed miserably.
12:50Aachen was the first German city to become a battlefield and then a field of rubble.
12:55Obeying orders, Schwerin's successor Gerhard Wilk let the destruction continue until the bitter end.
13:01Later he too tried to justify his actions.
13:29But these insights only occur to the Colonel after his capture.
13:33From the perspective of a British prisoner of war camp.
13:37The fighting in Aachen became utterly pointless.
13:40But retreat was turned down flat.
13:44Hold out, they said.
13:47To complete the slogan.
13:50Until your last cartridge.
13:52In fact, we did hold out for four or five days and then it was all over.
13:58However, the civilians behaved like swine.
14:02Wherever German soldiers were holding their positions or were hiding,
14:06civilians rushed out to tell the Americans where they were.
14:09Really?
14:10But why, Wilk?
14:12To bring things to an end.
14:16The people are so tired of war.
14:18They wanted to come to an end.
14:20No matter the cost.
14:24I'm afraid this sense of hopelessness will spread through the whole of Germany.
14:29It's even affecting us here.
14:30In these conversations, they didn't know that they were heard.
14:33We can see very clearly how they saw the Third Reich.
14:37How they saw their actions as a soldier.
14:40And that unclared.
14:42That's the big advantage.
14:44Later, of course, they tried to justify their actions.
14:46I had to do it.
14:48I had to do it.
14:48I had to do it.
14:49That was good.
14:50And here they reflected it critically.
14:52But also added.
14:53Yes, we were nationalists.
14:55Yes, we have set us for Hitler.
14:57Of course it was so.
14:58By the fall of 1944, the Allies have reached the borders of Germany, both in the East and the West.
15:04Now the Wehrmacht has to hold out at any price.
15:07In Kurland, in the Baltics, for instance, an entire German army is cut off.
15:13By October, forced back by vastly superior Soviet armies, the only place left to go is Svalbard, a 200 square
15:23kilometer peninsula on the coast of Estonia.
15:30Holding this insignificant piece of Moorland becomes a matter of life and death.
15:56None of the 10,000 soldiers has a hope of leaving the battlefield in one piece.
16:04The Red Army continually replenishes its forces with fresh troops.
16:10It continues its advance.
16:16The German troops defending the peninsula, cut off from supplies and reinforcements, have little left to offer but their lives.
16:26Men like Private Kurt Vetter.
16:50Men like Private Kurt Vetter.
16:54Men like Private Kurt Vetter.
16:57Since there is an issue that is really worth it.
17:01But now they dioces be consumed as to the natives.
17:11on October the 30th 1944 corporal August Miller writes home my dear wife and daughter no one
17:21believes we're ever going to give up this little piece of island the ground is soaked with a huge
17:27amount of blood the Russians are losing many many men here there are just three men left from our
17:36original signals unit everyone else is dead or wounded the war makes tough demands on us
17:47we were in the woods and we got fire there and my friend was hit by my friend
17:54I said, Bernard, what are you doing? He didn't answer. After a short time, the request came to go back,
18:06what are you doing? I'm going to land and I'm going to leave him alone.
18:19This experience has always been awakened to me. I had to leave him alone.
18:43The deaths of thousands of soldiers become the material for a heroic epic. In mid-November,
18:51General Ferdinand Schörner, the Army Group Commander, personally visits Swarber to encourage the soldiers to hold out.
18:58Er kam dann auf den Regimentsgefechtsstand und natürlich haben wir gesagt, dass die Kampfstärken immer weniger werden.
19:08Und Schörner hat selbstverständlich den Eindruck mitgenommen, dass so auch die Halbinsel nicht mehr zu halten ist.
19:20Aber der Eindruck alleine genügt noch nicht. Wenn da ein Führerbefehl besteht, halten bis zum letzten Mann.
19:28In November, August Müller writes
19:31If only this war could end. But we're going to have to wait a long time for that. I've been
19:37lying in a foxhole all day.
19:40They've made this place into a fortress. I expect we're going to die here like dogs.
19:46Die letzte Konsequenz war die, dass wir gesagt haben, wir müssen selber dazu beitragen, dass wir verwundet von dieser Insel
19:58herunterkommen.
19:59Ja, und da haben wir geknobelt. Wer lang zieht, muss schießen. Wer kurz zieht, kann das Bein entstellen. Ich habe
20:09lang gezogen.
20:11Mein Kamerad hat sich etwa in zehn Meter Entfernung auf einen Baumstamm gestellt. Ich habe eine Maschinenpastole durchgeladen und habe
20:22geschossen.
20:25Und dann fiel er um. Dann hat er gejammert. Ich habe gesagt, sei mal zufrieden, du kommst da jetzt nach
20:31Hause.
20:32Und dann haben wir ihn geschnappt, eine Zeitbahn geplatzt, zu viert und sind dann zur nächsten Sanitätsstelle und haben ihn
20:39dort irrsinnig übergeben.
20:43Only the wounded have a chance to get out. After six weeks of bitter fighting, 4,000 German soldiers are
20:51dead or missing.
20:58Das ist die grausame Bilanz dieser Kämpfeaufsform. Völlig sinnlos militärisch, überhaupt nichts zu verantworten. Politischer Wahnsinn.
21:11Greetings and kisses to both of you. Your papa, your dear husband.
21:19Corporal August Müller wrote these last words on November the 17th, 1944.
21:26He never left the island.
21:31The defenders are at last given permission to withdraw.
21:39One man will get the credit for their sacrifice.
21:43The commander-in-chief of Army Group Center, Ferdinand Schörner.
21:47Schörner war so ein typischer Durchhaltegenerator.
21:51Wenn das bekannt wurde, Schörner kommt, den verdrückten sich die, möglichst, wer sich verdrücken konnte, der war nun gerade mal
21:58nicht anwesend.
21:59Denn wenn man ihm da in der Hände fiel, dem war es leicht möglich, dass er sagt, ihre Funktion hier
22:05ist unnötig.
22:06Wir brauchen sie an der Front, denn dann wurde der zu Oetner Division geschickt.
22:12Even now, Schörner orders the last able-bodied soldiers to defend the remaining areas.
22:19Regardless of losses and under massive pressure from the enemy and their own side.
22:26Junge Truppen, schlecht ausgebildet, sind nach Kurland gekommen und die wurden in die vorderste Linie reingesetzt.
22:33Und nach drei Tagen waren die moralisch am Ende.
22:37Und dass dann so junge Leute, dass die einfach nicht mehr können und davonlaufen, das ist eigentlich eine ganz natürliche
22:44Reaktion.
22:44Und ich fand es also unmenschlich, solche Leute dann unter Umständen vor ein Standgericht zu stellen.
22:52Die konnten eigentlich gar nicht anders, ja.
22:56The idea is that fear for their lives will boost their fighting spirit.
23:06Wir waren auf dem Weg zur Front und plötzlich erschien Schörner aus Richtung der Front.
23:20Wir hatten etwas abseits gelagert und ich habe beobachtet, dass ein einzelner Landsat von Richtung Front nach rückwärts ging.
23:33Schörner ging sofort auf den zu mit seiner Gruppe, gab ein kurzes Gespräch und dann gab Schörner einem seiner Leute
23:45da einen Befehl.
23:46Hören konnte ich ihn nicht.
23:49Und der beauftragte anscheinend das einen anderen, der mit dem dann in den Straßengraben ging und ihn erschossen hat.
24:02An estimated 30.000 death sentences were passed by the military courts of the Wehrmacht.
24:08Roughly 20.000 were carried out, most of them in the last year of the war.
24:15Mostly on the Eastern Front.
24:18Schörner hat immer wieder Frontbesuche gemacht und auch in seinen Befehlen steht das drin,
24:23Ich habe an dem und dem Ort die und die Soldaten gesehen und habe dafür gesorgt,
24:28dass sie entweder an die Front zurückgeschickt wurden oder vor Stand gerecht gestellt.
24:33Also das war so.
24:34Und das hat eben auch Hitler imponiert, dass Schörner nicht der General war, der hinten am Kartentisch stand,
24:41sondern dass der vorgegangen ist und nach allem geschaut hat.
24:44This gung-ho general represents Hitler's ideal National Socialist warrior.
24:50His attitude and his fanaticism count for more than military tradition.
25:01After his early years in the elite mountain troops of the old Reichswehr,
25:06Schörner rose particularly fast in the Third Reich
25:08and conformed to the new way of thinking.
25:14Hitler appreciates the fact that he carries out ideologically inspired orders without a second thought.
25:57The political soldier is the perfect embodiment of Nazi ideology.
26:02Since 1944, Wehrmacht soldiers have received more and more political education.
26:13Schörner has been specially entrusted with the task of educating his troops politically.
26:20Einen neuen Soldatentypus heranzuziehen, das ist schon eine alte Zielvorgabe Hitlers.
26:26Diese geistige Kriegführung, den nationalsozialistischen Geist einzuimpfen der Wehrmacht in den späten Kriegsjahren,
26:34hat gewirkt.
26:37Denn anders kann man das lange Durchhalt nicht beschreiben.
26:41Der deutsche Soldat hat länger durchgehalten.
26:44Das hat das Sterben verlängert.
26:48The younger Soldaten especially remain under the Führer's spell until the end.
26:53For most of them, holding out to the very end is a matter of honor.
26:58They're obeying orders, but they also feel a broader allegiance to Hitler and the Reich
27:03and the need to save it from destruction.
27:06And when they can no longer believe in victory,
27:08the soldiers search for other reasons to fight on.
27:12Field Marshal Schörner finds other reasons too, after the war is over.
27:26And the propaganda machine certainly gives the impression
27:30that the evacuation of Germans from the Eastern Territories is the Wehrmacht's top priority.
27:36Weit über eine halbe Million Flüchtlinge wurden nach Seefahrzeugen in das Reich zurückgebracht.
27:42In der Propaganda hat man den einfachen Soldaten versucht weiszumachen,
27:45ihr kämpft hier, damit die Bevölkerung von dem Bolschewismus gerettet wird.
27:49Aber in den militärischen Befehlen, auf die es ankam, da stand drin,
27:52militärisches Gerät hatte höhere Priorität als die Flüchtlinge.
28:07At the beginning of 1945, Schörner is recalled from Kurland.
28:12The king of the last stand is urgently needed at other crisis points.
28:20The huge Soviet offensive in the spring of 1945 stretches all the way to Silesia.
28:44Outnumbering the Germans by up to 15 to 1,
28:48they drive the shattered Wehrmacht units before them.
29:22The soldiers form a defensive belt.
29:26along a broad front, with some success.
29:29The propaganda machine works overtime to build confidence.
29:34Kameraden, ihr habt euch hier eine Prima wieder gebaut, oder?
29:36Ja, das war mal da, das ist ein Ding.
29:38Und sonst, der Russe lässt euch hier in Ruhe, was?
29:39Ach, das geht mal, ja, jetzt ist er mehr wie wir.
29:43Newsreels from Fantasyland.
29:46Not surprisingly, they were never shown.
29:47Die Männer wissen ja auch, dass sie in ihren Löchern deutschen Boten hier verteidigen.
29:51Jawohl, darüber ist sich jeder im Klaren, dass wir hier unbedingt halten müssen und keinen Schritt weiter zurückgehen dürfen.
29:58Hauptmann glauben also, hier an dieser Stelle dürfte sich der Russe die Zähne ausbreiten.
30:01Das bestimmt.
30:03Der preußische Offizier, alter Schule, das war der Vater seiner Soldaten, der hat zugesehen, dass er möglichst wenig Verluste hat,
30:12dass er für seine Soldaten was tut und so weiter.
30:15Und die Nazis haben genau das Gegenteil.
30:17Die haben teilweise die Leute, nicht mich, die Leute als Kanonenfutter benutzt und sagen, das müssen wir halten, die typischen
30:24Durchhaltebefehle von Hitler.
30:26Aber die Stadt wird hier halten bis zum letzten Mann. Das ist völlig unpreußisch.
30:31Every effort is futile.
30:34In order to disguise that fact, any tiny counteroffensive becomes a turning point in the war.
30:42Die Befreiung der Stadt Laubarn.
30:44Gegen diesen Ort vor Görlitz treten in den ersten März Tagen deutsche Panzer und Grenadiere zum Gegenangriff an.
30:53As soon as Schörner's troops have taken Laubarn, the town receives a visit from Josef Goebbels.
30:59Here to spread the word that victory is imminent.
31:04With Hitler in hiding, his propaganda minister is the Reich's only mouthpiece.
31:10Auf dem Marktplatz von Laubarn wird Dr. Goebbels von dem Befehlshaber einer Heeresgruppe, General Olos Schörner, begrüßt.
31:16Eine Kampfgruppe der Führer-Grenadierdivision ist angetreten.
31:21Was da an kämpfenden Truppen gezeigt wurde, waren also alte Menschen, die man zum Volkssturm gezwungen hatte.
31:31Und Kinder, wo der Stahlhelm drei Nummern zu groß war.
31:36Es war kein stolzes Bild, was sich da bot.
31:39Dort haben wir das Gefühl gehabt, hier soll eine Show abgezogen werden.
31:45On the market square, Goebbels lavishly praises Schörner's methods for raising morale.
31:51He's particularly impressed that the field marshal simply hangs deserters from the nearest tree.
31:59Ich glaube, dass unsere Soldaten, wenn sie jetzt an diesem oder an jenem Teil der Ostrund zur Offensive antreten,
32:09keinen Pardon mehr kennen und keinen Pardon mehr geben.
32:18Und ich glaube so fest, dass wir eines Tages den Sieg an unserer Fahnen heften werden,
32:24wie ich je in meinem Leben an etwas fest geglaubt habe.
32:29Wishful thinking aside, German troops are retreating on every front.
32:38In the west, the Allies have crossed the Rhine.
32:41They're advancing towards the industrial centre of the Ruhr Valley.
32:50By the beginning of April, they've surrounded the Reich's arms manufacturing centres on the Rhine and Ruhr.
33:06To mount the defence of the Ruhr pocket, Hitler can call on a loyal army group commander,
33:12someone to whom he can trust the toughest missions.
33:15Field Marshal Mordel is respected by his soldiers as well.
33:26Mordel war ein Mann, der unglaublich viel Zeit verbrachte, um wirklich an der Front zu sein.
33:32Es war kein Mann, der von hinten führte, an der Karte saß,
33:36sondern er fuhr dorthin, wo er glaubte, dass sein Erscheinen etwas helfen kann.
33:42Mordel ist überall, das wissen seine Soldaten.
33:45Der General Feldmarschall greift, wo es notwendig erscheint, in das Geschehen an den Straßen ein.
33:51Es hieß damals, das hat der Mordel wieder hingemodelt.
33:55Und so ist es ihm auch gelungen, mehrfach eine ganze Armee oder später Heeresfront,
34:03sowohl im Osten wie auch später im Westen, zum Stehen zu bringen.
34:09Mordel would defend his point of view with great confidence,
34:13even at Hitler's headquarters.
34:15No other general criticized Hitler so openly and so often,
34:19but only on military matters.
34:24Er hat Kritik an Hitler nicht zugelassen.
34:29Also er hat nicht Hitler kritisiert,
34:32sondern hat gekämpft für die Zuführung von Truppen oder von Waffen oder von Benzin.
34:39Aber das mit einer Härte, dass es häufig zu Brüllereien zwischen Hitler und Mordel gekommen ist.
34:50Aber der Hitler hat ihm das wahrscheinlich nicht nachgetragen.
35:05Er war überhaupt kein Politiker.
35:10Er war wirklich nur Militär und überlegte auch nur militärisch.
35:15Das ist ihm sicher in hohen Stellen, die er dann bekleidete, auch zu Recht zum Vorwurf gemacht worden.
35:25Mordel issues fiery calls to combat from inside the Ruhr pocket,
35:29without the slightest political insight.
35:33A man who no longer believes in victory
35:35cannot fight with the necessary toughness and contempt for death.
35:41But by now, his forces in the Ruhr Valley are a remotely mix of home guard, veterans and raw recruits.
35:53Lothar Esther is a 19-year-old officer-cadet.
35:57Das war unser erster Einsatz.
36:00Die Panzer kamen auf uns zu und wir hatten Panzerdeckungslöcher in der Nacht geschaufelt,
36:05lagen zu zweit in diesem Panzerdeckungsloch.
36:09Jeder von uns hatte eine Panzerfaust.
36:11Und jetzt hieß der Befehl, man sollte die ersten Panzer durchfahren lassen bis zum letzten Panzerdeckungsloch.
36:17Das wurde auch zunächst eingehalten, bis wahrscheinlich einer nervös wurde von uns und schoss.
36:30Als es dann geschehen war, haben die Panzer, die noch da waren, das getan, was ich noch nie vorher gesehen
36:38hatte.
36:38Sie fuhren auf ein Panzerdeckungsloch, in dem die deutschen Soldaten lagen,
36:43drehten sich einmal auf dem Loch um 360 Grad und fuhren weiter.
36:48Hinterließen praktisch das Grab der beiden Soldaten.
36:57All this sacrifice is in vain.
37:01US forces keep tightening the noose.
37:03They don't even have to try very hard anymore.
37:06The defenders are cut off from their supplies.
37:11Mordel sends his adjutant on an important mission.
37:41Mordel sends his messenger to Berlin, so that Hitler will be able to get rid of them.
37:44Hitler will be in no doubt, exactly how bad the situation has become in the Ruhrpocket.
37:50Als Hitler kam, habe ich gesagt, dass eine Verteidigung länger als einen Tag nicht möglich ist,
37:57weil kein Benzin, keine Munition mehr da ist und außerdem der Kampfgeist der Soldaten gleich null ist.
38:05Und ich habe gesagt, die letzte Seele des Widerstands in dem Ruhrkessel ist der Feldmarschall Mordel,
38:13der aber keinerlei Möglichkeiten mehr hat, als Feldmarschall seinen Truppen Befehle zu geben.
38:22Es gibt nichts mehr zu befehlen.
38:26Und da hat mir der Hitler gesagt, ja, der Mordel war mein bester Feldmarschall.
38:33Thus, the conscientious General has already been written off, without even knowing it.
38:38Nevertheless, he sticks to his task.
38:42Fight to the last and die with a weapon in our hand.
38:45I invite each of you to follow me.
38:50Mordel still refuses to consider surrendering.
38:54His soldiers are left without leadership.
39:03Mein Kompaniechef kam und sagt, Jungs, der Krieg ist für euch zu Ende.
39:08Seht zu, dass ihr die Mutter wieder seht, die wartet auf euch.
39:11Macht's gut. Und er gab uns noch eine Landkarte mit.
39:22Wir haben unsere Waffen, die wir hatten, noch schnell weggeworfen und haben gewartet, bis die Amerikaner kamen, haben dann langsam
39:29die Hände hochgehalten.
39:32Und als wir die Hände hochhielten, knallte es von hinten.
39:37Shortly after, Esther wrote in his diary.
39:41Right into the Americans' arms.
39:44Only one of us was missing, Jupp Kreitemann.
39:47Later, we heard he was shot by a military policeman, because he wanted to surrender.
39:53Shot by his own side, for an act of common sense.
40:17Above all, the youngest soldiers, who've never known another world, still want to hold out.
40:38As the enemy advance on German soil continues, every member of the Wehrmacht now faces the same dilemma.
40:49In the ancient city of Gotha, in eastern Germany, so far untouched by the war,
40:55Josef Ritter von Gadolla is summoned from his command post in Castle Friedenstein.
41:06He's ordered to prepare the defense of the town.
41:11Gadolla must be forced to force to fight to the last man, also to the last bloodstrop, um Gotha to
41:18fight.
41:19And there were many approaches to the war.
41:22There were also crèbes, there were the 16-year-olds who were hired, the people from the lazeret, the wounded
41:30people from the lazeret.
41:38By the beginning of April, the Americans are a few kilometers from Gotha.
41:46In his command bunker, it's time for Gadolla, an Austrian by birth, to show his true colors.
42:10Gadolla persuades other representatives of the city to back his plan.
42:15He intends to do something unprecedented for a Wehrmacht officer.
42:25He will drive in person from the castle to the American lines, to offer them the peaceful surrender of the
42:32city.
42:37But on the way, an anti-aircraft unit stops him.
42:41He's declared a traitor and reduced to the ranks.
42:54He's then transported to Wehrmacht.
43:02The next day, a summary court-martial sentences him to death by firing squad.
43:15Within hours, the sentence is carried out.
43:22Gadolla is one of very few officers who put conscience before duty.
43:27And yet, even today, he remains largely unknown.
43:34And he achieved his aim.
43:37Gotha remained unscathed.
43:42On the day of his death, the U.S. Army entered the city without firing a single shot.
43:48Gadolla had ordered the Wehrmacht to pull out, and had hung out white flags.
43:53The Americans could advance unopposed.
43:57Most German generals can't appreciate the good sense of Gadolla's actions until they themselves have nothing more to lose.
44:04Like the generals in Trent Park in England, where they're held as prisoners of war in the spring of 1945.
44:13I always used to think it was wrong to surrender.
44:17It would cause a rift in a nation that could have disastrous consequences.
44:23But now, now it has to end.
44:26It's simply madness.
44:27We will not fall.
44:29Any nation can lose a war.
44:32Because it was stupidly led.
44:35Put in an impossible position by the politicians.
44:39But it cannot lose a war if it fights properly to the end.
44:45It's suicide.
44:47It's a collective suicide of a nation.
44:51Something history has never before seen.
44:59At his last headquarters, an estate near Dusseldorf.
45:03Out of touch with the reality of the situation in the Ruhr pocket,
45:07Mordel rejects every call for surrender.
45:17He lets his soldiers decide for themselves if they want to continue fighting.
45:23In mid-April, he resigns his post and hides with a few of his most loyal followers in a forest
45:29near Duisburg.
45:32Am 20. April, da hielt Goebbels eine Rede, die geradezu absurd war.
45:40Er wird seinen Weg bis zum Ende gehen.
45:44Und dort wartet auf ihn nicht der Untergang seines Volkes,
45:49sondern ein neuer, glücklicher Anfang
45:52zu einer Blütezeit des Deutschtums ohnegleichen.
45:58Ich war dicht neben mir und er hat zu mir gesagt,
46:02ich habe doch für Schweinekerle mein Leben geopfert.
46:08Solange er noch von morgens bis abends zu befehlen hatte,
46:12hat er das alles weggewischt, hat gesagt,
46:15das ist Politik, tu das nicht, tu da eine Pflicht.
46:18Aber nun, wo er 24 Stunden zum ersten Mal ohne einen Feldmarschallstab mit Bedeutung
46:25in einem Wald von Mücken zerstochen mit nur noch fünf Leuten saß,
46:30das kam doch sehr stark, die Absurdität zum Durchbruch.
46:34Das Übrige wollen wir schon tun.
46:38Er hat mir dann gesagt,
46:40Bär, Sie werden doch nicht glauben,
46:43dass ich als Feldmarschall, wo ich für den Tod von 100.000 oder noch mehr Menschen mitverantwortlich bin
46:50und die Verantwortung auch genommen habe und musste,
46:53dass ich hier aus dem Wald mit erhobenen Händen rausgehe und sage,
46:57hier bin ich Feldmarschall Model.
47:01The next day, tortured by the idea that he's served a false god,
47:06the now powerless general accepts the consequences
47:09and escapes his responsibilities.
47:33Especially on the eastern front.
47:38At his command post, a Czech resort hotel near Königgrätz,
47:43Fieldmarschall Schöner celebrates the Führer's birthday in his own way.
47:51Zu Hitlers Geburtstag war der gesamte Stab angetreten zu einem Appell.
47:58Und da waren noch aus dem Mund von Schörner flammende Worte zu hören
48:03von der Verherrlichung von Hitler.
48:07Der Führer hat uns hier mit dieser Aufgabe betraut
48:11und wir haben den Auftrag, dass wir ihn nicht enttäuschen,
48:15sondern dass wir sein Vertrauen erfüllen.
48:19True to his words, Schörners men fight on,
48:22even after Hitler's death,
48:24when soldiers elsewhere gradually started to come to their senses.
48:30At the end of the war,
48:32this commander who drove his people to hold out to the very last moment,
48:36turned out to be remarkably adaptable.
48:39Dass Schörner an diesem Morgen mir in einem Zivilanzug gegenüber trat,
48:45das hat mich etwas geschockt.
48:48Das war mir unerklärbar.
48:52Er forderte mich auf, dass wir zum Flugplatz fahren.
48:57Als wir diesen Flugplatz erreichten,
49:00stand nur ein Flugzeug dort
49:01und da gab es ein ganz nüchternes Lebewohl.
49:09Hoping to land in American captivity,
49:12Schörner heads west on May the 9th,
49:14abandoning his army to an uncertain fate.
49:18But he has miscalculated.
49:20The Americans sent him back to the Soviets as a prisoner.
49:25He returns home in 1955.
49:29In West Germany, he's prosecuted for his wartime record.
49:33But he's unrepentant.
49:36Das einzige Band,
49:37das die Heeresgruppe Mitte
49:39als einzige bis zum letzten Tag des Krieges zusammenhielt,
49:43war das Vertrauen meiner Soldaten zu mir,
49:46wie ich das unbegrenzte Vertrauen zu meinen Frontsoldaten hatte.
49:51Wir wurden ja eigentlich im Stichel lassen, nicht?
49:55Der Krieg war zu Ende.
49:57Kein Mensch kümmerte sich mehr um die deutschen Soldaten.
49:59Die mussten nur zusehen, wie sie weiterlebten.
50:03Ferden Antrona was prosecuted and convicted
50:05for the death sentences he'd passed.
50:08After three years, he was released.
50:11He died in 1973.
50:15Gerhard Graf von Schwerin
50:16became an advisor for the creation of the new West German army.
50:20And he celebrated in the golden book of the city of Aachen.
50:25Kurt Vetter returned from the war in 1945.
50:29He worked as a lecturer in business studies.
50:32He died at the beginning of 2007.
50:35On his return from a French prisoner of war camp,
50:39Lothar Ester became a teacher.
50:51Between January and May 1945,
50:551.2 million German soldiers have died.
50:58The enemy's losses also run into millions.
51:06The Wehrmacht had proved to be the deadliest tool
51:09any dictator had ever had at his disposal.
51:14Until its own destruction.
51:31The death, destruction and misery
51:34that this army brought on the world
51:37finally rebounded on it.
51:41The wounds still hurt today.
51:44The End
51:45The End
51:46The End
51:48The End
51:49The End
51:50The End
51:56The End
52:00The End
52:02The End
52:10The End
52:12The End
52:13The End
52:13The End
52:13The End
52:14The End
52:19The End
52:19The End
52:20The End
52:21The End
52:21The End
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