HITLER'S es — at secret Hitler Files Cm om Wolfpacks U-Boats in the Atlantic Medical? ae Blitzkrieg —HITLER'S Third Reich Volume 1 Contents zi Secret Hitler Files Did Hitler Murder Geli? 8 ‘The Holocaust Auschwitz: Death Camp Selection 16 regula nse Inside the Third Reich Subscrotions Lebensborn: Breeding the Master Race Ba 20 sxc ombers Nazi Horrors Medical Monsters Saar 24 Hiter’s Battles Blitzkrieg Poland 32 Hitler's War Machine U-Boat Wolfpacks: Hunters of the Atlantic 40 ‘ ars a cere tT som Death's Head cat 44 Se A-to-Z of the Third Reich : ‘Abwehr' to ‘Axis Pact’ Publisher Editor: Sub-editor: Designers: Photography: Writers: | mustrators: LlaN etal Li ] pee CaCO aU BUT PC RPL Em CU UC rose to dominate Europe before fall committing the most hor! ird Keich Although he spoke with a geo Pentre "ADOLF HITLER was the evil genius of the Third Reich, but there ‘was much more to National Socialist Germany than one man, and Hitler’s Third Reich uncovers every aspect of the Nazi Empire. Month by month you can explore the Filer state, from the petty stnmatehed ie tmodern history. jealousies and ploiting atthe top of the Nazi Party through the al pervasive violence, corruption and persecution to the . ‘THE FUHRER STATE AND INSIDE THE THIRD REICH ‘acceptance of horrific crimes by ordinary Germans. "The Fuhrer State and Inside the Third Reich look at how Germany was organised under the Nazis, describing how the party ‘maintained power through the SS and the Gestapo. National Socialism spread its tentacles through every aspect of Germat life from education and the arts to labour and religion, and ordinary Germans lived and worked under its shadow HITLER'S WAR MACHINE AND HITLER'S BATTLES Hitler's War Machine and Hitler’s Battles describe the m sated by the Nazis. The key campaigns of World War ;ow the Wehimacht rose in triumph then collapsed into ultimate defeat. = The Welrmacht was the only body which could have stopped Hite, = 4nd the Nazis, but the prospect ofre-armament and rnilitary triumph ‘Stormtroopers parade swastika banners at the 1993 tas enough ofa bribe to ensure the support of the Generals. ‘Nuremberg Rally. This triumphant colebration was the frst Party Day following Hitlers seizure of power. SECRET HITLER FILES The Secret Hitler Files examine Hitler the man, They outline his and his personal devils his bizarre relationships with women, and his medical problems. Above all they explore the hatred of the Jews which led to the Holocaust. HITLER'S HENCHMEN Hitler's Henchmen looks at the men who willingly followed their Fuhr into hell. Some were men of immense ability while others were opportunist using the Nazi Party as a means of accumula power, Many were bizarre characters, capable of terrible violence and truly horrifying evil, who were nevertheless completely rmesmerised by the dictatoreee Pree eee re eee oe the start. She was. | decided torent a house in the Geli Raubal, a | Bavarian Alps, in pretty 19-year-old | Obersalzberg near the border pveererrn aam try Cerne Sone Cte RCM es re see ee et eg radical politician —and Geli’ } years of living in hostel, tele. A family affair, but | barrack blocks and singe ce which was t become a | rooms. ene eer ree a Hitler's life, and one which | sister Angela to become his was to have repercussions} cook and housekeeper. At the arene hers time she was living in world ee eet Their fist meeting was in| Vienna ~ she had been Pe re ce ese) take contol of Bavaria by | was srugating to make ends force in 1923."The 15-year- | meet on a small widow's old Geli came to vist her | pension together with par famous even notorious | time work in the Ktchen of a relative with her mother. | Jewish student's hostel. She Lite has been recorded of | moved into Haus Wacheneld that meeting, or of the time | on 3 March 1927 Scere $ oor ty | } ; Fae ede eat eat fet elec | | | Beeps Pee ener rea ey meg ens Terenee veretr Saal Eerie nen gear rom Puce teins career Forney eran (erie sieeceal (laictincsner sy SemNet Cor LS aL a native Austria, But he could | finished her Schooling, taking Peerecn ett ie ccc erC eee e public speaking. He realised | certificate atthe beginning of ee set ea ee So Rea eC and plans to oust Nazi rivals | went to collet her from « is keene eo A FAMILY AFFAIR Angela Raubal was Hitler's wid- together with her chron: her owed halt-sister-a child of son Leo, and 15-year-old Alois Hitler's second marriage Angela, known as Geli Franziska Matzelaberger, 77 banned from public born in 1883, Hitler, born in after his prison term, 1899, was from Alois" thi Hitler decided to move out of marriage to Klara Poll contacts with and rented a large eh ing home in Alps, at Obersalzberg near 1907, He had been afeiled Berchtesgaden, artista tramp, a soldier in the Hitler invited Angela to First World Wer, a political his housekeeper, and she ‘activist, revolutionary in the moved in March. In the sum Munich Putsch of 1823, and a mer they were joined by the prisoner following the Putsch. now 19-year-old Geli a lively While imprisoned in the and attractive gil Landsberg fortress, he was vis- ately caught the att ited by his half-sister Angela, her 38-year-old ‘Uncle Alf ea eect keer Nee ee on ‘appearance, full of animal spirits, and a pleasant voice. ee) a een Don ae eo eee Pe ney inclined towards obstinacy ring aa Sekt Pe et eee rn Penn ene) Pen ey Serna ene Per ma ny ee esa) pera ee te ae Ree et moe ats ‘Uncle Wolf” and he called reed Cee ero her Geli, possibly to avoid Perey en Peer sae na acquaintances and followers Ce Seer eee fone Ponce eee Roars Peep anor att) Pear Pon eres Serer) Angela and Geli Raubal celebrate Geli's birthday at Hitler'sOO aT] CT BS Cn ey PCT CT) Te CT Te) Tee Ua (Ty Ce ac) Ed But why did she CA Fae CRO Ly RUE TT] Uy aU ee Pe a Cc] in a jealous eA TC tla pp est ered Presson On es —Above: Haus Wachentold at Berchtesgaden ‘Started out as a typical Bavarian moumtain home, but i was considerably enlarged ‘after Hitler came to power In 1533. We liked her. When she was there, Hitler almost never started on the dreadful and often ag nising sequence of endless ‘monologues and uninhibited recriminations nies but Iie bestowed not only on political en also on friends and fellow ‘alte kampfer Geli’ pre of favoured guests he let her perform her when she called, a mountain broken = and snce allowed him to relax. In front jackdaw she had nursed through a wing would fly in through the win ved seeing her play with his Alsatians Blondi and Muck. Geli was allowed to laugh dat her ‘Uncle Alf came loose. She was not forced 10 be ‘and adjust his tie when it Pens Baye ys ae 4 HITLER'S THIRD REICH particularly clever and witty. She just what she was = lively a uncomplicated. Geli might have thought that Haus Wachenfeld would be her home, but Hitle had other ideas. In October 192 ‘out of Obersalzberg and into a furnished she moved room in Munich's Kéniginstrasse, The ostensible reason was so that she could register as a medical student, but d Title evidence that she ever took her studies seriously. It is more likely that Hitler, who by now was besotted with his out of Haus Wachentfeld and far from the watchful eye of her mother The change in Hitler's life seemed immense, especially o those of his followers , wanted her Left Hitlers relationship with, Gell coinccied with arisen the fortunes of the Nazi Party. Hes seen hore atthe 1927 Nuremberg Party rally soon after ollecting Gell from Vienna Increasingly busy with preparations for eloetions early in 1928, the future leader of Germany hhad les time to ‘pare for tips to Berchtesgaden, 90 hhe moved his niece fo Munich where she sottied into the Pension Kiein at Koniginstrasse 42. Later she was to who had only seen him as the fanatie driving force behind the Nazi Party. Gel Picnics, and her “Uncle Alf” happily wen slong with her passion. They both liked the cinema, and their tastes were similarly unsophisticated — in Fiihrer’s favourite films was ‘Snow Whit and the Seven Dwarfs’, and he would ofte whistle another Disney favourite ‘Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf She accompanied him to the opera an the theatre, while he willingly went along her shopping trips shopping for hats. Henriette Hoffman daughter of Hitler's personal Heinrich Hoftmann, said th the sweet tyranny of youth, and he liked it But Hitler's driver, Emil Maurice, had He was embarrassed at having to With gift-wrapped parcels was to have a larger part to play in ter life, one of the she particularly lov photographer follow Geli, ka Emil Maurice of Adolf and Geli, however In 1929, Hitler finally moved out of the ad been living, and ‘oom apartment on single room in which he took a fashionable nine ‘one of Munich's most exclusive squares, the Prinzre flat, though for appearances sake h known she was staying at another apartment entenplatz. He moved Geli into the e let it be Tust what sort of relationship the rsin politician had with his niece is open to speculation. There was undoubtedly an intense and bizarre sexual element in their Sif not from the early days in Obersalzberg then certainly by the time Geli ‘moved to Munich,Masochism, sadism or love? lust what was it that Adolf Hitler did which so disgusted his young lover? ‘When the US Army produced a psychological profile of Hitler during World War lit drew heavily on the memories of Otto Strasser, brother of Hitlers early Nazi rival Gregor Strasser and a ‘900d friend of Geli Goll told Strasser that Hitler was pretty much impotent, and could only gain sexual ‘gratification by s combination of Violence to and being humiliated by a woman, He was also @ voyeur, and liked drawing pictures of female genitals Hitler's abasement went as far ‘as stripping naked and being Kicked and beaten, But i did not stop there: Strasser claimed that Hitlers greatest pleasure was in boing urinated and even defecated upon by his lover. Strasser is hardly a reputable witness, since he was a long: time opponent of Hitler's, but @ number of people who were in Munich at the time of the affair have confirmed some of his included Putzi friend of ar combination of arguments her uncle used to bond Gel to his will, presumably half-sister, we shall never know. “Whether he assumed that & young woman who was already ho saint might be brought fairly ‘to submit to his peculiar tastes, or whether in fact she was the one woman in his life who went some way towards curing his impotence and half ‘making @ man out of him, again ‘we shall never know. ‘On the evidence available, | Incline to the former view. What is certain is that the services she was prepared to render had the t’tfect of making him behave like ‘2 man in love. She went round ‘Very well dressed at his expense, fr, more probably, at the Party’s, a a lot of resentment was ‘expressed, and he hovered at her tlbow with moon-calf look in his eyes in a very plausible imita tion of adolescent infatuation.” Haenfstaeng| had a good idea ‘of the kind of things Hitler : ‘expected from his niece. Te ee ie ia ee eral tok prea rl Soe eae por ene te coe {and there was on it such a look ‘of mingled fear and loathing that | ‘almost caught my breath. Whips as ‘well, I thought, and really felt sorry for the girl. She had displayed no sign of affection for him in the restau: rant and seemed bored, looking over her shoulder at the other ‘ables, and! could not help feeling that her share in the Felationship was tinder compulsion.” \ Above left: Josef Goebbels met Geli S000 after switching lovalty to Hitlers ‘wing ofthe Nazis. He found Gell ‘extremely attractive, and propositioned hor before he found our that his leader hhad a prior claim. According to his lars, Gell was not averse to a ‘elationship, but Goebbels did not pursue the matter further. Left: Despite any soxual problems, Gell twas hoppy with Hiern ther early years fogether especially when they spent {ong periods nthe country. He was an “tad coming politica leader and she led! te rotiected power that brought to her When asked why she pandered to his needs when it made her unhappy, he said“ don’, some other woman {il And then Tl ose hin.” HITLER'S THIRD REICH 5Above: Hitlers halt sister Angela must have lknown what was going on between her brother and her daughter, but she did nothing {0 interfere with the relationship. Hitler was besotted by Geli, and was ferociously jealous. She found the restrictions placed on her activities irksome, but at the same time was happy to have the attention of such an important man. She in tum resented Hitler's relations with other women, who included Winifred Wagner. In spite of her jealousy, when Hitler was away, which was ‘with increasing frequency, she mans find other amusements. ed 10 Above: Goli might have been a country gir, but ‘She had an expensive taste for fashion. le was a taste in which Hitlor indulged her 6 HITLER'S THIRD REICH Secret Hircer Fices GELI'S AFFAIRS Her lovers included Hitler's chauffeur Emil Maurice, who had joined the Party in 1919 at the same time as his employer, Maurice wanted to marry Geli, but when the Nazi leader pressured his half-sister to refuse parental permission, he broke with Hitler Wilhelm Stocker, one of Hitler's SA guards, was another lover. When Hitler was away political affairs or attending Party rallies, Geli would associate with other men. 1 iked for a few days, on her, s0 I never told anyone where she went or what she did on those nights of freedom Hitler would have been furious if he had known she was out with a violin player from Augsberg or a ski instructor from Innsbruck After she was satisfied that i would not tell hher uncle ~ and I had a personal reason for not telling him ~ she confided in me ‘She admitted to me shat in private Hier ‘made her do things that sickened her, but when 1 asked her why she didn't protest she Just shrugged and said thax she didn’t want Tose him to some other woman who would de what he wanted...She was a girl who needed ‘constant attention, yet atthe same time she would do anything to remain Hitler's favourite girlfriend. Icis clear that by 1930, the relationship was under considerable strain, That was the year when over six million Germans voted for the National Socialists, which Hitler by row was in near absolute control of. His political ambitions meant that he was away more and more ~ and yet he still wanted matching control over his niece. In the summer of 193] Geli decided she wanted to go back to Vienna to tain as a singer. Otto Strasser, brother of Hitler’s chief Above: Hitler feeds @ Jackdaw on the terrace at Berchtesgaden. It had been tamed by Goll {and trained to come when she called. and ‘after hor doath the Fuhror treated it 28 3 venerated relic of his beloved nice. ‘Above: Gell loved dogs, a passion she shared ‘with Hitler whose favourite pets were the ‘Alsatians called Blondi and Muck rival in the party, witnessed one fairly violent argument about the subject. ‘Geli seemed t0 but her eyes were red with weeping. His face stony, Hitler stood in the doorway as we lef ave won the argument, the house to climb imo the waiting taxi. We spent a very pleasant, high-spirited evening Geli seemed to enjoy having escaped from his supervision for once. On the way back {from Schwabing to Prinzregentenplatz, we ‘went for a walk in the Englischer Garten. At the top of the Chinese Tower, Geli sat down ‘on a bench and started to weep biterly, In the end she told me that she really loved Hitler, but she couldn't bear it any longer.What really happened the night that Geli died? His jealousy wasn't the worst thing. He ere simply disgusting. She had never dreamed that such things could happen. When I asked her to tell ‘me, she described things I had previously demanded things from her th encountered in my reading of Kraff-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis student. nT was a On September 17, after yet another argument, Hitler Ieft to 20 on a political tip to Hamburg. The next mornin; found dead in her room, a bullet in her chest and with Hitler's small Walther semi automatic pistol lying by her body. Hitler was almost prostrate with grief Gregor Strasser several times having to prevent him from taking his own life. It was ‘a key moment in the dictator’ life, For as Tong as he lived, he kept Geli’s room untouched, as a shrine Sordid and personal though it may have been, the suicide was ‘also a key moment in world history, since Hitler would never Jove a woman in the same way again, From Geli’s death onwards, all of his demonic energies would be devoted to his cause, with incalculable results forthe rest of the world Geli was, A 23-yearold music student, a On Saturday 19 September it niece of Hitler’, has shot herself was reported that Fra ee rey, Mal toes eres alec For two years the gil had been with Hitler's gun in her hand. living in @ furnished room in a The dead woman's nose was flat on the same floor on which broken, and there were other Hider’ flat was situated, What serious injuries on the body. drove the student to kill herself From a letter to a female friend is still unknown, living in Vienna, itis clear that ‘She was Angela Raubal, the Fraulein Geli had. the firm daughter of Hitler's half-sister. intention of going to Vienna, On Friday 18 September there ‘The letter was never posted. was once again a violent quarrel ‘The mother ofthe girl half: between Herr Hitler and his sister of Herr Hitler, lives in niece. What was the reason? chtesgaden; she was ‘The vivacious 23-year-old summoned to Munich. ‘music student, Geliy wanted to Gentlemen from the Brown go to Vienna, she wanted to House then conferred on what become engaged. Hitler was should be published about the strongly opposed to this. The motive for the suicide. It was fwo of them had. recurrent agreed that Gel’s death should Giagreements about it. After a be explained in terms of wiolent scene, Hitler left his lat frustrated artistic ambit fon the second floor of 16 PrinzregentenplatzAuschwitz” « Death Camp Selection @& Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for an almost unbe- 3 é lievable catalogue of atrocities, but the horrors above all horrors were the extermination camps like Auschwitz, which were true factories of death. AZI GENOCIDE into 1wo lines: they did no meant work moment) and corer) S HITLER'S THIRD REICHSeparation of Sexes On leaving the train, the deported Jews were divided into two columns: males to one side, women and children to the ‘other. This is one of hundreds of such trainloads sent to Auschwitz from een er rd Poa emer een cies ) Cee oa were not at Auschwitz Careers capable of productive eerie Peers Perry Piet ey ea ey considered fit to work sieeve Teer reer n ra eer ts Per Cs eke) eek destination. Cierny eck en Ly brought along later. rr Cored age) Pec erpee is peer life. Part of tho huge Parana rename enn es Seen pai mer ea ee i ea aes Dyer eee Oran ee eee a ara Pret ee ae eae per ree ree pio tire aie ree cs ‘cremation by special squads of prisoners.Ba TC TC pS ES Pe Se Pe Pe SELL | PE PUR ae poco Capen Peete setae News of what was happening atthe death camps had leaked ‘out, however, and Rudolf Has, the commandant of Auschwitz for much of the war, was concerned to avoid the inevitable problems where the victims suspected that they were going t© be killed. “Very frequently,” he said at his trial after the war, ‘women would hide their children under their clothes. The slightest resistance ered a beating from the SS ards. Whips, pick-axe handles and rifle butts were wielded without regard to gender or age, 10 HITLER'S THIRD REICH Tue Hococa a ll but though the guards took sadistic pleasure out of their work it wasted too much time. So to head off any trouble Hiss told the Auschwitz vietims that they were being de-loused. He ‘conceded that “the foul stench from the continuous bumning of bodies which permeated the entire area” made te fiction hard to sustain, but the Nazis’ Jewish, helpers, the kapos of the SS Sonderkomamando assured them that this was the truth They might refuse to believe the SS men, but they had ‘complete faith in members of their own race.” The kapos were doing the job to survive: they received better rations and more comfortable clothes than their fellow prisoners. Those that refused ~ and there were many — were killed immediately, and even those that did the job ony put off their deaths fora few \weeks: they were themselves gassed, of shot in obscure railway sidings late So a queue assembled. Women, invalids, nursing mothers, elderly people, smaller children, and fathers and husbands who guessed what was happening and sed to be separated. Hiss had discovered that the larger gas chambers made for faster killing: his four could hold up to 2,000 people each, ten times the capacity of earlier models. At first the condemned were forced to undress in a nearby ‘woodled area, from where they were directed to the ‘showers They were told to put their clothes in neat piles, so that they ‘would find them easily after their ‘Above: The sign over the entrance {0 the original camp at Auschwitz read Work makes you fre Sentiment not out of place on the wall of Calvinist home, but a STckening lle Ina place where the nly escape was death. shower. Sometimes the women were shorn of their hair, though this was more often done after death. Then the naked procession entered the subterranean gas chamber itself. When they were squeezed in, the last SS men and kapos left the chamber and thedoors shut, Hiss thought it caustic soda for a couple of Gece en ea hours ~ though this was never reassuring sign if th ver inside un he fs ee Me | sly done commercial erg els posholes inthe | AA eee TRIM cs cxcowc het anl rcccciess They sent men, women and children to the damaged the grates. The ashes were shovelled into trucks, driven to the Vistula river, and tipped in. happen; oftheir comrades dropped Zyklon-B — Se ee Se TT TY CUCU Tet) Auschwitz survivor crystals down wire lattice shafts from roof vents, When exp to moisture the crystals The first dedicated extermination dissolved, relea Once inhaled, cyanide combines ceamp was built at Belzec, ni Lublin, it with the ted blood cells, diesel fumes from old tank engines, Others were established ein Poland at Sobibor. preventing them carry around the body. The body tries to compensate by directing elsewhe Treblinka and Majdanek, But blood | was introduced, only tothe vital organs, so The ventilation system was extremities ~ lips, hands, feet | turned on, and the bodies Auschwitz, an old army barracks tum blue. Only 205 pars p removed by the kapos. The in Upper East Silesia (now million ate required to kill ‘tooth commandos’ got to work Oswiciem, Poland) was the with their pliers, tugging ou 66000 a day in total was the best | biggest of them all teeth and crowns which were | achievable with his equipment At its most extensive Anybody the wrong side of the | turned into ingots, Contrary to | but German companies competed | Auschwitz consisted of several ass now knew thei fate: the rend, they were not used to _| to design improved models, Only | different camps. The original one ‘guards had donned gas masks. | enrich the Reich’s gold reserves, | the advance of the Soviet army | at Auschwitz was built for Polit People next tothe shafis died in | since dental gold is much less | prevented semi-automated politcal prisoners but was ‘minutes as the crystals dissolved | pure than regular bullion. Most | crematoria being installed expanded into a slave labour inthe warm sweaty interior of | was retumed to Germany for Regular de-slagging was ceamp for Jews, gypsies and the chamber. The last hands recycling by dentists treating SS_| necessary to remove accumulated | “Asiatic inferiors’— captured pressed against the door relaxed | men and their families. human fat. A Danzig-based Russian soldiers their grip after no more than 20 The corpses were then burned | company developed a way of Workers ~ even slaves ~ have ‘minutes. To be on the safe side, | in a series of ovens. The ‘making soap from the remains — | to be fit ro do the job. The unfit the doors were not opened until | crematories If and Ill, could 12 pounds of fat boiled in 10 | and the unwanted went 0 the at least half-an-hour after the gas | 2,000 in 24 hours. Hass thought | quarts of water with 8 07 of adjacent facility at Birkenau, or HITLER'S THIRD REICH 11Tue Hococaust “= De eee ee er Bee ee Ee a Cee eee ey OO PU eel Cee DS Ee) De ae re ae ete Auschwitz I which in addition to au nncentration camp was also the mary death camp. About 300,000 adults and $00,000 hildren were put to death in Birkenau’s four specially-built s chambers, The exact number itims will never be known Js the records were destroyed hen the camp was blown up in 145. But the majority were men and children, At Monowitz — Auschwitz IIL mates worked in a number actories owned by major Juding the chemical ben. There was ac int, a coal mine, a shoe factory sstial concerns iant IG Sues and one for producing synt rubber. Auschwite II also controlled as many as 50 satellite ‘camps all over the industrial of Upper Silesia. “There was a fourth sector of the camp complex, known to the inmates as “Kanadla’ because it was a world of plenty. Consisting ‘of more than 30 warehouses, it \was used to store, sort and dispatch loot back to Germany Fifteen-year-old Eva Schloss was selected to work the found “huge piles of cloth feat mounds of shoes waiting to be sorted and one heap, taller than my head, of metal and ass. As] \was made up of thousands of Profiting from Genocide art of the Auschwitz complex was known to the kapos Jwho worked there as ‘Kanada’ - in the dreams of the joners, Canada was a faraway, almost mythical land of opportunity and plenty, and this section of the camp offered the only opportunities for enrichment. Loot ranged from clothing, shoes, bedlinen, towels and table cloths through household utensils, scissors, razors, and flashlights to money, gold, jewelry, wristwatches and ‘pens. Many of the watches were issued to front- 1 SS soldiors, Luftwatfe pilots and U-boat crews. Precise figures on the valuo of th camps have the Nazi stato profited from genocide to the tune of severs hundred million Roichsmarks. Officialy known as tfectenkammern or Effektenlager (storage chambers or dumps) Kaneda” came to include six barrack blocks in ‘Auschwite I and 30 blocks In Birkenau. Goods taken from the ramp ‘wore trucked to the storage area where they were sorted. 12 HITLER'S THIRD REICHLEFT, Soviet troops liberating Auschwitz discovered 293 sacks marked KL Au (whieh wes the abbreviation for Konzentrationsiager ‘Auschwit), They contained nearly six tonnes of human hal, much of hich retained traces of the cyanide gas which had killed those from whom it had be shorn. Concentration camp hair was used 10 manufacture felt thread, ropes, cords, haireloth and mattresses, as well {8 felt stockings for pilots and U-boat crews. Above right: Among the ‘mountains of loot siscovered at ‘Auschwits by the Soviets were ‘arge quantities of personal items like toothbrushes, Watches, and spectacles. Right: Gold and other precious ‘metals were removed fram the were also taken to be reused Left: The scale ofthe looting HITPER'S IIRDREICH 13pairs of spectacles. It still did not wa on me why they were no BRU RT ee Co PU eee Ue Bee ee a Cee a Se eee RUT) Ne eS) Dee eee Ee SO ea ey Ee SS Rs RC a Dee ne ed Cy Soe eee ee Ce RU RR Ud Se ee ee) No Ey See RG RC ORL Cee ee RS tL) Py De ey OR en Pee |e Se ed ee eee ene Breer longer needed by ws and other imbled in every ed by rail, vans, but they did not address the 5: Between 15 May and 9 Shiv tate 10 tans cated over 4830,000 Hungarian Jews eportees from 85 locations in Hungary to Auschwitz Most were ‘gassed on arrival. az many as. 72,000 being murdered per day. 14 HITLER'S THIRD REICH problems of handling the bodies. Reichstihrer Heinrich Himmler had also le even his black-sh found the expe ‘murder was more than all but the most hardened of Nazi killers could stomach, Above all, these methods were slow, Although the th squads stimated 100,000 Jews, a month between June 1941 and January 1942, there were eleven milion Jews in Europe, At this rate it would take kill them all an industrial scale chamber dates back to before the war. In the summer of 1939, Dr Ka ‘The concept of th Nazi leadership were firm‘Above: Elderly Jews wait for ‘death. In any one transport the Percentage selected for labour — (whose final fate was postponed ‘rather than imminent = Muctuated between 15 and 25 per cont. believers in eugenics: by purging the Aryan race of such “inferior stock’, the German people would become fitter and stronger as befitted the master race, The victims even included former soldiers, injured fighting for Germany in World War L ‘Selected ‘sub-humans’ were taken to one of six asylums which had been fitted with new shower rooms’. There they were helped to undress, given some soap and taken inside. The shower hea disgorged carbon as instead of water and the victims fell into asleep monoxide from which they could never awaken, The bodies were wheeled to the adjacent ‘The grisly success of Aktion 4 was well known to the senio Nazis at the Wannsee conf in January 1942, At the Berlin ‘meeting hosted by Reinhard Heydrich, it was decided to apply the sam exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe THE GENOCIDE REE ingustialisetion oF ‘death Was nthe ‘selection of Victims ‘ble to Work about ‘na in four af the ‘earior traneports, but Tater falling to one in ‘The extermination camp at Auschwitz was a true late factory of death, dedicated toiling human beings tnd disposing of thelr bodies in the minimum time possible, Camp commandant Rudolf Hoss had dls: Covered that the largor gas chambers made for Pere fanter killing: his four could hold up to 2,000 people TCA teach ten times the oapacity of earlier models. The PAU Bottlaneck came in disposing of the remains of the oman ‘iets: his polsoners could kill2,000 people In one ar a as ‘of the large gas chambers in less than half an hour, pete ey ‘but burning a human body to ashes took a lot mor Peco time than Kling ane, At the height ofthe killings PO esa May and June 1948, when 12,000 people were being ee ee murdered every day - much of the disposal ofthe eee Temaine had to take place in huge fiepite, which Eoin ‘contributed tothe appalling stench of burning ‘hich permeated the ait {or miles around! Persons abl Persons unabl FaenaniGaneade een] fiibet ot Ne aroit fram to.walk i Ine veiia ot Nin (Gancolde enme fier The pesaeelone 5 leis loot to the Valier hundfede at inillone of aeleharmarke aa faker frereleve aiiling ab Avsehwita 98 Wallae balng tien, orn ine bedlea eiter death Cara) {too old, young, coca) ed rns Tiipendenoevalaniee Cierra) Camp clothing ed issued experiments Peed Cie ar) in river) HITLER'S THIRD REICH 18Lebensborn was Heinrich Himmler's obsessive plan to populate the Thousand Year Reich with a master race of pure-blooded ‘Aryan’ men and women. immler’s romantic dream of a race of blue-eyed, blond heroes was to be achieved by cultivating an elite according to “laws of se based on criteria of physiognomy, mental and ter and je" concept breeding a tests, physic would cor authority with bur The SS man would | officers we! © new human type~ example o lower ranks and to MYA th re expected t tasalso | Above: Centra tothe planned breeding policy adopted by the Nazis was the erroneous Concept that ‘germanic’ types notorious | were superior to all other human beings at least four healthy children. children, Hi nic mission w Anyone unable to do so should | procreation order, issued after th repopulate Europe sponsor “racially it | mothers to children of sol et, Himmle worthwhile children setting off to battle principle of racial | But if SS mer equired selection to the SS. Married $S_| to do their duty as fathers — in or LEBENS BREEDING THE MASTER RACE 16 HITLER'S THIRD REICH Ihereditarily | outbre lairor Fountain of Life, which was designed to help create the ceannon-foddler of the future. The Lebensborn centres played host to young women selected for their perfect Nordic traits, who displayed regular ‘Aryan features and could prove their descent over several untainted generations, (One girl caught up in a moment of rather startling zeal for the Nazi concept of motherhood was untroubled by the idea of an extra-marital birth She announced to the surprised passengers on a local Bavarian train in the autumn of 1937; ‘Lam going to the SS Ordensburg Sonthofen to have myself impregnated. Sonthofen was one of four Ordensburg or Unsie THE Tairp Rein a ‘Order Castles’ which were a Left: Motherhood was sort of university for the future considered the rue |S). 1 USS f eee eee elite of the Nazi Party women, and figured ‘The gossip in the Third Reich prominently in Nazi was that the 13 Lebensborn podtet slited matemity homes doted throu Suppor forthe Germany from Hohehorst neat Mother and Child, | Bremen to Hochland in Bavaria Socialist Wotlare were part $§ brothel and part ‘Service, the NSV. racial stud farm, and that they Below: The Aryan’ | employed permanent ideal espoused by the | Zeugungshelfer or “procreation Tabane ielpers” to ensure that only the propremme vas to, | helpers’ to ensure that Reet matingot | most Aryan of conceptions took Blonde, blue-eyed | place, Himmler took an active athletes tofbreed® | Irverest, commenting that ".. We conforming to | only recommended genuinely Himmters crackpot | valuable, racially pure notions of what the | Gorman people | men as Should be Ze sungshelfer: ‘As one participant in the programme recalled, “At the Tegemesee hostel, [waited until the tenth day after the beginning of my period and was medically examined; then I slept with an SS ‘man who had also to perform this duty with another girl. I had the choice of retumi going direct into a maternity home. Ata late stage in the war Himmler told his physician Felix Kersten: “Only a few years ag0 illegitimate children were considered a shameful ‘matter. In defiance of the18 HITLER'S THIRD REICH . i] of well-bred German wo existing laws T have systematically influenced the SS to consider children, irespective of illegality or otherwise, the most beautiful and the best thing there is. The results ~ today my ‘men tell me with shining eyes that an illegitimate son has been bom to them. Their girls consider itn honour, nota source of shame, in spite of existing legal circumstances, (One of the more bizarre aspects of Himmler’s interest in the Lehensborn homes was his fascination with wholesome nutrition, The prescribed breakfast was fruit and porr and when some inmates complained that they were patting on weight, the Reichsfdhrer, inthe tones of a pompous schoolmaster, drew their attention tothe slimness of the English aristocracy, which he said was due to just such a diet. For this reason the mothers in our homes must get used to porridge and be instructed to feed their children on it, Heil Hitler! To the irritation of some of the Nazi aristocracy, no distinction in their te between the wife of a senior SS officer and the pregnant gir frend of an ordinary Walfen-SS Suurmmann: women Wi known only by their first names and were addressed as, for example, Frau Maria’ or “Frau Elisabeth For single girls the homes ‘would act as a guardian for the children for up to a year until suitable foster parents had been. located. This became Increasingly important as the war pr fathers were killed in action, essed and many of the In fact the ratio of wives to Left: An infant draped in a swastika-decorated shaw! is “Ghristened! before a portrait of Adit Hitler. Each child named in ‘uch SS ceremonies was given 2 Commemorative silver beaker @ Silver spoon and a blue silk shawl.home from school or played. They were transported to special ccamps and tested to gat their racial quality. If they passed they were first ‘Germanised” and then placed with good Nazi families; those who did not ‘measure up were used as forced labour or sent to ceamps that specialised in killing children, ‘The downside of this policy was that tens of thousands of pregnant female slave workers from lower racial groups resident in Germany were forced to have abortions. Himmler’s aim was to ring home” some 30 ‘dominated Nadi propaganda, such as million human beings “of this poster appealing for funds to build ur blood”, creating @ youth hostale and homes. unmarried mothers in the Lebensbom homes was 60 to 40 considering the small number of vacancies and a total SS strength ‘of nearly 250,000 potential fathers this does not suggest that there was a boom in pre- or cextra-marital sex. Lebensbom might have seemed another of Himmler’s cranky ideas: a little socially disruptive, perhaps, but not actually harmful, However, it also had a darker side. Ta racially acceptable woman in a German-occupied country became pregnant with a German soldier's child she was to be ‘moved 10 a Lebensbom home so that the child was delivered in Germany and could be integrated into Nazi society. The RuSHA was particularly keen to receive girls from Norway, Finland and Denmark which were seen as having the finest Aryan blood. But the dream did not stop there. When the Germans invaded Poland, Himmler’s SS Jiscovered many blonde, blue- ceyed Polish children ~ the ima of the ideal Aryan — and more were found in other occupied countries like Russia and Greece. Himmler had an estimated 200,000 of these children abducted, often as they walked Reich with a population of 120 million Germanic men and Ironically, much of this criminal activity would have been wasted. After the wara few BREEDERS Eugenics, motherhood and the SS Lebensborn or the ‘Fount of Life Association’ was regis- {ered in September 1836 under the auspices of the Aasso und Siedlungshauptamt (RuSHA or 'SS Central Office for Race and the 8S newspaper Das Schwarze Korps explained: "The Lebensborn association consists primarily of mem- bers of the $8. It provides mothers of Targe families with both before and after confin ‘ment. It algo affords an oppor- tunity for pre- and extra-conju- ‘g3l mothers of good stock to sive birth under relaxed eonditions” The homes, whose motto was “Every mother of good blood is our sacred trust”, var- in size - Alpenland had only one nurse, while Heim Taunus had 22. Some were established in the former homes of wealthy German Jews, which had been expro- Priated by the Gestapo, of the surviving kidnapped children were traced by and re united with their natural parents Like many children, as they grew Aryan’ babies became dark haired, slightly-built or ‘chubby adults ~ and not the fair haired Nordic giants of Himmler's dreams. ‘engraved with the ‘message Vou are Ainkin the clans ‘hain’ Mothers of Targe families Were also el for the mec Known 9s the “Cross of Honour of the German Mother’ ‘Matrons and other staff were selected on politcal grounds, ‘with many of the nurses com: ing from the Brown sterhood, a Nazi nu ‘organisation holding diamet cally opposed views to the colleagues drawn from ‘oligious orders. Inthe homes. mothers received an allowance of 400 Relchsmarks while the daily fee was only RM2, later rising to RM2.5, This meant that single women, could afford to move in during the early months of pregnancy. 8S gil friends Above: Babies born at an SS maternity home are wheeled out fora breath of fresh ai. Below: Teenage members of the League of German Maidens were Seen as ideal future mothers of SS children. HITLER'S THIRD REICH 19RISONERS in the ever: spreading network of camps were subject to every conceivable and many inconceivable kinds of abuse. Nothin, ‘was more horrific and more sinister than the appalling use of victims as ‘experimental animals by Nazi doctors. Experiments were carried out on German criminals, homosexuals and Russian prisoners of war as well as on Jewish, gypsy and Polish concentration ccamp prisoners. They were injected with lethal diseases and subjected to poison and chemical warfare experiments. Victims were n open wounds and deliberately infected hundreds of women ng this way at brueck in a series of experiments conducted by {0 of the most assiduous experimenters, Karl Gebhardt and Fritz Fischer. Prisoners were operated on without anaesthetics, and others were subject to bone- raft experiments, STERILISATION German doctors carried out ‘anatomical studies before and fer death, and worked out ways, Of sterilsing whole populations of ‘subbumans’, Doctor Carl Clauberg, who worked in Auschwit’s infamous Block 10, injected hundreds of women with corrosive and caustic substances in order to find out the quickest ‘way of rendering them barren, while Doctor Horst Schumann worked out an even quicker method for males: while they filled out forms, their genitals were given a massive dose of X- rays from a generator hidden beneath the counter. They certainly achieved the effect the sd, but the experimenters wan 20 HITLER'S THIRD REICH “We used prisoners for our experiments because they were cheap: indeed, they were cheaper than experimental rats.” Witness testimony Nuremberg Doctors’ trial Left: This preserved head of a concentration camp Brisoner was found at Buchenwald, one of the most active of the Nazi Imedieal experimentation Centres. doses were so high that in many cases the X-Rays caused serious swell burns and genital ‘malformation One of the most intensive series of medical experiments was carried oot at the Dachau concentration camp. In 1941 Doctor Sigmund Rascher, a Luftwaffe doctor, approached Himmler requesting prisoners for use in high- altitude research. He received the Reichsfulhrer’s enthusiastic backing, together with support from the Luftwaffe, who moved their main decompression chamber to Dachau for the experiments ‘SUFFOCATION (Over a six-month period Rascher subjected some 200 victims to simulated altitudes ranging from 9000 to 15000 metres. Some given no preparation for the ordeal, while others wore flight suits and wer given oxygen. As the pressure dropped nearer to vacuum, according to an inmate who worked in Rascher's office “they would go mad, pulling out their hair and tearing at their face with their fingers and nails in an attempt to relieve the pressure, They would beat the walls with their heads and scream in an effort to relieve pressure on their eardrums. These experiments generally ended in the death of the subject. Rascher’s experiments finished in May 1942, with commendations from Goering, Himmler, and Lieutenant General Hippke, the Luftwaffe’s chief ‘medical officer. However,Hippke ‘went on to say that the Dachau programme had overlooked the effects of extreme cold onTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER KALAN In 1941, the Germans began tention of the camp doctors, sending Jews rom the large programme of ' poor hand by life by the medical experiments. Always on AtearGemamnnsiaise competistis bicernia ged lookout for interesting anatom- Netherlands in 1940. Born in | then to Mauthausen in Austria Teal specimens, on 27 Jan Rotterdam in 1899, he was a dwarf |__‘Kalan eventually arrived at id the unfortunate Jew suffering from osteomalacia or Gusen, one of Mauthausen’s sat gle knife thrust to the chest. ‘skeletal malformation, He was. lite labour camps. Early in 1943 he | Stripped of its flesh, his skeleton intelligent, however, and was @ | was transferred to the main camp | was then mounted and used for {qualified high school teacher. | atlMauthausen, where he attracted | research into bone malformation, high-itude survival, and that | the experiments) took notes of | Aight: Profesor Gt Cauberg the Luftwaffe would be the subjects’ temperature. ee oe eee experimenting in this field witha | respiration and heartbeat as they | Rison the operating tabi n specially-built refrigerated deteriorated und died. Ea Cituberg was a fertity expert, oa : Sea win tone of the lrpoot Nasi Rascher was already at work conscious individuals, but as they re on the problem, From the autumn | suffered they cried aloud making 1942, he conducted a series of | “such a racket that it was through the heart and lung freezing experiments; first, (0 see| impossible for Rascher to using naked women, The how much cold a human could | continue without anaesthetis quickest way of raising the sndure, and second, to find out | them’ Vietim’s body temperature was how best to revive someone with | ‘The revival experiments by exciting him through sexual acute hypothermia | from using warm blankets | intercourse h inducing electric currents | Rascher continued FROZEN TO DEATH Peicnaee ueuallyore “Of course, | am a doctor; to preserve a wert wgercccn | fuman life | would remove a gangrenous winte left exposed ouside in| appendix. Well, the Jew is the gangrenous nd his asians (many of appendix in the body of mankind.” and his assistant peewee Doctor Fritz Kiel emtlves fred to ke pat in ea nates eee Kiekn HITLER'S THIRD REICH 21experimenting until the summer of 194, when he was arrested by the SS, Apparently, he and his wife had offended Himmler by starting a family. It was not the family that the Reichsfulrer objected to: rather it was the fact that the couple had kidnapped — | their three children from | orphanages. Both were sent to concentration camps - Rascher | in his own Dachau - and both | were executed on Himmler’s | orders in the last days of the war. WIDESPREAD GUILT Although fewer than 200 doctors were directly involved in the worst of the experiments, the biggest indictment of the German ‘medical profession is tha thousands more knew what was happening — and did nothing, Their numbers included many ‘committed Nazis, such as SS physician Adolf Pokorny Pokorny wrote to Himmler saying that the enemy must be exterminated — but not until the maximum of work could be Above: The first prisoners in the Dachau highvattitude research programme were simply placed in 2 chamber from which the air was ‘gradually removed: about 80 died. nd those who survived would {ll no tales since they wore Usually killed soon afterwards. 22 HITLER'S THIRD REICH Mazi Horrors “os “The first shipment we received was of the bodies of 30 women — which were still warm when they arrived.” Henri Heypierre Lab assistant to Doctor Augustus Hirt Strasbourg Anatomical Institute extracted from them, and the best | in 1946 saw 23 of the most | way of doing that was to conduct | important people involved in the 1 programme of mass ‘medical programme charged with sterilisation, Others, like the ‘war crimes and crimes against infamous Doctor Mengele, the | humanity. Specific experiments Auschwitz ‘angel of death ‘mentioned in the indictment seemed to take pleasure in their | included high-altitude and experimental work, while Doctor | freezing research, experiments Augustus Hirt of the Strasbourg | involving malaria, typhus, Anatomical Institute did not care | typhoid, yellow fever, smallpox, where his specimens came from, | cholera, diphtheria, mustard gas, just as long as they came in large | the effects of various poisons, numbers. deliberate infection of wounds to In spite of attempts to cover | test sulfanilimide, bone up their actions, a number of transplants, regeneration of bone doctors survived the war to face | and nerves, the effects of judgement. The ‘Doctor’s Trial’ | drinking seawater, epidemic ‘which opened at Nuremberg late | jaundice, sterilisation, and the DIN | effects of incendiary bombs. ‘The tial lasted until August 1947, Karl Brands, Rudolph Brandt, Karl Gebhardt, Joachim Mrugowsky, Viktor Brack, Wolfram Sievers and Waldemar Hoven were sentenced to death and hanged on 2 June 1948, Seven defendants ~ includin Adolf Pokorny — were found not guilty, and the remainder were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 years to life ESCAPING JUSTICE But not all of the doctors were dealt with in this fashion, Rascher was killed by the SS before the end of the war Professor Holzloehner, who had also worked on freezing ‘experiments, committed suicide after being captured by the British. A Strashourg disappeared as American forces approached the town, Josef Mengele escaped 10 South America, where he lived under an assumed identity for another quarter of a century. Left and above: Luftwaffe involvement in the high: ‘altitude research at Dachau meant that lator brisoners ware experimented on n fight gear, to etter simulate conditions met by miltary pilots. Even though more than 200 prisoners died to. {gather this data, these experiments formed the oundation of post-war aviation medic Intense controversy to this day.MURDEROUS ANATOMY Jews butchered in the name of research at the Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg ugustus Hirt was one of the most vil of the medical experimenters. He was head of the Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg, his speciality being the measurement of heads. In 194 he asked Reichsfuhrer Heinrich immler to provide the skulls of Bolshevik commissars, who represent the prototype of the repul sive, but characteristic sub-human” Himmler was delighted to be of assis- tance, delegating the task to SS Standartenfuhrer Wolfram Sievers, the executive secretary of the Ahnenerbe ~ the SS ‘Ancestral Heritage Society’. ‘Sievers went to work at Auschwitz in July 1983. According to {the indictment at Siovers’ trial after the war "112 Jews were selected for the purpose of completing a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg, Their pho- tographs and measure- ments were taken.” ‘The victims were sent to Nateweiler concentra tion camp near Strasbourg, where they ‘were gassed under the direction of SS Hauptsturmfihrer Josef Kramer, later to become notorious as the ‘Beast of Belsen’. The bodies were immediately sent to Strasbourg, where they were pickled in alcohol and subjected to intensive study. However, the long process ~ compari- son tests, anatomical research, analysis, of pathological features, race studies land the like - meant that in spite of attempts to destroy the evidence when Allied troops took Strasbourg in October 1944, a number of bodies were still there in the vats Sievers was found guilty in Nuremberg’s ‘Doctor Trial’, and was hanged in June 1848. Kramer was exe- cuted by the British. But Hit left ‘Strasbourg as the Allies approached, Claiming that he would never be taken alive, He has not been seen since. Above: Doctor Hirt's plan was forthe boales to.be preserved. enabling research t0.be carried out before they were ‘Stripped of their flesh and the skeletons ‘added to the University collection. AER AES NNO at Above: When the troops ofthe French 2nd Armoured Division spearheading the American advance took ‘Strasbourg, they found vats ful of a gory collection of body parts, The school of anatomy looked more like an abattoir than a respected seat of learning, Ye silat Above: In addition to the vats of body parts, » number of fully preserved bodies were found. These were the Femaing of at least 100 concentration camp victims who hhad been murdered in the name of research. Left: Interrogation ofthe sta revealed that the bodies hhad been dismembered in preparation for disposal, either by acid or by burning, but the capture of the city, Interrupted the $8 attempt to destroy the evidence of their hore acts, HITLER'S THIRD REICH 23ITLER’S invasion of Poland in September 1939 marked the start of World War IL | in Europe. Many LB had foreseen the coming conflict, but when it came few could have predicted the astonishing successes of the Wehrmacht PLANNING AN INVASION At the beginning of April, fresh from his almost unopposed annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler orders the 24 HITLER'S THIRD REICH ‘German General Staff to ‘commence planning the invasion of Poland. The attack is 10 be launched on Ist September or soon thereafter. The operation is to be known as Fall Weiss ("Case White’) ‘The Army General Staff delivers its plan of May. Poland is an ideal theatre for the new kind of ‘lightning war" being developed by the Wehrmacht. In addition to being fairly flat (and at the time of the proposed invasion dry and hard: surfaced), her frontiers are much too long to be well defended. She is, moreover, lanked on three sides ~ East Prussia to the north, Germany to the west and the entirely new kind of attack ag: Striking with unprecedented speed and precision, Hitler's armies launched the world’s first Blitzkrieg, or Lightning War. newly occupied Czechoslovakia to the south. Poland, in fact. protrudes like a tongue into hostile territory, with the most economically valuable areas of the country closest to the main threat ‘The fatal weakness in Poland's defences lis in her lack ‘of armour and mobile forces; the bulk of the army consists of 30 divisions of infantry supported by 11 brigades of horsed cavalry and 1wo motorised brigades. The ‘weakness is compounded by the fact that 17 of the best divisions are forward deployed to protect the valuable mining and industrial areas, rather than behind the much more strongly defensible lines of the Vistula In September 1939, Germany unleashed an st Poland. ‘Above: German troops were more than ready for the invasion of Poland. Wolk trained and well | equipped, they were much more | Stectively fed than ther | Spponents and time and again | Suan the brave ur tactically | Stare Pelee and the San rivers, Providing the spearhead of the German invasion force will be six panzer divisions and eight motorised infantry divisions ‘These will be supported by 27 foots with largely horse-drawn logistics. The main role of the infantry will be to engage the attentions of the bulk of the Polish army while the German mobile forces race around the flanks, cutting through supply ng infantry divisionslines and stikin and control centres to the rear. All through the summer German troops train for action, and in August are moved to their start points, On 31 August, Hitler gives the go-ahead or will launch Fall Weiss 1 SEPTEMBER SURPRISE ATTACK ‘At 4.45 on the morning of 1 September 1939, without the formality of a declaration of war, Germany's Luftwaffe crosses the Polish frontier. Nearly 1,400 bombers, dive-bombers and fighters begin the systematic destruction of Polish airfields and ain of road and rail centres, of concentrations o troop reserves, and of anyth which intelligence or observation has indicated as likely to house command headquarters of any status. Althou successful ~ surviving Polish aireraft will be able to put up @ stiff resistance over the next = the surprise attack removes most of the air threat Jnst the advancing Wehrmacht ‘One hour after Luftwaffe stikes, Army Group South under General von Rundstedt smashes forward Eighth Army on the left wing driving for Lodz, Fourteenth Amy on the right aimed for Krakow and the line of the River Vistula and the bulk of the armour of Tenth Army under General von Reichenau in the centre piercing the gap between the Polish Lodz. and Krakow armies, linking with Ei Army mobile units and ‘on for Warsaw. Army Group North under von Bock attacks simultaneously, Third Army under Kuechler driving south from East Prussia and von Kluge’s Fourth ‘Army, spearheaded by the panzers of Guderian’s XIX Corps striking from the west, across the Polish Corridor. 2-3 SEPTEM! DECLARATIONS OF WAR While tanks from Tenth Army cross the river Warta, capturing Czestochowa, Britain and France demat instant witha of all German forces. In ne Above: Stukas were fitted with wind-driven sirens, usually attached to the fixed underearriage. When ‘etivated in the dv, this added a tering scream to the already great psychological effect of a near-vertical Bombing attack. HITLER'S THIRD REICHTHe PotisH CAMPAIGN HE INVASION of Poland gave September. Any hope the Poles 2 8 the world its first taste of the may have had was shattered by tow Seqlensieg ‘soviet invasion from the ae Biitekrieg:stye of lightning wor ris kr The campaign was envisoged movement, three armies being” The inner loop had closed on Involved in the inner arms of Warsaw by 10 September, and the offensive while two more, the Panzers commanded by spearheaded by strong Goneral Guderian reached armoured forces, provided the Brest-Litovsk only four days ‘outer loop of the envelopment. later. Even though the Poles. ‘The inner pincer was designed fought fiercely, they could man- to close on the Vistula river, age only one serious counter- ‘surrounding the bulk of the attack, on the river Bzura near Polish field army, while the Warsaw. Although it was ‘outer, fastersmoving forces 10ugh to force the Germans Were targeted on the Bug, to einforee with troops from Gutting off any possibilty of other parts ofthe front, the escape battle was a forlorn hope for Tewas a very effective plan, the Poles, and after its failure which echieved most of ts they could offer only sporadic objectives by the midale of resistance to the Wehrmacht. iar face ofthe contemptuous | Above: German troops of von Bane J eitania silence with which thisis | Kluge IV Army destroy the sea F {greeted in Berlin, the Allies | Woot of Byagessen, en the fest © consult on how best day ofthe war. {implement ther promises to : 4 Poland. That they must be | towards Warsaw. Third Army"s E ft E Prussia implemented is agreed: but | route out of East Prussia will os ae hhow, when and where are | take it dovn the line ofthe Bug . . 4 matters fr lengthy towards BrestLitovsk, Lwow ‘Boaoee\ NR Barerooe discussion and eventual junetion with > B 4 A final ultimatum is sent ~ | Fourteenth Army coming up Errcal : and ignored, At Il amon | from the Carpathians, Thus two Komen ~y o Sunday, 3 September 1939, | huge encrclements are planned, wonky \ fe Ua Paver —\_British Prime Minister the outer intended to block any yy = wnoowe —lansues Neville Chamberlain escapees from the inner. =) wan re broadcasts the news that ‘On 5 September, Fourth Army ; cranes roono,, Britain snow at war with | takes Bydgoszcz, breaking tue’ F"%—Germany. The world will | through the forward Polish % realise, he feels sure, what a_| defence line and crossing the corey, tise bitter personal northern Vistula: Luftwatte Ce disappointment this safer | attacks devastate the town of Hitler had given his word not | Sulejow near Warsaw. The next é to attack day Southern Army Group's Bohemia Eighth Army captures : © 426 SEPTEMBER Topnszootlanking the blk Below: The Panzer 2 with its LIGHTNING WAR of the Polish Pomorze army By 4 September, Tenth Army | retreating from the noth. The tank, but t made up a large spearheads are 80 kilometres into | Polish government flees from ca Be Poland, curing up towards the | Warts andthe end ofthe ccapital and isolating the Lodz _| first week only the immediate Army from its supplies, while to | confusion of battle masks the the south Fourteenth Army extraordinary success of the panzers have reached the River | German attack. “tieametmtee, | #19 aH North is driving down from OBJECTIVE WARSAW from Pomerania across the shells Poland's main naval base Polish corridor, cuting off at Hela near Gdynia. In spite of Danzig and Gdynia and then | some successful counter attacks following the line of the Vistula | early in the campaign, the PolishHitcer’s Battces J The Luftwaffe e in Poland Seenevararer rpg bombers, the Luftwaffe had ‘esponsibility. Is primary offensive function was to support the ground, set Though the Luftwaffe had to keep much ofits strength in the west to counter possible action by Britain and France, it was stil able to field more ‘than 1600 aircraft for the Polish campaign, The Polish aie force was all but wiped out by 3 Soptember, allowing the German pilots to concentrate on supporting the Wehrmacht. Right: Junkers Ju 878 Broan Below: Dornier Do 172 cut and Garman Sakae are hee | "MENG SUUMAS | strocndnt ine pao be Poish | unecogisble acy in prait Pasian sino eror | Were lethal pieieserhs [Styne interruption. re I , down the line of the Bzura river, | Luftwaffe air raids target '8 September sees the ly ‘marking the start of the biggest | Warsaw; the Polish government Va ane | OSPOCially aS wees tucerpeocal miliary for Warsaw while Poles entrench “The inner pincers have withdrawal to the south east onthe ouskrs ortecxy- ath | ANG PE WAS MO cecsiiy me sucessfty, tut | Te ge reaem Panzer Division has advanced the chaos inside the trap is such Skm since the stat of wan FOAL fighter that no one ccan be sure what is | POLISH ARMY average of more than 30 km per happenin Posh columns | CRUMBLES day. To the North, Guderian’s t Le march and counter-march in Units of the German 14th Army Sheharsonimcdcemans | OPPOSItion frantic efforts to make contact | reach and cros the river San on and now tums south, | either with the enemy or with | the 1th, and begin driving north, spearheading the push towards Jeena Ban Ts on | own suport dia doing | ova Best Lvs Brest Litovsk | soraise such clouds of dust that | Meanwhile, the battle for the The nextday th Panzer | ne ne | serial observation can report | Bzura pocket hots up. The Division reaches Warsaw and | esiment, cthing but general movement general fog of war means that attempts to storm the city, but s German Army | by unidentified forces of there is some doubt at German HITLER'S THIRD REICH 27headquarters whether oF not the tanks from the Tenth Army are J north to form another block along the Bzura, west of Wi The battle is the most bitter of but the imbalance can only sat for the Poles. Eighth Army from the south and .e Fourth Amy from the pth Only a very small number of Poles 0 to break throug he German armoured ser join the garrison at Warsa\ Hitcer’s Battces J where they will very soon find themselves again cut off from escape by encirclement (On 13 September Southern Army Group infantry crosses the Vistula south of Warsaw, driving eastwards. The Luftwaffe launches heavy attacks on ‘Warsaw itself, Increased irregular only the citadel in Polish han 15-21 SEPTEMBER inner INVASION saw is surrounded and 1d. Southern Army group ‘Above: German divisions generally had two artillery regiments, of ‘quipped with 12 heavy 180-mm howitzers and one with 26 oF 58 fight {ds-mm guns. In infantry units the guns were horee dravun, while Panzer divisions used motorised transport. These 105-mm guns are being towed into action in Poland by a S-tonne SdKfz 11 half track