| writings: the diaries of otto dix |
| In July 1943 the battle of Kursk was fought. Stalingrad was the turning point of the war. It was the beginning of the end. The end came at Kursk. Kursk was the last nail in the coffin. The Russians had punched a huge hole in the German lines and thru it poured 10 divisions. The result was a giant bulge in the front swarming with troops. It was Hitlers idea to attack the flanks of this bulge from North and south and pinch it off and bag a few hundred thousand Russians in the process. It would be a thrilling victory and the provide the boost the Germans needed to regain the initiative and get the war rolling again. There were mixed feelings about this operation. Hitler wasnt so sure himself. Manstein thought there was a chance if the operation was launched at once while the Russians were still in the process of consolidating their positions. The Russians knew what was coming and were racing madly to re/enforce their defense. Time was the factor here. But Hitler stalled. He could not make up his mind. Precious time was lost and it proved fatal. The Russians knew what was coming and they were ready. This time it was the russans who absorbed the first blow and counterattacked. It was over in 9 days. It didnt have a prayer. It was Hitlers last offensive. The entire front was in flux. The Germans were on the ropes. |
| Today a letter from Luck. Dear Dix: I am in North Africa. The war goes badly here. We are short on fuel, tanks--and spare parts for the tanks we do have. We have the guns but no shells. There is no air cover. Yesterday Rommel himself was shot up. It was a close call. The driver was killed. Rommel got a bump on the head. Rommel is ready to snap. Everything goes to Russia. Hitler cares only for the Eastern front. The campaign in africa is a sideshow for him. He never wanted to involve himself in this campaign to begin with. It was done to appease Mussolini. Hitler would help out in Africa and Mussolini would ship a few Itailans off to Russia where they proved to have small apetite for the fighting. R has made several trips to Italy to meet with Kesselring and the Italian Generals. They give him a good meal and promise to send supplies. Then he gets back and nothing happens. Yesterday we got several truckloads of woolen underwear longjohns. Meanwhile the Americans have landed in Morocco. The Americans are still a question mark. They have the men and the supplies but can they fight. We will see. Its all a long way from Paris. I spent a week there. My girlfriend is still on the scene keeping a sharp eye on the wine stash. So it was me and her and various sponging friends and fellow soldiers. We put a major dent in the wine hoard. Otherwise I ate, strolled about and hit a few museums. I called on Picasso. He was very nice to me. It helped to mention your name. He doesnt like Germans. He showed me some paintings including a beautiful drawing of the girl who works for him. I asked to buy this. It wasnt for sale. I dropped the subject. Later, on my way out, I returned to the subject. I mentioned cigarettes. We went back and forth. He sold me the drawing for 3 cartons. I may have gotten burned here. But I love the drawing. I also had lunch with your friend Mother Ey. An amazing woman. There is no problem with conversation. She was glad to have news of you. I gave her coffee. I just want to thank you for the hospitality. I enjoyed meeting your friends. It encourages me to think we may yet survive this war with a little of our humanity still intact. Sometimes I see these things and I am not so sure. Regards, Luck Chess with Trott I have been seeing Trott. He likes the country. He enjoys the boredom. It is the relentless tedium of the country that provides the perfect climate required for the endless fiddling and speculation of philosophy. We also play chess. I have resurrected my game. The edge goes to Trott here. There is a contrast of styles. Mine resembles Hitler-- attack at all times and refuse to yield an inch a fight to the death of the last pawn. Trott is a von Manstein type the elastic defense concept to suck you in and then the sudden devastating assault sprung upon the flank. We played one game in which he sacrificed his queen. I had never seen this done. I have seen a queen sacrificed during the endgame only. This occurred as an opening move. I thought it was a brief mental lapse. I said: your queen is up for grabs. He said yes. You are sacrificing your queen? Yes. I looked over the board. I looked over the board. I continued to look over the board. He had something up his sleeve but what? I saw nothing. I snatched the queen. Now there followed a vicious sequence of moves that I was helpless to prevent and gradually ate every piece I owned and at the end of this carnage he said: mate. It was brilliant. I was in shock. He got it from a chess book he had been reading. The move was first performed by an American a youth of 14 named Paul Brophy in a tournament played in 1918. We spoke of the war. The war is Trotts baby. He is like a cow that needs to be milked every day. There is much talk of the invasion of France. This has been going on for 2 years. What are the allies waiting for waiting for? They are waiting for more Germans to die in Russia.This is Trotts view. And he is correct. How many Americans have died in this war 50,000?. The Russians lose that many in two days--every two days. And we arent far behind. The Allies arent stupid. They will jump in and invade France when it best suits them to do so. Stalin has been hounding them for 2 years to establish a second front. They have kept him somewhat pacified by sending war material which he desperately needs. But otherwise they are perfectly happy to stand by on the sidelines and observe the carnage--the more the better. The Russians are managing to hang on and even beginning to take the initiative. We are being bled white. Martha is here. She has some disturbing news. Our house burned down. It was an accident. Or so we think. She was at work and got a call from a neighbor. She rushed home to see the house in flames. She became hysterical. She tried to run inside. The fire trucks were there but it was too late. It burned to the ground. She is in terrible shape. Ive seen this look before. Its the look of a soldier who has been on the receiving end of a massive artillery barrage for several days without relief. It is a combination of disorientation and apathy--a complete disassociation from reality. She is constantly bursting into tears. I/ve shed a few tears myself. Its like losing a family member. We still dont know the facts. Could it be arson? Martha doesnt have an enemy in the world. And neither do I. Hans the Nazi has a few. I think its an accident. Its a frequent occurrence these days with the utilities system in total chaos due to the bombings. Its a complete loss. The insurance companies have not been honoring too many home coverage policies lately. Christmas. We are in the country. There is a full house. Its me and Martha and the kids and my parents and Vera and Bernard and Trott and Tanya and the baby and Felix and Ava and Jaochim. I like Christmas. I like getting presents. Martha got me some drawing goods paper, a set of litho crayons and inks,_______, etc. Vera and B got me a print of a Nolde woodcut. The Felixmullers got me socks and a tie. My mother gives me socks and a tie. My parents are a big hit. They have energy. My mother is amazing. She is 80. That means she has another 40 years to go. She gets up at 4 am and goes full blast until 10pm and then falls over. My father and Bernard had a lively chat. About what? The name of Goring popped up at some point. I know what Goring would like for Christmas: a kind word from Hitler. He has lost major points with Hitler. This is the man who said not a single enemy plane would penetrate the skies over Germany. Them the bombs started to fall like rice at a wedding. And continue to do so. Goring still remains popular with the people. But the people dont count. Hitler counts. But otherwise the war was not mentioned. We eat we, drink, we open presents. Joachim sits down at the piano and we gather round and sing Christmas carols. Next year we may be singing these songs in Russian. But for now its a precious moment. |
| Tanya is gone. She was here and then she wasnt here. The store is empty. There is no note. Well--this had to happen. She has a life she needs to get on with. She must determnine the fate of her husband and if he is dead start looking around for a new one. Woman must marry. It is their nature. I cant help her here. To continue as we were--eating veal, drinking martinis and fucking in front of the fire--was an intolerable situation. Beethoven Concert. We gathered in the square. It was a perfect day. This is a good orchestra. The musicians are all locals. But there are some good musicians here. The conductor is a lawyer. The program is Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven--the 4th piano concerto. The pianist is Joachim Felixmueller, age 14. I love the music of Beethoven. It is interesting to speculate that if B were alive today the 3rd symphony would be dedicated not to Napolean but to Hitler. B was the classic artist: he worked and was humiliated by women. The word genius applies here. Someone has said: before you can be great you have to be good. Someone else said: genius is in the details. Someone else said: a genius creates order from confusion. The fact is: the word is meaningless. But if it doesnt apply to Beethoven it applies to no one. What about Hitler? Hitler is a genius. He is a political genius. Now the country is in ruins and 10,000,000 Germans are dead and we have the Russians on our doorstep. But people are funny--or maybe it is the Germans. They are still behind this man. Why? Because he is God. He has convinced them of this. That was Goebbels job. And he did a good job. This piano is a splendid instrument. A Bechstein super grand. I love this piece--esp the second movement. I get goose bumps. Joachim is fabulous. I cant believe the progress he is making. He is a natural. He makes it look easy. It is a feeling for the music and an instinctive sense for structure, momentum, mantaining the thread and the sense of dynamics. He plays with great spirit and a huge tone. He has the bravura touch. He is theatrical. Even the mistakes sound good. He makes his share of mistakes. But he makes them with authority--the same thing I used to tell my students. The mistakes dont bother him. He keeps steaming. He shows enormous maturity here. The piece is performed to thunderous applause and we adjourn for coffee and cake. Meanwhile in Berlin the bombs are falling like rice at a wedding. The allies have landed. Now we are finished. The only question is: who gets to Germany first. God help us if its the Russians. Martha goes back and forth to Berlin or what is left of it. Berlin is being systematically bombed to extinction. It is a city of rubble. Still we plug along. It is amazing. The country is in ruins and Hitler has not made a public appearance or given a speech in a year. Yet they remain convinced he is going to pull them out of this mess. There is much talk of a wonder weapon. I also talk of the wonder weapon. I wonder where it is. Meanwhile I paint. I paint, paint, paint. My still lifes are improving. Lunch with Vera. She visits from time to time. She still works for the Foreign Ministry. In this way we get some useful information. The Allies have held a big conference in Casablanca. There they declared their intentions: unconditional surrender. We can accept this one or not. If we decide to continue the war fine. It just means more dead Germans. Already in the last six months more Germans have died than in the last six years. Its a slaughter. But this is Hitler. He has the hard head. He will never give up. He will fight to the last German--himself. What is happening with our friend Trott? Trott is in Switzerland. What is he doing in Switzerland. She doesnt know. He is behaving very mysteriously these days. I said he always behaves this way. He is a Christian. They behave mysteriously. Its part of the role. The latest dope is that some peace feelers have gone out to England and the US. There is a new line. The new line is that the real enemy for England and the United States is not Germany. Its Russia. If Germany is defeated Russia will rule Europe. England needs to think about his. Maybe England and the United States should drop the war against Germany and the three countries unite to throw back the Russians--these miserable scum. This is wishful thinking in my view. Its more than that. Its just plain dumb. There will be no deals. They have us by the balls. We are finished. It is only a question of time. The war will end and Hitler and the rest of that gang will be shot if they havent already done the job themselves. I do a painting of Vera. I am pleased with the result. I think I have captured something of the appeal of this woman--not only the sense of presence--the physical vibes--but something of the inner spirit--the simpatica quality. I have to be careful here. The edict to paint portraits has not been rescinded. The country is in ruins, the Allies have landed and the Russians are on our doorstep. But the Gestapo has not forgotten the paintings of Otto Dix! |
| I am in jail. How did this happen? It happened fast. I was home painting a still life and there was a knock on the door and I opened the door and there was the Gestapo. They invited me to come with them for some questions. What were these questions? This they couldnt say. Their orders were to pick me up. Everything would be explained. We drove to Berlin to Gestapo headquarters. Every building in Berlin has been destroyed but this one. The La Scala in Milan is the venue to attend a performance of Don Giovanni, you have the Louvre for Art and its the English Channel for long distance swimming and the ________in the Bendlerstrasse is the perfect place for the interrogation of criminal suspects. This was the final destination of the victims of the Rohm putsch. They lined them up 10 at a time in the bowels of this place and blasted away. The wall was splattered with brains and guts. Then the next batch of ten were marched in and given a good look at this stew dripping down and they were lined up. I can see this wall from my cell. The stains remain. This is my third visit to Gestapo headquarters. But I have always been released. This time no. Why am I here? I found out soon enough. The first question was: you are a friend of AdamTrott are you not? I said yes. Did you know that Adam Trott is seriously implicated in the plot to kill the Fuhrer? I said: no There were more questions along these lines: Did I know that Trott made frequent trips to Switzerland for the purpose of contacting the American Allan Dulles to negotiate a separate deal for Germany in the event Hitler was assassinated? I said no. Did I know that Stauffenberg, the swine who planted the bomb at Army headquarters, knew Gisevious who knows Treskow who is a good friend of von Haeften who is a good friend of yours? I said no. Did I know that Stauffenberg owned one of my paintings? The answers were no, no, no, no, and no. I have asked to call my wife. Permission denied. My wife will be notified. Back to my cell. I spent the nite. I spent two nites. It was relatively quiet. I heard no sounds of torture. I/m told they have a new method of torture. They use a dental surgeon. He doesnt pull teeth. He just drills. A painkiller is not used obviously. The results have been excellent. How true are these stories? That isnt the point. The point is that the stories exist and they have their effect. They produce fear. The fear is real. We know the Nazis are capable of any cruelty that can be imagined and performing it with unlimited zeal. Fortunately my teeth are in perfect shape. I continued with these thoughts. The English writer George Orwell said the secret to the effective torture of prisoners is to discover the thing the prisoner most fears physical pain, overcooked spaghetti, a poetry reading, etc. With Orwell it was rats. The sight of a rat made him wacky. With me it is certain types of music. 5 minutes of listening to a polka and I would turn in my grandmother. And what about: interviewing personnel for the position of torture specialist? This would be a good routine for Werner Finck. Finck says: I have been reviewing your resume my friend. I see you worked in for Frank in Poland. Excellent. YOu claim to be the first to interrogate a prisoner via a speech by Ribbontrop. etc, etc, These are the thoughts you get in jail you have all this time to yourself it relieves you of all responsibilities. Also: wearing a t-shirt inside out but right side front. Does it still fit properly? This is something I have always wondered about. I thought about dying. They have resurrected the guillotine for treasonous behavior. Of the many ways to die this one is near the bottom of my list. The fact it takes but an instant and is painless does nothing to relieve my concern. There is something about this slanted blade sharpened to a hideous edge hurtling down upon the back of my neck that is intensely disturbing. Maybe I should turn my thoughts to other things. I will work out some chess moves. It appears I will not be using them to annihilate Trott. Poor Trott. I knew he had an obsession with Hitler. But it is one thing to be obsessed with Hitler and another thing to actively involve yourself in a plot to assassinate the man How did he get himself mixed up in this mess? Because he is a philosopher and Hitler has become a philosophical issue. The problem is that Hitler did not seize power by force. He was the legitimately elected or appointed heir to Hindenberg who was the heir to ____________who was the heir to ____________who replaced the Kaiser. In the modern European state as it has evolved there exists a concept called duty. The citizen has a duty to obey the law. The law forbids treason. The penalty is death. Its an interesting proposition. Its a paradox. The ruler cannot be removed from power because he is the ruler and he is the ruler because he has seized power. You had another problem: the army. Governments arent toppled by people with good intentions. You need an army. In Germany the army men and officers alike--had sworn an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Not an oath to Germany but to Hitler personally. This was a clever move on Hitlers part. A German officer takes his oaths seriously. It takes an extraordinary act of conscience to cause him to break his word. It was Trotts view that in the person of Hitler and the Nazi party and the war being waged (and lost) in Russia this extraordinary situation had occurred. The concept of duty had been corrupted and a higher purpose was involved here. Naturally this was entirely theoretical--a philosophical issue. He was always careful to make this point. But this is neither here nor there. What concerns me is getting out of jail. I have seen Trott. I passed him in the hall. There were two guards with him. Neither of us acknowledged the other. I dont thing he recognized me. He doesnt look good. I looked into his eyes. It was like looking into the void. There was nothing there. He is already in another world. This is a tragedy. And what About Vera. So far her name has not come up. More questions. The answer is no, no, no. Do they believe me? I have no idea. Guilt doesnt enter into it so much these days. The suspicion of guilt is sufficient. I spent three days and two nites. Then they came and got me and told me to gather my clothes and led me to the lobby and there were some papers to sign and I was released into the custody of my wife. There she was. This was a fine moment. Freedom is sweet. How could I ever be unfaithful to this woman? Later she said: you looked like you had seen a ghost. It was Hans Koch who got me off the hook. He pulled every string he could think of. He went to Goebbels. Goebbels said: I am the one who gave the order to lock him up. But Hans persisted--God bless him. They went back and forth for a bit. They worked out some scheme so that Goebbels would not be implicated here. |
| Today a letter from Felixmueller. Dear Otto: There is some news mostly bad. Joachim has been called up. He is serving in a Volksturm unit. These units are not serving in the rear. They are putting them on the front. They have a new device the panzerfaust. This is an anti tank weapon. It was designed specifically to be used by someone with no military training--old men and children. It is good for one round only. You see a tank, you get as close as possible, you heave the PF up on your shoulder and blast away. Then you run for cover. If you make it they give you another PF and you do it again. Clara is hysterical. And I am not doing so well myself. This is a child that would mourn the death of a canary. I fear not only for my son but for my wife as well. This child is her life. If anything happens to him I will have lost her as well. But what can we do? There is no way out. I have racked my brains about this. All we can do is pray. I have seen your friend Trott. He was lunching at cafe Gruenwald. working on some chess moves. He invited me to play a few games. We played chess and discussed the current situation. The rumor is that Hitler would like to make a deal with England and the US. He has a new line he is trying out that the real enemy of the Allies is not Germany but Russia. According to this scenario the Allies have an interest in preserving the German state. The reason is Russia. If Germany is destroyed Russia will emerge as the master of Europe. In view of this it makes more sense for the allies to unite with Germany to defeat Russia. But the Allies dont see it this way. They see it the other way. There is only one deal: unconditional surrender. This Hitler will never agree to. A few million more germans must die first. All this according to Trott. Otherwise I paint. Somehow my heart is not in it. Yours, F Trial of Trott The trials of the men involved in the 20 July plot have begun.They are being tried by the Peoples Court. But the people are not attending. This one is by invitation only. However Hans Koch has wangled himself a seat. He is amazing. He could get Hitler invited to a bar mitzvah. Friesler--the presiding judge--is a patient. He has a prostate condition He couldnt pee. But Hans fixed him up. Now he pisses like a horse. This is a poor example of justice. Trial is not the word here. Its a little one sided. These people already have their heads in the noose. The acquittals will be at a minimum. I have seen Friesler in action--against Kirchner. I forget the charge--some violation of the arts code. Poor Kirchner. Friesler made sushi of him. He went up one side and down the other. Friesler is a Goebbels type. He is small with a big mouth. The face is pinched. The skin is white. He looks like a train conductor. He is more easily imagined in a blue uniform with a little cap walking up and down the aisle punching tickets than sitting up there on the bench in the robes of a judge handing down death sentences. These trials are a bizarre event. They are constantly interrupted by air raids. The court room empties and everyone hustles downstairs and when the all clear sounds they hustle back upstairs and the proceedings re convene. The defendants dont look good. They are exhausted--in poor shape to defend themselves. They have been tortured and given nothing to eat and deprived of sleep. Witzelben is particularly sad sight. They have taken away his teeth and belt. He stands there in this toothless puckered statewith one hand holding up his pants listening to Friesler. Friesler goes up one side and down the other. He is relentless. He is a stone nazi. This is a man who enjoys his work. And he is good at it. He is brutal. He is a Hitler type. He feeds on humiliation and degradation. This is more easily done with a room full of police standing by to jump on the defendant should this person have any objection to the line of questioning. The defendants are brutally cut off if an attempt is made in any way to minimize guilt or suggest a different view In Moltkes case a gag was applied. You are obliged to stand there holding up your pants listening to Freisler rant and rave for two hours. There are two themes: Hitler and treason. He began by establishing the fact that Trott had never served in the army. While men were fighting and dying at the front and suffering the most bitter hardships he was safe and sound in Berlin meeting with his fellow mates for the purpose of murdering Hitler. Had he given any thought to the men fighting for their lives at the front? What would happen to them if this villainous plot succeeded. Freisler could answer this question. The same thing that happened in World War I when the government made a deal with the French and the German army--those poor patriotic fuckers at the front fighting for their lives to defend their country--were stabbed in the back. Germany was plunged into civil war and the army was abandoned to its fate. In that case its fate was the French. The French are bad enough. This time its the Russians. The Russians are a different story. Are you following me Herr Trott? Etc, etc Now Friesler was rolling. This was always the theme--the stab in the back of the army. He had worked himself into a frenzied state. He was ranting and raving and foaming at the mouth. The spit was flying. He said: You make me sick! I could vomit up! By his time F has worked himself into such a state that he has convinced himself that he actually will vomit. Remove this man! He is scum! I cant look at him! |
| Trott condemned to death. He stood listening to the sentence handed down with no expression. His faith has not deserted him. He is a disciple of Neimoller. He was told he could speak some last words. He said: if you are going to hang me you should do it soon. Otherwise you will be strung up first. I am in the army. This is my Christmas present from Hitler a draft notice. You are never too old to die for your country. They have put together a new division the Volksturm- the peoples army. This is an elite group. Hitler is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel. It is children and old men. By children I mean 13 years old. These are not reserves or support personnel. They are front line troops. We are given panzerfaust anti tank rifles and several hours of training. We are taught how to leap from foxholes or spring from behind a pile of rubble and intercept a Russian t 34 tank with these panzerfaust devices. Its a single round weapon. You fire your rocket and start running. They also have a battalion of old duffers with stomach problems. Its called the stomach brigade. I speak the truth. They have their own commissary and diet chef to provide non inflammatory meals. Instead of ammunition they load up on toilet paper. God help the enemy that has to confront these men. The ideas is this: the allies or Russians will advance upon these troops and on cue the codgers will form ranks, do an about face and rip off their diapers and perform a gigantic bowel movement and drive the enemy off with the stink. Army life hasnt changed. Its a pain in the ass. You are tired, dirty and cold. The cold is bitter. I hate being cold. We spend all our time scrounging for firewood. There is no information. You follow orders. Mostly we walk. From time to time we encounter the enemy usually in the form of American P-40's firing rockets up our ass. There is no protection. The Luftwaffe has ceased to exist. The thought of desertion is always a possibility but so far there hasnt been too much of this. They watch us like hawks. You have as many Military Police on the prowl looking for deserters as you have men doing the actual fighting. The penalty for desertion is death. And it usually occurs on the spot. There is no trial. This would take time. Three officers gather to discuss your case and you are shot then and there. An incident occurred the other day. Several men were caught "stealing" bread from a commissary truck that had been shot up on the road. They were briefly questioned and shot on the spot. Mostly we walk. We walk, walk, walk. If someone shoots at us we shoot back. There is no retreat. Anyone who retreats is shot. I have one thought as do we all to survive. At least we are walking west. The one thing we all fear is to fall into the hands of the Russians. We are shot, mortared, land mined or bombed. I love the sound of high explosive falling near by. We have been captured thank God. It was a little touch and go for a moment. I came very close to blowing the brains out of a Hitler youth type 15 years old who was all fired up to die for the Fueher. But I was more fired up to live for Otto Dix. We were in a field outside the village of Orlans--the hometown of Courbet. I once visited here with Martha and the children. It features on the outskirts a splendid chateau owned by the Duc de Guise. This man was well known as an animal conservationist and had assembled on his property a private zoo. The zoo still exists. It has somehow survived the war. So there we were scattered about being peppered with American artillery. The Americans have a simple theory about combat. Every German killed by artillery is one German less that has to be faced in hand to hand combat. And they have the guns and ammunition to apply this theory to action. The ammo is unlimited. They are not reluctant to fire off 5000 shells to kill 50 Germans. So it was the Americans on one side lobbing high explosive and the British on the other side advancing in tanks and overhead the P-40's firing rockets up our ass and in front of us the lions, gorillas and alligators of the duc de Guise. In the POW camp. We have one concern here being turned over to the Russians. They have some divisions on their list mostly SS troops that fought in the Ukraine. There isnt much left of these divisions. They have been wiped out. Many of us have nothing to do with all this. That isnt the point. War is chaos. Things happen for no reason. We could still wind up doing 20 years digging for coal in the Urals. The Allies are co operating with the Russians here. There is great sympathy for the Russian cause. The Russians have lost 20,000,000--or is it 30,000,000? I can never remember. The Americans have lost 100,000. This place sucks. I am too old for this bullshit. But it beats dying. We are guarded by the Russians, the French and the Americans. They take turns. The Americans are the best, the Russians the worst and the French in between.The daily routine is this: we get up, we eat, we clean the barracks and thats it. The rest of the day is spent standing around. We stand around and bitch. We bitch, bitch, bitch. But my question is: what is there to bitch about? There are many sad stories. But who cares? I have my own problems. There is nothing to be done. The dead are not coming back to life and we will be released when we are released. I have heard nothing from my family. The food isnt too bad. Its an improvement over army rations. My stomach is feeling better. Im OK as long as I dont eat. Ive lost about 20 lbs. Luck is here. I felt this tap on my shoulder and turned around and there he was. He looks OK or no worse than anyone else. He was also obliged to raise the white flag. This is a hard thing for an officer. But he was in the same boat down to his last 40 troops and no tanks and low on ammo and zero air cover and there were the Americans on one side and the British on the other and overhead the P-40's firing rockets up his ass. The war was lost June 6th. Rommel and Runstedt both agreed on this one. If Hitler had thrown in the towel at this time 6 million Germans would be alive today. We have lost 10,000,000 total--6 million in the last 9 months. Are my wife and children among them? I have no idea. Luck has covered some ground since I last saw him. He went from Africa to Lithuania, down to Poland, across Czechoslovakia and from there back to France. In Lithuania he fought at Memel. I have heard stories of this one. It was a painting by Bosch. There are 6 ways to die in this war: 1) shot through the head 2) beaten or stabbed or hacked to death in hand to hand combat 3) blown to little bitty pieces by high explosive. 4) trapped in a collapsed building and burned alive 5) death via drowning 6) ground into human paste by a tank They all occurred in Memel. Memel is a town in Lithuania on the Baltic connected via a narrow landbridge to the port of Konigsberg. I visited there once--with Vera. She has relatives in Konigsberg. Its a beautiful town--or was. During the fighting it became a toilet into which multiple bowel movements had been performed and a giant plunger was required to flush it down the drain. The bowel movements were refugees and remnants of the German 3rd Army fighting a brave but hopeless retreat and the plunger was the Russian army. There is a single road leading into Memel and God help you if you were on it. Russia has suffered a few Memels of their own at the hands of the German army and the time had come to return the favor. The Russians had waited three years for this one. The Russians make no distinction between soldiers and refugees. They make one distinction. A refugee is run over by a tank and the tank continues on its way. When its a soldier being run over the tank throws it into reverse and goes back and forth once or twice. Otherwise a German is a German. Luck speaks of Rommel. Rommel didnt die of a heart attack. This was a lie. He committed suicide. The Gestapo discovered evidence that Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot. He was not a participant but it was clear he sympathized with the plotters. At least they had approached him to determine his views and he failed to report this meeting. Getting rid of Rommel was a problem for Goebbels. It was a public relations issue. This man was still a great hero. So the solution arrived at was this: Rommel would commit suicide. The people would be told he had a heart attack. He would be given a state funeral and Hitler would deliver a rousing eulogy. If Rommel refused he would be arrested. There would be a trial, he would be convicted and hung, He would be viciously attacked in the press. His name would be dragged thru the mud and his wife and son sent to a concentration camp. They would be bunking with Werner Finck. This place is one laff after another. There is a kid of 19 or 20 completely wacko. He is finished. He is completely gone. He sits on the floor in a corner and masturbates. He masturbates, masturbates, masturbates. He masturbates 15 times a day. The floor is swimming in pecker juice. There is nothing to be done. We scream and threaten and and rant and rave and slap his face. But its no dice. He is completely gone. He just sat there with this blank look and his dick in his hand This went on for a week. Finally he was taken away. Ive had some luck. I was hanging around the yard sketching away. An officer wandered by--an American. He stopped to look at my sketch. We began to chat. He is a painter himself. He is from Chicago. I recalled for him my visit to that city and the episode with the torpedoes at the restaurant Luna. He was studying me intently. He asked my name. I told him. He said: youre my favorite painter. He asked what I was doing here. I said: they told me it was World War 1. My situation has improved. My friend Larry the American from Chicago has gotten me a job. I am working in the hospital cleaning toilets. It beats hanging around the yard listening to my fellow inmates bitch. Hitler is dead. He committed suicide. This is a fine way for a man to go who has been haranguing us for 12 years about his role as the savior of Germany and all the things he was going to do for the German people. We dont know the details. He was holed up in a bunker in the Chancellery and he shot himself and had his body burned. Now we will never find out the truth about the one testicle story. This is called the end of the era. I have mixed feelings about Hitler. He was a swine and an interesting man. He did a lot for Germany. You only have to look around. The country is in ruins and 10,000,000 GErmans are dead and I am in a POW camp. Also it was the Nazi attitude towards art which can be traced directly to Hitler that got me fired from my teaching job 13 years ago. I still have hard feelings about this one. I liked that job. I could be there now anticipating retirement on a fat pension. Instead I am in a POW camp cleaning toilets--and the fate of my wife and family remains a question mark. Hitlers mistake was to invade Russia. What a price we have paid for this and will continue to pay. But it was inevitable. He was a man who fed on hatred. His greatest pleasure was seeing the blood of an enemy spilled. At the top of the list were the jews and slavs. The jews were an easy mark. Also the Poles. The Russians were a different story. It was this obsessive hatred for Russia that undid him. If the invasion of Russia had not occurred and he decided to satisfy himself with the conquest of Poland or even France he would have gone down in history as a great man--one of the greatest. But this is academic. Its spilt milk. I am still in a POW camp cleaning toilets and my release is still a question mark. And I still have no word about my family. I am drawing portraits of my fellow prisoners. Now that Hitler is dead my status as a degenerate artist is no longer an issue and I am free to draw the human face and figure. It hasnt gotten easier. However I still have my touch. In fact a few new twists have appeared from somewhere and entered my style. I am getting some interesting results. My genius has not deserted me. This is interesting. Yesterday I was at work at the hospital cleaning toilets and in walks Albert Speer. I thought it was him. And he thought it was me. We werent sure. Its been a few years and we/ve had our ups and downs. Speer has greatly aged. He is 40 and looks 60. Otto! Albert--amigo! He is quartered nearby in a wing of the hospital. A few of his mates are with him including Goring, Schact, Kaltenbrunner and Syss-Inquart. We spoke for a few minutes. He asked about Martha and the children. I said there was no news. She is somewhere in the west I think. His family is in Strasberg They are OK. This man is in deep shit. He started out an architect and ended up a war criminal. How could this happen? It was a combination of two things--the charisma of Hitler and Speers own insatiable ambitions. Its the story of Faust. Hitler has been the inspiration for many new spinoffs of this tale. But this is life. Now they have these war trials coming up and Speer is implicated big time. There was major use of forced labor to maintain production as the war continued. He is responsible for this. His signature appears on many documents. These trials will be interesting. They will be the allied version of Freislers Peoples Court. Too bad Freisler is dead. They could de-Nazify him and use for the prosecution. He would make sushi of these people. At least Ribbontrop will hang. This is a man no one has any use for. It was Ribbontrop as much as Hitler who got us into thismess--if that is the word. Some of these people richly deserve to hang. Hanging is too good for them. They are gangsters. They are worse than gangsters. Gangsters kill each other. These people are responsible for the death of 10,000,000 Germans. Yesterday I met Goring. He came in for a poop. He was sitting there on the bowl and we began to chat. He likes to talk. He is a Mother Ey type. Goring says: Its too bad Im going to die Dix. I could help you get some commissions. I always liked your work. The war cripples didnt bother me. I saw the humor. I had nothing to do with that Munich show. I didnt agree with Hitler. In my opinion you had earned the right to draw a few war cripples. But there was nothing I could do. Culture was not my department. This wasexclusively reserved for Hitler. Sketching Goring. I do it while he performs his daily bowel movement. Goring isnt so bad. Yes he is a swine. But he is a charming swine. He enjoys life. Whatever he happened to be doing-- eating, hunting animals--or people--designing clothes, taking drugs, confiscating the property of jews--he did it with energy and great satisfaction. There was a style here. He wasnt the typical Nazi thug. He had taste in art unlike Hitler. Hitler was too sappy and sentimental and inclined to the heroic in this respect. Although with Hitler his real feelings were always a mystery. Everything including his taste in art was motivated by politics. Goring has dropped a few pounds. This is a man who once weighed 14 stone.Prison has done him some good. He has recovered some of the old energy. But it is somewhat revealing of the fall he has taken. He knows he will hang. This is certain. Goring says: its too bad. I dont look forward to it. But I have no intention of betraying my loyalty to Adolph Hitler as I can assure you some of these other scum are going to do and I can tell you who they are. They are willing to dishonor themselves to save their miserable hides and for what--to pee in front and crap from behind for a few more years. I dont buy it. I have two regrets: that I wont live to see my daughter grow up; and that Bormann is not here to hang with us. How I would love to get my hands on that pig for 5 minutes. I would strangle him to death with my bare hands. And there are a lot of people who would be happy to watch. Speer also had a few things to say about Bormann. This man was seriously hated or feared among the inner circle. He must have had more power than we thought. Interesting. There is not too much known about him. He kept a low profile. His picture rarely appeared in the papers. Goring says: I never wanted this war. I was against it from the beginning. It was Ribbontrop. Ribbontrop is as much to blame as Hitler. What an imbecile! Goring makes the point that these trials are a farce. War is war. People die. What about the bombings of Dresden. 140,000 people--all civilians were burned alive. What was the military objective here? There wasnt a factory within 70 kilometers. Today a letter from F. He and Clara are OK. There is still no news of Joachim. Luck is gone. Where? I have no idea. He was here and then he wasnt here. My guess is Russia. I am still here. Why? Good question. The Allies have won the war. The problem is: what now? The country is in ruins, 10,000,000 Germans are dead and the rest are homeless. A policy called de- nazification has been installed in an effort to clean house and start from scratch. But its not that simple. The occupation of a foreign country is a formidable job. Hitler found that out soon enough--not only in Russia but Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Nazi party was 1% people like Goring and Goebbels and Bormann and the rest wwere bureaucrats. A country is run by the bureaucrats. The Allies cant throw all these people in jail. At some point they will find themselves doing business with some unsavory characters. This happened yesterday. I was standing around. There is a lot of standing around in this place. You stand around, you stand around, you stand around. I was talking to a man like me. The safety of his family is also a question mark. They are somewhere in the East--a bad sign. There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around. It was Joachim Felixmuller. He said: Hello Otto. I stood staring. He looked OK. A little thin and bedraggled but with his limbs intact. I threw my arms around him. I hugged him tight. I couldnt believe it. At least they hadnt gotten this one. I started to cry. I cried and cried. I cried like a baby. |
| EPILOGUE Hans Koch Hans Koch resumed his medical practice. Although an active member of the party with close ties to Goebbels he managed to escape the de-nazification process. The occupation provided a steady source of patients. There was a an epidemic of venereal disease and related disorders and a good urologist--Nazi or no--was a valued commodity. He resumed his art collecting activities. Again it was the turmoil and chaos of the war that provided many opportunities here. He was able to purchase masterpieces at bargain rates. In a few years he put together an outstanding collection of German Expressionist Art. Hans Koch remained a good friend of Otto and Martha Dix. He died in 1965. Billy Wilder Billy Wilder became Billy Wilder. Movies such as Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, The Apt, etc are well established as classics of the American Cinema. He took the money he made directing movies and invested it in art. He favored Picasso, Matisse and the Post-Impressionists such as Derain, Bonnard, Vuillard, etc--and of course the Germans. Among the Germans he collected Beckmann, Kirchener, Corinth, Nolde (the anti-semite)--and Otto Dix. Billy Wilder became a member of the advisory board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and used his influence and money and gift for incessant badgering to establish a center for the study of German Expressionist art. The collection continues to grow. In 1970 a seperate wing was added to provide for the collection. Several years later a businessman named Robert Rifkind--a collecter who specialized in Expressionist graphic art--lithos, woodcuts, engravings, ect-- donated a substantial chunk of this work. In 1983 the museum assembled a show that duplicated the Degenerate Art Show mounted by the Nazis in Munich in 1937. It managed to gather many of the original works--paintings, sculpture, drawings and graphics--appearing in this show-- along with films, music, writings, that reflected the mood of the period. It was a remarkable show and enjoyed a huge success. It continued for three months and drew 700,000 people. FLETCHEIM Fletcheim had his ups and downs--mostly down. He never returned to Germany. He stayed in England. He continued to operate his gallery but was never able to establish himself with the success he enjoyed in Germany. His health declined. He developed diabetes and suffered the amputation of a leg. His wife left him. He died in 1956 VERA Vera married a British officer named Paul Rand--an architect. She moved to London and had three children. She died in 1985. Among her papers were a diary she kept during the war. Her brother was a historian and decided to prepare the diary for publication. It was published in the United States under the title Berlin Diaries. It became a best-seller. MAX BECKMANN Max Beckmann spent the war in Holland--under German occupation. He was left alone and continued to paint. In 1946 he was offered a teaching position in the United States at the University of St Louis. He taught in St Louis for three years and then moved to New York. He never returned to Germany. He died in 1950. In 1985 a retrospective of the work of Max Beckmann occurred at the Los Angles County Museum. It traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Buffalo. HANS lUCK Hans Luck was handed over to the Russians. He was deported to a Siberian province and spent 10 years in a labor camp. It was an experience that did not embitter him. He refused to let this happen. He became fluent in Russian and made friends of his captors. He returned to Germany in 1955. He went to work for a coffee export firm. He married and raised a family. In spite of fighting on all three fronts for 6 years and playing an important role in Operation Goodwood--a battle following D-day in which a battered remnant of a single German division-- under Lucks command--held off 4 allied divisions charged with the establishment of a bridgehead at the _____river in the village of_____--Lucks name rarely occurs in any of the histories of the war. The military historian Stephen Ambrose took note of this while attending a D-Day re-union function in England in 1986 in which Luck was present. Luck told Ambrose the following story. This was in Normandy. All hell was breaking loose. The German lines had been penetrated and the allies were pouring through. Luck was in retreat. The problem was artillery. The flanks of the allies were exposed and a few well positioned 88's could inflict some heavy damage. But there were no 88's. Then he spotted an AA battery with four guns pointing at the sky. There was a captain in charge smoking a cigarette, Luck screeched to a halt. He said: whats going on here? The captain said something about air defense. Luck said: air defense isnt the problem. The area is swarming with tanks. I want you to move in position to the north and blast away at the flank. The captain said: my orders are air defense. I am Luftwaffe. Fighting tanks is your job. Luck: "He was about to turn away. I drew my pistol and leveled it at him and said: either youre a dead man or you can earn yourself a medal". There were more stories in this vein--along with the post war labor camp years in Russia. Ambrose decided Luck should write a book. The title was Panzer Commander. It was published in 1990. Like the Albert Speer book and Veras Berlin Diary it also became a best seller. MARCEL DUCHAMP Marcel Duchamp is a major figure in the art of the 20th century--despte his passion--and preference for chess. The British Art Historian Robert Hughes has said: there are three names in the art of the 20th century: Picasso, Cezanne and Marcel DuChamp. When you have said those three names you have said it all. JOACHIM FELIXMULLER Joachim Felixmuller became a jazz musician. He took a trip to Paris in 1950 and there came under the influence of the American jazz pianist Bud Powell. Later he involved himself with another American expatriate--Dexter Gordon. He performs to this day. He tours Europe, South America, and Japan. He spends 300 days a year on the road. He said to a writer interviewing him for a Japanese Jazz magazine: "I learned from the Americans two things: how to play bop--and revive someone from a heroin/induced coma". ALBERT SPEER Albert Speer went on trial at Nuremberg as a as a war criminal. He took full responsibility for the deportation and forced labor of millions of POWSs and refugees from the occupied countries--Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia. The conditions under which these people were forced to work were little better than the camps. They died by the thousands--by the tens of thousands. Speer insisted he knew nothing of what occurred in the camps--although he knew something was going on there. The camps were Himmlers dept. Speer said he had been told by Karl Hanke--an associate of Goebbels: dont ask. Speer got 20 years; he escaped hanging. He barely escaped hanging. The Russians were for hanging the lot. They were in a rage when Speer, and several of the others escaped the noose Speer served the entire 20 years--to the minute. He was 40 when he went in and 60 when he got out. It was an old 60. He wrote a memoir--Inside the Third Reich--that became a huge seller. The book is Speers attempt to explain the Hitler phenomenon. How could this man--and a peasant to boot--with no education, friends, contacts, money--become in the space of 14 years the ruler of Germany. Speer went back and forth with this one and in the end finally decided that it came down to one word: charisma. There was an energy and this formidable sense of purpose and power of the will that was impossible to resist. In a room alone with him you could not prevail. It was a mismatch. He would pound and hammer and grind you down and fix you with this blazing look and he made you believe. He was the con artist of con artists. Albert Speer died in 1985. ADAM TROTT Adam Trott was tried by the people court, found guilty of treason and hung on sept 1944 The German resistance movement ended on a dismal note--discredited not only by the German people but the allies as well. It was the ill/fated plan of a few brave souls to retrieve some shred of honor for the German people. But the Allies didnt see it that way. The Allies took a more simplified view: a German--man, woman, child, Nazi--was a German. HENRY MILLER Henry Miller returned to the United States. He lived in New York and then traveled around the country and eventually settled in the Big Sur area of California. He continued to write. He married for the third and fourth time and had two children. In 1963--30 years after the book was written-- Tropic of Cancer was published in the United States. It became a best-seller. It was more than this--it was a cultural phenomenon. It was greeted by the critics in 2 ways: as a work of genius and a vile piece of garbage. It was heavily censored and banned for sale in 20 states. The publisher--Grove Press--had anticipated the commotion and was eager o exploit it. A huge marketing campaign was launched behind the book that zeroed in on the issue of censorship and the 1st amendment and the whole idea of porno and art and what was one or the other, etc, and where to draw the line. It was the view of Grove Press the line was to be drawn on the other side of Tropic of Cancer. The law suits were flying. There were several trials. Grove Press assembled an impressive team of media starved writers, critics, english profs to take the stand on Millers behalf. Meanwhile the book sold. It sold, sold, sold. It hit the best sellers list where it stayed for 46 weeks. It went into paperback--3 million copies worth. Now all the books Miller had written in the last 30 years--20 volumes of fiction, , essays, travel, criticism, etc--were rushed into print. Miller--who had been living on his wits for 40 years--was rich. He moved to Los angeles and bought a house with a pool in Pacific Palisades. He married for the fifth time--a young chinese woman--and had another child. The writing tapered off. He became more interested in painting. He became a prolific painter of watercolors. He wrote a small book about painting--To Paint is to Love Again. Henry Miller died in 1987--age 92 BEUYS AND MOTHER EY Beuys survived the war. In the same way as Dix he was called up to serve in a Volksturm unit. He returned to Dresden--what was left of it. He switched from sculpture back to drawing. The drawings were proposals of projects in mind-- sculpture, installation projects, performance pieces and tableaus that for one reason or another--mostly due to the war--had never gotten off the ground. There were several shows of this work. it was well received. It tuned in perfectly to the post -european art scene. It was a new scene. The previous generation of artists--Beckmann, NOlde, Kirchner, Dix, etc--were finished. They were dinosaurs--fine for their time but this was not their time. It was the time of Herr Feldstein who had cut his dick off in Los Angeles, of Vito Acconci who had himself shot in the arm, zapped by a cattle prod and run over by a car; and it was the time of Frieda von Manstein (daughter of the Field Marshall) who took a mobil home trailer and stood it on end and wrapped it in mattresses tied with baling wire. This was the mood--the movement. A movement needs an elder statesmen. This was Beuys. He became the post-war Marcel Duchamp. Mother Ey returned to Germany. She re-opened her gallery. She tried to work up some enthusiasm for the younger artists but these people were not her cup of tea. There was no real conviction. And she was getting on. She was pushing 70. Little by little she faded from the scene. She died in 1954 HERMAN GORING Goring was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to hang--as he predicted. He kept his word about Hitler. The issue was loyalty. He saw it in this way: these people--Speer, Hess, Ribbontrop, etc--owed everything to Hitler. They had shared a common struggle, a bitter defeat and then an incredible triumph. They had lived like kings--sultans. And it suited them. There were no complaints. The idea of repudiating Hitler to save their miserable necks was enraging to Goring. And to save them for what? As he put it--to pee in front and crap from behind a little longer. It was in this mood Goring took the stand. He was cross examined by various allied lawyers and judges He made short work of these people. They were out of their league here. Goring could play the clown but this was a man who had survived 20 years of Nazi politics. He had wit and was very good at thinking on his feet. He also had an intimate knowledge of the last 12 years of German history. He knew the details. Goring hammered at a single point. History was written by the winners. War was war. It wasnt for pussies. People died. Both sides had fought with great bitterness and hatred. What Germany had done was no crime. The crime was losing. What about the English in India? What about the United States--all those indians and mexicans. Russia controlled half of Europe. Was she going to give these countries back? Etc, etc, Goring had one more trick up his sleeve. He managed to inform himself of the execution date and the night before committed suicide by swallowing poison. The media had a field day. "Goring cheats Death! This was the angle. How he managed to do this--smuggle a cyanide pill into his cell--when all these men were being watched like hawks around the clock and scrupulously searched three times a day--was something that has never been satisfactorily explained. The answer was: he was Goring. There was genius here--a genius for figuring ways to serve the needs of Herman Goring. PHIL SPIEGELMAN Phil Spiegelman mended his criminal ways. He was shot in the leg while fleeing a bungled hijack attempt--a truckload of Italian footwear--and busted and sentenced to two years in state prison. He did the two years and following release became a bartender. This was a good job for him: it provided steady access to a cash register. He was a bartender for 47 years. He is retired and lives in Palm Springs Calif. Conrad Felixmuller Conrad Felixmuller lived to be 90. He joined the communist party after the war and moved the family to East Germany. For this reason his reputation has never achieved the level of Beckmann, Kokoshka, Kierchner--or Otto Dix himself. At the age of 60 Felimuller took up mountain climbing. He performed a number of difficult climbs in the dentes Aguilles region of the French alps and in 1954 was invited to join a German team led by Maurice Herzog that performed th e first successful assault on K2--the second highest mountain--and generally consideidered a more perilous climb than Everest. Two years later he became the oldest climber to ascend the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland. He was interviewed following this feat and said: 2 things are required to be happy in life: a good marriage and the willingness to risk your neck once in a while OTTO DIX Martha Dix and the dix children survived the war. They fled to the west and found refuge with family relations in_____in the province of______. This part of Germany was safely in Allied hands--out of reach of the Russians. The family returned to Randegg to live. Dix had developed a taste for country life. It was the solitude. The solitude appealed to him. He liked to say that at a certain point in your life your were faced with two choices: boredom or aggravation. He chose boredom. He continued to paint. A new style appeared--in the alla prima vein. In the old days--applying the egg tempera technique with its laborious build up of layers of glazing a painting would take he would labor patiently over a painting for weeks or even months. Now they were whacked out in a day--or an hour. But there was something missing. There was no drawing here. It was in the drawing that the work of Dix distinguished itself. He had mastered a style that nimbly picked its way between caricature and realism--and provided the energy and drive to the earlier work--the great portraits of Sylvia Van harden, Fletcheim, MeirGrafe and so forth. This new work was too crude and sketchy. The colors were mud. it was thrift store paintings. It had value only because it came from the hand of Otto Dix. He had a few shows from time to time and the work sold well. Meanwhile some recognition for the earlier work of the 20's and 30's started to arrive--elections to art committees and various culture or the boards of various culture organizations and the honorary degrees and so forth. He accepted it all in a gracious way--tho admitting to friends it was a little on the late side. Where were these people in 1933? In 1955 he suffered a blow: his daughter Nellie was killed in a car crash. She was 30. The last years of his life were devoted to a new interest: astronomy. He became fascinated with this subject. He read books and joined a club and went on star gazing trips and built a telescope. He built several scopes--including a giant beast with a 16 inch lens he ground himself. The lens was mounted in a steel armature that projected from a spherical base that rotated within a bowl shaped base lubricated with mercuryand the entire assembly mounted on a gasoline driven cart. In 1970 he used this scope to zero in on what appeared to be a new galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major. He took photos and wrote up his observations and submitted the results to an astronomy journal. The evidence was checked out and verified It was authentic. The galaxy was named Dix456. Dix said the publication of this article gave him as much pleasure as anything he ever painted. He was once asked about this interest in the stars that had captured his attention in such a profound way. He said: there are an endless number--and they mind their fucking business! Otto dix died in 1972 at the age of 78. THE END! |
dix and mother ey
| *installment 18: war (in the camp) |
| The campaign Dix was called up to fight in was the Battle of the Bulge. This was Hitlers last gasp. It was a desperation gamble that didnt have a prayer. It was similar to the original campaign of 1940 to invade France via the Ardennes. There were two differences. This wasnt the German army of 1940. And they werent facing the French army of 1940. There was no air cover. The Luftwaffe was finished. There were sufficient reserves to briefly sustain the drive and a few battles were won and moderate losses inflicted on the Allies. But the Allies quickly recovered and re grouped and began to drive the Germans back. The end was in sight. It was only a question of time and another 2 or 3 million dead Germans. |
| The allies invaded France on June 6/44 The Germans knew the invasion was coming but where? It could happen near a large port Cherbourg or leharve it could happen in Normandy. It could happen in the south of France. Hitler was inclined to suspect Normandy. But where in Normandy? There were 200 miles of coastline to protect He had assigned two men to thrash this one out: Rommel and von Rundstedt They held opposing views. Rommels view was simple: wherever the allies landed they had to be met with sufficient force to throw them back into the sea. The first 24 hours were crucial. Once they were allowed to establish a beachhead it was all over. For this reason he wanted plenty of reserves on hand. In Rundsteds view somewhat shared by Hitler there was the strong possibility of a feint or diversionary assault to draw off troops and force the Germans to commit themselves. Then the major attack would be launched elsewhere. For this reason all reserve divisions should be stationed somewhat to the rear in a more flexible situation. Hitler was inclined to support this view. But not entirely. He went back and forth. He agreed with one then the other then with neither. It was reminiscent of Russia. They went back and forth with each other and with the British. it was a gigantic battle of wits. There was also the issue of air support. There was no air support. The Luftwaffe was finished. There was nothing to be done about this In the end the allies landed in Normandy, there was no feint, they brought their own pre fab harbors with them they banged together on the spot, they had 100 per cent air cover, the Germans stalled and failed to react in time and in 3 days it was all over Hitlers chief of staff Keitel got on the phone to Rundstedt in somewhat of a panic and said: what do we do! Rundstedt said: end the war you fools! |
| In the month following the invasion of Normandy an attack was made on Hitlers life. This was the 20 July plot. There were numerous attempts to assassinate Hitler. There were complications here. There was the problem of the act itself. The security around Hitler was formidable. Also he had an uncanny sense when it came to these things. There were several occasions when a scheme was in place that seemed certain to succeed but Hitler failed to make an appearance. There was also the myth. You might succeed in the assassination attempt but a civil war was sure to follow. It stood a chance only by getting the army to go along. The invasion and rapid destruction of Poland and the occupation of France in 3 weeks did nothing to diminish this conception of Hitler as a creature of fate. Also: the army had sworn an oath of loyalty not to Germany but to Hitler personally. This was a powerful deterrent. To revolt and betray this oath was considered treason. The movement began to gather steam following the invasion of Russia. The Einsatzgruppen the Himmler death squads sent to Poland to round up and liquidate the jews and any other groups suspected of harboring anti/nazi sentiments--were commissioned to do the same in Russia. They were given carte blanche. It was an orgy of rape, torture, murder. There were mass executions. It had a sickening effect on German officers. It occurred to them that this veneration of Hitler--as God--was a lie. They had been deceived in a big way here. One of the men to organize a coherent scheme with an actual plan to direct the government of the country following Hitlers death was an officer named von Treskow. There were several others including Fabian von Schlabrendorf who worked for the Office of Military Intelligence under Canaris. Treskow and Schlabrendorf had the job of actually directing the assassination. These were brave souls. The first attempt was made in Nov 43. This incident would make a good movie. It was a combination of Alfred Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers. Hitler was in Russia in Smolensk. From there he was flying back to his headquarters in east Germany.He had a staff officer named Brandt who had accompanied him on this trip. Treskow approached brandt and asked for a favor. Would he take back with him on the plane a small package containing two bottles of brandy for General Steif at headquarters. Brandt agreed. At the airport Treskow showed up with the package which he handed over to Brandt. Inside was the bomb. It had a 30 minute fuse already ticking away. The plane took off. it took off, flew back to Germany and landed. Back in Smolensk Schlabrendorf and Treskow were huddled by a radio awaiting news of the explosion and the death of Hitler. Nothing came. Two hours later they heard Hitlers plane had landed safely. Now they had a problem. General Steiff was not in on the plot. Once Brandt delivered the package and Steiff opened it and took note of the contents within Schlabrendorf and Treskow not to mention a whole bunch of other people were living dead men. What to do? They discussed their options. It was a short discussion. Treskow rang up Brandt at headquarters. He asked Brandt if he had delivered the package with the bottles of brandy to Steiff. Brandt said he had not. Treskow said there had been a mistake. he had given him the wrong package. He said he himself was flying to headquarters the next day on business and he would give him the right package. Brandt said fine. This actually occurred. Treskow flew in the next day and gave Brandt a new package containing two bottles of brandy. Brandt handed over package number one. He fumbled it as he did so and nearly dropped it. Treskow didnt bat an eye. When Treskow opened the package to examine the bomb he saw the fuse had worked. It had eaten its way through to the striker which had also sprung. But the detonator had failed. It was Claus Von Stauffenberg who devised the 20 July plot to bomb Hitlers headquarters in East Germany. Stauffenberg had been recruited by Treskow. He was a young officer who had fought under Rommel . He had been severely wounded. He suffered the loss of one hand and three fingers of the other also blinded in one eye. His assignment as a staff officer occasionally brought him into contact with Hitler and it was decided that he would use one of these occasions to plant a bomb. On 20 July 1944 STauffenberg was invited to attend a strategy conference in Hitlers headquarters in east Germany. Staff appeared for the conference, he had the bomb, he planted it and managed to excuse himself from the room and 20 minutes later there was a huge blast. The bomb destroyed the room and killed three people but Hitler escaped with minor injuries. His luck had held. The nazis sprung into action. The plot fell apart. STauffenberg was arrested the same day and shot. The others were gradually rounded up, arrested, tried, convicted, hung. They were strangled with piano wire. Injections of adrenalin were given to prolong consciousness. The hangings were filmed and shown to guests at the Berghof after dinner. |
| The Peoples Court was the Nazi version of the courts established by Stalin that presided over the great purge trials in 1937. Stalin had assembled a list of enemies he wished to eliminate and the man chosen to prosecute these people was Andre Vishinksy. It was a good choice. Vishinksy had developed a technique inspired by the idea of non rebuttal. The guilt of the defendant was taken for granted and a full confession was suggested for the sake of expediency. There were no options. This would save time and trouble and produce a favorable impression upon the court. Possibly the court would be inclined to show some mercy on the defendant or his family. Also it helps not to have a jury. In Germany Hitler took careful note of all this. He had his own candidate for this job Roland Freisler. Freisler was a lawyer who had fought in the war and was an early supporter of Hitler. He was sent to Moscow to observe the trials and study Vishinskys method. He proved an ace student. He became known as "Hitlers Vishinsky". |