A Raid Over Berlin by John Martin

Author:John Martin [Martin, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781912681204
Publisher: Parthian Books
Published: 2018-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

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At some point in July 1944 we noticed an obvious change in morale amongst the Germans who were guarding us, which I believe was shared by all German forces, wherever they were serving, and probably all German citizens as well. This followed the attempted assassination of Hitler in East Prussia, which could not have been that far from our Stalag in the north of the country.

The first sign of change was at morning roll call when at its completion our leader saluted the German officer in charge as normal, but this was not returned, as it always was, with a similar salute, but with a salute that everyone knew to be the Nazi one; the right arm and hand was stretched fully forward and slightly raised. It seemed that Hitler had called all his ordinary, purely military personnel, to heel, and reminded them who was boss. (What we did not know then was that control of the Allied prisoner of war camps was handed over to the SS commander, Himmler, following the assassination attempt.)

The new salute, however, was a mere detail of the change and thankfully the guards were not more aggressive to the prisoners; whatever had been inflicted on them was not to be passed on to us. It seemed, if anything, that it was to be kept secret.

From then on, the ordinary salute was not seen to be used by any German, but some of the fear that we guessed they were under – that of being posted to the Russian Front – gradually came to light. Some of our guards had already been there and, quite unofficially of course, being sure they could not be overheard, would disclose some of the horrors they had been through there. They declared that the Russians were not like British or German soldiers – they were ‘animals’ and did not care how many of them were killed in gaining an inch of ground.

Knowing this, but not risking a blow from a rifle butt by saying it to anyone but a guard known to be a bit amiable, who would accept a bit of teasing, prisoners might ask, looking very serious, ‘Russian front, Herr Smitt?’ They knew what his self-comforting answer would be – ‘Nein. Nein. Too old’, but we noticed that some of the old guards did disappear, very noticeably the German Warrant Officer.

He was a very firm man, but fair, and we knew what to do and what not to do when he was about. He was not a Nazi, but a true professional regular soldier. We felt safe with him, so although it might sound strange, we thought we had suffered a loss.

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When the true horrors of the Concentration Camps were revealed in April 1945, ordinary Germans claimed to have no knowledge of the Gas Chambers or the primitive barbaric burning of the bodies. However, just after the attempted assassination of Hitler – remember that was in July 1944 – a new phrase began to circulate around the camp – ‘If you do not behave, you will go up the chimney.

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