Hitler's Final Fortress - Breslau 1945 by Richard Hargreaves

Author:Richard Hargreaves [Hargreaves, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Germany, Military, World War II, Russia, Eastern, Russia & Former Soviet Republics, Bisac Code 1: HIS027100
ISBN: 9781844686315
Amazon: B009EE9EAU
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2012-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The Breslau Method

Oh, you beautiful Breslau, how you have changed,

how you have turned into a field

of ruins and all because you are no fortress,

you were merely turned into one with words

Conrad Bischof

The first day of March 1945 was bright, mild, wonderful. The sun was strong enough now to melt the snow by day. The first spring bulbs were poking through the surface of the earth, the first green shoots timidly and slowly appearing. This augury of spring was the only hope. Life in Breslau, librarian Friedrich Grieger observed, “has gradually become like that of a besieged medieval fortress”. By day the streets were empty, except for military vehicles and fire engines. At first and last light, civilians rushed to and from their places of work, or dashed with pails to water fountains. Shops remained open. Butchers, bakers, grocers – all preferred to close, but were ordered not to by the Party. They received little custom, for as electrician Hermann Nowack wrote, “a shell can come through the window or door at any moment”. The traditional greeting of ‘Heil Hitler’ had long since been replaced by another: Bleib übrig – stay alive. In many parts of the city the mains had failed, flooding the churned-up streets. By night there was a macabre firework display as Russian searchlights, flak and tracer sought transport aircraft bound to and from Gandau airfield, while their loudspeakers proclaimed the latest Allied successes and repeatedly broadcast demands for Breslau’s surrender.1

Karl Hanke delivered his response on the evening of Saturday, 3 March. His speech was carried by the wire radio network across the city and, beyond Breslau, by state radio. It was mercifully short; the Gauleiter was neither a great writer nor passionate orator. Tonight his words were aimed less at the defenders of his city than what was left of Hitler’s ever-contracting empire. “When the history of the struggle for Festung Breslau is written one day, then it will have to remember all the men and women who today simply do their duty, unaware that they are setting an historic example.” At first light each morning, “tens of thousands of dutiful men and women” cleared rubble, rubbish and dust from the city’s streets “so that messengers, ambulances and trucks can make their way”. The people of Breslau had demonstrated to the entire world “that determined resistance halts even our Bolshevik foe”. He singled out the Volkssturm – “sixty-year-olds have often acted like young soldiers” – and the Hitler Youths. “Anyone who has seen these youths with their own eyes knows the truth of the words: with us comes the new age.” That new age would see the Silesian capital built anew, Hanke continued:

We do not know what Fate has decided for us and Festung Breslau; but one thing we do know when we look into the eyes of our youngest and most faithful of our fanatical youths: whatever happens after we’re gone, they will rebuild, yes here in Breslau, yes here in Lower Silesia, and for

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