Saving Munich 1945: The story of Rupprecht Gerngross by Yarranton Lesley

Author:Yarranton, Lesley [Yarranton, Lesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Real Press
Published: 2020-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Dr Karl Scheid, whose wife, Lotte, accompanied Gerngross’ pregnant wife, Brigitte, to a mountain hideaway before the uprising began. Dr Scheid, aged 38, was shot in the back by SS guards after they waved him through a checkpoint. He was on his way to the US troops to peacefully surrender the town where he was a hospital doctor. He was described by a colleague as a “sworn enemy of National Socialism”. Picture courtesy of Markus Wrba, Rechtsanwalt, Tergernsee.

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Upon reaching Munich, Newsome set out to find Gerngross. He knew that the American troops’ delayed arrival would have left the FAB men at serious risk, and so on reaching US Army headquarters was relieved to find a tall, impatient figure fitting Gerngross’ description pacing up and down in front of a desk. The dark-haired Bavarian, who, Newsome felt, bore “a strong resemblance to [British Foreign Secretary] Anthony Eden” [224] was towering over a young Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) officer and engaged in a testy exchange in perfect English.

After leaving the farm at Binsham , Gerngross had reported immediately to the US 3rd Army, but was held for screening after his identity papers were dismissed as ‘stolen’. “The real Rupprecht Gerngross is hanging from a lamppost in Munich’s Ludwigstraße ” the CIC officer told him, having heard that morning’s German news broadcasts. [225] Gerngross’ plea that he urgently needed to reach his pregnant wife Brigitta and baby daughter in their remote mountain hide-out before the SS cut no ice.

It was hardly surprising. With the terrible images of the heaps of rotting corpses still fresh in the minds of American officers, every German was now suspect. There were no longer any doubts about the savagery of the regime, and to Gerngross’ disbelieving captors, it seemed clear that any open revolt against the Nazis would have been tantamount to suicide.

It is a theme examined by Holocaust and World War II historian Professor Rebecca Boehling, who looked at the role of the US military government in Munich. Witnessing the mass-murders at Dachau “made the idea of internal German anti-fascism seem unfathomable,” she concluded in her book about postwar Germany, A Question of Priorities Democratic Reforms and Economic Recovery. [226]

Fortunately for Gerngross, two American officers he had helped smuggle out of the PoW camp at Moosburg were tracked down and vouched for him. Newsome then agreed to drive him into the mountains to rescue his wife and baby daughter, interviewing him along the way.

This is how the British journalist and the man behind the anti-Hitler FAB rebellion now found themselves sitting in a jeep, heading into SS-controlled territory, the two of them embarking on what Newsome called “a mad adventure” together, armed only with Luger pistols.

“It was with some trepidation that I set out,” Newsome, 39, recalled with a degree of understatement. “Strong SS forces still held the area. Nor did I view the prospect of a ten or eleven-hour trek up the mountains without some qualms… However, if Frau Gerngross, who was going to have a baby in September, could do it, so could I….

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