Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 651, 24 February 1943

1. Germany.

 

A mass rally at the Sports Palace in Berlin.

 

– Reichsminister Dr. Joseph Goebbels’ speech announcing Germany’s ‘Total War’ on all fronts.

 

– The speech is reproduced partly as a live recording and partly as a narration by the announcer.

 

– Applause from the audience, shouts of approval; in the hall are delegations of women, military personnel and the wounded.

 

– Albert Speer is in the hall, along with a Japanese delegation.

 

– Above the stage, a slogan reads: “Total war – a swift war”.

 

– The hall chants: “Führer, give the order, we follow you!” The anthem plays, close-up of the Imperial eagle.

 

2. The southern sector of the Eastern Front in the Donets region.

 

Defensive battles are taking place.

 

– The Germans are sawing down telegraph poles.

 

– Retreating German troops with supply trains drawn by horses and camels.

 

– The civilian population moving alongside the retreating units.

 

– SS battalions in the trenches.

 

– A German tethered balloon with a scout takes to the air; communication with it.

 

– The Germans roll out heavy artillery and fire on a settlement.

 

– A blizzard; a German soldier shields his face from the cold with his hands; his eyelashes are frozen.

 

– Street fighting in a settlement.

 

– Destroyed buildings.

 

– Destroyed Soviet tanks.

 

– Infantrymen on the attack.

 

– The bodies of Soviet soldiers, covered in snow.

 

A Messerschmitt Bf 109G is wheeled out onto the runway.

 

– The pilot climbs into the cockpit.

 

– Messerschmitt 109s taking off. Bombers in the air against the backdrop of the sky.

 

– Bombing at low altitude.

 

– Explosions on the ground; Messerschmitts in the air.

 

– Firing at ground targets from the aircraft.

 

– Air combat with Soviet aircraft.

 

– Shots fired and hits on a YAK aircraft.

The Führer to the German Folk - June 22, 1941

 

German folk!

 

National Socialists!

 

Distressed by heavy cares, condemned to months of silence, the hour has now come in which I can finally speak openly.

 

When the German Reich received the English declaration of war on September 3, 1939, the British attempt repeated itself again to thwart the beginning of a consolidation and hence ascent of Europe through the fight against the continent’s presently strongest power.

 

So did England once ruin Spain in many wars.

 

So did it wage its wars against Holland.

 

So did it later, with the help of all of Europe, combat France.

 

And so began, around the turn of the century, the encirclement of Germany back then and in the year 1914 the World War.

 

Only due to its internal disunity did Germany succumb in the year 1918. The consequences were terrible. After one first hypocritically declared to have fought solely against the Kaiser and his regime, one began with the disarming of the German army and with the systematic destruction of the German Reich. While the prophecies of a French statesman that there were 20 million people too many in Germany, this means, had to be eliminated through hunger, illnesses and emigration, apparently fulfilled themselves literally, the National Socialist movement began to initiate its unification work of the German folk and thus the Reich’s resurrection.

 

This new rise by our folk out of distress, misery and shameful disrespect stood under the sign of a purely internal rebirth. Especially England was not touched or even threatened by it.

 

Nonetheless, the new, hate-filled encirclement policy against Germany momentarily set in again. Internally and externally, it came to that plot, known to us, between Jews and democrats, Bolsheviks and reactionaries, with the sole goals to prevent the erection of a new folk state, to plunge the Reich anew into impotence and misery.

 

Aside from us, the hatred of this international world conspiracy struck those folks, which, likewise overlooked by good fortune, were forced to earn their daily bread in the most difficult struggle for existence. Above all, Italy and Japan were contested, yes, literally forbidden their share in the goods of this world. The union of these nations was hence just an act of selfdefense against the egotistic world coalition of wealth and power threatening them.

 

Just that already in 1936, Churchill, according to the testimony of the American General Wood before a committee of the American House of Representatives, declared that Germany was again becoming too powerful and hence had to be destroyed.

 

In the summer of 1939, the time seemed to England to have come to be able to begin anew the intended destruction with the repetition of an extensive encirclement policy against Germany. The system of the campaign of lies initiated for this purpose consisted of declaring other folks threatened, first ensnaring them with English guarantees and assistance promises and then, like before the World War, having them march against Germany.

 

So England managed, from May to August 1939, to fling into the world the claim that Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Fin-land, Bessarabia as well as the Ukraine were directly threatened by Germany. A portion of these states let themselves to be thereby misguided to accept with these claims the offered guarantee promises and hence joined the new encirclement front against Germany.

 

Under these circumstances, I believed I could take responsibility before my conscience and before the history of the German folk to assure not only these lands and their government of the untruthfulness of the presented British claims, rather, beyond that, to calm the strongest power in the east, especially through solemn declarations, about the limits of our interests.

 

National Socialists!

 

You probably all once felt how this step was a bitter and difficult one for me. The German folk have never harbored hostile feelings toward Russia’s ethnic groups. Just that for over two decades, the Jewish-Bolshevik leadership has endeavored from Moscow to put not only Germany, rather all of Europe, on fire. Not Germany has ever tried to bring its National Socialist worldview to Russia, rather the Jewish-Bolshevik rulers in Moscow have incessantly undertaken to force their rule upon ours and the other European folks, and this not only intellectually, rather, above all, also in terms of military power.

 

The consequences of the activity of this regime, however, were in all lands only chaos, misery and hunger.

 

Conversely, I have endeavored for two decades, with a minimum of intervention and without any destruction of our production, to come to a social order in Germany that not only eliminates unemployment, rather also lets the profit of work flow increasingly to the working people themselves.

 

The successes of this policy of the economic and social new order of our folk, which, in the systematic overcoming of professional and class contradictions, as final goal strives for a genuine folk community, are unique in the whole world.

 

It was hence a difficult decision for me, in August 1939, to send my minister to Moscow in order to try there to work against the British encirclement policy against Germany. I did it only out of an awareness of responsibility toward the German folk, above all, however, in the hope to, in the end, nonetheless come to a permanent relaxation and to perhaps be able to reduce the sacrifices otherwise demanded from us.

 

In that Germany now solemnly assured in Moscow the listed regions and lands - aside from Lithuania - as lying outside all German political interests, an additional special agreement was made for the event that England should manage to actually incite Poland into war against Germany. But here as well, a limitation of German claims took place, which stood in no ratio to the accomplishments of German arms.

 

National Socialists!

 

The consequences of this treaty, wished for by me myself and concluded in the interest of the German folk, were very difficult, especially for the Germans living in the affected lands.

 

Far more than half a million German folk comrades - all small peasants, tradesmen and workers - were forced almost overnight to leave their previous homeland in order to escape a new regime that initially threatened them with boundless misery, sooner or later, however, with total extermination.

 

Nonetheless, thousands of Germans disappeared! It was impossible to ever discover their fate or even their location. Among them are more than 160 men of German Reich citizenship alone.

 

1 was silent about all this; because I had to be silent! For it was my wish, after all, to bring about a final relaxation and, if possible, a permanent settlement with this state.

 

Already during our advance in Poland, however, the Soviet rulers suddenly claimed, against the treaty, Lithuania as well.

 

The German Reich has never had the intention to occupy Lithuania and also not only never put such a proposal to the Lithuanian government, rather, quite the opposite, rejected the request by the Lithuanian government back then to send German troops to Lithuania in this sense as not corresponding to the goals of German policy.

 

Nonetheless, I submitted to this new Russian demand as well. But it was only the beginning of continuous new extortion, which has since then always repeated itself...

 

The victory in Poland, which had been won exclusively by German troops, caused me to direct a peace offer to the western powers anew. It fell to rejection by the international and Jewish war agitators.

 

The reason for this rejection, however, was that, already back then, England still had the hope to be able to mobilize a European coalition against Germany with the inclusion of the Balkans and of Soviet-Russia.

 

So one decided in London to send Mister Cripps to Moscow as ambassador. He received the clear assignment under all circumstances to resume anew the relations between England and Soviet Russia and to develop them in the English sense. The English press reported about the progress of this mission as long as tactical reasons did not cause it to be silent.

 

In the autumn of 1939 and spring of 1940, the first consequences also actually already showed themselves. While Russia prepared to militarily subjugate not only Finland, rather also the Baltic states, it suddenly based this process with the equally deceitful as ridiculous claim that it had to protect the lands against a foreign threat and preempt it. But only Germany could be meant by that. For another power could neither penetrate into the Baltic Sea region nor, say, wage war there. Nonetheless, I had to remain silent. But the rulers in the Kremlin immediately went farther.

 

While Germany in the spring of 1940, in the sense of the so-called friendship pact, pulled its combat forces far back from the eastern border, yes, to a large extent totally denuded these regions of German troops, the assembly of Russian force began already in this period to an extent that could only be viewed as an intentional threat against Germany.

 

According to Molotov’s personally made statement back then, already in the spring of 1940, there were 22 Russian divisions in the Baltic states alone.

 

Since the Russian government itself always claimed that it had been called by the populace there, the purpose of its presence there could only be a demonstration against Germany.

 

While our soldiers now, from May 10, 1940 onward, had broken French-British power in the west, the Russian assembly on our eastern front was continued in a gradually ever more threatening magnitude.

 

From August 1940 onward, I hence believed, in the interest of the Reich, to no longer be able to be responsible for leaving our already so often devastated eastern provinces unprotected against his mighty assembly of forces of Bolshevik divisions.

 

What the British-Soviet Russian cooperation intended, thereby set in, however, namely: the binding of such strong German forces in the east, that, especially in the air, the German leadership could no longer be responsible for a radical ending of the war in the west.

 

But this corresponded not only to the goal of British, rather also of Soviet Russian, policy. For both England as well as Soviet Russia have the intention to make this war last as long as possible in order to weaken all of Europe and to put it into ever greater impotence.

 

Russia’s ominous attack against Romania was likewise supposed, in the final analysis, to only serve the task of getting hands on, or, under circumstances, at least destroying, an important basis of not only German economic life, rather that of all of Europe.

 

But precisely the German Reich has endeavored since the year 1933 with infinite patience to win the southeastern European states as trade partners. We hence also possessed the greatest interest in their governmental consolidation and order. Russia’s invasion into Romania, the Greek tie to England threatened to transform these regions as well in the shortest time into a general theater of war.

 

Contrary to our principles and practices, on the urgent request of the Romanian government of back then, itself at fault for this development, for the sake of peace, I gave it the advice to give in to the Soviet Russian extortion and cede Bessarabia.

 

But the Roman government believed it could present this to its own folk only under the condition that Germany and Italy, as compensation for this, would at least give the guarantee that Romania’s still remaining territory would no longer be touched. I did this with a heavy heart, Above all, already because: If the German Reich gives a guarantee, this means that it also lives up to it. We are neither Englishmen nor Jews.

 

So I believed, still at the last hour, to have served the peace in this region, even though under the acceptance of a heavy obligation of ours. But in order to finally solve these problems and likewise obtain clarity about the Russian position on the Reich as well as under the pressure of the every escalating mobilization on our eastern order, I invited Mr. Molotov to come to Berlin.

 

The Soviet foreign minister now demanded Germany’s clarification or consent in the following four questions.

 

Molotov’s first question:

 

Should the German guarantee for Romania, in the event of an attack by Soviet Russia against Romania, also be directed against Soviet Russia?

 

My reply:

 

The German guarantee is a general one and one that unconditionally binds us. But Russia has never told us that, outside of Bessarabia, it still has any other interests at all in Romania. Already the occupation of Northern Bukowina was a violation of the assurance. I hence did not believe that Russia could now suddenly have more far-ranging intentions against Romania.

 

Molotov’s second question:

 

Russia feels itself threatened anew by Finland, Russia is determined not to tolerate this. Is Germany willing to give Finland no assistance whatsoever and, above all, to immediately withdraw the German troops marching through to Kirkenes as relief?

 

My reply:

 

Germany, now as well as before, has no political interests in Finland. A new war by Russia against the small Finnish folk, however, could no longer be viewed by the German Reich government as bearable, all the more so, as we could never believe in a threat against Russia by Finland. But we also do not want at all that a war region could again emerge in the Baltic Sea.

 

Molotov’s third question:

 

Is Germany willing to agree that Soviet Russian, for its part, give Bulgaria a guarantee and for this purpose sends Soviet Russian troops to Bulgaria, whereby he - Molotov - wants to declare that they do not have the intention, for example, to eliminate the king for this reason.

 

My reply:

 

Bulgaria is a sovereign state and I do not know that, similar to how Romania asked Germany, Bulgaria had ever asked Soviet Russia for a guarantee at all. I would have to discuss this with my allies.

 

Molotov’s fourth question:

 

Soviet Russia needs under all circumstances free passage through the Dardanelles and demands as well for its protection the occupation of a few important strong points on the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Does Germany agree to this or not?

 

My reply:

 

Germany is willing to give its consent at any time to a change of the Statute of Montreux in favor of the Black Sea states. Germany is not willing to agree to the seizure of Russian strong points on the straits.

 

National Socialists!

 

I have taken that stance here, which I could alone take as responsible leader of the German Reich, but also as responsible representative of European culture and civilization.

 

The result was an escalation of Soviet Russian activity directed against the Reich, above all, however, the immediate beginning of the inner hollowing out of the new Romanian state and the attempt, through propaganda, to eliminate the Bulgarian government.

 

With the help of confused, immature heads in the Romanian Legion, it was possible to instigate in Romania a coup d’état, whose goal it was to overthrow chief of state General Antonescu, produce chaos in the land, in order, through the elimination of a legal authority, to remove the prerequisite for the taking effect of the German guarantee promise.

 

Nonetheless, I still believed it best to continue my silence.

 

Immediately after the failure of this enterprise, another reinforcement of Russian troop concentrations on the German eastern border took place. Tank formations and paratroopers were moved in ever increasing number into an ominous proximity to the German border. The German Wehrmacht and the German homeland know that, still up to a new weeks ago, there was not a single German panzer or motorized division on our eastern border.

 

But if final proof were still required for the, despite all diversion and camouflage, meanwhile arisen coalition between England and Soviet Russia, then the Yugoslavian conflict provided it. While I endeavored to undertake a final attempt for the Balkan’s pacification and, in understanding cooperation with Il Duce, invited Yugoslavia to join the Axis Pact, England and Soviet Russia, in joint work, organized that coup d’état, which in one night eliminated the government back then ready for agreement.

 

For the German folk can today be informed: the Serbian coup d’état against Germany took place not only, say, under English, rather essentially under Soviet Russian flag. Since we kept silent about this as well, the Soviet Russian leadership, however, went still another step farther. It organized not only the revolt, a few days later it concluded with the new creatures subservient to it the known friendship treaty, which was designed to strengthen the Serbs in their will for resistance against the Balkan’s pacification and to incite them against Germany. And this was no Platonic intention.

 

Moscow demanded the mobilization of the Serbian army.

 

Since even now I still believed it better not to talk, the Kremlin’s rulers went still another step farther:

 

The German Reich government possesses today the documents from which it is proven that Russia, in order to finally bring Serbia into the fight, gave the assurance to deliver via Salonika weapons, airplanes, ammunition and other war material against Germany.

 

And this happened almost at the same moment, when I myself still gave to the Japanese Foreign Minster Dr. Matsoka the advice to bring about a relaxation with Russia, always in the hope to thereby serve peace.

 

Only the swift breakthrough by our incomparable divisions to Skoplje as well as the capture of Salonika itself thwarted the intentions of this Soviet Russian-Anglo-Saxon plot. The Serbian pilot officers, however, fled to Russia and were immediately taken in there as allies.

 

The victory by the Axis powers in the Balkans alone has initially thwarted the plan to entangle Germany this summer in months of fighting in the southeast and meanwhile complete ever more the assembly of Soviet Russian armies, to strengthen their war readiness, and then, together with England and supported by the hoped for American deliveries, to be able to suffocate and crush the German Reich and Italy.

 

Moscow has thereby not only broken the agreements of our friendship pact, rather betrayed them in a wretched manner!

 

And all this, while the Kremlin’s rulers, down to the last minute, just like in the case of Finland or Romania, feigned peace and friendship and composed apparently harmless denials.

 

But just as I was previously compelled by circumstances to again and again remain silent, so the moment has now nonetheless come, when continued looking on would not only be a sin of omission, rather a crime against the German folk, yes, against all of Europe.

 

Today around 100 Russian divisions stand on our border. For weeks, constant violations of this border have been occurring, not by us, rather likewise in the far north, as well as in Romania. Russian fliers have fun to simply overlook our border unconcerned, probably in order to thereby prove to us that they already feel themselves the masters of these regions.

 

In the night of June 17/18th, Russian patrols again probed into German Reich territory and could be driven back only after a prolonged firefight.

 

But now the hour has thereby come in which it becomes necessary to confront this plot by the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon war agitators and the equally Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik Moscow central.

 

German folk!

 

At this moment, an assembly takes place, which in expanse and extent is the greatest that the world has previously seen. In union with Finnish comrades, the warriors of the victor of Narvik stand on the Arctic Ocean. German divisions under the command of the conqueror of Norway, with the Finnish freedom heroes under their marshal, jointly protect Finnish soil. The formations of the German eastern front stretch from East Prussia to the Carpathians. On the banks of the Pruth, on the lower course of the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea, German and Romanian soldiers unite under chief of state Antonescu.

 

The task of this front is hence no longer the protection of individual lands, rather Europe’s security and hence the salvation all.

 

I have hence decided today to again put the fate and the future of the German Reich and of our folk into the hands of our soldiers.

 

May the Lord help us precisely in this struggle!

 

Berlin, June 22, 1941

Adolf Hitler

The Actions of SS-Panzer Recce Detachment 10 Against Partisans

 Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume 6, Number 5, Whole Number 35,

July – September 1984

 

by Gustav Jürgens

 

In late summer 1944, the activities of the communist partisans behind the German front in Italy took on critical proportions. From June to August 1944 the Germans had lost about 5,000 dead and 30,000 wounded to the partisans and the strength of the front was being sapped by the lack of ammunition and other material that was no longer reaching the troops. The main supply routes were the Bologna-Florence road running through the Setta Valley and the Bologna-Pistoia road running through the Reno Valley. Even strongly guarded motorized columns were being attacked and very often wiped out with no prisoners being taken. These attacks, in which hundreds of „civilians” (at least people in civilian dress!) often took part, became more numerous from day to day.

 

The responsibility for successfully combatting these partisans was put on the individual troop commanders of the corps and divisions. Therefore, more and more combat soldiers who were needed at the front, found themselves defending supply columns in the rear against the communist terror squads.

 

At the front, the British 8th Army was advancing along the Adriatic coast, while in the Apennines, the U.S. 5th Army, with an unbelievable material superiority, was grinding its way towards Bologna. The Allied High Command had been pushing for a breakthrough since July, hoping to end the campaign during the summer of 1944. During these crucial weeks, partisan activity had reached unprecedented heights. The commanding general of I. Fallschirmjäger Corps finally had to pull badly needed units out of the line for an operation against the communist partisan „brigade” „Lunnense.” Among the forces to be used were mountain troops, paratroops and the SS Panzer Recce Detachment 16 of the 16th SS Pz.Gr.Div. „Reichsführer-SS.“ The commander of SS Recce Det. 16 was Sturmbannführer (Major) Walter Reder. In addition to his own unit, his battle group for the struggle against the terrorists also included a Russian volunteer battalion and some commandos from the Italian „Nera” Brigade.

 

On 24 August 1944, the German units began their attack. The communists tried to escape encirclement by retreating into the hills around Carrara-Vinca. Here the fighting became very fierce and the Germans took heavy losses, but the SS Panzergrenadiers threw back the partisans in hand-to-hand combat and broke up the brigade. When the „Lunnense“ headquarters town of Vinca was taken on the 25th by Stubaf. Reder’s men, the last resistance collapsed. With the destruction of „Lunnense,” a short period of calm settled on the hard-pressed front as supplies arrived in more abundance and more frequently.

 

By the second half of September, however, an even bigger terrorist-partisan band calling itself the „Stella Rose“ (Red Star) Brigade, was bringing about another critical situation due to its ambushing of supply columns and attacking of garrison units and patrols. On 24 September 1944 American troops finally took the bitterly contested Futa Pass, east of the Bologna- Florence rail line, and were attempting to reach the headwaters of the Po River. Thus they were only a few kilometers away from the operational area of the „Stella Rosa“ Brigade, which lay between the Reno and Setta Rivers. Realizing that a joint operation between the Americans and the 2,000 well-equipped and armed members of the „Stella Rosa” Brigade could cause the front to collapse, the German command was faced with launching an immediate and effective anti-partisan operation or inviting disaster.

 

The partisan operations zone lay in the security area of the 16th SS Div. „RF-SS” and the divisional commander, SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon, due to the situation facing him had no recourse but to call on Stubaf. Reder and his battle-weary SS Recce Det. 16. During the night of 26/27 September, Reder’s unit was transferred to the Setta River valley in the area of Rioveggio as a tactical reserve for the anti-partisan operation. The detachment had already made a reputation for itself in the area of 14th Army under Generaloberst Vietinghoff-Scheel, as a „fire brigade” to several different corps.

 

Although the Germans took every conceivable security precaution against the news of an offensive against the partisans getting out, the communist leader Mario Musolesi (also known as „II Lupo” – “The Wolf”), knew all about the German plan of attack. These plans were forwarded to the communists by no less than a priest, Father Don Fornasini. After all, who would expect a „man of the cloth“ to spy for the atheistic communists? Musolesi decided that the „Stella Rosa” would hold its ground, defending the Monte Sole area where his arsenal was, and await the arrival of American troops, whom he thought must surely be strong enough to break the thin German lines and link up with him.

 

Four battalions of four companies each dug in in well-prepared positions in the area between Monte Sole and Monte Salvaro. Villages and farms were built up into defensive positions. Fornasini had seen to it that the element of surprise that the Germans were counting on was gone. Many a young SS grenadier would have to pay dearly for his infamy.

 

In the gray dawn of 29 September, German soldiers, paratroopers and SS men attacked the „Red Star” Brigade in the area of Marzabotto, on Monte Capara and around Monte Sole. The veterans of the SS Pz. Recce Det. 16 were led into the thick of the battle by SS-Hauptsturmführer Max Saalfrank. Stubaf. Reder had been incapacitated by a painful leg injury and there- fore stayed in his headquarters at Rioveggio to supervise the overall command of the operation by radio.

 

After the successful encirclement of the partisans, the „RF-SS“ Divisional Escort Co. along with parts of SS-Flak Det. 16 and SS-Artillery Rgt. 16 in conjunction with the SS-Recce Det. 16, began encountering heavy fire from rifles, machine guns and mortars that were in the hands of the communists and some of their supporters, which included some „Allied“ soldiers and a company of deserters from the 163rd Turkestan Div. in full German uniform. They forcibly obtained the support of the civilian population and dug in in every house, farm, and even on every hillock in the area, which they defended bitterly.

 

Again and again these bandits would emerge from the bushes and hedges to shoot the SS men in the back. Land mines also took their toll and made the advance slow. Without any thought of the elderly people and the women and children that they had dragged into the battle by occupying their homes and villages, the brigands of the „Red Star“ band waged a ruthless battle. Anyone who did not help them was shot out of hand.

 

The German losses began to climb, especially in the SS-Pz. Recce Det. 16. Reder’s men had indeed attacked the main defensive positions of „II Lupo’s“ Red cutthroats. The German assault ground to a halt in front of the bunkers and fortified houses and heavy weapons had to be brought up to smash the well-built positions. The villages of San Martino and Cadotto in particular were heavily defended and could only be taken after artillery bombardment. And so it went; position after position, house after house, village after village, taken in close combat.

 

In the course of the day the „fighters” of the „Red Star” band were driven back and then fell back on prepared mountain positions on Monte Sole where they came under the personal command of Mario Musolesi. They fought frantically, in some places to the last man. „II Lupo” fell not far from his headquarters, weapon in hand. The awaited American soldiers had failed to materialize. When the action ended, approximately 800 communist partisans lay dead on the battlefield. The main body of the terrorist force had been destroyed and the 30th of September was spent mopping up the remnants of the „Red Star” Brigade and its allies.

 

SS-Pz. Recce Det. 16, although having lost 24 killed, 40 wounded and 6 missing on the previous day, was rushed back to the front on 30 September and was just in time to seal off and drive back an American breakthrough near Lagaro. Although the unit was never used against partisans again, it remained in uninterrupted combat for the remainder of the war. The detachment fought along both sides of Sassa Marconi, defending the Reno and Setta Valleys to the west of Bologna. From the middle of December it fought against the British between Imola and Lake Comachio.

 

Walter Reder took charge of the SS-Panzergrenadier Rgt. 36 of the „RF-SS“ Div. in January 1945 and soon led it in action against the Soviets in Hungary. Late in the war he received serious leg wounds and was sent to the military hospital in Bad Gleichenberg, Steiermark (Austria). Despite his leg still being stiff, Reder left the hospital on 4 May 1945, determined to get back in action. He was unable to rejoin his old division and was sent instead to the Army’s 23rd Panzer Div. and ac- companied this formation into American captivity.

 

Walter Reder was released by the U.S. 3rd Inf. Div. on 15 May 1945, mainly due to his poor physical condition. He had his left arm missing below the elbow (due to wounds in 1943), a lame right wrist and hand, and stiff legs due to numerous wounds. But fate was to play a cruel trick on him. He would be arrested by U.S. authorities in September 1945 in Salzburg, because his name had found its way onto a list of „war criminals.’ ‘This amazing feat came about in typical „Allied” fashion.

 

Among the replacements sent to the 16th SS Div. „RF-SS“ in the late summer of 1944 was a man from Alsace by the name of Julien Legoli. His first and only taste of combat was against the „Stella Rossa” Brigade. Immediately afterwards he deserted and ran over to the Americans. To the Americans, Legoli was still a Frenchman, so they handed him over to the „Deuxieme Bureau” in Rome. The French accused Legoli of being a traitor in German employ. During his interrogation he said that he had taken part in the „Stella Rossa“ campaign.

 

That was the key phrase. The „Allied” interrogators and authorities then threatened Legoli with everything, including execution, unless he made a charge against one of his SS officers who had participated in the action. To save his own hide Legoli stated that prior to the fighting, Stubaf. Reder had ordered his men to retaliate immediately if they were attacked. That was good enough for the interrogators. The „Duexieme Bureau” passed on this „protocol” to the Badoglio government in Italy which was only too eager to enter the names of Gruf. Max Simon (the divisional CO) and Stubaf. Walter Reder onto its list of ‘ ‘war criminals. ‘ ‘

 

Upon hearing of this, the communists saw that here was a basis for concocting an atrocity story which they could use to cover up and/or justify the horrible atrocities that they themselves had and were committing. After the total „Allied“ victory, the communists had no trouble catching the „war criminals” in their net! Suddenly the leftist and communist press began screaming about the „Tragedy of Marzabotto” and the women and children (estimates from witnesses ranged from 200 to 2,000) burned or shot to death for no reason. These gruesome stories were always mentioned in connection with such great figures as Field Marshall Kesselring and Gruppenführer Max Simon.

 

As these stories gained momentum another figure in them grew in stature. He was described as a member of the „SS criminal organization,“ a beast, a devil in human form. He was pictured as an ogre in black SS uniform (not worn in the wartime Waffen-SS!), who strode down the streets of Marzabotto killing helpless people with his bare hands and sawing off the heads of babies with a bayonet! This inhuman fiend was supposed to be Walter Reder. The propaganda myth of Marzabotto was solidified in 1948 when the Italian government placed a „gold medal for bravery” on a mausoleum built in the town to commemorate the hoax.

 

It is somewhat difficult to figure out why Marzabotto was chosen to be the center point of this propaganda lie. During the entire operation against the „Stella Rossa“ band between 29 and 30 September 1944, the town of Marzabotto lay outside the combat zone on the opposite side of the Reno River. The German troops and Italian militia units stationed there found no reason to move against the civilians and the only losses suffered by the people of Marzabotto at this time were the men who fell in battle in the Setta Valley as partisan combatants. Death and destruction came only later as the front moved closer and Marzabotto became the target of „Allied” bombers and American artillery.

 

Neither Walter Reder or any other soldier from the SS-Pz. Recce Det. 16 ever set foot in Marzabotto. At no time did German Army or SS troops ever take revenge on the people of the town. The entire story of families burnt to death in their homes and churches by flamethrowers and/or machine gunned down in graveyards and other locations, was simply pure fabrication! Even the self-glorifying account written by the communist partisans themselves in 1945 never mentioned any kind of war crimes or massacres ever having taken place in Marzabotto.

 

The bravery, discipline and chivalry demonstrated by Sturmbannführer Walter Reder and his Waffen-SS soldiers is well documented and attested to as exemplary. In their area of conflict they fought with the idea of doing as little damage as possible to the villages and treated wounded civilians (including partisans) as they treated their own wounded. Partisans who were captured during and immediately after the battle were handled as prisoners of war and sent to POW camps. They were not harmed even after the discovery of some mutilated corpses of Waffen-SS troopers. Through his own personal intervention, Walter Reder prevented the deportation of 2,000 Italian men to the „east” as a reprisal by the arrival at the last minute of an officer bearing his orders. Reder also prevented other military units from burning the village of Monzone to the ground. Despite all of this he was castigated as a „war criminal“!

 

Following his arrest in September 1945, Walter Reder was transferred to a POW camp in Hallein and then later to Camp Marcus W. Orr in Hallein. Two years passed before the Americans even saw fit to begin investigating the charges against him. In the end, they found the case uninteresting but still kept him prisoner. In the summer of 1947, the British went to the Allied Extradition Board, presenting a petition for „Italian interests” for the custody of Reder. Twice the petition was denied on the grounds of „insufficient evidence,” but the British persisted and the Americans gave in on the third time. Walter Reder was handed over to them on 29 September 1947.

 

The British then went and investigated the charges made by the communists against Reder. The investigation was over by November 1947. After having sifted through the entire gamut of false evidence, forced affidavits, lies and perjured „witnesses,” the British reached the obvious conclusion that Walter Reder was totally innocent of the charges made against him. But such a conclusion was unacceptable to the politicians! The British were in a dilemma; they could either release Reder (which the political authorities would never approve of) or they could hand this innocent man over to the Italian government and let it do as it saw fit.

 

In the end they decided to take the coward’s way out. They would give Reder a chance to escape. With this in mind the British sent him home for a five-day „Christmas holiday,” without guard. Certainly that would be the last they would ever see of him! But Walter Reder, being a man of integrity and innocent as well of the terrible and malicious accusations that had been made, embarrassed the British authorities by actually returning! That meant that the underhanded political game now had to be played out.

 

On 13 March 1948 the British set Reder „free” but at the same time extradited him to the Italians. They did, in effect, act like Pontius Pilot by washing their hands of an innocent man and delivering him to his enemies. He arrived in Tarvisio with the status of “prisoner of war”.

 

The sham trial of Walter Reder lasted from 1948 to 1951. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress of Gaeta. He is still there today, to the everlasting shame of the „free” world. The Lie of Marzabotto and the power of the communists had triumphed again.

 

Afterword

 

It is worth mentioning that Italian military tribunals have several times ordered the release or parole of Walter Reder, but on each occasion have been overruled by civilian courts and political authorities. In 1980 an actual release date was set but then reneged upon when the communists, politicians, world press, assorted „Nazi Hunters“ and the Israelis (what possible interest they have in this cannot be determined), went into hysterics. The result was a barrage of the foulest and most ludicrous lies imaginable filling the international news media and as a result the Italians added extra conditions before any possible release of Walter Reder can take place.

 

Walter Reder is a man of the highest possible integrity, courage and fortitude. He has held up well after nearly 40 years of confinement and he has never given up his hope of getting out of prison.

 

That he is completely innocent of any wrong doing there is no doubt. He was a brave and compassionate soldier who was decorated with the highest military decoration of his country. But due to the corrupt and degenerate state of political affairs in the „free” world today he remains hostage to „state terrorism” at its worst.

 

Major Reder reads English and would appreciate hearing from anyone who feels he was done an injustice. He receives over 3,000 letters annually and usually answers them all, typing with one finger on his crippled right hand. He also relies on donations to help support the continuing legal battle to help him regain his freedom and to a lesser extent for his modest personal needs.

 

Walter Reder is the last POW from World War Two. It is the duty of those of us who have any appreciation whatsoever for bravery, truth and decency to offer our support to him in whatever way we can. It is the least we owe him.

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Kamerad Walter Reder was released from prison in 1985. Austrian Defense Minister Friedhelm Frischenschlager (FPÖ) was personally present at Graz-Thalerhof Airport on January 24, 1985, when an Italian military aircraft brought the pardoned Walter Reder back home from Italy. Walter Reder was greeted with a handshake. The media in West Germany and East Germany, however, vilified both men.

 

After his release, his health was severely compromised. The war veteran was 70 years old, missing one arm, with his remaining hand radially paralyzed, and two-thirds of his stomach and his gallbladder removed. Just one year after his release, he wrote a farewell letter to be sent after his death to everyone who had cared for him during his captivity. He passed away just a few years later. The FRG vassal regime did not lift a finger for him during the decades of his captivity, since he was “only” a German from Austria. Only from the Austrian part of Germany did he receive tentative political support.

 

Retired SS-Sturmbannführer Walter “Bubi” Reder passed away on April 26, 1991, in Vienna; the funeral took place on May 8, 1991, in Gmunden on the northern shore of Lake Traunsee, attended by a large gathering of friends and comrades.