Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 635, 4 November 1942

1. Italy.

 

Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the “March on Rome”.

 

– Parade of military units.

 

– Arrival of the German delegation led by Reichsleiter Robert Ley.

 

– Meeting at the railway station in Rome, guard of honour.

 

– Reception at the Duce’s residence in Palazzo Venezia.

 

– Dr. Robert Ley delivers Hitler’s personal message to Mussolini.

 

– Mussolini visits an exhibition of the achievements of the fascist regime (XX Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista).

 

– The Duce and his entourage leave the exhibition and are greeted by fascist activists.

 

– A peasant woman gives the Duce a basket of flowers.

 

2. The Pacific Ocean.

 

Japanese ships assemble in the southern Pacific Ocean.

 

– Japanese ships on the move.

 

– Alarm.

 

– Sailors take their places.

 

– Guns are aimed.

 

– An American aircraft carrier is fired upon.

 

– Gunners at their guns.

 

– Japanese ships firing their guns.

 

– Japanese planes in the air.

 

– Japanese bombers raid one of the American bases.

 

– Announcer reports on the successes of the Japanese fleet.

 

– American fleet losses on a diagram.

 

3. USSR. Eastern Front.

 

The Battle of Stalingrad.

 

– German guns firing at the Barrikady factory.

 

– German aircraft in the air.

 

– German crew at the gun.

 

4. USSR. Germans in destroyed Stalingrad.

 

German soldiers among the ruins.

 

– German tanks.

 

– Germans fighting in the streets.

 

– Railway tracks. Wreckage of a destroyed factory.

 

– Soviet prisoners of war.

 

5. USSR. Caucasian Front.

 

On the Tikhoretsk-Krasnodar-Maykop line.

 

– German airfield in the Terek area.

 

– Pilots discussing the plan of operation.

 

– German planes in the air.

 

– View of Soviet positions from the air.

 

– German artillery officers studying a map.

 

– The start of shelling of Soviet positions.

 

– Mortars firing.

 

– Germans in the foothills of the Caucasus.

 

– Disinfection unit in the mountains.

 

– Germans running to bathe in a mountain river.

 

– View of the mountains.

 

– German mountain riflemen put on camouflage coats.

 

– A reconnaissance group goes into the mountains.

 

– The group among the eternal snows on a mountain slope.

 

– Firefight with the enemy.

 

– A German machine gun fires.

 

6. Africa.

 

The African front. Desert landscape.

 

– A German soldier surveys the desert terrain from a mountain.

 

– Rommel arrives at the command post.

 

– He talks with officers and gives instructions.

 

– Rommel consults with officers over a map.

 

– German soldiers marching.

 

– They take a break.

 

– A soldier with a machine gun.

 

– Firefight with Anglo-Americans.

 

– German company on the offensive.

 

– Explosions.

 

– Killed British soldiers.

 

– Captured British position.

 

– British soldier surrenders.

 

– German tanks advance.

 

– Burning enemy tanks.

Adolf Hitler – Speech in the Berlin Lustgarten

 

January 30, 1936

 

Men of the SA! National Socialists! Party Comrades!

 

When we take a retrospective look today, it does not end in the year 1933, but must go back further. What was a moment of surprise back then for many who did not know our Movement, was for us and for you, my Old Fighters, but the hour of fulfillment.

 

There were many, particularly outside Germany, who may have been amazed on January 30 and in the following weeks and months at the miracle which had taken place before their very eyes. Yet you, my comrades, and I had together awaited this hour for a decade, had believed in it and placed our hopes in it. For us, it was not a surprise but rather the culmination of fourteen years of hard fighting. We set forth not blind, but seeing and believing. And thus when I look back on that day I am gripped with a deep gratitude, gratitude to those who enabled me to experience this day three years ago. Today they are gathered here from throughout the German Reich as the pioneers and banner bearers of our Movement, the two eldest from each storm troop. They all experienced first-hand the evolution of our Movement, the evolution of its struggle, its fight and its conquests. And I myself stood over this fight for fourteen years. I conducted the fight for fourteen years; I also founded this SA and, in its ranks and at its fore, led the Movement onward for fourteen years. I have come to know you. And I know: everything you are, you are through me, and everything I am, I am through you alone.

 

The best core of the German nation already stood in our ranks that day. The best of our Volk had already chosen us that day. Only the petty doubters and the unreasonable were still standing to the side. But now these ranks have been markedly diminished. For what stands against us today is not standing against us because we are National Socialists, but because we have made Germany free and strong once again. Those are the enemies of our Volk in our own land whom we know from the time of the Great War, from the time of the regrettable revolt in 1918, and whom we know from the time of our worst decay. They are the only ones who not only do not want to find their way to us, but who will also never be able to find the way-and whom we ourselves can do without.

 

The Movement has given to the German Volk an element of oneness and unity which will long have an effect, far into the most distant future. Those who believe that this Movement is still bound today to a single person are mistaken.

 

I was its herald. And today from this one herald have come millions. If one of us draws his last breath today, he knows that after him come ten others! This Movement will fade no more. It will lead Germany on, and even if our enemies refuse to accept the fact, Germany will never again lapse into a state of that most sorry disgrace we were forced to endure.

 

And you, my oldest Party fighters, men of the SA and SS and political soldiers, are the guarantors of this being as it is. You are the guarantors that this spirit shall never die out. As you stand here, members of the entire German Volk, of all professions, all ranks, and all classes, from every confession, joined to form a whole, blind to all but this Germany and your service to it, there will grow forth from among you a young generation, inspired by the same spirit, seeing in you their model and following you.

 

Germany will not live through the times of November 1918 again. Let every man relinquish the hope that the wheels of world history could ever he turned back.

 

At the same time, just as we have always preached peace to our Volk at home, we want to be a peace-loving element among the other peoples. We cannot repeat that often enough. We seek peace because we love peace! But we stand up for honor because we have no desire to live without it.

 

Today we can proudly stand up before the world as Germans. For particularly in this last year of our regime, the German Volk has been given back its honor before the world. We are no longer defenseless Helots but have become free and self-assured ‘world citizens.’ It is with pride that we can allow these three years to pass before our mind’s eye. They constitute an obligation for the future as well. The coming years will not require less work. There are individuals who believe themselves capable of striking a blow at National Socialism in that they claim, ‘Yes, but all of that requires sacrifices.’ Yes, my worthy petits bourgeois, our fight has required constant sacrifice. But you did not go through that. Perhaps you imagine Germany has become what it is today because you did not make any sacrifices.

 

No! It is because we were able to make sacrifices and wanted to do so that this Germany came to be! So if someone tells us, ‘That means the future will require sacrifices, too,’ we say ‘Quite right!’ National Socialism is not a doctrine of lethargy, but a doctrine of fighting.

 

Not a doctrine of good fortune, of coincidence, but a doctrine of work, a doctrine of struggle, and thus also a doctrine of sacrifices. That is how we did things before the fight, and in these past three years this has not changed, and it will remain so in the future!

 

Only one thing matters: for millenniums our Volk has had to make sacrifices for its chosen path in life and its life-struggle. It has been given nothing, but only too often the sacrifices have been for naught. Today the Movement can give the German Volk this guarantee: whatever sacrifices you, German Volk, make, will no longer be in vain; rather, these sacrifices will always win you a new life.

 

And I would like to ask you to join me once again in uttering the battle cry for what means most to us in this world, for which we once fought and struggled and triumphed, which we did not forget in the time of defeat, which we loved in the time of need, which we adored in the time of disgrace, and which is sacred and dear to us now in the time of victories.

 

Our German Reich, our German Volk, and our one and only National Socialist Movement:

 

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

New Insights into the 24. Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Karstjäger

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine - Vol. XII, No. 4,

Whole Number 72, Spring-Summer 2002

 

By Dr. Marco Novarese

 

Above: The assigned Karstjäger right collar patch depicting an Alpine flower. It was issued in the autumn of 1944 to the almost universal dislike of the troops who preferred the SS runic collar patch.

 

In the summer of 1944, the SS-FHA (HQ) issued orders to transform the SS-Karstwehr-Bataillon, (which had a total strength of 957 troops on 30 June 1944) into a small division. Unfortunately it soon proved impossible to form all of the authorized units as the men and material were available for only a few of them. So the divisional formation staff assembled most of the combat units, (with the exception of a mountain artillery battery and a Panzer company), into the Waffen-Gebirgs-Karstjäger-Regiment der SS 59. These included the following elements:

 

Staff Company

Signals Platoon

Engineer Platoon

Mounted Platoon

Infantry Howitzer Platoon

Field Canine Staff (Military Dogs!)

 

The Staff Company came first under SS-Ostuf. Scheid, then SS-Ostuf. Geissler. In August 1944 it had a strength of 1 officer, 5 NCO’s and 13 men. The Signals Platoon came under SS-Sturmscharführer Farensky and it was formed from radio/telephone communications specialists that served that the different companies. At each battalion command post and at regimental headquarters there was a radio communications post. The total strength of this platoon was 60 NCO’s and men.

 

The Engineer Platoon came under SS-Oscha. Bräutigam and had a net strength of 4 NCO’s and 36 men. The Mounted Platoon was led by an Italian officer, Waffen-Ostuf. Odorico Borsatti, and his command contained 1 officer, 5 NCO’s and 36 men. This was a rough terrain reconnaissance unit. The Infantry Howitzer Platoon, which later became a Tank Destroyer Platoon, consisted of its commander, SS-Oscha. Walter along with 4 other NCO’s and 42 men. They were armed with Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust bazookas, along with 4 Italian artillery pieces (PAK Model 47/32) and one 6,5 cm gun, called by the SS the „Hofer (or Hoffen)-Kannone“ (i.e „hope for the best“ cannon). This unit was always divided among the different companies, in particular the heavy weapons companies (4^th and 8^th) of the two mountain battalions assigned to the regiment.

 

The field canine unit (dog staff) was an independent unit formed with personal from the Hundestaffel Ost-Mitte, a Waffen-SS military dog unit that had been active on the Eastern Front until the summer of 1944. It was then transferred to Italy and came under the orders of the Waffen-SS commander-in-chief for Italy, who in turn sent some small detachments to support the different companies of Waffen-Gebirgs Regiment der SS 59/Karstjäger Brigade.

 

Above: SS-Hauptsturmführer Kühbandner, the commander of I. Btl./Waf Geb. Rgt. d. SS 59 from 12 May 1944 until 10 February 1945.

 

It was proposed to form a Mountain Artillery Regiment for the new division which was to come under the command of SS-Oberführer Karl Diebitsch, the former commander of an Italian SS battle-group on the Anzio front. Diebitsch was sent to northeastern Italy in case his proposed command ever developed, but it didn’t, so he remained at the disposal of the Higher SS and Police Leader for the Adriatic Coastland. Instead of the regiment, only one artillery battery was formed consisting of 6 Italian 7,5 cm mountain guns. This element remained at the disposal of the brigade/divisional staff.

 

The Karstjäger tank (panzer) company, was commanded by the German SS-Ustuf. Behrend, who was actually outranked by his second-in-command, the Italian Waf.-Hstuf. Pistocchi. The unit was formed from 14 Italian model Panzer P-40 tanks, considered to be the latest and most powerful Italian tank, built in some instances after the general Italian surrender in 1943. There were 3 tank platoons consisting of 4 tanks, while the German and Italian ‘‘commanders” both had their own tanks. Another source has indicated that there were actually 24 tanks available but 10 of them had to be held in reserve because of insufficient crews to man them! The tank crews were formed from German and Italian personnel that had taken a training course at the Wehrmacht Panzer Training School „South”, situated in Lonigo near Verona, Italy. In December 1944, the unit received some Waffen-SS „Panzermänner” (tank men) from the 2nd SS Panzer Division „Das Reich”. These were all recovered wounded soldiers who never the less were all well-decorated and experienced Panzer men.

 

To train new recruits for the division, two units were established. The first of which was SS-Karstjäger Replacement Company which initially was only for German Waffen-SS soldiers. It was established first at Pottenstein and later relocated to Cividale. This was the „normal“ division/brigade depot company for new recruits. The other training unit was the Waffen-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz-Bataillon der 24. W.Geb.Div.d.SS Karstjäger. This unit was activated only to train non-German recruits, which it did of note on three separate occasions. These were: I) May-June 1944 when 400 South Tyrolean recruits were trained; 2) July/August 1944 when 800 to 1,000 Italian, Slovenian and Croatian recruits were trained; and 3) February/March 1945 when the last 200 to 300 Italian recruits were trained. Not all of these recruits were later incorporated into the brigade/division. In fact many of these either deserted or were dismissed from service. Only a few hundred of these non-German recruits were actually considered to be reliable soldiers.

 

 

Top photo: SS-Karstjäger troops on the march.

 Bottom photo: The SS-Karstjäger Mountain Artillery Battery in action.

 

In the autumn of 1944, the Division/Brigade had a strength of 42 officers, 258 NCO’s and 2,179 men for a total of 2,479. The final order of battle of the unit was as follows:

 

Division/Brigade Staff

 

Waffen-Gebirgs (Karstjäger)-Regiment der SS 59

Staff Company

Signals Platoon

Engineer Platoon

Mounted Reconnaissance Platoon

Tank Destroyer Platoon

Military Field Dog Staff

 

I. Battalion

Staff

1. High Mountain Company

2. Mountain Company

3. Mountain Company

4. Heavy Weapons

 

II. Battalion

Staff

5. Mountain Company (Spanish Volunteers)

6. Mountain Company

7. Mountain Company

8. Heavy Weapons Company

 

III. Battalion (Disbanded in early 1945)

Staff

9. Mountain Company

10. Mountain Company (Never formed)

11. Mountain Company (Never formed)

l2. Heavy Weapons Company

 

Waffen-Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regiment der SS 24

Staff

I. Battery

 

Waffen-Panzer-Kompanie der SS 24

I. Platoon

II. Platoon

III. Platoon

 

Waffen-Sanitäts (Medical)-Kompanie der SS 24

I. Platoon (Main Dressing Station)

II. Platoon (Main Dressing Station)

 

Verwaltungstruppen (Abteilung IV a of the Divisional Staff)

Administrative Office

Field Post Office

 

Nachschubtruppen (Supply/Support Troops)

Workshop Platoon

1. Mountain Transport Column

2. Mountain Transport Column

 

Veterinary Service (Abteilung IV c of the Divisional Staff)

 

SS-Karstjäger-Ersatz-Kompanie

(German Waffen-SS recruit training & depot company)

 

Waffen-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz-Bataillon der SS 24 (Active only at certain periods to train non-German new recruits in a strength of 3 to 4 companies)

 

 

Top photo: Italian P-40 tank front the Karstjäger Panzer Company in action. Bottom photo: Destroyed Italian P-40 tank from the Karstjäger Panzer Company on H May 1945 near the Austro-Italian border.

 

It should be noted that the original SS-Karstwehr-Bataillon (formed in 1942, initially only in company strength), was a purely German Waffen-SS formation. The first officers and NCO’s came primarily from the 2nd SS Division „Das Reich”, and in 1943 the first ethnic-German (Volksdeutsche) volunteers were added. After the Italian surrender in 1943, some Italian officers and soldiers were enlisted into the unit to serve as either translators or as liaison personnel with local Italian authorities. Early in 1944, the battalion commander, SS-Standartenführer Brand, attempted (without success) to enroll an entire Slovenian unit into his formation. Following this failure, in May 1944, some 400 ethnic Germans from South Tyrol were added to the battalion after participating in a two-month training program in the Waffen-Ausbildungs-und-Ersatz Bataillon der SS 24.

 

In the summer of 1944, around 1,000 Italian, Slovenian and Croatian volunteers were enlisted for the Karstjäger Division/Brigade, but after completing the standard two-month training course from the Waf.- Aus.u.Ers.Btl.d.SS 24, only some 300 to 400 of these recruits were incorporated into the unit. The rest were either considered unreliable or incompetent. Another attempt was made to incorporate an entire Ukrainian unit, perhaps a full regiment into Kartsjäger, but that failed too, possibly because the Ukrainians wanted nothing to do with it.

 

Documents from the Spanish embassy in Switzerland at the end of the war stated that some Spanish volunteers arrived in Italy at the beginning of 1945. While some went into the Italian SS Legion, (29. Waf.- Gr.Div.d.SS), others under the command of Waf.-Oscha.Ortiz and Waf.-Oscha. Meleiro went to the Karstjäger Division and were incorporated into the 5^th Company of II.Battalion/Waf.Geb.Rgt.d.SS 59. Fifteen of these volunteers were killed during the last days of the war in an attack against partisan positions on Monte Santo, near Gorizia. Among the dead were said to be Ortiz and Meleiro. Ortiz had come from Santander but had lived in Madrid while Meleiro was from the province of Orense (?).

 

In February and March 1945, the Waf.-Aus.u.Ers.Btl.d.SS 24 was activated for the last time in order to train some 200 to 300 new Italian recruits, not all of whom were later incorporated into the division. The highest ranking Italian officer in the Karstjäger Division was Waf.-Stubaf. Giuseppe Occelli, a former Alpini Captain in the Italian Army; he served in the unit from September 1943 onwards. Two other Italian officers with command positions in the 24^th SS Division, were Waf.-Hstuf. Pistocchi, the second in command of the Panzer Company, and Waf.-Ostuf. Borsatti who commanded the Mounted Reconnaissance Platoon. Borsatti was killed at the end of the war by Italian partisans near the town of Palmanova.

 

Editor’s Notes

 

According to documents that came from the Field Command Post of the Reichsführer-SS, the 24. Waf.- Geb. Div. d. SS Karstjäger was downgraded to a brigade in late 1944, (seemingly December), but was upgraded to its old divisional status again in February 1945, (possibly for the benefit of Allied intelligence). During the period in which the unit was supposed to be changed from a battalion to a division then to a brigade, a divisional formation staff ran Kartsjäger under the supervision of SS-Stubaf. Werner Hahn, (12 May 1944 to 10 February 1945). On 10 February 1945, the unit again received divisional status and a new commander, SS-Oberführer Adolf Wagner, was supposed to take over. SS-Stubaf. Hahn now became the first divisional staff officer. It should be noted that Karstjäger carried the Waffen (instead of SS) prefix in its title due to the abundant non-German element in the unit. In any event the final command roster from 10 February 1945 until presumably the end of the war looked like this:

 

Commander: SS-Oberfhr. Adolf Wagner

1a (1st Staff Officer): SS-Stubaf Werner Hahn

Orderly Officer: SS-Ustuf Friedrich Thimel

IV a (Maintenance Officer): SS-Ustuf Werner Höpner

Verwaltungsführer (Administrative): SS-Hstuf Siegfried Ulm

IV b (Medical Officer): SS-Hstuf Dr. Heinz Habisreutinger

Apotheker (Pharmacist): SS-Hstuf Kurt Schrader

IV c (Veterinary Officer): SS-Ostubaf Dr. Rudolf Sechser

Waffen-Gebirgs-Regiment der SS 59: SS-Stubaf. Josef Berschneider

I. Btl: SS-Hstuf. Kühbandner

II. Btl: SS-Ostuf. Merwald

Waffen-Gebirgs-Regiment der SS 60: never formed

Waffen-Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regiment der SS: SS-Oberfhr. Karl Diebitsch

Panzer Company: SS-Ustuf. Behrend

 

One final note: the Karstjäger alpine flower collar patch was issued in the autumn of 1944, but the soldiers saw it as a „downgrade“ from the SS runes. Edelweiss specialty badges were issued on 1 Nov. 1944.

 

Above: A rare example of an original Soldbuch (ID/Paybook)9 of the Italian volunteer Waffen- Unterscharführer der SS Pietro Mauro, who served in 12th Co./II.Btl/Karstjäger Brigade. It is dated 16 December 1944 and signed by his company commander.

Die Reise nach Tilsit (1939)

The Journey to Tilsit

 

Directed by: Veit Harlan

Written by: Hermann Sudermann (novella), Wolfgang Schleif and Veit Harlan

Produced by: Helmut Eweler and Franz Tappers

Cinematography: Bruno Mondi

Edited by: Marianne Behr

Music by: Hans-Otto Borgmann

Production company: Majestic-Film

Distributed by: Tobis Film

Release date: 2 November 1939

Running time: 90 minutes

Country: National Socialist Germany

Language: German

Budget: 1.012 million ℛℳ

Box office: 2.537 million ℛℳ

 

Starring:

 

Kristina Söderbaum: Elske Settegast

Philip Dorn: Endrik Settegast

Anna Dammann: Madlyn Sapierska

Albert Florath: Teacher

Ernst Legal: Mr Wittkuhn

Manny Ziener: Mrs Papendieck

Charlotte Schultz: Mrs Wittkuhn

Eduard von Winterstein: Erwin Bohrmann

Clemens Hasse: Young Man from the Tram

Jakob Tiedtke: Innkeeper

Paul Westermeier: Town Crier

Wolfgang Kieling: Little Franz

Joachim Pfaff: Little Jons

Heinz Dugall: Little Wittkuhn

Babsi Schultz-Reckewell: Mariechen

Lotte Spira: Woman in the café

Eduard Wenck: Villager

Alfred Karen: Owner of the fur shop

Heinz Müller: Fat man at the fair

Ferdinand Robert: Guest in the café in Tilsit

Betty Waid: Old woman from the village

Max Wilmsen: Companion of the woman in the café

Bruno Ziener: Waiter in the café

 

The Journey to Tilsit (German: Die Reise nach Tilsit) is a 1939 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan and starring Kristina Söderbaum, Philip Dorn and Anna Dammann.

 

Plot

 

Elske faithfully loves her fisherman husband Endrik as he is seduced by a foreign schemer, Madlyn. Madlyn persuades him to murder Elske and run off with her. He lures Elske into the boat as a prelude to drowning her. Though he is unable to carry it out, she realizes his intent. When they reach the shore, she flees to the city of Tilsit, and he follows to plead for forgiveness. They return, and a storm blows up while they are in the boat. Endrik gets ashore, believing Elske to have drowned. He reacts with anger to Madlyn, but learns that Elske did survive.

 

Adolf Hitler - “New Year’s Proclamation to the National-Socialists and Party Comrades” – read by Dr. Joseph Goebbels

National-Socialists! Party Comrades! The new Reich is ringing in the New Year for the third time. At the beginning of the twelve months past, the imminent collapse of the National-Socialist regime was prophesied-for the third time.

And for the third time, under this regime Germany has become stronger and healthier in every area of its national life.

I am conscious that, no matter what might happen to Germany, the Party will remain a stable and indestructible foundation for the German will to live, just as it has been in the past fifteen years. A zealously devoted community of German men, German women, and German youth will stand behind me: as it did in the past in both good times and bad, so it will in the future!

May the year 1936 see us filled with a new and sacred enthusiasm to work and stand up for our Volk.

May it see us all united in the consciousness of the common task assigned to us. But today we wish to thank the Almighty who has given our work His blessings in the past. And we wish to join together in our humble request to Him that He not desert us in the future.

Long live the National-Socialist Movement!

Long live our united German Volk and Reich!

Berlin, January 1, 1936

Adolf Hitler