'Werwolf' (
German for "
werewolf", the spelling ''"Wehrwolf"'' is incorrect) was a
World War II Nazi plan for a clandestine resistance force which would carry out
guerrilla attacks against the occupying forces in the event that the Nazi regime came to an end. It is an extreme example of a
stay-behind or
partisan organization. The word "Werwolf" itself is the German cognate of
werewolf, in the sense of
lycanthropy; it is also a pun on Wehrwolf, the German word ''Wehr'' meaning ''defense'' (the armed forces of
Nazi Germany, for example, were collectively called the ''
Wehrmacht'' ("defence force")). "Werwolf" was the favoured name of the movement, although "Wehrwolf" was also sometimes used. In the end, the name was chosen after the title of a novel about the
30 Years War, written by
Hermann Löns in 1914. Löns was admired by the higher spheres of Nazism because of the nationalist ideas in some of his writings. "Wolverine" was another name used by the Nazis for this plan.
Plans
The original plan for Werwolf was to act as a guerrilla force to interfere with the logistics of Allied armies preparing to assault the Nazis' mythical "
Alpine National Redoubt." Lt. General of the SS
Hans-Adolf Prützmann was named "General Inspector of Special Defense" (''Generalinspekteur für Spezialabwehr'') and was assigned the task of setting up the force's headquarters in Berlin and organizing and instructing the force. Prutzmann had studied the guerrilla tactics used by Russian partisans while stationed in the occupied territories of the Ukraine and the idea was to teach these tactics to the members of Operation Werwolf.
The tactics available to the organization included
sniping attacks,
arson,
sabotage, and
assassination. Training was to include such topics as the production of home-made explosives, manufacturing detonators from common articles such as pencils and "a can of soup", and every member was to be trained in how to jump into a guard tower and strangle the sentry in one swift movement, using only a metre of string. Werwolf agents were supposed to have at their disposal a vast assortment of weapons, from fire-proof coats to silenced
Walther pistols. In reality this was merely on paper; the Werwolf never actually had the necessary equipment, organization, morale or coordination.
Werwolf originally had about five thousand members recruited from the "
SS" (''
Schutzstaffel'') and the
Hitler Youth (''
Hitler-Jugend''). These recruits were specially trained in guerrilla tactics. Operation Werwolf went so far as to establish front companies to ensure continued funding after Germany was occupied (all of the "front companies" were discovered and shut down within eight months). However, as it became increasingly clear that the Alpine Redoubt was yet another grandiose delusion, Werwolf was converted into a
terrorist organisation and in the last few weeks of the war, Operation Werwolf was largely dismantled by
Heinrich Himmler and
Wilhelm Keitel.
Disorganized attempts were made to bury explosives, ammunition and weapons in different locations around the country (mainly in the pre-1939 German-Polish border) to be used by the Werwolf in their terrorist acts after the defeat of Germany, but not only were the amounts of material to be "buried" prohibitively low, by that point the movement itself was so disorganized that few actual members or leaders knew where the materials were, how to use them, or what to do with them. A large portion of these "depots" were found by the Russians and virtually none of the materials were actually used by the Werwolf.
[1]
On
March 23,
1945,
Joseph Goebbels gave a speech, known as the "Werwolf speech", in which he urged every German to fight to the death. The partial dismantling of the organized Werwolf, combined with the effects of the "Werwolf" speech, caused considerable confusion about which subsequent attacks were actually carried out by Werwolf members, as opposed to solo acts by fanatical Nazis or small groups of SS.
Operations
Antony Beevor and
Earl F. Ziemke have argued that Werwolf never amounted to a serious threat, in fact they are regarded by them as barely having existed. This view is supported by the
RAND Corporation, which surveyed the history of U.S. occupations with an eye to advising on Iraq. According to a study by former Ambassador
James Dobbins and a team of RAND researchers, the total number of post-conflict American combat casualties in Germany was zero.
[2] German historian
Golo Mann, in his ''The History of Herman Since 1789'' also states that "The [Germans'] readiness to work with the victors, to carry out their orders, to accept their advice and their help was genuine; of the resistance which the Allies had expected in the way of 'werewolf' units and nocturnal guerrilla activities, there was no sign."
[3]
However, historian
Alexander Perry Biddiscombe takes a different view. In his ''Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946'' (1998)
[4] he states that after retreating to the
Black Forest and the
Harz mountains, the Werwolf continued resisting the occupation until at least 1947, possibly to 1949-50, effectively undermining post-war peace and stability.
It must be noted that he also characterizes the German post-surrender resistance as "minor" (p.275), and calls the post-war Werwolfs "desperadoes"
(p.151) and "fanatics living in forest huts" (p.80). He further cites U.S. Army intelligence reports that characterized partisans as "nomad bands" (p.197) and judged them to be less serious threats than attacks by foreign slave laborers (p.152) and considered their sabotage and subversive activities to be insignificant (p. 115). He also notes that: "the Americans and British concluded, even in the summer of 1945, that, as a nationwide network, the original Werwolf was irrevocably destroyed, and that it no longer posed a threat to the occupation." (p.51)
Biddiscombe also says that Werwolf violence failed to mobilize a spirit of national resistance, that the group was poorly led, armed, and organized, and that it was doomed to failure given the war-weariness of the populace and the hesitancy of young Germans to sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyre of the regime. He also states that although the group failed to assume a popular character, its influence was still great and that its revolutionary sentiments would have grave implications for the future.
It has been alleged that in
East Prussia, a part of Germany that had been handed over to Poland and from which the German population was being forcibly expelled, that the Werwolf carried out massacres of civilians, and a few substantial attacks against
Soviet troops. There is, however, no proof of this.
One often overlooked aspect of Werwolf is that the Hitler Youth component was also responsible for developing a new political youth movement which was intended to outlast the war, and which was called "neo-Nazism". Some current German
neo-Nazi groups refer to themselves as "Werwolf" or "Wehrwolf."
The post-war longevity of tales of German resistance movements, such as the Werwolf, was partly due to the continued desperation of the German people who for two years suffered under the U.S. occupation directive
JCS 1067.
[5] [6].
Alleged Werwolf actions
★ It has been claimed that the destruction of the
United States Military Government police headquarters in Bremen on
June 5 1945 by two mysterious explosions (possibly caused by delayed-action ordnance) which resulted in 44 deaths
[7] was a Werwolf-related attack. There is, however, no proof that it was due to Werwolf actions rather than to unexploded bombs.
★ Dr.
Franz Oppenhoff, the newly appointed anti-Nazi
mayor of Allied-occupied
Aachen, was murdered outside his home in March of 1945, allegedly by Werwolfs, but was in fact killed by an SS unit flown in at the order of Heinrich Himmler.
★ Major John Poston,
Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery's liaison officer was killed before Germany's surrender by unidentified assailants; again, no proof exists that it was due to the action of Werwolfs.
★ Colonel-General
Nikolai Berzarin, Soviet commandant of
Berlin is often claimed to have been assassinated by Werwolfs, but actually died in a motorcycle accident on
June 16 1945.
[8]
★ The Werwolf
propaganda station "''Radio Werwolf''" (which actually broadcast from Nauen near Berlin during April 1945), also claimed the assassination of General
Maurice Rose[9], who was in
killed in action by regular troops before the war ended.
Allied Reaction and Reprisals
According to Biddiscombes research General Eisenhower in April 1945 ordered that all partisans were to be shot.
(p.254) As a consequence some summary executions without trial followed.
Contrary to the Hague rules of War (1907) the SHAEF "counter insurgency manual" included provisions for forced labor and hostage taking.
(p.256)
★ At
Seedorf UK forces randomly selected and burned 2 cottages on April 21.
(p.257)
★ At the town of
Sogel the Canadian first Army evacuated the civilians from the city center whereupon it was systematically demolished.
(p.258)
★ The Canadians behaved in similar fashion in
Freysoythe.
★ Unless the citizens of the city of
Stuppach within 3 hours produced the German officer that the U.S. forces believed was hiding there they were informed that: all male inhabitants would be shot, women and children expelled to the surrounding wilderness and the city razed. (p.259)
★ U.S. combat troops destroyed the town of
Bruchsal, in retaliation for SS activities.
(p.259)
★ At the city of
Constancein the French occupation zone in mid may 400 hostages were taken, two persons who resisted French orders had been shot, part of the city evacuated and threats were made to burn the evacuated part down.
★ French forces expelled more than 25,000 civilians from their homes. Some of them were then forced to clear minefields in
Alsace. (p.261)
★ Killing of hostages by the French took place amongst others in
Markdorf and
Reutlingen.
★ The city of
Lichtental was pillaged and the female population raped by the French.
[10]
★
Jarmin was demolished by Soviet troops.
(p.270)
★ At the town of
Schivelbein all men were shot and all women and girls raped by Soviet troops.
(p.270)
Thanks to harsh repression such as that, the German resistance movement was successfully suppressed.
(p.263)
However, collective punishment for acts of resistance, such as fines and curfews, was still being imposed as late as 1948.
(p.265)
Biddiscombe estimates the total death toll as a direct result of Werewolf actions and the resulting reprisals as 3,000-5,000.
(p.276)
Werwolf references in recent politics
The history of Werwolf has been compared to Islamic terrorists by the
Bush Administration and the right wing element of U.S. politics in light of persistent problems regarding the American-led
occupation of Iraq [11] [12] [13].
Werwolf in fiction
★ In the
manga ''
Hellsing'', a secret British organisation fights against a Nazi
battalion based in
Brazil. It moved there during the last months of the war and some of its officers are referred as being Werwolf. They fight to overthrow Britain using a battalion of artificially created
vampires.
★ In the
Lars von Trier film, ''
Europa'' (released in North America as ''Zentropa''), Werwolf terrorist plots play a prominent role in the story.
★
Samuel Fuller directed the 1959 film ''Verboten!'' about the love between a GI (
James Best) and a German woman (
Susan Cummings) whose brother is active in the Werewolves.
★ In the French comic book "Anton Six" (
José Louis Bocquet/Arno) the U.S Secret Service sent an agent to meet Werwolf soldiers in Ukraine which possessed information about Stalin and the Red Army.
★ In the 2007 movie, ''
Grindhouse'',
Rob Zombie directed a short fictional movie preview, titled "Werewolf Women of the SS".
★ Operation Werwolf is referred to in passing in the both the book and movie ''
The ODESSA File.''
Notes
1. The Fall of Berlin 1945, , Antony, Beevor, Viking, ,
2.
3. The History of Germany Since 1789, , Golo, Mann, Vintage/Ebury, ,
4. Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946, , Perry, Biddiscombe, University of Toronto Press, ,
5. "''The Road Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan for Postwar Iraq''" by Ray Salvatore Jennings May 2003 Peceworks No. 49 United States Institute of Peace pg. 26
6. ''Cost of Defeat'', ''Time Magazine'', April 8, 1946
7.
8.
9. The occupation of Germany, the occupation of Iraq, many parallels
10. Biddiscombe, Werwolf p.263. In the footnote further referred to Hillel, "''L'Occupation Francaise en Allemagne''", p.85
11. US Depertment of Defense speech [1]
12. White House Press Release [2]
13. Slate magazine [3]
See also
★
Forest Brothers, the post-war resistance movement in the Baltic states.
★
Stay-behind
★
Partisan
★
Franz Oppenhoff, Mayor of Aachen, Germany
★ The Alpine
National Redoubt of Germany
External links
★
''A Phony "Phony History"'' The Heritage Foundation, September 23, 2003
★
Sorry, Dr. Rice, postwar Germany was nothing like Iraq
★
Review of ''Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946'' Canadian Journal of History, Dec 1999 by Lawrence D Stokes
★
ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES: THE U.S. ARMY IN THE OCCUPATION OF GERMANY
★
The Anti-Terror Campaign That Succeeded
Bibliography
★
Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946, , Perry, Biddiscombe, University of Toronto Press, ,
★
The Fall of Berlin 1945, , Antony, Beevor, Viking Penguin, ,
★ Lucas, James , ''"Kommando: German Special Forces of World War II"''
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