The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

59. TBJG, II/15, p. 190 (23.1.45), p. 216 (25.1.45). By early February Goebbels had changed his mind. He now thought it important to emphasize the Bolshevik atrocities and did not think that publicizing them would produce panic.—TBJG, II/15, pp. 322–3 (6.2.45).

60. BStA, MA 106696, report of the RPvNB/OP, 10.3.45. Colonel Curt Pollex, based in Berlin, noted that Soviet atrocities, exploited by German propaganda, were causing ‘total panic’.—BA/MA, N712/15, NL Pollex, Auszüge aus Briefen, fo. 14, 23.1.45. For the mood of panic spread by refugees and fear of the Russians, see also Victor Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten, vol 2: Tagebücher 1942–1945, ed. Walter Nowojski and Hadwig Klemperer, Darmstadt, 1998, pp. 645–6, 649–60 (25.1.45, 29.1.45).

61. VB, South German edn., 9.2.45.

62. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Josef E., 21.1.45.

63. Jörg Echternkamp (ed.), Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland 1945: Leben in Angst—Hoffnung auf Frieden. Feldpost aus der Heimat und von der Front, Paderborn, 2006, pp. 138–9 (28.1.45) and p. 268 nn. 282–6. The letter was returned, marked ‘Wait for New Address’. Whether the soldier survived is not known.

64. BStA, MA 106695, report of the RPvOB, 9.2.45.

65. BStA, MA 106696, report of the RPvOF/MF, 8.2.45.

66. Ursula von Kardorff, Berliner Aufzeichnungen 1942–1945, pb. edn., Munich, 1981, pp. 228 (25.1.45), 229 (30.1.45).

67. Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Schauplatz Berlin: Ein deutsches Tagebuch, Munich, 1962, p. 124 (22.1.45).

68. LHC, Dempsey Papers, no. 249, pt. II, p. 9 (in English).

69. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 193.

70. Das letzte halbe Jahr: Stimmungsberichte der Wehrmachtpropaganda 1944/45, ed. Wolfram Wette, Ricarda Bremer and Detlef Vogel, Essen, 2001, pp. 219–20, 229 (23.1.45, 1.2.45).

71. Andreas-Friedrich, p. 126 (31.1.45).

72. Das letzte halbe Jahr, p. 219 (23.1.45), pp. 228–9 (1.2.45).

73. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 197.

74. Das letzte halbe Jahr, pp. 235–6 (7.2.45).

75. Echternkamp, p. 129 (20.1.45).

76. IWM, Memoirs of P. E. von Stemann, p. 200.

77. IWM, ‘Aus deutschen Urkunden 1935–1945’, unpub. documentation, n.d. (c. 1945–6), pp. 66–7, 276–8.

78. Das letzte halbe Jahr, pp. 218 (22.1.45), 236 (7.2.45).

79. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gisela K., 3.2.45.

80. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Luise G., 3.2.45.

81. Heinrich Breloer (ed.), Mein Tagebuch: Geschichten vom Überleben 1939–1947, Cologne, 1984, p. 228 (27.1.45).

82. For a good description in one region, see Jill Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis, London, 2006, pp. 304–12.

83. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gefr. Heinrich R., 23.1.45.

84. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Sold. Willy F., 30.1.45.

85. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Fw. Hugo B., 2.2.45.

86. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Lt. Thomas S., 23.1.45.

87. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Hptm. Emerich P., 20.1.45.

88. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Uffz. Hans ——, 24.1.45.

89. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, O’Gefr. Otto L., 24.1.45.

90. BfZ, Sammlung Sterz, Gren. Kurt M., 30.1.45.

91. Quoted Andreas Kunz, Wehrmacht und Niederlage: Die bewaffnete Macht in der Endphase der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1944 bis 1945, Munich, 2007, p. 243, and see also, for racial stereotypes, pp. 269–70.

92. BA/MA, MSg2/2697, fo. 88, diary of Lieutenant Julius Dufner, 25.1.45.

93. NAL, WO219/1587, fo. 860, SHAEF, Directorate of Army Psychiatry Research Memorandum 45/03/12, January 1945.

94. Kunz, pp. 299–300.

95. BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fo. 81 (14.1.45); N245/2, Briefe, fo. 41 (15.1.45); N245/15, Generalleutnant Otto Heidkämper (former Chief of Staff of Army Group Centre), ‘Die Schlacht um Ostpreußen’ (1953), fo. 32; Guderian, pp. 382–3; DRZW, 10/1 (Lakowski), pp. 536–7.

96. BA/MA, N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fo. 82 (16–17.1.45); N245/15, Heidkämper, fos. 40–43.

97. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41 (19.1.45).

98. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41 (20.1.45).

99. BA/MA, N245/2, NL Reinhardt, Briefe, fo. 41^v (21.1.45); N245/3, NL Reinhardt, ‘Kalenderblätter 1945’, fos. 82–3 (20–21.1.45); N245/15, Heidkämper, fos. 53–7.