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The End of the War

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Female Administrators of the Third Reich

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide ((PSHG))

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Abstract

The end of the war brought many challenges for the SS-Helferinnen, the Nachrichtenhelferinnen and the secretaries administrating for the Nazis. While secretaries were being transported out of Germany to avoid bombing attacks, the Helferinnen were being evacuated from occupied Europe back into Germany, attempting to avoid capture by the approaching Allies. For some, the unpredictable situation was exasperated by a lack of support from their male bosses and the risk of reprisals from Allied forces. Whilst almost all the women faced turmoil and upheaval, for some this was short-lived as they were able to return home after a matter of months; for others, their homecoming took years.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Martin Middlebrook, The Berlin Raids: RAF Bomber Command Winter 1943–1944 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990).

  2. 2.

    Michael Wildt, An Uncompromising Generation. The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009), p.349.

  3. 3.

    For more information on the bombing attack on Hamburg see, for example, Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg. Allied Bomber Forces Against a German City in 1943 (London: Allen Lane, 1980), and Keith Lowe, Inferno. The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943 (London: Viking, The Penguin Group, 2007).

  4. 4.

    Fernschreiben, gez. Brandt, to alle Hauptamtchefs, 31 July 1943, BArch DH, ZM 1469 A 5, cited in Michael Wildt, ‘Götzendämmerung. Das Reichssicherheitshauptamt im letzten Kriegsjahr’ in Sozialwissenschaftliche Information, 24, 1995, p.101.

  5. 5.

    Himmler to Pohl, 12 March 1944, BArch DH, ZM 1469 A5, cited in Wildt, An Uncompromising Generation, p.349.

  6. 6.

    Testimony of Ilse O., 31 July 1969 and 10 December 1968, BArch LB, B 162/4558.

  7. 7.

    Testimony of Ursula F., 27 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4555, and also testimony of Herta T., 12 October 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4560.

  8. 8.

    Testimony of Ruth T., 15 October 1965, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  9. 9.

    Testimony of Hildegard T., 17 October 1967, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  10. 10.

    Yaacov Lozowick, Hitler’s Bureaucrats (London and New York: Continum, 2000), p.97 and testimony of Else H., 21 June 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4168.

  11. 11.

    Testimony of Marianna M., 13 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4170.

  12. 12.

    Testimony of Gerda G., 9 August 1966, and testimony of Erna G., 19 August 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4556.

  13. 13.

    Testimony of Erika S., 1 July 1969, BArch LB, B 162/4558, and testimony of Ingeborg F., 3 July 1969, BArch LB, B 162/4555.

  14. 14.

    Testimony of Anneliese T., 27 October 1965, Landesarchiv Berlin (LAB) B Rep 057-01 3074, and see also Reinhard Rurup, ed., Topography of Terror: A Documentation, translated by Werner T. Angress (Berlin: Verlag Willmuth Arenhovel, 1989), pp.369, 371.

  15. 15.

    Testimony of Ingeborg W., 16 August 1967, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  16. 16.

    Testimony of Ursula F., 27 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4555.

  17. 17.

    Testimony of Herta T., 12 October 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4560.

  18. 18.

    Testimony of Ursula R., 7 September 1967, BArch LB, B 162/4173.

  19. 19.

    Testimony of Margarethe R., date is illegible, but possibly is 27 May 1962, LAB B Rep. 057-01 2422.

  20. 20.

    Testimony of Hildegard T., 17 October 1967, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  21. 21.

    Testimony of Ruth T., 15 October 1965, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  22. 22.

    Testimony of Elisabeth M., 8 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4170.

  23. 23.

    Testimony of Elfriede R., 24 March 1965, LAB B Rep 057-01 2519.

  24. 24.

    Testimony of Herta T., 12 October 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4560.

  25. 25.

    Testimony of Gertrud H., 27 October 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4556.

  26. 26.

    Testimony of Erika A., 24 October 1967LG Berlin, 3P KS 1/71 gegen Otto Bovensiepen und andere Bd. XXXVIII, pp.127–148.

  27. 27.

    Testimony of Erika A., 24 October 1967LG Berlin, 3P KS 1/71 gegen Otto Bovensiepen und andere Bd. XXXVIII, pp.127–148.

  28. 28.

    Clare Varner-Rassmann, ‘Briefe an Franzl’ in Jürgen Kleindienst, ed., Täglich Krieg Deutschland 1939–1945 (Berlin: JKL Publications, 2000) Reihe ZEITGUT, Band 9, p.180, p.182–185.

  29. 29.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Sigrid Meißner* in Franka Maubach, Die Stellung halten (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009), pp.266–267.

  30. 30.

    Werner Niehaus, Die Nachrichtentruppe 1914 bis heute: Entstehung und Einsatz (Stuttgart: Motorbuch-Verlag, 1980), pp.287–288.

  31. 31.

    Report written by SS-Helferin Rosl B., 3 October1944, BArch SF A0002.

  32. 32.

    Princess Ingeborg’s account of the last days of the German occupation in Prague, reprinted in James Lucas, Das Reich. The Military Role of 2 nd SS Division (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1991), pp.195–199.

  33. 33.

    Personal file of Charlotte R., letter 21 December 1944, BArch SF B0020. Disappointingly, her file does not note whether or not she was found.

  34. 34.

    Jutta Mühlenberg, Das SS-Helferinnenkorps. Ausbildung, Einsatz und Entnazifizierung der weiblichen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS 1942–1949 (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2011), p.260.

  35. 35.

    Mühlenberg, Das SS-Helferinnenkorps.

  36. 36.

    Report by Nachrichtenhelferin Elisabeth L.* in Gerda Szepansky, Blitzmädel Helfenmutter Kriegerwitwe. Frauenleben im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Franfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1986), p.97.

  37. 37.

    Report by Nachrichtenhelferin Elisabeth L.* in Szepansky, Blitzmädel.

  38. 38.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Sigrid Meißner in Maubach, Die Stellung halten, pp.266–267.

  39. 39.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Hilde Kerer, ‘Vom Willen des Lebens getrieben’ in Brixner, May 2006, pp.12–13

  40. 40.

    Report by Nachrichtenhelferin Elisabeth L.* in Szepansky, Blitzmädel, pp.97–98.

  41. 41.

    Dismissal command, 7 May 1945, BArch RL 7/547a.

  42. 42.

    Franka Maubach, ‘Als Helferin in der Wehrmacht. Eine paradigmatische Figur des Kriegsendes’, Osteuropa 55, 2005 Nr. 4–6: Sonderheft ‘Kluften der Erinnerung. Rußland und Deutschland 60 Jahre nach dem Krieg’, p.203.

  43. 43.

    Franz W. Seidler, Frauen zu den Waffen (Koblenz/Bonn: Wehr&Wissen, 1978), p.170.

  44. 44.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Ursula R.* in Rosemarie Killius, Frauen für die Front: Gespräche mit Wehrmachtshelferinnen (Leipzig: Militzke Verlag, 2003), p.55.

  45. 45.

    Killius, Frauen für die Front, p.57.

  46. 46.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Leni Ullmann* in Maubach, Die Stellung halten, pp.275, 277; Ullmann does not specify which of the Allies she was captured by but it is possible it was the French, as Bad Kreuznach was in their zone of occupation.

  47. 47.

    Kerer, ‘Vom Willen des Lebens getrieben’ in Brixner (May 2006), p.13.

  48. 48.

    Seidler, Frauen pp.170–172.

  49. 49.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Ilse H.* in Killius, Frauen für die Front, pp.33–35.

  50. 50.

    Interview with Nachrichtenhelferin Ilse H.* in Killius, Frauen für die Front.

  51. 51.

    Testimony of Ruth T., 15 October 1965, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  52. 52.

    RSHA, I Org, Verzeichnis sämtlicher Ausweichdienststellen und Standorte des Reichssichersamtes ausserhalb von Berlin, 21 December 1944, IfZ, Nürnberger Dokument 107-L, cited in Wildt, An Uncompromising Generation, p.350.

  53. 53.

    Testimony of Elisabeth M., 8 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4170.

  54. 54.

    Testimony of Friedericke A., 9 December 1964, LAB B Rep. 057-01 2353.

  55. 55.

    Testimony of Lieselotte W., 12 September 1969, BArch LB, B 162/4560.

  56. 56.

    Testimony of Barbara Hellmuth, 12 December 1960, BArch LB, B 162/3233.

  57. 57.

    Traudl Junge, Until the Final Hour, Melissa Müller, ed., translated by Anthea Bell (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p.219.

  58. 58.

    Junge, Until the Final Hour, Melissa Müller, ed.

  59. 59.

    Anton Joachimsthaler, The Last Days of Hitler. Legend, Evidence and Truth, translated by Helmut Bogler (London: Arms and Armour, 1996, Cassell Military Paperbacks edition, 2002), p.170.

  60. 60.

    Adolf Eichmann, Ich, Adolf Eichmann: ein historischer Zeugenbericht, Rudolf Aschenauer, ed. (Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel, 1980), p.423.

  61. 61.

    Testimony of Gisela K., 21 June 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4169.

  62. 62.

    Testimony of Ingeborg S., 13 October 1965, BArch LB, B 162/4173.

  63. 63.

    Testimony of Hildegard T., 17 October 1967, BArch LB, B 162/4174.

  64. 64.

    See Peter R. Black, Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Third Reich (Princeton, New Jersey, Guildford: Princeton University Press, 1984), and Robert E. Matteson, The Capture and Last Days of SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Chief of the Nazi Gestapo, Criminal Police and Intelligence Services (Saint Paul, Minnesotta: R.E.Matteson 1993).

  65. 65.

    See Gertrude Schneider, Exile and Destruction: The Fate of Austrian Jews, 1938–1945 (Westport, Connecticut, London: Praeger, 1995), and Moshe Pearlman, The Capture of Adolf Eichmann (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961).

  66. 66.

    Testimony of Ingeborg W., 21 May 1962 and 21 March 1966, LAB Rep. 057-01 3182.

  67. 67.

    Testimony of Hildegard vom H., 1 February 1965, BArch LB, B 162/4168.

  68. 68.

    Testimony of Marianna M., 13 September 1966, BArch LB, B 162/4170.

  69. 69.

    Testimony of Stephanie A., 25 July 1967, LG Berlin, 3P KS 1/71 gegen Otto Bovensiepen und andere Bd.XXXIII, pp.85–95.

  70. 70.

    Antony Beevor, Berlin. The Downfall 1945 (London: Viking, 2002), p.326.

  71. 71.

    Beevor, Berlin, p.414.

  72. 72.

    James O’Donnell, The Bunker (New York: Da Capo Press, 2001), p.211.

  73. 73.

    Antony Beevor, ‘They Raped every German Female from eight to 80’, The Guardian (London, 1 May 2002), and Beevor, Berlin.

  74. 74.

    Norman M. Naimark, The Russians in Germany: The History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995), p.132.

  75. 75.

    Atina Grossmann, ‘A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers’, October 72, Spring 1995, MIT Press, p.46.

  76. 76.

    Beevor, Berlin, p.410.

  77. 77.

    Grossmann, ‘Question of Silence’, p.46.

  78. 78.

    Grossmann, ‘Question of Silence’, p.61.

  79. 79.

    For more information on the rape of women in Germany see Beevor, Berlin, Helke Sander and Barbara Johr, eds., Befreier und Befreite, Krieg, Vergewaltigungen, Kinder (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2005), Andrea Petö, ‘Stimmens des Schweigens. Erinnerungen an Vergewaltigungen in den Hauptstädten des “ersten Opfers” (Wien) und des “letzten Verbündeten” Hitlers (Budapest) 1945’, Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 47 (1999), pp.892–913, and Anonymous, A woman in Berlin (London: Secker and Warburg, 1955).

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  1. Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, London, United Kingdom

    Rachel Century

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Century, R. (2017). The End of the War. In: Female Administrators of the Third Reich. Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54893-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54893-1_7

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