Werwolf groups..real or propaganda?

[pzrmeyer2]

The Wehrwolves were as downplayed and marginalized by the contemporary media as the "insurgents" are over-hyped and played-up by today's press.

[sid guttridge]

Hi pzrmeyer,

Evidence?

They were certainly much hyped in early 1945. Perhaps they were just not the major threat later that they were intended to be by their creators?

Cheers,

Sid.

[pzrmeyer2]

Recently, there have been comparisons made in the print and video media examining the coverage the Wehrwolves got back then versus the largely pro-terror pieces on the Iraqi "insurgency" today. Of particluar interest are some comparitive New York Times editorials from the late 1940s lamenting the disastrous quagmire of post war German occupation. (!)

Essentially the details describe a more helpful press (other than the Times, I presume), which assited the US authorities in downplaying Wehrwolf activity and claims of responsibilty so as not to give it any legitmacy or derive more support or copycat crimes. Suspected wolves were dealt with harshly--many if captured were summarily executed. No Gitmo or ACLU support back then...I wonder if they'd each be issued a "Mein Kampf" today in lieu of a Koran for today's Al-Qaeda Wehrwolves...

[sid guttridge]

Hi pzrmeyer,

Have you a source for this? I would like to follow it up.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Helmut Von Moltke]

about the Werewolf member executions, I wonder if they were carried out on 13 year olds as well? Since the site that Norwest/Michael gave, http://www.volkssturm1945.de/index2.htm, said

A 13 year old Werwolf.
Taken prisoner and most likely executed because
of sabotage at communication connections
of US units in the sector of the 9. Army.

so I was wondering about the accuracy of that statement, thanks.

Kevin

[pzrmeyer2]

Hi pzrmeyer,

Have you a source for this? I would like to follow it up.

Cheers,

Sid.

Sid, I would love to, but it will be difficult. We are talking about searching through newspaper stories from the past 12 months or so. Perhaps a Lexis-Nexis search? Trust me, I wish I had paid more attention to them and either saved them or posted them. Either way, other than some of the "then vs now" editorial comparisons, most of it was commentary...To me it makes sense (along with other stories about the wolves I've heard) but I won't bet on absolute accuracy. Anecdotally, the US/UK press was much more patriotic then as opposed to now...

[sid guttridge]

Hi HvM,

You are right to wonder about the accuracy of that statement. "Most likely" implies that it was the rule, rather than the exception, for the US Army to shoot 13 year old boys caught committing acts of sabotage.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Domen123]

In fact the last active bands of Werwolf were destroyed not in 1946, not in 1948, but in August / September 1949 - "Jungenbund der Freien Stadt Danzig" (operating near Gdansk) and "Freikorps Gross-Mossdorf" (operating near Opole). This is according to "Werwolf - Tajne Operacje w Polsce" by R. Primke and M. Szczerepa. In total Polish security services destroyed almost 70 bands of Werwolf since the end of the war. They numbered up to 10,000 members (including remnants of WH).

[phylo_roadking]

1948 was also the year of the Otto Kubus bombings and his subsequent trial in Hamburg, viewed as the last Werwolf operation in West Germany.

[Domen123]

So probably Poland was the place where these groups survived the longest.

But still they didn't manage to outlive the "Lesni" ("Foresters") - Polish anti-Soviet / anti-Communism resistance related to the Home Army and London circles.

Last organized post-Home Army units ceased to exist around 1956, but the last still resisting (in the last period rather hiding) Home Army holdout was KIA in 1963.

[phylo_roadking]

So probably Poland was the place where these groups survived the longest.

But still they didn't manage to outlive the "Lesni" ("Foresters") - Polish anti-Soviet / anti-Communism resistance related to the Home Army and London circles.

Well - the Polish groups would receive a certain amount of cooperation and assistance from the locals where they were operating - but I doubt the Germans would have... Within weeks if not days they'd have been - "foraging" - just to stay alive. Three years in that set of circumstances was probably damn' good going!

Question is....how "active" against the Russians were they - or were their "operations" just to stay eating and alive?

[Holtingar]

Hi Phylo,
One thing is for sure, the fear of the Werewolf movement was much greater than the reality. Its limitations probably came as a welcome surprise to the Allies.
It is difficult to think of a country that was more passive under German occupation than Germany was under Allied occupation.

Well, the Netherlands for one, I'm reluctant to say... (Yes, I'm Dutch.)
Nevertheless, I can't imagine why the Werwolf/Wehrwolf movement is 'frowned on' on this forum. The link in post 2 leads to an article, written by Russ Folsom, which is full of bias: '... a hapless band of political indoctrinated youngsters.' Didn't those boys have the right to resist enemy occupation, based on nationalism and patriottism? Just like any other partizan movement? And is our ideologie of 'individual freedom' the universal holy truth, in which each and any person should believe? Of course we (!) believe, because we're indoctrinated as well. Bear in mind that in ancient Greece the Spartan society (on which much of the Nazi-ideologie was based) was held in much higher regard than 'democratic' Athens (which is the shining example of political thinking nowadays). Well, I'm digressing... Yet I think that many of those Werwölfe were just courageous boys, fighting a lost cause for their country. And you can hardly blame the rest for being passive at Stunde Null, when everything was destroyed by the terrorbombardments of enemy squadrons from hell, send by Bomber Harris c.s.
At least we have the name of one of those boys: Heinz Petry (Taken from here: CLICK)

[Alex Dekker]

Carefull about Wehrwulf, since they did some espionage too. Me and a friend of mine contacted a former Dutch HJ-member and we visited him. He told us, with some details (not so much, a lot was forgotten by him) about his expierence during the war. He told us he was used as a spy after Market Garden. He knew the surroundings around Arnhem and Nijmegen and did some spying for the German army. We asked him if he was considered a Wehrwolf by his superiors. He couldn't tell us, since he didn't know. He went through the lines, took a good look, reported what he saw and was send to Berlin.

[phylo_roadking]

They're not "frowned on" - the mythologisation of them is perhaps frowned on, however. There are for instance a LOT of anecdotes about "groups of Werwolves" accompanying W-SS or Heer troops at the front in the last few weeks of the war....but this is perhaps the Allies' "fear term" - like the "Apline Redout" - at work for what SHOULD instead be identified as Volksturm Whereas the core idea of the Werwolves was a small "stay behind" organisation, not a large-group-operating force accompnaying regulars in the field.