Dorney Germany: The Woe of the Vanquished

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I went for a walk in the Dorney Wald Nature Preserve. It was raining all day. I parked in a ball park parking lot and waited for the worst of the rain to stop. Then I ventured out in search of a statue of two German soldiers. I walked for miles and could not fin them. I finally gave up and when I got back to the car. I started searching for a place to eat. The place I found was right on the opposite sided of the forest within walking distance. I decided to walk over to get a gyro to eat. On that walk I ended up stumbling upon the statue I ad been searching for.

The memorial was erected in 1935-1935 by the Nazi Party. Though masked as an attempt to honor the losses of WWI, it was instead used to glorify the revenge felt for the loss and was used to recruit new youth for the battle to come. Every war brings unimaginable pain misery, displacement and death. The plaque next to the sculpture reminds any viewer to remember the costs of war.

Too many Germans were dying while trying to defuse unexploded Allied bombs. To remedy the situation, Himmler wrote a memo insisting that POWs and Forced Laborers should defuse the bombs. 40 prisoners from the Cologne-based SS-Baubrigade III were sent to Dortmund- Dorstfeld, Stalag VI-D  to work with the Luftwaffe‘s bomb disposal squad. There is little data, and only a few prisoner names are known, about the Dortmund POW bomb disposal squad. Thousands of tons of unexploded Allied bombs remain in Germany to this day, and 11 German bomb technicians have been killed since 2000. It is unknown if any POWs or forced laborers died defusing bombs. It would be a job that you would have to learn quickly and never do wrong.

“The Nazi regime of forced labor was a crime that made people throughout Europe slaves of the German war and business interests,” emphasized Günter Saathoff. “In contrast to the extermination camps in the east, the German population could not claim that they did not know anything about it because the wrongs were committed before their very eyes. Nevertheless, it was later denied or played down as a concomitant of war and the occupiers’ rule.

Every German man had to decide how to behave towards forced laborers: with the last bit of humanity or with the allegedly imperative coldness and relentlessness of a supposed higher race. There was scope of action and how such was made use of tells us something not only about the individual but also about the influence and attractiveness of National Socialist ideology and practice. While many Germans wanted to sweep the past under the rug, some wanted to learn from the past and build memorials to educate people of the future so that they might not repeat the horrors committed.

On April 12, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosivelt was having his portrait painted by artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff at the “Little White House” in Warm Springs Georgia. He suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage and collapsed after telling the artist that he felt dizzy. The portrait she was working on was a watercolor and she left it unfinished. She ultimately completed the commission by doing a painting from photo reference and memory. The uncompleted portrait became a historical relic.

A eulogy for FDR said that he had “given his life” through intense, unrelenting labor as Commander-in-Chief during World War II. Though not killed in combat, he died “in harness” or “in battle harness,” as described by Winston Churchill, having led the nation to the brink of victory but not living to see the final surrender of the Axis nations.

Deins! Rhineberg Germany

Posted on by Thor

I took a second day in Rhineberg Germany to try and figure out exactly where the 75th Infantry Division would have crossed the Rhine River. I treated myself to a nice traditional German breakfast (fruhstuck). I was proud of myself for ordering breakfast in German, although I am sure the waitress knew I was English. I am glad I went here to sketch the dark wood beams and quaint interior. Who doesn’t love a gnome behind the bar?

The owner’s dog sat nervously by the bar waiting for her morning walk. There were mini bread rolls and cheese with ham, tomatoes, lettuce, jams Nutella and here boiled eggs that are served in an upright cup. You cut the top off of the egg shell and then scoop out the egg inside. I have come to like eggs served this traditional German way.

The waitress stopped by a few times to look over my shoulder and when I was done she asked to take a photo for the restaurant Facebook page and I let her. I knew I would be hiking a lot to find a route to the Rhine River from the town, I knew that many routes would be blocked by private farms and businesses. Back in 1945, the troops would have marched right through such obstacles and the civilians population would have evacuated.

The owner of the Air B&B I was staying in knew quite a bit about the World War 2 history of the area. He felt that the troops would have crossed at a spot just south of the town where there is a ferry crossing today. I listened intently, but didn’t quite agree since I saw a war map of the area and it showed 3 distinct crossing sites north and west of Rheinberg. I wanted to hike to each of those sites if it was possible. The 79th Infantry might have taken the southern route my Air B&B host was suggesting.

The rental car was often a problem since there was no parking available on those small country roads. I would leave the car in a town and then hike through the farm country towards the river. There were biking and walking trails along the river so once I got to those I should be golden. I knew the three crossing sites encircled a large curve in the river. With a full belly from a big breakfast, I set off to hike my way to the Rhine crossing sites.

American intelligence had identified the remnants of 21 German divisions lined up across the Rhine, but all were believed to be exhausted, seriously understrength, and incapable of putting up a sustained fight. Hitler’s hope of drawing a firm line at the Rhine was dashed on March 7, 1945 when elements of the 9th U.S. Armored Division captured the still-standing Ludendorff railroad bridge over the 980-foot-wide Rhine at the town of Remagen, between Cologne and Koblenz Germany. The allies had a clear path into Germany8 from that one crossing site. Every other span across the river had been destroyed. A massive mobilization began with engineers, soldiers, equipment and supplies being prepared for one of the most important river crossings of WWII.