By mid April, 1945, the Ruhr factories were silenced. Thousands of German prisoners filled the Allies’ compounds. Elements of the German army were retreating further east. Concentration camps were discovered and liberated. The indescribable conditions at these camps shocked the world.
After the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, the final stages of the Ruhr battle were still under way. Vice President Harry Truman was now Commander in Chief. Wetter Germany is on the Ruhr River. It is southeast of Witten. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken, was leading C-Company of the 75th Infantry Division when they captured Wetter on April 13, 1945. There was desperate German resistance since the German troops knew they were surrounded.
When the 75th came into one German town, they found a barbershop where some of the men decided to stop in to get a haircut and shave. One of the soldiers would stand watch over the others while they were getting a clean shave. The soldier, who was standing guard, left his post early when a chair became available, but before someone else could keep guard. The exposed soldiers felt a bit nervous that the German barbers might cut their throats with the straight edge razors and drag them out back with no one the wiser. Thankfully nothing of the sort occurred and the men tipped the barbers VERY well for the services provided.
Most cities seen by C-Company soldiers were completely demolished. The Allies encountered pockets of German resistance in the drive to the Ruhr industrial complex. Hundreds of German soldiers were captured daily. Many were teenagers. Others were much older—in their sixties or more. These young and old, made up the untrained German people’s army. Conscripted soldiers from occupied nations were glad to be captured. They were aware a prisoner of war of the Allies was assured of food and shelter—much better than being a weary and starving German soldier.
The truck driver of C-Company was busy transporting food and supplies to the liberated forced labor camps. Those forced laborers were taken to rail stations to be returned to their homelands. Most did not know if their homes and families survived the war years. Many would find they would be greeted at traitors when they got back to their home country.
As Allied troops, including the 75th Infantry Division, closed in the SS forced thousands of concentration camp prisoners on “evacuation” marches to prevent their liberation, resulting in mass deaths from hunger, exhaustion, and shooting. Despite the war being clearly lost, Nazi officials continued to demand high-speed production of war materials, with prisoners working in subterranean tunnels, factories, and on construction projects. The liberation of these camps was a slow, sometimes violent process. Many survivors were in critical condition, and thousands died even after liberation.
The 1st and 9th Armies split the Ruhr Industrial Pocket in half by April 14, 1945, specifically in the Hagen-Witten area, which is immediately west of Wetter on the Ruhr River. The organized resistance in this specific area collapsed around April 18, 1945, after the pocket was subdivided.
The Ruhr River was the final objective of the 75th Infantry Division. When the 75th reached this objective they had split the surrounded German troops in half and finally crushed the Industrial Ruhr Pocket. The Berger Memorial sits high on a hillside overlooking on a particularly beautiful section of the river Ruhr River between Wetter and Witten Germany. The memorial was built between 1902 and 1904 to honor Louis Constanz Berger, (1829-1891), an industrialist and community co-founder. Its construction occurred during a period of industrialization and modernization of the Ruhr region. I imagined that my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken and his C-Company might have come to this overlook to view their final objective. The memorial would have stood at this spot in April of 1945, having been built between 1902 and 1904,
During WWII, the Krupp steel works in Essen, led by Alfried Krupp from 1943, were the cornerstone of the Nazi war machine, producing artillery, tanks, and u-Boats. Despite massive Allied bombing, the works managed to remain standing until 1945. The firm heavily utilized over 100,000 forced laborers,