The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Five/B
"The End of Hitler's Reich" Part Two

The Soviet offensive of the summer of 1944 took the Red Army to the gates of Warsaw and to the northeastern German border in East Prussia. It also cut off about a quarter of a million German troops in Latvia. Hitler, ever the nutcase, refused to evacuate these troops by air or sea, insisting they were holding a springboard for his next offensive into the northern Soviet Union. Given the state of the German military, it just shows how detached from reality this man was. This large body of German troops continued to hold out in Latvia until the end of the war; thus removing them from the defense of Germany.*

In January 1945, as the "Battle of the Bulge" was winding down, the Red Army launched a massive offensive against German forces in Poland and in the German province of East Prussia. Soviet troops advanced into German East Prussia, besieging the provincial capital of Königsberg. A major breakthrough in Poland sent Red Army troops racing across Poland toward the former Polish Corridor territories, Silesia, Danzig, Posen, and the pre-war German-Polish border. German refugees streamed westward in an attempt to escape the clutches of the Soviets, who were in the mood for vengeance.** Given the weather conditions, the clogged roads, and the speed of the Soviet advance, many of the refugees never made it. Others managed to get to ports along the Baltic where they were transported by ships to territory still under German control.***

When the Soviet offensive halted, the Red Army had reached the Oder River, at one point only about 45 miles from Berlin. The Red Army also entered Auschwitz (in Silesia), seeing first hand the atrocious criminal behavior of the Hitler regime. After the failure of his offensives in the West, Hitler returned to Berlin, where he lived in his extensive underground bunker, rarely going above ground.**** While the Nazi authorities still preached victory and "wonder weapons" ("Wunderwaffen") that would be unleashed to save Germany, Germans awaited the end, although even at this point they had to be careful not to fall victim to Nazi execution squads, which sought out Germans making "defeatist" remarks, or old men who did not take up arms to defend the Fatherland. Incredible! The criminality continued to the end. Extermination camps and execution squads, that's what such fanaticism can bring. It was sheer lunacy! The end of this lunacy was near, but it would not be painless.

* Before the war ended Hitler consented to a few units being transported out of Latvia to help with the defense of Germany.

** A number of Germans, including from the Baltic states and the Soviet Union, had been resettled in former parts of conquered Poland. They now had to pick up and run for their lives.

*** A prewar Nazi Party vacation ship, the "Wilhelm Gustloff," was used to transport refugees and troops out of the former Polish Corridor area via the Baltic Sea. In January 1945, it was loaded (actually overloaded), primarily with refugees, but also with military personnel. A Soviet submarine torpedoed the ship, sinking it. No one knows the actual number of dead, as not all passengers were properly recorded. This was January, and the water was extremely cold, so many of those who survived the explosions died in the frigid water, but nearby German vessels did manage to save some people. Estimates of the dead, however, run to over 9000 (it was a huge ship somewhat on the order of some of today's cruise ships).

**** Hitler's famous bunker was built beneath the Reich Chancellery (Reichskanzlei) complex. There were still functions held within the actual Chancellery, but Allied air raids limited activities there.

WORD HISTORY:
Police-This noun traces back to the Indo European root "pol/pel," with a general meaning of "fortified place on high ground." This gave its Greek^ offspring "polis," which meant "city" (cities were often fortified back then, and 'high ground' offered even more protection). Latin borrowed the notion of "polis" as "politia," but with the meaning "city administration." French had the word from its Latin roots as "police," but it retained the "administration" meaning until the early 1700s, when it came to be used in reference to "law enforcement." English borrowed the word in the 1500s, with the "administration" meaning, and it wasn't until the late 1700s that it began to take on the "law enforcement" meaning, which wasn't complete until the mid 1800s. The other Germanic languages, except Icelandic, borrowed a form of "police," as their word for this law enforcement branch, and German and Low German Saxon have "Polizei," for example.

^ Greek is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. English has acquired a number of words either directly from Greek, or by way of Latin, which borrowed extensively from Greek, as in the word "polis," above.