The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Four

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

In 1945 in western Germany, the Allies gradually pushed back the German defenders, crossing the Rhine River at Remagen in March. By April, a large German force was encircled in the Ruhr industrial region. With Berlin temptingly lying east of their advancing forces, the Allies chose not to risk a drive on the German capital, leaving the job to the Red Army. In Italy, the Allies finally dislodged the stubborn German defenders in northern Italy, and the Germans surrendered there in early May 1945. German forces in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands also surrendered in May.

In mid April, the long awaited Soviet offensive against Berlin commenced. With tremendous superiority in men and equipment, some Soviet units broke through the beleaguered German line in quick fashion, although not without losses, but the German line directly in front of Berlin along the Oder River held out temporarily, with substantial casualties inflicted upon the Red Army. The German forces held some high ground, and they tenaciously defended it against the Soviet attack, but the inevitable breakthrough came, and the Red Army forces headed for Hitler's capital. The decimated German forces, a mixture of regular army units and Waffen SS forces,* fell back toward Berlin, where Nazi diehards organized Hitler Youth and old men to try to hold the city. While the fighting was very bloody, from street to street, and building to building, the outcome was never in doubt, although Hitler held out hope that a German force south of the city would break through the Russian lines to relieve the capital. This was just another of his fantasies, and the German attack made little headway. The last known pictures of Hitler were taken as he ventured above ground to the Chancellery garden to decorate some Hitler Youth boys for their fighting against the Soviets in the streets of Berlin. There was just no shame by this man or his regime; sending children into combat.

News came that Mussolini had been caught and executed by Italian resistance fighters in northern Italy. The "Duce" and his entourage were then hung upside down from girders for Italians to revile, which they did, often spitting on the dead fascists. For Hitler, already determined not to fall into Soviet hands, Mussolini's death and exhibition convinced him beyond any doubt that suicide was the only way out. He married his long time mistress, Eva Braun (not pronounced "brawn," but rather pretty much like English "brown," its close relative, and with the same meaning), who had arrived from Bavaria. Interestingly, the German public really did not know about her, as that information he been strictly controlled by the Nazi propaganda machine. Hitler dictated his will to his secretary, in which he named a new government to take over after his death. Still the hate spewing psycho, he ranted about how Jews had instigated the war and about how the German people had proven themselves to be too weak by not winning the war. Not long after their marriage, Hitler and Eva retired to his room, and killed themselves. The Russian forces were only a couple of blocks away. The German commanders surrendered Berlin a couple of days later, and German military leaders surrendered for Germany a few days after that. The nightmare, while not over, was beginning to subside.

* The Waffen SS was the "militarized" or "armed" force ("Waffen"="weapon," and is closely related to the English word) part of the vast Nazi SS organization, with a number of its units being considered elite. The early units had all been volunteers and composed completely of Germans, more specifically Reich Germans; that is, Germans born and raised in Germany or Austria. During the early war years, the Waffen SS expanded, and it took volunteers from other countries, most often initially from "Germanic" countries, like the Netherlands, Flanders (see note), Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Later still, it recruited Germans who had not been born in Germany or Austria, called "Volksdeutsche," typically from places like Slovenia, Croatia, Rumania, and later Hungary. Eventually casualties were so high, the SS began drafting men instead of relying strictly upon volunteers. By mid war, the expansion of the Waffen SS included men who were neither German, nor Germanic, but rather Latvian, Estonian, Russian, Italian, French, Walloon (see note), and even Albanian and Bosnian Muslims! (see note 2) The Waffen SS was noted for its toughness and combat prowess, with some exceptions, but it was also known for atrocities, as many of its members were steeped in fanatical Nazi ideology.

(Note 1) Belgium essentially consisted of two main groups of people; the people of Flanders, called Flemings, who spoke a Germanic language, now usually referred to by linguists as a dialect of Dutch, and who comprised roughly 60% of the population, and of the French dialect speaking Walloons, who comprised slightly less than 40% of the population (Germans comprised the remaining small percentage).

(Note 2) Much of Albania and Bosnia had been occupied for quite some time by the Turks, who were Muslim. The Turks forcibly converted some of their subjects to Islam, thus the Muslim population of these areas.

WORD HISTORY:
Want-This common verb traces back to an Indo European base "wen(o)" or "weun," with the general notion of "to leave, to abandon," and by extension, "be lacking, be empty." This gave Old Germanic "wanaton(an)" meaning "to be lacking." This then gave Old Norse "vantr," with the meaning "to lack, to be lacking." English borrowed the word in the late 1100s as "wanten," with the same "lack" meaning. Gradually the notion of "lacking something" took on more of the meaning "desire for something 'lacking,' " and that "desire, wish," meaning has carried through to modern English. From what I could find, Icelandic and Faroese, both North Germanic languages descended from Old Norse, still have "vanta(r)," meaning "lacking." The other Germanic languages, including Old English already had similar words with the same general meaning of "lack(ing)." See "Word History" in next article, "wane," a relative of "want," and "wan" is "likely" a relative from the notion of "lacking color," but its history is more than a little sketchy; thus, I put the quotation marks around "likely."