The Himmler's SS (56 page)

The ferocity of the war waged against the partisans eventually necessitated the creation of a new decoration to reward those who had been engaged upon it for a prolonged period. On 30 January 1944, Hitler instituted the Bandenkampfabzeichen, literally ‘Bandit Battle Badge' but more accurately ‘Guerrilla Warfare Badge'. It was officially designated as a ‘Kampfabzeichen der Waffen-SS und Polizei', or ‘Waffen-SS and Police Battle Badge', and was the only military decoration of the Third Reich attributed specifically to the SS. Award of the badge was not made in the name of the Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, as was usually the case with military decorations, but in the name of the Reichsführer-SS. An order issued from Himmler's field headquarters on 1 February 1944 laid down the following:

1.
The Guerrilla Warfare Badge recognises the bravery and meritorious conduct of the recipient.

2.
It is awarded in three grades, Bronze, Silver and Gold.

3.
The Guerrilla Warfare Badge can be awarded to all officers, NCOs and men engaged in anti-guerrilla operations.

4.
The qualification for award is:

(a) Bronze – 20 combat days

(b) Silver – 50 combat days

(c) Gold –  100 combat days.

5.
A combat day is reckoned to be one during which the recipient has taken part in close combat (man against man) with guerrillas.

6.
Combat days may be reckoned as from 1 January 1943.

7.
The Guerrilla Warfare Badge may be worn on the left breast pocket of all SS, police and NSDAP uniforms.

8.
The Badge is awarded with a citation.

9.
Posthumous presentations of awards in respect of those who have qualified for them prior to being killed in action will be made to their next-of-kin.

Qualification for award was therefore very high, making the Bandenkampfabzeichen far more difficult to achieve than similar decorations such as the Infantry Assault Badge.

The design of the Guerrilla Warfare Badge was based on that of the insignia of the Silesian Freikorps of 1919 and featured a wreath of oakleaves enclosing a sword with sunwheel swastika (representing the German and auxiliary forces) plunging into a hydra (the partisans). The Hydra was a fabulous multi-headed sea serpent of Greek mythology, and was almost impossible to destroy since its heads grew quickly again if they were cut off. The parallel with the partisan forces, which sprang up vigorously time and time again, is obvious. At the sword's point was a death's head, which was doubly appropriate since it symbolised both the SS involvement and the deadly nature of the struggle which was being carried on.

The Guerrilla Warfare Badge in Bronze. The first awards of this rare decoration were made to SS officers and men during the second half of 1944.

Himmler reserved the right to award the gold badge personally, which is not surprising since it was the equivalent of winning the prestigious Close Combat Clasp in Gold twice. The
Völkischer Beobachter
of 21 February 1945 reported that: ‘The Reichsführer-SS yesterday presented the first Guerrilla Warfare Badges in Gold to four members of the Waffen-SS engaged in the fighting on the Adriatic Coast'. The first recipient was SS-Obersturmführer Erich Kühbandner of the 24th SS Division, which had been raised specifically to combat partisans in the Carso and Julian Alps. Given the late stage in the war, and the time taken to process award applications and arrange presentation ceremonies, it is unlikely that any further awards of the gold badge were made. Even the bronze and silver badges were highly prized by the Waffen-SS and police, and were seldom bestowed since the chances of surviving more than a few days' close combat with partisans were slim indeed.

In many ways, the design and story of the Guerrilla Warfare Badge represent the desperate and friendless straits in which the Waffen-SS found itself in the last year of the war. It is still difficult to reconcile the substantial battlefield achievements of the SS with the undoubted atrocities which some of its units committed against soldiers and civilians alike.

E
PILOGUE

By the autumn of 1944, the Black Order had secured almost total political, military and economic power in Germany, and there were only two men who really mattered in the whole of the Reich – Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. The Swedish press was already referring to Himmler as ‘Dictator of Germany', and with Göring long since disgraced it seemed to many that the Reichsführer-SS was merely waiting for Hitler's death to place himself at the head of the Nazi régime. As Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, it was Himmler who drew up plans for the last-ditch defence of the Fatherland and threatened that every deserter would be punished not only by his own execution but also by that of his entire family. Flying Waffen-SS courts martial swung into action right across the country, and began hanging shirkers and lead-swingers from trees and lamp-posts as a warning to others. Allgemeine-SS men serving in the Wehrmacht and with the Volkssturm increasingly kept their ears to the ground for defeatist talk, and reported whether the sentences passed on offenders by regular military courts martial measured up to Himmler's severe standards. In November, the Reichsführer's power reached its peak, for on the 9th of the month he was granted the unique and symbolic privilege of taking Hitler's place for the delivery of the traditional beer hall speech commemorating the Munich putsch.

In the background, however, lurked a shadowy rival in the power struggle. Martin Bormann, Head of the Party Chancellery and Hitler's closest NSDAP adviser, wore the Blood Order not because of any involvement in the Munich putsch, but because he had served a year in prison as a political murderer. He was an SS-Obergruppenführer, but felt only jealous hatred towards Himmler and longed for his downfall. Bormann knew that the Reichsführer was no military tactician, and in a wily effort to discredit him persuaded Hitler to nominate the SS chief to the vacant post of Commander of Army Group Upper Rhine in early December. This, in effect, gave Himmler the responsibilities of a Wehrmacht Field Marshal at the critical time when the armed forces were collapsing on all fronts. As expected, Himmler the arch-policeman completely buckled in his new soldierly role and did no better when reassigned to take charge of Army Group Vistula in January 1945. Haunted by the spectre of defeat, unable to cope with his now massive personal responsibilities, and no longer sure of Hitler's favour in these volatile times, Himmler went on extended sick leave with ‘severe influenza' and took refuge in the SS hospital at Hohenlychen run by his old friend Karl Gebhardt. On 20 March, a disillusioned Führer relieved him of his army command on the Vistula. Bormann's scheme had worked perfectly, and had made him the new favourite to succeed Hitler as head of the NSDAP.

The Reichsführer-SS in November 1944, by which time he had become accepted as Hitler's heir-apparent.

Hitler greeting ‘der treue Heinrich' at Führer Headquarters, while Martin Bormann lurks in the background. On his left breast pocket, Himmler wears the Pilot Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds, which was a personal gift from Hermann Göring.

Having suddenly lost face, and consequently all realistic hope of the succession, Himmler now determined to save his own skin and that of his SS comrades by opening secret peace negotiations with the western Allies, using important concentration camp inmates as bargaining counters. At the beginning of April, Count Folke Bernadotte, Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross and agreed intermediary in the talks, paid his second visit to Himmler at Hohenlychen to discuss the possibilities of arranging a German capitulation on the western front. Bernadotte was prepared to appeal to Eisenhower only if Himmler would declare himself Hitler's successor, dissolve the NSDAP and release all Scandinavian prisoners held in Germany. Himmler, however, was unable to make up his mind. He dreamed of himself as the new saviour of Nazi Germany, but still could not wrench free from Hitler's overpowering psychological influence to which he had been subject since 1923. As late as 13 April 1945, Himmler personally denounced his old adjutant Karl Wolff as a traitor when Wolff opened up his own independent peace negotiations with the Allies in Switzerland. The situation worsened dramatically when other notable SS leaders panicked and began to abandon the sinking ship in considerable numbers. Three SS-Obergruppenführer, namely Felix Steiner, Curt von Gottberg and Richard Hildebrandt, seriously considered a plan to assassinate Hitler as a means of swiftly putting an end to the war, and even Ernst Kaltenbrunner of the RSHA plotted the surrender of Austria to the Americans. The general consensus among the SS was that their postwar interests would be best served if Himmler was Head of State and able to negotiate on their behalf.

The abandoned Waffen-SS recruiting office at Calais, 12 October 1944. Over 8,000 Frenchmen joined the Waffen-SS during the Second World War.

On 19 April, SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg, Kaltenbrunner's subordinate, implored Himmler for the last time, on behalf of a growing section of the SS leadership, to depose Hitler and make peace. The Reichsführer wavered, but his courage evaporated once more. The following day, he journeyed to the Chancellery Bunker to pay his respects on his master's birthday, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade Hitler to quit the capital and continue the battle from an alpine redoubt in southern Germany. After the meagre birthday celebrations, Himmler bade a final farewell to Hitler and left Berlin for his field headquarters at Hohenlychen. On 28 April, news was relayed to the Führerbunker that Schellenberg, acting on behalf of the Reichsführer-SS, had offered the western Allies the conditional capitulation of Germany, which they had duly rejected. Himmler had been reluctant to sanction Schellenberg's offer, but Hitler was none the less paralysed by the apparent revelation of ‘der treue Heinrich's' betrayal. He immediately ordered SS personnel in the room to leave his presence and thereafter issued Bormann with instructions for Himmler's arrest, simultaneously expelling the Reichsführer from the NSDAP and all his government offices. Hitler then appointed SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Hanke, Gauleiter of Lower Silesia, as the new Reichsführer-SS. However, Hanke never received word of his promotion, having already abandoned his post in the besieged city of Breslau and flown off in one of the few helicopters then in operation.