Defenders of Hitler's Last Stand: The Frenchmen and Deserters in the Battle of Berlin
Traitors and Frenchmen Guarded Hitler's Final Stronghold - Defenders of Hitler's Last Stronghold: French Deserters and Their Role
Written By: Gernot Kramper
Duration: Approximately 6 Minutes
In the final days of the Battle of Berlin, SS officer Wilhelm Mohnke was tasked with defending the government quarter. Mohnke and his ragtag group, consisting of parts of the Leibstandarte, regular units, the Volkssturm, and foreign volunteers, were aware their mission was futile. Militarily, it was senseless, but there was symbolic value. Mohnke gave Hitler a few extra days to prepare his demise as the Soviets closed in on his last refuge.
The Motley Crew
Mohnke's fighters were a motley assortment of soldiers. The mix of the Leibstandarte, regular units, and the Volkssturm lacked cohesion. The Volkssturm, designed as a last resort, was rarely combat-ready and wholly unprepared for the challenges of urban combat. Yet, others fought with devotion, such as Georg Diers, who took to the battlefield with his two massive King Tiger tanks. These elite fighters, like Diers, fought fiercely in the Schönhauser Allee and Tiergarten Ost.
The foreign volunteers were the division's most reliable support. These men, primarily from the SS Division "Nordland," positioned in the Tiergarten, faced their own demise if they were captured. They opted to stay and fight alongside Hitler until the end, refusing to retreat like many of their comrades. Among them were the Frenchmen of the SS Division "Charlemagne," who defended the Reichstag building.
The Reichstag and the Moltke Bridge
The Reichstag held a significant place in the Battle of Berlin. For Stalin and the Soviets, it was the symbolic heart of the Third Reich. Architecturally, this assessment held merit, but politically, the parliament played a minor role in Hitler's regime. The capture of the Moltke Bridge was crucial for the Soviet advance, granting access to the government district. On April 28, 1945, around 5,000 defenders fought fiercely to protect the bridge, sacrificing themselves in a desperate battle. Soviet pioneers eventually overcame the defenders, at great cost. The battle for the Reichstag was a symbolic victory for the Soviets.
Dying for Hitler - But Not For Germany
Günter Debski, a working-class teenager conscripted to fight in April 1945, found himself in the hellish Battle of Berlin. Marked with the insignia of the penal battalion, Debski was hostile to Nazism. Yet, he was ordered to defend Hitler's last stronghold despite representing the very class the Nazi regime despised.
On April 28, 1945, Debski was assigned to request a ceasefire from the Red Army. However, the unimaginable chaos of the battle disregarded all sense of reason. An artillery shell hit the officer, ending Debski's mission. Debski survived the war, bearing witness to horrors such as cannibalism.
The Frenchmen who fought in the Reichstag were part of the Charlemagne division, a Waffen-SS unit mostly composed of French volunteers. Many had been prisoners of war or collaborators who joined the Waffen-SS out of various motivations. Some sought ideological alignment with Nazism, while others were deeply anti-Communist. The French, being predominantly aristocrats, saw the fall of the Third Reich as an end.
Christian de La Mazière, an aristocrat and member of the Charlemagne division, described the final days of the battle as a descent into nothingness. The city was engulfed in flames, buildings crumbling, and the skies turning dark. The Frenchmen fought relentlessly until the bitter end, unwilling to surrender to Soviet captivity.
The handful of surviving Frenchmen faced a grim future upon Berlin's surrender on May 2, 1945. Henri Joseph Fenet, their commander, was arrested and later convicted in France for collaboration. Fenet eventually ran a car dealership, maintaining his beliefs but living in seclusion. In a rare interview, Fenet spoke candidly about his motivation, expressing only a desire to keep fighting.
The Frenchmen who died defending the Reichstag represent a complex and poignant aspect of the war's final days. Individuals from occupied nations fought on the side of Nazi Germany until the very end, motivated by diverse reasons that ranged from ideological alignment to opposition to communism. Their story is a testament to the tragic circumstances that ensnared many lives during World War II.
Further Reading:
- Adolf Hitler
- Endkampf
In the final days of the Battle of Berlin, SS officer Wilhelm Mohnke, despite realizing the mission's futility, delayed the Soviet advance by defending the government quarter, giving Adolf Hitler a few extra days to prepare.
The foreign volunteers in Mohnke's group, primarily from the SS Division "Nordland," showed remarkable loyalty, refusing to retreat like many of their comrades and choosing instead to stay and fight alongside Hitler until the end.
In the chaos of the Battle of Berlin, the Frenchmen of the SS Division "Charlemagne," despite their diverse motivations, displayed unwavering determination as they defended the Reichstag building, fighting until the bitter end.
