From Ruins to Remembrance: 80 Years Since the End of WWII on the Rhine and Ruhr
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Remnants Persist Along the Rhine and Ruhr: Eight Decades After World War II's Conclusion - Remnants Along the Rhine and Ruhr: Commemorating 8 Decades Since the Conclusion of World War I
As cities lay in shambles, bridges along the Rhine blown to pieces, and people cowered in bomb shelters or fled to the countryside, the end of World War II arrived on May 8, 1945, with the unconditional surrender of the German Reich. Memorializing the day as a liberation from Nazi tyranny, many European countries remember its significance. The silence of the guns came after wrenching struggles on the Rhine and Ruhr.
While towns on the left bank of the Rhine, such as Cologne, were snatched by Western Allies in March and Aachen even in October 1944, the right bank proved more challenging. Allies reached Mönchengladbach on March 1 and Neuss, Krefeld, and the Rhine's left bank in Düsseldorf on March 2.
In Cologne, war correspondent and author George Orwell was bewildered by the people emerging from their cellars and deep bunkers: "Propaganda, especially their own, has misled us into believing they are all tall, blonde, and arrogant. But what you find in Cologne are rather stocky, dark-haired people (...). Certainly, they are not particularly striking."
The noose tightens
The Allies could only cross the river at Wesel and almost 150 kilometers further south at Remagen, where the bridges were still intact. As they swiftly encircled the remaining Wehrmacht remnants in North Rhine-Westphalia, they tightened the noose. On April 1, 1945, the so-called Ruhr pocket closed near Paderborn and Lippstadt, trapping countless Wehrmacht soldiers.
The industrial city of Essen, which had proudly advertised itself as the "arsenal of the Reich" with its Krupp factories in 1937, was relentlessly bombarded and almost entirely demolished. On March 11, 1945 alone, nearly 1,100 bombs landed on Essen. A month later, Essen fell, followed by Hagen on April 14, and Wuppertal, Mettmann, and Solingen on April 16. Allied tanks finally rolled into Düsseldorf on April 17.
While the Volkssturm, made up of young people and the elderly, met the Allied onslaught, the Gestapo, SS, and Hitler's enforcers ensured that many people did not survive the liberation.
On January 31, an order was issued by the Inspector of the Security Police, the former Düsseldorf Gestapo chief Walter Albath: For "special treatments," meaning mass executions, the approval of the Reich Security Main Office was no longer required. "Now I petition that this directive be followed in every location."
Blood and Brutality
In Remscheid, 71 prisoners were taken from a prison, led to a ravine near Solingen, and executed. According to historian Bastian Fleermann, who delved into the final days of the Third Reich along the Rhine and Ruhr, such atrocities were not uncommon.
Forced laborers and prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp, laboring to clear away bomb debris in external camps, including in Düsseldorf, were arbitrarily killed or dispatched on so-called death marches in the final days of the war. Mass shootings were also carried out by the Gestapo in Wuppertal and Dortmund, Fleermann reports.
"The Army Patrol was a particularly notorious group notorious for killing people during the war's final weeks," a local historian says, "Some Dusseldorf residents who secretly negotiated the city's surrender to the Allies were betrayed and executed just before the city's liberation."
Defiance and Resistance
In the face of military defeat, the remaining National Socialists reacted defiantly, escalating terror as they saw fit. "These responsible National Socialists intensified terror as much as they dared," says historian Hans-Walter Huetter, president of the Foundation House of History NRW.
Even as the end approached, the spirit to resist persevered. In the small town of Lintorf, situated north of Düsseldorf, women opened tank barriers at night and hoisted white flags on the church towers, reports Fleermann.
"The fateful hour we had all been praying for, filled with fear and hope, arrived unexpectedly yesterday morning," wrote the local author Emil Barth in his diary, "All that gunfire had ceased for three hours..." But then, chaos erupted as Wehrmacht soldiers panicked, removing their uniforms and setting fires in backyards and gardens, burning Hitler portraits and Party badges.
"The war is over," the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht reported on April 19, as over 300,000 Wehrmacht soldiers surrendered to the Americans. The most loyal supporters of Hitler, like Field Marshal Walter Model, eventually acknowledged the thousand-year Reich's inevitable demise. Before that, Model had contributed to one of World War II's last major massacres in the Hürtgen Forest and had had many soldiers executed as deserters in the Ruhr area.
Knowing that he would be sought for war crimes by the Soviet Union for his commanding role in the war in the East, Model escaped. On April 21, 1945, he took his life in a forest near Lintorf and Duisburg.
Widespread Destruction
"Cities like Duren, Julich, and Wesel were almost completely demolished. We talk about Dresden, but the destruction there was significantly greater," reports historian Huetter. "The mood in the post-war population was mixed. Some saw the war's conclusion as a defeat and still saw positive aspects in the Nazi regime, although it's hard to understand that now. Others yearned for peace and quiet," says Huetter. After enduring a long period of scarcity, survival was a focal point in the early post-war years.
- Rhine
- Ruhr
- Düsseldorf
- Essen
- Cologne
- Ruhr pocket
- Gestapo
- Wesel
- Rubble
- Wuppertal
- Buchenwald concentration camp
- Air Raid Shelter
- Dresden
- National Socialism
- Europe
- Day of Liberation
- Death march
- Army Patrol
- Wehrmacht
- Solingen
- Field Marshal Walter Model
- Duisburg
- Lintorf
- Hürtgen Forest
- Scarcity
- Survival
- Community policies and social policies are essential in addressing the aftermath of war-and-conflicts, such as those experienced around the Rhine and Ruhr, as they can help in rebuilding shattered cities and addressing the barriers faced by communities in post-war periods.
- Days henceforth were marked by unexpected surprises, as people emerged from their air raid shelters and deep bunkers to find a world forever altered by the end of the war.
- The policy-and-legislation of the Reich led to widespread destruction and brutality, with places like Düsseldorf, Essen, Cologne, Wuppertal, Solingen, and others reduced to rubble.
- Politics played a significant role in the final days of the war, with instances of betrayal leading to the execution of locals who secretly negotiated the city's surrender.
- General news reported defiance and resistance from the remaining National Socialists, who intensified terror as they saw fit, despite the inevitable defeat of the thousand-year Reich.
