May 1945 - End of the war in Flensburg:The last Reich government takes its seat in Mürwik. At the same time, thousands of SS members come to cover their tracks on the "Rat Line North".
by Werner Junge
March 11, 1946, 11 p.m.:Everything is still quiet on the Hansen farm in Gottrupel near Flensburg. Suddenly noise. The residents startle. Is it Poles, former forced laborers, who want to plunder? But the doors are thrown open by British soldiers. Also those of the servants' chamber. That's where Franz Lang sleeps. The former marine mate helps on the farm without farmers. A hardworking, nice man who takes a lot of time for the children. Now rifle butts are beating him. He is covered in blood in his underwear when his wedding ring is torn from his finger. Captain Hans Alexander reads the engraving:Rudolf and Hedwig. The British Nazi hunter is on target. He hired the concentration camp commandant of Auschwitz, he hired Rudolf Höß.
Up to 3,000 SS war criminals
The commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höß (centre), was extradited to Poland in the mid-1940s and later executed.Höss is extradited to the Poles and hanged in Auschwitz on April 16, 1947 in front of his former commander's villa with a view of the gas chambers. He is one of probably up to 3,000 SS war criminals who went into hiding in Flensburg in May 1945. The vast majority of them can escape into the post-war period with impunity.
"Rat Line North"
It wasn't until the 1980s that historians coined the term "rat line". He first describes the escape of heavily incriminated Nazis via Italy, the Vatican or Spain to South America. It was only later that more recent sources made it clear that there was also a "Rat Line North". It did not lead to South America, but via Flensburg to post-war Germany.
As the historian Gerhard Paul has described, the last days of the Second World War in Flensburg are characterized by an apocalyptic mood and chaos - but also by a highly efficient bureaucracy. She works in the police headquarters and turns mass murderers, killers and managers of the Holocaust into simple Wehrmacht soldiers.
Vanishing point Flensburg
After Adolf Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, there is no plan. But there is one goal:Flensburg. Schleswig-Holstein is not yet occupied by the Allies. Since the end of 1944, the treks of refugees have been rolling north. In the first days of May, trains with prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp arrive in Flensburg. Ships bring them emaciated, exhausted to death across the sea from the east. SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler ordered this. He wants the concentration camp prisoners as hostages.
Flensburg is overflowing with people. In a few days, the population of the fjord city will probably double to more than 150,000. The starving refugees, who are now quartered in every house, are joined by former forced laborers and prisoners of war from the East
Himmler's plan fails
Dressed in fine uniforms, in limousines and buses, packed with supplies, money and gold, SS leader Heinrich Himmler and his staff of 150 faithful reached Flensburg on May 2nd. The High Command of the Wehrmacht arrives on May 3, followed by Karl Dönitz, Hitler's successor. Himmler relies on him. After his attempts at separate negotiations and by releasing Scandinavian concentration camp prisoners, he fell out of favor with Hitler.
Now Himmler courts Dönitz' favor. He hopes to win over the Allies by releasing the concentration camp prisoners. But on May 6, he finally flashed off at Dönitz. Only two days before the unconditional surrender did Himmler realize that he and his SS leaders could only go into hiding. As early as May 3, he advised the organizers of the Holocaust to obtain documents that would turn them into simple Wehrmacht soldiers.
New identities on the assembly line
The impersonation is already organized. SS Standartenfuhrer Hans Hinsch, as Chief of Police, sees to it. First stop, the police headquarters at Norderhofenden 1. There are new papers here. SS-Standartenfuhrer become simple field policemen, non-commissioned officers of the Wehrmacht, mates of the Navy. Pockets full of money we go to Mürwik. There is a uniform that matches the new identity, used items are preferred.
Himmler had advised then to flee to Denmark. But most of them go south. They allow themselves to be captured by the British advancing north. They are interned in the restricted areas of Eiderstedt and Fehmarn/Ostholstein. Many are released as Wehrmacht soldiers in the summer of 1945. Rudolf Höß, alias Marinemaat Franz Lang, is a typical example. He states that he comes from agriculture and is accommodated on the farm near Flensburg.
The Nazi hunt begins
The British soldiers reach Flensburg on May 8th. You know that many Nazi criminals try to hide from the dissolving Wehrmacht. At the German-Danish border, the British filtered out more than 2,400 SS men disguised as Wehrmacht soldiers within a few days from the stream of soldiers from Norway and Denmark flooding back to Schleswig-Holstein.
Things are different for those who get new identities in Flensburg:the majority of them succeed in the trick. They escape punishment and later reappear in the new Federal Republic. In many cases, they return to managerial positions. You can rely on a cartel of silent accomplices.
Himmler's end
Heinrich Himmler went into hiding in Kollerup near Flensburg. The Reichsfuhrer SS shaved off his mustache on May 8th and transformed himself into a simple military policeman. With only a few followers left, head south. The British are waiting at the Kiel Canal. So Himmler bribes a fisherman, can be brought across the Elbe. On May 20th he will be checked near Lüneburg. The papers of field police officer Heinrich Hitzinger are striking. They are too new, too fresh. Hitzinger is exposed as Himmler.
A cyanide capsule is hidden in one of its teeth. He bit it open on May 23, 1945. On the same day, the Allies arrested the Dönitz government in Flensburg. Dönitz, Alfred Jodl - both in fine admiral's or general's uniform, and Albert Speer in a trench coat are presented several times in the courtyard of the Norderhofenden police headquarters. The courtyard is small, the camera teams from all over the world should have the opportunity to take the historical picture of the end of the Nazi era.