Home » History » The Third Reich » The Last Days - Part 2,The Last Days - Part 2

The Last Days - Part 2,The Last Days - Part 2

© William Waller

There is a very telling passage in ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang where she describes how, at the age of 14, her father was taken into ‘protective custody’ (a euphemism for arrest) when she and all his family and friends knew that any accusations had no basis. He was released after about 3 months and returned home, radically changed. Within weeks she has decided that she will go to Peking to see Chairman Mao i.e. to be one of the spectators at a review of Red Guards, even though her father is obviously still not well, but it is something she has long wished to do. Such was the division in people’s lives in China at that time. She was not to realize until years later, that it was the policies of Mao which had led to her father’s imprisonment, and that Mao was responsible for all the wrongs done in China.

In 1945, with the whole world falling down around them, with a war that had obviously been lost at least a year before, there were still millions of Germans able to divide themselves in this way. Although Hitler has been solely responsible for all the misery and sheer tragedy of the last 6 years, these millions continue to follow his orders blindly, and to look on him as some sort of demigod. Hitler was still able to give orders, which generals relayed and the soldiers obeyed. Obviously fear of retribution played a part in their blind obedience but, nevertheless, not all of them were stupid and/or had no access to information regarding the war’s progress. Perhaps there is no clear and concise answer to the question, “Why?”, but the mind is endlessly teased with the question of what each of us would do in similar situations. Jung Chang could be excused in view of her age, but there were millions of Red Guards much older than her, way beyond the mystical mix of hero worship and the body’s sexual changes, who made similar pilgrimages with much more understanding of what was the true picture in China. With virtually every German man in some sort of uniform, the range of reactions to new orders must have ranged from blind obedience to sheer cynicism, but still they fought. It is a mystery which thankfully few of us have had to face, although memories of Watergate and Lewinsky may cause some of us to squirm as we remember the positions many of us took pro Nixon and Clinton. As with any politician, it is best to start from a position of utter disbelief, and then work our way slowly in the other direction, even if we do not get very far!

The copyright of the article The Last Days - Part 2,The Last Days - Part 2 in The Third Reich is owned by . Permission to republish The Last Days - Part 2,The Last Days - Part 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.