[It’s worth noting that the following does not reflect how events actually ended up playing out as Nazi Germany was ruthlessly conquered, but I find it chilling that this was the vision that the Nazi leadership had envisioned for the crumbling nation.]
What this was supposed to mean was described in graphic detail by Heinrich Himmler, in a speech for a swearing-in ceremony of men into the Volkssturm in East Prussia at the end of October 1944:
Our opponents must know that every kilometer that they want to advance into our country will cost them rivers of blood. They will step onto a field of living mines consisting of fanatical uncompromising fighters. Every block of flats in a city, every village, every farmstead, every forest will be defended by men, boys and old men and, if need be, by women and girls. Furthermore, in the territory that they believe they have conquered, the German determination to resist will rise up behind them and, like the werewolves, fearless volunteers will do damage to the enemy and cut off his lifeline.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “A World in Flames.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 16. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Quoted by Andreas Kunz, ‘Die Wehrmacht in der Agonie der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft’, p. 105.
Further Reading:
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