What was not mentioned in GR
KXX4493553 at aol.com
KXX4493553 at aol.com
Wed Jun 9 18:26:58 CDT 2004
Just saw in the First German public tv (ARD) a documentary film about the so
called "Alps Fortress" where the leaders of the SS waited for the American
troops in spring 45, thinking they could be used for the fight against the Red
Army. The Alps Fortress was a system of air-raid shelters, underground
manufacturing plants, roads, airfields a. s. o., located between South East
Bavaria, Vienna and the so called Oetztal at the Italian-Austrian border, where in
1991 "Oetzi", the famous mummy, was found.
The centre of this SS realm was Alt Aussee, a village and a lake in Tirol,
Austria.
The SS had the intention to make an agreement with the Western Allies, the
American and British troops, which includes a cease-fire or the unconditional
surrender; later, so the SS plans, they hoped to fight together with the
Western Allies against the Red Army. Otherwise, so they threatened, they would
continue the "total war".
The whole resources of the Third Reich were concentrated peu à peu in the
Alps Fortress. The Peenemuende scientists, Wernher von Braun and his crew, the
forced workers and KZ prisoners "moved" to Ebensee in the near of Alt Aussee
to build the ME 262, the first bomber with jet propulsion, the V 2, AND a
planned intercontinental ballistic missile which could reach New York. Also
radioactive material was transported to Ebensee, if they really planned to build
an A-bomb is not quite clear.
But the SS also concentrated "priviliged" prisoners in the Alpes fortress,
f. e. Schuschnik, the last Austrian chancellor before the "Anschluss",
Niemoeller, members of the Thyssen family, French bishops a. s. o. They were
hostages.
But there were quarrels among the SS leaders. Kaltenbrunner wanted to
continue the war, but his subordinate, a man called Wolf, began secret negotations
with the American secret service at the Lago Maggiore and in Switzerland.
Wolf wanted to end the war, and to reach a unconditional surrender for the
German troops in the occupied Northern Italy ("Salò"). An Austrian resistance
fighter said in the film that he once had a meeting with the American secret
service in Switzerland where he saw two men, dressed as civilians, but he
immediately recognized them as SS men. It was Wolf and another SS guy.
The offer Wolf made to the American troops had a cover name: "Operation
sunrise". Operation sunrise began a race with the Kaltenbrunner plans for
continuing the war. Thanks God, sunrise won. The contract for the unconditional
surrender was signed in Bozen, Bolzano, Italy, and Wolf became a POW.
Kaltenbrunner was also captured, and Niemoeller, Schuschnik, the forced workers and KZ
prisoners were liberated - if they survived.
kwp
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