HITLER'S LAST CHANCE: Kolberg

Hitler’s Last Chance ‘One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.’ [George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938)] ‘Laws just or unjust may govern men’s actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance, or frozen in a long night, can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where, and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life.’ [Winston Churchill, speech on 31 March 1949] ‘Propaganda is a soft weapon: hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way.’ [Jean Anouilh, The Lark (1955)] Hitler’s Last Chance The Propaganda Movie and the Rise and Fall of a German City Kevin Prenger Translated by Arnold A.W. van Wulfften Palthe First published in Great Britain in 2023 by FRONTLINE BOOKS an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd Yorkshire – Philadelphia Copyright © Kevin Prenger, 2023 ISBN 978-1-39907-297-7 Epub ISBN 978-1-39907-298-4 Mobi ISBN 978-1-39907-298-4 The right of Kevin Prenger to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Aviation, Atlas, Family History, Fiction, Maritime, Military, Discovery, Politics, History, Archaeology, Select, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Military Classics, Wharncliffe Transport, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, White Owl, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Books. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LTD 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk or PEN & SWORD BOOKS 1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.penandswordbooks.com Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Prior history through to 1807 Early Kolberg Prussia and the Seven Years War Napoleon attacks 2. From fortified city to health resort Development into a spa The First World War Nazification Jewish history and anti-Semitism National Socialist spa Tourist season, 1939 The Second World War Father Hinz 3. The Nazi Propaganda Movie Total war Movie and propaganda UFA The director The cast Behind the scenes Completion The script of the movie Critical reception 4. Downfall Paradise The Red Army advances A swarming anthill Fester Platz Kolberg The beginning of the siege Evacuation by sea Urban warfare Farewell and final battle Polish marriage to the sea 5. After the war A sad view Guilt and innocence From silent movie to Netflix Taboo 6. Epilogue Notes Bibliography Acknowledgements A book is seldom the work of one person alone. During the making of this book I have been strongly supported again by various volunteers of TracesOfWar.nl. In particular I am grateful to proofreaders Leo G. Lensen, Robert Jan Noks, Fred Bolle, Wesley Dankers and René ten Dam for their corrections and valuable feedback. Annabel Junge and Kaj Metz provided me with special information. Martina Riesener and Ernst Schroeder of the Verein Kolberger Lande assisted me in getting information about Father Hinz. I thank Coen Prenger for having edited the manuscript. The two maps are the excellent work of Marcel Kuster. My long-time translator, Arnold van W. Palthe, again did an amazing amount of work translating my book into English. I thank him very much for that. Last but not least, I also thank John Grehan and Sarah Cook of Frontline Books for their support. Introduction The concrete bunker in La Pallice is 640ft wide, 541ft long and 46ft high, and is hard to miss. This behemoth, located on a basin in the industrial port of La Rochelle, served as a shelter for the submarines of 3. Unterseebootflotille during the German occupation of the French Atlantic coast. It was constructed in 1941 by the German contracting firm, the Organisation Todt, using some 1,800 forced labourers. In its (dry) docks, protected by concrete walls and ceilings, U-boats could be repaired and supplied safely in order to continue hunting down Allied merchantmen and other vessels from the deep. During repeated Allied bombing raids, not a single bomb was able to penetrate the 23ft-thick roof.¹ After having enjoyed supremacy in the Atlantic for three years, from about 1943 onwards the German U-boats were waging a losing battle as the Allies had, among other things, new radar and sonar techniques at their disposal. The hunter became the prey. In August 1944 all German U-boats were recalled to Norway. As late as 3 May 1945, shortly before the end of the war, a U-boat berthed in La Pallice for a short time to deliver fuel and food to the garrison.² The port, barely 124 miles north of Bordeaux, was still in German hands at a time when the best part of France had long since been liberated by the Allies. Following the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies had slowly advanced towards Nazi Germany. Paris was liberated on 25 August, followed by Antwerp on 4 September. Operation Market Garden – intended to establish a bridgehead between the Lower Rhine and the IJsselmeer – had failed, delaying the Allied advance. Hitler’s armies, however, were unable to stop the Allied offensive in the Ardennes, launched on 16 December. Over the next year the Americans, British, Canadians and their Allies would continue their victorious advance and cross the river Rhine. At the same time the Red Army was advancing from the east towards their prize destination, Berlin. The end of Hitler’s Third