The Pittsburgh Press (March 10, 1945)
GOEBBELS PROMISES WAR TO LAST GERMAN
Fanatical fight demanded by Nazi leader
Hitler pictured as Prussian king
LONDON (UP) – The German DNB News Agency reported today that Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels visited the Silesian front recently and reiterated that Germany would fight to the last man and never capitulate.
The Nazi leader acknowledged that the amount of Germany’s material equipment had reached a low stage, but argued that a fanatical fight by all the people behind Adolf Hitler would overcome the handicap.
Talks to home guard
Goebbels, according to DNB, made the visit to the Silesian front in Southwest Germany during the last few days and talked to members of the Volkssturm (home guard) and youth organizations at Goerlitz and Lauban.
The Nazi broadcast came almost simultaneous with other reports from the continent, indicating an increasing tension among the Germans, including the beleaguered Nazi High Command.
A Stars and Stripes dispatch from the Third Army front quoted German prisoners that Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt had been ousted from the Western Front command and replaced by Field Marshal Walther Model. The prisoners described the shakeup as preparations for a last-ditch defense by the Nazis.
Tries to aid morale
An earlier DNB dispatch disclosed that Nazi officials had ordered all workers in evacuation areas to report immediately to military authorities. It also warned that “every person of military age” must carry identification papers.
Goebbels’ reported visit to Silesia was believed an attemnpt to bolster the morale of the German people facing the onslaught of the Soviet armies on the Eastern Front.
The Propaganda Minister attempted to portray Hitler as another “great king of the Prussians” with the ability to lead Germany to victory if the people remained behind him after setbacks as well as triumphs.
Goebbels claimed that the immediate danger of being overrun by the Red Army “no longer can frighten us” and said that instead of panic, the Russians now were meeting a unison of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers on the Eastern Front.
Battle in Munich
The Moscow radio, meanwhile, quoted reports from the German frontier that serious disturbances had broken out in Munich, with the town entirely surrounded by SS troops. The broadcasts claimed that shooting had occurred in eastern Munich.
A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm Morgon-Tidningen said the German capital was being prepared for a final stand. Empty street and subway cars have been filled with stones and concrete and overturned at strategic street corners, the article said.