The Pittsburgh Press (October 18, 1944)
HITLER CALLS CIVILIANS TO DEFEND REICH
People’s army for last ditch battle formed
Men 16 to 60 to fight for fatherland
London, England (UP) –
Adolf Hitler today ordered all able-bodied Germans mobilized into “People’s Storm Units” to fight a last desperate battle in defense of German soil while Nazi leaders try to win a stalemate peace.
Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, broadcasting from Soviet-threatened East Prussia, read Hitler’s decree calling all men between 16 and 60 to rally to the defense of the fatherland soil “with all weapons and by all means.”
Himmler, commander of the German Home Army, declared:
Every block of houses of every town, every village, every farmhouse, every ditch, every bush, will be defended by men, boys and old folk, and if necessary, by women and girls.
Reveals peace hope
In a decree, brought with a spirit of desperation, creating the plain-clothed “Volkssturm,” Hitler said the purpose of sending all men to the barricades with whatever weapons they could muster was, first to break what he called the Allied determination to annihilate the German nation.
The second aim, he said, was “keeping him [the enemy] away from the Reich until the future of Germany, of her allies and thus of Europe, is safeguarded by a certain peace.”
The obvious connotation was that Germany would fight on with the aim of draining Allied power until the Allies grow tired and agree to make peace. Nowhere in the decree was there a boast that the Allied armies would be destroyed – only that they would be held at arms’ length at the Reich frontiers by the fanatic resistance of the People’s Army.
Enemy straining forces
Hitler’s decree said:
The enemy is straining his forces to smash our Reich and to annihilate the German nation and its social order.
At the very moment when the enemy thinks he is getting ready for the final blow we are determined to carry out a second large-scale action of our people. We will succeed not only in breaking the enemy’s determination to annihilate us, but also in throwing him back and in keeping him away from the Reich until the future of Germany and her allies – and thus Europe – is safeguarded by a certain peace.
He ordered Nazi district leaders to take over the organization and leadership of the Storm Units.
Regarded as soldiers
Hitler said:
During their action, members of the German People’s Storm Units will be regarded as soldiers in the sense of military laws. Membership in a Storm unit does not affect membership in other organizations, but has priority over any other service in such organizations.
Himmler, speaking at a parade of the new People’s Army in East Prussia, underscored Hitler’s theme that the Nazi war aim now was to fight the Allies into a state of exhaustion.
He said:
The war has become unbearably heavy on our enemies. It must not go on much longer for them. They want to break into Germany, and they must do it because their forces are strained beyond all measure.
Our enemies will see that a break into Germany, even if they should succeed in making it, would mean for them sacrifices tantamount to national suicide. The enemy must understand that every kilometer of German soil will cost streams of blood.