Spying On Hitler's Army : The Secret Recordings - Ch.4, Sunday
Eurostar
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Anyone catch this evening? A fascinating documentary about how British Intelligence managed to eavesdrop on hundreds of German generals and officers who were prisoners of war at Trent Park during WW2 and secretly record all of their conversations without their knowledge.
The most intriguing revelations were that knowledge of the Holocaust was widespread among the German officers, contrary to popuar opinion of it being some big secret at the time. Some of the officers had willingly participated in the atrocities against the Jews and others expressed their full approval for them, and it was clear the German military were heavily involved in the systematic butchery, not just the SS.
Not everyone was on board though. At least some officers and even one or two generals expressed their disgust at the mass murders, and conceded that Hitler and the regime were rotten to the core.
The most intriguing revelations were that knowledge of the Holocaust was widespread among the German officers, contrary to popuar opinion of it being some big secret at the time. Some of the officers had willingly participated in the atrocities against the Jews and others expressed their full approval for them, and it was clear the German military were heavily involved in the systematic butchery, not just the SS.
Not everyone was on board though. At least some officers and even one or two generals expressed their disgust at the mass murders, and conceded that Hitler and the regime were rotten to the core.
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A revealing moment in an ad for UKIP (also last night) where in one vox pop a woman hinted that voting in this country should only be for white Brits... or 'English' people!!:(
I don't think that was an advert for UKIP - not allowed on British TV. It would be this.
'hinted' being the key word above, I did not see all of it but I don't think it was quite what she said. Though often immigrants are amongst those most opposed to continuing mass immigration.
I saw another documentary on the History Channel made by German TV about this exact same subject.
It definitely seems to be the case that all of the transcripts of the conversations were found only within the last four or five years or so (by a German historian going through the British archives).
The most interesting aspect of the programme was that knowledge of the mass murders was absolutely widespread in the German military, even the Luftwaffe and German navy officers seemed fully versed with what was going on re. the extermination of the Jews.
That tells us that those who were fighting for the regime knew full well the type of regime they were defending, that it was involved in the mass murder of huge numbers of innocent men, women and children. Many of the officers and generals seemed to be fully on board with the genocide, but at least some of them were disgusted and knew that there would be serious repercussions for the Germans should they lose the war.
I wonder if the transcripts are available on-line or in a book? Did they mention anything at the start of the programme?
The entire programme is already up on Youtube : just type 'Spying On Hitler's Army' into the search engine:)
Yes, there has already been a book published on the subject called 'The M Room' by Helen Fry which only came out a few months ago.
There were definitely some good and decent men among the hotheads and fanatics. We heard one general railing against Hitler last night and admitting the regime was utterly corrupt. It was interesting too to hear one officer say at the end when confronted with films of the atrocities "That's the only thing the 'Thousand Year Reich' will be remembered for in a thousand year's time".
Four or five years ago could fit with the coverage in the newspapers though knowledge of the monitoring with bugged rooms goes back much further.
They seemed to concentrate on the group of officers too much when the most damning thing learnt was that ordinary German soldiers were aware and had participated in mass killings.
I have never believed the claims from ordinary Germans that they did not know anything about what was going on.
The regular prisoners-of-war in ordinary POW camps were of little interest to British Intelligence as they would have had very limited info, but the officers and generals at Trent Park were a different matter entirely.
Without a doubt, huge numbers of people in Germany must have known about the mass murders, even ordinary civilians. It was happening on a gigantic scale and rumours and first hand accounts must have been widespread. You couldn't live in a brutal and murderous dictatorship and not be aware you were living in one. The shocking thing is that so many ordinary people went along with the twelve years of madness.....it's as if the entire German population went temporarily insane.
But for the likes of Private Fritz, who has a family, what's the alternative to obeying orders? I suggest under the Nazi regime execution or concentration camp, and victimisation of your family.
Likewise the general public kept their heads down.
It's easy to be judgmental at the distance and time we are from the situation.
You'd have to factor in though that a considerable number of people probably approved of, or had no particular problem with, the mass murders.
Everyone in Germany knew the entire Jewish population had been "resettled" in the East. You were already halfway to something very sinister at that point. Did the general public really think that people who had been described as 'vermin' and 'sub-humans' were being treated well there?
That's a good question. Certainly, the Germans would be very interested in what captured officers would have to say for themselves and if they had intelligence info. Wasn't Colditz Castle the equivalent of Trent Park for them?
If only the British were doing it, it would show they were very smart and clever at their work.
I don't intend to defend those Germans who now deny they knew about the exterminations although they knew full well, but on behalf of ordinary folk who might have suspected nothing but been told that it was going on, such reports would be almost too incredible to give credence to. What would people hear think if they were told that, for example, asylum seekers are being secretly murdered in camps to keep numbers down? You would simply dismiss it out of hand. Perhaps previous violence - the Night of The Long Knives, Kristallnacht etc - would have inclined them not to dismiss such reports out of hand, but even then many would have found it simply impossible to believe.
I don't intend to defend those Germans who now deny they knew about the exterminations, but on behalf of ordinary folk who might have suspected nothing but been told that it was going on, such reports would be almost too incredible to give credence to. What would people hear think if they were told that, for example, asylum seekers are being secretly murdered in camps to keep numbers down? You would simply dismiss it out of hand. Perhaps previous violence - the Night of The Long Knives, Kristallnacht etc - would have inclined them not to dismiss such reports out of hand, but even then many would have found it simply impossible to believe.
On the other hand, the general public knew that every Jewish person had been "deported to the East". A lot of people must have had their suspicions about their fate there, especially as it seems rumours of mass shootings and even of gassing were widespread throughout Germany. The Allies for example dropped many leaflets on Germany describing in surprising detail what was really going on in the East.
As for the rumours being incredulous, don't forget that the source of them was often soldiers on leave from the front. Certainly the officers at Trent Park believed the accounts they were given of atrocities by their fellow officers. Everyone in Germany knew they were living in a racist and hate filled state, even though it was dressed up as being the "right" way to be. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that many German civilians would have had suspicions or even knowledge of the mass murders. They knew what type of state they were living in and how Hitler and the government viewed the Jews.
Wasn't there an early recording method onto a wire.?