When the downfall is obvious, the “Führer” orders the self-destruction. Whether bridges, roads or factories: nothing shall be left behind.
During their retreat, the German troops leave scorched earth. In Hamburg, meanwhile, the cover-up is underway: on 12 April, Reich Governor Kaufmann and his economic advisor Otto Wolff order to remove all forced labourers from both Hamburg based companies and the city itself.
Only 30 kilometres away from the city centre, the prisoners of KZ Neuengamme are sent on brutal death marches. On foot or in freight cars, they are brought to “Auffanglager” (detention camps). There, they are left to themselves, without any food or medical aid.
Timeline General
- 27 January: The Soviet Army liberates Auschwitz extermination camp, where still 7,500 prisoners are present. 60 years later, the United Nations declare this day an International Memorial Day to remember those who were killed in the Holocaust. Of at least 1.3 million people deported to Auschwitz, around 900,000 were killed in the gas chambers, murdered or shot dead shortly after arrival while 200,000 died shortly thereafter.
- 19 March: Adolf Hitler issues the so-called “Nero-Befehl” (Nero order): Under this order „any and all military, traffic, communication, industrial and supply facilities and material assets throughout the German Reich, which the enemy can immediately or in the mid-term utilise in any way for the continuation of his fight”, shall be destroyed.
- 3 April: Heinrich Himmler gives the order to shoot dead all male residents in houses displaying white flags.
- 30 April: Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his “Führerbunker” in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels follows him on the next day.
- 8 May: The German “Wehrmacht” surrenders unconditionally.
Timeline Hamburg
- 24 March: The SS begins to evacuate the KZ Neuengamme in an effort to cover the traces of its crimes.
- 20 April: In a cellar at Bullenhuser Damm (in today’s district of Rothenburgsort), 20 Jewish children aged between 5 and 12 years are hanged. When they were found later, their bodies show that horrible medical tests were carried out on them. The former school in this street was a side facility of the KZ Neuengamme.
- 2 May: The “Hamburger Zeitung” features a statement of Reich Governor Kaufmann on the suicide of the “Führer”: “What he leaves behind is the immortal idea of the national-socialist Reich.”
- 3 May: Karl Kaufmann hands over the city of Hamburg to British troops without further fight. By doing so, the last big German city surrenders.
Timeline Persons
- 14 February: Paul Lang is deported to KZ Theresienstadt. Three months later, the prisoners of this camp are liberated by Soviet troops.
- May: Herbert Müllers company is disbanded: the war is over. He puts off his uniform and walks home to Hamburg all the way from The Netherlands.
- 3 May: After Hamburg is handed over to the British Army without a fight by Kaufmann, Karl Miller goes home. His home at Wexstrasse is less than two kilometres away from the high bunker.
- 3 May: Ship “Cap Arcona” with 6,000 KZ prisoners on board is attacked by the RAF and sinks. 4,600 men are killed. One of them is Peter Jürs.