I recently rewatched the film The Captain (German: Der Hauptmann) and was reading about the real life Willi Herold which got me thinking about the backdrop of the film and what Germany was like on the eve of capitulation. Specifically in the areas that were yet to be occupied by allied forces.
The film seemed to depict a complete breakdown in both civil and military order with scenes that seemed to resemble things you might see in Mad Max.
At best we see lots of uniformed personnel idling around seeming to offer very little strategic military value. At several points we see soldiers aimlessly wandering around the German countryside, lost with no specific orders to enact.
At worst, we see other soldiers descend into something more akin to banditry, committing atrocities and pillaging wherever they went.
Obviously this is a film and there is a certain amount of artistic license to be expected, but I’m wondering whether this is an accurate portrayal and whether anyone could expand on whether things were indeed this chaotic and disorganised during the final months of the war?
Thank you in advance :)
Things absolutely were chaotic and disorganized during the last weeks of the war. German officials made decisions without communicating with each other (sometimes out of panic, negligence or simply because the communication lines were broken), lost soldiers wandered around looking for food, shelter or to rejoin their unit (this is what would have happened to Herold if he hadn’t found the uniform, he would have likely joined up with Freitag and the other straggler and arrived at the checkpoint in Ochtrup, where they would have been assigned to a new unit), people betrayed their neighbors for hanging up white flags. However, people were also going about their day with as much normalcy as possible, and extended helping hands to lost soldiers, deserters and even to escaped convicts. The Emsland was in chaos, but it was nowhere near Mad Max - people still partied, bought flowers for their girlfriends, opened up their shops, tended bars etc.
It was also a time when impostors flourished - German civilians describe seeing desperate soldiers trying to disguise themselves into civilians, tearing away the medals from their uniforms, begging the civilians to give them clothing etc. Many people (including prison camp officials like Karl Schütte) were sometimes drunk during working hours, for various reasons (nerves, stress or just plain old alcoholism). Some people looked reality in the face and knew that Germany was not going to win, others, especially the diehard Nazis, still clung to the idea that the tide could still be turned to Germany’s favor.
The German official apparatus, especially in Emsland, which hadn’t been yet occupied, made attempts to keep things going and to get organized in the face of the imminent danger posed by the advances of the Allies. Papenburg (where Dr. Richard Thiel, the man in charge of the Emsland penal camps had his office) communicated with camps such as Aschendorfermoor regularly, trying to manage the situation. Keeping up the morale of the civilians was very important for the officials, which is why they sent units who hunted down deserters, escaped convicts and anyone who looked suspicious (this is why Herold finally gets arrested in Aurich - his band was too unruly, and the inhabitants complained).
The film itself is not to be taken as historically accurate, though.