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The Execution of German Deserters by Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control in Amsterdam, May 1945

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The Execution of German Deserters by Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control in Amsterdam, May 1945 Canadian Military History Volume 2 Issue 1 Article 8 1993 Victims of Circumstance: the Execution of German Deserters by Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control in Amsterdam, May 1945 Chris Madsen University of Victoria Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Madsen, Chris "Victims of Circumstance: the Execution of German Deserters by Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control in Amsterdam, May 1945." Canadian Military History 2, 1 (1993) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Madsen: Victims of Circumstance: the Execution of German Deserters by Sur Victims of Circumstance: The Execution of German Deserters by Surrendered German Troops Under Canadian Control in Amsterdam, May 1945 Chris Madsen Introduction German commanders and military judges continued to apply an irregular military law n the morning of 13 May 1945, five days against deserters; and Canadian restrictions Oafter the formal capitulation of Hitler's on these actions remained limited and hesitant. Wehrmacht, a German military court delivered In this situation, larger political and strategic death sentences on two German naval considerations worked against deserters like deserters, Bruno Dorfer and Rainer Beck. The Dorfer and Beck. Canadian reactions, during trial occurred in an abandoned Ford assembly and twenty-one years after the execution, plant on the outskirts of Amsterdam, a site reflected a sad record of indifference and used by the Canadian army for the callousness for these unfortunate victims of concentration of German naval personneL Later latent Nazism. that same day, a German firing squad, supplied with captured German rifles and a three-ton Background truck from the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and escorted by Canadian Captain Robert K. he strategic situation in North-West Swinton, executed the two German prisoners T Europe became quite curious at the end of of war a short distance outside the enclosure. 1 the Second World War. Canadian and British Dorfer and Beck were among the last victims of advances into the Netherlands and Germany a military legal system distorted by the Nazi effectively cut off German military forces in state. At the time no one, Canadian or German, Western Holland.2 The Twenty-Fifth German questioned the justice of the event. Army, under the command of Generaloberst Johannes von Blaskowitz. retreated into a This tragic incident demonstrated a fortified area between the Maas and Waal disturbing degree of cooperation between Rivers in the south and the Grebbe Line in the Canadian military units and the defeated east. This "Festung Holland" contained German military. Why did German deserters approximately 150,000 German soldiers.3 A like Dorfer and Beck continue to die after the composite garrison of German army and naval end of the war? The executions were a matter formations awaited the final collapse of the of convenience. The Canadian military allowed German armed forces. The German military's the German military structure to function after threat to destroy Holland's extensive dyke the capitulation. Under this questionable systems and flood the fertile countryside arrangement, the German armed forces in prevented further advances of Canadian Holland disarmed, concentrated, and evacuated military units.4 Consequently, battle-lines in themselves. To accomplish this gigantic task the Netherlands remained relatively constant. in an orderly and disciplined way, Canadian These conditions provided a basis for agreement military authorities mistakenly relied on the between Canadian and German military vanquished German military leadership. leadership. On 28 April 1945. Lieutenant- 93 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1993 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 2 [1993], Iss. 1, Art. 8 The surrender of German forces in the Netherlands, I Canadian Corps HQ, 5 May 1945. (Photo: Alex M. Stirton, NAC PA 133321) General Charles Foulkes, commander of I Crerar, through Foulkes, issued detailed Canadian Corps, and Blaskowitz concluded a instructions to Blaskowitz for implementation makeshift armistice for feeding the Dutch of this surrender in the Netherlands. The civilian population. Under Operation "Faust," document made the German general Canadian truck convoys drove through German responsible "for all GERMAN Armed Forces lines, merchant ships sailed for major Dutch (including German Navy, Army, Air Forces), ports, and Allied bombers dropped food rations. 5 auxiliaries and civilians"7 within Blaskowitz's In this way, the First Canadian Army, under sphere of control. Meanwhile, the signing of General Harry Crerar, began an enduring the unconditional surrender by German working relationship with the German military plenipotentiaries at Rheims on 7 May 1945, to administration in Holland. On 5 May 1945, take effect the next day, formally ended the Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Third Reich. commander of the 21st British Army Group, accepted from Generaladmiral Hans Georg von By the time of the final capitulation, Friedeburg "the surrender of all German forces Canadian military forces were not yet inside in Holland, in northwest Germany including German-occupied Holland. At 2300 hours on the Frisian Islands, and Heligoland and all 7 May 1945, the Seaforth Highlanders of other islands, in Schleswig-Holstein, and in Canada, a regiment of the 1st Canadian Infantry Denmark. "6 At the small town ofWageningen, Division, received orders to proceed forward: 94 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol2/iss1/8 2 Madsen: Victims of Circumstance: the Execution of German Deserters by Sur "Instead of going to HAARLEM we are now to go Nevertheless, the German military remained to AMSTERDAM and will be the first unit to a potent force within Holland. The Germans travel into the newly liberated area. "8 During still controlled large sections of the Dutch the next few days, Canadian military units administrative, communication, and slowly moved towards designated occupation transportation infrastructures. Many Dutch zones within Holland. Enthusiastic Dutch civilians "could not understand, during the crowds swamped Canadian columns at every first few days, a situation where armed crossroad along inward routes. Lieutenant­ Canadian soldiers were going up one side of the Colonel H.P. Bell-Irving, the commander of the road and armed Germans going down the other Seaforth Highlanders, described the Canadian side, neither interfering with the other. "10 entry into Amsterdam: German military formations carried on with regular duties under the surrender agreement. The universal happiness amounted to an ecstasy Until further Canadian instructions, which I have never seen even approached in any Blaskowitz's headquarters remained crowd before. Before this, few of our men could have "responsible for the maintenance and discipline given a clear reason why they came ... But here in 11 Amsterdam, in one day, all that was changed ... ofallGermantroopsinWESTERNHOLLAND." Every life lost. every long day away from home, had At times, the vengeful activities of Nederlandse been spent in a good and necessary endeavour.9 Binnenlandse Strydkrachten (NBS), or Dutch Interior Forces, impinged on this practical The Dutch population greeted Canadian arrangement. The Canadians found "a country soldiers as liberators; Holland was once again whose friendly people and resistance forces are a free country. The arrival of Canadian military lusting to see the last of the Germans."12 forces officially ended five long years of German Anything German became a target; the NBS rule. Disarmed German soldiers move towards concentration areas. (Piwto: Alex M. Stirton/NAC PA 151928) 95 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1993 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 2 [1993], Iss. 1, Art. 8 declared open season on German soldiers found However, the cooperation and organization alone on Amsterdam streets. Thus, the of the German military greatly aided Canadian Germans gained safety in numbers, and efforts. For the most part, German military retained weapons for protection: "There was formations remained intact and functional. At some trouble in the "D" Company sector of the Julianadorp, the Germans "marched in fully town-some Dutch got into a boat and armed, wheeled into the airfield along one road attempted to shoot up a German concentration and halted."18 Canadian soldiers merely area. The fire was returned by the Germans. "13 collected and stacked German weapons. Sporadic outbursts ofviolence erupted between German war material was sorted, stored, and the two heavily armed groups. The German guarded, pending final destruction or military structure therefore represented an distribution to Allied military and civil sources. 19 element of order in a potentially explosive and In many instances, German military formations chaotic situation. disarmed themselves, and moved unescorted towards selected Canadian prison camps and concentration areas. Canadian military units Concentration and the NBS secured ammunition dumps and munitions storage areas left behind by German major priority of Canadian military units military forces inAmsterdam.20 Thus, German A in Amsterdam was the disarming and assistance became indispensable in disarming concentration of German military personnel. and concentrating
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