The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

Reichsverteidigungskommissare (Reich Defence Commissars) (RVKs) 22, 41–2, 43, 52, 76, 88, 89, 101, 102, 103, 225–6, 290–91

Reinecke, General Hermann 46–7

as head of army NSFOs 68

Reinefarth, SS-Brigadeführer Heinz 251, 252

Reinhardt, Colonel-General Georg-Hans 33, 111, 114, 119

on eastern front 168, 171, 196–200, 202; dismissal (January 1945) 200, 202, 221, 310

Guderian and 197, 198, 199, 200, 205

Hitler and 196–8, 200; on his death 349

religion

Christian beliefs 72

Nazi Party attitude to 21

Nazi Party, Christian attitudes to 381

Remagen 254, 263, 278

Renduli´c, Colonel-General Lothar 202–3, 251, 263, 368

surrender 369, 370

Replacement Army 23, 25–6, 29–30, 35, 82, 84–5, 206

Himmler as C-in-C 35–8, 40, 353, 396

see also German Army

resistance movement, in Germany 149, 387

see also Stauffenberg, plot to assassinate Hitler

Rhine river

Allied crossing of 253, 254, 255, 256, 260, 266, 268–9, 270, 271, 281–2, 297

German defence 288–9

Rhine/Ruhr industrial area 58, 81, 131, 136, 138, 139, 141, 149, 150, 222, 254, 255, 262, 287, 328

Allied bombing 235

Red Army capture of 305

von Ribbentrop, Joachim 90, 163, 358

Allies, his attempts to negotiate with 280–81, 282–3, 291

as Foreign Minister 20, 150, 163

Goebbels on 243–4, 282

Dönitz as Reich President and 361–2

von Richthofen Lieutenant Freiherr 53

Riga, German retreat from (October 1944) 95

Ritter von Greim, Colonel-General Robert 205

Röchling, Hermann 136

Roer river 131

Rohland, Walther 136, 149, 290, 304

Rokossovsky, Marshal Konstantin 169, 173, 183, 301

Romania 62, 93–4, 100

Rome, fall of (1944) 17

Rooks, Major-General Lowell W. 378

Röttiger, Hans 366

Ruckdeschel, Ludwig 322, 323

as Gauleiter of Bayreuth 342–3

Rügen 179

Ruhr see Rhine/Ruhr industrial area

von Rundstedt, Field-Marshal Gerd 28, 32, 49, 59, 130

as C-in-C West 69, 70, 130, 132–3, 160, 170, 263; dismissal (March 1945) 254

Russia see Soviet Union

Russian Army see Red Army

Russian revolution 7

RVKs see Reichsverteidigungs-kommissare (Reich Defence Commissars)

Saar industrial area 58, 61, 65, 132, 136, 140, 141, 255

Sachsenhausen concentration camp 328, 330, 332, 333, 337

von Salisch, SS-Standardtenführer Carl 217

Sauckel, Fritz 83

Saur, Karl Otto 43, 83, 135, 137–8, 141, 160, 292, 346, 352

Saxony 125, 297

Scandinavia 256, 283, 361

see also Denmark; Finland; Sweden

Schellenberg, SS-Brigadeführer Walter 283, 284

Schepmann, Wilhelm (SA head) 85–6

von Schirach, Baldur

as Gauleiter of Vienna 317

as Hitler Youth Leader 118, 317

Schleswig-Holstein 361, 366–7

Schneidemühl 218–19

Schörner, Colonel-General (later Field-Marshal) Ferdinand 50, 51, 95, 221, 305, 395

on army deserters 219

as Army Group A (subsequently Army Group Centre) C-in-C 252, 301, 353, 368, 369–71; post-capitulation 373–5

as Army Group North C-in-C 94–5, 219, 259

brutality accusations against 374, 395

on disaffected army officers 221, 263

on Hitler’s suicide 348–9

imprisonment/trial in West Germany 203, 374

Soviet Union, captivity in 374

Schulz, General Friedrich 299, 305, 316

Schulze-Fielitz, Günther 137

Schutszstaffel (Protection Squad) see SS

Das Schwarze Korps (SS newspaper) 210

Schweinfurt ball bearing works 291

von Schweppenburg, General Geyr 28

von Schwerin, General Gerd Graf 63

Schwerin von Krosigk, Lutz Graf (Finance Minister) 241–2, 278, 360

Berlin, evacuation from 341

in the Dönitz cabinet 360, 377, 378

scorched earth policy 64, 112, 141, 288

Dönitz’s reversal of 367

Hitler’s Nero Order on (March 1945) 290–91, 303, 309, 367; Speer’s opposition to 290–91, 303, 309

industry, German plans for immobilization/destruction of 42, 80, 81, 82, 140–41, 286–7, 288, 289, 290–91

see also economic collapse

secret weapons see armaments, miracle weapons

Seelow Heights 302

Seldte, Franz (Labour Minister under Dönitz) 360

Seyß-Inquart, Arthur (Reich Commissar in Netherlands) 358

Allied powers, his negotiations with 358–9, 363

Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) 18, 25, 31, 61, 73, 99, 117, 191, 261, 271, 316, 356, 359, 380

Silesia 214, 252

evacuation of 182–3, 189–90, 262

Groß-Rosen concentration camp 232–3, 329

Silesian industrial area 167, 168, 172–3, 182, 187, 190, 195, 244, 252, 287

Simon, Gustav (Gauleiter of Koblenz-Trier) 65–6

Smend, Oberstleutnant Günther 29

Smith, General Walter Bedell see Bedell Smith

Sobibor extermination camp 214

Solingen 297, 314–15

Soviet air force 169, 173, 179, 180, 301

Soviet army see Red Army

Soviet Union 15, 18, 31

German fear/hatred of 70, 98–9, 120, 121–2, 222–3, 256, 271–2, 282, 306, 310, 349, 351, 362, 368, 373, 385

German invasion of (June 1941) (Barbarossa) 13, 46, 120, 359; Stalingrad, battle for (1942–3) 13, 23–4, 29, 46, 92, 94, 208

German prisoners of war in 94, 254, 368, 369, 371, 375; deaths among 375

German propaganda against 98, 187, 195, 223–4, 313, 356

Goebbels proposes separate peace with 95–6

Hitler on 130

as an occupying power 379

under Stalin 95–6, 154, 246, 371–2

Spaatz, General Carl, German surrender, signatory to 372

Spain see Guernica

Speer, Albert 11, 25, 64, 90, 134–6, 138–42, 244, 346