On the Internet you can find a list of eight soldiers of the Third Reich who allegedly not only escaped punishment after the war, but also became important figures in the North Atlantic Alliance. We have checked whether this information is true.
Publications on this topic, often provided with appropriate illustrations, refer, in particular, to Adolf Heusinger and Johannes Steinhoff, who allegedly served as chairmen of the NATO Military Committee after the war (in 1961–1964 and 1971–1974, respectively). The Commanders-in-Chief of NATO forces in Central Europe are said to have been Hans Speidel (1957-1963), Johann von Kielmansegg (1967-1968), Ernst Ferber (1973-1975), Karl Schnell (1975-1977) and Ferdinand von Senger und Etterling (1979-1983). Franz Josef Schulze allegedly held a position on the NATO Council from 1977 to 1979 (although in the English-language illustration he is also named as the commander-in-chief of the alliance forces in Central Europe).
These people also mentioned impressive positions in the Third Reich - for example, Heusinger was Hitler's chief of staff. This is often done conclusionthat NATO is, in fact, the successor to Nazi Germany.
In 2023, this list is distributed through information (RF-SMI, "Minskaya Pravda") and entertainment sites ("I cried"), as well as social networks. In Telegram, channels wrote about the employment of Nazi officers in NATO at different times:Russia now"(377,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Solovyov"(365,000), "Anti-fascists of the Baltic states"(254,000), "Putin on Telegram"(233,000), "The goat screamed" (203,000) and "Sergey Mikheev"(160,000).
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 on the initiative of the United States as a counterweight to the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe that came under its military-political influence. The Federal Republic of Germany was not among the 12 founding states of the alliance. educated in the American, British and French zones of occupation of Nazi Germany on May 23, 1949, more than a month after the creation of NATO. IN subsequent years One of the main obstacles to this state’s entry into the alliance remained the decision to completely demilitarize the territory, adopted by the allied countries during the Potsdam Conference. But the signing in 1954 Paris Agreements opened the way for West Germany to join NATO, and within a year the country became a full member of the military bloc. Only after this did the country have a federal Ministry of Defense and its own armed forces (Bundeswehr). It is thanks to their service in the law enforcement agencies of Germany that former Nazi soldiers could theoretically occupy a position in NATO.
A large group of military and political leaders of the Third Reich, commanders and ordinary military personnel, as well as doctors, judges, industrialists, police officers, civil servants and diplomats in the years 1945–1949, appeared before the tribunal in the main and 12 additional Nuremberg trials. Of the 201 accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, 36 were sentenced to death, 23 to life imprisonment, 102 to other prison terms and 28 were acquitted. In addition, courts across Europe have sentenced total about 100,000 Germans and Austrians for crimes committed during wartime. After the end of the war in Germany and Austria began denazification - a program to rid German and Austrian society of Nazi ideology, carried out, among other things, by maximally neutralizing the influence of former members of Hitler’s NSDAP party and organizations friendly to it through removal from office or restriction of labor. Of course, a significant part of the former Wehrmacht officers were members of the party; they spent the first post-war years in internment camps, and after liberation they had problems finding employment. However, the difficulty of carrying out inspections (the number of cases opened was in the millions), a huge shortage of personnel (for example, in the American occupation zone, by the end of the winter of 1945-1946, 42% of civil servants were fired) and the rapid transfer of punitive powers to the new German authorities led to the fact that gradually denazification in West Germany practically disappeared (in the Soviet occupation zone it was more severe, but also ended by 1948, without achieving all the initially stated goals). The first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, who came to power in 1949, was against this program and chose a strategy to integrate former Nazis whose involvement in serious crimes had not been proven into the new state in order to move forward, as well as a shift in focus to paying reparations to victims of the Third Reich.
Let's look at the biographies of the people mentioned in the widespread news.
The most remarkable figure here can be considered Adolf Heusinger, chief of the operational department of the General Staff of the Army of Nazi Germany, that is, the third (later second) person in the hierarchy of planning military operations of this Wehrmacht unit. On July 20, 1944, Lieutenant General Heusinger as acting. O. The chief of the General Staff of the Army was present at the meeting at Hitler's headquarters and stood next to the Fuhrer when there a bomb exploded, planted by Colonel von Stauffenberg. Heusinger was hospitalized due to his injuries, then arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of involvement in a conspiracy, and only in October due to lack of evidence was released. Subsequently, he did not hold any significant positions in the Third Reich, and on the day of Germany’s surrender he was captured by American troops.
In declassified document The CIA says: “After the surrender of the US Army in May 1945, the question arose of prosecuting [Heusinger] as a war criminal in connection with certain orders he signed and sent that decided the fate of captured Russian officers who were engaged in political work and paratroopers of allied countries. However, given Heusinger's willingness to cooperate at Nuremberg and the fact that he only initialed orders upon transmission, no action was taken. Moreover, Heusinger periodically worked without pay as a consultant to the office of the chief US war crimes prosecutor at Nuremberg between 1945 and 1948.”
After the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, a new career stage began in Heusinger’s life. Starting in 1950 as a military adviser to Chancellor Adenauer, he was promoted to the rank of full general years later and became the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr. In 1961 Heusinger was appointed Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Washington. This is the highest authority NATO military structure, which includes the chiefs of the General Staff of the armed forces of the alliance member countries. Thus, in relation to Heusinger, the information disseminated should be considered true.
Briefly about other people on the list.
Johannes Steinhoff, one of the most successful aces of the Luftwaffe, suffered an accident in 1945 and spent two years in the hospital with severe burns to his face. In 1954, the German government invited him to help restore the German Air Force within NATO. Subsequently Steinhoff rose to the rank to the rank of general and in 1971, having worked for many years in the structures of the alliance, like Heusinger, headed NATO Military Committee.
Hans Speidel, chief of staff of Army Group B during World War II, was connected with the attempt on Hitler's life in 1944, but there was no evidence against him. However, Speidel spent seven months in prison and was released by Allied troops. After the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, Speidel was involved in the formation of the Bundeswehr, received the rank of general, and in 1957–1963 served as commander of the combined NATO ground forces in Central Europe (third seniority level of the hierarchy of alliance officers in Europe). Since the unit's headquarters were in Fontainebleau, France, Speidel's appointment drew serious criticism from French President Charles de Gaulle.
Johann von Kielmansegg, Colonel of the General Staff in Berlin during World War II, was also among those who knew about an impending conspiracy against Hitler in 1944, but escaped punishment due to lack of evidence. While commanding a regiment, he was captured by the Western allies, and after his release he worked outside his profession for several years. He took an active part in the formation of the Bundeswehr, then served as the military representative of West Germany to NATO, and in 1967 he was promoted to the rank of general. appointed Commander-in-Chief of NATO forces in Central Europe (the second highest level of the hierarchy of alliance officers in Europe).
Ernst Ferber, who held one of the leading positions in the organizational department of the Wehrmacht High Command and ended the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel, like many of his colleagues, after American captivity he worked in German intelligence (it existed under the patronage of the United States), then participated in the formation of the Bundeswehr, and in 1973, like Kielmansegg, with the rank of general he became commander-in-chief of NATO forces in Central Europe.
Karl Schnell, the first officer of the General Staff of the 76th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht, after American captivity and two camps he worked in the private sector, and since 1956 he has served in various positions in the Bundeswehr. In 1975, he succeeded Ernst Ferber as Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Central Europe.
Franz-Josef Schulze He did not hold high positions during World War II, but distinguished himself as the commander of a battery that repelled a British tank attack on an important sector of the front. After a short captivity and work in areas far from politics and war, he built a career in the Bundeswehr and NATO military structures, which culminated in the rank of general and appointment as Schnell's successor as commander in chief of the alliance's forces in Central Europe in 1977.
Finally, Fridolin von Senger und Etterling, the son of a general of tank forces, left the front after the loss of his right arm in 1944 and met the end of World War II as an adjutant in the Supreme Command of the Ground Forces. After serving a short captivity and working in the field of law, in 1956 he joined the newly formed Bundeswehr, where he was involved in testing tanks. His many years of work in NATO military structures led to the rank of general and the position of commander-in-chief of the alliance forces in Central Europe in 1979.
Thus, with the exception of minor inaccuracies (mostly related to translation), the distributed list and the accompanying picture generally contain correct information. Yes, few of the military men mentioned occupied really high positions in the hierarchy of the Third Reich, none of them were accused at the Nuremberg trials, but after captivity all of them built a successful career in the Bundeswehr, and then in NATO (mostly in European units). At the same time, it cannot be said that they laid the foundation of the North Atlantic Alliance, since they began working in the structure of the organization years after its creation, and did not occupy leadership positions immediately.
Note that this list is not the first of its kind; similar collections have already been on the Internet before. Soviet authors also paid attention to a number of former Nazi soldiers in the Bundeswehr and NATO, for example Lev Bezymensky in his book “German generals - with and without Hitler” in 1964.
Cover photo: social networks/Wikimedia Commons.
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