Description
Object description
German civilian diplomat with Foreign Office in Soviet Union, 1931-1939; officer served with 1st Cavalry Regt, 1st Cavalry Bde, 1st Cavalry Div, German Army in Germany, Poland, France and Soviet Union, 1939-1942; served as staff officer with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with General Staff in Germany, 1942; served as Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to General Ernst-August Kostring with Army Group Caucasus in Soviet Union and in the Balkans, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Germany, 1904-1931: family; education; employment with German Foreign Office. Recollections of period as diplomat in with German Foreign Office in Moscow, Soviet Union, 1931-1939: reasons for his request for posting to Moscow; origins of his opposition to National Socialism and reasons for eventually joining German Army; belief that Nazis would take advice from more moderate qualified people; problems he experienced travelling in Soviet Union; expeditions he made into provinces; end of training facilities for German armed forces in Soviet Union 1932; lack of expectations that war would occur between Soviet Union and Germany; lack of interest in Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'; his friendship with Fitzroy Maclean and George Kennan.
REEL 2 Continues: Fitzroy Maclean's interest in Soviet Union. Recollections of operations as officer with 1st Cavalry Regt, 1st Cavalry Bde, 1st Cavalry Div, Germany Army in Poland, France and Soviet Union, 1939-1942: belief that Germany would be defeated; fate of his commanding officer; reconnaissance work during Polish campaign and encounter with Polish Cavalry; memories of General Thomas von Fritsch; initial attitude of Poles to German occupation; his hopes for British and French attack on Germany, 1939-1940; his diplomatic warnings to French, British and Americans; apprehensions of Dutch flooding their country; relations with peasants in Aquitaine Region, France, 1940; occupation duties in Brest-Litowsk area, Poland, 1940-1941; impressions that Soviets were not preparing an offensive; worries of dissidents about Nazi-Soviet agreement, 11/1940; his attitude to idea of Soviet attack on Germany; belief that Adolf Hitler disliked cavalry; participation in invasion of Soviet Union, 1941.
REEL 3 Continues: initial reception of Germans in Soviet Union, 1941; treatment of Soviet prisoners of war; how Soviet prisoners of war were used by German military units. Aspects of period as staff officer with General Staff in Germany, 1942: initial posting to Office of Foreign Affairs; work with Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg; conversations between Claus von Stauffenberg and General Ernst-August Kosting. Aspects of period as Aide de Camp (ADC) to General Ernst-August Kostring with Army Group Caucasus in Soviet Union, 1942-1943: treatment of Soviet population; memories of Claus von Stauffenberg and his decision to organise resistance against Adolf Hitler, 1942-1943; use of Valkire Plan as cover for resistance.
REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of period as Aide-de -Camp (ADC) to General Ernst-August Kostring in Balkans, 1944-1945: meeting with Kurt Waldheim in Greece, 1944; his activities at time of July Plot against Hitler, 7/1944; how he considered joining Fitzroy Maclean in Yugoslavia; his narrow escape from Gestapo on discovering memo on his desk to contact Claus von Staffenberg; memories of Kurt Waldheim; how he countermanded an order to protect Fitzroy Maclean in Yugoslavia; opinion of Chetnik-Partisan situation in Yugoslavia; question of how close Gestapo came to uncovering his activities; reiteration of his career; escorting General Ernst-August Kostring through Allied lines in Austria, 1945.
REEL 5 Continues: reiteration of story of escorting General Ernst-August Kostring through Allied lines in Austria, 1945. Aspects of post-war career in Austria and Germany from 1945: reasons for co- operation with Americans; work for Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Salzburg, Austria; wartime contact with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris; obtaining work with Bavarian State Chancellory; contemplation of emigration to United States of America; post-war treatment as member of German Resistance; writing of his memoirs; surviving German resisters, 1993; reasons for lack of support from German Resistance from foreign countries.
