Abstract

Himmler and the Volkssturm

If people are to believe the Nazi propaganda machine, the new Volkssturm which the Nazi leaders have organized with frantic haste by drafting all men between sixteen and sixty not yet in the armed services has given an entirely different complexion to the military situation. Created out of the new spirit of total resistance and embodying the deepest moral and material energies of the German people, it is described as the solid rock upon which tie enemy onslaught will dash itself to pieces. While press and radio repeat this theme in endless variations, German communiques refer in glowing terms to the successes of these newly formed units in the defense of the East Prussian bastion. But all the talk about the value of the new force has been unable to conceal its actual weaknesses, which were in fact indicated in the very speech in which German Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler announced its formation.