If you’re reading these words, you’ve noticed the photo above them. It is appropriate and unmistakable, yet misleading: a German military officer of World War Two, complete with swastika. So let me explain what this diary is NOT about.
- It is not about racism
- It is not about the holocaust — exactly.
- It is not a comparative study of fascism across the decades
- There is no one named Godwin on the premises.
This diary is in fact about a man who followed orders. His honor lay in carrying them out meticulously and completely, whether they were honorable or monstrous.
Until the last one.
Dedrick Von Choltitz was born and bred a soldier in the Prussian tradition. Of good family, he served as an officer of the German Army continuously from near the beginning of World War I through nearly all of World War II. The German army was a state within a state; no government completely ruled it. Von Choltitz’s loyalty may have lay to the army over all.
The army supported war to avenge the humiliating peace the Allies inflicted on Germany. The rising Nazi party supported the same thing, and the two groups became allies. In the end, with enough Nazis in the army and a rather large purge of generals, the Army became a creature of the Nazi Party as well.
But it was still the army, and Von Choltitz racked up a record as a hard-charging front-line officer: he was there for the invasion of Poland, the invasion of Russia. Almost every hotspot.
But it’s quite possible that he had a nuanced view of his political masters: in the Battle of Rotterdam, he and his troops were nearly killed by German bombers by order of Nazi insider and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering. The idea had been to ask for tactical Luftwaffe support on key targets, but Goering decided to destroy all of central Rotterdam to cow the Dutch into submission.
Later in Rotterdam, Von Choltitz had to stop SS troops (Nazi paramilitaries) from wantonly executing surrendering Dutch soldiers and civilians.
But he took his medals and moved on. Promotion followed promotion as orders from the top grew more and more erratic and defeat became more common. Th orders made no difference. As he later said, “I am a soldier. I get orders. I execute them.“
Along the way, he murdered Jews. It’s not known where or how often. But while held in British custody much later, hidden microphones captured Von Choltitz’s words to fellow prisoners: "The worst job I ever carried out - which however I carried out with great consistency - was the liquidation of the Jews. I carried out this thoroughly and entirely." He got orders, and he executed them.
Then he was a general, and it was France in the invasion summer of 1944; Von Choltitz was commanding an infantry corps, trying to hold back the advancing allies. He failed. For this he got three things: another promotion; a new job as military governor of Paris; and a personal interview with Hitler.
General Von Choltitz met with Hitler on August 7, 1944. Von Choltitz’ orders from the great man? Destroy all famous buildings and cultural treasures in Paris when the Allies were about to take the city. The parameters of the order would apparently wobble somewhat — destroy the entire city, fight to the death, not wait for the Allies.
Von Choltitz would say later that he left Hitler’s chambers feeling that he had received insane orders from a madman, and that carrying them out would serve no military purpose: but only destroy a city that he loved and respected.
Whether that’s true — or whether Von Choltitz’ resolve to disobey was born later from intense meetings in Paris with the Swedish consul and Taittinger the head of the Paris municipal council — will never be certain. Controversy exists over Von Choltitz’ true motives. It could be, as some charge, that he knew that the end of Nazi Germany was certain and simply didn’t want to be the one left holding the bag when Paris burned.
Whatever his reasoning, he would disobey that last order. After leaving Hitler, Von Choltitz returned to Paris — and stalled.
Von Choltitz had help in the matter: a general strike broke out, including police forces and civil service. A communist-led street rebellion took hold which Von Choltitz’ troops struggled to restrain — perhaps not as ruthlessly as they could have, though hundreds were killed. After a few days he was able to engineer a shaky truce. Von Choltitz also neutralized a Luftwaffe proposal to destroy Paris with a nighttime bombing raid by insisting that that the bombers come by day to avoid killing German troops — remember Rotterdam? But Allied air power ruled the daytime skies; everybody knew it, and the mission never happened.
In the end, the rebellion helped him. Allied troops were ready to bypass Paris for the time being, as it had no strategic value. But some sources say that the thought of commies controlling Paris changed Supreme Commander Eisenhower’s mind, and on August 25, Free French troops showed up to take over.
Von Choltitz signed surrender papers and was whisked off to prison camp until 1947. But he would escape any charges of war crimes. And while his fellow officers snubbed him later, many French would call him “The Savior of Paris;” some honor him to this day. He might have been Paris’ butcher, but for the one order that he did not follow. Instead he was favorably portrayed by a best-selling book and hit movie (“Is Paris Burning?”), and more.
I told you up front that this long screed has nothing to do with Nazism or fascism. It does not. It has everything to do with refusing follow your lifelong loyalties into madness. It has to do with seeing clearly: for logical reasons, self-interest, or both. Call it the Von Choltitz Moment.
And I wonder if any Republican leader still in office is clear-headed enough to have one. The national GOP has completely given itself over to nativist, racist rhetoric for the benefit of its remaining base, and to the destruction of national government for the benefit of crony capitalism. President Trump has given them everything they want in that regard, but neither he or GOP leaders were interested in preventing the COVID-19 pandemic, which is now so much worse than it needed to be. To do so would be to operate the strong, activist government that they hate.
No, it’s much safer to dynamite important institutions and hope that the consequences fall on someone else’s watch; or, not think at all beyond the 5 pm cocktail. But this may not work out for them. Not this time. The summer ahead is long, long enough for COVID-19 to crest again in the face of hastily-loosened sheltering measures. While a mad leader screams madness across electronic media that Hitler would have envied, and gives no help to anyone but the wealthy.
The stakes are high and fatal; the dice roll is imminent. And the future of GOP politicians is gatekept by a shadowy figure in a officer’s cap whose world was also crumbling. From captivity, Von Choltitz reportedly said also this:
“We all share the guilt. We went along with everything, and we half-took the Nazis seriously, instead of saying "to Hell with you and your stupid nonsense". I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish. I feel utterly ashamed of myself. Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals (the party leadership).”
Yes. You do.