In the last post, my father was off on a remote string of islands, listening to Tokyo Rose, preparing to participate in the invasion of Japan, which now is recognized, as it was back then, to be doomed to failure in regard to the first waves of a tactical assault, of which my father was more than likely to have been one of the fatalities.
You might also recall the story of Freida Duensing who brought hope to the disenfranchised, as I also recounted earlier. This family portrait if it is to be accurate has some dark shadows attached to it as well as light as any portraiture should.
During this time, the imminent invasion of Berlin by Allied forces has begun, and a series of defensive command structures and activities were either chaotically organized, or were constantly tampered with to ill effect by a Mr Hitler.
In the thick of this was, ironically enough a Duensing, who, like many former Nazi's in postwar Germany, escaped prosecution and went on to have a successful political career. Literally thousands of former Nazi commanders and so forth, escaped criminal trials, as the U.S attempted to ward off a now Cold War adversary and former ally, the Soviet Union by recruiting them as a ready made force. Unofficially, of course. That in of itself is another story.
My grandfather, while assisting me with a writing of a family history was asked to identify notable historically significant Duensing's as he was very proud of our name. He misidentified a key player in German history as a Mayor, when in reality, he was a Police Chief who oddly, was able to keep his position as both a Nazi functionary as well as a postwar civilian. He is the fellow to the extreme right, in more ways than one. According to the official record, he had a dual or "dotted line" authority which ironically, countered that of my father as being in a tank destroyer batallion, as Erich or Eric also was attached to a Panzer Division.
At the same time in Berlin, as my father was island hopping, a certain Mr Goebbels clearly regarded the Commander of the Defense Area as his subordinate. Talks between the two took place in Goebbels' office. Every Monday a so-called "major meeting of the War Council" took place under Goebbels' leadership to discuss the defense. Those taking part included the combat commanders, representatives of the Luftwaffe and the Labor Service, the Mayor of Berlin,as well as the Chief of Police, who is the very same Chief of Police of West Berlin in 1967 is the Social Democrat and former SS colonel, Erich Duensing.
One of the psychotic plans to be implemented which fortunately was never brought to fruition was the apocalyptic destruction of Berlin itself which Hitler had stated needed to be carried out as he wanted nothing usable left for the victors and in his demented mind, the German people were "undeserving" of a future without him. These were formal plans well thought out.
From 1936 to 1945, he was a career officer in the Wehrmacht. He had been in charge of the West Berlin police since 1962 and systematically handed out appointments to old comrades from the Wehrmacht and SS, including such as had worked in the Reich Security Main Office ( under Goebbels) as well as to former chiefs of Gestapo branch offices.
It gets worse.
The Ordnungspolizei were German police units that were dispatched to the occupied territories and that were largely implicated in German war crimes. The role of one Ordnungspolizei unit in implementing the “final solution” in Poland is, for instance, the subject of Christopher Browning’s study "Ordinary Men" which is one of several books that caused a great deal of controversy in Germany, as to factions, one wanting to sweep civilian collaboration under the carpet and the other, as a matter of history wanted to bring it to light. For a accurate portrait of this time I highly recommend the Roman Polansky film, "The Pianist"
This is a photograph of this police force out of country known as the Ordnungspolizei posing with Jews awaiting deportation and their death in German-occupied Poland. A world gone mad.
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