Five Days That Shocked the World: Eyewitness Accounts from Europe at the End of World War II Read Online Free PDF

Himmler.
    *   *   *
    HIMMLER, SCHELLENBERG, and Bernadotte all assumed that they had been deliberately let down by the Allies, who had leaked the news of their negotiations to the press. In fact, the Allies had done nothing of the kind—not officially, anyway. A lowly British official at the United Nations conference in San Francisco had leaked the story on his own initiative.
    Jack Winocour, a press officer for the British delegation, had first learned of Himmler’s approach on April 27, when Anthony Eden, Britain’s foreign secretary, had mentioned it casually at a briefing. Winocour had assumed that the story was being released to the newspapers, but he had seen no mention of it anywhere. As the afternoon of the twenty-seventh wore on, and the wire services still hadn’t run the story, he wondered if it was being deliberately kept secret, and if so, why?:
    It was Himmler who still controlled the ghastly administrative apparatus of the Nazi state. It was he who would surely be Hitler’s heir, and who would attempt to perpetuate the legend. Surely Hitler now knew of Himmler’s treachery? Or if he did not know why had we not begun to tell the world with every means at our command that Hitler’s comrade-in-arms had betrayed him?
    There had been a long silence throughout the day. I had earlier been convinced that Eden was merely announcing to us what must soon be a matter of common knowledge in the nerve centres of war in Washington and London. The Foreign Secretary would not have taken thirty people into his confidence on a matter of this kind, if it was intended that secrecy should be maintained. 5
    But the silence had continued into the evening. Winocour was preparing for bed when Paul Scott Rankine of Reuters news agency rang after midnight to ask if he had anything for the afternoon papers in Europe. Winocour hesitated for only a moment. Speaking strictly off the record, he gave Rankine the story. Half an hour later, every paper in Europe was remaking its front page and the BBC was broadcasting the news of Himmler’s treachery across the world.
    Winocour woke later that morning to find the San Francisco correspondents in an uproar as they hurried to find out more. At the 10:00 a.m. briefing at the Palace Hotel, it was reported that Himmler had said that Hitler had suffered a brain hemorrhage and had only a few more hours to live. For mischief, Winocour added quite untruthfully that Himmler had offered to deliver Hitler’s body to the Allies as an earnest show of his good intentions. Winocour knew he wasn’t telling the truth, but he knew, too, that Hitler would be outraged if the story reached him. The power of black propaganda was not to be underestimated in wartime.
    By late afternoon of the twenty-eighth, the story had spun completely out of control. Assured that it was about to happen, the Associated Press took a gamble and put out a news flash announcing Germany’s unconditional surrender. There was no truth in the rumor, but the UN meeting in San Francisco’s opera house almost broke up in disarray as the delegates flooded outside to learn more, leaving Russia’s foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, vainly trying to restore order with his gavel. President Harry Truman was consulted in Washington, but could shed no light on the matter. He knew about Himmler’s approach to the Allies, because he had discussed it with Winston Churchill on the transatlantic telephone, but he had heard nothing of surrender. Truman got Admiral William Leahy to telephone General Eisenhower in Europe to ask if it was true. Eisenhower’s people in turn rang Churchill’s in the middle of the night, but no one had heard anything. If the Germans had surrendered, it was news to anyone in Europe.
    Accordingly, Truman decided to scotch the rumor. Just after nine thirty that evening, he summoned the White House correspondents to the Oval Office. Refusing point-blank to discuss Himmler’s approach, he confined himself instead