White Church – The Records of Helmuth Groscurth
24th August, 1941
20th of August 1941 – without a doubt this date will remain forever in my mind. I was just sitting at
my desk, finishing the last sips of my cold tea. The sun was slowly rising above the horizon. The
overwhelming silence was constantly interrupted by the sound of rain drops bouncing off the
windows. I’d spent almost half of the night trying to decipher secret message from admiral Wilhelm
Canaris. I was so tired of this whole situation. Tired? Still a huge understatement. I was exhausted.
I couldn’t even count on a little bit of quietness. War seemed to have no end. It was consuming more
and more victims. And in the name of what?! Racial politics, that realisation the Führer had set his
sights of honour on. No! We should do something to prevent the execution of the order. And we
could do it only by bringing the government down. Experience has shown us that Führer doesn’t
intend to either change his plans or be influenced by any argument or protest.
So there is only one thing left to us – assassination. But this time, we have to try harder to make it
succeed. There can’t be any surprises, as there were in September 1938. I still can't get over the fact
that it didn’t work out at that time. The plan was brilliant, everything was signed, sealed and
delivered. During one of the meetings of the anti-Hitler coalition - composed mainly of members of
the Wehrmacht, General Erwin von Witzleben - incidentally, one of my closest friends - revealed the
plan to go with an escort of trusted officers to the headquarters of the chancellor to persuade Hitler
to resign. At the same time, three army corps were to take Berlin and stand at the ready to fight with
SS troops loyal to Hitler.
It was expected that Von Witzleben wouldn’t be permitted to Hitler, and that he’d have to make his
way by force. We didn’t exclude the shooting. Von Witzleben and Canaris were going to arrest Hitler.
The task of creating an escort for von Witzleben was assigned to Major Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz, who
preferred a drastic solution and planned to shoot Hitler. Heinz won the support of Oster for his plan.
At the command of Wilhelm Canaris, I had to be on the alert and prepare weapons and explosives.
Unfortunately, the coup attempt was unsuccessful, because of the unannounced visit of British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain, who began negotiations with Hitler.
In autumn 1939, I was going to try again. I participated in the preparations for the next coup attempt
on Hitler, which was going to be carried out by Erich Kordt. At this time he was the spokesman for
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Reich and with his position came easy access to the Reich
Chancellery. On 11th of November, Kordt had to smuggle a bomb into the building, which was to be
constructed using materials provided by Erwin Lahousen from my command. The coup didn’t happen
because of our inability to acquire explosives. If the attempt on Hitler had been successful perhaps
now it’d be peace time. All of this would be over...
Suddenly, the sound of knocking on the door brought my thoughts to a sudden halt. It was quite
insistent. I hadn’t expected anyone at this time. For a brief moment I even thought they had come to
arrest me. I thought that someone inside the Abwehr was a traitor and he had betrayed me. For
a moment I felt the fear begin to give way to pride. As a member of the Nazi opposition inside
Wehrmacht I could feel proud. Because, if I died it’d be only as a traitor to Nazi policy. But, what
I saw calmed me down a little bit, although somewhere inside I felt a twinge of regret. At the door
there were military chaplains. Their faces were painted with fear and despair. One of them stepped
forward and spoke. What I heard from him stunned me.
In the White Church town, soldiers of the Wehrmacht were stationed (I note that they were not in
my division), who had paid attention to the cries of children coming from one of the buildings. They
reported it to the chaplains, who decided to investigate the whole thing personally. The priests’
findings showed that children were trapped in really terrible conditions. It moved me, so I decided to
tackle the problem. Together with the chaplains, I went to the place indicated. What I saw exceeded
my wildest fears.
About a hundred half-naked children - the oldest of whom was approximately seven years old – were
sitting or lying on the floor covered with faeces. Most of them were covered with flies and worms.
The place had a terrible stench. From the corner of my eye, I saw a few kids who were scraping
plaster from the walls and then eating it. As I found out from one of the non-commissioned officers
of the SS, Jewish children had been taken away from their murdered parents and locked in an
abandoned building at the end of the road. They were left on their own - without any adult
supervision, without water and food. Many of them had died of starvation, and the innocent
children's bodies were lying in the house right next to the living...
I've seen a lot of cruel things in my near six-year 'career', but this was indescribable. And the worst
was still to come. From the aforementioned non-commissioned officer of SS, I heard that the children
would be shot soon. The local commander of the Wehrmacht confirmed this information. Suddenly,
the SS-Obersturmführer August Häfner came from out of the blue. He was running the extermination
of the Jews in the White Church. Häfner turned to me with the pretension that I had unlawfully
delayed the action. I wanted to hit him.
However, at the same time my common sense started working. I went to the division commander,
who agreed I should order the immediate suspension of executions. I ordered the cordon of troops
to surround the building and use force if the SS tried to take the children. Then I commanded the
giving of water and food to the children, because they were so thirsty and hungry. At the moment, it
was everything I could do for them. Then I went to my office, where I prepared a written report that
concerned this whole situation. One of my messengers sent it to the command of the German 6th
Army. I was hoping to attain something. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The next day, 21st of August, the fate of the White-Church children was finally resolved. There was
a conference attended by the Wehrmacht and SS representatives, at which (apparently after a fairly
sharp exchange of opinions) was approved an order of the extermination of Jewish children from the
White Church. The person responsible for such bestiality was the Field Marshal Walter von
Reichenau, who represented the highest military authority in the area. At first, I didn’t want to
believe it. But I gave up when I found out from one of the representatives of 6th Army, who was
present on the spot, the SS-Standartenführer, SD member and one of the highest officers of
Einsatzgruppe C - Paul Blobel – was telling the truth.
My efforts to intervene in the defence of the Jewish orphans ended for me a rebuke from the Field
Marshal von Reichenau. But honestly? I didn’t care about that. However, I was shocked by the
bestiality that was in the German people. It shouldn’t be like that. I had the impression that the
actions of many German soldiers, particularly those of the SS, didn’t differ in any way from Soviet
methods. Of course, I didn’t neglect to include my findings in a report sent in to the headquarters of
6th Army. Field Marshal von Reichenau described my views as 'highly unfair, improper and
extraordinarily impertinent'. This made me deeply indignant. It was highly unfair what had happened
in the White Church. But I guess I was the only one that cared.
The war has made all of us monsters. It has destroyed the national psyche. Judging by what I have
written here, it would seem that I'm the good one. But the truth is different. I am an accomplice to all
the crimes. We all are. We didn’t oppose the dictatorship of Hitler, and now everyone has to bear the
consequences. Germans can’t and shouldn’t win this war. Definitely not ...