If you’ve seen Sunday’s True Blood episode, Beautifully Broken, then you may be wondering about Nazi werewolves. Well, those werewolves really existed (although not exactly like that). We’ve mentioned Hitler’s werewolves before, but I’m going to share a little more about them.
In 1923, a man known as Fritz Kappe created a terrorist group called Organization Werewolf. Their official banner looked a lot like pirates’ old Jolly Roger – a black flag with white skull and crossbones. In the beginning the group’s movement spread very quickly throughout Germany, but due to arrests by the Weimar government, the Werewolves never grew into a force that caused any real threat.
It’s likely that the group was created in response to Adolf Hitler’s desire for Germany’s youth to be like werewolves – cruel and harsh, people that wanted to destroy humankind (history books say that Hitler was obsessed with wolves and werewolves and wanted his men to be more like them).
Toward the end of World War II when the collapse of Nazi Germany was at hand, Josef Goebbels revived the Organization Werewolf after Heinrich Himmler’s speech in 1945 calling for a new Volksstrum (a militia) to harass the allied lines of communication in occupied Germany. The organization regrouped and used a black armband with a skull and crossbones and a silver S.S. as their new insignia.
Their main job was to assassinate and terrorize anti-Nazi Germans and ally troops. In Leipsig, female werewolves poured boiling hot water from windows of houses onto the heads of allied soldiers passing by. In Baden, they killed a number of sleeping French soldiers.
Even after the war ended, the Werewolves continued their terrorist ways. At the Nuremburg trials, many Nazi leaders testified that the Werewolves were now under the control of the infamous Martin Bormann, who had somehow managed to escape capture.
The Werewolves resurfaced in 1994 when Steven Spielberg’s film about the Holocaust, Schindler’s List, was scheduled to open in Russian theaters. Members on the group who were arrested by Russian security forces confessed that they planned on bombing Moscow theaters showing the movie. These Werewolves, estimated at about 100 strong, said that they took their name from the Nazi secret police operation that went underground once Hitler’s troops were defeated in World War II.
– Moonlight
I suppose you wanted to spell the organisation’s name the German way (Organization Werewolf?), but it’s not really correct. Organisation is just the same in German, and Werewolf turns into Werwolf (or Wehrwolf sometimes). So maybe you want to change it to Organisation Werwolf.
Operation Werwolf is used in the book, Howlers: Lupus Rex. One of the main characters kills one of Hitlers werewolves (a real one). They all have tattoos of a wolf’s head overlaid on a swastika.
What an utterly fascinating piece of history!
Hallo, sorry aber das was Du da über den WEHRWOLF Gegründet von Fritz Kloppe! Im Jahr 1923 hat absolut nichts mit dem WERWOLF von 1945 zu tun! Erst Erkundigen dann schreiben. Durch solch falsche Darstellungen wird Geschichte verfälscht! Und das ist Mist. Der 1923 gegründet WEHRWOLF mit H existierte nur bis 1933. Und wurde dann von den Nazis verboten. Trotzdem gingen viele ehemalige WEHRWÖLFE in NS Organisationen wie SA und SS. Deren Emblem war der Totenkopf und die Wolfsangel. Sie trugen schon früher als die SS schwarze Uniformen mit verschiedensten Totenkopf Emblemen an Ihren schwarzen Mützen, die später von der SS übernommen wurden. Gegründet wurden die Organisation aufgrund des Einmarsches der Franzosen 1923 ins Ruhrgebiet. Ich beschäftige mich seit 30 Jahren mit dem “Wehrwolf Bund Deutscher Männer und Frontkrieger”. Und besitze eine große Sammlung. Selbst hier in Deutschland ist es sehr schwer etwas über den WEHRWOLF zu erfahren. Dietrolf Berg hat ein wunderbares Buch über den WEHRWOLF herausgebracht. Für alle die dieses Thema interessiert nur zu Empfehlen.
Wehr Heil