General Remer - July 20th 1944

[rjb44]

I read that Major Remer, who was a commander in Berlin on July 20th , 1944, was in the presence of Joseph Gobbles, who at that time turned over a telephone to Remer, who then heard the voice of Adolf Hitler. According to history, Hitler gave Remer direct orders. Did this actaully occur ? With everyhting going on at that time, How was Remer able to assure himself that he was in fact talking to Hitler. I have read such statements as "in the recognizible voice of the Fuhrer" . Did Remer speak to Hitler regularly to know his voice? was that not risky that Remer take action based on that call alone ?

Is it true that Hitler did in fact elevate Remer from Major to General shortly after. Somone said that he was informally promoted during that call. How long after July 20th did remer make General rank.

[xavier]

Herr Remer was what someone calls a "super nazi " (not my words), yes, most of what you wrote was true..Remer was able to recognize AH voice because it was well know (remember, there was no TV, just radio then) and anyway, you could know exaclty where your phone conection was coming from... (ohh the old times..snif sniff)

Remer has been acccused of being a traitor to Germany, but in the legal way, He was a hero in a lot of people eyes because he stood his ground in front of a (then) considered a bunch of traitors....times have changed, but what he did that night forever affected world's history.

(P.D::even after the war, he stood his ground)

Regards

Xavier

[Mikko]

Remer was promoted to Oberst (Colonel) immediately by Hitler during the phone conversation. In, IIRC, January 1945 he was promoted to Generalmajor.

Soon after the events of July 20, Remer got a division of his own to command. I have read that his performance as division commander was less than stellar -- is this true?

[xavier]

I have read that he took unnecesary high risks with his troops that lead to unnnecesary and higher than expected losses, and that he was a fanatic, but the book "god, honor, fatherland" about the grossdeustchland division does mention him, but not his performance.

regards

Xavier

[sid guttridge]

Remer had only recently been given command the Berlin Wacht Battalion (part of the Grossdeutschland Division's training and replacement brigade) and had met Hitler personally on his appointment only weeks before. When this is combined with the assurances of Goebbels and Hitler's distinctive Austrian accent he would have been in little doubt that it was the Fuehrer he was talking to. Hitler promoted Remer to Colonel during the call and gave him command powers over the entire Berlin garrison, because it normally came under Ersatzheer headquarters, which was where the plotters' were situated.

After the plot was suppressed Hitler gave Remer command of the new Fuhrer Begleit Brigade (later division).

[Stefan]

One should mention Remers notorious and outrageous activity as a Neonazi leader after 1945, especially in the context of the "Sozialistische Reichspartei" that was banned by the Constitutional Court in 1952. He served several prison sentences, but remained an unrelenting Nazi and fled to Spain, where he died in 1997.

[sid guttridge]

Very interesting Stefan. I did not know any of that. It just shows that we military history reading types ought to extend our range beyond 8 May 1945.

Thanks

[Rohrbach]

Hi,

I was in a second-hand bookshop the other day and found a book called The Beast Reawakens. It is supposed to be a non-fiction investigative look at the neo-nazi/extreme right movement in Germany during the Cold War and up through the 1990s. I only skimmed through the introduction, but the author states that Remer and Skorzeny met at the war ministry building in Berlin on the night of July 20, 1944, they became friends and the friendship remained after the war.

The author also claims that after the war Skorzeny flirted with American intelligence and Remer flirted with Soviet intelligence. They both did so not for ideological reasons, but to make money and contacts in order to build a neo-nazi movement together.

I didn't buy the book because it sounded too much like a conspiracy theorist's dream, but after what Stefan wrote maybe I should have given it a chance. Has anyone read the book? The author's last name is Lee.

Rohrbach

[sid guttridge]

Remer and Skorzeny did meet that day. I thought it was in Goebbels' office, but the Ersatzheer headquarters is just as likely.

July 20th was not a good day for Skorzeny. His fully motorised special forces depot was based only about 30 kilometers north of Berlin, yet it took him 8 hours to get even a single company into Berlin, and then too late to be used. It shows that even a man so expert in taking advantage of opponents' slow reaction times can be caught on the hop himself. The day was Remer's.

[xavier]

check this link:

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v08/v08p-41_Remer.html

is a long article, and is in a revisionist website, but neverthleless, are Remer's own words....

This article was translated from Otto Ernst Remer's book Verschwörung und Verrat um Hitler (Conspiracy and Betrayal round Hitler), published by Verlag K. W. Schütz, Preussisch 01dendorf, West Germany, reviewed in this journal by H. Keith Thompson. The contents of this article closely parallel General Remer's address to the Eighth International Revisionist Conference.

best regards

Xavier