Eyewitness Testimony Ehrenfried Dietsch

to the: History and Research Association "Walpersberg e.V. Dorfstraße 7 07768 Großeutersdorf Dear Sir or Madam, Greiz, 9.12.2015 Due to increasing personal health limitations related to age, I have decided to publish my memories as a contemporary witness from my youth in January 1945 as another local contribution in the Greiz Homeland Calendar. Literature, publications in the press about tours and the work of the association have interested me for years. We were able to obtain the History and Research Journal 2015 through a bookstore in Greiz. With the help of my wife, I will continue to follow your meritorious research work and wish you much success. Ehrenfried Dietsch Thomasstr. 8 07973 Greiz (A. A. Yan Dahn \ f (sf Fa 2¢ey [| er matkulen ly LO (6 A era je bev Velkmav Sc na dor : Ehrenfried Dietsch : Student on duty i As a 15-year-old student for work deployment in the secret underground : aircraft factory in Kahla In mid-January 1945, the author, who was still a fanatical National Socialist and at that time a student at the Greiz Advanced School, was released from classes two days before the American invasion to follow a war-important work deployment. A group of Greiz youth under the obligation of party and HJ leadership was ordered to comply. A spade was to be brought as personal tool. Under threat of violence, according to the author's opinion, at the farewell at the airfield construction in Kahla, speeches with sharp slogans and calls for endurance were held in front of the youth present. After in World War II 1944 air superiority over Germany was finally lost and allied bomber formations massively destroyed German cities, the relocation of war-important production facilities into underground tunnel systems became a top priority. The then Thuringian Gauleiter Sauckel, also Reich Governor and Reich Defense Commissioner of the Gau Thuringia as well as General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment, had the tunnel system in Walpersberg near Kahla designated as suitable. The Greiz Advanced School student Ehrenfried Dietsch in HJ uniform. Collection Dietsch NSDAP, Schau,| 148 etch + student deployment | recognized as necessary and expandable to stand in a pillar. The tunnel system had to be so last desperate effort to enable the production of the new jet fighter Me 262, and to bring it into action against the allied bomber squadrons. The still under-construction plant belonged to the REIMAHG group (named after the then supreme commander of the Luftwaffe, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring). The tunnel system was developed using the open chamber pillar mining method, i.e., driven like a chessboard. The tunnels were about three to five meters wide and three meters high. The strength (thickness) of the rock above the tunnels was about 30 to 60 meters. The student work deployment was planned for two weeks. A mountain tunnel served as accommodation. The massive rock of the walls and ceilings impressed the youths. There was no moisture anywhere in the tunnel system, so they found their quarters tolerable despite snow and wintertime. The path from the camp to the toilet facilities led past small production chambers where night work was also done, to a large underground room lined with bricks, presumably one of the drivable main entrances to the mountain. During the deployment, the then main person responsible for the entire enterprise, Gauleiter Sauckel, also inspected the condition of the workers' accommodation and spoke briefly with some participants. The youths received an orientation to find their way in this maze of corridors and chambers but also went on discovery tours themselves. Through connecting tunnels, the mountain was accessible along its entire length. During a group tour, there was a warning not to go this way alone, as there had already been threats with iron rods there. If one reached the end halfway up the mountain, the village of Bibra lay some distance away, as well as one of the many barracks complexes for housing the numerous foreign workers. The group's tasks included shoveling snow, helping to fell trees on the mountain, and transporting sheet metal parts. Thus, they also got to know the outdoor facilities. Students Ehrenfried Dietsch and Wolfgang Leiterer during youth training in the Gommla forest. This also served as preparation for the later student deployment near Kahla. Collection Dietsch. On the elongated plateau of the Walpersberg was a runway for the aircraft being assembled in the mountain's production facilities, about 1,000 by 30 meters. 149 | | 4 id Fe il uf 1 aa sk Suddenly, one of them suffered a fainting spell and collapsed; he was silently carried away on the shoulders of two comrades. In the morning of the same day, there was already trouble because one of the youths had given a foreign worker a breakfast roll. For the still under-construction aircraft plant in and around Walpersberg at the beginning of 1945, a large workforce was needed. It is described that at this time, labor was hardly available. Initially also as volunteers, the workers were now forcibly recruited from all occupied countries, prisoners of war, and concentration camp inmates. The accommodations, sanitary, and supply facilities intended for them were also not yet fully completed, which made the situation unbearable for those affected. The work deployment included a Sunday. The group used this free day for a winter excursion to the nearby Leuchtenburg. From there, one had a view of the elongated Walpersberg and could guess the course of the runway. One of the most massive still under-construction assembly halls, bunker 0 at Walpersberg, had been expanded to the same extent as the so-called Congress Hall. On January 30, 1945, the anniversary of the Nazi seizure of power, it was sufficiently completed that one could reach it via a provisional access on the mountain. The youths experienced the inauguration ceremony in the presence of camera teams and photographers. With an euphoric, fanatical speech, Gauleiter Sauckel dedicated the building as the largest hall in Thuringia for special events after the war. The Red Army of the Soviet Union was already in Poland at that time, which must have been known to a large part of the audience and also to him. Shortly before the end of the work deployment, one of the group was to finish school and return to Kahla to participate in the reconstruction of the war-important aircraft plant. - Hedrich - Postwar period | The school education was to be completed and the person was to return to Kahla to participate in the reconstruction of the war-important aircraft plant, which is still presented today with publications, a museum, and guided tours at this historical site of German history.continued to participate. Uncertain, the author sought out his headmaster of the advanced school upon returning to Greiz, and he was sensible enough to advise him against it. "In the afternoon hours ~ Au ERDE a re rn . +s : gen der Heinric iuchte des 12. April (1945) the 89th Infantry Division of the Americans took over the Walpersberg area."? - pore a Tiers secret objects in Thuringia, 3rd edition, chapter Lachs. Sources and literature: 1) Greizer Heimatkalender 2012: Dr. Dörte von Westernhagen "Who was Kurt von Westernhagen" The written version of this contribution was made by the author's wife, Susanne Dietsch, as he himself can no longer write due to age-related limitations. 2) Markus Gleichmann / Karl-Heinz Bock, Jet fighters over the Walpersberg. 3) ibid, p. 115 Jung Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Zella-Mehlis / Meiningen