Hitler's Last Witness (36 page)

Stumpfegger, Ludwig (1910–1945)

SS-Lieutenant General; 1930–7 studied medicine at Munich; 2 June 1933 entered SS; 1 May 1935 entered NSDAP; 1936 assistant surgeon, later senior surgeon to Karl Gebhardt at the Hohenlychen Sanatorium; member of the medical team at the 1936 Olympic Games; September 1941 appointed head of the surgical group on the command staff of the Reichsführer-SS; took part in medical experiments mainly on Polish women from Ravensbrück concentration camp; 9 October 1944 travelling surgeon on staff of the Reich chancellor; May 1945 committed suicide after breaking out of the Reich Chancellery.

Troost, Gerhardine ‘Gerdy', née Andresen (1904–2003)

Architect; wife of Speer's predecessor Paul Ludwig Troost; 1932 entered NSDAP; 1934 continued her husband's architectural bureau after his death (Haus der Deutschen Kunst project, Königsplatz, Munich); 1935 board member in Haus der Deustchen Kunst; 20 April 1937 made professor by Hitler; 1938 advisory board, Bavaria Filmkunst GmbH; published book
Das Bauen im neuen Reich
, a standard work for understanding National Socialist architecture; after the war classified as ‘lesser involved' at the denazification proceedings, Munich tribunal, fined 500 Deutsche Mark and expelled from her profession for ten years; after that, resumed her career.

Wenck, Walther (1900–1982)

1935–6 War Academy; Knights Cross holder; 1 March 1943 brigadier; April 1945 commanded Twelfth Army (intended for the relief of Berlin and so ordered by Hitler), but in view of the military situation continued west and surrendered to US forces; 1945–7 US POW.

Werlin, Jakob (1886–1965)

SS-Oberführer and Hitler's inspector-general for motor transport; board member, Daimler-Benz AG; member NSDAP and SS; 1945–9 US internment; later proprietor Daimler-Benz holdings at Rosenheim and Traunstein.

Wisch, Theodor ‘Teddy' (1907–1995)

Brigadier; October 1933 company commander,
SS-Leibstandarte
; December 1939 battalion commander,
SS-Leibstandarte
; May 1945 in military hospital, British POW.

Wolff, Karl Friedrich Otto (1900–1984)

Officer, WWI; 1931 joined NSDAP and SS; 1936 head of personal staff, Reichsführer-SS; 1939 SS liaison officer to Hitler; September 1943, senior SS and police commander, Italy; 1945 publishing representative; 1964 sentenced to fifteen years' detention for complicity in murders in at least 300,000 cases (deportations to Treblinka); 1971 sentence remitted.

Woellke, Hans (1911–1943)

Field athlete; 1936 Olympic champion, shot-put; in WWII captain, Waffen-SS police regiment; killed by Russian partisans; posthumous promotion by Hitler to major in municipal police.

Wünsche, Max (1914–1995)

Passed out from SS Junker School, Bad Tölz; April 1936
SS-Leibstandarte
; 1 October 1938 until 1940 (with short break) in Hitler's bodyguard; afterwards Sepp Dietrich's adjutant with the
SS-Leibstandarte
; several front assignments; until 1948 British POW, later industrial manager in Wuppertal.

*
1944 appointed commander, Atlantic Wall defences against invasion of French coast. (TN)