1945. Charles Collingwood's Eyewitness Account of the German Surrender

The Third Reich is Destroyed

"Col. General Gustaf Jodl, German Chief of Staff under the Doenitz regime, signing the document of unconditional surrender. (Charles Collingwood can be seen operating recording machine in the back).  Prints and Photographs Division" (source)

COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM

CHARLES COLLINGWOOD

TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1945 – 9:18 A.M.

Germany surrendered at 2:45 on the morning of May 7th, 1945. At that moment, General Jodl, Chief of Staff of the German Army, signed the last document. He sat there very straight with his head bent over the papers, and when he had signed the last one, he put the cap back on the pen and looked up at the men sitting across the plain wooden table. Opposite him sat General Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff.

General Smith looked tired. He'd been negotiating for 33 hours, but his mouth was hard and so were his eyes. As he looked to his right, General Jodl could see a big, powerful man in the uniform of a Russian general sitting next to General Smith. He was General Susloparov, the Russian delegate. Over his shoulder peered the extraordinary head of another Russian. The head was bald as a gourd, with fierce, unwavering eyes, whose bright and sinister gaze did not for an instant leave the drawn face of General Jodl. Jodl did not meet his eyes for long but looked around the table at Admiral Sir Harold M. Burrough, the Allied Naval Commander, at General Spaatz, the Air Commander, at General Sevez, the French representative. Then General Jodl looked again at General Smith.

"I would like to say something," he said. Smith nodded, Jodl rose stiffly to his feet.

"Herr General," he said in a voice that choked and almost broke. "With this signature the German people and the German Armed Forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the victor's hands. In this war, which has lasted more than five years, both have achieved and suffered more than perhaps any other people in the world.

"In this hour I can only express the hope that the victors will treat them with generosity."

Then General Jodl sat down quickly. No one else said anything. The Germans looked around as though wondering what to do next, and at another nod from General Smith they got up—General Jodl, his aide, and General Friedeburg, who commands the German Navy. With Jodl in the lead they walked quickly out of the room.

With sixteen other correspondents I witnessed this scene, which formalized the most complete and resounding defeat in the history of the world, which meant relief and hope to millions of sorely-tried people. It was the end of the war, the climax of a series of piecemeal surrenders.

The final surrender took place at a quarter to three on Monday morning. The negotiations began late Saturday afternoon. Admiral Friedeburg, who had earlier surrendered northern Germany, Denmark, and Holland to the British, arrived at General Eisenhower's headquarters at Reims, France just after five P.M. on Saturday. He wanted to talk about complete surrender. He tried to pull once more the old dodge about surrendering to the Western Allies and not to the Russians. He was, of course, flatly refused.

Since Friedeburg was not empowered to sign a final surrender, he was told to get someone who was. He sent a message to Dönitz, asking for someone who could sign. The next day, Sunday, at 5:08 P.M., Jodl landed at Reims. The expectation was then that the surrender would be signed almost immediately, but Jodl turned out to be one tough customer.

Colonel General Gustav Jodl, the German plenipotentiary, is a typical, stiff-necked, Prussian professional soldier. He is ugly, and his face is ravaged by what appears to be some kind of skin disease, but he is as straight as a gun barrel and the embodiment of what we think of as Prussian arrogance.

Admiral Friedeburg was relatively easy to negotiate with. He seemed rather a pleasant old fellow. But there was nothing pleasant about Jodl.

The conferences dragged on. Finally Jodl dispatched another message to Admiral Dönitz. Everyone sat down to wait. The Russians had a cocktail party. The French general went back to his quarters. Some of the British and American negotiators took a quick nap. The Germans sat morosely in the house that had been set aside for them.

Just before two o'clock in the morning, when it looked as though everything was over for the night, the negotiators began to drift back to the supreme headquarters and the École Professionnelle in Reims. General Spaatz came in first. He looked quite content. Then General Bedell Smith drove up. He was not given to visible emotions, but as he walked up to his office he looked almost jubilant. Then the Russians came in grinning from ear to ear and after them the rest trickled in.

About two-thirty they began to go into the war room where the instruments of surrender were to be signed. Let me try to picture for you this scene as I saw it when I was there early Monday morning. Here's this room—not a very big room, as rooms go. The walls are covered with maps in bright reds and greens almost up to the ceiling. On these maps is all the information General Jodl would have traded an Army Group to have a week ago. Our battle order, our communications system, our supply network, our casualties, and perhaps most important of all, the Germans' own hopeless position clearly marked out.

This room, General Eisenhower's war room, is bathed in the hot glow from the blinding lights the photographers have set up. At one end is a long table. A very plain, very old, rather rickety wooden table, the top side of which is painted black. Around this table are fourteen chairs. Twelve of them are arranged around one side, and the other two, with their backs to us, occupy one whole side of the table. This is where General Jodl and Admiral Friedeburg had to sit.

Broadcast script from May 1948 (from Bill Downs' papers)

The only people in the room now besides us correspondents are a milling mass of photographers in constant movement climbing up and down ladders, aiming cameras, adjusting lights, wheeling up two huge moving picture cameras, and around the walls there is a battery of recording apparatus set up to catch every word by our friends the radio engineers of staff, the people who get our broadcasts through.

The whole place is brilliantly lit. It looks like a movie set. About two-thirty in the morning General Spaatz walks in. He is followed in quick succession by the Russians. Then Air Marshal Robb comes in; Admiral Burrough. Pretty soon Bedell Smith himself enters, the man who bore the brunt of the long hours of negotiation. He looks tired, but there's a look of grim satisfaction about his tight mouth. The other generals come in. The last is the little French General Sevez. He looks out of breath, as though he'd run up the stairs. Everyone stands about by their chairs, waiting for the Germans. General Spaatz makes a soldierly pleasantry to the Russians and they grin broadly. Everyone tries to appear completely at ease, but the air is tense, tense, tense.

Then the Germans come in. Jodl's face is like a death mask; drawn, unnatural looking, and with every muscle in it clenched. Admiral Friedeburg is more relaxed, but he too is not enjoying himself. Jodl's aide bobs about like a headwaiter in a restaurant. Their uniforms are immaculate and rather spectacular in the German fashion. Both Jodl and his aide have the double red stripe of the German General Staff on the sides of their cavalry breeches. They reach the table, bow in unison, and wait. General Smith motions them to sit down. Everyone sits down.

Then the cameramen start bounding about after the fashion of cameramen, like so many monkeys in the zoo. They run at top speed all around the room, up and down ladders, flash-bulbs going all the time. It's an incredible scene. The generals are clearly annoyed, but still the photographers untiringly dash about, getting in the way of General Strong, Eisenhower's G-2—who is by this time handing around the documents to be signed.

Jodl signs the surrender at 2:41, and then General Smith, who hands it to the Russian General Susloparov, and finally the French General Sevez signs it. This happens four times—a copy for each nation. Meanwhile, Admiral Burrough and General Smith sign a paper relating to the conditions for disarming the German Navy. And Smith and Spaatz sign one for the Air and Ground Forces.

By 2:45 the last signature has been affixed. The photographers are still in full cry, leaping over one another to get their pictures. It has become completely ridiculous, but still they go on. They're fascinated by the face of General Susloparov's interpreter. He's a Russian with a head completely bald, not a hair, and a glittering eye which he fixes on the Germans like the very eye of doom. To get a good shot at him, a photographer leans over the Germans, elbowing Jodl out of the way, and flashes his bulb at the Russian.

The Germans sit there through it all, stiff, unblinking, tasting to the bitter dregs of their cup of humiliation. Then came the most dramatic moment of all. Everything had been signed. There was no longer any possibility of quibbling or evasion.

The German Third Reich, which had once made the world tremble, had collapsed in bloodstained fragments. Colonel General Jodl, Chief of Staff of the German Army, asked General Bedell Smith's permission to speak. He stood up stiffly, like a man holding himself in against some unbearable pain. In a strangled voice, like a sob, he said: "With this signature the German people and the German Armed Forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the victor's hands. In this hour, I can only express the hope that the victor will treat them with generosity."

When General Jodl sat down after that, it was all over. At a sign from General Smith, the Germans stood up, bowed again, and quickly left the room. Up to this time they had not yet seen General Eisenhower or Air Chief Marshal Tedder, his deputy. All the negotiations were undertaken by General Smith and General Strong, but after the surrender Jodl and Friedeburg were taken to the Supreme Commander. Eisenhower and his deputy, Air Marshal Tedder, stood side-by-side behind Eisenhower's desk, unsmiling.

The Germans bowed and stood there. Eisenhower asked them curtly whether they had understood the terms of surrender and whether they agreed to carry them out. The Germans said "Yes," and then they were taken away.

German representatives Major Wilhelm Oxenius, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, and General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg in Reims, France to sign the German Instrument of Surrender on May 7, 1945 (Photo by Ralph Morse – source)

It was all over. The Germans had surrendered, and later General Eisenhower said a few words. This is what he said:

"In January 1943, the late President Roosevelt and Premier Churchill met in Casablanca. There they pronounced the formula of unconditional surrender for the Axis Powers. In Europe, that formula has now been fulfilled. The Allied Force, which invaded Europe on June 6, 1944, has, with its great Russian ally, and forces advancing in the south, utterly defeated the Germans by land, sea, and air.

"Thus, unconditional surrender has been achieved by teamwork; teamwork not only among all the Allies participating but almost all the services—land, sea, and air. To every subordinate that has been in this command of almost 5,000,000 allies, I owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. The only repayment that can be made to them is the deep appreciation and lasting gratitude of all free citizens of all the United Nations."

With those words, General Eisenhower finished the evening's ceremonies. It was all over. Eisenhower relaxed, everyone relaxed. One almost forgave the photographers—the most terrible war in human history had finally come to an end. The mad dog of Europe was put out of the way. The strange, insane monstrosity that was Nazi Germany had been beaten into submission. To millions of people this was the end of suffering. It was perhaps the best news the world had ever had: the surrender of Reims had been signed.

1949. The Bonn Government Elects West Germany's First Chancellor

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer Takes Office

Convening of the Bundestag on September 7, 1949 (source)

Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

September 11, 1949

The creation of the Federal Republic of Germany this week presents Europe with another political enigma. The fateful question being asked today is: "What kind of a government will the new German state turn out to be?"

The other day in Bonn, the man who most likely will head the new republic, Dr. Konrad Adenauer, gave CBS News an exclusive interview. The 73-year-old Rhineland politician outlined to me the goals toward which he hopes to lead the German democracy as the nation's first chancellor since Adolf Hitler.

The recent German elections, and the resultant right wing victory, according to Adenauer marks a distinct change in the thinking and attitude of the people. "It is a great shift in public opinion," he says. "Since the end of the war the attitude of the German people has been 'let the government or the occupation powers solve our problems.' But in the past year, with the currency reform and the boom in German industry, the individual is beginning to set out to solve his own problems."

It is this spirit within the people that moved the vote away from the left; away from the Socialists and Communists, Adenauer declared. Thus, he maintains, his government has the mandate to continue the free economic policies instituted by the American military government in Frankfurt. "Individual enterprise must be given a chance to continue its upward climb which already has achieved so much in Germany."

I asked Dr. Adenauer about the threat of nationalism in Germany, a threat that incidentally comes from the right. The chancellor-to-be said he had heard of the outside criticism which arose during the campaign. "But," he said, "these reports of growing German nationalism are exaggerated. They were started by people whose motives are questionable" . . . by which he meant his political opponents in the Socialist Party. Then, in the strongest statement on the subject thus far, Adenauer declared: "We are conscious of the threat. Any government that I head will be alert for signs of the wrong kind of German nationalism . . . and will beat it down."

I asked Adenauer what would be the foreign policy of the Federal Republic. He protested that he could not go into detail on this subject, since the occupation powers have reserved the right to dictate in this field. "Germany must incorporate her hopes and goals with the Western world." Earlier Adenauer had advocated that the republic join the Council of Europe, which just completed its meeting in Strasbourg.

Then the German political leader said a strange thing. "America," he stated, "won the war by entering into it. But I think that history will remember the United States far more for her participation in the postwar world than her victories on the battlefield. Never before in history has a victor set out to deliberately rebuild the vanquished. This fact alone gives great hope for the future," Dr. Adenauer concluded. "This is implementing the Christian principle of 'love thy neighbor' . . . a principle which can be the basis for a peaceful and prosperous world."

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.

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Bill Downs

CBS Bonn

September 12, 1949

A few hours from now the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany will elect a president—the first president Germany has had since the death of Field Marshal von Hindenburg fifteen years ago, whereafter Hitler abolished the job.

After the election of the president, he will go before the parliament and will swear this oath:

"I swear that I shall dedicate my strength to the well-being of the German people, enhance what is to its advantage, ward off what might harm it, uphold and defend the Basic Law and the laws of the Federation, fulfill my duties conscientiously, and do justice to every man. So help me God."

The man most likely to take this oath and become the titular head of this new state is Professor Theodore Heuss of Stuttgart—65, white-haired, dignified leader of the Free Democratic Party.

Heuss heads the party which is one of the mainstays of the right wing coalition government that must be formed by Dr. Konrad Adenauer, the man expected to become chancellor. A student of art and economics, the professor is the author of several books, including one called "Hitler's Way," which was publicly burned by the Nazis.

For seven years he served as a member of the German Democratic Party in the old Reichstag. The only blot on his record is that he voted for the enabling of the law in 1933 that allowed Hitler to become dictator of Germany. Heuss also made some political deals with some strange neo-Nazi cats in strengthening his Free Democratic Party in the last campaign.

The president's job is mostly an honorary one, since the real law and policy making are done under the direction of the chancellor. But as a symbol of Germany, Professor Heuss—if he is elected this afternoon—will be that of a conservative, German intellectual. His party platform boasts that it stands without reservation for a capitalist economy, being the "bitterest foe of Socialism and planned economy, for both mean nothing less than the realization of monopoly dictatorship."

Heuss will not be elected unanimously. The opposition Socialist Party is reported to be preparing a candidate to run against him, although the Socialist nominee is not expected to get the required majority.

I talked with the aging professor the other day. He told me his prime interest in the presidency is to again raise Germany to a position of respect and honor among democratic nations.

This is Bill Downs in Bonn. Now back to CBS in New York.

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Bill Downs

CBS Bonn

September 13, 1949

A lot of old Rhine wine and older platitudes are flowing in Bonn today as occupation and government officials formalize the election of Germany's new president.

At an official reception this morning, the American, British, and French high command met to congratulate Professor Theodore Heuss on his election to the presidency. The French high commissioner, M. François-Poncet, spoke for all three occupation governments, saying that Germany is now taking a new shape, and that the Western powers would cooperate to do their best for the new Germany. "It is the hope of the occupation powers that Germany will find a way back to the family of democratic and peace-loving nations of the world."

In his reply as president, the lanky white-haired professor concurred in this goal and said his government was prepared to give up part of its powers in order to return to what he called "the European community." With some significance, Heuss added that the government is not forgetting the people of Berlin and of Eastern Germany who are not yet able to join the republic.

Behind all these high-flown words, however, the politicians here resemble starving men in a bakery as they struggle for a cut of the political pie set before them by the creation of the new government.

Within the next few days—possibly today—Heuss will appoint Dr. Konrad Adenauer as chancellor and ask him to form a cabinet.

The right wing coalition gained a tenuous majority yesterday in the vote for the presidency, but there are enough uncertain votes that can spell trouble for the Adenauer government—unless, of course, he is able to pacify them by handing out political patronage and positions to the doubtful parties.

The German Communist Party here finally broke its silence which it has maintained since its poor showing in the general elections. The Communists voted yesterday straight down the line with their archenemies, the Socialists.

They explain today that this was done not because they liked the Socialists, but because they wanted a working class vote to be registered. The Communists would like to make a political marriage of convenience with the large Socialist Party which carries the main burden of the opposition to the government. However, the Socialists are having none of it.

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Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

September 15, 1949

Dr. Konrad Adenauer, head of the Christian Democratic Party, is the new Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, becoming the parliamentary strongman of the new state under what appears to be a very shaky coalition of right wing parties.

Adenauer was confirmed as chancellor at Bonn this morning by a one-vote majority. He got 202 out of 402 votes. His opposition cast 142 votes against him, and there were 44 abstentions.

The closeness of the votes means that the 73-year-old government leader is going to have to continue to play his legislative cards with extreme care if he is to guide any sort of program through the parliament. The new legislature now has dispensed with the opening formalities and is getting down to work. There was a marked absence of morning coats and wing collars at this morning's session. The coalition cabinet is expected to be announced tomorrow.

The Soviet-licensed press of East Germany has been making vitriolic attacks on the Bonn government, but I am informed that the real interest of the Communists lies not in Bonn, but in Budapest and the trial beginning Friday of László Rajk, the former Hungarian foreign minister now charged with treasonous Titoism.

My informants say that within the next few weeks a Yugoslav exile government aimed at ousting the Marshal Tito will be established in Bucharest, Romania. Already a new powerful radio transmitter called the vote of "revolutionary Yugoslav emigrants" is operating. The ultimate aim, I am told, is to promote a civil war in Yugoslavia under the direction of the Cominform, but that so far there are no plans for direct intervention by the Soviet Union in this war; that Russia does not choose to risk a larger conflict by using her own troops officially in Yugoslavia.

This intelligence, if correct, would serve to remove a large part of the threat of another world war emanating out of the Balkans—for the time being, at least.

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.

1949. Son of Communist Leader Max Reimann Escapes the Volkspolizei

"Different Ideas of Freedom"

A crowd gathers at a KPD rally in 1950 featuring Max Reimann as the main speaker. A banner reads "Wählt die Partei der Deutschen Einheit und Unabhaugkeit" ("Elect the Party of German Unity and Independence") (source)

Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

September 18, 1949

Eight young men dominate the news from Germany today in a tragedy of coincidence emerging from the current struggle between the East and West in this hapless country.

The coincidence is that all of these men are or were held by the Russians. As you know, four of them escaped from a Russian prison in Berlin two days ago. Recruit John J. Sienkiewicz of Baltimore, Maryland now is recovering from his ten month prison experience in the American military hospital here. The three British soldiers who escaped with him also are under hospital treatment. Another British soldier, according to the escapees, is still being held in the prison.

Additionally, the Soviet military authorities are still holding two young Pennsylvania college students picked up two and one-half months ago while trying to bicycle to Berlin without the proper credentials. All official demands for the release of the students have been unanswered by the Russians.

But an example of what the current East-West ideological clash is doing to Europe is best illustrated by the story of the eighth young man in today's news, the only German youth involved.

His name is Joseph Reimann. He is 23 years old and happens to be the son of West Germany's leading Communist, the handsome, graying Max Reimann.

Young Reimann fled to British authorities the other day for political asylum. He escaped a Communist people's police training camp in the Soviet zone. Previously the youth had spent four years as a war prisoner in Russia. His father arranged for his return and entry into the people's police. Young Reimann fled the camp because he said "he found that he was being trained for war."

About his father, the son declared: "He knows nothing except Communism. Let him go his way and I will go mine. We have different ideas of freedom."

This morning Max Reimann gives his paternal and party-like answer. "It is a shame to use this private affair as a political weapon against the Communist party and myself," the father said, and then added, "It is well known that I had no influence in the education of my son during the time of Hitler's regime. The last time I saw him, he was three years old."

In Bonn, the new West German republic is having growing pains. Chancellor-designate Konrad Adenauer is having trouble reconciling all the political leadership in his right-wing coalition and thus far has not been able to submit a cabinet for parliamentary approval.

It now appears that there will be a delay in the formation of the government, a delay that also holds up American, British, and French preparations to transfer their occupation from a military government to the civilian High Commission stewardship.

The ceremonies marking this change in occupation status were originally scheduled for Tuesday in Frankfurt. Now it appears that the Adenauer government may not come into being until later in the week.

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.

1968. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's Farewell Ceremony

The End of an Era for the Pentagon

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (left) at the Pentagon seated with his successor Clark Clifford on February 7, 1968 (source)

Bill Downs

ABC Washington

February 28, 1968

It was a rare scene in the East Room of the White House this afternoon. The Vice President and all the Cabinet members were there along with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Ambassador Averell Harriman, as well as the Chief Justice and Mrs. Earl Warren—and more members of the former Kennedy administration than had gathered in the executive mansion than about any time since Lyndon Johnson won the presidency for himself in 1964.

If there was any coolness between the Johnson and Kennedy factions, it was not evident today. For both Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy and their wives were also on hand.

The occasion, of course, was the president's official farewell to one of the most outstanding public servants to hit official Washington in many a year. Tomorrow Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara steps out of the Cabinet after seven long years in the Pentagon of reorganizing and modernizing the United States defense establishment.

There were some generals and admirals present who will be glad to see him go. And McNamara's arch-critic, Congressman Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has made no secret of his joy that the secretary is resigning to become head of the World Bank.

But Rivers was there too, as were the generals and admirals, because, like him or hate him, they unanimously agreed that McNamara took on an impossible task and somehow unified the military services and made his system work.

President Johnson personally said all the proper words of tribute and then read the citation on presenting McNamara the nation's highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom.

Also present was Clark Clifford, presidential adviser who will be sworn in tomorrow to take over the Pentagon. Clifford watched the ceremonies with bowed head, looking at his own feet—and McNamara's shoes.

This is Bill Downs in Washington for Information Reports.