Page 457 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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the GL’s publications were distributed in Germany and the ‘Germanic countries’ . in
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Norway for instance, the Germanische Leithefte had in October 1942 a print run of 15,000 .
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the magazine Wiking was also supposed to be distributed in all ‘Germanic countries’ .
78
Furthermore, beside its own the GL also distributed other SS publications in the ‘Germanic
space’, such as 60,000 copies of the booklet Der Untermensch (The Subhuman) in the Neth-
erlands in October 1942 . Moreover, in the framework of the SS ‘Germanic policy’, Ried-
79
weg bought publishing houses and edited newspapers in the ‘Germanic countries’ . this
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way the GL published the Germaneren in Norway, the Hamer, Storm, Sibbe and Volksche
Wacht in the Netherlands and the Famer in Flanders. in the Netherlands, the GL even pro-
duced ‘cultural films’ on the ‘Germanic people’s propriety’ (Germanisches Volksgut) .
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cOnclusiOn
Riedweg and his office seem to have been very dedicated to the enforcement of non-
German ‘Germanic civilians’. The GL’s efforts in the field of the ‘Germanic SS, youth, sci-
ence and propaganda’ were multifaceted and enormous. It created the ‘Germanic SS’ on the
model of the German SS and educated its leaders to prepare them for a future European order
inspired by SS ‘Germanic ideals’. The youth was also targeted as it tried to bring its educa-
tion into conformity with Germany through youth organisations based on the Hitler Youth
and education institutions like Napola. SS ‘science’ was also promoted through collabora-
tion with the Office of Ancestral Heritage in an aim to replace the science in these occupied
countries with a ‘Germanic science’. Finally, all the ideas about such things as the ‘common
Germanic heritage’ and the ‘fateful fight against bolshevism’ for a ‘Germanic Europe’ were
propagated by the GL’s very active press machine. The Swiss Franz Riedweg and his office
were thus the executioners of the enforcement of SS standards on ‘Germanic civilians’.
However, after disagreements with Himmler and Berger on the form the future ‘Germanic
Europe’ was to have and on the treatment of volunteers, Riedweg was disowned, left his
position as head of the GL and was muted to the front on 7 February 1944. He joined the III.
Germanisches Panzerkorps (III Germanic Tank Corps) – which he had helped to create
rd
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– upgraded to an Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant-Colonel) and lived the end of the war as
Adjutant of its commander Felix Steiner . as Himmler told Riedweg that he could imagine
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a Swiss or a Dutch as future president of a ‘Germanic Reich’, evidently, – as we know now
76 NAW, Procès verbaux d’auditions, Record Group 238, World War Two, War Crimes Records, International
Military Tribunal: Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, APO 124 A, Evidence Division, Interro-
gation Branch, Vernehmung des Dr. Franz Riedweg am 19.11.1947 von 14.00 – 16.30 Uhr durch Mr. Konrad
Swart, Im Auftrag des Rijksinstitut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie in Amsterdam, Nuremberg, pp. 14-15.
77 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, SS-Hauptamt-Amt VI, Monatsbericht / Oktober 1942, 20.11.1942, p. 4.
78 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, Geheim, Chef des SS-Hauptamtes, Germanische Leitstelle, Amt VI, SS-Obersturm-
bannführer Riedweg, an Ostubaf. Dr. Brandt, Reichsführer-SS Persönlicher Stab, betr. Frontzeitung „Wi-
king“, 12. Februar 1943, p. 2.
79 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, SS-Hauptamt-Amt VI, Monatsbericht / Oktober 1942, 20.11.1942, p. 9.
80 Loock, op. cit., p. 61.
81 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, SS-Hauptamt-Amt VI, Monatsbericht / Oktober 1942, 20.11.1942, p. 4, 9, 12.
82 Wyss, op. cit., pp. 425-426.
83 Ibid., p. 429.