1945 - Collapse & Flight
In early 1945, as the Red Army’s Vistula–Oder Offensive ruptured the German eastern front, the civilian population of Lower Silesia faced catastrophic collapse. On February 14, as Soviet armor entered the outskirts of Grünberg, Ilse Großmann fled the city clutching her eight-week-old infant daughter. An account recorded decades later by her fourteen-year-old niece, Regina Kurzmann, documents their subsequent transit: boarding an overcrowded freight train in Sagan, the family endured sub-zero temperatures sheltered only by loose straw inside bullet-scarred cattle cars. Near Leipzig, the locomotive was detached, stranding the transport on an open siding in freezing winter conditions. The intense physical and psychological stress caused Ilse to lose her ability to breastfeed, turning the family’s journey across a collapsing Reich into a desperate struggle to keep the newborn alive until they finally reached Großmann’s relatives in Swabia.
Historical Juxtaposition: The Grünberg Death Marches
This civilian displacement occurred along the exact geographical axis of extreme state-sponsored atrocities. Grünberg was the site of a major female subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp network, where approximately 1,000 Jewish women—primarily from Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia—had been subjected to starvation rations and brutal exploitation in local textile and armaments factories.
In late January and early February 1945, the SS initiated the forced evacuation of the Grünberg subcamp. As German civilians packed onto trains and westward roads, thousands of emaciated Jewish prisoners were driven on foot into sub-zero blizzards on death marches toward Bergen-Belsen and Helmbrechts. While the Großmann and Kurzmann families fled under conditions of extreme civilian privation, their journey cut directly across the lethal path where hundreds of the regime’s victims were being systematically marched to exhaustion, denied food and shelter, and executed along the roadsides of Lower Silesia.
Ilse escaped the Soviets on a train much like these civilians used.
By Authority / Forrás: Sudetendeutsche Stiftung, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=820812
Note: All photos on this website are from Ernst Großmann,s archive EXCEPT this page. Only the second and also the final photo are his. The rest on this page are creative commons with their source noted.
Radar School - Defying Logic
Ernst Großmann started 1945 operating in one of the most heavily defended airspace in Europe. He operated a fire control radar in Cologne, aiming the guns as they desperately engaged the bomber streams. His diary entries from this period reflect a relentless operational tempo of "Lively day" (Lebhafter Tag). The term "Lively" in German military parlance of the time often denoted continuous engagement, where crews were at battle stations for hours, tracking hundreds of bombers. Then he was transferred.
In February 1945, he was stationed in the Dutch towns of Doetinchem, Zutphen, and Enschede. This period represented a strange interlude of relative calm amidst the collapsing front. He records activities such as "Instructing 45 men" and conducting a "Final Exam" for radar operators. This highlights a bizarre bureaucratic inertia within the Luftwaffe. Even as the Soviets stood on the Oder River and the Americans on the Roer River, the German military machine continued to train fresh crews—likely young boys from the Flakhelfer generation or older reservists—to man complex radar systems that would soon have no fuel to move and no ammunition to fire. He was again moved south, but Cologne had fallen.
Men from one of Ernst's courses in radar operation. As Europe collapsed in February 1945 the Luftwaffe had him training radar operators. Photo: Ernst Großmann
Operation Varsity
In March Cologne lay in ruins. 90% of the city had been leveled and the US Third Armored Division took it in fierce urban fighting. Großmann relocated to Obrighoven and Wesel - unbeknownst to him right next to the landing site set for the US 17th Airborne on March 24th. Preparatory fire hammered them for days. His diary notes days of attacks on their position and the town of Wesel.
.jpg)
Troops of the Monmouthshire Regiment in Bocholt on March 29, 1945 taken by Lt. Handford. Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum B.U. 2783
.jpg)
British Horsa gliders Photo credit: IWM (CL 2231)
Großmann was again lucky. He was to be at ground zero, but on the 14th was sent to Lowick, a district on the edge of Bocholt and took over a Mannheim radar for 1. Batterie / gemischte Flak-Abteilung 157. But he was now 6 miles from where UK forces would drop in Hamminkeln. His position was hammered from the air:
“March 18-20 - attacks on Bocholt”
“March 22 - Lancasters hit Bocholt”
“March 23 - Radar hit 2 men killed”
On March 24, 1945, the Allies launched Operation Varsity, the largest single-day airborne operation in history, designed to support the amphibious crossing of the Rhine (Operation Plunder). Two airborne divisions with 16,000 paratroopers—the US 17th Airborne and the British 6th Airborne— directly onto the high ground north of Wesel to seize bridges and neutralize German artillery. Allied operational orders specifically targeted Flak positions; gliders landed directly on top of batteries to neutralize them, and Typhoon fighter-bombers provided suppression fire. He writes of seeing the paratroopers land, and in his interview he spoke of the horror of combat:
"...the paratroopers jumped in by the hundreds and we shot at them. They could not do much while they were in the air so we shot at them. Hundreds of paratroopers died this way. Of course, it was also the Germans' turn. The paratroopers shooting down at the Germans while they were still floating in the air. And that was a really bad, bad time...Somewhere, and I cannot tell you exactly where, there was a hole—or something like that—and I crawled into that. I told myself that they can go on shooting as much as they like but I had enough. I did not want to participate anymore. It is difficult to describe this; grenades would tear away body parts while the paratroopers were still in the air. It was horrible, simply terrible." - Ernst Großmann
Upon witnessing the paratroopers landing, Großmann made a decision. The diary notes: "seeing this I decide to burn 73 letters from Ilse and all my papers". This act signifies a resignation to imminent capture or death. However, amidst the chaos of the drop—where German resistance was fierce but fragmented—he managed to secure horse-drawn transport and flee north towards Almelo (Netherlands). Most static Flak personnel in the Wesel sector were killed or captured within the first 24 hours of Varsity. Großmann’s escape from the immediate drop zone is statistically improbable and testifies to a high degree of situational awareness and luck.
Disintegration and Close Combat
Following the escape from Bocholt, his unit disintegrated into a mobile ad-hoc battlegroup retreating north through the Netherlands and back into Germany (Almelo -> Leer -> Oldenburg). He was now retreating with horse-drawn carriages directly in front of the II Canadian Corps, primarily the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and the 1st Polish Armoured Division under General Stanisław Maczek. Großmann's unit was a ragtag mix of men and women barely a step ahead of the Allies. On April 2 they were attacked, with three dead including two women Helferin. On April 13th he abandoned his radar equipment in Grohn outside Brehmen. In fluid retreat they were put into a battlegroup in Helle, and somehow made it to Aschendorfer Moor to dig defensive trenches as they tried to plug the gaps. On the 20th his battle group was sent to Großwolderfeld on the same day the US 7th Army arrived in Kirchheim unter Teck where Ilse was sheltering with family. He writes:
"April 21: Großwolderfeld heavy fighting - 2 enemy tanks, 6 men killed including Lt. Herbert... retreated 2200".
A radar technician was now fighting as infantry in the boggy trenches, a desperate measure common in the final weeks as the Luftwaffe ground staff were thrown into the line to slow the Allied advance.
The diary records a specific and intense engagement in the final week of the war - the Battle of Großander (May 1-2, 1945). On May 2nd he wrote: "Fighting the enemy early in the morning outside Großander east of Uplengen. Retreat to Duerdenfeld". Historical records of the 1st Polish Armoured Division confirm that on May 2, 1945, their 10th Mounted Rifle Regiment and 2nd Armoured Regiment encountered stiff resistance at Grossander.
The Polish war diary notes:
First Squadron comes in action, passes a bridge and reaches the region of Grossander, where they find road-demolitions and the enemy's resistance, (about one company of infantry).
Thanks to the Squadron's heavy pressure and fierce fire, the resistance is broken.
A small bridge (partly damaged) and road-demolitions were restored within 30 minutes.
Grossander was captured.
Three kilometres East of Grossander the 1st. Squadron meets obstacles: a hole in the way, two barricades and a small bridge with mines, which were strongly defended by the enemy.
The squadron met very heavy mortar-artillery and machinegun fire. The swampy field prevents leaving the way and passing the obstacles. The commander of this squadron, with a section of the storm-platoon made a reconnaissance on the obstacles on foot.
One Dragoon Squadron came to reinforce them.
At 11.25 hours heavy antitank-fire (probably 6 guns SP 88 mm and 75 mm) and a fierce attack of heavy enemy's artillery and infantry in the bushes on the roadside caused big losses for the Squadron.
Killed were:
-
Lieutenant Paweł Borzemski, Deputy/Acting Squadron Commander
-
Platoon Sergeant Jankowski
-
Corporal Zieliński
-
Senior Rifleman Witold Łas – died of wounds after evacuation
-
Rifleman Piaskowski – died of wounds after evacuation
Wounded were:
-
Corporal Dragun
-
Rifleman Nadzieja
One tank was destroyed and three tanks were damaged.
The 1st. squadron remains in his taken position. The regiment-commander orders to stop the efforts to force the barricades.
Source: 10 PUŁK STRZELCÓW KONNYCH w KAMPANII 1944-1945
Großmann’s unit, likely acting as infantry or using their Flak guns for ground support, attempted to hold the Polish advance before breaking contact and retreating to Driefel. They retreated north, part of a larger delaying action to allow the disorganized remnants of the army and thousands of civilian refugees to flee into the Wilhelmshaven/Emden pocket before the combined Canadian/Polish forces closed the trap.
Ernst Großmann’s war ended at the naval fortress of Wilhelmshaven. On May 5, 1945 he recorded "weapons silent" at 8:00 AM. On May 6, Polish forces accepted the surrender of the Wilhelmshaven fortress, the naval base, the East Frisian Fleet, and 10 German divisions (approx. 32,000 men). Großmann became a prisoner of war in a twist of irony that history sometimes provides. He surrendered to the Polish 1st Armoured Division—soldiers fighting for a country Germany had invaded to start the war six years prior.
This grave for German soldiers in Großwolde is located next to the historic Reformed Church (Großwolder Kirche) on the old Evangelical-Reformed cemetery. It is a communal grave containing six German soldiers who died on April 21, 1945, during the Allied advance on Leer. Lt. Herbert's name on this monument is reflected in Ernst's diary as one of those killed during close combat that day. Photo: Volker Flieg
Sherman tanks of the Polish 1st Armored Division
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons By Unknown photographer - https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/obraz/11741/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79570312
German forces surrender Wilhelmshaven to Polish Colonel Antoni Grudzinski, Commander 10th Armored Cavalry on May 6, 1945
Photo credit: Armored Hussars photo archive
Polish 1st Armored Division in Wilhelmshaven, May 1945
Photo credit: https://generalmaczek.pl/en/2020/05/06-triumph-1dp/
Ernst and Ilse's identity documents during the post-war occupation.
Reunited
Ernst, Ilse, and their daughter Notburga on
November 19, 1945 in Kirchheim unter Teck
Following the German capitulation, Ernst Großmann spent four months as an Allied prisoner of war before reuniting with Ilse and their infant daughter, Notburga, on August 29, 1945. In post-war southern Germany, they began rebuilding their lives. Großmann established a career as a master dental ceramicist, working to secure a home for a family that soon grew to include twin daughters, Ingrid and Gudrun.
Across their extended family network, the physical survival rate was a distinct statistical anomaly. Despite catastrophic casualty rates across the Wehrmacht, nearly every mobilized member of their immediate circle survived the war: Großmann, his wife, her brother in the Fallschirmjäger, his brother who saw combat on the Eastern Front, and numerous brothers-in-law and cousins. The war’s psychological toll, however, proved enduring. Alois Kurzmann, incapacitated by severe trauma from his service on the Russian front, died by suicide in the post-war years.
This exceptional familial survival must be evaluated alongside the overarching catastrophe of the Second World War. The German armed forces prosecuted a brutal war of aggression across Europe, serving as the primary instrument of a regime that murdered six million European Jews in the Holocaust and caused the deaths of tens of millions of civilians and combatants.
A rigorous historical approach requires holding these two realities together without rationalization: documenting the lived experience of individual service members while confronting the criminal system they sustained. Preserving these primary sources does not minimize the catastrophic harm inflicted by the Nazi state, nor does it absolve the Wehrmacht of its institutional and operational culpability.
Ernst Großmann passed away in 1998. The Opa’s War archive preserves his primary source record—from the staging of Siebel landing craft and the routine life of frontline radar units to the streets of occupied Western Europe. It serves as a documentary foundation for understanding how ordinary individuals were mobilized into, lived through, and functioned within the destructive machinery of total war.
