SS GENERAL HANS KAMMLER - HIS LIFE AND WORK

[Music] hans kamla was born on august 26 1901 in satine in germany he would eventually rise to become an ss general and not just any ss general he would eventually be put in charge of the german rocket program construction and head of the german jet aircraft production as well and head of the ss vietchaft on the walton's helped out and sunder bahal makati it's 5 and army group 15. after his initial schooling he volunteered for army service in 1919 and he served with the washbach phi corps from 1919 to 1923. he studied civil engineering at the technical hochschule feinstein dancing and in munich he was awarded his doctorate of engineering in 1931. kamala joined the nsdap where he held several administrative positions after the party came into power in 1933 he would become head of the aviation ministry's building department as guring was fast tracking its rapid expansion and in 1933 he joined the ss that year he also became head of the reichbund klein under the heist chancellory the federation of gardeners small homeowners like many others at the time he subscribed to the national socialist ideals and would lecture on those within the ss itself and as an ambitious engineer he rose in the ranks and fast he later joined the waffen-ss also but that was 1941. the late 30s he had been advising the ss race and settlement office and joined oswald poor at the ss maine economic and administrative office kamla was then released from his duties as advisor to the high commissart by himmler himself so now his technical and managerial skills could be fully utilized by the ss and he would soon become paul's deputy he also worked here with ss copperfield lux from office d from the concentration camp expectorate he was assigned as chief of office c which designed and constructed the labor camps including streamlining and expansion of the labor camp system including that of auswitch it could with some justification be said that the inspiration for the ss forced labor camp system derived straight from that of the world war one system of the use of allied forced prisoners of war it eventually however grew into a massive system of over 11 million prisoners and forced laborers kamla did not invent this system but he took full use of it later for his construction duties kamla was involved in all major building projects of the reich and his promotions decorations and responsibilities continued rapidly after the war himmler's assistant vienna kordman stated that he was amazed that kamla managed to achieve everything he did he was tireless dedicated exceptionally talented and according to cordman he seemed to be everywhere doing everything by early 1944 the allies had achieved air superiority over most of germany and the bombing of large german industries and citied occurred almost daily day and night from 1942-43 so in an effort to now ensure the production could continue part of the german war industry would be moved into existing tunnels or old mines the need for space however was far greater than these alone could provide so bomb-proof bunkers and tunnels were also constructed not to mention the many u-tunnel systems that was constructed if only for storage many of these had already been constructed from before the war where valuable know-how had been gained and how to construct these that would become far more complex as the war took place and kamlo would be in the center of this construction some of these are far more interesting than others but combined they give us a very good idea of how complex underground bunkers and facilities were constructed on one hand they could be as simple as just sealing off a train tunnel through a mountain or a hill by doing so you have an almost ready-made safe place to work or to largest deliberate constructions underground with kilometers of tunnels and workspace it all started with the organization taut which was founded in 1938 and used for construction work within germany and the areas occupied by germany in 1943 xavier dosh was albert spears deputy and thus the head of that organization and by the end of the war the ot would have built countless air raid shelters they would cleared hundreds of bombed cities built four massive lines of defense numerous traffic routes flock towers railway routes and over 15 separate fury headquarters and over a thousand underground relocations within the german hike in the summer of 1943 air raid shelters for the civilian population in the reich was being built and also the construction of bomb-proof underground relocations for the armament industries and the hike had begun kamalo was at this point involved in building some of these shelters and underground factory tunnels both for the ss and with the involvement of the ot as the ss utilized ot labor and services as well for their projects as well as having their own the ot was broken down into administrative offices various office groups and various local task forces it is important to note that the tort organization did not belong to the wehrmacht they did not belong to the party or the reich building administration although it was given authority like management within the framework of these like ministries for armament and the war economy towards the end of the war however then the ot itself was not an authority but acted independently in the same way the ss acted independently and the army the air force navy also had their own construction brigades as well this did lead to a whole lot of conflicts with the above mentioned areas because the wehrmacht and the german labor front dff saw their influence dwindled more and more especially since more staff was contracted and transferred to the ot so we're looking at a reich ministry for armaments and war economy as the key here the labor deployment of forced labors was handled by fritz sauker who had been in his office since 1942 he recruited the workers for spears ministry also general kamala who's responsible for the construction of many of these underground armament production facilities however this did not occur until kamla took the position in 42 and it was not just because of his skill set he achieved these positions at such an early age there were problems within the like as you can imagine with such a complex bureaucracy the setup and the infighting within german leadership at this time hermann goering's star was falling rapidly as he was unable to keep the allied air forces from destroying german cities however as his deputy hitler kept his hand over goring even after the fiasco at stalingrad which to some degree could be blamed on general yanashek who had been the initial one to promise that the airlift could be done however it was a dangerous time and everybody knew it something had to be done and guring was running out of generals to blame so of course a collaboration between the ss and the air force now became paramount because the ss could through their resources and the brutal execution be far more efficient that it was apparently possible for girling staff alone so of course an ss officer who was a talented engineer could be brought on board kamla had also earned the trust of helman gerling who did not see him as a threat to his authority he was somebody who had already worked for and familiar with the air force and with spear and that is how kamla was put in charge because this needed to be done and it needed to be done now and efficiently and this was the general's time to shine now kamla and spear worked closely together because of the increasing air raids the spear ministry in consulting with hitler and guring increasingly relied on the relocations of armored factories to the bomb-proof tunnels the reich ministry for armaments and munitions armament office in agreement with the armament delivery office was responsible for the overall planning of the underground relocations of the operations or part of operations that was important for the war effort you clearly see bureaucracy have a place here now ordering a transfer of a factory or industry for underground relocation required the approval of the armaments office a relocation order in relation to the relocating company and the receiving company were arranged accordingly to a specific pattern by means of special relocation notices the weapons offices the wehrmacht branches the ss or the armament companies themselves or other leading bodies could be subject to relocation the rear location decisions oblige the company among other things to the following measures to accelerate build up of backup capabilities plans for a permanent maintenance increase in contingency capacity if the hike made the demand the greatest possible protection of the previous stock of the allocating underground facility and its structures and that the company would evacuate the facility again if the reich make the demand the receiving company was obligated to start the transfer of operations to enable it to continue production to the extent required on the basis of the transfer notice upon request compensation for damage was granted by the like this was reimbursed to the relocating company for any expenses or damages that arose as a result of reallocation so if they broke something moving the hike would actually reimburse them the company receiving the allocation notice was granted compensation for unavoidable expenses ongoing additional costs and loss of income it was business after all and it was still better to move than to be bombed by the allies all additional funds were reimbursed for cost required to resume original production after the termination of the opposite relationship in other words they would also be compensated when they had to move back home to their original factory site as would be expected after the war was over in the process of underground relocations of industrial plants the reich ministry of armaments and war economy played a central role all reports from the cave tunneling staff which were researching the suitable subterranean cavities throughout the empire went directly to the lake ministry administration center for the armament companies also sent their requirement reports directly to the like ministry when the bomb-proof tunnels signed to the company there was a long list on which the importance with respective companies were noted the jaeger program that kamla would eventually lead the v weapons program the kessler program the geilberg program as well as the repair program had top priority on this list all other armor programs such as even tank construction and infantry program came in secondary all of these were listed and given different aliases depending on where they moved what type of underground facility they were given and what kind of production they had german czech austrian companies that were deemed important enough for their production to be safeguarded from allied bombing they would submit an application for underground relocation if this was granted a location was found suitable for them it does seem that speer hitler and currying to some degree had the final say in which one of these were the most important to the like at this time speer now began to worry that kamla would eventually take over some of his responsibilities and indeed tamla slowly began to gnaw away at these as well after the raf bombed the rocket production facility at pina mundo in august 1943 spear recommended transferring the v2 rocket production underground hitler immediately agreed and the two decided that the ss with its massive supply of slave labor was the best suited for the task and as ss construction chief kamla was selected to oversee these projects along with representatives from spears ministry this effort began at the huge fuel storage facility in touring at door middlebow interestingly it is to note that this must have been foreseen in some way planned ahead already by general kamalas the construction began practically before the last british bomber could be seen flying away from the skies over pina mundo at the end of 1943 august the secret weapons projects and programs which kamla had been given responsibility over included manufacturing of the messerschmitt me262 the v2 which kamla production by the end of the year 1943 displaying an incredible speed and ruthless dedication to his duties and according to courtman himmler would show kamla off to hitler any chance he could and on his recommendation he was appointed head of the v2 program and command of its operations making him the actual boss of verna dornberger and von braun kamla would also personally at times be present at the firing launch site he was nearly captured or killed in operation market garden for that reason kamla was indeed involved with everything from building submarine pens to the large blockhouse epilec in france the fortified bunker that was supposedly to be used to launch v2 rockets and with reinhard heinrich now dead kamla was the rising star of the ss it was indeed said people at the time that within the ss it was a good idea to stay on good terms with him and they would bring him occasional gift if possible unfortunately his family rarely saw him as he was constantly on the road working under the ss some very exotic research took place much of which we still do not know much of today nor about the locations this took place but it is important to note that a lot of special research had begun before the war started and was carried out by a lot of different industries of course the most notables were the aeg siemens iggy faven and under a lot of different universities as well from the casaville hill institute that researched nuclear power and those in austria as well all with links to the military or military industries of course and the military itself under different branches carried out a lot of different testing and research as did the reich postal service that was extremely well funded and set up under manfred von adden on whose board hans kamala also sat as the war went on the ss would more and more begin to control the agenda and call this shots and with that general kamla would eventually get into a position where he could oversee and coordinate all these different efforts since germany had annexed czechoslovakia they took over the skodavaca the biggest european weapons manufacturing plant and special research sites sprang up everywhere under the reich now at this time general kamala was just a construction engineer for the air force not even a general yet we must remember that it was helmand girling who actually took over possession of the skoda vaca and set up the research staff and before that had constructed large industries in austria such as those in linz and after the annexation of austria it was only a few years after that kamla was in a position to take charge of these special places and clearly there had been a collaboration between the air force and the ss for the longest time gurling and himmler would continue to go hunting together throughout the war we clearly see this collaboration in effect in places like guzen austria where the air force commissioned the beer crystal tunnels from the ss after they had cut their teeth on their first independent ss tunnel construction project the calabao and countless shelters for civilians built in lintz ordered by hitler built by kamla kamla at this time had hired engineer emil fibinga and his austrian firm to construct and deliver huge underground facilities for production and research throughout the reich quartz crystal yona style s3 ebnc and many more were built by kamla and fibinga and after the war fibinger was hired by the u.s army engineers to consult on the building of underground launch facilities in the u.s based on his wartime know-how gained working with hans kamla but to fully understand and appreciate the scope of the german weapons production and research during the war we have to expand our net to include following these technology streams backwards towards the headwaters of wartime knowledge many of these will lead us to underground tunnels caves mines and certainly kamla and his engineer phibinga were the experts in quickly building and relocating industries underground there is an untold number of huge tunnel systems rocket testing facilities underground fuel production plants and launch bunkers and many more that was constructed by kamlan fibing up and as he now oversaw key research and production facilities including that of the jet fighters obviously the production of these and the parts for these were of key importance to the general but also to hammond girling who had ordered the luftwaffe industries to begin to construct their own underground productions as well the war was turning on germany and guring had now resigned himself to having to fight a war he did not fully agree with initially he had taken refuge in a world of art and hunting it might have suited him to some degree to just let the ambitious young go-getters such as kamla take point besides then there was somebody to blame if things went wrong but it did seem that kamla was above the infighting that was much predominant within the leadership of the like the special factories and special locations the fee programs those under kamla had top priority and therefore were allocated the best the largest the fastest setups and of course the majority of the labor if they so needed it and even spear was impressed and he made kamla his representative for special construction tasks now spear himself was a political savvy operator and he must have believed that by hiring kamla on board he would reciprocate with kamla being satisfied just by working with the ministry's main construction committee however in march 1944 guring appoint him as his delegate for special building under the fighter aircraft program which made him one of the war economy's most important managers and robbed spear of much of his influence one should never underestimate the ambitions of a driven man kamla would however extend some degree of friendship later to spear in the last weeks of the war by offering him a ride out of berlin as the city was falling and surrounded by the russians on the 31st of january 1945 hitler named kamla head of all rocket projects within the reich but by this time even a man of kamla's skill set could not turn the tide of war but as godman later observed kamla appeared to try by himself to change the outcome of the war by brute force and initiative and finally as hitler stripped guring of all his offices he transferred many of these duties to kamla this culminated in the beginning of april when kamla was being raised to the furious general nepetary for jet aircraft thus towards the end kamla was one of the most trusted men left by hitler in those last chaotic days tomlin knew the war was lost himmler knew borman knew gobblers knew spear knew yet everybody seemed to have kept this belief from hitler who himself had at this point little choice but to continue his fight hoping for a miracle weapon to save the day this hope was shared with one of his most loyal supporters joseph goopers and put on the shoulder of hans kamla on april 15th kamla during himless families were now gathered in safety of tahor in austria on the 17th himmler requested that kamla send one of his super heavy ju 380 planes a long range heavy lift aircraft to berlin a request that kamla denied to his boss yet later after a long meeting hitler and gerbils in berlin goobbles wrote in his diary that much hope rests on the shoulder of general gamla he himself just managed to get out of berlin on the 23rd before the russians closed the ring he then had a meeting in salzburg with his ss armaments directors now he was making plans on the 28th kamla ordered adolf galen's jaegerfabun 44 equipped with me262s to leave immediately and deploy in prague armed with rockets developed by kamla's own team now a constant stream of orders was issued by him time was of the essence as this was apparently more important holding prague than they encircled berlin field marshal schweiner who at this very moment was fighting to keep the russians from the doorstep of the project risa sites in poland he was now ordered to hold prague at all cost with hitler's approval kamla ordered the penum and the scientists to uber ramagao in austria towards the american advance and he made arrangements for the huge underground rocket factory door middlebow and turrenga to be turned over to the americans intact and for the rocket scientists to surrender to the americans kamla must now know that berlin was lost and hitler the same he was actively disobeying orders from his boss heinrich himmler and just one month before the british air force killed 9 000 civilians and forced laborers in nordhausen trying especially to kill him this has since been confirmed that he was on the soe hit list and according to letters written by kamla's family he had himself admitted that heinrich himmler also had tried to have him assassinated on three different occasions the third army under general patton was racing towards kamla's special underground facilities in lintz and goose in austria the russians were making their final approach on prague he had every reason to either disappear or sit tight just with his family waiting for the end but he did not and when himmler had dornberger imprisoned kamla himself personally went to get him out and together the two drove to austria where they parted now the general went east towards prague and gusen and towards the russian line to advance the skoda weka was to be liberated by the americans but kamala did not know this or did he did he know that the americans would take lintz with berkristal and much more just beating the russians to it kamla was now disobeying himmler's orders and hitler's too would soon be irrelevant and he knew it so whom was he working with or towards in those last days kamla had his own research staff working outside the known rocket program outside the nuclear projects all programs he eventually had actual control over one special research at the skoda vaca under kamla located in pilsen czechoslovakia not far from prague there was another special ss research program under half ingle these were both busy collecting documents and packing it up before the russians arrived it appeared that they all headed towards the ss pioneer school under the command of emile klein located in hua disco and from there they either hid something or fought their way towards linz and gusen where kamla was last positively identified seen before the end of the war kamla had been given the authority to incorporate any one and anything under this umbrella into the kamlastab and into his projects as he needed them and now the ss was packing up research in the interior the waffen-ss was holding the russians back even wilhelm voss the former ceo of skodavaca and kamla's old partner would make his way himself to pilsen to recover the secret research incidentally both vos and engel would work in rocket research and international arms deals after the war but in may 1945 at this same time court deepnow was packing up his nuclear research and reactor in jonas tal near the s3 and he too headed south before the americans could get there and even dornberger and von braun had hidden all their rocket research papers in a cave and did not hand them over until a deal with the americans had become confirmed so of course kamla being a smart man he had known for some time the war was lost and he had begun to delegate responsibilities of his duties to others under him he had begun to make his own plans for the future kamla's wife children were relocated to upper austria to await the end as he himself raced around austria germany czechoslovakia finalizing his secret plans of what appeared to be a planned handover of certain assets to the americans and the hiding of others i have in previous episodes gone over kamla's last known months and despite the some 14 different accounts of his death as none of them are correct there's no reason to recite them from an acquaintance of william donovan the founder of the cia i have personally been informed that he had been instrumental in bringing kamla to the u.s where he remained and worked under an assumed name i will share these details as soon as they are confirmed by separate sources but in may 1945 kamla disappeared from the known world and he left behind a wife and three children they had originally had five but sadly two girls died in early childhood but there was a good reason for this disappearance powerful men makes enemies and the word is that up to the 1960s assassination attempts had been made on his life unsuccessful a good reason however to abandon his family for their safety sake he was mentioned a few times during the new and back trials but never charged not even in absentee like many lower rankings and his research into special weapons rockets batteries special technologies these mostly also vanished with him and the photos and documents reports disappeared even those photos and plans of his regular weapons rockets or jet fighter factories are mostly unavailable lost and these locations certainly can't just be visited many of them have since been destroyed one witness to this was the oss officer donald richardson who worked directly under eisenhower and he was a confidant of the american president my father communicated the fact that overgroup and fear hans calmer dr eng surrendered to the americans and was brought to america as far as i know i also became acquainted with mr richardson he's no longer with us and he told us that his father took over from the area of sankey oregon nuclear material for the americans and since he was a very important security officer for the for the americans he also was that guy that took over hans kamla personally because according to richardson's uh family tradition kamla did not commit suicide in prague on the 9th of may he didn't do this he came into the hands of the americans and was under u.s custody for many months maybe two years or so and would be interesting to know what the american authorities talked with kamla and and and what they have recorded and where this documentation is available today an interesting note despite how important mr richardson was as a confidant to the president the only documentation i could obtain from the archives was a copy of the invitation to his retirement party and even that link have since disappeared when you follow the last route of hans kamla he came from the alps from strobe from the airbnc area and it was the liberation americans came in here on may 5th yeah and hans kamla definitely was in the area across the danube here in the area not far from here on may 4th one day before the americans actually came here so and it is a big question of history yeah rather the first handshake of hans kamla and the americans took place on may 4th or may 5th in this area but it is clear that it must be must have been in this area may force he crossed against the river yeah to the thousand goosens complex and then he disappeared there are documents that reveal that general macdonald considered especially biakri styled as one of the most important strategic underground plans of nazi germany because they're very likely linked to a new design and he wrote the rocket propelled atomic bomb during the war hitler had concentrated more power to hans kamla that he had ever entrusted to any other single person or as far as i know to any other individual had ever achieved in any other country since he even gave him authority to arrest anyone regardless of rank who interfered with the execution of any orders he may have issued kamla had won his spurs by a long run of successes and by realizing never before tried seemingly impossible projects at speeds not before thought possible i always did like the analogy that if kamla had been born in ancient egypt back in its heyday he would have been the one who would have built the pyramids for the pharaohs except he would have done it twice as fast he was ambitious exceptionally diligent and hard and it could be speculated that one of the things that makes the general such an interesting person today besides the fact that his disappearance is still a mystery is that we can see him in the light of a militant adventure despite him working within a dictatorial system one can still see kamla as a man who forged his own way almost a renegade which makes his life after the war so fascinating because we can suspect he continued that life somewhere else working with someone who yet has not wanted to admit that they actually took in this talented engineer a man who could do anything he was tasked with or certainly force his way through or make sure others did it for him he did go through quite a few foremen as he was a tough man to work for his standards were almost superhuman quoting goldman and spear his energy in pursuing his projects that he saw necessary in order for him to salvage his country as the war was turning he had expressed privately that he felt it was his dream of saving germany with his technology that does explain part of his drive and given the final day's activity he did not slow down but knowing the war was lost he must now have been operating out of a new plan people like general kamala makes plans and since the war many documents have come to life that supposedly from the american or other archives citing how kamlo surrendered to the allies one citing may sixth one document i presented myself but have yet to find the matching identical copy in the archives with the proper stamps and marking but much other correspondence within the allied communications have documented kamla in allied hands i firmly do believe that kamla surrendered on his turns and did a collaboration agreement with the americans now much have since been said written about general hans kamla however one story that i always remember of him is one that was personally told by a man close to the general that after having witnessed the execution of 126 women and children he for the rest of his known life continued to have nightmares about what he had witnessed that day now i will never meet him or know him in person but this little single note tells me that despite it all inside the ss uniform was a human being one whose fate deserves to be told in full for better or worse it also reminds me of the old saying that the difference between politicians and soldiers the soldiers has to do the unthinkable while politicians have to get the soldiers to do the unthinkable for them behind me is vanna von braun's first test stand down the road is deepness nuclear reactor over there is the maginot line in all its amazing forts i'm visiting them all and i'm bringing them to you so i really appreciate you like follow and share what i'm doing trying to document all these important historical locations and if you feel like you want to watch more pictures or documents that i use for these go to lostbattlefields.com and if you feel like helping me out with my travels because gasoline and travel and air fourier is expensive my paypal is there protectionservicent.com you are more than welcome but you don't have to i appreciate all your support and all your help and i love seeing these locations and i love bringing them to you

Channel: Lost Battlefields w Tino Struckmann

Views: 20,282

Keywords: hans, kammler, ss, ww2, tino, struckmann, last, nazi, secret, lost, battlefields, germany, austria, skodawerke, himmler, bormann, tunnels, bergkristall, jonastal, sIII, s2, gusen, dora, mittelbau, skoda, werke, hermann, goering, dorsch, speer, todt, ot, life, history

Id: ot2ms-4vNKg

Length: 39min 18sec (2358 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2022