SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Karl
Friedrich Otto Wolff...CONTINUED…
In February 1945, SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff secretly sent word to the
Allies that he wished to arrange a German surrender in that country. Luigi Parrilli,
an Italian baron, carried Wolff's message to Bern, Switzerland where, acting
via the Swiss intelligence service, he made contact with Allen W. Dulles, head
of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in Europe and the future director of
the Central Intelligence Agency (1953-1961). In March 1945, Wolff traveled to
Switzerland where he met with Dulles in Zurich and offered to surrender all
German and Italian troops in Italy under a plan codenamed Operation SUNRISE.
The negotiations bogged down when the Soviets learned of the
talks and demanded to be included, a demand the Western Allies initially refused.
The negotiations ended on 9 April 1945, when the Allies launched their spring
offensive into the Italian Po Valley. Also, Dulles later received word from
the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to end all contact with the Germans. Meanwhile,
Wolff's plan came to the attention of Adolf Hitler and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich
Himmler both of whom, surprisingly, gave Wolff permission to continue his dialogue
with the Allies and stall for time. On 29 April 1945, German emissaries signed
the instrument of surrender at Allied headquarters in Caserta (in the presence
of a Soviet delegation) with effect from noon on 2 May 1945. World War II in
Italy thus ended six days earlier than in the rest of Europe. On 13 May 1945,
Wolff was taken into captivity when U.S. troops of the 88th Infantry
Division arrested him at his private villa in Bolzano.
After the war, Karl Wolff appeared as a witness at Nuremberg for the prosecution
in trials of Nazi criminals. He was tried by a German court and sentenced to
four years' imprisonment with hard labour in 1946, but was released a week later.
Following his release, Wolff worked in Germany as a successful public relations
man. In 1961, during the trial of former SS officer Karl Adolf
Eichmann in Israel, Wolff drew attention to himself with an interview that he
gave to a popular German magazine in May of that year. Arrested in January 1962,
he was charged with the murder of Jews, and with direct responsibility for the
deportation of 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka concentration camp during the summer
of 1942. On 30 September 1964, Wolff was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment
and 10 years' loss of civil rights. However, he was released in 1971 for good
behavior.
Decorations & Awards:
Trevor-Roper, H.R. Twice Through The Lines: The autobiography of Otto John. Macmillan 1972
"...the only one in camp still permitted to wear his badges of rank was S.S. -Obergruppenfuhrer Karl Wolff ("little Karl"), Himmler's ex-Chief Of Staff; this concession had been promised him by Field Marshal [Sir Harold R.L.G.] Alexander [Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theatre] as a reward for his early surrender with the German forces in Italy. The badges of rank and decorations of the others were deposited in cardboard boxes in the camp headquarters."
Click here to see a photo of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Karl Wolff in the company of fellow prisoners of war at Island Farm