Ernst Udet - "Des Teufels General" ?

[Olham 164]

Scroll forward and back, and click on magnifier under the documents.

 

http://www.bundesarchiv.de/oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/bilder_dokumente/01075/index-29.html.de

[Hasse Wind 46]

Those are really fascinating. I've always thought of Udet's fate as a tragedy. He got involved with people who seemed to be doing great things at first, but then it became obvious to Udet that they were all on the road to Hell. Finally he saw no other way out of the deadly game but to kill himself. And then the Nazis treated him like a great hero who had died in an accident while bravely serving the Third Reich. Disgusting.

[Olham 164]

Yes, it reminds me of what another officer said to the German writer Eugen Roth.

Roth wanted to see an exhibiton in Munich in the later days of the war, and got a

Nazi officer to show him through the paintings.

When they had seen everything, the officer said frankly to him, that he knew all was lost.

Roth asked him to change his ways, and even to get out of the NSDAP.

The officer held his hand for long time and spoke his mind about the whole regime.

Then he finished saying: "I cannot turn anymore. It is too late. All that we have done...

When you dress in the devil's uniform, when you walked with the devil - then you can

only go down with the devil.

But thank you for listening - I had to speak my mind to an honest soul."

 

People in Udet's time after WW1 could not know, what Hitler would really make out

of Germany. "Nazi" was not a dirty word then. And many officers wanted to join in to

a new Germany, that would overcome the "disgrace of the Versaille treaty".

He killed himself as early as 1941. He was intelligent enough to realise, that he was

wearing the uniform of the devil. And that the devil would not let him lay it down.

Edited March 15, 2011 by Olham

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Udet's suicide made an additional victim, as then top-scoring ace Werner Mölders was killed in a flight accident while coming to the funerals.

[Olham 164]

...which wasn't Udet's fault. Or do you mean perhaps, Mölders might have been killed, cause he was also a critic?

[Hauksbee 103]

It's been my understanding that Udet committed suicide after the leadership tried to blame him for the Luftwaffe's failure in the Battle of Britain.

[Hasse Wind 46]

There's even more to it. Udet was too soft and sensitive to survive among the ruthless Nazis and his competitors in the Luftwaffe. He just couldn't handle the endless political maneuvering and backstabbing that was the specialty of such people in high places.