On March 19, 1945, Hitler issued an order called "Plan Nero". It meant the destruction of strategic objects, food warehouses, and cultural values on the territory of the Reich. The further existence of the German nation was called into question.
Death sentence for the nation
On March 15, 1945, the Reich Minister Steer handed Hitler a report entitled "The Economic Situation in March - April 1945 and Its Consequences", in which he succinctly described what actions should be taken to provide, "albeit in a primitive form", the basis of life for the people. On March 19, the "response" to Steer's note was an order from the Fuehrer, code-named "Nero", which would later go down in history as Hitler's most unpopular plan among his compatriots. "Nero" signed a death warrant to the people: "All military installations, transport, communications, industry and supplies, food warehouses, as well as material values in the territory of the Reich must be destroyed." The failed plan that Hitler was going to carry out in Moscow and Leningrad at the beginning of the war (the so-called scorched earth tactics), he decided to apply to Germany. His biographers say that at that time he himself had already decided his fate and did not see any more sense to support the German people: “If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This is her inevitable destiny. There is no need to deal with the basis that a people will need to continue the most primitive existence. " These words of the Fuehrer were recorded from the words of Steer during the trial of the Nazis.
In the footsteps of Nero
The name of the plan was not chosen by chance. In it, Hitler likened himself to the famous Roman theater tyrant Nero, who in 64 ordered the burning of Rome. By the way, not because of strategic motives, but to debut as a tragic actor. Suetonius in his writings said that Nero, who watched the conflagration in the capital, was dressed in a theatrical costume, played the lyre and recited a poem about the fall of Troy of his own composition. The fact that Hitler had a special passion for sonorous names is not a secret, but why did he take the image of Nero as the basis? Arson in Germany, of which Soviet soldiers are accused, are also questionable. As you know, the main version about the fire of Rome in 64 says that the arson was committed by order of the emperor, who was going to rebuild the eternal city according to his idea of the "artist". Christians were accused of arson. The parallel suggests itself. But let's leave behind the personal parallels and recall the famous work of Erich Fromm: "Adolf Hitler: a clinical case of necrophilia", where the sociologist gives an example of individuals with special character traits and psychological problems that give rise to tyrants. According to this work, the features of Hitler and Nero are almost identical in detail.
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Destruction of the people
At the Nuremberg trials, Albert Speer noted that if all other orders of Hitler and Bormann were carried out, millions of Germans who were still alive by that time would certainly have died. Indeed, all the latest orders from Hitler and his entourage were aimed at destroying the nation. An addition to the Nero plan was Martin Bormann's decree of March 23, which ordered the entire population from West and East Germany, including foreign workers and prisoners of war, to concentrate in the center of the Reich. At first glance, in the conditions of "Nero", the decree seems quite logical - to destroy all food in the border and front areas, and to provide its own population in a separate territory, concentrating all reserves there. However, the "Wanderers" were not provided with either food or necessities. The resettlement itself was arranged in such a way that it was not possible to take anything with you. "The result of all this could be a terrible famine, the consequences of which are difficult to imagine," - said Speer.
Speer's party
The execution of the "Nero" plan and the "scorched earth" tactics was entrusted to the Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, who, according to the plans of 1941, was to create a new kind of Germany. By the end of the war, he became disillusioned with the Fuhrer's policies and pursued, in fact, his own policy aimed at saving the cities and inhabitants of Germany as much as possible. He showed this with his already mentioned "economic situation", in which he proposed concrete ways to put the life of the people at a low level, but sufficient for life.
It is not surprising that the order of the Fuehrer to organize the destruction of Germany irrevocably discouraged Speer from Hitler. In his reply letter, he wrote to the Fuhrer: “I am an artist, and therefore the task set before me turned out to be completely alien and difficult to me. I have done a lot for Germany. However, in the evening you turned to me with words from which, if I understood you correctly, it clearly and unequivocally followed: if the war is lost, let the people die too! This fate, you said, is inevitable. There is nothing to reckon with the foundations that the people need for their most primitive further life. On the contrary, they say, it is better to destroy them ourselves. After all, the people have shown themselves to be weaker, and therefore the future belongs exclusively to the stronger people of the East. I can no longer believe in the success of our good deed,if at the same time at this decisive moment we are systematically destroying the basis of our people's life."
Albert Speer was one of the few close associates of Hitler who got to the Nuremberg trials alive and voluntarily pleaded guilty. Information about the "plan of Nero" was received from him.
Forged document
The Nero plan and the scorched earth doctrine reached the public, thanks to Albert Speer. He told about many details of the last directives of the Reichstag in his "Memoirs" and the work "The Third Reich from within. Memoirs of the Reich Minister of War Industry ", where he portrayed himself as an apolitical intellectual who knew almost nothing about the crimes of the regime and was only" doing his duty. " This position of Albert, which manifested itself even at the Nuremberg trials, became one of the reasons that gave rise to the theory that the "Nero" plan was a fiction, Speer's invention for his own justification, his hope for avoiding the death penalty. By the way, the highest degree of punishment for Speer was replaced by twenty years' imprisonment. Nevertheless, the question of whether the document was forged is controversial, since the analysis of the source, which is currently stored in the archives of the Nuremberg Trials,did not reveal any falsifications.
This beautiful Paris
The "Nero" plan was not Hitler's first attempt to destroy what belonged to him, and most importantly, what he loved. Shortly after the liberation of Paris from the German occupation, he ordered the mines of most of the strategic and symbolic objects of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower.
The first trip of Adolf Hitler to Paris took place on June 23, 1940 after the occupation: “To see Paris was a dream of my whole life. I cannot express how happy I am that this dream has come true today! " The Louvre, Versailles and, finally, the House of Invalids, where Napoleon, whom Hitler revered so much, was buried - all of this was to be destroyed according to the principle "So don't get anyone else." "The city should not fall into the hands of enemies, except perhaps in ruins," Hitler said on August 9, 1944.
Nevertheless, Paris was lucky. Dietrich von Scholtz, who was the head of Paris since August 7, 1944, refused to obey Hitler's order and surrendered, for which he went down in history as a kind of "savior of Paris".
Treasure hunters
Nero's plan also meant the destruction of all cultural property on the territory of the Reich, including the numerous stolen art collections taken from all the occupied territories. This decree logically gave rise to a whole movement of "treasure hunters" (Monuments Men), who, unlike looters, were representatives of the cultural intelligentsia - museum workers, art historians, historians, archivists. The group was formed on the initiative of Roosevelt and American Army General David Eisenhower. They not only dealt with the restoration and return of values to the owner countries, but also worked in the military-diplomatic field, negotiating with bombers (mostly allied) on the preservation of cultural objects.