Werewolf Operation

Heroes Remember

Werewolf Operation

There was an unfounded assessment that the Germans would produce a fortified area in Austria, the Werewolf. Have you ever heard of the Werewolf Operation? That some young German SS would continue to fight in Germany, Austria, so we were looking for any German traffic going on. There was none of that. There, there was one or two incidents throughout the Allied armies where they had strung a wire cross road which decapitated the dispatch drivers. But this is apropos the current situation in, in Iraq. In Germany, when the war was over, they still had a functioning high command under Doenitz. You know, Doenitz. And he said, "Mache schluss. The war is over. We have lost it. No more fighting." The Germans obeyed. There was nothing. You could walk out anywhere. You could walk into the German barracks, hundreds of Germans there. They, they swarmed around you, "Do you speak German?" you know, wanting to know where you are from and all that. But there was no sabotage of any sort. There was no resistance of any sort in Germany. None. None whatsoever. (That surprises me.) Yeah. None whatsoever. Well, when you think of the number of fellows they had, you know.

Mr. Pollak talks about rumours of the Werewolf Operation, which was a fortified area in Austria of young SS who would continue to fight. He also discusses how the German High Command continued to exist after the end of the war and helped control the defeated army.

Fred Pollak

Mr. Pollak was born May 20, 1919, in Vrezno, Czechoslovakia, a small town in the German part of Bohemia. In September of 1938, his family was expelled from Vrezno and had to go inland to Prague. They arrived in Canada as refugees in August of 1939 and lived in Prescott, Ontario. Mr. Pollak eventually joined the Canadian Army, enlisting as a typist. At the end of the war, Mr. Pollak monitored radio transmissions for German traffic and was also employed as an interrogator of war criminals in Belsen.

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:44
Person Interviewed:: Fred Pollak
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Battle/Campaign:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Signals Intelligence

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Date modified:: 2024-12-30