A Croatian Electrician, Two Army Officers, and a French Tennis Legend: Toward a Global Microhistory

In one of our readings last week by Tonio Andrade, one part particularly stuck out me and is worth quoting in full.

‘There are stories out there waiting to be told, traces in the archives that can provide individual perspectives on the great historiographical issues that are the core concern of our discipline. Perhaps as you read this, you’re thinking of one. Please tell it. Let’s bring the history of our interconnected world to life, one story at a time.’[1]

Inspired by Andrade’s call to action, I thought that I would respond by telling a story in my blog post this week!

The events begin on 3 May 1945. The Allies had just captured Berlin two days before and the German soldiers were retreating, though the fighting was not yet over. Importantly for the Germans, they held several French VIP prisoners which they could use as ‘bargaining chips’ to secure a better peace deal with the Allies if the War was lost.[2] They kept these prisoners at Castle Itter and under very tight security to prevent them from escaping.

Among the political prisoners held at Itter was Georges Clemenceau who was a former prime minister of France and advocated very harsh terms against Germany for the Treaty of Versailles. In addition, the Germans held Albert Lebrun (former president of France), Francesco Saverio Nitti (former Italian prime minister) and Andre Francois-Poncet (former French ambassador to Germany). Not only were there just political prisoners, but they also held Jean Borotra who was a French tennis legend, winning 13 singles and doubles Grand Slams (including Wimbledon 5 times). These prisoners, however, did not often get on well as they were often political rivalries. For instance, Lebrun frequently quarreled with some trade union leaders living in the castle and refused to sit with them at meal times.[3]

 

The castle was guarded by soldiers under the command of Eduard Weiter, but events were soon to take a sharp turn. Owing to the inevitability of defeat, Weiter decided that resisting the Allies was hopeless and so decided to shoot himself.[4] The radically changed the situation and caused the guards at the castle to fear for their lives and abandon the castle, leaving the VIP prisoners alone and unguarded. Upon discovering that their fortunes had changed, the prisoners took control of the castle and seized all the weapons. Unfortunately though, escape would be futile because the surrounding woods around the castle were swarming with loyal German soldiers. For the time being, the prisoners would have to remain put in the castle until the area was cleared of German soldiers.[5]

The possibility remained that these German troops would eventually go back into the castle and keep the prisoners under guard. Moreover, the prisoners also heard that the Germans executed 2,000 prisoners at Dachau just before they left the camp, so they feared that they may meet a similar fate. So, one of the workers at the castle, Zvonimir Čučković, a Croatian electrician, decided to take matters into his own hands and go behind enemy lines to try and reach U.S. regiments to ask them to help the prisoners escape from the castle.[6] Čučković made his way down the mountain to the town of Wörgl, though he did not know that the town was occupied by German soldiers. Would Čučković get captured and be forced to tell the Germans about the unguarded prisoners at Itter? Fortunately for him it turned out that the town was occupied by disloyal German soldiers under the command of Major Josef Gangl, who recently joined the Austrian resistance movement.[7] Čučković’s work was done. He had informed Gangl about the prisoners who needed help in the castle, so Čučković then made off for Innsbruck where he would be safe.

The problem was that Gangl only had about twenty soldiers, so was not really in a position to launch a rescue mission to the castle. Gangl then went searching for some American regiments who might be willing to help him out. Eventually, he stumbled upon a regiment led by Lieutenant Jack Lee and approached him with a neutral white flag. How would Lee react? Would he be skeptical of Gangl’s information, seeing it as a trap laid out by the Nazis? Lee decided to believe Gangl and agreed to launch a rescue mission to the castle.[8] They then both made their way to the castle to try and get the prisoners to safety.

 

 

Upon arrival, though, the prisoners were markedly ungrateful. Expecting a large battalion of tanks and a few hundred men armed with machine guns, they were instead met with just a single Sherman tank, 10 American soldiers and 14 German troops.[9] Not only that, but there would not be enough vehicles to move the prisoners out of the castle and hold off any German attacks.[10] To add to that, German men heard that the prisoners were still in the castle and were being defended by an American regiment. Before long, the castle was under heavy fire, the Sherman tank was destroyed by an anti-tank cannon and Gangl got shot by a German sniper.[11] What was Lee going to do now, given that his defense seemed hopeless? One plan he had was to vacate the castle grounds and being all his men and the prisoners into the keep, in order to try and fend off the Germans for as long as possible, in the hope that reinforcements would arrive.[12]

Just as it seemed that all hope was lost, one of the prisoners, Borotra (the French tennis legend) offered to undertake a suicidal mission, in order to save those trapped in the castle. He offered to slip out of the castle, find American reinforcements and direct them back to the castle in order to save the prisoners and the American and German soldiers.[13] Lee agreed to this. When there was a lull in the fire coming from the attacking Germans, Borotra, disguised as an Austrian peasant, slipped out of the castle and made his way to Wörgl, where there were still American soldiers. Fortunately for those trapped in the castle, Borotra was still in extremely good shape from his tennis career and managed to outrun several SS soldiers on his way to Wörgl.

When Borotra discovered an American battalion at Wörgl, he managed to redirect them back to the castle. He knew where all the German roadblocks were on his way down to Wörgl, so redirected the battalion to avoid these. Now, just as the German soldiers were very close to besieging the castle, the battalion led by Borotra arrived just in time. The arrival of American soldiers as reinforcements scared the besieging German troops, who subsequently fled.[14] The castle was secure and the prisoners could then be escorted back to France and then released. Some of these prisoners went back into politics when they arrived in France and then went on to be extremely influential in French policy making in the next few decades.[15] Had they died at Itter, French politics might have turned out very different in the second half of the twentieth century.

So, then, what is the importance of all this? What really stands out to me is just how transnational all this is. We encounter a Croatian electrician helping out French and Italian prisoners escape from a castle held by German soldiers by finding disloyal German soldiers, part of an Austrian resistance, who then are helped by advancing American soldiers, with further backup being requested by a French tennis legend. Take a deep breath. It seems that national borders did not matter much when these people acted. It made no difference to the events whether, for instance, the electrician was Croatian, British, Spanish or Russian – he just wanted to help the prisoners escape. Similarly, the arguments between the prisoners had nothing to do with national differences, but rather political divisions. Thus, it seems that the events were not driven by national differences.

Another interesting theme in all this is that it is the only example of Germans and Americans fighting together in World War Two.[16] Without this obscure event, it would be so tempting to think of World War Two in national terms. Germany vs America. France vs Germany. However, by examining the non-state actors here, we can understand that actually these national conflicts made not too much difference in their lives. German soldiers were happy to fight for America against their own men and disobey commands from the Nazi hierarchy. Could we now think of World War Two as being a transnational war, where national differences do not matter as much as we think? I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

So, let me leave you with this. There are stories out there waiting to be told, traces in the archives that can provide individual perspectives on the great historiographical issues that are the core concern of our discipline. Perhaps as you read this, you’re thinking of one. Please tell it. Let’s bring the history of our interconnected world to life, one story at a time.[17]

By Tonio Andy-rade

 

[1] Tonio Andrade, ‘A Chinese Farmer, Two African Boys, and a Warlord: Toward a Global Microhistory’, Journal of World History 21 (2010), p. 591.

[2] Bethany Bell, The Austrian castle where Nazis lost to German-US force, 7 May 2015, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32622651>[26 February 2018].

[3] Stephen Harding, The Battle for Castle Itter, 9/11/2008, <http://www.historynet.com/the-battle-for-castle-itter.htm>[26 February 2018].

[4] Ibid.

[5] Bell, Austrian castle.

[6] Donald Lateiner, The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers joined forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe, 21 March 2014, <http://www.miwsr.com/2014-024.aspx>[26 February 2018].

[7] Stephen Harding, The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers joined forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe (London, 2013), pp. 96-107.

[8] Bell, Austrian Castle.

[9] Lateiner, Last Battle.

[10] Harding, Castle Itter.

[11] Lateiner, Last Battle.

[12] Harding, Castle Itter.

[13] Lateiner, Last Battle.

[14] Harding, Castle Itter.

[15] Bell, Austrian Castle

[16] Ibid.

[17] Tonio Andrade, ‘A Chinese Farmer, Two African Boys, and a Warlord: Toward a Global Microhistory’, Journal of World History 21 (2010), p. 591.