Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): Last letters of German soldier Theodor Goebel to his family, February 1945 (Published on 10/01/20245)
(source: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, Letzte Lebenszeichen II – Briefe aus dem Krieg (2013), p. 70 ff. [translation from German language]):
Final letter to his mother
“Silesia, 12/02/45
My dear mother!
A brief sign of life. I haven’t heard from you for a month. I was in Wroclaw until now, was called back, just got out. I have not been badly off. There’s no need to say a word about my mental state – it’s the same for all of us. Heart-breaking worry, daily fulfillment of duty and hope for a miracle.
I’m heading south now, towards Moravian Ostrava. I’ve been working a lot, so hopefully you’ll read at least one of my articles. –
Our worst fears have been realized. The flood of Russians is not getting any smaller. And our soldiers at the front have to perform superbly. If they didn’t, the enemy would already be on the Rhine. Our hope remains for some kind of agreement with the West, even under the most difficult conditions.
Unfortunately, you could also become a war zone. My advice to you, mom, is to hide somewhere, but don’t leave! Evacuee night is the worst.
You go on living your day, people can endure a lot. A comrade recently got married here and took his bride from the monastery. There are even still novels.
Warm regards
Your Theo“
Final letter to his wife
“Silesia, 14/02/45 (near Wroclaw)
My dear Hilde!
I am writing this letter in my driver’s sister’s quarters in a small Silesian town. A two-day stop for car repairs. Then I head further south to the Upper Oder region. I have now been on the road for exactly one month (from Krakow), and the things I have seen and experienced during this time outweigh a year. Our whole view of the world has changed. I wrote to you some time ago that we had taken two children with us in Litzmannstadt and put them on the train in Wroclaw. Now we received a letter from their parents saying that the children had arrived at their grandparents’ in Thuringia four hours before they did. It was very gratifying in this turmoil of misery and worry that a good deed came to such a good end.
I have been busy writing articles, I hope you got to see one. You will have had more agonizing worries in these weeks than ever before – I went through life in a daze for days and actually still do. The war itself doesn’t really look any different than it always does with Russian violent offensives, the main difference is that it is now getting to us. Perhaps you now realize, little woman, why I pushed for so long to be transferred to the West! Now, of course, all plans to do so are buried; I no longer dare to approach Berlin with such wishes. And our beautiful hope of seeing each other again soon vanished in a few hours of battle. What was to come was already pretty clear to me on the evening of January 12. What would happen next, however, was no longer clear to me. There is no need to discuss the fact that we have to carry on, the last hope only fades with the last shot. My strong hope for a settlement with the West, which had been nurtured for a few days by the conspicuous restraint of the Anglo-American war effort, was buried for now after the Yalta Conference. Although it can be assumed that there is a lot going on behind the scenes that has little to do with the public clamor. A major battle in the east, in which we could destroy large parts of the Russians and at least completely liberate Silesia and Pomerania, could have far-reaching consequences. It is certain that such a battle is being prepared. After all, we are still essentially slowing down the Russian onslaught with the forces left over from the collapse in January. We will have to hunger this year, but there is still a long way to go before we starve. In any case, the war will be decided this year, one way or another. And in the worst case, no human being can die more than once.
Hilde, I need only hint to you how, under such circumstances, the memory of many years of great happiness takes on an almost physical life, because you will feel exactly the same. I only know how much I love you now that the hope of seeing you again is only a hope after all. Something very strong in me believes unwaveringly in a good, at least bearable end. But one is not always strong. And so I want to tell you, just in case, that if the worst came to the worst, I would try to get to you by any means necessary and before an enemy touches you, I would rather kill you myself and me in the process. A life for people of my kind and profession would be out of the question after a defeat anyway. You don’t sign your name to war reports for years in order to be able to indulge in any hopes for your little self in the event of a catastrophe. This century is too consequential for that.
But I just can’t believe that this people, who are so strong and brave, who put up such a fight, who are basically so superior to everyone, because they manage to cover every kilometer just by being superior, that such a people are destined to perish. So far, only the weak have ever perished and God knows we are not weak. Where has there ever been an army that is so unbroken after such defeats! If the German army ever stopped fighting, it would only be because it simply ran out of weapons and ammunition.
I want to dream of you every hour I can dream. My wife, my boys, I love you more than a thousand words could ever say. Let me stroke you, caress you, hug you, my beloved wife. I see you sitting under our lamp, and when you sit there in your worries in the evening, you know that I am there with you with all the secret spirits of infinite longing.
Your loving husband”
Dr. Theodor Goebel was born on 28/04/1915. Formerly editor of the Nationalzeitung in Essen, he reported from the eastern front as a member of a propaganda company. After his leg had to be amputated following a wound on 20/02/1945, he died on 04/03/1945. He rests on the war grave part in the municipal cemetery in Troppau.
(Head picture:
German military cemetery Sandweiler/Luxembourg,
September 2024)
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