Paul Carell
Encyclopedia
Paul Carell was an Obersturmbannführer
(Lieutenant Colonel) in the civilian Allgemeine SS
. He worked as the chief press spokesman for Nazi Germany
's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
. After World War II
ended in 1945, he became a successful author.
.
In the SS, Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Obersturmbannführer in 1940. During the same year, he became the chief press spokesman for foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
. In this position, he was responsible for the German Foreign Ministry’s news and press division.
The main task of Schmidt was the chairing of the daily press conferences of the ministry. He must therefore be seen as one of the most important and influential propagandists for National Socialism during World War II
. Recent studies confirm that his influence was at least on the same level as that of Otto Dietrich
(Reichspressechef of Adolf Hitler
) and of Hans Fritzsche
(Pressechef the Reichspropagandaministerium). Schmidt was also responsible for the very well done German propaganda magazine 'Signal', which was published in several languages to tell the German side of the story in neutral and occupied countries during the war.
That Schmidt justified the Holocaust through his propaganda
is now seen as certain. In May 1944, he even gave advice on how to justify the deportation
and murder of Hungarian
Jews
, to counter the potential accusation of mass murder:
Schmidt was arrested on 6 May 1945 and interned for 30 months. It was left open for a long time whether he would appear as one of those indicted, or as a witness for the prosecution, during the war crimes trials. During the trial of the German Foreign Ministry (Wilhelmstraßen-Prozess
, part of the Nuremberg Trials
), he finally appeared as a witness for the prosecution, and disingenuously portrayed himself as a fighter for democratic freedom of the press. (Note 2)
From 1965 to 1971 the Office of the State Prosecutor
of Verden
in Germany investigated him for murder
. But the investigation, which should have clarified his role in the genocide
of Hungarian Jews, ended without an indictment. Schmidt never had to face a trial for his activities during the war (Note: 3)
In parallel with this investigation, Carell’s second successful career as a writer commenced, aided by the network of 'old comrades' working in the publishing industry. He worked as a freelance author under various noms de plume for newspapers such as Die Welt
and Die Zeit
(e.g., as P. C. Holm). He also wrote for the magazines Norddeutsche Rundschau and Spiegel
, and published some accounts of war stories for Landser
. He was seen as an influential adviser to the German Axel Springer AG
, where he wrote speeches for Axel Springer
.
The success of his books "Unternehmen Barbarossa (Hitler Moves East)" and "Verbrannte Erde (Scorched Earth)" made Carell a leading post-war chronicler of the German side of World War II on the Eastern Front
through mid-1944. His book "Die Gefangenen" 1980, dealing with German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, was published by Ullstein-Verlag
. These books generally had a positive media reception (e.g., Die Welt wrote: „Helps to reduce the dislike between Germans and Russians (...) qualified as an historian.“ Or the Düsseldorfer Mittag: „Someone for whom the seriousness of the source and the value of documentation are more important than going for cheap thrills – that is Paul Carell!“ (Source: 4) Carell also wrote THE DESERT FOXES (about Rommel) and OPERATION: INVASION! about the Allied invasion of Normandy.
In 1992 Carell claimed, that even after the Battle of Stalingrad
there was a possibility for Germany to win the war. In his view, it was primarily the command of Adolf Hitler
that lead to the defeat. The leadership of the Wehrmacht
and very competent commanders such as Erich von Manstein
could have achieved victory if not for Hitler's interference. Carell claimed that the invasion of the Soviet Union was a preemptive attack to forestall an invasion of Germany by the Red Army
, a claim that has been supported by Viktor Suvorov
and Mark Solonin
.
Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
(Lieutenant Colonel) in the civilian Allgemeine SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
. He worked as the chief press spokesman for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended in 1945, he became a successful author.
Career before and during World War II
Paul Karl Schmidt became a member of the Nazi Party in 1931 and a member of the SS in 1938. He graduated from university in 1934, and became an assistant at the Institute of Psychologie of the Universität Kiel in Germany. He held several positions in the Nazi Student AssociationNational Socialist German Students' League
The National Socialist German Students' League was founded in 1926 as a division of the NSDAP with the mission of integrating University-level education and academic life within the framework of the National Socialist worldview...
.
In the SS, Schmidt was promoted to the rank of Obersturmbannführer in 1940. During the same year, he became the chief press spokesman for foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
. In this position, he was responsible for the German Foreign Ministry’s news and press division.
The main task of Schmidt was the chairing of the daily press conferences of the ministry. He must therefore be seen as one of the most important and influential propagandists for National Socialism during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Recent studies confirm that his influence was at least on the same level as that of Otto Dietrich
Otto Dietrich
Dr. Otto Dietrich was an SS-Obergruppenführer, the Third Reich's Press Chief, and a confidant of Adolf Hitler.-Biography:...
(Reichspressechef of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
) and of Hans Fritzsche
Hans Fritzsche
Hans Georg Fritzsche was a senior German Nazi official, ending the war as Ministerialdirektor at the Propagandaministerium.- Career :...
(Pressechef the Reichspropagandaministerium). Schmidt was also responsible for the very well done German propaganda magazine 'Signal', which was published in several languages to tell the German side of the story in neutral and occupied countries during the war.
That Schmidt justified the Holocaust through his propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
is now seen as certain. In May 1944, he even gave advice on how to justify the deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
and murder of Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, to counter the potential accusation of mass murder:
Schmidt was arrested on 6 May 1945 and interned for 30 months. It was left open for a long time whether he would appear as one of those indicted, or as a witness for the prosecution, during the war crimes trials. During the trial of the German Foreign Ministry (Wilhelmstraßen-Prozess
Ministries Trial
The Ministries Trial was the eleventh of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S...
, part of the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
), he finally appeared as a witness for the prosecution, and disingenuously portrayed himself as a fighter for democratic freedom of the press. (Note 2)
Post-war
After World War II, Schmidt became an author. Starting in the 1950s, he wrote for the magazine „Kristall“, which then had a very high circulation. He first used the pseudonym "Paul Karell", and later "Paul Carell".From 1965 to 1971 the Office of the State Prosecutor
Staatsanwaltschaft
The Staatsanwaltschaft or public prosecutor's offices are criminal justice bodies attached to the judiciary but separate from the courts in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland...
of Verden
Verden
Verden can refer to:* Verden an der Aller, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany* Verden, Oklahoma, a small town in the USA* Verden , a district in Lower Saxony, Germany...
in Germany investigated him for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. But the investigation, which should have clarified his role in the genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of Hungarian Jews, ended without an indictment. Schmidt never had to face a trial for his activities during the war (Note: 3)
In parallel with this investigation, Carell’s second successful career as a writer commenced, aided by the network of 'old comrades' working in the publishing industry. He worked as a freelance author under various noms de plume for newspapers such as Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
and Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
(e.g., as P. C. Holm). He also wrote for the magazines Norddeutsche Rundschau and Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
, and published some accounts of war stories for Landser
Der Landser
Der Landser is a German pulp magazine published by Pabel-Moewig and featuring mostly stories in World War II settings. The magazine was founded in 1957 by the former Luftwaffe officer and writer Bertold K...
. He was seen as an influential adviser to the German Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...
, where he wrote speeches for Axel Springer
Axel Springer
Axel Springer , was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company.-Early life:...
.
The success of his books "Unternehmen Barbarossa (Hitler Moves East)" and "Verbrannte Erde (Scorched Earth)" made Carell a leading post-war chronicler of the German side of World War II on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
through mid-1944. His book "Die Gefangenen" 1980, dealing with German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, was published by Ullstein-Verlag
Ullstein-Verlag
The Ullstein Verlag was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like B.Z. and Berliner Morgenpost and books through its subsidiaries Ullstein Buchverlage and Propyläen.The newspaper publishing branch was taken...
. These books generally had a positive media reception (e.g., Die Welt wrote: „Helps to reduce the dislike between Germans and Russians (...) qualified as an historian.“ Or the Düsseldorfer Mittag: „Someone for whom the seriousness of the source and the value of documentation are more important than going for cheap thrills – that is Paul Carell!“ (Source: 4) Carell also wrote THE DESERT FOXES (about Rommel) and OPERATION: INVASION! about the Allied invasion of Normandy.
In 1992 Carell claimed, that even after the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
there was a possibility for Germany to win the war. In his view, it was primarily the command of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
that lead to the defeat. The leadership of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and very competent commanders such as Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
could have achieved victory if not for Hitler's interference. Carell claimed that the invasion of the Soviet Union was a preemptive attack to forestall an invasion of Germany by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, a claim that has been supported by Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
and Mark Solonin
Mark Solonin
Mark Solonin is a bestselling Russian writer on the history of World War II.In the Soviet offensive plans controversy he belongs to the camp close to Victor Suvorov...
.
Books authored
- 'Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army', Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1993 ISBN 0887404693
- 'Hitler's War on Russia', volume 2 Scorched Earth London: Harrap, 1970 ISBN 0887405983
- 'Hitler Moves East', 1941-1943 New York: Little, Brown, 1964 ISBN 0921991118
- 'Invasion! They're Coming!' New York: Dutton, 1963 ISBN 0887407161
- 'Foxes of the Desert' New York: Bantam, 1960 ISBN 0887406599