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When the Wehrmacht and U.S. Army fought the Waffen-SS together: Battle for Castle Itter

The last days of the Second World War were incredibly chaotic. To nearly every German soldier it became clear the war had been lost, both in the Wehrmacht and even among some ideological diehard Waffen-SS. Europe was filled with large groups of refugees, displaced persons and bands of soldiers that either were looking for another front to fight at or tried to reach the western allied powers before the Soviets caught them. A very curious event happened during this chaotic time: in Tyrol, Austria, a centuries-old castle housed prominent French political prisoners. When a fanatical SS division attempted to take the castle, a German Wehrmacht unit ended up fighting side-by-side with a United States army unit to defend these prisoners. It was the only time during the entire war that the Germans and Americans fought side-by-side, and it is often described as the ‘strangest battle of the entire war.' Consider supporting HoH: ►Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory ►Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/HouseofHistory My Twitter:https://twitter.com/Oscar_HoH My videos tend to get arbitrarily demonetized. That is why I decided to open up a Patreon where people can support the channel. If you decide to pledge as little as 1$/month you will gain access to a monthly series exclusive to my Patrons! Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:04 Battle of Castle Itter 6:04 A standoff: Wehrmacht vs. Waffen-SS This castle, Schloss Itter, was used as a prison for French people of interest such as former French presidents, ministers and former commanders of the French army. These people had been seized from France following Germany’s rapid conquest of the country nearly five years earlier and were locked up as political prisoners, as a sort of bargaining chip if you will. Among the imprisoned were former prime ministers Eduard Daladier and Paul Reynaud. Now the Itter Castle wasn’t a regular prison. The guest rooms of the castle had been converted to ‘prison cells’, but the ‘prisoners’ were free to move around. Furthermore, they had a full staff consisting of Dachau prisoners and there was ample food and water available. SS-Totenkopfverbände soldiers guarded them. In early May these men too realised the war was lost. Itter was a subunit of the Dachau concentration camp, and the fact the commandant of Dachau, Eduard Weiter, fled to Itter as the camp was liberated and then proceeded to take his own life was quite the big giveaway the war wasn’t going well for the Germans. Following this event Itter’s prisoner commander fled together with the guards, leaving the prisoners behind. Following their abandonment the prisoners armed themselves. They were aware of a hostile SS division in the vicinity and they weren’t too wrong about that. Closeby, the 17th Waffen SS Panzer-Grenadier Division, was preparing itself to recapture the castle. Knowing the allies were close by, the prisoners had already sent an arrested Yugoslavian communist resistance fighter that worked at the castle as a handyman to try and get the Americans to come to rescue them. When he didn’t return the group sent their cook to try and find Allies to rescue them as well. Watch my documentary series: ►History of Prussia playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLazn7eofVtjJjSlui3iOOz0P3KI7-v3o5 ►End of Empire - Downfall of the Qing Dynasty playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLazn7eofVtjLnVJY6NyQX8JlVApf40DLs ►World War 2 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLazn7eofVtjLYTXde713nRftdAPj7YW_a ►Hitler's Spies playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLazn7eofVtjJGQ4c1q7mQhTh5vM54_17o The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less. Thank you for taking the time to check out House of History, I hope you will find the films informative, interesting and enjoyable! If you have any feedback, questions or criticism feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion truly aids me in improving the content of the channel! If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and I will either write a reply, answer your question in a Q&A video, or make an entire video about it! Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32622651 archivpragserwildsee.com/index.php?cont=31&lang=1&cat=30 https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-for-Castle-Itter Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons #HouseofHistory #History #WW2