What should happen to Hitler’s former underground headquarters? Authorities are prepared to sell the plot but do not know what will become of it.
Werfolf, Hitler’s headquarters [rather, what’s left of it near Vinnytsia], is perhaps the last evidence of Nazi’s technological and organizational capacities that is left in Ukraine. However, the place may transform beyond recognition shortly, as Vinnytsia Regional Council announced that it is ready to sell it.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Late August 1941. German forces had entered Vinnytsia a month before. In another month they would make the pine forest 8 km from the city a restricted area. The site would be guarded by a special Gestapo unit.
The residents of nearby villages were resettled farther from the forest, and the area became subject to special security arrangements. Every local inhabitant aged over 14 was issued a personal pass. Those found outside their homes without the document, even in their yard, received 25 blows with a rubber stick and were arrested for three days. Those who lost the pass were shot. No one was allowed to go in or out of the village without a written authorization. If someone disobeyed, the whole family was shot. Gestapo men checked homes at night shining flashlights through the windows, so no one was permitted to keep the lights on. Peasants worked in the field according to a strict schedule and the Germans did the harvesting themselves. It was forbidden to approach the pine forest closer than 100 meters and plant tall crops in the spring. In fact, the residents were not allowed even to look in the direction where they used to pick mushrooms or send their cattle to graze. That area was full of guards (at 5-10 feet intervals) and was constantly patrolled by Gestapo men with police dogs. The extraordinary security arrangements included two planes, 20 tanks, and 12 antiaircraft guns, all camouflaged. The peasants were forbidden to discuss what they saw, although all they could see was a sign “Sanitarium.” Word had it that a rest home for German officers was being built somewhere in the forest.
No one would have fathomed that the place had anything to do with Hitler himself, but it did. The center of the forest, where the FЯhrer’s bunker was under construction, was fenced off with a 2-meter mesh wire and two rows of barbed wire. In addition to an apartment with a private bomb shelter, there was a swimming pool, a movie theater, a casino, a bathhouse, a barbershop, and a teahouse. There was also Martin Bormann’s apartment and premises for personal aides, security service, and chief of the general staff, as well as for generals, guests, press reporters, and stenographers. An asphalt road was built across the forest for the FЯhrer’s convenience, along with a water pump, power plant, telephone and radio stations. From that forest Hitler could easily get in touch not only with Vinnytsia, but also with Berlin. The hardest underground work was done by some 10,000 Soviet POWs. They labored for 18 hours daily. Two thousand died of starvation and disease in the course of construction. The Germans dumped their bodies in the silo pits of nearby collective farms. These common graves also contain the remnants of several hundred Norwegian inmates. Sometimes local residents were also forced to take part in the construction, each paid 85 kopecks and 200 g of bread per working day.
The forest was cleared in six months, the above-ground structures built, and three bomb shelters dug in the frozen ground. The surviving POWs were taken away, and no one knows what happened to them even now. Five German companies had completed the project toward the end of 1943. What exactly was built underground is not known. Retreating in March 1944, the Germans burned down the above- ground structures and demolished the underground ones. No one knows for sure what is left there, yet all who have heard something about the Werwolf project have their stories. People in Vinnytsia believe there is a glut of wealth still hidden there, including masterpieces of world culture and bricks of gold. Others mention priceless documents and even a tunnel leading all the way to the Reichstag.
All such stories serve to build the image of the “Nazi genius” of architecture and construction — something modern researchers of the Werwolf do not deny. One of them, Luyiza Bilozerova of Vinnytsia, says the Werwolf was linked to the river Buh and that the German construction technologies belonged to the 21st century.
Not surprisingly, most current visitors are interested in the result of the construction, not its cost of two thousand human lives. Even though there is actually nothing to see except several huge ferroconcrete blocks overgrown with brush. Here local neo-Nazis annually celebrate the FЯhrer’s birthday. These “celebrations”, poor sanitary condition of the place, and antipatriotic comments of self-appointed guides made the Vinnytsia Regional Council put the Werwolf up for sale by tender. Two organizations showed some interest, but only one submitted a bid — an ammunition plant near Moscow. The Russian bidder, determined to get hold of the Werwolf, set up a limited company, Stavka [Headquarters], in Vinnytsia. Its manager Inna Sus speaks protectively of their bid, saying that she is not planning to use Hitler’s HQ to make money. Ms. Bilozerova, however, is confident that the Werwolf is a tourist bonanza. Her study shows that the place marked a turning point in World War II.
“CITY OF THE DEAD”
Hitler first visited his new Vinnytsia headquarters in the spring of 1942, but local residents learned about it only after his departure, when the number of patrols decreased, and people were allowed to work in the field near the forest again. Hitler had spent the summer and part of the fall at the Werwolf. He was enchanted by the place and really enjoyed the pine forest. Hermann Gцring met with him that same fall and was surprised to see that the Fьhrer seemed to have aged by 15 years. Less than two years later, he began having difficulty walking unaided. His sense of balance was impaired, and he dragged his feet. His eyesight weakened too, and he needed thick glasses to read, although all the documents were typed with letters three times the usual size. All his old diseases came back to attack him.
Luiza Bilozerova, historian and author of The Werwolf, Hitler’s Fateful Secret, a documentary book well known in Ukraine, having analyzed Hitler’s physical condition and his conduct at the headquarters, insists that he started dying precisely at the place and, remarkably, because of exposure to radon. She believes that his quarters were built specially to kill the Fьhrer. The most intriguing question is, of course, what exactly emitted radon in his mid-20th century apartment? Radiological measurements of the local quarry where the Germans received construction materials, and of the ferroconcrete blocks left after the blast, confirm that Hitler was purposefully exposed to radiation. His bunker must have been cut in granite. This rock emanates radium. It is safe outdoors, but its radon irradiation indoors may have a deadly effect, so the bunker was a death chamber. Since radon is 7.5 times heavier than air, it settles down, and even the bunker’s 3-meter concrete walls could not protect from radon because its alpha-emission penetrates everything. Luiza Bilozerova worked with the Hermes expedition investigating the Werwolf. She studied the radiation characteristics of the concrete fragments and estimated that they contain 120 radiation tolerance units. Within the granite bunker the level could have been ten times higher. Besides, the concrete meant to protect the Fьhrer from granite contained some pebbles.
Hermann Gцring had his headquarters built several kilometers from the Werwolf, in a neighboring district. No granite was used in his construction, so its ecological status was the exact opposite of the Werwolf’s. Gцring’s residence was a model of professional building. The Fьhrer’s place showed precisely how things should never be built. Considering that Gцring was the initiator of the Werwolf project and one of Hitler’s possible successors, it is not difficult to guess who would benefit from the Fьhrer’s death. Ms. Bilozerova describes this as the German lead, one of three possible solutions to the Werwolf mystery. The other two are Swedish and Norwegian. The Swedish one leads to the Fьhrer’s first wife and the Norwegian one is traced to the Norwegians working on the construction site. Both the Swedes and Norwegians live on rocky terrain and know about rock more than anyone else. Anyway, they built the suspicious bunker and it was kept closed for several months until its owner arrived. In other words, it was an ideal place for the accumulation of the radioactive gas radon that has no color or smell and affects the organism through respiration. Hitler’s lungs had lost their natural protective system in the gas attack during World War I, so the Werwolf was his death verdict.
Shortly after his trip [to Ukraine], the Fьhrer’s health noticeably deteriorated, but he was convinced the opposite was true - as is characteristic of all radiation cases. Planning the summer 1942 offensive, Hitler wanted to seize Stalingrad and the Caucasus, so he arrived at the Werwolf to work out that strategic mission. In his new residence, however, he changed his mind, experiencing an upsurge of euphoria, when one feels capable of achieving everything. The Fьhrer resolutely shrugged off the generals’ reservations and underestimated the strength of the Soviet troops. The change in the military plans (shifting the strategic emphasis from Moscow to the southern direction for the summer of 1942, reaching for Caucasus oil and Stalingrad) proved fatal for the entire Wehrmacht campaign. Luiza Bilozerova believes that Hitler miscalculated precisely because of radiation exposure.
By the end of the summer Hitler had developed a continuous headache and had a heart attack. He became apathetic and ate only chocolate and pastries. It was like an early onslaught of senile dementia; he acted in a careless and irrational manner.
The US magazine Life wrote in 1943 that Adolf Hitler was one of the world’s three best protected individuals, yet an assassination was planned and almost succeeded.
FINDING A MORAL AND EFFECTIVE WAY
Perhaps the cause of Hitler’s slow death is no longer important. In fact, those investigating the Werwolf do it for other reasons. By analyzing the HQ design, particularly Hitler’s apartment and the bunker underneath, they want to learn more about natural radioactivity. A careless approach to construction and a combination of some building materials can produce such a deadly bunker for anyone. Ancient Ukrainians, for example, never dug cellars under their homes, while their descendants today have not only cellars, but also saunas and garages there. A number of countries adopted national programs to protect the population from natural radioactivity. Russia’s protective initiative is called Radon. Russian scientists have estimated that their program, if implemented during the lifetime of a single generation, can save 1.5 million lives. The Americans are sure that uncontrollable radon in homes and on production premises shortens the permanent resident’s life span by an average of seven years. The famous fortune-teller Vanga said that Hitler’s headquarters in Vinnytsia was “a city of the dead.” The site has been closed down for 60 years, so it is not dangerous any more. Ms. Bilozerova insists that this outward safety may be deceitful; and that today’s safety should be attributed to German construction quality and to the mercy of God. She believes that there are three potential dangers for the population of Vinnytsia, but she keeps them secret, saying she will reveal them to the successful bidder for the Werwolf, so that the new owner could take effective protective measures. Inna Sus assures that she has documents relating to the Werwolf and other data from the archives of the FSB Russian secret police, its Ukrainian counterpart SBU, and from foreign sources. The bidder undertakes to comply with all requirements imposed by the Ukrainian Emergency Management Ministry.
The new owner has to agree not to attempt penetrating the Werwolf underground compartments, but develop only above-ground buildings and premises. Any digging on the site can have unpredictable consequences, primarily for the tourists, warns Luiza Bilozerova. The bid evaluation committee, including local authorities, does not seem concerned by this warning. They have been deliberating the Russian bid for more than a month. The Russians are waiting. They expect to finish all improvements by the fall if they take possession of the property in the spring, after investing half a million hryvnias in the Werwolf. Ms. Bilozerova is not happy about the timeframe, saying that a complete study and evaluation of the place’s hazardous factors will take at least a year and a half. Her concerns are shared by other scientists of the Hermes expedition led by the Russian Prof. Bobrovnikov.
Be it as it may, the people of Vinnytsia have a right to know what is happening at the Werwolf, because it affects their personal safety. They have looked for local investors. The most recent attempt was to find someone who is ready to do serious improvements on sight. Of course, the new owner is expected to want some profits from the project, especially if he invests UAH 500,000 into it. Inna Sus suggests that the best thing to do with the Werwolf would be to make it a memorial to the fallen [Soviet] soldiers, thus promoting patriotic education, particularly of the younger generation. One may wonder why someone from Russia would be so concerned about Ukrainian patriotic spirit. How will the birch trees that they are palling to plant fit into their “educational project”? Considering that it is an ammunition factory, it is understandable that they want to build a weapon exhibition, but this has little to do with patriotism in Ukraine. In addition to the weapons’ museum, the Russian project includes a chapel where people will pray for the dead and for their guardian angel. In all honesty, this component will be of little interest for both tourists and local residents. After all, no one visits numerous monuments to the fallen heroes that are already built in Ukrainian villages and cities.
It does not take an expert in tourist projects to realize that the current Werwolf project was done without much creative imagining. In fact, some locals had better ideas. One of them suggested that the Werwolf would be a great tourist attraction, if there was an exposition of wax figures reproducing Adolf Hitler and his entourage at the headquarters. This enthusiast could be right, for whatever is built there, the place will remain the Fьhrer’s Werwolf in people’s mind. So it would be better for all if those involved would stop playing the role of selfless patriots and just admit that business is about making money. Also, the entire experience of Ukrainian “renovations,” “restorations,” and so on, should have taught us one lesson: one must do a project taking into account public and expert opinion and experience of other countries. So the big question remains: what should the former headquarters of Adolf Hitler look like today?
