https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/2020/03/operation-sunrise-in-ascona/
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Operation SUNRISE: Secret meeting in Ascona
In March 1945, an SS general negotiated with the Allies for the German surrender in Italy. The meeting took place in Ascona and ultimately shortened the Second World War by a few days.
On March 18 and 19, 1945, the spring festival in honor of Saint Joseph took place in the Piazza of Ascona. Despite the war, many people participated and celebrated exuberantly. At the same time, a secret meeting was taking place in this small fishing village. It is known today as "Operation Sunrise" or "Operation Crossword" and brought together high-ranking representatives of the warring powers. The group was completed by Swiss mediators. The negotiations concerned the surrender of the German forces in northern Italy.
The participants, all dressed in civilian clothes, were SS- Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff, Major General Lyman L. Lemnitzer for the USA, and British Major General Terence S. Airey. The meeting had been organized by Allen Dulles, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Bern—a US intelligence agency of the American War Department—along with his right-hand man, the German-American Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz. Also present were the Italian Baron Luigi Parilli, the Swiss intelligence officer Max Waibel, and Max Husmann, founder and director of the Institut Montana on the Zugerberg. Adjutants, secretaries, translators, and bodyguards were also present. The group consisted of at least 20 people.The Russians were not among them.
Several properties in the Ascona region were used for the meeting. While the Allied representatives stayed at the Villa al Roccolo, owned by industrialist and Nazi opponent Edmund Hugo Stinnes, other participants stayed as "tourists" in various hotels. On March 18, Karl Wolff and Allen Dulles met in a small house on Via Signore in Croce in Ascona. This house also belonged to Stinnes, who had provided various rooms for the negotiations. The actual talks began on March 19 at the small Villa Margiana on the lake.
Karl Wolff, the highest-ranking SS and police leader in Italy, agreed to an unconditional surrender and made many concessions, including the release of several important partisan leaders. In return, he was to receive a verbal guarantee of acquittal in the upcoming war crimes trials.
Talks have been ongoing since autumn 1944
Initial contact between the Germans stationed in Italy and the Allies was established as early as autumn 1944. However, several setbacks delayed the negotiations. On March 8, 1945, Adolf Hitler ordered Field Marshal Albert Kesselring back to Germany to assume command of the entire Western Front. According to Wolff, the Wehrmacht's supreme commander in Italy would have been open to negotiations for a surrender. Only if both organizations, the SS and the Wehrmacht , had agreed to the surrender would its implementation have been possible. Kesselring's return was a setback for Wolff. Albert Kesselring's successor, General Heinrich Gottfried von Vietinghoff-Scheel, had to be persuaded once again. There were also delays on the American side. After the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, Vice President Harry S. Truman took over and critically reviewed the work of the OSS in Europe. This took time. Meanwhile, the Allied troops were already approaching Bologna.
On April 29, 1945, Operation Sunrise ended in Caserta, near Naples. Lieutenant Colonel Viktor von Schweinitz, representing the Wehrmacht in Italy, and SS Major Eugen Wenner, representing the SS on the peninsula, signed the surrender of the German armed forces in Italy. This surrender took effect on May 2, 1945. This surrender came very late. Large parts of Italy had already been liberated, and its impact on the overall war was less significant than some of those involved later portrayed in their memoirs.
The Russians were not among them.
The Russians were not among them.