Flensburg Government
On 12 May, American Major General Lowell W. Rooks and his British deputy, Brigadier E. J. Foord, arrived in Flensburg and established their quarters in the passenger ship "Patria", docked in Flensburg harbour, displacing the administrative offices of the Flensburg government that had been housed there. Their mission was to liaise with the Dönitz "acting government" (as it was then referred to by the SHAEF) and to impose the will of the victorious Allied Powers on the German High Command. On 13 May, the British authorities arrested Field Marshal Keitel, the Chief of the High Command, for war crimes. Dönitz appointed General Jodl as his replacement. Although the liaison mission arranged meetings with members of the Flensburg government, these only confirmed that neither Dönitz nor his ministers had been able to establish any degree of civil authority. Churchill withdrew his protection once it became clear that the Soviet High Command would otherwise have to be represented in the liaison mission. On 21 May the SHAEF acceded to Soviet proposals that the Flensburg Government be dissolved and its members arrested as POWs. This was carried out on 23 May. On that day, a British officer went to Dönitz's headquarters and asked to speak to the members of the government. Dönitz, Friedeburg, and Jodl were then taken aboard the "Patria", where Major General Rooks informed them of the dissolution of the government; placing them under arrest, and ordered that they be stripped and searched for concealed phials of poison.