Apr.20th, 1889- Apr.30th, 1945
While I had thought about posting a note yesterday being Hitler's birthday and what a dark day it heralded for world history, I decided against it for the reason that the date of his birth is not nearly so important as the date of his death.
In the waning days of the war, during the winter month of Janurary as the Third Reich disintegrated around him, Hitler took up permanent residence in Berlin's Fuhrerbunker just outside the walls of the Chancellory. His failing health and increasing paranoia drove him to self imposed imprisonment. He no longer trusted the majority of the general staff serving under him. There had been repeated assassination attempts. The Allies were literally knocking at the doors of Germany, and the careful walls Hitler had built were finally tumbling down after five years of bloody struggle.
After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a map room within the bunker complex. Hitler then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. He signed these documents at 04:00 and then retired to bed.
Late in the morning of 30 April, with the Soviets less than 500 meters from the bunker, Hitler had a meeting with General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, who informed Hitler the Berlin garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night. Hitler, two secretaries and his personal cook then had lunch consisting of spaghetti with a light sauce, after which Hitler and Eva Braun said their personal farewells to members of the Fuhrerbunker staff and fellow occupants, including the Goebbels family, Martin Bormann, the secretaries and several military officers. At around 14:30 Adolf and Eva Hitler went into Hitler's personal study. Witnesses later reported hearing a loud gunshot at around 15:30.
After waiting a few minutes, Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, with Bormann at his side, opened the door to the small study. Linge later stated he immediately noted a scent of burnt almonds, a common observation made in the presence of prussic acid, the aqueous form of hydrogen cyanide. Hitler's SS adjutant, Sturmbannfuhrer Otto Gunsche, entered the study to inspect the bodies, which were found seated on a small sofa, Eva's to Hitler's left and slumped away from him. Eva's body had no visible physical wounds and Linge assumed she had poisoned herself. Gunsche has since stated that Hitler "sat sunken over, with blood dripping out of his right temple. He had shot himself with his own pistol."
Red Army troops began storming the Chancellery at approximately 23:00, about 7 hours and 30 minutes after Hitler's death. On 2 May, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by Ivan Churakov of the 79th Rifle Corps.
In 1993 the KGB publicly released the autopsy records and other statements by former KGB members. The autopsy recorded both gunshot damage to Hitler's skull and glass shards in his jaw, assumed to be from a cyanide capsule. The remains of Hitler and Braun were repeatedly buried and exhumed by the Russians during relocation from Berlin to a new facility in Magdeburg where they, along with the charred remains of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and those of his wife Magda Goebbels and their six children, were buried in an unmarked grave beneath a paved section of the front courtyard. This location was kept highly secret.
Out of several films over the years documenting these last days of Hitler, Der Untergang (The Downfall) is perhaps the best and most accurate, a 2004 German feature film (subtitled, no English voiceovers) largely set in and around the Fuhrerbunker. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel accurately reconstructed the actual look and atmosphere as best he could through eyewitness accounts, various survivors' memoirs, and other verified sources. It also features an interview with Traudl Junge.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Nazi Hunter Era End Is Near
Apr.8th, 2010
The age of Nazi hunting in the US is well in the past. The number of men and women suspected of war crimes is dwindling fast, reduced by the efforts of federal prosecutors and by the passing of the years. Those that are left are now in their late 80s and 90s.
The sight of John Demjanjuk, currently on trial in Munich, being extradited from the US in a wheelchair last year illustrated the point.
But the search by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) goes on. Eli Rosenbaum, director of the OSI and America’s chief Nazi hunter, thinks that a few dozen of the hundreds of criminals and collaborators who fled to the US after the Second World War are still in the country.
But age may get them before he does. He has only ten cases left on his books.
One of them is Peter Egner, an 88-year-old former maitre d’ living in a retirement home in Seattle. Serbia has just issued an international warrant for his arrest, accusing him of serving in a Nazi unit that killed more than 17,000 Jews and other civilians in Belgrade during the German occupation of Serbia.
The claims against him are chilling. It is alleged that as a teenager in 1941 he was a member of an SS death squad, or Einsatzgruppe.
OSI investigators cite Nazi documents which show that in the autumn of 1941, the unit executed 11,164 people — mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected communists and Gypsies — and that in early 1942 it killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as prisoners.
According to the Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, Mr Egner supervised the transfer of victims from Belgrade to the concentration camp at Semlin.
The OSI claims that during an interview in 2007 at his home Mr Egner told investigators he had guarded prisoners en route to Semlin and Avala. He was also an interpreter for political prisoners, who were sometimes tortured, then executed.
Mr Egner has denied the accusations through his lawyers, saying he knows nothing about the Einsatzgruppe and the closest he came to “interrogating” prisoners was acting as an interpreter in the public lobby of a Belgrade police station.
He has been fighting the Department of Justice’s efforts to strip him of his American citizenship since 2008.
Mr Egner is said to have entered the US in 1960, and was naturalised in 1966. When questioned about prior military service, he allegedly omitted his SS involvement, saying only that he had been a sergeant in the German Army.
That is enough, say prosecutors, to revoke his citizenship. Once stripped of it, proceedings to extradite him can go ahead. The process is likely to take several more years.
In the meantime Mr Egner, who has suffered heart problems, has asked a court in Seattle for a protective order limiting the exposure of evidence in his case to avoid causing him “embarrassment, oppression and unfairness”.
Since it was set up in 1979 the OSI has won denaturalisation and deportation cases against 107 accused Nazis. While some say it is time to drop cases against elderly men who can do no further harm, Mr Rosenbaum, whose father served in the US army in WW2 and reported on the horrors of Dachau after its liberation, says there can be no letting up.
But his department’s focus has been changing. It is now investigating modern-day perpetrators of genocide, torture and other human rights violations, such as those in Rwanda. The OSI is about to disappear, merged with another section of the Department of Justice into a new unit called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.
Whatever happens to Peter Egner, it will mark the end of the era of the American Nazi hunter.
(article edited from Times Online)
The age of Nazi hunting in the US is well in the past. The number of men and women suspected of war crimes is dwindling fast, reduced by the efforts of federal prosecutors and by the passing of the years. Those that are left are now in their late 80s and 90s.
The sight of John Demjanjuk, currently on trial in Munich, being extradited from the US in a wheelchair last year illustrated the point.
But the search by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) goes on. Eli Rosenbaum, director of the OSI and America’s chief Nazi hunter, thinks that a few dozen of the hundreds of criminals and collaborators who fled to the US after the Second World War are still in the country.
But age may get them before he does. He has only ten cases left on his books.
One of them is Peter Egner, an 88-year-old former maitre d’ living in a retirement home in Seattle. Serbia has just issued an international warrant for his arrest, accusing him of serving in a Nazi unit that killed more than 17,000 Jews and other civilians in Belgrade during the German occupation of Serbia.
The claims against him are chilling. It is alleged that as a teenager in 1941 he was a member of an SS death squad, or Einsatzgruppe.
OSI investigators cite Nazi documents which show that in the autumn of 1941, the unit executed 11,164 people — mostly Serbian Jewish men, suspected communists and Gypsies — and that in early 1942 it killed 6,280 Serbian Jewish women and children who were held as prisoners.
According to the Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, Mr Egner supervised the transfer of victims from Belgrade to the concentration camp at Semlin.
The OSI claims that during an interview in 2007 at his home Mr Egner told investigators he had guarded prisoners en route to Semlin and Avala. He was also an interpreter for political prisoners, who were sometimes tortured, then executed.
Mr Egner has denied the accusations through his lawyers, saying he knows nothing about the Einsatzgruppe and the closest he came to “interrogating” prisoners was acting as an interpreter in the public lobby of a Belgrade police station.
He has been fighting the Department of Justice’s efforts to strip him of his American citizenship since 2008.
Mr Egner is said to have entered the US in 1960, and was naturalised in 1966. When questioned about prior military service, he allegedly omitted his SS involvement, saying only that he had been a sergeant in the German Army.
That is enough, say prosecutors, to revoke his citizenship. Once stripped of it, proceedings to extradite him can go ahead. The process is likely to take several more years.
In the meantime Mr Egner, who has suffered heart problems, has asked a court in Seattle for a protective order limiting the exposure of evidence in his case to avoid causing him “embarrassment, oppression and unfairness”.
Since it was set up in 1979 the OSI has won denaturalisation and deportation cases against 107 accused Nazis. While some say it is time to drop cases against elderly men who can do no further harm, Mr Rosenbaum, whose father served in the US army in WW2 and reported on the horrors of Dachau after its liberation, says there can be no letting up.
But his department’s focus has been changing. It is now investigating modern-day perpetrators of genocide, torture and other human rights violations, such as those in Rwanda. The OSI is about to disappear, merged with another section of the Department of Justice into a new unit called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.
Whatever happens to Peter Egner, it will mark the end of the era of the American Nazi hunter.
(article edited from Times Online)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Polish massacre by Russians commemorated
April 7th, 2010/1940
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russia at a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.
The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations.
Only in the waning days of the Soviet Union did Moscow officially acknowledge the country’s role in the massacre, nearly half a century after the murders occurred. The Soviet government suppressed all information about the killings, blaming Nazi soldiers for the crime.
Many Russians view the war and the Soviet victory over the Nazis as a defining moment in their history. As many as 25 million Soviet citizens died in the war, according to some estimates, fighting, many here believe, for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Fascism.
For the first time this year, Russia has invited delegations from the Soviet Union’s principal World War II allies—Britain, France and the United States—to take part in the Victory Day parade on Red Square this year, marking the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. Poland has also been invited.
(article condensed from New York Times)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin joined his Polish counterpart on Wednesday in the first joint commemoration marking the anniversary of the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Putin met with Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, in Russia at a site in the Katyn forest close to the city of Smolensk, where 70 years ago members of the Soviet secret police executed over 20,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland in 1939.
The circumstances surrounding the massacre have long been a major source of tension between Poland and Russia, and Wednesday’s tribute appears to be the latest step in an effort by both countries to patch up relations.
Only in the waning days of the Soviet Union did Moscow officially acknowledge the country’s role in the massacre, nearly half a century after the murders occurred. The Soviet government suppressed all information about the killings, blaming Nazi soldiers for the crime.
Many Russians view the war and the Soviet victory over the Nazis as a defining moment in their history. As many as 25 million Soviet citizens died in the war, according to some estimates, fighting, many here believe, for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Fascism.
For the first time this year, Russia has invited delegations from the Soviet Union’s principal World War II allies—Britain, France and the United States—to take part in the Victory Day parade on Red Square this year, marking the 65th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. Poland has also been invited.
(article condensed from New York Times)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Atlantic Heats Up
Mar.28th, 1940 Allied Politics
Britain and France plan to mine Norwegian waters to force Nazi ships into the open seas and expose them to naval attack. Put off to April 8th, this is too late to prevent the Nazi invasion planned for the 9th.
Mar.31st, 1940 Atlantic Sea War
German cruiser Atlantis, captained by Bernhard Rogge, sets out to sink enemy ships. Over the months of early 1940, the total tonnage sank reaches over 93,000.
It is followed by the Orion on April 8th.
Apr.8th, 1940 Sea War, Norway
As the British lay mines off the coast of Norway, the British destroyer HMS Glowworm intercepts part of the German fleet but is sunk after ramming the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. A British submarine sinks the transport Rio de Janiero. The deployed Royal Navy is unable to intercept the German invasion fleet.
Apr.9th, 1940 Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Codename Fall Weserubung or Operation Weser Exercise, begins in the early morning. The German tactic of blitzkrieg is put into full effect by lightning speed, meticulous planning and total secrecy. Denmark puts up little to no resistance. Two German aircraft are shot down and a few armored cars are damaged. Thirteen Danish soldiers are killed and only 23 wounded.
The German naval invasion of Norway incurs heavy losses, with three cruisers, the Karlsrube, Konigsberg, and Blucher sank and a battleship badly damaged. Invading with a 1000 aircraft, Luftwaffe units took over airfields and established air superiority while ships land ground forces at six locations. Norwegian forces are taken completely by surprise. King Haakon of Norway manages to escape to the north with most of his government. The whole campaign ends up lasting 62 days with 5000 casualties on both sides.
Britain and France plan to mine Norwegian waters to force Nazi ships into the open seas and expose them to naval attack. Put off to April 8th, this is too late to prevent the Nazi invasion planned for the 9th.
Mar.31st, 1940 Atlantic Sea War
German cruiser Atlantis, captained by Bernhard Rogge, sets out to sink enemy ships. Over the months of early 1940, the total tonnage sank reaches over 93,000.
It is followed by the Orion on April 8th.
Apr.8th, 1940 Sea War, Norway
As the British lay mines off the coast of Norway, the British destroyer HMS Glowworm intercepts part of the German fleet but is sunk after ramming the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. A British submarine sinks the transport Rio de Janiero. The deployed Royal Navy is unable to intercept the German invasion fleet.
Apr.9th, 1940 Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Codename Fall Weserubung or Operation Weser Exercise, begins in the early morning. The German tactic of blitzkrieg is put into full effect by lightning speed, meticulous planning and total secrecy. Denmark puts up little to no resistance. Two German aircraft are shot down and a few armored cars are damaged. Thirteen Danish soldiers are killed and only 23 wounded.
The German naval invasion of Norway incurs heavy losses, with three cruisers, the Karlsrube, Konigsberg, and Blucher sank and a battleship badly damaged. Invading with a 1000 aircraft, Luftwaffe units took over airfields and established air superiority while ships land ground forces at six locations. Norwegian forces are taken completely by surprise. King Haakon of Norway manages to escape to the north with most of his government. The whole campaign ends up lasting 62 days with 5000 casualties on both sides.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Schindler's List up for sale
Mar.23rd, 2010
One of only a handful of surviving copies of Oskar Schindler's list, made famous in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film, is up for sale for a whopping $2.2 million.
"It's the only one remaining in private hands," Gary Zimet, who lives in upstate New York, told the London's Telegraph.
The list, compiled by Schindler and Itzhak Stern, is reportedly dated April 18, 1945, is 13 pages long, and contains 801 names. The price for the item is set and will not be auctioned off, but instead offered on a "first come, first serve" basis.
Schindler has been credited with saving more than 1,000 Jews from Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II.
Although the film "Schindler's List" suggests there was only one list, several copies were actually drafted. Today, only a few are known to have survived, and now reside at museums in the United States and Israel. The list for sale now was discovered in an Australian library last year. It was found in a box of material that once belonged to Thomas Keneally, who wrote the award-winning novel that inspired the film.
One of only a handful of surviving copies of Oskar Schindler's list, made famous in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film, is up for sale for a whopping $2.2 million.
"It's the only one remaining in private hands," Gary Zimet, who lives in upstate New York, told the London's Telegraph.
The list, compiled by Schindler and Itzhak Stern, is reportedly dated April 18, 1945, is 13 pages long, and contains 801 names. The price for the item is set and will not be auctioned off, but instead offered on a "first come, first serve" basis.
Schindler has been credited with saving more than 1,000 Jews from Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II.
Although the film "Schindler's List" suggests there was only one list, several copies were actually drafted. Today, only a few are known to have survived, and now reside at museums in the United States and Israel. The list for sale now was discovered in an Australian library last year. It was found in a box of material that once belonged to Thomas Keneally, who wrote the award-winning novel that inspired the film.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Finland ends Winter War while Scandinavia targeted
Mar.11th, 1940
Eastern Front, Finland
After 105 days of conflict since being invaded, Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding 10% of their territory around the Baltic to improve Soviet defenses around their ports. Finland did not capitulate to the Soviet Union's attempt to annex their country, and retained independence. The war was near disaster for the Red Army, losing 200,000 men, while the Finns lost only 25,000.
Northern Front, Scandinavia
Hitler, convinced of his military planning ability after the victory against Poland in 1939, orders an attack on Norway. Denmark is also included in the plan. He takes personal charge, issuing orders through General Keitel and his Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) rather than planning through Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the Army high command.
Following on the heels of February's decision to circumvent a direct route planning to invade France and Western Europe, this sudden plan to invade the tactically weak north should have clued military advisers that Hitler's state of mind was on shaky ground even at this early a stage. By this time the Generals who had the most power were all cronies of Hitler, catering to his every whim and outrageous demand. Their lack of backbone would haunt them during the war to come.
Eastern Front, Finland
After 105 days of conflict since being invaded, Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding 10% of their territory around the Baltic to improve Soviet defenses around their ports. Finland did not capitulate to the Soviet Union's attempt to annex their country, and retained independence. The war was near disaster for the Red Army, losing 200,000 men, while the Finns lost only 25,000.
Northern Front, Scandinavia
Hitler, convinced of his military planning ability after the victory against Poland in 1939, orders an attack on Norway. Denmark is also included in the plan. He takes personal charge, issuing orders through General Keitel and his Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) rather than planning through Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the Army high command.
Following on the heels of February's decision to circumvent a direct route planning to invade France and Western Europe, this sudden plan to invade the tactically weak north should have clued military advisers that Hitler's state of mind was on shaky ground even at this early a stage. By this time the Generals who had the most power were all cronies of Hitler, catering to his every whim and outrageous demand. Their lack of backbone would haunt them during the war to come.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Female Pilots of WWII to be honored
Mar.8th, 2010
In 1942, with a shortage of male pilots and a desperate need to muscle up for war, the military needed new recruitment material. Famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran had been lobbying First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for a corps of female pilots. Eventually, Gen. H.H. "Hap" Arnold agreed. The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program was born, training the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.
Recruited by newspaper ads and public service announcements, about 25,000 women answered the call. Of the more than 1,800 selected for training, 1,102 graduated.
During the war, they flew 60 million miles in every aircraft available -- Piper Cubs to B-29 bombers. Prohibited from flying in combat, they transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice and tested planes newly repaired or overhauled.
By the time the program was disbanded in December 1944, 38 women pilots had lost their lives. But there were no flags or military honors at their funerals. Their bodies were sent home and buried at their families' expense. The surviving WASP veterans paid their own way home and melted from history's pages.
The military decreed that their existence had never been cleared by Congress, and denied them benefits. Arnold's son Bruce lobbied for their recognition as veterans, a status Congress finally conferred in 1977.
This week, with fewer than 300 WASP members still alive, Congress is bestowing Congressional Gold Medals on all the trailblazing pilots.
In 1942, with a shortage of male pilots and a desperate need to muscle up for war, the military needed new recruitment material. Famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran had been lobbying First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for a corps of female pilots. Eventually, Gen. H.H. "Hap" Arnold agreed. The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program was born, training the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.
Recruited by newspaper ads and public service announcements, about 25,000 women answered the call. Of the more than 1,800 selected for training, 1,102 graduated.
During the war, they flew 60 million miles in every aircraft available -- Piper Cubs to B-29 bombers. Prohibited from flying in combat, they transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice and tested planes newly repaired or overhauled.
By the time the program was disbanded in December 1944, 38 women pilots had lost their lives. But there were no flags or military honors at their funerals. Their bodies were sent home and buried at their families' expense. The surviving WASP veterans paid their own way home and melted from history's pages.
The military decreed that their existence had never been cleared by Congress, and denied them benefits. Arnold's son Bruce lobbied for their recognition as veterans, a status Congress finally conferred in 1977.
This week, with fewer than 300 WASP members still alive, Congress is bestowing Congressional Gold Medals on all the trailblazing pilots.
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