Hitler’s Third Reich and World War Two in the News
http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/
A daily edited review of Third Reich and World War Two related news and articles, providing thought-provoking collection of WW2 information.
Film crew to document WWII training
[2006-04-29][helenair]
There isn’t much about this military base that resembles the way it looked in 1942. The technology is new and the men who trained here with the First Special Service Force are mostly gone. But next week, a film crew will begin producing a documentary that chronicles the arduous training that shaped an elite group of soldiers 64 years ago. The outfit went on to achieve fighting fame in World War II and to serve as a model for the Army’s modern Special Forces. “We’re looking at recreating some of the training the First Special Service Force did at Fort Harrison and the Helena area back in 1942.”
Rokossovski’s hedgehogs: Stopping advancing German panzers
[2006-04-29][guardian]
Moscow 1941: The Russian capital in its darkest hour. At the roadside from the airport is a unique set of metal “hedgehogs”, towering obstructions embedded in the ground in summer 1941. Their purpose was to stop the advancing German tanks. Operation Barbarossa had been launched on June 22. Moscow quickly came within the Wehrmacht’s artillery range. The inhabitants trembled with fear, and hundreds of thousands tried to flee. They had been told that if any state invaded the USSR the Red Army would counterattack and take the conflict back on to enemy soil. Instead the Third Reich won a crushing series of victories. The overthrow of Stalin seemed imminent.
Call for UN protection of Shanghai refugee district
[2006-04-29][haaretzdaily]
Survivors from among the 30,000 European Jews who found a haven in Shanghai from Nazi persecution are calling for their old refugee district to be recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shanghai was an open city in the 1930s under mixed Chinese and colonial governance, making it one of the last places to which Europeans could flee without a visa. Almost all departed after the end of World War II and the 1949 establishment of communist rule in China.
One of the first people to photograph the Buchenwald camp
[2006-04-29][palmbeachpost]
Quite by accident in April 1945, a 21-year-old soldier with a Leica camera became one of the first people to document the outrages in the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald. It was the defining moment in Howard Cwick’s life. His 22 black-and-white snapshots showed emaciated bodies and haunted eyes, piles of bones, ashes and bodies abandoned by fleeing Nazi SS men, “like luggage left at a railway station,” he said. NOTE: Article includes separate 10 photo gallery.
Striking World War II photo exhibit at Grout
[2006-04-28][wcfcourier]
A young French girl lays flowers at the grave of an American soldier in Normandy on June 12, 1944. Nazi soldiers round up terrified women and children at gunpoint in Warsaw, Poland, in 1943. A young, ragged and scalded Japanese boy stands amid the ruins of Hiroshima in August 1945. Those and other images await visitors to the Grout Museum exhibit, “Memories of World War II,” on display now through June 11. The exhibit contains 126 photographs from WWII from the archives of The Associated Press. Many of them were taken by AP photographers and the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
French movie rescues forgotten history of Africa’s WWII soldiers
[2006-04-28][ca.news]
A handful of Allied troops stare at the barrels of Nazi panzers, hurling grenades that bounce harmlessly off the vehicles’ armoured skin. The Germans aim squarely at the Allied hideout and fire. These soldiers, giving their lives to defend a deserted village, are Africans - and the subject of a new French movie. Les Enfants du Pays (Hometown Boys) is the story of the so-called Senegalese Infantrymen, soldiers from France’s former colonies in Africa who fought in Europe’s wars. Formed to bolster France’s dwindling ranks, colonial men fought in both World Wars. 300,000 soldiers from French colonies fought in the WW2.
War heroine Nancy Wake honoured - Led an army of 7,000
[2006-04-28][aap]
The Australian WWII heroine dubbed the ‘White Mouse’ by the Gestapo because they could not catch her has finally been honoured in the land of her birth, New Zealand. Nancy Wake has been awarded the NZ Returned Services Association’s highest honour, the RSA Badge in Gold, as well as life membership for her work with the French resistance during the war. She is the first woman to be awarded the Badge in Gold. The RSA said as a saboteur and resistance organiser and fighter, the feisty woman led an army of 7,000 Marquis troops in guerrilla warfare against the Nazis in France.
Battle alone Rhine River - 8th Armored Division
[2006-04-28][texarkanagazette]
For U.S. Army Pfc. Angelus Mendoza Vasquez and others of the 8th Armored Division, getting across Germany’s Rhine River seemed impossible in the closing months of WWII. “The Germans would shoot mortar shells, tank shells, 88mm shells and machine guns at us. Once we were stationed along the Rhine River, we had to fight 3 times before we finally got across it.” One day, while winding its way through Holland, the 8th Armored Division came under surprise mortar shell and artillery attack. Vasquez and many others barely escaped the brief German onslaught.
June 1941: Hitler and Stalin
[2006-04-27][calendarlive]
John Lukacs deploys his knowledge with the historical sources and newly uncovered Soviet documents to explore the fraught relations between the two dictators — Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin — leading up to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. His reasons for his focus: “There was a fateful condition of the Second World War that not enough people comprehend even now. This is that the Anglo-American alliance, for all its huge material, financial, industrial and manpower superiority, could have conquered Third Reich without Russia. That is why 22 June 1941 was the most important turning point of the WW2.”
Alameda man tells of WWII submarine experiences
[2006-04-27][orovillemr]
“One time when we came out of the shipyard after an overhaul we discovered the Navy did something wrong with our valves. Our tanks were flooding out of control and it scared the heck out of the crew. And we were running out of control, straight down. We turned the screws in reverse and the whole submarine shuddered but we still kept going. We finally reversed by it shifting everybody aft to raise the bow of the ship,” Stohr said. A book dedicated to former shipmates of author Charles Fielder is a narrative of comradeship, victories and terrible losses of a group of men who survived sea battles. It details the daily activities of the submarine USS Searaven, SS196.
Aerial combat with enemy aircraft: Outcome wasn’t always good
[2006-04-27][lompocrecord]
It was D-Day and the 22-year-old fighter pilot was providing close ground support for the invasion, firing his eight .50-caliber machine guns and rockets and dropping bombs on the German strongholds. By war’s end, Harry “Bud” Bristol had logged 105 combat missions with the 366th Fighter Group, 391st Fighter Squadron. His days were spent in aerial combat with enemy aircraft, and the outcome wasn’t always good. He was shot down three times by anti-aircraft flak. He belly-landed off the side of the runway of his group’s airstrip in Thruxton, 70 miles southwest of London, and bailed out over Belgium.
Public thinks Holocaust sparked World War II
[2006-04-27][expatica]
Report: Dutch people know more about WWII than is often thought. But the level of knowledge about the war among under 25s is a cause for concern. People aged 65 and older knew more than younger people. Men also knew more about the period than women, but this might be because men are more interested in war. 83% thought incorrectly that the Holocaust led to war between the Axis and the Allied powers. The Final Solution has become synonymous with the war itself. There was ignorance about how many died during WWII. The highest combined civilian and military losses were the Soviet Union (25M), China (11M), Germany (7M), Poland (6.8M) and Japan (1.8M).
Exhibit features newspaper clippings from 1940-54
[2006-04-27][zwire]
In the newspaper’s Oct. 14, 1944, edition, readers got a glimpse into the thoughts of Lt. Matthew Hasbrouck, a fighter pilot from Stone Ridge, on the eve of the southern invasion of France. And another article in that day’s newspaper provided readers with some insight into war in the Pacific, through a letter written home from Lt. John A. Martin of Hurley. “While we were on shipboard, we were attacked by torpedoes, but the Japs were poor shots; they missed. We saw a Jap plane shot down. Good for the Yanks.”
On the Run - After the order to surrender in Battle of Crete
[2006-04-27][times]
When the order to surrender was given after the Battle of Crete in 1941, more than 6000 Australian, British and New Zealand soldiers were left behind. Some escaped immediately on abandoned naval barges or took to the hills. But the majority was marched back over the White Mountains to makeshift POW camps. Many escaped, relying on Cretan mountain villagers to shelter and guide them. Ian Frazer’s father was a survivor of the Battle of Crete, an Australian soldier who successfully evaded the Nazi occupiers for a year. He kept a meticulous diary.
Skeleton of a Wehrmacht soldier Found In Garden
[2006-04-26][AHN]
A Croatian man sifting through some fresh soil, found the remains of a Nazi soldier while working in his garden. Bruno Marincic claims he purchased the soil from construction workers. “I was shocked and scared at first. When I took a closer look and saw some metal with the bones I realized they were identification plates showing the bones were those of a Wehrmacht soldier.” Military historians believe the tags show the soldier was a member of the Nazi army’s 188th division, which fought in the area under the command of General Ludwig Kibler.
Nazi atrocities on full display - Posters and artifacts
[2006-04-26][berkshireeagle]
The simple poster on an easel at Papyri Books was in Ukrainian from World War II. A translation overhead said the poster was a warning to a village that Jews would be rounded up and deported, and troublemakers would be shot. The poster was on display at the shop on Main Street along with dozens of artifacts. The items are part of the collection of Darrell English of North Adams. Several passports and Gestapo files were on display, along with a Bakelite button shaped like a Star of David.
Former Mossad agent Eitan recalls Eichmann capture
[2006-04-26][haaretzdaily]
It was the appendectomy scar that gave the Holocaust mastermind away. After grabbing Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, former Mossad agent Rafi Eitan was only certain he had the right man when he rubbed the fugitive Nazi leader’s stomach and felt the scar. Eichmann, who was in charge of implementing the Nazi extermination plans, was captured in 1960 and put on trial - executed two years later. Eitan recounted holding Eichmann’s head in his lap after snatching him from his hideout and bundling him into a waiting car. Eichmann was told in German not to talk or he would be harmed. Eichmann answered “jawohl.”
Pilot Charley Fox recalls how he wounded the Desert Fox
[2006-04-26][chathamthisweek]
This is the story of how a quiet, unassuming Canadian air force pilot named Charley Fox wounded Germany’s greatest field marshal, the Desert Fox. Fox, who flew over Normandy three times during D-Day, told his story. The Guelph native, who is 86, was “looking for targets” on July 17, 1944 in Normandy, when he spotted a car carrying Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and a number of his aides. Fox described how he fired from his Spitfire and struck the car carrying one of Nazi Germany’s top military men.
Italy marks 61st anniversary of liberation from fascism
[2006-04-26][khaleejtimes]
Italy commemorated on Tuesday the 61st anniversary of the country’s liberation from the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and German occupation. On April 25, 1945, an armed insurrection was launched in the north of Italy. Within a few days the resistance moved took back control of several cities from Mussolini’s fascist regime, which was backed by the German army. Southern Italy was liberated during World War II by the Allied forces.
Gen. George Catlett Marshall
[2006-04-26][yahoo]
George C. Marshall demanded honesty of himself. And he expected no less from those around him. At the beginning of WWII, Marshall was Army chief of staff to President Franklin Roosevelt, who told him to build up the Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The appeasement movement of the 1930s had ravaged U.S. armed forces, and the size of the Army was smaller than Bulgaria’s. In addition to needing men and materiel, the war effort would need the best generals. So Marshall sought them out. “It was George Marshall who really pulled Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley from obscurity, and then put them in positions of power.”
Guernica honours Times man for telling its story
[2006-04-26][timesonline]
George Steer, the journalist for The Times whose report of the German bombing of Guernica outraged the world, is honoured in the Basque town where the massacre happened. Exactly 69 years after the Luftwaffe Condor Legion squadron attacked the civilian population of the Basque town on a busy market day, a bronze bust of Steer will be unveiled and a street named after him. Steer was among the first journalists to reach Guernica just hours after more than 1,600 civilians were killed by the bombing and subsequent firestorm on April 26, 1937.
The fascist invasion of Abyssinia
[2006-04-26][socialistworker]
Abyssinia had been one of the few states to survive “the scramble for Africa” by the major European powers in the late 19th century, having defeated Italy at the battle of Aduwa in 1896. Now Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator, dreamed of taking revenge and carving out a “New Roman Empire” in East Africa. The Abyssinians were left isolated in the face of fascist Italy’s far more technologically developed war machine. The Italian military used poison gas to terrorise the Abyssinian civilian population. The Italians bombed civilian targets, hospitals and even the International Red Cross.
Hitler’s last relatives lead quiet life in a New York suburb
[2006-04-25][monstersandcritics]
Three brothers living an uneventful life on Long Island, New York, have decided to write a book about their family. Their famous relative: Adolf Hitler. Alexander, Louis and Brian Hitler are direct descendants of the Nazi German leader’s paternal side. A fourth brother, Howard, died in a car accident in 1989. The three are also childless, suggesting that Hitler’s bloodline may die with them. Their father, William Patrick Hitler, is the subject of a play called ‘Little Willy’. William is the son of Alois Hitler Jr, half-brother of the Nazi dictator because they shared the same father.
Military to relocate remains of German soldiers
[2006-04-25][ceskenoviny]
The remains of some 4000 German Wehrmacht soldiers will be removed from the unsuitable storage place in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, on Wednesday and provisionally stored in the Brdy training grounds by Thursday. On Wednesday, the Defence Ministry will sign an agreement with the People’s Association for Care for German Wartime Graves, under which the military will deposit the remains in the Brdy training grounds by 2008. The media published the information about the remains of Germans, which allegedly include Sudeten civilians and SS members, in the unused production hall in Usti nad Labem in March.
Poles take Russia to court over 1940 Katyn massacre by NKVD
[2006-04-25][belfasttelegraph]
Relatives of Polish soldiers, executed by Joseph Stalin’s secret police in one of the WW2’s most infamous massacres, are to take Russia to the European Court to make it disclose the full truth about the killings. In the Katyn atrocities, personally ordered by Stalin in 1940, the NKVD killed 21,587 Polish Army reservists on the grounds that they were “hardened and uncompromising enemies of Soviet authority”. Russia has refused to prosecute surviving suspects or reveal their names. It is keeping 2/3 of the files classified, and has classed them as an ordinary crime whose statute of limitations has expired.
A Polish publisher wants to publish an edition of Mein Kampf
[2006-04-25][spiegel]
A Polish publisher wants to publish an edition of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic book “Mein Kampf.” But he may be in violation of copyright laws. The German state of Bavaria, where Hitler once lived, owns the rights to the title – and is doing what it can to defend them. “Mein Kampf has to be published, because there’s a market for it.” The market he’s referring to isn’t Wroclaw’s skinhead community, but the “many students” who have supposedly contacted him to inquire about the book because, as they say, they need it for academic research.
17-year-old girl fighting with the partisans
[2006-04-25][palmbeachpost]
She dragged herself out of the heap of bodies that had once been her family, shot to death by Nazi soldiers. Alone among the dead in the dark forest of eastern Poland, it would have been easy for a sickly 17-year-old girl to give up, to sink to the ground and die. But she found the partisan fighters in that forest, and convinced them that a girl was strong enough to fight alongside the men. Fighting with the partisans was Gertrude Boyarski’s act of resistance. By the summer of 1940 the Nazis had already stolen her family and her childhood. She spent the next four years fighting them.
X marks the spot of town’s vital war role in miniature submarines
[2006-04-25][ichuddersfield]
Huddersfield’s crucial role in the battle beneath the waves during the Second World War continues to be remembered. The bravery of those who sailed in miniature submarines known as X-Craft, will never be forgotten. And those who secretly helped to build some of them at the Broadbent engineering works in Huddersfield will also be remembered. The tiny vessels took part in a number of daring raids. Famously, some of the `midget subs’ were used to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway on September 22, 1943. They sailed up Altenfjord and planted mines on the mighty ship’s hull.
World War Two: The Rewrite
[2006-04-24][independent]
It is one of the most striking scenes in British cinema: Nazi stormtroopers marching through Parliament Square. Clearly designed to alarm and provoke, it is an image that could have been ripped from a WWII Nazi propaganda film. In actual fact, it is a scene from the 1964 British feature film, It Happened Here. The intervening decades have done little to diminish its worrying, subversive power. Made by debutante director Kevin Brownlow, together with his colleague Andrew Mollo, It Happened Here rewrites history to suggest what might have happened if Britain had been occupied by the Nazis.
Another Victoria Cross may go on the market
[2006-04-24][stuff]
Another World War 2 Victoria Cross won by a New Zealand soldier could go on the market as the debate intensifies over the future of the only double award given to a combat soldier. Anita Hulme said she had been considering selling the Victoria Cross her father Sergeant Clive Hulme won on Crete in 1941. Ms Hulme said today she would not hand over the VC to the Queen Elizabeth II Army Museum in Waiouru in perpetuity as other families had done and was considering selling it the way the daughters of Charles Upham were considered selling his VC and Bar.
WWII air ace Johnny Checketts dies
[2006-04-24][aap]
Johnny Checketts, one of New Zealand’s greatest fighter pilots of WWII, has died aged 94. During the war he flew at least 418 sorties, many of them over Nazi occupied Europe. He shot down 14 and a half German aircraft (one victim shared), two V1 flying bombs, and destroyed two German E boats. On top of this tally were four probable “kills” and at least 11 damaged German aircraft. Twice he was shot down in hair-raising brushes with the Luftwaffe fighters, both times bailing out. He won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and US Silver Star and Polish Cross of Valour.
He created the plan for the airborne phase of North Africa invasion
[2006-04-24][thepilot]
Soldiers paid tribute to a pioneer of modern warfare as Lt. Gen. William P. Yarborough was laid to rest. From the earliest days of paratroop experiments, his hand touched every part of airborne: he worked out the designs for jump uniforms and jump boots. He designed the airborne insignia, the famous jump wings of the parachutist’s badge. He developed the initial concept and plan for the airborne phase of the WWII invasion of North Africa, then as executive officer went with that task force on its flight over Spain toward target objectives in Algeria - the longest operational flight ever made by parachute troops.
The Third Reich and Music - Exhibit
[2006-04-23][gridskipper]
Them Nazis sure knew how to roll up a bunch of symbols at once in their propaganda. Above is a poster advertising their 1938 “Degenerate Music” exhibition, highlighting the destructive effects of jazz and “negro music” in general, among others. Schloss Neuhardenberg outside of Berlin is hosting an exhibit called “The Third Reich and Music,” combining creepy-kitsch like this poster with the various art forms the Nazis outlawed – principally modern and non-Aryan music (as opposed to classical Wagnerian stuff), plus paintings, letters, sculptures, and historical documents.
Century-Old Nazi Propaganda Still in Use
[2006-04-23][ap]
A century-old forgery used to justify ill-treatment of Jews in Czarist Russia and widely circulated by the Nazis is distributed even today in many languages. Colorfully bound editions of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” have appeared recently in Mexico and in Japan, where there are few Jews. High school texts in Syria, Lebanon and schools run by the Palestinian authority use the book as history.
The letters US soldiers forgot in the heat of battle
[2006-04-23][telegraph]
They have lain unopened in a horse manger in a forgotten part of the Belgian countryside for more than 60 years. But now, a set of well-preserved letters, prayer books and cartoons abandoned by American troops days before the Battle of the Bulge have been discovered. The items were left between Oct and Dec 1944, just before Germany launched its final offensive of the war. Soldiers of the US Army’s 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment of the First Infantry Division were resting in farmhouses in Belgium close to the German border. On Dec 16, they were called to the front line for one of the bloodiest encounters of the war.
