Germany

June 9, 2014

Carolyn looks at the members of the anti-Hitler faction in Germany, dominated by high-level military officers, and asks how they got away with their assassination plots for so long. She also asks: Can a consensus of opinion ever be reached, even among similar people? Some ideas covered:

• What makes a traitor?
• Of 30 top leaders, 20 held high military rank (Colonel or above) and 10 were diplomats and Chiefs of Police;
• It's all in how you view it -to them, they were the loyalists and Hitler was the traitor;
• While they didn't want the Jews around, they also didn't want to harm them;
• They believed Germany's enemies were only against Hitler, and wanted the same things they, as Germans, did;
• Their efforts to remain undetected may have hampered their success in achieving their goal.

Image: At Rastenburg on 15 July 1944. Stauffenberg at left, Hitler center, Keitel on right. The person shaking hands with Hitler is General Karl Bodenschatz, who was seriously wounded five days later, by Stauffenberg's bomb. Enlarge

June 7, 2014

On the 70th anniversary of the Allied landing  on Normandy's coast, known as D-Day, which was Friday, June 6, Carolyn looks at the possibility of treason as the reason for the poor Wehrmacht response to the invasion. Highlights include:

• Generals and even Field Marshals serving in Northwest France in anticipation of the 1944 invasion were the same ones who participated in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler;
• Most likely of all to be helping the enemy was Lt. General Hans Speidel, FM Erwin Rommel's Chief of Staff, who had authority while Rommel was away and was slow to pass on information;
• An unusual number of key leaders were away from their headquarters on June 6, but the weather was thought unfavorable for a landing;
• Hans Speidel was released by the French after the war and in 1957 was named Commander of the Allied Forces, Central Europe, an important NATO post, held until 1963;
• The last installment of Oblt. Leopold Wenger's letters from the front have been published - comments are welcomre.

Image: Lt. General Hans Speidel and FM Erwin Rommel, with Gen. Lang between, at Pas-de-Calais in April 1944. Enlarge

Poldi Wenger receives the Knights Cross from Generaloberst Otto Dessloch, Chief of Luftflotte 4, on 19 January, 1945, assisted by the General's adjutant. (click to enlarge)

copyright 2014 Wilhelm Wenger and Carolyn Yeager
Translated from the German by Carlos Whitlock Porter

First, an account of the fall of Sevastopol and the loss of Ukraine by the end of June 1944, assembled by Willy Wenger. The letters that follow, the last ones Leopold Wenger wrote to his family, spanned August '44 to January '45. Poldi had been in Ukraine since November 1943, relocating only slowly westward, but now his Group begins to move around, first to Poland, finally closer to Vienna.

Sevastopol Falls

In six to eight weeks, the situation looked quite different. The Allies had landed in Normandy. On 5 May, the 2nd [Russian] Guard Army went on the offensive on the west side of Sevastopol. On 7 May, the [Soviet] 51st Army and Coastal Army expanded their offensives to Balaklava and conquered the crest of the Sapun mountains, with which the German commanders, two years before, had sealed the [fate of the] siege. The German commanders now abandoned their lines all the way to Inkerman, where they intended to regroup for a counterattack, after gaining the relative security of the commanding mountain heights. The situation of the defenders was desperate. One German division after the other gave way. On 8 May, General Schörner issued an order to the Navy and Luftwaffe to make the best of a bad job. On 9 May, the Soviets liberated Sevastopol. A single German unit fought a rearguard action for four days on the Kherson peninsula to permit the embarkation of survivors.

May 15, 2014

Architect Prof. Albert Speer at Obersalzberg in June 1939, showing the Fuehrer his plan for the new Opera House at Linz. enlarge

Carolyn Yeager and Ray Goodwin read and comment on the October 18-22, 1941 dinner table conversation and monologues by the German Leader, taken down in shorthand by trusted aide, attorney Heinrich Heim.  Topics included in this episode:

• Britain's oligarchic, money-grubbing politicans don't represent the people;
• Germany needs to remain autarkic and independent from British imports even after the war;
• Need to improve standardization of construction and building products;
• Christianity and Bolshevism, and their relationship to St. Paul of Tarsus;
• Hitler identifies himself as "Prussian," compares Berlin favorably to Munich;
• Hitler: "I wish to be a builder." Monuments outlast the battles that inspired them.

The edition of Hitler's Table Talk being used was translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, published by Enigma Books, New York, and can be found as a pdf here.

May 12, 2014

On a stormy night, Carolyn starts out with some discussion about her latest experiences with Metapedia and, separately, Alexa website rankings, then settles down to a detailed overview of what took place in the German Reich during the month of May 1945. Included:

• Differences over how the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Reichs are designated;
• May 1st, new Reichspraesident Karl Doenitz gives his first nationwide radio address, vowing to continue the war "to save Germany from the advancing Bolshevik enemy";
• Donitz' government moved to Flensburg in far Northern Germany because it was still under German control;
• May 7th, Eisenhower threatened to close the front for retreating soldiers and civilians if a general unconditional surrender was not signed immediately;
• May 12th, last battle of the war (Battle of Slivice) by FM Schoerner's troops trying to cross over the American line to surrender;
• May 23rd, the entire Flensburg Gov't is arrested (about 300 officers and civilians in all) and designated as prisoners of war;
• June 5th, the four Allied powers declare their supreme authority over Germany at state, municipal and local levels;
• Nashi (Ours!) is Putin's anti-fascist youth movement formed in 2005 to demonstrate against what he saw as the growing power of "Nazism" in Russia;
• It is funded by the Russian state budget to the tune of 200 million rubles a year and contributions from pro-government business owners;
• The new political party "Smart Russia" is associated with Nashi, whose interest is to foster a more modern, competitive Russia.

Image: Well-known photo of the arrest of the Flensburg Goverment on May 23, 1945. Walking in front is Reichspraesident Karl Doenitz, followed by Col General Alfred Jodl (left) and Economics Minister Albert Speer (right). Click to enlarge.

This picture was labeled "German panzer division heads toward Moscow in 1941" in Google Images. But I've learned it is from the end of 1943 during fighting in the Zihtomir sector. The tank is a Panzer 6 (Tiger) of SS Panzer Grenadier Division Das Reich.(see comments below)

May 8, 2014

Ray Goodwin and Carolyn Yeager read and comment on the October 14-19, 1941 dinner table conversation and monologues by the German Leader, taken down in shorthand by trusted aide Heinrich Heim. Included in this episode:

• Suggestions for improvement of meteorological forecasts;
• Hitler describes the challenges involved in his party's conquest of power;
• Lesson in economics and the cause of inflation;
• The progress made under Antonescu in Rumania, and the great promise of Ukraine;
• May 10, 1940 (start of Western Offensive) compared to June 22, 1941 (start of Barbarossa);

The edition of Hitler's Table Talk being used was translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, published by Enigma Books, New York, and can be found as a pdf here.

Looks like Adolf Hitler is paying the bill for his glass of milk and the refreshments for the rest of his party. Or else he's signing an autograph.

May 1, 2014

Carolyn Yeager and Ray Goodwin read and comment on the October 13-14, 1941 dinner table monologues by the German leader, as taken down by a trusted adjutant.

• Economic opportunities in the East for all Northern European people;
• Lunacy of First World War High Command;
• How Hitler makes wise use of his time;
• Disadvantages of a Concordat with the Churches;
• More thoughts on Christianity.

The edition of Hitler's Table Talk being used was translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, published by Enigma Books, New York, and can be found as a pdf here.

By Carolyn Yeager

The 125th anniversary of Hitler's birth on April 20th coincides with the publication of the “antisemitic” notebooks of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, arguably the most influential European philosopher of the 20th century (only Ludwig Wittgenstein rivals him for the title) according to this article.

There are other connections between the two. They were born in the same year, 1889. Heidegger joined Hitler's National-Socialist party, the NSDAP, in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor and he remained a member until 1945. He served as rector of Freiburg University in Baden-Württemberg for one year, from 1933 to 1934. He praised the "inner truth and greatness" of National-Socialism during a lecture in 1935. Never once did Heidegger express a word of moral condemnation of the Nazis or the "Holocaust."

On the other hand, there is said to be no evidence that Heidegger accepted National-Socialist racial theories, but that doesn't absolve him because the notebooks contain passages denouncing "world Jewry," the distinctively Jewish "talent for calculation," and the "collusion of 'rootless' Jews in both international capitalism and communism."

My last post on this favorite subject was on Oct. 16, 2013. The reason for that is because there's been no news in English. Thus, I let it slip my mind. However, I just talked to a German friend and thought to ask him about what was happening in the trial. "Lots," he answered, and proceeded to clue me in. In the end, he sent me two articles in German and I Google-translated them. This is information the English-language outlets are not publishing ... such as Der Spiegel Online and The Local and Deutsche Welle.

So the following is my synopsis of the most interesting development in the trial to date. I wish I had more than just the bare bones, but this will have to do for now. The "two Uwe's" are Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, who are accused of murdering 9 people.

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The impression of many lawyers is that Judge Götzl [right] wants to protect the system, thus he cannot find the real killer.

What has been clear for a long time to any reasonably clear-thinking person, is now officially confirmed: The autopsy of the two Uwes found no soot particles in the lungs, which means the official account of their death - "setting fire to their van, followed by a murder-suicide" - cannot be correct. The dead do not breathe.

The autopsy result best matches other testimony that:

1) The two Uwe's were shot somewhere else (which is why the residents did not hear any shots);

2) The camper with the two bodies in it was driven by a third person, who started the fire to cover his tracks (this explains the witnesses who saw a "third man" whose DNA has incidentally been found in the camper).

Dorothea Marx of the SPD (Social Democrat Party) and NSU Committee chairman referred to the latest findings as "very doubtful" which would be a clear lie. She says this because, with these findings, the official story is completely impossible!

I will be reporting more as I am able to find it. My German friend will no doubt pass it on to me. -cy