Dec. 1, 2014

Seventy-five years ago, on Nov. 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, thinking it could overwhelm a much smaller country by its size. But the Soviets were in for a surprise. What lessons does this short but brutal war have for us today? Included are:

• Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and secret protocol;
• How intelligence and motivation aided the Finns;
• Losses -26,000 Finnish dead or missing vs 127,000 Soviet Russian dead or missing;
• Can the Ukrainians hold off the Russians as well as the Finns did?

Plus, a closer look at Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera and his arrest and incarceration at Sachsenhausen near Berlin. Included :

• Bandera's fanatical movement veered away from sharing the same objectives as N-S Germany;
• Bandera's death in 1959 ordered by the KGB head Alexander Shelepin and Nikita Khrushchev;
• Ukrainian nationalists have been the most persevering of all, and most hated by the Russians. [1hr51min]
  

Image: Lieutenant Aarne Juutilainen became a national hero for his defence of Finland during the Battle of Kollaa.

Nov. 10, 2014

The tendency of the Czechs to invent a history for themselves that is far grander than what actually took place is similar to what we've already learned about Polish "history." The number of Czechs in Czecho-Slovakia was only 7 million, yet they wanted to be a great, ruling European nation-state. However, they still today claim the German city of Prague (pictured right). 1h54m. Included in this program:

• The Paris Peace Treaties forcibly annexed German, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish territories to a Czech core, forming CzechoSlovakia;
• The majority Czechs took a criminal and genocidal attitude toward the minorities;
• It took 18 painful years for the situation to gain the serious attention of the European Powers who had created the mess in the first place;
• Adolf Hitler finally broke through the dilly-dallying with the Munich Agreement in 1938;
• Post-WW2 history gives a slanted picture of the end of this illegitimate state to make Hitler out to be an aggressor, rather than a savior and restorer.

Image: The exquisite setting of German-built Prague Castle complex and the St. Charles Bridge crossing the Moldau river. Enlarge

Oct. 27, 2014

Poland – the Great Pretender. The truth about its origins and history tear away the pious mask of the victim and show a cruel-minded victimizer at work – still today. Carolyn Yeager explains why the treatment meted out to the Poles by National-Socialist Germany was justified. 2hr28min.

• Was the "1000 years" of Polish history invented in more recent times;

• The late appearance of Polish literature and written language, in the 18th and 19th centuries;

• One million of the original 2.5 million Germans left the provence of Poland before 1939 because of persecution;
• The most extreme brutality was directed against the Ukrainians because they were the largest minority group and voted to send their own representatives to the Sejm;
• Poles had never succeeded in forming a successful state on their own, for example in 1916 Germany gave them independence and made a pact with Pilsudski;
• Poles insisted most of all that all minorities speak Polish, send their children to Polish-only schools and become totally Polonized;
• Many examples given of horrible treatment of Ukrainians, Germans and White Russians mainly to discourage them from maintaining their own communities and language;
• Markus calls in and gives valuable input, plus helps me sum up at the end.

Image: Propaganda postcard that was mass-distributed inside and outside Poland during the 1930's with the support of the Polish government. It shows what it calls the "historical" western boundary of Polska that includes Slovakia and the Czech Republic, along with German territories all the way to Berlin.  Enlarge

Oct. 13, 2014

Hitler meets with Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck in 1937. Beck was a chain smoker and Hitler, who mostly refused to allow smoking in his presence, made an exception for Beck but doesn't seem too happy about it.

Carolyn continues from last week, answering accusations that Hitler hated Slavs and his anti-Slav policies caused Germany to lose the war. 2hr12m.

• Polish car-stealing gangs operate in Frankfurt am der Oder in Brandenburg State by just crossing the river because of EU Schengen laws;
• Using quotes from Mein Kampf as representing Hitler's policies in 1939 is absurd, yet most Hitler detractors do it;
• Persecution of ethnic Germans trapped in Poland and Czechoslovakia is recorded in online reading at Wintersonnenwende archive;
• Hitler speaks of his invasions of both Poland and Soviet Union as due to forces beyond his control;
• Serbia's role in WWI revisited - assassinated Austrian Archduke and wife under orders from Russia, helped along and encouraged by France;
• Austrian Emperor was not unreasonable for wanting some punishment for and restraint in Serbia;
• Serbia's long history of failure and frustration of nationalist goals, and warring behavior with it's neighbors;
• EU member states should be classified into an order something like A, B and C groups, and any new European Order should too;
• Did Hitler have a hatred of Serbia because of 1914?