DOCSLIB.ORG

Descent Into Nightmare

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Descent Into Nightmare Archbishop Mrtty High School San Jose, Descent into Nightmare By the Editors of Time-Life Books Alexandria, Virginia TIME® Archbishop Mitty High School HQ1 Library 5000 r.Tilty Wsy San Jose, CA S512& Tune-Life Books is a division of The Third Beich Other Publications: Time Life Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of THE AMERICAN INDIANS SERIES EDITOR lActing): John Newton The Time Inc. Book Company THE ART OF WOODWORKING Series Administrator: Philip Brandt George LOST CIVILIZATIONS Time-Life Books Editorial Staff for Descent into Nightmare: ECHOES OF GLORY Senior Art Director: Raymond Ripper PRESIDENT: Mary N. Davis THE NEW FACE OF WAR Picture Editor: Jane Jordan HOW THINGS WORK MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas H. Flaherty Te)ct Editors: Paul Mathless, Henry Woodhead WINGS OF WAR Director of Editorial Resources: Senior Writer: Stephanie A. Lewis CREATIVE EVERYDAY COOKING Elise D. Ritter-Clough Associate Editors/Research: Katya Sharpe Cooke, COLLECTOR'S LIBRARY OF THE Director of Photography and Research: Oobie Gleysteen, Trudy Pearson UNKNOWN CLASSICS OF WORLD WAR II John Conrad VVeiser Assistant Art Director: Lorraine D. Rivard TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF CURIOUS UNUSUAL FACTS Editorial Board: Dale M. Brown, Janet Cave, Senior Copy Coordinator: Ann Lee Bruen AND AMERICAN COUNTRY Roberta Conlan, Laura Foreman, Jim Hicks, Picture Coordinator: Jennifer Iker VOYAGE THROUGH THE UNIVERSE Blaine Marshall, Rita Thievon Mullin Henry Editorial Assistant: Alan Schager Woodhead THE TIME-LIFE GARDENER'S GUIDE Special Contributors: Ronald H. Bailey, MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN Assistant Director of Editorial Resources/Training Charles Clark, Donald Dale Jackson (text); TIMEFRAME Manager: Norma E. Shaw Martha Lee Beckington, Barbara Fleming, Linda FIX IT YOURSELF PUBLISHER: Robert H. Smith Lee, Anthony J. Sheehan, Marilyn Murphy Terrell FITNESS, HEALTH 4, NUTRITION (research); Roy Nanovic lindex) SUCCESSFUL PARENTING Associate Publisher: Ann M. Mirabito HEALTHY HOME COOKING Editorial Director: Russell B. Adams, Jr. Correspondents: Elisabeth Kraemer-Singh UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS Marketing Director: Anne C. Everhart (Bonn), Christine Hinze (London), Christina LIBRARY OF NATIONS Production Manager: Prudence G. Harris Lieberman (New York), Maria Vincenza Aloisi THE ENCHANTED WORLD Supervisor ofQpality Control: James King (Paris), Ann Natanson (Rome). Valuable THE KODAK LIBRARY OF CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY assistance was also provided by: Glenn Mack, Editorial Operations GREAT MEALS IN MINUTES Juan Sosa (Moscow), Elizabeth Brown, Katheryn Production: Celia Beattie THE CIVIL WAR White (New York), Traudl Lessing (Vienna). Library: Louise D. Forstall PLANET EARTH Computer Composition: Deborah G. Tait COLLECTOR'S LIBRARY OF THE CIVIL WAR I Manager), Monika D. Thayer, THE EPIC OF FLIGHT Janet Barnes Syring, Lillian Daniels THE GOOD COOK interactive Media Specialist: Patti H. Cass WORLD WAR H HOME REPAIR AND IMPROVEMENT THE OLD WEST For information on and a full description of any The Cover: A frightened fifteen-year-old member of c 1992 Time-Life Books. All rights reserved. of the Time-Life Books series listed above, please a Luftwaffe antiaircraft crew bursts into tears after No part of this book may be reproduced in any call 1-800-621-7026 or write: being taken prisoner by the Americans near Gies- form or by any electronic or mechanical means, Reader Information sen in west-central Germany in the spring of 1945. including information storage and retrieval Time-Life Customer Service Bled dry of able-bodied men, Adolf Hitler turned in devices or systems, without prior written P.O. Box C-32068 desperation to Germany's children, using them at permission from the publisher, except that brief Richmond, Virginia 23261-2068 first in civil defense roles but eventually plunging passages may be quoted for reviews. tens of thousands of teenage boys into combat. The Second printing 1992. Printed in U.SA. youngsters were armed only with obsolete weap- ons, rudimentary training, and heavy doses of Nazi Published simultaneously in Canada. propaganda. School and library distribution by Silver Burden Company, Morristown, New Jersey 07960. This volume is one of a series that chronicles General Consultants TIME-LIFE is a trademark of Time Warner Inc. the rise and eventual fall of Nazi Germany. Other USA. books in the series include: Col. John R. Elting, USA (Ret.), former as- TheSS sociate professor at West Point, has written Fists of Steel or edited some twenty books, including Storming to Power Swords around a Throne, The Superstrate- The New Order gists, and American Army Life, as well as The Reach for Empire Battles for Scandinavia in the Time-Life Lightning War Books World War II series. He was chief con- Wolf Packs sultant to the Time-Life series The Civil War. Conquest of the Balkans Library of Congress Cataloging in Afrikakorps Publication Data The Center of the Web Descent into nightmare / by the editors of Charles V. P. von Luttichau is an associate Barbarossa Time-Life Books. at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in War on the High Seas p. cm. — (The Third Reich) Washington, D.C., and coauthor of Com- The Twisted Dream Includes bibliographical references and index. mand Decision and Great Battles. From 1937 The Road to Stalingrad ISBN 0-8094-7037-3 to 1945, he served in the German air force The Shadow War ISBN 0-8094-7038-1 (lib. bdg.J and taught at the Air Force Academy in Ber- The Heel of the Conqueror 1. World War, 1939-1945—Campaigns. lin. After the war, he emigrated to the United The Southern Front 2. Germany-History—1933-1945. I. Time-Life States and was a historian in the Office of the The Apparatus of Death Books. II. Series. Scorched Earth D743.D383 1992 91-28936 Chief of Military History, Department of the Fortress Europe 940.54'1—dc20 CIP Army, from 1951 to 1986, when he retired. Contents 1 A Desperate Effort to Hold the Weil 7 1 Disaster on Two Front! 57 3 The Final Days 117 ESSAYS Hitler's Army of fait Resort 48 Chafing a Lost Came in Hungary 98 Atrocities that Outraged the World 108 The Indomitable Berlinen' Ordeal 157 Justice ^t Nuremberg 166 Bibliography 176 Acknowledgments 177 Picture Credits 178 Index 179 - - Luftwaffe ground personnel salute a careworn Adolf Hitler in the fall of 1944 during one of his last visits to a forward air base. Walking beside Hitler is his devoted pilot, Hans Baur, who began flying for the aspiring Fuhrer in 1932 during the whirlwind election^ampaigns that brought HitWand the Nazi party to national prominence. v»* h — ONE A Deipeiate Effort to Hold the Weil he letter from Field Marshal Giinther Hans von Kluge found its way to Adolf Hitler's desk the end of August 1944. "When you receive these lines, I shall be no more," wrote the recently deposed commander in chief West, who had served as one of Hitler's senior generals since the invasion of Poland in 1939. "Life has no more meaning for me. I cannot bear the accusation that I sealed the fate of the West by taking wrong measures. I am dis- patching myself where thousands of my comrades have already gone." After outlining the reasons why he had failed to stop the Allied drive across France and expressing doubt that his successor could do better, Kluge made an anguished plea: "Should the new weapons in which you place so much hope, especially those of the Luftwaffe, not bring success, then, my Fuhrer, make up your mind to end the war. The German people have suffered so unspeakably that it is time to bring the horror to a close. There must be ways to obtain this objective and above all to prevent the Reich from falling under the Bolshevist heel. I have steadfastly stood in awe ofyour greatness, your bearing in this gigantic struggle, and your iron will. If fate is stronger than your will and your genius, that is destiny. You have made an honorable and tremendous fight. History will testify this for you. Show now that greatness which will be necessary if it comes to the point of ending a struggle that has become hopeless." A Luftwaffe infantryman gives The Fuhrer read the letter in silence, then handed it to his loyal aide directions to the crew of a 116th General Alfred Jodl, chief of operations of the armed forces high command Panzer Division half-track, camouflaged with pine boughs, (OKW). Hitler abruptly canceled the state funeral he had planned and saw during Germany's surprise to it that the cover story for 's counteroffensive through the Kluge death—a cerebral hemorrhage—was Ardennes Forest in December superseded by quiet word that the disgraced field marshal had in fact 1844. The six-week battle earned the Reich a brief breathing spell, swallowed potassium cyanide. but it consumed irreplaceable Several days afterward, Hitler met with Generals Siegfried Westphal and reserves of men and materiel. Hans Krebs before their departure to the collapsing western front. Kluge, Hitler confided, had been under investigation as a traitor and "might have been arrested immediately had he not taken his own life." "I don't want this to leak out," he told them disingenuously, because it "would foster contempt for the army." A month earlier, on July 20, an attempt had been made to assassinate the Fiihrer at a war conference held at the guest barracks of his eastern front headquarters in East Prussia. A number of army officers were involved, and Hitler claimed he had evidence linking Kluge to them. (In fact, several of the conspirators had served on Kluge's staff on the eastern front, although Kluge himself had never been an active participant in the plot.) The Fiihrer was determined that he never again would be let down by his generals. Hitler related his baseless suspicions that Kluge had intended to nego- tiate a truce with the British and Americans.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Steven H. Newton KURSK the GERMAN VIEW
    TRANSLATED, EDITED, AND ANNOTATED WITH NEW MATERIAL BY Steven H. Newton KURSK THE GERMAN VIEW Eyewitness Reports of Operation Citadel by the German Commanders Translated, edited, and annotated by Steven H. Newton DA CAPO PRESS A Member of the Perseus Books Group Copyright © 2002 by Steven H. Newton All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Designed by Brent Wilcox Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 0-306-81150-2 Published by Da Capo Press A Member of the Perseus Books Group http://www.dacapopress.com Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, or call (617) 252-5298. 12345678 9—05 04 03 02 CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi PART 1 Strategic Analysis of Operation Citadel Eyewitness Accounts by German Commanders 1 Operation Citadel Overview by General of Infantry Theodor Busse APPENDIX 1A German Military Intelligence and Soviet Strength, July 1943 27 Armeeabteilung Kempf 29 by Colonel General Erhard Raus APPENDIX 2A Order of Battle: Corps Raus (Special Employment), 2 March 1943 58 APPENDIX
    [Show full text]
  • Die Zerstörende Kraft Einer Falschen Erziehung
    Heute auf Seite 3: Die Wahlniederlage und ihre Folgen ®£m £ftprruHml)(att UNABHÄNGIGE WOCHENZEITUNG FÜR DEUTSCHLAND Landsmannschaft Ostpreußenblatt e. V. Jahrgang 31 — Folge 42 Erscheint wöchentlich Postvertriebsstück Gebühr bezahlt 18. Oktober 1980 Parkallee 84/86, 2000 Hamburg 13 C5524CX Die zerstörende Kraft einer falschen Erziehung Statt kostspieliger Analysen und verworrener Pläne braucht die Jugend wieder echte Ideale und Leuchtzeichen für ihre Zukunft Es gab in der Geschichte unseres Volkes Leerräume bei der politisch aktiven Jugend sehr unterschiedliche Anlässe, die den Ge• dazu führen, anderweitig besetzt zu werden. So rechtigkeitssinn junger Menschen anregten. wird auch das Engagement für Chilenen, Ar• Die große Spannbreite hierfür ging von dem gentinier, Afrikaner oder ehemals für Spanier, aktiven Einsatz für die nationale Einheit Portugiesen, Griechen oder Vietnamesen Deutschlands, der Unterstützung von Frei• verständlich. Erklärbar aber wird auch das Ab• heitsbewegungen gegen Fremdherrschaft, bis irren in utopische soziale Vorstellungen, die zum Engagement zur Lösung sozialer Miß• uns als Abfallprodukt letztlich den Terroris• stände. Auch wenn dabei die jugendliche mus beschert haben. Bei all dem soll nicht ver• Eigenart, sich nicht mit Halbheiten oder Kom• kannt werden, daß es auch menschliche Tra• promissen zufriedenzugeben, oft auch unrea• gödien in anderen Ländern gibt, die uns nicht listische Zielsetzungen gebar, waren die An• kalt lassen können. Wer sich hier engagiert, stöße für die weitere Entwicklung unüberseh• sollte
    [Show full text]
  • American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler's Death
    American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler’s Death Undergraduate Research Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with honors research distinction in History in the Undergraduate colleges of The Ohio State University by Kelsey Mullen The Ohio State University November 2014 Project Advisor: Professor Alice Conklin, Department of History Project Mentor: Doctoral Candidate Sarah K. Douglas, Department of History American Intelligence and the Question of Hitler’s Death 2 Introduction The fall of Berlin marked the end of the European theatre of the Second World War. The Red Army ravaged the city and laid much of it to waste in the early days of May 1945. A large portion of Hitler’s inner circle, including the Führer himself, had been holed up in the Führerbunker underneath the old Reich Chancellery garden since January of 1945. Many top Nazi Party officials fled or attempted to flee the city ruins in the final moments before their destruction at the Russians’ hands. When the dust settled, the German army’s capitulation was complete. There were many unanswered questions for the Allies of World War II following the Nazi surrender. Invading Russian troops, despite recovering Hitler’s body, failed to disclose this fact to their Allies when the battle ended. In September of 1945, Dick White, the head of counter intelligence in the British zone of occupation, assigned a young scholar named Hugh Trevor- Roper to conduct an investigation into Hitler’s last days in order to refute the idea the Russians promoted and perpetuated that the Führer had escaped.1 Major Trevor-Roper began his investigation on September 18, 1945 and presented his conclusions to the international press on November 1, 1945.
    [Show full text]
  • Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va
    GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA. No. 32. Records of the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police (Part I) The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1961 This finding aid has been prepared by the National Archives as part of its program of facilitating the use of records in its custody. The microfilm described in this guide may be consulted at the National Archives, where it is identified as RG 242, Microfilm Publication T175. To order microfilm, write to the Publications Sales Branch (NEPS), National Archives and Records Service (GSA), Washington, DC 20408. Some of the papers reproduced on the microfilm referred to in this and other guides of the same series may have been of private origin. The fact of their seizure is not believed to divest their original owners of any literary property rights in them. Anyone, therefore, who publishes them in whole or in part without permission of their authors may be held liable for infringement of such literary property rights. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-9982 AMERICA! HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE fOR THE STUDY OP WAR DOCUMENTS GUIDES TO GERMAN RECOBDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXAM)RIA, VA. No* 32» Records of the Reich Leader of the SS aad Chief of the German Police (HeiehsMhrer SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei) 1) THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION (AHA) COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF WAE DOCUMENTS GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA* This is part of a series of Guides prepared
    [Show full text]
  • 1940 Commandés À Plusieurs Chantiers Navals Néerlandais, Seuls Quatre Exemplaires (T-61 À T-64) Doivent Être Poursuivis, Les Autres Seront Annulés
    Appendice 1 Ordre de bataille de l’Armée Rouge sur le front au 1er juin 1943 (forces principales) (pour les deux Fronts Baltes – les indications pour les autres Fronts ne sont entièrement valables qu’à partir du 1er juillet) 1er Front de la Baltique (M.M. Popov) Du sud de Parnu (Estonie) au sud de Võru (Estonie). – 1ère Armée (A.V. Kourkine) – 4e Armée (N.I. Gusev) – 7e Armée (A.N. Krutikov) – 42e Armée (V.I. Morozov) – 12e Corps Blindé (V.V. Butkov) – 15e Corps Blindé (F.N. Rudkin) Aviation subordonnée : 13e Armée Aérienne (S.D. Rybalchenko) 2e Front de la Baltique (K.A. Meretskov) Du sud de Pskov (Russie) au nord de Vitebsk (Biélorussie). – 27e Armée (N.E. Berzarine) – 34e Armée (A.I. Lopatine) – 39e Armée (A.I. Zigin) – 55e Armée (V.P. Smiridov) – 13e Corps Blindé (B.S. Bakharov) – 14e Corps Blindé (I.F. Kirichenko) – 101e Brigade Blindée lourde Aviation subordonnée : 14e Armée Aérienne (I.P. Zhuravlev) 1er Front de Biélorussie (A.I. Eremenko) De Vitebsk (Biélorussie) à Orsha (Biélorussie) – 20e Armée (P.A. Kourouchkine) – 1ère Armée de la Garde (I.M. Chistiakov) – 3e Armée de la Garde (I.G. Zakharkine) – 63e Armée (V.I. Kuznetsov) – 18e Corps Blindé (A.S. Burdeiny) Aviation subordonnée : 2e Armée Aérienne (N.F. Naumenko) 2e Front de Biélorussie (I.S. Koniev) D’Orsha (Biélorussie) à Gomel (Biélorussie). – 2e Armée de la Garde (L.A. Govorov) – 29e Armée (I.M. Managrov) – 15e Armée (I.I. Fediouninski) – 54e Armée (S.V. Roginski) – 3e Armée de Choc (M.A. Purkayev) – 7e Corps Blindé (A.G.
    [Show full text]
  • Deutsche Generäle in Britischer Gefangenschaft 1942–1945. Eine
    289 Von vielen deutschen Generälen des Zweiten Weltkriegs sind häufig nur die Laufbahndaten bekannt; Briefe und Tagebücher liegen nur wenige vor. Für die For­ schung sind sie oft genug nur eingeschränkt zugänglich. So fällt es nach wie vor schwer, zu beurteilen, wie die Generale selbst die militärischen und politischen Geschehnisse der Zeit zwischen 1939 und 1945 rezipiert haben und welche Folgerungen sie daraus zogen. Wichtige Aufschlüsse über ihre Kenntnisse von den nationalsozialistischen Massenmorden oder ihr Urteil über den deutschen Widerstand gegen Hitler bieten jedoch die Abhörprotokolle deutscher Stabsoffiziere in britischer Kriegsgefangen­ schaft. Sönke Neitzel Deutsche Generäle in britischer Gefangenschaft 1942-1945 Eine Auswahledition der Abhörprotokolle des Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre UK Die deutsche Generalität hat sich der öffentlichen Reflexion über ihre Rolle wäh­ rend des Zweiten Weltkrieges weitgehend verschlossen. Das Bild, das sie vor allem in ihren Memoiren von sich selbst zeichnete, läßt sich verkürzt auf die Formel bringen: Sie hat einen sauberen Krieg geführt, hatte von Kriegsverbrechen größe­ ren Ausmaßes keine oder kaum Kenntnis, und die militärische Niederlage war zu einem Gutteil den dilettantischen Eingriffen Hitlers als Obersten Befehlshaber in die Kriegführung zuzuschreiben. Es erübrigt sich näher darauf einzugehen, daß dieses Bild von der Geschichts­ wissenschaft längst gründlich widerlegt worden ist. Aber nach wie vor wissen wir wenig darüber, wie die Generäle die Zeit zwischen 1939 und 1945 rezipiert haben, welche Kenntnis sie von den militärischen und politischen Geschehnissen hatten, die über ihren engen Arbeitsbereich hinausgingen, und welche Schlußfolgerungen sie hieraus zogen. Zur Durchleuchtung dieses Komplexes ist vor allem der Rück­ griff auf persönliche Quellen wie Briefe und Tagebücher notwendig, die allerdings nur von einem kleinen Personenkreis vorliegen und zudem oft auch nur beschränkt zugänglich sind, da sie sich in Privatbesitz befinden1.
    [Show full text]
  • A War of Reputation and Pride
    A War of reputation and pride - An examination of the memoirs of German generals after the Second World War. HIS 4090 Peter Jørgen Sager Fosse Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History University of Oslo Spring 2019 1 “For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy, 19621 1John F. Kennedy, Yale University Commencement Address, https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkyalecommencement.htm, [01.05.2019]. 2 Acknowledgments This master would not have been written without the help and support of my mother, father, friends and my better half, thank you all for your support. I would like to thank the University Library of Oslo and the British Library in London for providing me with abundant books and articles. I also want to give huge thanks to the Military Archive in Freiburg and their employees, who helped me find the relevant materials for this master. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisor at the University of Oslo, Professor Kim Christian Priemel, who has guided me through the entire writing process from Autumn 2017. Peter Jørgen Sager Fosse, Oslo, 01.05.2019 3 Contents: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...………... 7 Chapter 1, Theory and background………………………………………………..………17 1.1 German Military Tactics…………………………………………………..………. 17 1.1.1 Blitzkrieg, Kesselschlacht and Schwerpunkt…………………………………..……. 17 1.1.2 Examples from early campaigns……………………………………………..……… 20 1.2 The German attack on the USSR (1941)……………………………..…………… 24 1.2.1 ‘Vernichtungskrieg’, war of annihilation………………………………...………….. 24 1.2.2 Operation Barbarossa………………………………………………..……………… 28 1.2.3 Operation Typhoon…………………………………………………..………………. 35 1.2.4 The strategic situation, December 1941…………………………….……………….
    [Show full text]
  • Whose Hi/Story Is It? the U.S. Reception of Downfall
    Whose Hi/story Is It? The U.S. Reception of Downfall David Bathrick Before I address the U.S. media response to the fi lm Downfall, I would like to mention a methodological problem that I encountered time and again when researching this essay: whether it is possible to speak of reception in purely national terms in this age of globalization, be it a foreign fi lm or any other cultural artifact. Generally speaking, Bernd Eichinger’s large-scale production Downfall can be considered a success in America both fi nancially and critically. On its fi rst weekend alone in New York City it broke box-offi ce records for the small repertory movie theater Film Forum, grossing $24,220, despite its consider- able length, some two and a half hours, and the fact that it was shown in the original with subtitles. Nationally, audience attendance remained unusually high for the following twelve weeks, compared with average fi gures for other German fi lms made for export markets.1 Downfall, which grossed $5,501,940 to the end of October 2005, was an unequivocal box-offi ce hit. One major reason for its success was certainly the content. Adolf Hit- ler, in his capacity as star of the silver screen, has always been a suffi cient This article originally appeared in Das Böse im Blick: Die Gegenwart des Nationalsozialismus im Film, ed. Margrit Frölich, Christian Schneider, and Karsten Visarius (Munich: edition text und kritik, 2007). 1. The only more recent fi lm to earn equivalent revenue was Nirgendwo in Afrika.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Document: the FURTHEST
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: THE FURTHEST WATCH OF THE REICH: NATIONAL SOCIALISM, ETHNIC GERMANS, AND THE OCCUPATION OF THE SERBIAN BANAT, 1941-1944 Mirna Zakic, Ph.D., 2011 Directed by: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Department of History This dissertation examines the Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) of the Serbian Banat (northeastern Serbia) during World War II, with a focus on their collaboration with the invading Germans from the Third Reich, and their participation in the occupation of their home region. It focuses on the occupation period (April 1941-October 1944) so as to illuminate three major themes: the mutual perceptions held by ethnic and Reich Germans and how these shaped policy; the motivation behind ethnic German collaboration; and the events which drew ethnic Germans ever deeper into complicity with the Third Reich. The Banat ethnic Germans profited from a fortuitous meeting of diplomatic, military, ideological and economic reasons, which prompted the Third Reich to occupy their home region in April 1941. They played a leading role in the administration and policing of the Serbian Banat until October 1944, when the Red Army invaded the Banat. The ethnic Germans collaborated with the Nazi regime in many ways: they accepted its worldview as their own, supplied it with food, administrative services and eventually soldiers. They acted as enforcers and executors of its policies, which benefited them as perceived racial and ideological kin to Reich Germans. These policies did so at the expense of the multiethnic Banat‟s other residents, especially Jews and Serbs. In this, the Third Reich replicated general policy guidelines already implemented inside Germany and elsewhere in German-occupied Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Als Am 21. April 1945 Verbände Der Sowjetischen 5. Stoß-Armee Unter
    Die aktuelle Karte: „Schlacht um Berlin, 26. April bis 2. Mai 1945“ Als am 21. April 1945 Verbände der sowjetischen 5. Stoß-Armee unter Nikolai Bersarin bei Marzahn die Außenbezirke von Berlin erreichten, begann damit der Kampf um die Reichshauptstadt. An diesem Tag verließ auch ein Großteil der NS- Granden wie Heinrich Himmler oder Hermann Göring die Stadt. Hitler, der tags zuvor noch Geburtstag gefeiert hatte, verblieb hingegen in Berlin und wollte seinen eigenen Untergang inszenieren. Hier – so glaubte er – könne er einen „moralischen Sieg“ vor der Weltöffentlichkeit erringen. Sein getreuer Propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels pflichtete ihm bei und meinte, „in fünf Jahren“ sei der „Führer eine legendäre Persönlichkeit und der Nationalsozialismus ein Mythos“. Mit der Realität hatten derlei Gedankengänge im „Führerbunker“ unter der Reichskanzlei freilich nichts mehr zu tun. Zur Verteidigung der Reichshauptstadt konnten die Deutschen noch etwa 140.000 Mann aufbieten, vielfach Volkssturm. Etwa ein Viertel der Soldaten war nicht einmal bewaffnet. Die angreifende Rote Armee hingegen zählte über 450.000 Mann und war an Material drückend überlegen. In zehn Tagen gelang es den Verbänden von Schukows 1. Weißrussischer Front sowie von Konews 1. Ukrainischen Front den deutschen Verteidigern Straße um Straße sowie Häuserblock um Häuserblock zu entreißen. Schukow befahl dabei seinen Truppen, die eigentliche Grenze zu Konews Front im Bereich der Yorckstraße zu überschreiten. Damit war klar, dass einzig er auf das Stadtzentrum vorstoßen und somit als der Sieger von Berlin gelten sollte. Am Nachmittag des 30. April beging Hitler mit seiner kurz zuvor angetrauten Ehefrau Eva Selbstmord; am Tag darauf tat es ihm Goebbels mit seiner Familie gleich.
    [Show full text]
  • CATÁLOGO BIBLIOTECA DE LA DEPORTACIÓN Biblioteca Centro De Documentación Ministerio De Defensa
    CATÁLOGO BIBLIOTECA DE LA DEPORTACIÓN Biblioteca Centro de Documentación Ministerio de Defensa INTRODUCCIÓN A principios del año 2017 la Asociación Biblioteca de la Deportación, una organización sevillana dedica al fomento de la memoria del pasado, donaba a la Biblioteca Centro de Documentación de Defensa su impresionante fondo bibliográfico, películas, documentales y láminas. Un total de 47 cajas con más de 1.500 obras, que con tanto esfuerzo habían conseguido transformar en un fondo único para el interesado en los estudios sobre totalitarismos, persecuciones políticas o de cualquier otro tipo, antisemitismo, Holocausto, deportación, exilio, víctimas y verdugos. Nuestro agradecimiento a la Asociación por pensar en nosotros como depositarios de este fondo, al mismo tiempo satisfacción al saber que las obras no se perderán ni desperdigarán, será un fondo siempre vivo y con entidad propia. Creemos que es nuestra responsabilidad recoger, conservar y difundir esta Biblioteca, que tiene un interés indudable desde muchos puntos de vista: político, sociológico, antropológico, filosófico, también literario. Nuestro cometido es conservar y poner al servicio de nuestro usuario y del interesado estas obras para su consulta. ¿Qué podemos encontrar en este fondo? En primer lugar la mitad del mismo son libros en castellano, otra mitad se reparte en libros en otros idiomas, sobre todo francés, pero también inglés, alemán, italiano, catalán o gallego. Hay también películas y documentales, centrados en el Holocausto y exilio republicano español. Encontramos pinturas originales, como un acrílico collage de Michel Gired, números sueltos de revistas especializadas, folletos de lugares de la memoria, por ejemplo del Museo Memorial de Auschwitz, catálogos y carteles de exposiciones nacionales e internacionales.
    [Show full text]
  • The Battle of Moscow
    Centre for Comparative and Public History Department of History Chinese University of Hong Kong In-Service Teacher Training Course Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Lecture 3:3: “World War II” Source 6 The Battle of Moscow Context: To the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, Moscow was the key to bringing about the surrender of the Soviet Union. From October 1941 to January 1942, the Soviet capital served as the key battle ground between the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army. The successful defense of Moscow became a rallying point for opponents of the Axis and sowed seeds of mistrust and dissension at German military headquarters. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Battle_of_moscow05.jpg Questions: 1. Given Germany’s remarkable success in the first two years of World War II, how were the Allies able to turn the tide and defeat the Nazi forces? 2. What advances in technologies and tactics altered military tactics and outcomes during World War II. Assignment: Divide the class into groups and assign them each a notable World War II military battle or campaign, e.g. the invasion of Poland (Operation Fall Weiss), Battle of France (Fall Gelb), Battle of Britain (plus Operation Sealion), Siege of Leningrad, Battle of Moscow, North African Campaign (the Desert War), Battle of Sicily, Battle of Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Berlin. Require each group to report on the combatants’ tactics, the importance of the encounter, and the outcome. Their reports can be fashioned in a variety of ways - dispatches to headquarters, letters to relatives, or newspaper accounts.
    [Show full text]