Churchill didn't really exist, say 23% of Brits

A new survey says that nearly a quarter of the British think Winston Churchill was a myth. AFP story here.

Fate of U-118

Depth charges exploding near U-118

Fate of the U-118, from Uboat.net: Sunk 12 June, 1943 in the mid-Atlantic west of the Canary Islands, in position 30.49N, 33.49W by depth charges from eight Avenger aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Bogue. 43 dead and 16 survivors.

Fascism and socialism

Daniel Pipes has reviewed "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning", by Jonah Goldberg. I touched on this book in an earlier post. Pipes calls Goldberg's book "brilliant, profound, and original."

His words, indeed, fit a much larger pattern of fusing socialism with fascism: Mussolini was a leading socialist figure who, during World War I, turned away from internationalism in favor of Italian nationalism and called the blend Fascism. Likewise, Hitler headed the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Most people think Hitler founded the NSDAP, or National Socialist German Worker's Party (also called the Nazi Party), but this may not be true. Here is what the Jewish Virtual Library has on the NSDAP:

In 1919, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart formed the German Worker's Party (GPW) in Munich. The German Army was worried that it was a left-wing revolutionary group and sent Adolf Hitler, one of its education officers, to spy on the organization. Hitler discovered that the party's political ideas were similar to his own. He approved of Drexler's German nationalism and anti-Semitism but was unimpressed with the way the party was organized. Although there as a spy, Hitler could not restrain himself when a member made a point he disagreed with, and he stood up and made a passionate speech on the subject.

[...]

In April, 1920, Hitler advocated that the party should change its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany.

Hitler, therefore redefined socialism by placing the word 'National' before it. He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German blood." Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end.

If Pipes is right, then Hitler may have had socialist leanings and, via Goldberg's book, we could connect dots all the way to modern American liberalism. If the Jewish Virtual Library is right, Hitler fastened the word "Socialist" to the German Worker's Party to curry popular support in 1920s Germany.

1934 Nazi party rally (Reichsparteitag) at Nuremburg

The "25 points" of Nazism were made clear by Hitler in a speech he gave in Munich on Feb. 24, 1920. The following are the points I would consider to be socialist:

13. We demand the nationalization of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).

14. We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.

15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.

20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbuergerkunde] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.

21. The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.

24. [concludes with] ... common utility precedes individual utility.

Many of the other points are nationalist or extremely so. Be careful if you search the Web for these points: most are summaries, which are subject to bias. The list at Yale Law School's Avalon Project, from the Nuremburg trials (document 1708-PS), seem to be the most authentic.

Yad Vashem's page on the Nazi party includes the following. Note, the site is oddly constructed, to say the least -- you may have to search for "nazi party" after following the link.

The evolution of organized National Socialism began with the formation of the German Workers’ Party in Munich on January 5, 1919, out of a small right-wing group headed by Anton Drexler that was noted for fanatic antisemitism. On February 24, 1920, it was reconstituted as the National-Socialist Democratic Workers’ Party -the NSDAP-or the Nazi Party for short. Nazi ideology was predicated from the outset on antisemitism, populism, racism, and pan-Germanism. The master-race idea, a virulent anti-Bolshevism and the vision of German conquest of Lebensraum ("living space") in the East were dominant from the very beginning. Adolf Hitler joined the party on September 12, 1919, and, after a brief career as the party propagandist, became its leader in 1921. The 1920 party platform, elaborated by Hitler and Drexler, included clauses concerning the army, the nation, society, the economy, and antisemitism.

Nazi standards fall with Germany

Nazi standards held proudly at a Nuremburg rally, 1938

Russian soldiers display captured standards
during the VE-Day parade in the USSR

Nazi flag waves above a U-Boat

The flag captured from U-505 in US Navy hands;
U-505 is now a museum in Chicago

Ju87 Stukka

Hitler, the anti-smoking Nazi

People have been using the name "Hitler" in a debate about a smoking ban in Kansas. The ban resulted in a number of voicemails to a newspaper, TheKansan.com. A columnist wrote a piece based on the voicemails:

On the other hand, Adolph Hitler did not smoke, and did not permit smoking in his presence. So I suppose, he is the first “anti-smoking Nazi.”

In addition to being a non smoker, Hitler was a vegetarian. Therefore people who enjoy a medium-rare filet mignon now and then are genocidal, racist Nazis determined to conquer the world through force of arms, right? And let's not forget that Hitler was anit-hunting, too. All you Bambi killers should be ashamed of your Nazism.

The story prompted a Kansan to submit a comment:

I read Mark Schnabel’s column (Nov. 29) and, after much thought, decided to comment to it. I understand world history is not taught like it was in the ‘40s and ‘50s, therefore Mark did not put much time in studying World War II.

Adolph Hitler was not a smoker, but the comparisons were not about smoking. Before Hitler took power, he wrote a book, “Mein Kampf,” published in 1925 (vol. 1) and 1927 (vol. 2) and translated into English in 1933. In it he outlined how he would take over the world, and he came close.

His way was simple: First, infiltrate. Second, remove all rights and guns. Third, divide the people. Fourth, take over. The Fuhrer took Poland, France and Norway almost without a shot fired.

And now the comparisons. Before the county and city commissioners did what they did, 75 percent or better of Newton businesses were already non-smoking and had a smoking policy in place. The Free Air Coalition — check it out on Google, 80-plus pages, makes one wonder is it a coalition or a front? — entered the city of Newton, found their Quislings and now the smoking ban.

I don't have a strong opinion on smoking bans, but a ban on using the name "Hitler" to support arguments in modern debates would be interesting. In truth, neither the columnist nor the letter writer warped history to fit their views. I just find this continual use of WWII history in modern political debate a strange phenomenon.

The V1

Hitler's V1 rockets, called buzz bombs or doodlebugs as they flew over the British landscape, were unstoppable at first.

Inserting the firing piston

Ready for launch

V1 control box

Launch

Not all V1s were launched from rails

The people of London saw only this:



People had some advance warning from spotters, and they could be heard from a ways off. Go here to listen to a V1 (sound plays automatically). Interestingly, the British discovered an unexploded V1 in July 2007. See the BBC story here.

The defense against the V1 were anti-aircraft guns, and eventually allied fighters, including the Spitfire, were tuned to catch the 400 mph bombs. A pilot would draw alongside the V1, touch wings, and "tip" it out of control. The technique became known as tipping. Hitler was giddy when the V2s began flying, as he knew there was no defense against a warhead descending from the edge of space at over 3,300 mph.

Spitfire beside a V1

Tipping

M36 Tank Destroyer

An M36 Tank Destroyer at the Battle of the Bulge. Olive-Drab.com has a nice writeup on the M36 along with photographs.

Cruise as Stauffenberg: 'Valkyrie' under fire

Tom Cruise and Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg

Roger Friedman of Fox News is critical of Tom Cruise's upcoming film Valkyrie. Cruise plays Stauffenberg, a German colonel who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb planted in a briefcase.

"Valkyrie," the movie about the failed 1944 assassination plot to kill Adolf Hitler, has already cost United Artists between $90 million and $100 million, sources tell me.

That’s why UA was so eager to cut a deal with the Writers Guild over the weekend and get back to work. Still pending on this film — which no one in their right mind actually wants to see — are a number of big reshoots as well as a huge battle scene that hasn’t been shot yet.

It makes you wonder what they spent the $90 million on so far? Tom Cruise’s eye patch?

I don't know why he believes "no one in their right mind" would want to see the film. A search for "Hitler" at any news site reveals a world still fascinated by Hitler. Does Friedman believe an interest in Valkyrie amounts to supporting the Nazis? This is doubtful, seeing as the film centers on an historical figure who came close to assassinating Hitler. Is the film projected to be bad? Perhaps he doesn't like Cruise, or Scientology, or both?

July 20 Plot

The assassination attempt is referred to as the July 20 plot, having taken place July 20, 1944 at Hitler's East Prussian war headquarters (known as Wolf's Lair). Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the headquarters, killing four of the 20 people in the room. Hitler was wounded, but not seriously.

German authorities eventually made thousands of arrests in connection with the plot, and conducted many executions. The numbers vary from 5,000 arrested and 200 executed, to nearly 5,000 executed.

From the BBC's story in 1944:

A senior officer, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, has been blamed for planting the bomb at a meeting at which Hitler and other senior members of the General Staff were present.

Hitler has sustained minor burns and concussion but, according to the news agency, managed to keep his appointment with Italian leader Benito Mussolini.

From the Jewish Virtual Library:

Over the next few months most of the (plotters), including Wilhelm Canaris, Carl Goerdeler, Julius Leber, Ulrich Hassell, Hans Oster, Peter von Wartenburg, Henning von Tresckow, Ludwig Beck, Erwin von Witzleben and Friedrich Fromm, were either executed or committed suicide.

It is etimated [sic] that 4,980 Germans were executed after the July Plot. Hitler decided that the leaders should have a slow death. They were hung with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their executions were filmed and later shown to senior members of both the NSDAP and the armed forces.

It is in connection with the July 20 plot that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide. Rommel is one of few top Nazis who earned Allied respect -- even before his involvement with the assassination attempt became known.

Rommel in Tobruk

Related photos from my collection:

Stauffenberg

Wolf's Lair after the attempt

The pants Hitler wore at the time of the explosion;
David Irving says they still exist

Hermann Goring surveys the site

This photo was taken July 20, after the bombing; Hitler
wanted to show the German people and the world that
he was unhurt and still in charge; walking beside Goring,
Hitler clutches his wounded arm

Moments later

Links
Fox News "Valkyrie" story
Valkyrie at UA, with trailer
Valkyrie at IMDB
Jewish Virtual Library's July 20 plot page
BBC's July 20, 1944 story about assassination attempt

Corsair strikes targets on Iwo Jima

German guns of Omaha Beach discovered

It seems strange that the location of four 155 mm and four 105 mm guns that killed so many American soldiers on D-Day would vanish from history after WWII. Deutch Welle:

Abandoned after the Allied victory, the complex of tunnels, gun emplacements and living quarters was gradually overtaken by nature, and it was only thanks to dogged detective work that Gary Sterne -- editor of a British military journal -- was able to locate it.

"It was totally forgotten. Local farmers never reclaimed the land, so gradually the bushes and thickets took it over. Only if you looked could you see a rough outline of the fortifications," said local deputy Jean-Marc Lefranc.

How the site was found and prepared for tourists is very interesting. Manchester Evening News:

Experts were divided on the location of the main Nazi gun battery which caused carnage on Omaha Beach, in terrible scenes which were recreated for the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.

The Germans had built a decoy gun emplacement overlooking the area and the location of the real guns which blasted the beach, where 2,000 men lost their lives, remained unclear.

But Mr Sterne, a publisher and collector, stumbled on the answer as he browsed through items at a Stockport militaria fair and a piece of paper fell out of a pair of US serviceman's trousers.

It turned out to be an invasion map for Omaha Beach, which included an area marked Area of High Resistance he thought could be the `lost' Nazi gun emplacements.

The site is scheduled to open for tourism in March. I suspect many Americans will be visiting.

Blind Spot: Hitler's secretary

I just watched Blind Spot: Hitler's secretary, which is widely available on DVD. Released in 2002, it's an interview with Traudl Junge, who was one of Hitler's secretaries from December 1942 until the end of the Third Reich, in late April 1945. Her experience is also told in movie format, in The Downfall. Both Blind Spot and Downfall are in German with English subtitles. I highly recommend both.

Traudl Junge, 1945

Born Traudl Humps, she's pictured here
after marrying Hans Junge, an aide to Hitler

Junge in 2001 or 2002

Junge's grave marker in Bavaria, Germany

This material is from Blind Spot:

He was an absolute criminal. He was a criminal -- I just didn't realize it. At some point afterwards I began to wonder if I should have seen that. But then I think I was only 13 years old when he first came on the scene, and I was quite late in developing in lots of ways. And after all, apart from me there were millions who didn't see that. I mean, it's not as though everyone apart from me realized what a criminal he was. And I try to take heart from those thoughts.

[...]

And Hitler did somehow embody something monumental, at first, when I was a child. The first time I met him he probably had a kind of paternal, protective attitude towards me, too, and that's something I had longed for. I'd never been able to follow my own inclinations, and I'd never had that feeling of security in a complete family.

[...]

Now, I'd only ever seen him in newsreels and public appearances. So I knew his military expression, with his arm outstretched. And then a kindly old gentleman came up to us, speaking in a low voice and giving us a friendly smile. He shook hands with each of us, looked straight into our eyes with that famous gaze of his, asked our names, said a few words to us with a sort of friendly, paternal air. And then he disappeared again. When he went, he just said, "Good evening."

The experience of meeting him was completely different than I had imagined beforehand. It wasn't at all frightening and there was a harmless, peaceful atmosphere.

[...]

(The first meeting with Hitler) was quite exciting. Suddenly there I was, little Traudl Humps, sitting opposite the Fuhrer. And the Fuhrer himself, whatever you thought about him, was a great man in those days. It was such an extraordinary situation, so incredible, such an adventure.

[...]

You know, I never had the feeling that (Hitler) was conscious of pursuing criminal aims. For him they were ideals. For him they were great goals. And human life meant nothing to him in comparison. But that only became so apparent to me afterwards. You see, in the inner circle surrounding him, he was shielded from the megalomaniac projects and the barbaric measures. That was the awful thing, that's what gave me such a shock later, when I realized what had been happening.

When I started working there I thought I was at the source of information, and in fact, I was in a blind spot. In an explosion, there's one place where calmness reigns. And that was the great illusion, the great, not disappointment, but the great lie that I had made myself believe.

[...]

That same man who made speeches, when I think back, with that rolling "R", and all that roaring and clipping his words -- I never heard him speak like that in private. He could speak in such a flattering -- such a modulated tone. In his private life he had that gentle Austrian intonation, too, and he used some words that were typically Austrian. For example, "nimmermehr", or "nevermore", isn't used in Bavaria or the rest of Germany. "I heard it nevermore." And things like that did fascinate me, really, the courteous manner he displayed in his private life.

She said some things that go towards answering my Questions 1, 7, & 14 (these are questions I would like answered by this blog):

1. How could the German people follow Hitler? It seems an excellent question, considering he was largely a dictator by consent, as opposed to the likes of Saddam Hussein, who massacred all opposition on a single day, in a single setting, and then only maintained power through terror.

7. What did the average German think of Hitler? I ask this because nearly everyone at the time either said nothing as they went about their daily lives, or they spoke in favor. As we have seen with other dictators, such as Saddam Hussein, a public position in favor of the dictator is often the opposite of the private feelings. Only fear causes the public statements of support.

14. Who is the real Hitler? This may be the most interesting question for me. Hitler's public image, one that was carefully designed for public consumption, seems to be at odds with the private Hitler. Most people believe Hitler a lunatic, which is the version we see in Nazi propaganda films, but a wealth of information has been coming out for the last thirty years which suggests a very sane Hitler (with the understanding that one who commits mass murder and lusts for world domination is insane by any measure of the concept).

Here's from Junge's obituary in The Guardian, February 2002:

With masterly ambiguity, the documentary, by the multi-talented André Heller, was called Blind Spot - a title that did justice both to Junge's claims to have been kept in the dark and the belief of many historians that she and others close to the Führer suffered from an entirely self-induced amnesia.

Junge insisted that Hitler and other Nazi leaders "practically never mentioned the word Jew" in her presence, even though it was while she was working for the Führer that his regime killed most of the 6m Jews who died in the Holocaust. She said she only found out about the Holocaust after the war, and then felt wracked with guilt for having liked "the greatest criminal who ever lived".

Among those who scorned her claims were staff at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. After Heller's film was screened in Berlin, Efraim Zuroff, director of the centre's office in Israel, said: "Her story reflects the blind loyalty of far too many Germans whose allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi party enabled the implementation of the final solution."

Links
Blind Spot at IMDB
The Downfall at IMDB
Traudl Junge's memoirs at Amazon
Traudl Junge's obituary in The Guardian
Review of The Downfall in the San Francisco Chronicle

Hitler as Time magazine Man of the Year 1938

Time's naming of Vladimir Putin Person of the Year for 2007 (announced yesterday) has sparked dozens of news stories about others who received the same treatment. Hitler is squarely at the top of the lists. U.S. News & World Report:

To be sure, Time did not always name those admired by its founder, Henry Luce, a liberal Republican and interventionist in the run-up to World War II. For 1942, it named Joseph Stalin for the Soviets' successful resistance to the Nazi invasion that began in 1941, but it had also, justifiably, named Stalin as the man of the year in 1939, because the Hitler-Stalin pact agreed to in August 1939 enabled Adolf Hitler to invade Poland without serious opposition. Indeed, Time also named Hitler man of the year for 1938, when he got Britain and France to appease him by destroying the power of Czechoslovakia to resist conquest.

Hitler's appearances on the cover of Time

Hitler was named Time's Man of the Year for 1938:

Caption: MAN OF 1938, From the Unholy Organist, a Hymn of Hate

The Man of the Year story begins:

Greatest single news event of 1938 took place on September 29, when four statesmen met at the Führerhaus, in Munich, to redraw the map of Europe. The three visiting statesmen at that historic conference were Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain, Premier Edouard Daladier of France, and Dictator Benito Mussolini of Italy. But by all odds the dominating figure at Munich was the German host, Adolf Hitler.

The Dec. 21, 1931 cover:

I believe Time obtained their image from a Nazi film -- the same from which the following three images originate. These kinds of publications, especially during and shortly after WWII, gave rise to the popular notion that Adolf Hitler was insane. People seem unwilling to distinguish between the stage Hitler and the private man. He may have been insane, as it's an easy argument to make that a man who destroys millions of people with death camps and warfare qualifies as insane -- but the enraged Hitler who gave fiery speeches, with wild hand gestures and flying spittle, was a carefully created public image, one that seems to have only rarely appeared in private.




The 1931 cover story begins:

Fighting every inch of the way, three men stood out against the advance of Fascism in Germany last week: pale, bespectacled Chancellor Heinrich Bruning; white-haired Paul von Hindenburg; and their faithful lieutenant, Minister of the Interior and of War Wilhelm Groener. Each morning foreign correspondents in Berlin expected the Bruning Government to fall and Fascist Adolf Hitler, who only fortnight ago pounded a platform and shouted in his best Mussolini manner "Right goes hand in hand with Might!", to seize the Government. Municipal elections were held in Stuttgart. Hitlerites nearly doubled their previous vote. The provincial diets of Oldenburg, Brunswick and Hesse were all Hitler-controlled. Adolf Hitler sat in Berlin giving press interviews as though he were already Chief of State. In Leipzig a congress of pharmacists and physicians turned into a typical Fascist rally. Hitlerite orators, drunk with the sound of their own voices, shouted their program to maintain the superiority of "the Nordic race, the finest flower on the tree of humanity." They mentioned the hanging of Marxists, abolition of trade unions, compulsory sterilization of Jews.

The Apr. 14, 1941 cover:


The 1941 cover story begins:

The crucial spring of his career came last week to Adolf Hitler. He could see it in sheltered, sun-struck places around the Berghof where lilies of the valley, violets, Alpine roses, blue gentians, and wild azaleas bloomed, and in the green showing through the white on the Untersberg's slopes across the way. But he could feel it even more strongly in his bones: spring, when armies march.

The May 7, 1945 cover:


The 1945 cover story begins:

Fate knocked at the door last week for Europe's two fascist dictators. Mussolini, shot in the back and through the head by his partisan executioners, lay dead in Milan (see below). Adolf Hitler had been buried, dead or alive, in the rubble of his collapsing Third Reich. Whether or not he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage (as reported from Stockholm), or had "fallen in his command post at the Reich chancellery" (as reported by the Hamburg radio, which said that he had been succeeded as Führer by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz), or was a prisoner of Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler as a political force had been expunged. If he were indeed dead, the hope of most of mankind had been realized. For seldom had so many millions of people hoped so implacably for the death of one man.

If they had been as malign as he in their vengefulness, they might better have hoped that he would live on yet a little while. For no death they could devise for him could be as cruel as must have been Hitler's eleventh-hour thoughts on the completeness of his failure. His total war against non-German mankind was ending in total defeat. Around him, the Third Reich, which was to last 1,000 years, sank to embers as the flames fused over its gutted cities. The historic crash of what had been Europe's most formidable state was audible in the shrieks of dying men and the point-blank artillery fire against its buckling buildings.

Hitler also made Time's list of The Most Important People of the Century. Their profile of him begins with: "The avatar of fascism posed the century's greatest threat to democracy and redefined the meaning of evil forever." From the profile:

Adolf Hitler or the incarnation of absolute evil; this is how future generations will remember the all-powerful Fuehrer of the criminal Third Reich. Compared with him, his peers Mussolini and Franco were novices. Under his hypnotic gaze, humanity crossed a threshold from which one could see the abyss.

At the same time that he terrorized his adversaries, he knew how to please, impress and charm the very interlocutors from whom he wanted support. Diplomats and journalists insist as much on his charm as they do on his temper tantrums. The savior admired by his own as he dragged them into his madness, the Satan and exterminating angel feared and hated by all others, Hitler led his people to a shameful defeat without precedent. That his political and strategic ambitions have created a dividing line in the history of this turbulent and tormented century is undeniable: there is a before and an after. By the breadth of his crimes, which have attained a quasi-ontological dimension, he surpasses all his predecessors: as a result of Hitler, man is defined by what makes him inhuman. With Hitler at the head of a gigantic laboratory, life itself seems to have changed.

Churchill and FDR also made this list.

An Allied dog of war

Here's something from the Cleveland Plain Dealer about an heroic dog named Chips:

In World War II, a mixed-shepherd-collie named Chips was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for single-handedly attacking an enemy machine-gun nest in Sicily and, despite a bullet wound, forced the six-man crew to surrender. The Army later revoked the awards, calling it demeaning to service members to give medals to animals.

I hope the website, uswardogs.org, and the apparent owner of the photograph, Mary Ann Whitley, will forgive me for borrowing the photo.