100 Days in History: The Agony of The "Third Reich"

[Martin Antonenko]

Tuesday, May 22, 1945


Exactly two weeks ago, the German Reich surrendered unconditionally - and the "Reich Präsident" Karl Dönitz appointed by Hitler and his - unelected - "incumbent Reich government" are still in the neutral zone in Flensburg-Mürwick.

What the man just doesn't want to see:

Nobody needs him and nobody - least of all the victorious powers - will enter into partnerships with a "head of state" who has his orders from Hitler (the next photo was taken in the "Führer bunker in Berlin, a few days before Hitler's suicide on his 56th birthday)...



... and there are numerous war criminals in his "government", for example the "acting chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht", Colonel General Jodl.

Uniformed guards - the sovereign eagle with a swastika on their chests - still present the (unloaded!) Rifles jaggedly when the "Reich Präsident" leaves or comes ...



... and a big company car with driver chauffeurs him ...



... but basically nobody is interested in the grotesque charade!

Least of all the German population - for which Dönitz pretends to act!

Because she lives in ruins and is busy with survival, fetching water from the next public fountain (the water pipes are bombed!) or traveling the hamster to the country to organize food, because hunger is beginning to reach for the Germans.

Nevertheless, the "Reich Government" produces a wealth of memoranda, offers for negotiation, circulars and "orders" that ultimately do not interest anyone, except for some historians and a few stubborn old (and new) Nazis!

Today the "Reichsregierung" publishes a pathetic appeal to the Western Allies to recognize "a national German sovereignty" - a literally last attempt by Dönitz to become an object of action again!

It says:






Translation:

"As a result of the unconditional surrender of the three German Wehrmacht sections with my power of attorney on May 9, 1945, the German Empire has not ceased to exist, nor has my office as head of state ended."


What Donitz does not know when he goes to bed in the evening - probably very satisfied with himself:

It will be his last night in freedom for a long time ...

 

[Blind Pew]

Germany had lost the war by then. Maybe nobody told him?

Thanks again Martin.

 

[Martin64]

Germany had lost the war by then. Maybe nobody told him?

Thanks again Martin.

IMHO Dönitz had never a chance to get anything right in the eyes of todays historians. He was put into the position of Reichspräsident by a doomed Hitler without having applied for it at a moment when every chance for Germany to change their fate by its own was futile. I think that the Allies for sure did not tell him about their future plans for Germany which at these moments were still worked out behind the bars - therefore he was allowed to play his role for a while - so what should he do? Maybe close the "office", put off his uniform and run and hide? Commit suicide? Wait for the Allies to put him to trial and possibly hang him for alleged crimes? - According to Churchill the only thing he was afraid about during the war was the German U-Boot-Waffe lead by Dönitz. Dönitz surely knew that his personal fate was at stake but he tried to fulfill his duty until it was no longer possible. Does not sound like a coward to me.
I would not have wanted to be in his position.
Best, Martin

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Hi Martin!

This could be countered by the fact that Doenitz was one of the most compliant supporters of Hitler - he was not chosen by Hitler as his successor by accident.

As for his role as commander of the submarines: Here he gave several criminal orders - for example the explicit prohibition to rescue shipwrecked sailors of torpedoed ships.

His fanaticism was also directed against his own crews: So he ordered over water submarine attacks against the Allied invasion fleet towards the end of the war - which amounted to an invitation to commit suicide!

His command to the French bases to keep fighting at all costs (even though the fighting was already raging in Berlin) is such a crime! It cost the lives of countless French civilians.

His repeated claims that he did not know nothing about the Holocaust are sheer lies - Dönitz was one of the narrowest leadership circles of the Nazis!

And finally: he could also have rejected the post of "President" - or resign after the surrender.

I personally regret, after I have dealt intensively with his person, that he was not one of those who were hung up in Nuremberg!


Cheers

 

[Martin64]

To not extend this thread into a political discussion I restrict my reply to the "criminal orders": - The so-called "Laconia-order" of Dönitz was a consequence of an attempt of German submarines to rescue a great number of survivors of the torpedoed Laconia while being attacked by allied aircraft as they had radioed their action and intention on open channels to avoid these attacks during the operation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident. The US pilots that conducted the attack in full knowledge of the ongoing rescue killed numerous survivors and earned decorations. Despite the attacks on the German submarines Dönitz ordered to continue with the rescue. As a final consequence of this incident Dönitz ordered to no longer rescue crews of torpedoed ships which became known as the "Laconia-order". His actions were investigated at Nuremberg and I am sure you will let us know about the outcome. As you are German here is a link for your studies - unfortunately the very touchy event is not available with the same detail in English. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia-Befehl
Back to your view on the agony of the nazi regime.
Cheers, Martin

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Wednesday, May 23, 1945


In the early morning, British soldiers storm the staff building of the naval school in Flensburg-Mürwick ...







... and arrest the "Reich Präsident" Dönitz, his "incumbent Reich government" and all their helpers and employees ...:





The representatives of the Soviet Union had been demanding this step for days - now people in Washington, London and Paris agree!

All detainees - including Dönitz himself - are thoroughly searched by the British and literally have to lower their pants ...:



The British have learned from the "Himmler case" - in the interrogation room in Lüneburg, the former SS chief had managed to commit suicide using a cyanide capsule hidden on the body.

Dönitz is outraged by this degrading treatment - but he only really gets angry when the British take away his marshal's baton, which he is so proud of, after the body search ...:





The tip of this marshal's staff, which can be seen today in the "Haus der Deutschen Gesichte" museum in Bonn, is adorned with a solid gold submarine badge from the Nazi Kriegsmarine ...:



After a thorough search, the less important prisoners are sent to the next prisoner of war camp ...:



The three best known people - Dönitz himself, Colonel General Alfred Jodl and Armaments Minister Albert Speer - are brought into the courtyard of the naval school ...



... and presented to the press like trophies ...:







After this spectacle, the arrested are escorted to waiting trucks ...:







**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

The higher, but not so important officers of the "government" are dropped off in front of the police headquarters in downtown Flensburg and there imprisoned...



... Dönitz, Speer and Jodl are brought to waiting DC-3 at Flensburg Airfield. Dönitz is just climbing from the truck in the next picture ...:





For Speer, whom the Allies classified as a "technical collaborator", the trip goes to "Camp Dustbin" near Frankfurt...:





Speer will only save his life from the war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946 by assuming "responsibility" - but only for things that can be proven beyond any doubt!



All the blame for all really bad things - especially for the millions of people robbed by slave workers, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives - he, however, blames on his subordinate Fritz Sauckel, the Nazi "officer for work", who ends up hanging on the gallows!





Speer is will guilty sentenced of war crimes and crimes against humanity and get 20 years in prison. He has to serve this to the last day at the Spandau War Criminal Prison.





Dönitz and Jodl are flown to Luxembourg to the secret camp for top Nazis, "Camp Ashcan" in Monschau ...









Jodl will be sentenced to death in Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity.



He will end on October 16, 1946 at the gallows.

Dönitz (next picture at Nuremberg on the dock near to Göring and Hess)...


... will get away from the war crimes tribunal with the least punishment:

He is found guilty of war of aggression and war crimes and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, which he will serve in full until October 1, 1956.



He will claim until the end of his life in 1980 that he knew nothing about the Holocaust ...

**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

As General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg ...



...which we already met as signer of three different surrender documents ...



... and who, instead of Dönitz, who was appointed Reich President by Hitler, has become commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine at his headquarters in the Meyerwik barracks in nearby Glücksburg, learns of the arrestations at Mürwick, he does not wait for his impending arrest, but commits suicide in his office under a Dönitz picture with a cyanide capsule ...:






***


On this day, the Allies seize two other NS celebrities and arrest them ...:

On the one hand, Canadian troops catch in the Dutch The Hague SS Obergruppenführer Arthur Seyss-Inquart (center next photo) ...



... one of the most brutal "Austro-Nazis", who held a number of important positions during the Nazi era, among other things as a representative of Hans Frank in the "Generalgouvernement" (as Poland was called at the time) and as "Reich Commissioner" for the occupied Netherlands...:



Seyß-Inquart will also end at the gallows in Nuremberg - but now he comes first off to "Camp Ashcan"...:





***


The second arrested person of the day is Franz von Papen ...



.. actually a man from yesterday, one of the many ex-chancellors of the Weimar Republic, confidante of Hindenburg, stirrup holder and vice-chancellor of Adolf Hitler in 1933 (picture next to Hitler) ...



Papen is arrested by US military police in Stockhausen near Meschede in the hunting lodge of his son-in-law, where he is hiding. The next pictures were taken immediately after the arrestation ...:





Von Papen will be acquitted at Nuremberg.

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Thursday May 24, 1945


Shortly before his suicide, Hitler had relieved the head of the Luftwaffe "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring (and all other positions), had appointedGeneral der Flieger Robert Ritter von Greim....



... the new commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and promoted him to Generalfeldmarschall, as we have read here.

Ritter von Greim had left the Führer bunker in Berlin in high spirits, after all Hitler had praded him all sorts of "huge reserves" that supposedly still existed ...

But the freshly baked Generalfeldmarschall was quickly overtaken by reality:

A few days later, when he was captured by the Americans in southern Germany, he introduced himself to them with the words:

"I'm the head of the German Luftwaffe, but I don't have a Luftwaffe."

The Americans bring Ritter von Greim to Salzburg and lock him up for the time being.

There the prisoner learns that he will shortly be transferred to the Soviet Union, where he will be tried and tried as a war criminal.

The 6th German air fleet commanded by Greim was mainly used in the Soviet Union during the war and was responsible for the support of the "Army Group Middle".

The Americans have once again sloppily searched their prisoner - and so Ritter von Greim can take today the cyanide capsule that Hitler personally gave him during his promotion visit to the bunker.





***


The head of the Militärwissenschaftliches Forschungsamt (Army History Research Office), General Walter Scherff, during the war was personally commissioned by Hitler to write down the history of the - naturally victorious - war and to collect documents for it...:



In this capacity he was almost constantly with Hitler in the various "Führer headquarters" (left, shking hands with Hitler)...



... which almost cost him his life on July 20, 1944:

When Stauffenberg's bomb explodes in the situation barrack of the "Wolfsschanze Führer Headquarters" near Rastenburg in East Prussia, Scherff was very seriously wounded...:



Here the uniform jacket he wore on this day...:



Hitler personally had visited him at his bedside...:



On April 25 - five days before Hitler's suicide - in 1945, General Scherff had all of the material he collected, including the stenographic records of Hitler's briefing, burned in the Schönau district of Berlin - which historians still regret today!

On the way to the "Alpine Fortress", Scherff is also captured by the Americans in southern Germany - and like Ritter von Greim today he makes use of a gift from Hitler:

Suicide from a cyanide capsule.



***


In Waidring near Berchtesgaden, the Americans today can catch one of the worst Nazi agitators:



The downright pathological anti-Semite Julius Streicher is arrested!



Streicher is one of only two top Nazis at all, of whom Hitler let himself be addressed with the familiar "Du"!



The other one was SA boss Ernst Röhm, who was murdered on Hitler's orders in 1934 ...:



Hitler apparently had a weakness for such ordinary greasy rags!

Julius Streicher was the founder, owner and editor of the anti-Semitic and pornographic hate sheet "Der Stürmer" ("The Striker").
The "Stürmer-Verlag", which published the slip, made him a multiple millionaire!

The "Stürmer" rushed against the Jews with largely freely invented horror stories over the entire Nazi era ...:



And that all across the German Reich!

Whoever could not (or did not want to) buy the craftwork written in the worst Vulgar German, was forced to so-called "striker boxes" that stood even in the smallest villages ...:





(The banner seen above cries: ""Judaism Is Criminality!")




After his arrest, Streicher is quickly taken to the "Camp Ashcan" by the other top Nazis in Luxembourg.





British journalist Rebecca West...



... who met him during the war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, described Streicher as a "dirty old man of the kind that causes trouble in parks".

And of all people, Julius Streicher, who called for the compassionate extermination of Jews for 12 years, will claim at the Nuremberg court that he didn't know anything about the Holocaust ..!



It won't help him - the gallows are also waiting for Steicher - and I add from the bottom of my heart: Hopefully he suffered and didn't die immediately!



***

 

[Nap]

Martin

Exemplary details in every post .....

At last we see those responsible suffering

Thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Friday May 25, 1945


Today the war in Europe threatens to flare up again for a short time!

The Yugoslav "People's Liberation Army" led by Partrisan leader Jozip Broz (called Tito)...



... had plundered the fleeing German "Army Group Middle" to Austrian territory, forced it to surrender and caused a massacre among the Croatian allies of the Germans as we have read.

In the course of their advance, the Yugoslavs occupied a number of areas and the city of Klagenfurt in southern Carinthia - and Tito makes no move to leave there!




Rather, Tito requires the incorporation of Austrian areas, namely "Slovenian Carinthia" into Yugoslavia...:






Today the Western Allies provide the Yugoslavs with a tight ultimatum:
Immediate withdrawal across the state border - or violence is used!

Tito will have to submit - his "People's Liberation Army" has no chance against the British and Americans, and since he ideologically overthrew himself with Stalin, the Red Army will not help him!

The Soviet dictator would have watched happily and calmly as the Western Allies rubbed up the "People's Liberation Army" in order to then collect the booty - Yugoslavia.

Tito, who knows all this, pulls his troops back with teeth grinding ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday May 26, 1945


US Special Ambassador Harry Hopkins begins the first of a total of six intensive rounds of negotiations with the Soviet dictator Jossif Stalin in the Kremlin.



The special ambassador, called only "half the man" because of his constant sickness in the "White House", was one of the closest confidants of the late US President Roosevelt and a staunch representative of an American-Soviet friendship.

Hopkins was the architect of the so-called "lend / lease" agreement, on the basis of which the United States had generously supplied the Soviet Union with war material in its struggle with Germany.

That the new President Harry Truman Hopkins is now reactivated as a special ambassador and sent to Moscow ...

... has its origin in Poland.

The American public has not forgotten that World War II was started by Western democracies for the freedom of Poland.

Now the Americans are outraged to see that Stalin puts his heavy hand on Poland, imposes a - communist - regime of his choice on the country, even makes the Soviet Marshal Rokossowskij the Polish Minister of Defense (Rokossowski wears Polish uniforms in the following pictures!) ...



... and also with the Poles at will - mass arrests of unpopular people by the NKVD included.

The mood is so heated because of Poland that the imminent founding act of the "United Nations" in Los Angeles threatens to fail.

Even before Yalta, Stalin had recognized the so-called "Lublin Communist Committee" as the only legal Polish government. The Western powers are now demanding the minimum: at least the admission of other political groups to the Warsaw cabinet. Some of their candidates are in the government in exile in London. Stalin cannot be moved.

Hopkins won't make it either!

He will repeatedly call the situation "very serious" and Poland will designate the "symbol" for the question of whether cooperation with the Soviet Union is possible at all.

"Our whole relationship will be threatened if the Polish affair comes to a dead end." It will remain at a dead end and Poland will become an unfree Soviet satellite state.

Stalin doesn't give a millimeter!

Hopkins will travel home frustrated on June 7th and Poland will not only be the first victim of the Second World War, but also the first victim of the "Cold War" ...


***
The Swiss government closes the German ambassy in Bern today...




... and expels the German ambassador Otto Carl Köcher and all of his employees.

The following photo shows the ambassador (left) when he leaves the building together with a Swiss diplomat who will also glide him to the train to Germany ...


Likewise, all German consulates are closed "until further notice".

In the capital, Bern, the windows of German shops (like this travel agency) are smashed...:

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Sunday May 27, 1945


German troops are still standing in Norway, waiting to be transported to Germany. They are stationed in particular in the former submarine bases of the former Kriegsmarine.

Submarines operating from Norway had managed to sink four Allied ships totaling 10,370 GRT in the seven days during which acts of war were still taking place in May, despite overwhelming Allied defense.

The last ship of the war in European waters that was sunk by a German submarine (U-979, Lieutenant Lieutenant Johannes Meermeier)...





... is the British tanker "Empire Unity" (6386 BRT) off Reykjavik (Iceland) ...:



All 46 tanker crew members survived the sinking.

The price for this one "success" was cruel: in the same period in May 1945, the Allies annihilated no fewer than 40 German submarines at sea - mostly by man and mouse!



U-979 was sunk on the day of the surrender off the Dutch coast by its crew itself - the crew went into captivity ashore.



Later the Dutch recovered the boat and wrecked it.





***



Now there is boredom and waiting at the bases.

In the meantime, the British Navy steams up the Norwegian coast from south to north and embeds the German submarine bases one after the other!







During this so-called "Operation Deadlight", the British captured 154 boats. 115 of them, mostly older boats of classes VII to IX, will sink them at sea by the end of the year.

(Some of the brand new Type XXI boats are also being sold to the United States; the first redesigns of the US Navy after the war were based on these German XXI boats!)

The captured submarines are collected in the port of Londonderry (Northern Ireland) ...:







One type VIIc boat ,"U-776" (former commander Lieutenant Lothar Martin)...





... is to be presented as a trophy on the Thames in London today...:












On December 3, 1945, the British will also sink this old boat at sea. The map below shows the likely sinking locations of the the war surviving German submarine fleet ...:




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

The Yugoslav Army and - de facto - state leader Jozip Broz (called Tito) who now calls himself even "Marshal" ...



... and who has meanwhile withdrawn his troops to his home territory, once again calls for the "Slovenian Carinthia" affiliation to Yugoslavia with reference to the "Atlantic Charter" of the "United Nations", which was about to be founded (June 26, 1945) at San Francisco.






The four victorious powers ignore this wordless!



***



US President Truman and the British government declare today there are no objections to the use of German workers as reparations.

The Soviet Union will make extensive use of it, and will take away German workers (no ex soldiers!) for reconstruction, which is equivalent to the forced labor to which the Germans had deported workers from the countries they occupied during the war ...

To date, the numbers fluctuate between 25,000 and 100,000! The Soviets particularly attacked "specialists" from the fields of nuclear research, rocket technology, aircraft construction and aircraft engine construction as well as other sectors relevant to defense technology. Scientists and technicians were also kidnapped!

By 1947, a total of more than 4 million Germans had been employed as forced laborers across Europe, including around 600,000 to 1,000,000 prisoners of war...:



Around 1.3 million of the forced laborers will not survive ...

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Monday May 28, 1945


Bavaria, which belongs to the US occupation zone, is the first German "country" in which the Americans appoint a prime minister and a finance minister!

American military governor Colonel Keegan ...



... uses the independent politician Fritz Schäffer as prime minister and finance minister ...



... who was chairman of the "Bavarian People's Party" (BVP) before the war and had been imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp since July 20, 1944.

Schäffer will not remain in office for long - only as of September 28, 1945.

The Americans fire Schäffer with Karacho because, in their opinion, he had not sufficiently cleaned public officials from former NSDAP party members - an accusation that was certainly not unjustified!




On the other hand, after the Nazis passed the "Law on the Restoration of Professional Civil Service" on April 7, 1933, or "Professional Civil Service Act" (BBG) for short ...


... which served them as the basis for "clearing" the German civil servant apparatus from all real and supposed opponents and Jews, almost exclusively former Nazi cadres were available as trained experts.

In 1949, Schäffer will belong to the first German government under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer as Minister of Finance, as the only finance minister of the Federal Republic of Germany to go down in history, who did not incur any debts during his term of office, but saved a credit.



***


Today is a big day for the Dutch!

Queen Wilhelmina returns to The Hague from British exile!



The Queen was shortly before the defeat of the Dutch army ...





... against the German Wehrmacht and the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, fled together with the government to London where they formed an exile government and became a symbol of the Dutch resistance ...:



The Dutch welcome their Queen like a folk heroine ...:









***


Today the British begin delivering the Cossacks in German service, that they have fallen into the hands of with the defeated "Hederesgruppe E" in Austria to the Soviet Union .
There are approximately 50.000 members of the VX. Cossack Cavalry Corps...





... under Maj. Gen. Hellmuth von Pannwitz...



Two full divisions and a third that was in the lineup when the war ended..:

These were the "1. Kosaken Kavallerie Division ”(Commander Oberst von Baath)



... the 2. Kosaken Kavalleriedivision (Commander Oberst Hans-Joachim von Schultz)



... and the Plastun Brigade (Infantry)...



... under Oberst (later general) Iwan Kononow...



...all with German officers and non-commissioned officers as "framework personnel".




**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

But these Cossacks also had families who also sit in camps in the Austrian Drau Valley!



They call themselves "Kasatschij Stan" (Cossack State) and would have followed the troops since 1943. In January 1945, shortly before the end of the war, the Germans had just started settling them in northern Italy in Friuli...



... around the town of Tolmezzo...:



Tolmezo was renamed "Novocherkassk" - and his own Cossack tour was also led, which was led by the former "White General" and Cossack Ataman from the civil war, General Pjotr Krasnow...:





Among the Cossacks are other prominent leaders of the tsar-loyal "whites" from the civil war, General Shkuro, the commander of the famous "Wolves Division" ...




...und der formerAtaman of the Kuban Cossack Host, Wjatscheslaw Naumenko (next photo right to Shkuro)...:




The escape from the Allies had also led these Cossacks (all civilians) to Austria - and today is their hour!

Today, von Pannitz, von Baath, von Schulz, Krasnow, Schkuro, and the other leaders "Kosakias" and "Kasatschij Stan" also went to the neck:

The British, who had previously treated the Cossacks politely and correctly, invited them to a "conference" at their headquarters in Spittal.

This meeting on May 28, 1945 turned out to be a trap!

The Cossack leaders were immediately arrested, loaded onto trucks immediately afterwards, also brought to Judenburg and handed over to the Soviets...:





But even the Soviet emissaries were amazed at who's got them all by the British handed over!



More than two thirds of the transferred Cossack leaders were never citizens of the Soviet Union before came from western exile, where they fled after the Russian Civil War. Or were German citizens!

Like Shkuro...:



If you take international law as a basis, they shouldn't have handed them over! But what was international law in those times ...!


On this day, the British deliver a total of 35 Cossack generals and about 2,000 other officers!


***


After taking the leaders of the Cossacks in this way, the British will also hand over the rest - including their families - to the Soviets two days later - a total of around 50,000 men and over 11,000 women and children!

Hundreds die in battle with their British guards as they desperately fight with their bare hands against their extradition!



Hundreds of Cossacks in the Lienz camp, including women and children, then stormed the Bridge in Lienz and plunged from the bridge into the river. They are buried nearby...:



Eyewitnesses later reported that Cossack groups had tied their horses' heavy saddle gear around and committed suicide collectively. Hundreds of bodies were found in the Lienzer area even days later.

Many of the extradited people were shot by the Soviets in the open immediately afterwards ...



Only a few managed to escape. British troops then carried out real hunts for the Cossack refugees.

Almost 1,400 Cossacks were caught throughout June, with the British delivering just under 1,000 to the Soviets.

It was only on June 4 that the British started to investigate citizenship under international law. From then on, Russian exiles were no longer extradited.

But it wasn't until the end of June 1945 that the British ended deliveries altogether.
Pannwitz, Shkuro, Kononow Krasnow and other will be brought to trial at Moscow in January 1947...









... all sentenced to death...



... and die from the gallows in 1947!

Only one of the Cossack leaders survived!

Kuban Ataman Naumenkob escaped from Austria to France in 1945, he made it to New York ...



...where he died in 1960.

The members of the "German framework staff" of the Pannwitz corps were condemned to 25 years of forced labor for "war crimes". Higher ranks ("from regimental adjutant upwards", as one source says) received the double penalty, twice 25 years.

The survivors were among the last to be repatriated in 1955.

In his memoirs, Winston Churchill has dedicated two sentences to the Cossacks:

He described their fate as "tough but just" - and added: "And the Highlanders from Argyll and Sutherland captured a number of beautiful Cossack horses" ...

 

[Nap]

Thanks Martin

Another day , so much horror still , the Cossack story in particular ...a subject you know much about as we gave seen in your great V bench

Nap

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Three more days - and you've got it behind you ...!



Tuesday May 29, 1945


The Royal Navy continues to grab the German submarines in Norway. Here the "White Ensign" is set on a type IXc boat ...:





Here is a brand new XXI boat under the "White Ensign" on a transfer to Northern Ireland ...:




***

The British King George VI. asks Prime Minister Winston Churchill...


... whether he is thinking of rebuilding the "Kingdom of Hanover" in Germany and integrating it into the British state, as was the case until 1866 (until the Battle of Langensalza)...:





Behind the request stand - who else? - the Guelphs, heirs and members of the former rulership expropriated by Bismack.

A statement by the British premier during a campaign speech in Dover had fueled the dreams of the Guelphs!
Churchill had declared that in 1919 the greatest mistake of the Allies at that time was to abolish the monarchies and princes in Germany.

Now the Welfs speculate on a re-emerging kingdom, a separate peace with the western allies and large economic gains.

But today Churchill is shattering all the dreams of the Guelphs: He declares that he has no intention of reviving the Kingdom of Hanover!

Instead, the former Kingdom of Hanover, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the Duchy of Brunswick (as well as some other small states) will later become the German federal state "Lower Saxony" - with an independent "island" in it, which will is called "Bremen" (yellow marked below)...:







***


Under the title "Germany and the Germans", the world-famous writer Thomas Mann, living in exile in the US, makes a radio address in New York ...:



Here the printed manuscript ...:



Mann explains to his listeners very diffuse, that the Nazis who died in "Schanden" could use the name of a movement for freedom, suggesting an unfortunate conception of the German concept of freedom, a "psychological law" that has repeatedly shown itself to be fatal in history have. Politically understood freedom is above all a moral-domestic term. But a people who are not internally free and responsible do not deserve external freedom, cannot have a say, even if they use the “sonorous vocabulary”.

At the end of his speech, Mann expressed the hope that after the catastrophe steps could be taken towards a world state that would break away from national individualism in the 19th century, that the victory over National Socialism would clear the way for a “world social reform, the Germany's innermost facilities and needs offer the greatest opportunities for happiness ”, that humanity can look at the world state.

It is open whether many of his listeners understood this very long and textually plentiful speech

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Wednesday May 30, 1945


It doesn't want to match the official assertions of a German-Soviet friendship and the heroic Red Army soldier who freed the Germans from the "Fascist yoke":

In Berlin, the Soviet "Kommandantura" recorded a number of attacks and attacks on Red Army soldiers, some of them even fatal!

Soviet propaganda blames "unteachable Nazis" or members of the (in reality non-existent!) Nazi "werewolf" guerrillas for these acts.

In reality, however, it is just normal Berliners who want to protect their women and property from attacks by Soviet soldiers or who want to take revenge for such attacks.

The Berlin city commander, General Nikolaj Bersarin (the photo shows him leaving the "Kommandantura") ...



... responds with draconian measures!

At his order, the Mayor of Berlin, appointed by the Soviets on May 17, Dr. Arthur Werner ...



... announces today, that 50 NSDAP members would be shot in retaliation for each attack on members or institutions of the Red Army!



***


In Norway the "Royal Navy" is pulling the last German submarines under the nail! I consciously use this wording because there is no legal basis for this ...

 

[Blind Pew]

Martin, always a fascinating read.