Pre WWII – History of Sorts

May 10, 1933—Book Burning

The book burning in Germany on May 10, 1933, was a significant event orchestrated by the Nazi regime. It took place largely in Berlin, but similar events occurred in other cities across Germany. The Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, organized the burning of books deemed “un-German,” including those written by Jewish, communist, socialist, and other dissenting authors.

The goal of the book burning was to suppress ideas that contradicted Nazi ideology and to exert control over culture and education. The burning of books symbolized the suppression of intellectual freedom and the persecution of those who opposed the Nazi regime. It was a chilling precursor to the broader censorship and oppression that characterized the Nazi era. This event remains a stark reminder of the dangers of censorship and the importance of safeguarding intellectual freedom.

On 10 May 1933, National Socialist students organised book burnings at universities all over Germany. These actions were symbolic, directed against everything that the Nazis felt did not belong in Germany. Books by Jewish, left-wing, or pacifist writers such as Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Erich Maria Remarque went up in flames. Students in 34 university towns across Germany burned over 25,000 books.

The students sought to purify German literature of “foreign,” especially Jewish, and other immoral influences.

As early as two weeks before, American organizations like the American Jewish Congress knew of the planned book burnings and launched protests. With her books slated for the bonfires, Helen Keller confronted German students in an open letter: “History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas. Tyrants have tried to do that often before, and the ideas have risen up in their might and destroyed them. You can burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas in them have seeped through a million channels and will continue to quicken other minds.” Similarly, novelist Sherwood Anderson, best-selling author Faith Baldwin, scriptwriter Erwin Cobb, and Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis declared solidarity with the banned writers and publicly protested the book burnings. The next day, and in the weeks following, there was a massive reaction in the world press, especially since many other German university towns imitated this infamous act. German newspapers reported, in triumph, that Germany was beginning to purge itself of the alien and decadent corrupters of the German spirit, and newspapers and magazines abroad, from as far away as China and Japan, responded in surprise and shock. Even then, some knowledgeable journalists recalled the prediction of the poet Heinrich Heine, who had said a century earlier, “Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.”

In the effort to synchronize the literary community, Goebbels had a strong ally in the National Socialist German Students’ Association (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, or NSDStB). German university students were among the vanguard of the early Nazi movement, and in the late 1920s, many filled the ranks of various Nazi formations. The ultra-nationalism and antisemitism of middle-class, secular student organizations had been intense and vocal for decades. After World War I, many students opposed the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and found National Socialism a suitable vehicle for their political discontent and hostility.

Not all book burnings were on May 10, as the German Student Association had planned. Some were postponed a few days because of rain, others, based on local chapter preference, took place on June 21, the summer solstice, a traditional date for bonfire celebrations in Germany.

And yet again history repeats itself.

Sources

https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/145/book-burning-at-german-universities/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/10/nazi-book-burnings-in-germany-may-1933

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-burnings/

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning

https://www.museumoftolerance.com/education/archives-and-reference-library/online-resources/simon-wiesenthal-center-annual-volume-2/annual-2-chapter-5.html

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Nazi Students

This blog is not meant to accuse current students but is aimed at them as a history lesson. The history they could easily repeat if they are not careful. Much of the text below is repetitive because I researched several sources. However, in this case, repeating the text is important,

During the Nazi era in Germany, universities played a significant role in the dissemination of Nazi ideology and the shaping of society according to Nazi principles. Several student groups emerged during this time, each with its own objectives and roles within the broader Nazi agenda. Here are some of the key student groups:

National Socialist German Students’ League (NSDStB): This was the official student organization of the Nazi Party. It aimed to integrate university students into the Nazi movement and ensure their adherence to Nazi ideology. The NSDStB organized various activities such as lectures, rallies, and cultural events to promote Nazi ideals among students.

German Student Union (DSt): Formed after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, the German Student Union was a nationwide organization that aimed to coordinate and control all aspects of student life following Nazi principles. It played a central role in the implementation of Nazi policies within universities, including the purging of “undesirable” faculty members and students.

National Socialist German Lecturers League (NSDDB): Similar to the NSDStB but focused on university professors and lecturers, this organization sought to ensure that academia conformed to Nazi ideology. It promoted Nazi doctrines within academic circles and enforced ideological conformity among university faculty.

German Faith Movement (Deutsche Glaubensbewegung): Although not exclusively a student group, The German Faith Movement attracted many young people, including university students, who were drawn to its emphasis on pagan Germanic spirituality and rejection of Christianity. While not directly controlled by the Nazi Party, it aligned with Nazi ideals and sought to reshape religious and spiritual life in Nazi Germany.

The National Socialist German Students’ League (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund, NSDStB) was one of the most prominent student organizations in Nazi Germany. Founded in 1926, the NSDStB aimed to indoctrinate university students with Nazi ideology and ensure their loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Key objectives and activities of the NSDStB included:

Indoctrination: The NSDStB sought to mold students’ minds according to Nazi principles, emphasizing racial superiority, anti-Semitism, nationalism, and obedience to Hitler. It organized lectures, seminars, and study groups to propagate Nazi ideology among students.

Political Activism: NSDStB members actively participated in Nazi Party activities and campaigns, including rallies, parades, and propaganda efforts. They played a crucial role in mobilizing student support for the Nazi regime and its policies.

Control of Student Life: The NSDStB aimed to control all aspects of university student life, including academic activities, extracurricular pursuits, and social interactions. It promoted conformity to Nazi ideals and monitored students’ behavior to ensure compliance.

Censorship and Suppression of Dissent: The NSDStB was involved in censoring and suppressing dissenting voices within the student body, including those critical of the Nazi regime. It targeted professors and students who opposed Nazi ideology and worked to eliminate opposition within universities.

Expansion and Influence: Under the leadership of Baldur von Schirach, who also led the Hitler Youth, the NSDStB expanded its reach and influence across universities in Germany. It aimed to create a generation of devoted Nazi followers who would play a role in shaping the future of the Third Reich.

The German Student Union (Deutscher Studentenbund, DSt) was a pivotal organization in Nazi Germany’s control over higher education institutions. Established shortly after the Nazi Party’s rise to power in 1933, the DSt aimed to centralize and coordinate all student activities per Nazi ideology.

Key aspects and functions of the German Student Union included:

Nazification of Universities: The DSt played a crucial role in implementing Nazi policies within universities, ensuring that academic institutions adhered to Nazi principles and promoted the regime’s ideology. It oversaw the purging of Jewish professors and other “undesirable” faculty members, replacing them with individuals sympathetic to the Nazi cause.

Control of Student Life: The DSt sought to control all aspects of student life, including academic affairs, extracurricular activities, and social interactions. It enforced conformity to Nazi ideology among students and suppressed dissenting voices.

Propaganda and Indoctrination: The DSt organized lectures, rallies, and propaganda campaigns to indoctrinate students with Nazi ideology. It promoted racial purity, anti-Semitism, nationalism, and loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Coordination of Student Activities: The DSt centralized student organizations and activities under its authority, ensuring that all student groups aligned with Nazi principles and objectives. It coordinated sports events, cultural activities, and social gatherings to foster a sense of camaraderie among students and reinforce Nazi ideals.

Recruitment and Mobilization: The DSt served as a recruitment tool for the Nazi Party, attracting young people to its ranks and mobilizing them for political activism. It encouraged students to join Nazi-affiliated organizations such as the Hitler Youth and the National Socialist German Students’ League (NSDStB).

Suppression of Opposition: The DSt actively suppressed opposition and dissent within the student body, targeting individuals and groups critical of the Nazi regime. It enforced strict censorship and punished those who expressed dissenting views, contributing to a fearful atmosphere and conformity on university campuses.

The National Socialist German Lecturers League (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund, NSDDB) was a prominent organization within Nazi Germany tasked with ensuring ideological conformity among university professors and lecturers. Established in 1933, the NSDDB played a significant role in implementing Nazi policies within academia and promoting the dissemination of Nazi ideology among educators.

Key aspects and functions of the National Socialist German Lecturers League included:

Enforcement of Nazi Ideology: The NSDDB aimed to ensure that university professors and lecturers adhered to Nazi principles and promoted Nazi ideology in their teaching and research. It sought to purge academia of individuals deemed “politically unreliable” or opposed to Nazi ideals, replacing them with educators sympathetic to the Nazi cause.

Control and Censorship: The NSDDB exercised control over academic institutions, overseeing appointments, promotions, and curriculum development to ensure alignment with Nazi ideology. It enforced censorship, monitoring lectures, publications, and research activities to suppress dissent and promote Nazi propaganda.

Indoctrination of Students: Working in coordination with the National Socialist German Students’ League (NSDStB), the NSDDB played a role in indoctrinating students with Nazi ideology. It influenced course content and teaching methods to promote racial superiority, anti-Semitism, nationalism, and loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Coordination with Other Nazi Organizations: The NSDDB collaborated closely with other Nazi-affiliated organizations, such as the German Student Union (DSt) and the Hitler Youth, to ensure a unified approach to ideological indoctrination and political mobilization within academic institutions.

Promotion of Racial Ideology: The NSDDB advocated for the integration of racial ideology into academic disciplines, promoting pseudo-scientific theories of racial superiority and inferiority. It sought to reshape academic fields such as biology, anthropology, and history to align with Nazi racial theories.

Punishment of Dissent: The NSDDB targeted professors and lecturers who expressed dissenting views or criticized the Nazi regime, subjecting them to harassment, dismissal, or imprisonment. It contributed to the atmosphere of fear and conformity within academia, stifling intellectual freedom and independent thought.

Sources

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/university-student-groups-in-nazi-germany

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/visual-essay-impact-propaganda

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/indoctrinating-youth

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158487

https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Nazi-Party/330014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-burnings

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/10/book-burning-quran-history-nazis

https://www.dhm.de/fileadmin/lemo/suche/search/index.php?q=Nationalsozialistischer+Deutscher+Studentenbund

Hofbräuhaus am Platzl

On February 24, 1920, the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl is where Adolf Hitler made a speech founding the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or the Nazi party.

It is a beer hall in the centre of Munich. I visited the place last June. To my surprise there was nothing in the hall indicating the event that took place there/ The event that eventually lead to the death and destructions of Millions. It did have some quotes on the wall, like the one above “Durst is Schlimmer als Heimweh” translated ‘Thirst is worse then homesickness’

However not one word about the failed Austrian artist who would later become the leader of Germany.

The only thing which was different in June, compared to the other beer halls in Munich, was the fact there were about 4 security staff outside the door.

I can understand they don’t want to attract the wrong type of tourism, but having no reference to the fact it was the birthplace of the Nazi part, and all the subsequent consequences is wrong.

Josef Hartinger-A Forgotten Hero

It is easy to say that all Germans in the Third Reich were bad , but that would be a great mistake to make. The majority weren’t bad, and many were victims like so many others. Yes, many had become complacent and were seduced by the promises made by Hitler, However, not everyone subscribed to the ideology of the Nazis. Some even highly placed officials, saw what the Nazis were and tried to do something about it.

On March 22 mArthur Kahn together with Ernst Goldmann, Rudolf Benario, and Erwin Kahn(not related), were arrested , for being communist party members and were send to Dachau.

Upon arrival in Dachau, the men were identified as Jews and tortured. On April 11, 1933 a group of drunken SS officers handed the four young men shovels and made them march to the outskirts of the camp, where they were executed Arthur Kahn was the first one shot. Making him the first Holocaust victim.

Josef Michael Hartinger was a German lawyer who worked for the Bavarian State authorities in the latter years of the Weimar Republic when the Nazis came to power. Tasked with investigating some unnatural deaths at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Hartinger together with his medical examiner colleague, Moritz Flamm , discovered the SS policy of summary executions and faked suicides at the camp. At great risk to his own safety, Hartinger issued an indictment of the camp authorities, which was ultimately betrayed and suppressed.

Hartinger’s goal was to obtain a conviction for a chain-of-command order for the multiple murders that had occurred in the first weeks of the camp’s operation.

In 1933 Hilmar Wäckerle was picked by his old friend Himmler to be commandant of the newly established Dachau concentration camp. Under orders from Himmler, he established ‘special’ rules for dealing with prisoners, rules that instituted terror as a way of life at the camp.

Suspecting SS accounts immediately, Hartinger investigated the camp deaths as homicides, getting proof from autopsies by an equally courageous medical examiner, Dr. Moritz Flamm. Hartinger was a gifted and competent lawyer. He had also demonstrated courage in the First World War, and pugnacity in his legal prosecutions. Despite the danger to his person and the hesitation of his superiors, Hartinger showed both fastidious professionalism and moral courage in building his case against the murderers at Dachau.

On 11 April when an SS detachment took four Jewish prisoners out of the grounds and, after beating them badly, shot them in the back of the head. The murder victims were reported as “shot while trying to escape”.

Camp commandant Hilmar Wäckerle showed them to a spot where the four prisoners were shot while trying to escape into the woods and later to a shed where three of their bodies were piled on the floor. Hartinger berated the guards on the undignified treatment of the bodies before, he told them “That is not how you treat a human being” Hartinger and Dr. Flamm set about identifying and examining them. They quickly noted that all the dead prisoners were Jewish and had been shot at the base of the skull. Erwin Kahn survived the escape shooting but four days later died while under SS guard in hospital. Without challenging the guards on these points, the investigators returned over several days to carefully document the evidence, with Flamm performing autopsies on the four prisoners. Hartinger and Flamm noted many inconsistencies between the injuries on the corpses and the camp guards’ accounts of the deaths.

With each visit, they had more and more deaths to investigate, such as the case of Sebastian Nefzger, a camp guard, who had allegedly committed suicide] The autopsy showed his back severely bruised all over and evidence of internal bleeding. He had allegedly tried to hang himself with the straps of his own prosthetic leg and when that failed, he had inflicted cuts on his own wrists so deep that they penetrated the bone. The autopsy of the lawyer Alfred Strauss, who was also shot trying to escape, revealed that he died of a bullet in the neck after suffering serious physical attacks. His back was covered with lacerations and his buttocks bandaged to hide a deep cut.

By German law ,at the time, the SS had committed crimes, because they were not legally a police force or even military force yet. When Hartinger showed his findings to his boss, Karl Wintersberger, he refused to sign the documents to start the indictments.

Wintersberger, a chief prosecutor who a decade before had intrepidly and successfully tried Nazi thugs, now lost his nerve, giving Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, and Hitler the opportunity to intervene to protect their henchmen. This didn’t stop Hartinger though.

In June 1933, Hartinger reduced the scope of the dossier to the four clearest cases. Johann Kantschuster was accused of murdering Alfred Strauss. Karl Ehmann was accused of murdering Leonhard Hausmann. The murderer of Louis Schloss and Sebastian Nefzer could not be identified so charges were brought against Wäckerle, Nürnbergk and Mutzbauer for abetting the murder and obstructing investigation.Wintersberger signed it, after first notifying SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler as a courtesy.

The killings at Dachau suddenly stopped temporarily, Wäckerle was transferred to Stuttgart and replaced by Theodor Eicke. The indictment and related evidence reached the office of the Bavarian Justice Minister, Hans Frank, but was intercepted by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner and locked away in a desk only to be discovered by the US Army after the war.

In 1946 files of the missing indictment were discovered by the US Army in the Bavarian Justice Ministry and were used in evidence in the trials of senior Nazis at the Nürnberg tribunal of 1947. Flamm’s thoroughly gathered and documented evidence within Hartinger’s indictment ensured it achieved convictions of senior Nazis such as Oswald Pohl. Wintersberger’s complicit behaviour is documented in his own evidence to the Pohl Trial.

What makes this story particularly poignant is the fact that Arthur Kahn, a 21-year-old Jewish German medical student had enrolled in Edinburgh University in Scotland, he had returned to , Germany to pick up his student records at the University of Wurzburg. Instead of finishing his studies, he became the first victim of the Holocaust.

Another thing that struck me in 1933 British Newspapers were already reporting about the killings in Dachau, 6 years before the war started.

Last night I watched a documentary where the story of Josef Hartinger was mentioned, in it, historian Timothy W. Ryback said “It is said ‘if we had 1000 Oskar Schindlers ,the Holocaust would not have happened. I say if we had 100 Hartingers the Holocaust would not have happened” I tend to agree with him.

sources

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/hitlers-first-victims

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-wisconsin-jewish-chronicle-16-more-j/11869954

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/12/hitlers-first-victims-and-one-mans-race-for-justice-timothy-ryback-review

Munich, 1933: The Good Bureaucrat, Josef Hartinger

The World Should Have Listened

On 12 December 1941, five days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Adolf Hitler made a revealing speech in Berlin to Nazi leaders.

“Bezüglich der Judenfrage ist der Führer entschlossen, reinen Tisch zu machen. Er hat den Juden prophezeit, daß, wenn sie noch einmal einen Weltkrieg herbeiführen würden, sie dabei ihre Vernichtung erleben würden. Das ist keine Phrase gewesen. Der Weltkrieg ist da, die Vernichtung des Judentums muß die notwendige Folge sein.”

“With regard to the Jewish question, the Führer is determined to clear the air. He prophesied to the Jews that if they were to bring about another world war, they would experience their annihilation. That was not just a phrase. The world war is here—Destruction of Judaism must be the necessary consequence.”

This was a private meeting, of course, but there were many occasions where Hitler publicly laid out his plans for the Jews, going back as far as the 1920s.

Hitler’s Conversation with author Josef Hell, 1922
When Hell asked Hitler what he intended to do if he ever had full freedom of action against the Jews, his response was:
“If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew.”

Hitler Interview in the New York Staatszeitung, 1933.
“Why does the world shed crocodile tears over the richly merited fate of a small Jewish minority? … I ask Roosevelt, I ask the American people: Are you prepared to receive in your midst these well-poisoners of the German people and the universal spirit of Christianity? We would willingly give every one of them a free steamer ticket and a thousand-mark note for travelling expenses if we could get rid of them.”

Hitler’s Closing speech at the Nuremberg Party Conference, 1938
(12 September 1938)
“When the question is still put to us why National Socialism fights with such fanaticism against the Jewish element in Germany, why it pressed and still presses for its removal then the answer can only be: Because National Socialism desires to establish a true community of the people…. Because we are National Socialists we can never suffer an alien race which has nothing to do with us to claim the leadership of our working people.”

These words were all said long before the war started.

Sources

https://phdn.org/archives/www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/statements.htm

Israel

I know that in the current political environment there is a popular believe among some, that the name Israel did not exist until 1948. Ironically some of these same people will be celebrating the birth of a Jewish man, born in Nazareth a city in Israel more then 2000 years ago.

I can appreciate that many will not accept that as evidence. So the best way to proof the existence of the name Israel is by pointing out a law created by the biggest enemies of the Jews, the Nazis, a law which cam to power on January 1,1939.

Paragraph 2 of the Law on Alteration of Family and Personal Names

“If a Jew bears a name differing from those which according to § 1 can be given to Jews, as of January 1, 1939, he must adopt an additional first name, namely Israel in the case of a male and Sara in the case of a female.”

The government required Jews to identify themselves in ways that would permanently separate them from the rest of the German population. In the new August 1938 law, authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and women bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin had to add “Israel” and “Sara,” respectively, to their given names. All German Jews were obliged to carry identity cards that indicated their heritage, and, in the autumn of 1938, all Jewish passports were stamped with an identifying red letter “J”. As Nazi leaders quickened their war preparations, antisemitic legislation in Germany and Austria paved the way for more radical persecution of Jews.

sources

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/holocaust/1933-1938/law-on-alteration-of-family-and-personal-names

Sara for women, Israel for men

The First Kindertransport

This post will be about the first Kindertransport, which arrived in the United Kingdom on 2 December 1938. However, I am starting with a speech by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 30 September 1938.

“There are only two things I want to say. First of all, I have received an immense number of letters during all these anxious times, and so has my wife. Letters of support, approval, and gratitude and I can’t tell you what an encouragement that has been to me. I want to thank the British people for what they have done. Next. And next, I want to say that the settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace.

“This morning. I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you.

“We, the German Fuhrer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe.

“We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

“We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.”

“My good friends,

“My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”

This is what puzzles me, if there really was peace for our time, then why did thousands of children have to be transported from Germany and Austria less than three months later?

In desperation, thousands of Jewish parents sent their unaccompanied children abroad, hoping they would find refuge from Nazi persecution. Just think about that for a minute, especially parents. The sacrifice of this act. When my kids were still small, it broke my heart every time I had to leave home for a few days and leave them behind. Or the nightmare scenarios that would run through my head when my children went on a trip—even if it was a short weekend. These parents weren’t sure if they would ever be reunited with their children, and for many that was the case as they would be murdered by the Nazis.

Approximately 10,000 children, the majority of whom were Jewish, were sent from their homes and families in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain.

The British Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare had met with a delegation representing both Jewish and non-Jewish refugees. After a debate in the House of Commons, they decided that the UK would accept unaccompanied children up to the age of 17. Sir Hoare agreed to speed up the immigration process by allowing travel documents to be issued on a group basis rather than individually. No limit was placed on the number of refugees.

The first children’s transport to England arrived in Harwich on 2 December 1938. It consisted of approximately 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been destroyed during Kristallnacht. From cities such as Berlin, Vienna and Prague, the children travelled by train to ports in Belgium and the Netherlands and from there by ship to Harwich.

Sources

http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/peace_in_our_time.htm

https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/1-december-1938-the-first-kindertransport-leaves-berlin-2/

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kindertransport-1938-40

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Eerste%20kindertransport%20in%20Harwich%2C%202%20december%201938

Guernica

The famous painting above is named Guernica and painted by Pablo Picasso. He painted Guernica at his home in Paris in response to the 26 April 1937 bombing of Guernica, a town in the Basque Country in Northern Spain that was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

The Nazis committed atrocities long before the start of World War II.

On Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the Nazi Germany Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. In his 30 April 1937 journal entry, von Richthofen noted that when the squadron arrived, “there was smoke everywhere” from the attack by three aircraft, and since nobody could see the roads, bridges, and suburbs “they just dropped everything right into the centre. The bombers toppled a number of houses and destroyed the water mains. The incendiaries could spread and become effective. The materials of the houses—tile roofs, wooden porches, and half-timbering—resulted in complete annihilation. The bombardment of Guernica was the first action of the modern German army.

There was quite an atmosphere of unease at the time, particularly in the wake of the recent bombardment of the nearby town of Durango, some 30 km from Guernica. Despite the market ahead as usual and, although it is difficult to establish any precise figures, in this regard, a total of approximately 10,000-12,000 people were in Guernica that day. At 16:20 h, the bells of the Santa María church rang out to warn the local population of the approach of enemy aircraft. Most planes formed part of the German Condor Legion, with a smaller number from the Italian Aviazione Legionaria. The Aerodromes used as a base for the bombing mission were located in Vitoria, Burgos and Soria. After the warning had sounded, the people of Guernica ran to seek refuge in a number of shelters built for this purpose, where they stayed for almost four hours until the bombing stopped. The continuous attack was barely with any intervals between the bombing waves, and the tactics used in the raid were as follows:

The first bombers and a number of fighter planes were sent in to warn the people and force them into the shelters in the centre of town. The fighter planes then circled the target to prevent anyone escaping from the town centre.

The first bombs dropped were break-up bombs weighing between 50 and 250 kg to destroy the buildings. The bombs broke through roofs, forming enormous craters when they exploded on the ground. This exposed the entire structure and wooden house features at that time.

Incendiary bombs were then dropped. These were steel bombs weighing between 1 and 2 kg and contained an alloy of magnesium, aluminium and zinc, which reacted when it came into contact with other metals to bring about uncontrollable fires reaching temperatures above 1,500 degrees. An enormous fire thus engulfed Guernica and was visible from villages many kilometres away.

Finally, survivors attempting to escape from the town centre were machine-gunned by the fighters, diving to altitudes as low as 50 metres. They operated around the accesses to Guernica, flying in circles to keep the local people confined to the fire’s perimeter. The streets in the town centre were very narrow, and the houses were built close together, making it easier for the fire to spread. More than 85% of the town was destroyed.

The painting, Guernica, was unveiled and initially exhibited in July 1937 at the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition, where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had huge pavilions. The Spanish Pavilion was financed by the Spanish Republican government at the time of the Civil War and built to exhibit the Spanish government’s struggle for existence contrary to the Exposition’s technology theme. The entrance of the Spanish Pavilion presented an enormous photographic mural of Republican soldiers accompanied by the slogan:

We are fighting for the essential unity of Spain.
We are fighting for the integrity of Spanish soil.
We are fighting for the independence of our country and for the right of the Spanish people to determine their own destiny.

The display of Guernica was accompanied by a poem by Paul Éluard, and the pavilion displayed The Reaper by Joan Miró and Mercury Fountain by Alexander Calder—both were sympathetic to the Republican cause.

The Nazis did murder a number of Spanish Republicans in Mauthausen during World War II.

In 2003, when US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented his case for the invasion of Iraq, a copy of Guernica was hanging in the room of the UN building. Powell asked it to be covered up because he thought it would distract from his presentation.

Sources

https://pitt.libguides.com/c.php?g=405564&p=2788792

https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/51/the-german-luftwaffe-bombs-guernica/

https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2022/gernika-criteria-of-truth

http://turismo.gernika-lumo.eus/en-us/descubre/Pages/bombardeo.aspx

April 26, 1937: The Bombing of Guernica

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85th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

On the morning of 7 November, a young Jewish man, Herschel Grynszpan, wrote a farewell postcard to his parents and put it in his pocket. Grynszpan went to a gun shop in the Rue du Faubourg St Martin, where he bought a 6.35mm revolver and a box of 25 bullets for 235 francs. They went to the German Embassy in Paris and asked to see an embassy official. After he was taken to the office of Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath, Grynszpan fired five bullets at Vom Rath, two of which hit him in the abdomen.

Why he did this is your homework for today.

This was the event that triggered Kristallnacht. Many will have you believe that the violence at Kristallnacht was disrupted spontaneously after and because of the killing of Vom Rath. However, I believe that Kristallnacht was planned weeks beforehand—it stands to reason it did. Many think that the violence only erupted in Germany, but there were attacks in Austria as well. In an era with no social media, where you could arrange something like this within a matter of hours, it must have been planned long prior to the date. It was well orchestrated.

The following is the impression of the British journalist Hugh Greenel of that fateful night—85 years ago, on 9 November 1938. He witnessed the events and wrote:
“Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. I have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the ‘fun’.”

Sources

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Kristallnacht&rows=1&page=1

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht

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War of the Worlds—October 30, 1938

It is Sunday evening—you turn on the radio and the news breaks that planet Earth is invaded by Mars. So what do you do? You panic, of course.

Well, that was the case for many when they switched on the radio on 30 October 1938.

By the end of October 1938, Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the Air had been on CBS for 17 weeks. A low-budget program without a sponsor, the series had built a small but loyal following with fresh adaptations of literary classics. But for the week of Halloween, Welles wanted something very different from the Mercury’s earlier offerings. The show began on Sunday, 30 October, at 8 pm ET. A voice announced, “The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.”

Network radio on Sunday nights in the fall of 1938 was dominated by a ventriloquist. Edgar Bergen and his wooden dummy Charlie McCarthy, plus a host of visiting guests, tickled NBC listeners at 8:00 pm week after week. No program, it seemed, could compete with the Bergen/McCarthy appeal. Failing to dent the NBC ratings blockbuster, CBS gave their competing hour over to “The Mercury Theater on the Air,” a low-budget series that presented a different drama each week to the few non-Bergen fans who might listen. Many tuned in late after listening to Bergen and McCarthy’s opening scene. And therein lay one of the secrets of the Orson Welles drama’s impact.

Another factor was timing. Only the month before, listeners stayed close to their radios for days as Europe appeared to be heading into war during the Munich Crisis of September. They came to expect radio journalists to break into programming with the latest events.

Listeners had grown to fully trust what they could hear. Welles played on this as he and his cast pretended to be something quite different than they initially seemed.

Welles introduced his radio play with a spoken introduction, followed by an announcer reading a weather report. Then, seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took listeners to “the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.” Putrid dance music played for some time, and then the scare began. A radio announcer broke into the broadcast, saying that “Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory had detected explosions on the planet—Mars.” Then the dance music came back on, followed by another interruption in which listeners were informed that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer’s field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey.

Soon, an announcer was at the crash site describing a Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder. “Good heavens,” he declared, “something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here’s another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me … I can see the thing’s body now. It’s large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it… it … ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it’s so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate.”

The Martians mounted walking war machines and fired “heat-ray” weapons at the puny humans gathered around the crash site, and then annihilated a force of 7,000 National Guardsmen. After being attacked by artillery and bombs, the Martians released a poisonous gas into the air. Soon, “Martian cylinders” landed in Chicago and St. Louis. The radio play was extremely realistic, with Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his actors—doing an excellent job—portraying terrified announcers and other characters. An announcer reported that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to flee.

The Federal Communications Commission investigated the unorthodox program but found no law was broken. Networks did agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future. The broadcast helped Orson Welles land a contract with a Hollywood studio. In 1941, he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane—a movie that many refer to as the best American film ever made.