History of Sorts

Der Stürmer is probably the most vile newspaper ever published. It was nothing more then Julius Streicher’s Anti-Semitic propaganda tabloid. It was however popular and made Streicher a wealthy man.

It wasn’t the official Nazi newspaper, in fact some leading Nazis did not like it at all. Joseph Goebbels tried to ban the newspaper in 1938. And Hermann Goering banned the newspaper in all of his departments, he had a special hate for the paper for it had published and article claiming that his daughter Edda was conceived via artificial insemination.

Other Nazis like Heinrich Himmler and Robert Ley did like the publications of the paper.Hitler himself thought the primitive nature of the publications where very effective in influencing the common Germans.

In his propaganda work, Streicher made use of  medieval stereotypes ,especially Jewish stereotypes, or rather exaggerated stereotypes and caricatures. It’s slogan was Die Juden sind unser Unglück-“The Jews are our misfortune!”,

In  May 1934…

There have been many attempts to assassinate Hitler, it is estimated there have been around 35 attempt, some of them were quiet bizarre. If any of them would have been successful the outcome of the war would have been drastically different, in fact if the earlier ones in the 1920’s and 1930’s had succeeded there may never have been a World War 2 or a Holocaust.

I do wonder sometimes if some of these plots to kill Hitler were really plots or were they mere propaganda stunts. Let’s think about for a minute, the Germans who pride themselves in being very efficient were not able to kill one man, not even after dozens of attempts.But yet they were able to eradicate millions in a relatively short time frame.What if these plots were just schemed designed by Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler,to create the myth that Hitler was immortal and invincible.

Good news coverage is always very important to keep yourself informed, but in times of war this importance is amplified manyfold.

I still clearly remember when the  Gulf war-Operation Desert storm  broke out, it was probably one of the first times there was instant live news coverage of a war, and it was mesmerizing, The media used then was television, of course during WWII the television wasn’t as advanced as it is now so people relied on Newspapers to stay informed.

Some of the news coverage was heavily propagandized though. Below are some examples of Newspaper headlined from WWII, in no particular order.

1943 Volkischer Beobachter (Germany) front page reporting the German Army defeat at Stalingrad saying “They died, so that Germany can live”

This is a strange one, it is a German propaganda news paper in English , called Swastika Times.

The Axis powers, especially Germany, also produced leaflets…

The most destructive war in all of history, its exact cost in human lives is unknown, but casualties in World War II may have totaled over 60 million service personnel and civilians killed.

As the saying goes ‘ a picture paints a thousand words’ even though it may paint a thousand words it doesn’t always tell the whole story.

You will have seen some of the pictures below already and others may be new to you, either way they do tell a bit of the story of WWII.

A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France. What is even more powerful in this picture it shows in one shot the different sentiments. As he weeps the woman next to him applauds.

Cpl. Carlton Chapman…is a machine-gunner in an M-4 tank, attached to…

Walther Funk, (born August 18, 1890, Trakehnen, East Prussia, Germany [now Yasnaya Polyana, Russia]—died May 31, 1960, Düsseldorf, West Germany), German Nazi and economist who was economics minister of the Third Reich from 1938 to 1945 and president of the Reichsbank from 1939.

He was tried and convicted as a major war criminal by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sentenced to life in prison, he remained incarcerated until he was released on health grounds in 1957. He died three years later.

What disturbs me about the above quote is that although he says he is ashamed there is no admission of guilt, he also forgets to mention he willingly participated, and made a good life out of it.

At Nuremberg, Funk was accused by Allied prosecutors of having been closely involved in the State confiscation and disposal of the property of German Jews from this time. He boasted that by 1938, the German state had confiscated Jewish property worth two million marks, using decrees from…

Franklin D. Roosevelt had to be considered as the greatest US president.He steered the country in the most difficult of times. He was the only President to be elected 4 times.

Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

On March 3, 1933, the newly elected president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, promises a country battered by the Great Depression a renewed prosperity, setting forth plans to put the government to work.

In contrast to the grim economic landscape in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, his second term begins with a brighter outlook. In his January 20, 1937, inaugural address, Roosevelt commends Americans for their hard work…

Martin Luther King Jr would have turned 89 today if it hadn’t been for that fateful day in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

King’s legal name at birth was Michael King, and his father was also born Michael King, but the elder King changed his and his son’s names.

The King family had several tragedies to deal with besides the assassination of Marrtin Luther King Jr on the aforementioned date April 4 1968, his brother Alfred Daniel Williams King, died of an accidental drowning on July 21, 1969, nine days before his 39th birthday.

King Sr.’s wife and King Jr.’s mother, Alberta, was murdered by Marcus Wayne Chenault on Sunday, June 30, 1974, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church during Sunday services.

Chenault was a 23 year old black man from Ohio who stood up and yelled, “You are serving a false God”, and began to fire from two pistols while Alberta was…

The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940, during World War II. The operation was decided upon when large numbers of British, French, Belgian, and Canadian troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the events in France “a colossal military disaster”, saying “the whole root and core and brain of the British Army” had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured.In his We shall fight on the beaches speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a “miracle of deliverance”

Below are some pictures of the battle and evacuation of Dunkirk.

British soldiers wait on an improvised pier made out of vehicles in order to evacuate Dunkirk during low tide. June…