bruceburgdorf

[bruceburgdorf]

@fritzlichty just for you!

Oskar Schindler.

The movie wasn't exactly true. It was, in fact, historical fiction. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It brought light to a man that did save people.

Among the key revelations in the book: Oskar Schindler did not write out a list of people to save, he didn’t break down in tears because he thought he could have saved more people, and it is unlikely he experienced a defining moment, such as seeing a girl in a red coat, that led to his decision to save the lives of his Jewish workers.

Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List, while important, impressive and admirable in many ways, took creative license on these and other issues.

What makes the story of Oskar Schindler so fascinating is he was not a saint. He cheated on his wife, he drank excessively and he spied for Abwehr, hello Canaris!

I'm sure if Heydrich found out?. The amount of pissed off he would be? Atomic bomb level of crazy.

When you look at it through a wider lens, Schindler's initial interest, of course, was to make money. In otherwords, he didn't give a fuck, at first.

To truly know someone outside of a base level is often to care.

That is what happened. Schindler grew to care about his Jewish workers, particularly those with whom he came into contact on a daily basis.

In addition, helping Jews became a way to fight against what he viewed as disastrous and brutal policies emanating from Adolf Hitler and the SS.

There was no list, at least by Schindler. The lists were done by one of the secretaries or possibly by one secretary. It was also quite self-serving by the gentleman who did it.

Oskar Schindler convinced German authorities his factory was vital and that he needed trained workers. But Schindler did not author or dictate the list of who would go on the transport, as was dramatically depicted in the Steven Spielberg film.

Many of the characters in the film were also composites of more than one person.

According to Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, the head of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem: “There was no person more deserving of Righteous Gentile status than Oskar Schindler, including Raoul Wallenberg.” Crowe agrees. “I think that Oskar Schindler’s heroism is unique because of the fact that what he did, both in Krakow and Brunnlitz, took place in the midst of the most horrible killing center in modern history. Moreover, while his most dramatic efforts took place during the last year of the war, Oskar Schindler’s efforts to help and later save Jews was a stance that evolved over three or four years.

Oskar Schindler was a great man who saved the lives of more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The imperfections in his character and the nuances in the historical record only make his story more remarkable."

Was he perfect? No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. However, if more people were like him, WWII might have had a very different story.

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Two officers credited with saving over 100 Jewish lives

Now recognised as

Righteous Amongst the Nations

Albert Battel 1891 - 1952

Max Liedtke 1894 - 1955

Albert Battel was a reserve officer having fought in the First World War but was a lawyer by profession. In 1933 he joined the Nazi party although it is likely this would have been essential to continue practicing as many professions required party membership. He had already come under suspicion of the Party for showing friendliness towards Jews including lending money.

Battel was called up to join the Wehrmacht and was assigned to the depot at Przemyśl in Poland in 1942, under the command of Major Max Liedtke, a former journalist dismissed for criticising the Nazi Party in his writing. Battel was reported to have been on good terms with a few of the workers from the Jewish ghetto who were employed within the depot.

When Battel learned of the plans for the ghetto’s residents to be handed over to the SS for transportation to Belzec, an extermination camp, he proposed that the soldiers at the depot should make a stand and Liedtke agreed and told him he would back him up.

When the SS tried to cross the San river which separated them from the ghetto, Battel and his subordinates used weapons to threaten the SS unit and refused them entry, telling them that there were people living there who were essential for their work in the Wehrmacht depot and that they couldn’t take them away. With Liedtke giving his support they had no choice but to leave.

The officers would then go even further by using army trucks to transport the workers and their families, over 100 people in all, to the Wehrmacht depot where the families lived undetected in the basement for several weeks and would eventually resume their work.

Once the act of defiance reached the senior Nazis the officers were transferred from their postings with Himmler arranging for their arrest after the war. Unfortunately the remaining residents of the Przemyśl ghetto would be transported to Belzec.

After the war Bettel died from heart disease not long after release from captivity. He had been dismissed from duty in 1944 but would be called up to the Volkssturm in 1945. Liedtke would die in soviet captivity having been transferred to a unit on the eastern front.

Posthumously and over four decades after the event the two officers were recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations with Major Max Liedtke being the highest ranking German officer to be awarded the honour.

Holocaust survivor Toni Rinde who was just two in 1942 was told by her father of Battel’s kindness towards people living in the ghetto and his actions which along with other people’s intervention saved the life of her family.

Why did the men not face immediate punishment?

Little is known about why the men escaped immediate trial given that it was against the law to assist Jews, however it has been debated that it could have due to Battel’s legal background. Up until as late as 1944 a passage in military law remained from before the Nazi era which stated,

A subordinate could face punishment for following the orders of his superiors if,

“It was known to him that the purpose of the superior officer’s order was a military or civil crime or offence”

Since the Nazi laws had NOT changed the definition of murder to exclude killing of Jewish persons it has been speculated that the arrests were suspended to avoid embarrassment of having drop the charges on a technicality should Battel have used this in his defence in court. It is unclear how widely known this passage in the law was, particularly among conscripted soldiers.

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crochet aquarium

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The FIRST bomb plot to kill Hitler

Georg Elser 1903 - 1945

Possibly THE bravest person in the history of the German resistance

There were at least forty two known assassination attempts on Hitler’s life, four of which involved a bomb. The architect of the very first bomb plot was a German man who acted completely alone and had no connection to any of the other known conspirators.

His name was Georg Elser and he had detested Hitler from the earliest days of his rise to power. Georg had voted for the German Communist party (KPD) but since he was not an active member or engaged in previous anti-Nazi activities he went under the radar and avoided arrest. He tuned out to Nazi broadcasts and refused to do the Hitlergruß (Nazi salute) in public.

In early 1939, as war seemed imminent, he began working on a homemade bomb involving the workings of a clock and a car indicator.

It was almost impossible to know where Hitler was going to be in advance if you weren’t part of his inner circle however there was one place where the Führer was guaranteed to be in November every year, the site of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich where he had made a speech every year since he became chancellor in 1933.

Georg gained access to the beer hall and would spend weeks, night after night, hollowing out a hole in a supporting pillar while hiding from view and timing any loud noises he made with sounds in the building. He would finally place his bomb with a timer set to go off during the speech for which senior members of the Nazi party would also be there and have front row seats. Once everything was set up Georg headed towards the safety of Switzerland.

In a devastating turn of events, the speeches that night had started slightly earlier than scheduled and Hitler and the senior party members had left the building to discuss military matters by the time the bomb detonated.

It was recorded that the bomb went off just THIRTEEN MINUTES after Hitler had left the building.

Tragically, the next day, with the country on high alert, Georg was detained at the Swiss border for having plans for the bomb still on him and he was handed over to the German authorities. Members of his family and people connected to him were arrested also but later released.

Georg would be sent to Dachau where he would be executed just before the end of the war in April 1945.

On a slightly positive note, the bomb did kill 7 members of the Nazi party and injured 62.

Speaking to SS guards sometime before his death, he was recorded to have said the following,

“I had to do it because, for his whole life, Hitler has meant the downfall of Germany”

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“This is my favourite battle in the whole WW2”

Mine too, if you can have a favourite thing about WW2.

I respect Major Josef Gangl and the Austrian Resistance members for joining forces with the US Army to stand up to the SS.

It was not just the castle which was attacked but the Austrian town of Wörgl where the SS were shooting civilians who were trying to surrender.

When Germans, Americans, French, and Slavs fought together during World War II

The Battle for Castle Itter,

On May 5th, 1945, only 5 days after Adolf Hitler’s suicide, a reconnaissance force under Capt. John “Jack” Lee was sent on a special mission to a town called Itter in Austria.  Itter was home to Itter Castle, built in the 13th century, it was a luxurious alpine prison for famous French POW’s including former French Prime Ministers, military generals, trade union leaders, resistance leaders, even a tennis star named Jean Borotra and Charles de Gaulle’s sister.  Also present at the castle were a number of Russian, Czech, Polish, and Yugoslavian prisoners who were used as maintenance workers.  The commander of the town was Major Josef Gangl, who took command when his superior shot himself after learning of the death of Hilter.  Gangl ordered most of his men to return home, sending a message to American forces that he was going to surrender the castle.  Him and 10 German soldiers stayed behind to defend the town from SS reprisals.  In the last months of the war, fanatical German SS units would often murder and execute those who surrendered, regardless if they were soldiers or civilians.

Capt. Lee arrived at Castle Itter shortly after being met by an SS recon force.  It was quite clear that the SS had learned of the surrender of Itter, sending a force of 150 SS soldiers to kill or execute everyone in the castle.  Immediately Capt. Lee set up defensive positions and radioed for reinforcements, however he was not able to raise anyone with his malfunctioning radio.  The ten German garrison troops agreed to stand and fight.  The French and Eastern European prisoners were ordered to hide, but most refused, taking up rifles from the castle’s armory and manning the defenses.  Even the wives and girlfriends of the French prisoners took up arms to fight and hold the line.  Major Gangl contacted the Austrian resistance, who sent two German soldiers who had surrendered a few days before, and a teenage Austrian resistance fighter to join the fight. Altogether, the castle was defended by a motley hodge podge group consisting of 14 American GI’s, 12 German Wehrmacht soldiers, a teenage Austrian resistance fighter, a number of French and Eastern European former prisoners, and a Sherman tank named “Begotten Jenny”.

On 11 o'clock in the morning, SS troops surrounded the castle, opening fire with machine guns, rifles, and an 88mm artillery piece.  The defenders held their ground, repulsing each and every assault.  In the midst of the battle tennis star Jean Borotra pole vaulted the castle walls, and ran as fast as he could, braving the gauntlet of enemy fire to deliver a message to Allied forces.  The battle continued.  By 4:00pm, after 5 hours of hard fighting, the defenders ran out of ammo.  Capt. Lee ordered the defenders to retreat to the castle keep, preparing to fight the SS in hallways and stairways with rifle butts and bayonets.  When the SS prepared their final assault, American reinforcements arrived and ended the battle.  Jean Borotra had survived and successfully made his way to the 142nd Infantry Division.  Around 100 German SS troops were captured.

The battle cost the lives of 7 American soldiers, 6 German soldiers, and a number of former prisoners. The tank “Begotten Jenny” was destroyed as well. Among the dead were Major Gangl, who was killed by a sniper while helping one of the former prisoners to safety. Today, he is considered an Austrian national hero.  Capt. John “Jack” Lee was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery and gallantry in defending Castle Itter.  Three days later, the war officially ended, and Europe was at peace.

[bruceburgdorf]

Trautloft and the rescue from Buchenwald

In August 1944 a group of 168 allied airmen from a number of different counties found themselves in Buchenwald concentration camp. It is certain they would have been executed there if it wasn’t for the aid of a Luftwaffe officer, Hannes Trautloft.

The Luftwaffe had a responsibility for the wellbeing of allied airmen shot down by their pilots over Germany or occupied territory. If a pilot was reported to have parachuted out of an aircraft, the responsible Luftwaffe squadron would ensure they were handed over to a unit close to where they landed who would then transport them to a prisoner of war camp.

The airmen in question upon bailing out over France, hid among the population in civilian clothes but were unfortunately betrayed to the gestapo by a foreign double agent posing as a member of the resistance but working for the Nazis.

As they were not in uniform they were treated as spies and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp instead of a POW camp stated in the Geneva Convention. As can be imagined the men were treated extremely harshly in the camp and were informed by the guards they would not be getting out alive.

Through another prisoner with outside contacts, a message was smuggled out and the whereabouts of the airmen became known to Hannes Trautloft, a Colonel in the Luftwaffe and then Inspector of the Day Fighters. Concerned at what he had learnt, the man arranged a visit to the camp pretending to be inspecting recent bomb damage.

He was told by the camp staff that it was a political prison and a labour camp. He was only shown the guard’s areas and clean parts of the camp and not where the prisoners were being held but across the camp he heard a man shouting to him from behind the fence and pleading for his intervention.

The guards tried to get Trautloft to leave but instead the Colonel told them to stand back while he listened to the man tell him about the 168 airmen who had been transported to the camp illegally and about everything which was happening within the camp.

Trautloft eventually had to leave but escalated the matter to Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland and with the backing of officers Galland, Steinhoff and Rödel he pushed for the airmen‘s release. Trautloft was reportedly so shaken up by what he has seen in the camp he personally wrote to the Buchenwald commandant saying the men better be in good condition upon their release.

In a few days the men were released where they were taken to Stalag Luft 3 but records of Buchenwald found after the war would show the men had been scheduled for execution by the guards just seven days after Trautloft s arrival at the camp.

Trautloft would go on to become a general in the modern German airforce.

There is a documentary about the airmen called The Lost Airmen of Buchenwald and the event is also mentioned in A Higher Call, based on the life of pilot Franz Stigler.

[bruceburgdorf]

Bovington Tank Museum moving the A7V

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Shot for refusing to kill civilians

Ernst Gräwe 1914 - 1945

Many sources say German soldiers faced little or no consequences in refusing to participate in the killing of civilians. This may well have been the case on the whole of course, although the number of recorded case studies available of those who refused orders is small to begin with.

While this is disappointing, it doesn’t prove there weren’t more and there was in fact at least one case which wasn’t included in the study, where a soldier was EXECUTED for refusing to kill civilians.

On 10th April 1945, in a town called Deventer in The Netherlands, roughly a month before the end of the war, a firefight broke out between the Wehrmacht and Dutch resistance fighters. Five people were captured and were lined up against a wall and the Wehrmacht soldiers were then ordered to execute them.

Ernst Gräwe, who served in a paratrooper unit who was also a medic and had not long received the War Merit Cross, refused to participate and was shot in the head by his own company commander. The executions were carried out by the remaining soldiers shortly after and just an hour later Canadian troops liberated the town. Ernst’s refusal and death had been witnessed by civilians in the town.

The executions became known as the Twentol-Drama based on the name of the warehouse the resistance members were hiding in and there is now a plaque in the town of Deventer which lists those who were killed and also commemorates the death of Ernst. The inscription reads, “Respect is also deserved of German Ernst Gräwe, who refused to participate in the execution and whose life ended violently here.”

[bruceburgdorf]

Tarnschriften

Anti-Nazi publication in Germany

The leaflets distributed by the resistance group Weiße Rose (White Rose) are widely known by those who study WW2 but they were not by any means the only ones who used this method to resist the Nazis.

Just days after the results of the March 1933 election, the government banned all publication of those who were known to oppose the Nazis and seized their typewriters and printing presses. Newspapers available to the public were reduced from over 4000 to a small amount approved by the Nazis as well as their own propaganda.

In resistance to this, a small but non-insignificant number of Germans continued to produce anti-Nazi material, some of whom were able to do so by having fled to neighbouring countries and some remained in Germany producing the material by illegal or self made means.

These people would design and produce public information pamphlets which would look genuine but would conceal information on a number of different subjects including how to build a radio to listen to banned broadcasts, encouragement to resist the Nazis, anti-Nazi humour, the treatment of communists and Jewish people and even how to fake injuries so factory workers could sabotage the war effort.

They were then distributed by a number of methods but their target audience would match those who the cover design would originally have been intended for to not arouse suspicion.

Individuals did not put their name on the publications for obvious reasons but it is now known that the pamphlets were produced by all groups on the political spectrum. Although the vast majority came from left wing groups, a small number came from the Social Democrats as well as right wing groups who didn’t approved of the policies of the Nazi Party.

Over 1000 variations of the pamphlets were reported to have been made.

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A tribute to him and to all who do good in evil times

Karl-Heinz Rosch 1926 - 1944

Who was Karl-Heinz Rosch and who were the two Dutch children he saved?

Karl-Heinz was a young German, conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a teenager in 1944 and billeted with a Dutch family on a farm in the small village of Goirle. Despite being a member of the occupying forces he got on well with the host family and showed them care by warning them of approaching German officers to their farm.

Just days after his 18th birthday, on 6th October 1944 the Wehrmacht engaged the allied forces and the farm came under attack by artillery fire with little warning. The young brother and sister, Jan and Toos Kilsdonk, who lived at the farm, were just 4 and 5 at the time and were still playing in the field when the attacked happened. Karl-Heinz ran to them under fire and carried them under his arms into the farmhouse to safety but was killed by the artilary fire just moments later.

In 2008 a statue was erected in Goirle in memory of the young man on which the inscription reads, “This statue is a tribute to him and to all who do good in evil times". A tribute to a boy who had dreams of becoming a forester before the war.

As of today, Jan and Toos are still alive.

[bruceburgdorf]

i regret absolutely nothing

[bruceburgdorf]

The 12th January 2025 marked the 25 year anniversary of Great Britain lifted its BAN on gay persons serving in the British armed forces.

Britain did NOT have a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell rule in their military, instead members who were suspected to have been gay could have their private life investigated (even if they never displayed behaviours in the workplace, mail/letters etc. could be intercepted, they could be followed to bars/clubs), be subject to humiliating interrogation, be court-marshalled and sent to military PRISON, potentially damaging prospects of future employment.

All this took place as late as the year 2000 which barely seems like anytime ago and there are still many who think the ban should never have been lifted and that the MOD were justified in their actions.

Ignore the ignorant comments in the video. Sometimes I feel like the world is going backwards not forwards.

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The Price of Integrity

Walter Gempp 1878 - 1939

An early victim of the Nazi Party.

Walter Gempp had been Chief of the Berlin Fire Department for 27 years and his techniques in firefighting had been used in study.

His report on the Reichstag fire, which took place on 27th February 1933, ultimately led to his dismissal a month after and later imprisonment, where he would eventually be found dead in his cell in 1939, suspected to have been murdered.

He would write that the fire department arrived in good time but was forbidden by Göring, Minister of the Interior at the time, to make the fire the highest priority and was prevented from calling on all available units. He also wrote that there were members of the SA at the scene when he arrived and that copious amounts of incendiary materials had been found in the building, suggesting it was more likely to have been started by those with access. The number of people who were involved in starting the fire is still debated today.

The day following the fire, which the Communitst Party (KPD) was blamed for, the Reichstag Fire Decree was issued. This would allow the government to arrest and intimidate those they perceived as a political threat, communists, social democrats and others, and would equally allow the Nazi party to lure voters with the supposed threat of communists which they could now spin as terrorists.

A week after the fire, elections were held in Germany resulting in an increase in votes for the Nazi party although they still needed a coalition with the German National People’s Party (DNVP) to secure the overall majority. These would be the last multi-party elections before the post war era.

[bruceburgdorf]

WWI, The War to End All Wars.

It was supposed to be short; the soldiers were supposed to be home for Christmas. But it turned out to be a long, arduous stalemate, thanks to the fiery birth of modern warfare; machine guns, airplanes, day after day spent digging miles of trench. No more valiant marches to the front lines, no more decorated uniforms in bold colours, no more bayonettes. Traditional chivalry was misplaced somewhere in the chaos of No Man’s Land. WWI had changed the face of war forever, and they did not expect it.

EDIT: Today is November 11, the day Armistice was declared. There is in fact a poppy in Hungary’s hair =)

(I can’t remember if I put this on tumblr already, but I’m in such a history mood right now and I have nothing else to offer…)

top to bottom): Austria-Hungary, Russia, France, Germany (Prussia included), Great Britain, United States of America, Italy (South Italy included). Though this is not everyone who participated!

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I would like to give praise to the author Sweety_Mutant who has written multiple fanfictions for The Great Escape for well over 10 years even when she has sometimes been the only one writing for the fandom.

Sweety encouraged me to publish my first fanfiction to A03 which I will always be grateful for and her latest work unintentionally called out my home of Cornwall by referencing Stargazy (fish head pie).

Even though I don’t believe she is on Tumblr anymore, if anyone is interested in the 1963 film The Great Espape or has an interest in POW camps please find our very small fandom on A03.

[bruceburgdorf]

Saw the first Lassie (2020) also and it was much better. It was disappointing it was only available in English though as I think you can appreciate films better in their original language.

Justus was really cute in this one. He can really play eccentric/emotional characters well.

Amazon Prime has the new German Lassie film and the English dubbing is the worst I have ever seen.

Justus von Dohnányi has a British accent for some reason while everyone else sounds American

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Punk