bruceburgdorf

[bruceburgdorf]

Frohe Weihnachten für alle🎄🎄 🎄

Happy Christmas to you all!!

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British and German soldiers hold a Christmas truce during the Great War, 1914

by Angus McBride

[bruceburgdorf]

Farewell

Last comic of the Father and Son series (1934 – 1937) by Erich Ohser (e. o. plauen)

Transliteration: Liebe Freunde, auf Wiedersehen! Euer "Vater und Sohn"

Translation: Dear Friends, farewell! Yours sincerely, "Father and Son"

Erich Ohser had gotten increasingly uneasy with the hype around his Father and Son series, so he decided to end it. He had observed how the Nazis dealt with successes that didn't fit to their ideology and was afraid of the consequences that may come upon him, although there were no indications yet that they were starting to target him. Such was the atmosphere of fear that the Nazis had built up at this point in time.

The decision to retire Father and Son was met with utter regret by the public. There were reports of people crying their eyes out over this last comic of the series.

[bruceburgdorf]

“The pilot, Charlie Brown, is for me, as precious as my brother was”

On the 81st anniversary of the now famous “Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler Incident” on the 20th December 1943 where German pilot Franz Stigler risked his life by escorting American pilot Charlie Brown and the crew of his badly damaged B-17 across German airspace, the heavily defended Atlantic Wall and out to sea, here are some interesting facts about Franz Stigler.

Franz built and flew in his first aircraft when he was just 12 years old.

Franz was a devout catholic who’s parents and brother were strongly against the Nazi party (Franz had been too young to vote).

Franz’s principles were heavily influenced by his squadron leader Gustav Rödel who told him when first arriving in North Africa, “You follow the rules of war for you, not for your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity”. Rödel told Stigler to think of shooting down enemy planes as “Victories” , talking machines out of the war rather than “Kills”. Rödel also strongly objected to the strafing of airmen in parachutes and told his men he would shoot them down if he ever saw them doing it.

Franz’s first role in the Luftwaffe was a trainer and he trained Gerhard Barkhorn who would go onto become a general in the modern day airforce.

Franz’s squadron’s mascot was a real life 300lb black bear based on their emblem which was the Black Bear of the coat of arms of Berlin. The bear was tame and lived with the squadron and even swam with them in the outdoor swimming pool.

Rather than Franz looking for credit for his actions, he never told anyone about it and it was Charlie Brown who, decades after the event, searched for Franz, writing to German aviation magazines in the hope of a response which he eventually received. It was Charlie, who when interviewed by an American journalist, persuaded them to record Franz‘s side of the story.

When his story was first published, Franz received abuse from a few Germans who called him a traitor but also from Canadians where he was then living who had assumed he had left Germany to hide a Nazi past but the truth was he had struggled to find work in his country and had left to find a better life.

Franz and Charlie would have a reunion and then would continue to meet up, phone and write to each other until their deaths, both in 2008.

[bruceburgdorf]

German cartoon of the famous "Father and Son" series by e. o. plauen (civil name Erich Ohser).

The cartoon series was hugely popular in the early 1930s. Part of its success is thought to be the appearance and mindset of the two main characters that is fundamentally opposed to the Nazi ideas. Erich Ohser retired the cartoon series at his own will when he felt that it became too commercialized, and the pressure to produce more and more of the cartoons impacted his heartfelt connection to the two characters.

Erich Ohser was a staunch opponent of the Nazi party. He was immediately banned from publishing when the Nazis came to power in 1933. However, he was allowed to publish this cartoon series under pseudonym. After he abandoned Father and Son, he worked eventually as a cartoonist for the government magazine Das Reich to make a living, where he was praised for his Stalin caricatures. However, he was denunciated by a neighbor and arrested together with his friend Erich Knauf. Erich Ohser committed suicide the night before his trial. Erich Knauf was found guilty and executed by beheading.

[bruceburgdorf]

When Santa’s Elves Were German

German POWs held at St Erth, Cornwall making toys

Between the years 1945 and 1948 400,000 Axis POW’s were imprisoned in UK Prisoner of War camps.

During these years thousands of Christmas toys were made by the former Wehrmacht soldiers and initially given to orphaned children and children of injured British soldiers however many other children can remember receiving the extremely well made toys which were made primarily from scrap materials.

A jewellery box made by the POWs at St Erth of which the recipient still lives in the village.

A musical box made by German POWs in the UK.

In my current village of St Erth, Cornwall many of the villagers can remember the POWs and a few continued to visit after the war and often their families get in touch on the village Facebook page.

The POWs were given a number of freedoms in the years after the war and many of them worked for the village farmers in their fields and lived in their homes alongside their families. Some of the prisoners were little older than boys and the villagers received letters from their parents thanking them for their kind treatment.

At least two of the POWs settled in the village after the war and a few returned for holidays and often a reunion was held at the village pub.

The POWs also built the first mechanical water pump for the village which still stands today.

The St Erth village water pump built by POWs in 1943.

[bruceburgdorf]

I’ve just had a weeks holiday in Finland where it was lovely and snowy and I spent my time there writing about my favourite doomed generals.

I apologise that my other fic is really depressing and probably more so now if you read this one first. I can’t seem to be able to write fluff - I blame the emo era I grew up in, we ate up this kind of stuff for breakfast.

Another cringy title - I hate giving them names - It was very nearly called Brokeback Krebsdorf 🙈

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Krebs: Til death do us part, right, Burgdorf? Burgdorf: It's cute you think death can separate us.

[bruceburgdorf]

Post appreciation of my favorite lesbian couple <3

[bruceburgdorf]

I am certain this is Tiger 131, currently at the Bovington Tank Museum and is the only known still working Tiger I in the world.

I have seen it several times and is well worth a visit.

A German Tiger tank captured in Tunisia, on display at Horse Guards Parade in London, 18 November 1943.

[bruceburgdorf]

Two Young German Resistance Fighters

Helmuth Hübener 1925 - 1942

Helmuth was a member of the Mormon church, of which despite just being a teenager he was a secretary for his local chapter. His part in the resistance against the Nazis would be a non-violent one.

Briefly a member of the Hitler Youth after it became compulsory to join he refused to take part after seeing the treatment of Jews on Kristallnacht in 1938 and became upset when an ethnically Jewish member of his congregation was forced to leave.

In the early years of the war he became known for being outspoken about the Party among his closest friends. In 1941 he began listening to BBC broadcasts, illegal in Germany, which he noticed were very different to the propaganda channels his country was restricted to hearing and Helmuth realised the deception which was taking place.

His role as the secretary for his church meant he had access to a typewriter and official government paper and stamps, he began using this material to type up truths about the Nazi party provided by the BBC and other foreign broadcasts onto pamphlets detailing Nazi party atrocities and how futile the war was. He asked his two, similarly aged and closet friends in the church, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudolf Wobbe to assist in the distribution of the material to which they agreed to but were not comfortable with doing so for fear of retribution. Helmuth told them he as was aware of the consequences but agreed he would take the blame if they were caught. The pamphlets were distributed locally and also posted to soldiers at the front. An example of his words to the soldiers were

“He will send you by the thousands into the fires in order to finish the crime he started. By the thousands your wives and children will become widows and orphans. And for nothing!”

When the boys tried to recruit another member of their congregation they were unfortunately betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo.

Helmuth’s words of wisdom used in his material were advanced for his age and many people had been fooled into believing the documents had been written by someone much older. This intellect would unfortunately be used against Hübener by The People’s Court who decided to try the 17 year old as an adult.

Instead of pleading with the judges for his life, Helmuth shot back scathing remarks when asked about his faith in National Socialism and Germany’s ability to achieve victory. In his last act of defiance he spoke these words to the judge.

“Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime. So now it's my turn, but your turn will come."

Helmuth Hübener was executed by guillotine on 27th October 1942 at the age of 17 but was not the youngest known German to have been executed for resisting the Nazis.

His two friends who had assisted in the distribution of the resistance pamphlets were given sentences in labour camps and were treated very harshly but fortunately survived. In a tragic turn of events Karl was released from imprisonment in the final weeks of the war for conscription into the Wehrmacht. After his surrender to the Americans they then passed him over to the Soviets for internment in the USSR for a further six years.

Liselotte (Lilo) Hermann 1909 - 1938

Lilo Hermann joined the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) as a student to oppose the rise of fascism in her country.

During her time at Berlin Humboldt University she had become involved with a number of protests against pro-Nazi students who heckled her and damaged her property on a regular basis. In 1933, she, along with other communist and Jewish students were forced to leave the university.

She would continue with resistance activities and would begin a relationship with communist journalist Fritz Rau who she would have a child with before he was beaten to death by Nazis in December 1933. Lilo returned to Stuttgart to live with her parents and work for her Engineer father.

Lilo saw plans in her father’s office which confirmed suspicions of German expansion of armaments. She used her contacts to smuggle the plans out of the country to anti-fascist groups and would continue to pass on whatever information she could until her eventual arrest where her name had been linked to other members of the KPD also arrested.

Lilo was executed by guillotine on 20th June 1838 at just 28 years old and left behind her young child. She was the first known woman to have sentenced to death by The People’s Court.

[bruceburgdorf]

As someone who can appreciate jokes made at the expense of individuals of the Nazi party I am however extremely intolerant of those who use WW2 to make jokes at the expense of Germans a whole.

I can recall many incidences in my childhood where adults openly gave their blessing to children to incite hate of modern day Germans like it was their duty to do so. One of these adults was a teacher and his words were extremely vile and have stuck with me for many years.

These people seem willing ignorant of the fact that passing down hatred of an entire race to a new generation not only incites future conflicts between nations but is course something the Nazi party did themselves.

I now live among in-laws who have been brought up with similar views to my former teacher but squirm or worst get defensive when confronted with views that their own country was often in the past, much less than a paragon of virtue.

Hey uh how about we stop the ww2 jokes.

They're not funny.

At all.

Make fun of our language, about the issues in our country, about other history, but please move on from that topic.

It's a serious topic and a dark time period and joking about it takes away the seriousness from it.

Thank you, as a german.

[bruceburgdorf]

Flashbacks to lunchtime detention

Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)

[bruceburgdorf]

BBC Colditz Fanfiction

For those interested in Prisoner of Wars camps and POW fiction I want to share a very old fanfiction which was written in 1996 by Sue and Sal from The Android’s Dungeon (A very old fanfiction website) about the 1972 British TV series Colditz.

It is a brilliant multi-chapter fanfiction featuring the pairings Dick Player/Phil Carrington and also Franz Ulmann/Kommandant Karl

The fanfiction was originally published in paperback before it was available online and is also the oldest example of a WW2 German pairing I have found online.

[bruceburgdorf]

This took me way too long but ahh at least it's done now🤧 I wanted to draw a little something for Rommel's birthday (which was already like 4 days ago but let's ignore that) and decided to redraw one photograph of him that I really like. His face isn't that easy to get right though, especially the eyes and his smile. I tried😭 (to be fair it was only like my second or third time drawing him though, and the first time I did a full illustration, I'd probably just need more practice)

But I'm also so out of practice like damnnn. Not sure if I want to continue in this kind of style, or maybe try something different for possible future drawings. When I was finally done I also started to get a bit anxious about posting this (because what if it's weird to post art of a historical figure, especially from that era) ... but now I already finished it, so I guess I might as well show it😅

[Reference photo under the cut]

Maybe I should've chosen a different photo, his smile in this one is so sweet but sooo hard to get right😅

[bruceburgdorf]

things i unfortunately have in common with hitler

vegetarian

absolutely fucked sleep schedule

unhealthily obsessed with germany

[bruceburgdorf]

Happy Birthday Robert Graf

1923 - 1966

Robert Graf as Werner in The Great Escape

In The Great Escape Robert Graf played Werner, a Ferret stationed at Stalag Luft 3 who Eagle Squadron pilot Hendley (James Garner) befriends in order to later steal from and bribe him into assisting with materials for the escape.

Werner tells Hendley that he is afraid of being sent to the Eastern Front but in real life Robert Graf served on the Eastern front from 1942-1944 when he was 19-21 years old but after being wounded he was resigned to defence production duties. He then went on to study theatre and film and appeared in his first film in 1952.

There were at least two different versions of The Great Escape Script. The first, written in 1962, was very different to the finished script which was clearly changed when the film was cast as it included characters which do not appear in the film and some characters have been changed.

1962 Version

1963 Version

One reason for the changes to the first version was the cast members themselves of who a few of them had been prisoners of war during WW2 including Donald Pleasence who played Colin Blythe and Hannes Messemer who played Colonel von Luger. The cast were able to give an insight on life as a POW during the war.

One difference between the scripts was that in the first version the German sergeant and Ferrets including Werner were actually noted to have been sent to the Eastern Front after the escape. In real life no enlisted ranks or NCOs were punished for the escape although men did leave the camp to join the front lines due to being called up.

Robert Graf died of cancer at 42 years old just a few years after appearing in The Great Escape.

On another note there is a very small fandom for The Great Escape with some great fanfics on A03 and older sites which I would recommend if anyone is interested.