#book: the third reich in power

[whencyclopedia]

Hitler's Occupation of Czechoslovakia

Throughout 1938, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the leader of Nazi Germany, threatened to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The excuse presented was that Sudeten Germans were being repressed but Hitler was intent on creating a 'Greater Germany', which included all German speakers in Europe. In the Munich Agreement of September 1938, Britain, France, and Italy agreed to recognize Germany's claim over the Sudetenland. This act of appeasement was meant to avoid a world war.

In March 1939, Hitler occupied the Bohemian and Moravian regions of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia became a German client state, and Hungary and Poland grabbed what was left of the old Czechoslovakia. When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain and France finally declared war. Czechoslovakia had been betrayed and bargained away for nothing.

German Troops Enter the Sudetenland

Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

Hitler's Greater Germany

Hitler had harboured ambitions to build a German empire or 'Greater Germany' ever since his book Mein Kampf (published in 1925), in which he described the need for Lebensraum (living space) for the German people – new lands where they could prosper. Once in power from 1933, Hitler pursued an aggressive foreign policy that aimed to recover Germany's territorial losses following the Treaty of Versailles that had formally concluded the First World War (1914-18).

The first practical step towards a Greater Germany came with a plebiscite in the coal-rich Saar region, once part of western Germany but governed by the League of Nations (the forerunner of today's United Nations) since the end of WWI. In March 1935, voters decided overwhelmingly to rejoin Germany. One year later, in March 1936, German armed forces occupied the Rhineland, an industrialised area between Germany and France, which the Versailles treaty had stipulated should not have any military presence. As was the case with Japan's invasion of Chinese Manchuria in 1931 and Italy's invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, the League of Nations offered no meaningful response. Encouraged, Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles and set about solidifying his alliances. In October 1936, Germany and Italy became allies with the Rome-Berlin Axis. In November 1936, Italy and Germany (and later Japan) signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, a treaty of mutual cooperation in empire-building and a united front against communism. Hitler could now concentrate on his next victim: Austria.

Hitler not only wanted more German speakers under his power but also Austria's raw materials and currency reserves; both were badly needed for the costly rearmament programme Germany was undertaking. In 1938, Hitler pressured the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg (1897-1977) to appoint Nazi ministers in his government, but when Schuschnigg planned a plebiscite on independence for 13 March, Hitler mobilised his army, which crossed the border on 12 March. Crucially, Hitler had three factors in his favour: the support of half of the Austrian population, the Austrian army was incapable of effective resistance, and the fascist dictator of Italy Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) had promised he would not interfere. The Austrian government duly capitulated, and radio messages urged people not to resist. The Anschluss was accomplished.

The Rise of Nazi Germany, 1919 - 1939

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

The major powers, all eager to avoid another world war, reacted tamely to the Anschluss and took solace from the popularity of the takeover indicated by the plebiscites in Germany and Austria, which showed (an improbable) 99% approval for the Anschluss. Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich and became a German province. Possession of Austria gave Hitler a strong strategic position in Central Europe, a base from which he could launch further invasions, particularly in the Balkans and to his next target, Czechoslovakia. In May 1938, Hitler declared to his generals: “it is my unalterable will to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future" (Dear, 597). What Hitler wanted first, though, was an excuse to take Czechoslovakia. As it turned out, he did not need it since the Western powers conspired to give Hitler the country on a plate.

Continue reading...

[bl00dlight]

about people who think you're unfair when it comes to depicting aemond... are just delusional who mayhaps read aemond x reader or fanfictions or some headcanons... aemond is and will always be a villainous person, when he was a kid he wanted to bash the head of his nephew with a rock ( this resulting in him losing an eye and he deserves it, sorry nog sorry ) + his pursue for powers will be his well-deserved downfall. he's a raging misognist like the rest of the entire family, like... aww he is crying when helaena bluntly tells him the truth ? hope he'll rot with his guilt. you are totally right, he's a piece of shit and i can't wait to see his demise.

I mean AHAHAHAHAHHAHA. Speak your truth diva.

Look I love Aemond. Okay... let me just say.

BUT, yes no you're right like. He is fucking awful and the worst. And I do want to see him rot with his guilt a little, especially what he did to Helaena. Like I love him, and I understand him. And I do feel sympathy for him.

If I was Helaena would I have have said yes before he'd been finished his sentence? Yes. Would I have girl bossed it and proposed to him like Rhaenyra did to Daemon? Yes. Would I hypothetically let this fictional man suck and fuck on me?.... undeniably. Is this a parasocial relationship? Yes.

But it's undeniable that so many girlies on here fucking act like tradwives defending their right wing, MRA adjacent, wife beating man. Like you can want to cook him dinner and also call him out for genocide. Really gets me concerned about... well... how some of yall interact with men irl. A man like Aemond irl, is an incel.

Someone said this on reddit about the balcony scene, that it was like when an incel goes up to his crush to try and get her to be on his side before he shoots up a school. And AHAHHA exactly.

They act as if Aemond is indeed a victim through and through, who has done no wrong and is a sweetypie. And is it self insert fluff fics fault? Yes it is. People are attracted to Ewan... and their idea of Aemond. Not really Aemond as he is. And many don't want to interact with analysis of his character. Which is fine. No hate, you do you. But it is a problem when others make it fans like myself, problem.

And as someone with a disorganised attachment style? As someone who upon watching the Harry Potter series as a child who had their sexual awakening upon seeing both Draco and Luicus Malfoy. As someone who has been a Sharpay Evans defender since it came out and as someone who agreed with Rosalie Cullen that Bella was a boring ass... whiny as bitch....

I gotta say? Mean, evil and toxic platinum blondes? I'm here for them and I love them. And I am basically attracted to Aemonds character/interested in him because of the fact he is a fucking asshole. Okayyyy soooooo. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of soft, vunerable Aemond. But I can only love that because it's a rare thing for him. Because he's main mode is acting like a horror movie villain. I've always been about that life of loving dark characters. It seems many upon here are just... well... they find him hot and wanna smash. Which is valid. But it's not valid to project your personal sexual/romantic fantasies onto other fans who are just... discussing canon characteristics of Aemond.

And even reddit neckbeards do it to because they relate to Aemond. They'll swear he was this valiant, dutiful, scorned boy. They'll swear he wasn't a Valyrian supremacist. They'll swear he would never hurt or betray his family. But it's like? So basically how the fuck does someone campaign for the fucking third reich *House Strong Edition* be day and be a loving family man by night who would never betray his family if he felt abandoned/humiliated or hurt by them? So you know... the fanboys who thump the book like it's the bible also are FUCKING ANNOYING.

It's actually crazy.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Steve Corbin

According to a May 15 NBC News report, there are a multitude of issues that voters must discern about Joe Biden, Donald Trump and the independent presidential candidates before voting on Nov. 5. Logically, the importance of each issue differs between and among America’s 161.4 million registered voters.

One issue missing from the NBC News report that has become a focal point of the Biden camp, Make America Great Again Republicans and third-party candidates is democracy vs. authoritarianism. Specifically, on Jan. 20, 2025, will the duly elected and inaugurated president of the United States keep America as a democracy that dates back to the 1630’s in the New England colonies, or will it be the start of changing the country to authoritarian fascism?

If you’ve not heard of Project 2025, it’s very worthy of your independent investigation. Project 2025 is a playbook specifically created for Donald Trump and his supporters to use in the first 180 days of Trump’s 2025-29 presidential administration. The far-right extremism-based Heritage Foundation proudly takes claim for facilitating the creation of the 887-page turning-democracy-into-an-authoritarian-country document.

Project 2025’s two editors had assistance from 34 authors, 277 contributors, a 54-member advisory board and a coalition of over 100 conservative organizations (including the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heartland Institute, Liberty University, Middle East Forum, Moms for Liberty, the National Rifle Association, Pro-Life America and Tea Party Patriots).

Project 2025 is a serious endeavor, if Trump returns to the White House, to make America a fascist country. After all, on May 20, Trump posted a video on his Truth Social media account depicting his 2025-29 administration as a “Unified Reich.” (Hitler’s Third Reich occurred from 1933 to 1945.)

Download the Project 2025 document (it's linked from this essay) so you can check out the disconcerting manuscript that tells Trump what specifically to do from Jan. 20 to July 18, 2025, to convert America into an authoritarian regime.

The 30 chapters of Project 2025 are a daunting read. Project 2025 proposes, among a host of things, eliminating the Department of Education, eliminating the Department of Commerce, deploying the US military whenever protests erupt, dismantling the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, removing sexual and gender protected discrimination and terminating diversity, equity, inclusion and affirmative action.

Additional mandates include: siphoning off billions of dollars of public school funding, funding private school choice vouchers, phasing out public education’s Title I program, gutting the nation’s free school meals program, eliminating the Head Start program, banning books and suppressing any curriculum that discusses the evils of slavery.

Project 2025 also calls for banning abortion (which makes women second-class citizens), restricting access to contraception, forcing would-be immigrants to be detained in concentration camps, eliminating Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, recruiting 54,000 loyal MAGA Republicans to replace existing federal civil servants, and ending America’s bedrock principle that separates church from state.

A news story in Politico described Project 2025 as an authoritarian Christian nationalist movement and a path for the US to become an autocracy. Several legal experts have indicated implementing the 180-day manual would undermine the rule of law and the separation of powers.

As noted earlier, Project 2025 is worthy of your independent investigation. So that you’ll be in-the-know as to what authoritarianism looks like, seriously consider reading one research-based book per month for the next five months as pre-election homework. Here’s my suggested reading assignment:

JUNE: "On Tyranny: 20 lessons from the 20th century," Timothy Snyder, 2017.

JULY: "Twilight of Democracy: The seductive lure of authoritarianism," Anne Applebaum, 2020. Chapters IV, V and VI get to the bottom line.

AUGUST: "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America," Heather Cox Richardson, 2023.

SEPTEMBER: "Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America," Barbara McQuade, 2024. The 1,717 reference citations proves this is well researched and an honest read.

OCTOBER: "1984," George Orwell, 1949. Orwell’s novel shows Americans what life would be like under totalitarian and oppressive rule.

Reading even just one of these books will enable you to discern political candidate and party-based disinformation, misinformation and propaganda from truth, ready to vote on Nov. 5 and keep America a democracy.

[ppandoraiscray]

can i ask, how is wwii viewed in france? (it is a french flag right? if not i will die of shame 🥴 ) i know you guys were occupied during the war by the germans. what led you to an interest in the third reich? friendly greetings from another formerly occupied country (denmark)

Yes it’s France you will not die of shame! In France we have our heroes (men and women). We have our main hero which is De Gaulle 🫡. We hate Petain and everyone who was a collabo. Our soldiers and the resistants were dead for our liberty. We’re very proud of our history on that side 😊! Nazis ruined our country they are a shame and the moderns ones too.

What led me to an interested in the third reich? I was learning this topic at school like everyone else.

More details: I was mainly interested in how could Adolf be this powerful? How could he loose war? Who’s he mentally? etc… I bought mein kampf to know more about the austrian man. Also to know if is it only a racist, antisemite book (it’s not)? I was fascinated of thinking like: it was literally yesterday..

Then I read about his personal life, then fanfics and I read panzerprincess33’s fanfic and found her tumblr blog! After her, Verboten, Laceguts since that I decided to join here :) !

[crepes-suzette-373]

Every other day I find more Kamen Rider nods/callbacks in Germa, and it's getting really obnoxious, I just keep wondering what sensei is trying to do with this. If he's just having fun because he really likes Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, this is kind of going overboard.

Maybe he's just trolling Toei with this nonsense??? Toei as a studio runs Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure (another magic girl show), and of course One Piece. Maybe he thought it'd be funny to make this bizarre combination of all the above and he just happens to really like Kamen Rider the most??

Sometimes the nods are too serious to be a joke, but on the other hand it's also super absurd at other times.

The Super Sentai team look is almost a camouflage, lore-wise they're definitely closer to Kamen Rider. Plus, Kamen Rider itself did have its "evil team" with rainbow scarves (all identical suits, though). Funky belts and scarves? That's the classic Kamen Rider's iconic look.

And then the Germa leader in the comic book resembling the military-looking guy (a KR villain commander). Based on the rough drafts that military look almost was designated to be how Judge actually looks before sensei scrapped it (too obvious, maybe?).

Kind of hard to see but in the screenshots you can also see the evil organisation's logo (on the floor in the middle of the table) looks like the Germa eagle symbol. And the setup of the "table under throne" in the left screenshot looks more specifically similar.

He's been mixing up various tropes from multiple seasons so it's just really

The term "modified humans" 改造人間 that was used to refer the the siblings is something that was characteristic of the Shouwa Riders (the really old ones from 90s and older). This is not "cyborg", by the way, just genetic modification. Like, in American superhero terms, Captain America or Winter Soldier would also categorise as 改造人間.

Sanji's backstory and the exoskeleton mods and even "evil twins" is more specifically Kamen Rider Black. The raid suit can transformation pose are the newer riders (Heisei Riders) from later in the 2000s onwards.

The original Kamen Rider villains, the Shocker group, were legitimately just flat out Nazis (or affiliated to them), and I honestly think the weird look in Germa is because of the Kamen Rider Easter Egg. Not because sensei was thinking "Germa = Germany".

Certainly we don't know when this stuff turned into this, as the old drafts proved that there was a time he designed "Sanji's family" to just look mostly normal. The father who was named Saint Germain looks just kind of like Pedro but human. Yonji looks like pre-timeskip Sanji but has a sword.

To me it felt more like he was going for the French/Saint Germain angle at first, then suddenly it became Kamen Rider and the Third Reich stuff crawled in. Sensei does a lot of research I'm sure, but I mean, most Japanese text usually calls Germany "Doitsu". Even the WW2 stuff would refer to them with something-Doitsu.

Unless he picked up a text with English words in them, he might not have really noticed Germany is spelled "Germany" in English. We don't know either way, that's why I don't like to assume for certain.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much of this can serve as a predictor. If it really is a straight reference, Sanji might then just adopt the mods completely. As mentioned above, the old Riders were "modified humans". The evil organisation were the people who forcibly gave them the powers they never wanted. They just reject the evil intent, but embrace the power because they're using it for good.

But if this is all just trolling, then scrap all that and now I know nothing.

[litteratured]

John Giorno Interview: Inside William S. Burroughs' Bunker

Step inside ‘The Bunker’ in New York, the windowless former apartment of the legendary writer William S. Burroughs, and let yourself be guided around – from Burroughs’ typewriter to his shooting target – by its the current resident, the iconic poet John Giorno (b.1936 - d.2019). William S. Burroughs lived several places throughout his life. Between 1975-82 the drug addict and writer –famous not least for his automatic writing in books like ‘Naked Lunch’– lived in 222 Bowery, one of New York’s first YMCAs in the 1880s. Performance poet John Giorno has lived at the address since the early 1960s and was delighted to host his friend and colleague, who lived in the basement for seven years and dubbed the windowless space ‘The Bunker’. “ He was a brilliant transcendent writer, but he was more brilliant here,” Giorno recalls and explains how Burroughs was high from nine in the morning, and then would have vodkas and joints at five o’clock in the afternoon. Giorno himself would join him, albeit a bit later in the day: “Doing that for those endless years and years, that was a lesson – not sure what the lesson is though.” Having downed several more bottles of vodka and smoked more joints, Burroughs and his guests would shoot at the target poster, which still has its original bullet holes. John Giorno has been using ‘The Bunker’ as a guest room for visiting friends and today everything has been restored and kept like it was when Burroughs lived there: the target poster, the typewriter, the gun magazines and the desk all set for someone to sit down and write. We also get to see the ‘Orgone box’ – a box invented by psychoanalyst William Reich, who believed that orgones are vibratory atmospheric atoms of the life-principle, which can be concentrated as a creative substratum. “And if you sat in there you would collect orgone energy of the universal power,” Giorno adds. Burroughs “always believed there could be chaos and catastrophe, so every house should have a vessel to be able to save enough water to live for four days. So that’s why that was there,” says Giorno about the big water tank on the floor. Giorno also shows us Burroughs’ lamp, which is made from a – still functioning – rifle from the Civil War, as well as his BB gun: “It's a generational thing of his, coming of age as a young person in the 1920s and 30s, living in the country in St. Louis, and also outside, and being alone and being frail. I don't think his family were shooters, somehow it entered his life, all of those things.” John Giorno (b.1936 - d.2019) is an American poet and one of the most influential figures in contemporary performance poetry with his intensely rhythmic and philosophical poetry. He has published a wide range of poetic works such as the collection ‘You Got to Burn to Shine’, spoken words with William S. Burroughs and Laurie Anderson. In 1962, Giorno was the subject of Andy Warhol’s 6-hour movie ‘Sleep’. Giorno has also created Giorno Poetry Systems, which has published more than 40 spoken LP’s with acclaimed artists such as Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith. William S. Burroughs (b. William Seward Burroughs II in 1914 – d. 1997) was an American writer and artist. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major influence in popular culture and literature, he wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, found success with his confessional first novel ‘Junkie’ (1953) but is best known for his highly controversial third novel ‘Naked Lunch’ (1959).  Along with artist, writer and poet Brion Gysin, Burroughs re-invented the literary cut-up technique in works such as ‘The Nova Trilogy’ (1961-1964). Much of Burroughs’ work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. In 1951, he accidentally killed his wife Joan Vollmer with a pistol during a drunken ‘William Tell’ game and was consequently convicted of manslaughter. Through the years, Burroughs also created and exhibited thousands of paintings and other visual artworks, including his celebrated ‘Gunshot Paintings’. He did not, however, exhibit his artwork until 1987, and for last 10 years of his life, he presented his paintings and drawings at museums and galleries worldwide. He died at his home in Kansas after suffering a heart attack in 1997. John Giorno was interviewed by Christian Lund in New York City in October 2017.  Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2018

[gay-jewish-bucky]

Words alone cannot express the hatred I feel for the idiots in the Marvel fandom who dare to antagonize you for their own immoral failings as members of the community. I had no idea that Peggy Carter was based on a Nazi. I thought only Nazis were men? Is that historically inaccurate?

it's honestly just so bonkers to me when steve rogers was literally created to fight this very complacency! (which is actually almost word-for-word what i said in the tweet that got this specific person so obsessed with me)

Post about how Peggy Carter is based off of Cynthia Glass (something they outright state in the AC season 1 book)

Yes, there were women who were nazis! Here are some articles and blog posts about women in the third reich:

Women in the Third Reich | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org) Nazi Ravensbrück camp: How ordinary women became SS torturers - BBC News "Ordinary Women: Female Perpetrators of the Nazi Final Solution" by Haley A. Wodenshek (trincoll.edu) The Violence of Female Guards in Nazi Concentration Camps (1939-1945): Reflections on the Dynamics and Logics of Power | Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network The History Press | Vera Eriksen: The Second World War’s most enigmatic spy A Guide to Female Nazi Guards - Holocaust Matters Nursing Clio More than Accomplices: The Crimes of Hitler’s Female SS Female Nazi war criminals (capitalpunishmentuk.org)

[hazardous-waste-containment]

In its attempt to strip nakedness of its sensuality, the Third Reich not only banned nudism (a ban which, given the powerful influence of the ideal stereotype, was scarcely relevant) but, more especially, drew a sharp distinction between the private and the representational. Arno Breker’s nude male sculptures continued to be in official demand, and semi-nude men and women decorated public spaces. But it was an abstract, smooth, almost transparent nakedness and a frozen posture which dominated the representational sphere, a dominance achieved by recourse to Winckelmann’s purified concept of beauty.

The Nazis encouraged physical training and here the problem of nudity arose once more. Hans Surén in his German Gymnastics, Physical Beauty and Training, a book which went through several editions during the Third Reich summed up the effort to strip the nude body of its sensuousness in this particular setting. He advocates nearly complete nudity in the pursuit of sport or while roaming through the countryside. But the male body had to be prepared carefully before it could be offered to public scrutiny: the skin must be hairless, smooth, and bronzed. The body had become the abstract symbol of Aryan beauty, as it was, also, in Leni Riefenstahl’s film of the 1936 Olympic Games. Sensuality is transcended by being aligned with Greek forms—figures that could be worshipped but neither desired nor loved.

“Nazi Aesthetics: Beauty Without Sensuality and the Exhibition of Degenerate Art,” The Fascist Revolution by George Mosse

[honesty-my-policy]

How Germany became Nazis a warning to the world: Part Two - Private Antisemitism

Originally, I planned to start with racial theory and antisemitism in pre-WWII Europe, particularly in Germany. While I will still explore these concepts, the more I delve into the period between WWI and WWII, especially what many Germans later called "the normal years" of the Third Reich (1933-1939), the more I see how Hitler masterfully curated his public image. He understood what the public desired and how to sway a population that had lost faith in a system they saw as irreparably broken.

After his arrest for attempting a coup, Hitler recognized that his fanatical antisemitism appealed only to the already antisemitic. At the time, many Germans held what could be described as a "polite" or "cultured" antisemitism, common in both Western Europe and North America. However, they disapproved of the Nazis' extreme and violent methods. Realizing this, Hitler adjusted his approach during his trial, abandoning his usual frothing-at-the-mouth tirades against Jews for a more restrained and calculated rhetoric.

When he stood before the court, Hitler somehow knew that his typical rants wouldn’t sway those in power. To avoid severe punishment, he switched tactics, and this moment marked the beginning of a crucial transformation in his public persona. Virtue became his theme—not antisemitism, at least not overtly. He still referenced the "Jewish Problem" through euphemisms and loose terminology, but he framed his actions as motivated by an overwhelming love for Germany. In his testimony, he even accepted responsibility for violating the Weimar Republic's constitution, claiming that he was driven by a higher moral duty, placing morality above written law.

The court was charmed. Instead of being deported, Hitler was sentenced to five years in a Bavarian detention center, a sentence that he later reminisced about fondly. It was there that he dictated Mein Kampf—yes, orally dictated to Rudolf Hess, as the book was not hand-written by Hitler himself.

This story is the beginning of Hitler’s character transformation. When he was released after just nine months, he emerged not as the fanatical antisemite he once was, but as the embodiment of virtue. The irony is almost comedic, isn’t it? The same man who once spewed vitriol now wrapped himself in the mantle of virtue.

Some talking points never changed—his hatred for the Treaty of Versailles, for example, which was something all Germans hated. But as he reached out to the better educated, he kept his virulent hatreds in check, replacing them with things the crowds, instead of being repulsed by, would find funny. Racist wisecracks and side comments were par for the course back then—it was just jokes, right? He also employed medical euphemisms and metaphors, linking Jews and other "lesser races" to despised values like urbanism, materialism, and greed. Always, the Aryans were cast as trusting and vulnerable, pitted against Jewish deceivers.

To replace his vile antisemitism, Hitler became a preacher of ethnic fundamentalism. The uniqueness of Germans was to be celebrated. He was skilled at reducing complex issues into simple speeches that he delivered like sermons, igniting a fire in the crowds around him. In the end, Hitler called for ethnic Germans to unify, declaring that rival politics were pointless. He sold the German people idealism, and it had never tasted so good.

This was the foundation Adolf Hitler and the Nazis built upon to draw people into their circle. After that, it became much easier to influence them. Before this transformation, no one but other antisemites bothered listening to Hitler. But as his popularity grew, the German people, without even realizing it, began to accept the dehumanization of not just Jews, but many others, along with a new moral and ethical code.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[1][3]

[whencyclopedia]

Anschluss

The Anschluss ('fusion') of 12 March 1938 was the annexation and formal union of Austria with Germany. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the Nazi leader of Germany, dreamed of an empire which enclosed all German speakers, his 'Greater Germany'. Hitler's military invasion met no resistance or meaningful response from foreign powers, and so Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich.

Many in Austria were sympathetic to the idea of joining Germany, but there were also those who knew their sovereignty would be lost for as long as Hitler was in power. Hitler was additionally attracted to occupying Austria since the Anschluss would give him access to new resources such as manpower for the military, raw materials, and a large quantity of cash and gold. The Austrian government was dissolved, and the very name Österreich (Austria's name in German) was banished from public use. The Nazis were not slow to begin imposing their ideology on Austrians and imprisoning those they identified as enemies. The union very swiftly became an occupation by a totalitarian regime.

A Weak League of Nations

Hitler had harboured ambitions to build a German empire or 'Greater Germany' ever since his book Mein Kampf (published in 1925), in which he described the need for Lebensraum (living space) for the German people – new lands where they could prosper. The Nazi party rose in popularity through the early 1930s, and Hitler was eventually invited to become chancellor in 1933. Quickly establishing a dictatorship through such measures as the Enabling Act, Hitler soon turned to an aggressive foreign policy that aimed to recover Germany's territorial losses following the Treaty of Versailles that had formally concluded the First World War (1914-18). Hitler had noted the lack of power of the League of Nations in the early 1930s. The League, formed after WWI with the goal of keeping world peace, had failed to act meaningfully to Japan's invasion of Chinese Manchuria in 1931.

Hitler gave world leaders mixed messages, insisting Germany should be allowed to rearm and break the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles on its military capabilities but, at the same time, promising his commitment to world peace. The treaty specifically forbade the union of Germany and Austria. Hitler stated in 1934 that he had no intention of merging Austria into the Third Reich as his new German state was now called. Domestically, Hitler's policies were clearer. He had consistently promised the German people that he would reverse the points of the Treaty of Versailles – points which he felt were holding Germany back from achieving its full potential. The first practical step came with a plebiscite in the coal-rich Saar region, once part of western Germany but governed by the League of Nations since the end of WWI. In March 1935, the voters decided overwhelmingly to rejoin Germany. Hitler announced conscription in Germany in 1935 and began rearmament in earnest. The League of Nations was again shown to be impotent to acts of aggression when Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935. No doubt, Hitler once again took note.

Europe after The Treaty of Versailles

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

In March 1936, German armed forces occupied the Rhineland, an industrialised area between Germany and France which the Treaty of Versailles had stipulated should not have any military presence. The League offered no response to the reoccupation, which was, after all, only Germany 'taking control of its own back garden', a phrase coined by the British Times newspaper. Hitler had been prepared to withdraw his troops at the first sign of resistance, but the bluff had worked. In October 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, with both Italy and Germany directly involved and glad to test out their new military hardware. From July 1937, China was at war with Japan. In this background of international turmoil, Hitler felt the time was right to further expand the Third Reich by absorbing Austria, the country of his birth, into the growing state of Greater Germany.

Continue reading...

[eretzyisrael]

By TAMMI ROSSMAN-BENJAMIN

In March 1941, Nazi theorist and ideologue Alfred Rosenberg launched the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question. Its inaugural conference, “Research in the Struggle against World Jewry,” featured talks by many scholars, including the Institute’s director, historian Wilhelm Grau, who concluded that the only viable solution to the Jewish question was for the Jews to disappear.

Rosenberg’s Institute was one of several established to support the Third Reich’s efforts to provide an empirical basis for their anti-Jewish policies. To that end, the scholars affiliated with these institutes endeavored to put in place a new interdisciplinary field of study that would draw on various academic disciplines to promulgate antisemitic scholarship about the Jews.

According to Alan Steinweis’ book, “Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany,” this new brand of scholarship, which he dubs “Nazi Jewish Studies,” demonstrates its practitioners’ “cynical manipulation of scientific knowledge, historical events, religious texts, and statistical data” in the service of “justifying the disenfranchisement, expropriation, and removal of Jews from German society.”

Fast forward to August 2023. 

Two academic leaders of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) – San Francisco State University Professor Rabab Abdulhadi and University of Massachusetts Boston Professor Heike Schotten - co-authored an article explaining why they recently established the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ).

Describing ICSZ as “explicitly anti-Zionist” and “strictly committed to abiding by the BDS picket line,” Abdulhadi and Schotten link their new Institute to “the long history of struggle” against efforts “to conflate Zionist politics and ideology with Jews or Jewishness.”  

In October, the Institute will be holding an inaugural conference entitled “Battling the ‘IHRA definition’: Theory & Activism” to provide academics and activists with tools for delegitimizing the most widely accepted definition of antisemitism, which rightly identifies anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, but is being portrayed by conference organizers as “a tool of and a shield for repressive state power.”

[quotesfrommyreading]

Don’t blame the Holocaust on the Jews. This past May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was asked how his country could credibly claim to be “denazifying” Ukraine when the latter is led by an elected Jewish president. “I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” he replied, later adding, “Some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.” While these claims may sound bizarre, they are far from isolated.

As I wrote at the time, ever since World War II, people have attempted to pin the Holocaust on the Jews. A 1938 Gallup poll found that 54 percent of Americans believed that “the persecution of Jews in Europe has been partly their own fault.” Another 11 percent said it was “entirely” their fault. In other words, as Hitler rose to power and implemented his anti-Semitic architecture, a large majority of Americans blamed European Jews for their own oppression.

This victim-blaming has persisted to the present day. David Icke, one of our era’s most prolific conspiracy theorists, has claimed that wealthy Jews bankrolled the Holocaust, asserting, “The Warburgs, part of the Rothschild empire, helped finance Adolf Hitler.” (Icke has also said that “Hitler was a Rothschild.”) The anti-Semitic book in which this passage appeared was later enthusiastically promoted by the author Alice Walker in The New York Times.

Along similar lines, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, devoted his entire doctoral dissertation to the conspiracy theory that “Zionist” Jews had collaborated with the Third Reich in order to spur Jewish immigration to Palestine. (The dissertation also claims that no Jews were murdered in the Nazi gas chambers, and that the overall number of Jewish victims was exaggerated by several million.)

Others do not go so far as to blame Europe’s Jews for their own genocide, but instead try to use their murders to attack their descendants, insinuating that this or that group of Jews “failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust.” But Auschwitz wasn’t a philosophy seminar with some unfortunate fatalities. And the Holocaust was not some moral test that the Jewish world failed, but a moral atrocity committed against it.

In all of these cases, those who weaponize a people’s greatest trauma to bludgeon them once more inadvertently reveal the very inhumanity that made such brutality possible in the first place.

  —  How Not to Talk About the Holocaust

[finlaure13]

BY NETFLIX

MOVIES

Wednesday

Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial Revisits Dark History with New Perspective

Set to a score composed by Holocaust victims, the doc series contains never-before-heard audio and reporting.

BY AMANDA RICHARDS

MAY 10, 2024

In 2018, a study from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany reported that two-thirds of millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is. For filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost, The Ted Bundy Tapes, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster), this finding sparked a question: Are the atrocities committed during World War II by Hitler and the Third Reich being lost to modern memory?

“It shocks me the degree to which people are unaware of or have forgotten this history,” Berlinger told Netflix. “This is the right time to retell this story for a younger generation as a cautionary tale — and on a global scale.”

This is not the first time commentators have warned against the danger of forgetting the lessons of the Holocaust. A similar “wave of amnesia” had been noted in America leading up to the 1960 publication of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, journalist William L. Shirer’s 1,250-page history of Hitler and his regime; the book sold millions of copies worldwide, won a National Book Award, and has never been out of print since.

The new series Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial, directed by Berlinger with Smuggler Entertainment and Third Eye Motion Picture Company, returns again to Shirer’s perspective. Framed by the Nuremberg Trials, which Shirer covered in 1945, the series explores the shocking rise and fall of Hitler and his enablers via a campaign that was fueled through propaganda, censorship, and antisemitism. According to Berlinger, it’s Shirer’s testimony that sets the series apart — Shirer was one of the last Western journalists to leave Germany, only doing so in late 1940, more than a year into the Second World War. He chronicled Hitler’s rise to power from a front row seat.

“[Shirer] having poured his firsthand experiences into numerous literary works, not only did we find ourselves with a personal lens through which to see this historical moment but also felt now more than ever it was important to bring his words to life,” Berlinger said.

The doc series utilized AI technology to enable Shirer to “speak” as a narrator throughout its six episodes, an endeavor that Berlinger says brought new life to the incredible reporting Shirer did at the time.

“These events took place in an era where we relied on reporters and journalists stationed in foreign countries to report the news to American audiences, and William Shirer was in a unique position as one of the few American correspondents reporting from Germany during the crucial years of Hitler’s rise and the early years of the war,” Berlinger explains. “A lot of his reports were censored in Germany, but he had the courage to smuggle his diaries out at great personal risk.”

In addition to the new perspective Shirer’s voice adds, the doc series includes cinematic recreations and archival footage, as well as never-before-heard audio testimony from Nuremberg, where dozens of Nazi leaders stood trial for crimes against humanity. Perhaps the most emotionally resonant aspect of the series, though, is the score: Much of the series’ music was created from the compositions of Holocaust victims. Berlinger says the idea to include those original compositions came from his wife’s friend, Ira Antelis — he’d recently produced a concert at Carnegie Hall that brought to life compositions created by Jewish musicians who were killed in the Holocaust.

“In the wake of Nazification, the Nuremberg Race Laws, and the horrors of the Holocaust, music creation became an outlet for European Jews to express their humanity,” Berlinger says. “It wasn’t just the sufferings of the Jews under the Nazi regime that were reflected in the lyrics or composition of their music — themes of survival, faith, freedom, and hope emerged in the ghettos and concentration camps.”

Berlinger and his team did their due diligence to find the rights holders for many of the songs featured in the score, who ranged from well-known composers who’d written music prior to entering extermination camps to ordinary people who composed music while they were inside. The music was reorchestrated for the series by Antelis, alongside composer Serj Tankian of System of a Down.

“[Tankian] has spent his career advocating for the recognition of the Armenian genocide, a precursor to the Holocaust,” Berlinger says. “It’s something that gives him a deep, spiritual connection to the material.”

Everyone needs to watch this docuseries.

Especially now.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Weekly Recap (29th July – 4th August 2024)

Study

Read 10 articles

11 shorter readings

Read 3 MGL articles

Read 1 Art History article

Reading (non-fiction)

Read Mongolia: A Profile – ch 1

Read SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome – ch 8-9

Read The Third Reich in Power – ch 13

Read Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI6 – ch 3

Read The Penguin Book of Norse Myths – Myth & Note 1-2

Read Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II – pg 48-57

Read 30,000 Years of Art – The Standard of Ur

Reading (fiction)

Read Moby Dick – ch 41

Read The Many Daughters of Afong Moy – ch 8-9

Music

Went to orchestra concert

Exercise

Monday – 4.1km & 4.2km exercycle

Wednesday – short walk

Thursday – 3.9km exercycle

Flat (etc)

Cleared bench & kitchen rubbish (Monday)

Dishes (Monday)

Cooking (Monday)

Lids & food in fridge (Monday & Thursday)

Put dishes away (Thursday)

Cleared kitchen rubbish (Thursday)

Put washing on (Saturday_

Other

Sorted out books again (Friday)

Puzzles

14 Killer Sudoku

13 Kakuro

12 Suguru

2 Suko

1 Wheel Words (online)

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

ADOLF HITLER

ADOLF HITLER

1889-1945

            Adolf Hitler was born and raised in Austria and had an unhappy childhood. His father was brutal, but Hitler looked up to his mother. He was a frustrated teenager and his artistic pursuits were disappointing, even though he had artistic talent. He served as a soldier in the German army during World War I where he was wounded. After the war he was lonely, isolated, and frustrated and he fantasised about much greater things and got entwined in politics.

            Germany was in an economic crisis and the German people were desperate for better days. In Munich, his party the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) attracted servicemen and disgruntled citizens. In 1924 Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for staging the coup ‘Beer Hall Putsch’, he served only nine months and spent that time writing a book. Hitler’s book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was published in 1925, the book was about his life and his political ideas. After his release he recruited Herman Goring, Heinrich Himmler and master propagandist Josef Goebbels.

            In 1933, his party won the parliamentary elections, there started the Nazi party, Third Reich and Hitler was their Fuhrer. Hitler predicted they would be in power for a thousand years and those who initially believed that the Nazi party wouldn’t last, would regret that they didn’t do more when it was possible.

            During his time in power he was known for his hatred towards Jews, Communists, Gypsies, political opponents and anybody else he disliked - he had them cruelty treated and killed. On 30 June 1934, was the Night of the Long Knives he destroyed any opponents, to get rid of Jews out of power and made sure he had total control. Hitler created the SS who were loyal only to Hitler and the secret police called the Gestapo. He had anybody he found undesirable sent to concentration camps, where millions died.

            Hitler embarked on a military program on a massive scale to make Germany a mega power. He attempted to take power wherever he could, the capture of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the Rhineland; he then invaded Poland in 1939, which led to war with France and Britain. Winston Churchill refused to be duped by Hitler and even though Hitler first aligned with Stalin, Stalin later turned to side with the allies. In 1941 Hitler invaded the Soviet Union; the Russians were able to drive the Germans back. He then seized Denmark and Norway and then took over France in a matter of weeks. Hitler then declared war on the United States. The Allied troops invaded Germany from the east and west and had Germany in ruins.

            On 30 April 1945, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide inside his Berlin bunker. The night before, around midnight, he married Braun. He wrote his will and declared Martin Bormann his deputy and expelled former right-hand man Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler for disloyalty. The two men had been concerned for Hitler’s mental state and doubted his ability to head the party in the last weeks of Hitler’s life when they would have known that the Third Reich was about to fall.

            Hitler and his closest aides had moved into the bunker below the Reich Chancellery garden on 16 January 1945 as allied forces closed in. The bunker housed medical staff, aides, telephonist and his secretary’s. The bunker was decorated in furnishings and artwork.

            On 22-23 April, those in the bunker had left but Hitler chose to remain until the end. On 30 April, Allied and Soviet troops moved into Berlin, prompting Hitler and Braun to end their lives. Braun swallowed a cyanide capsules and Hitler then shot himself. Afterwards Bormann doused their bodies with gasoline and set fire to them. That same day, Hitler’s minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife, killed their six children and then committed suicide. A week after Hitler’s death, Germany surrendered which ended World War II. The charred remains of Hitler remained in Russian custody, a skull fragment complete with a bullet hole and four teeth. Hitler and Braun were buried in unmarked grave in east Germany, their bodies along with those of the Goebbels family, were exhumed in 1970 on the orders of KGB boss Yuri Andropov, they were incinerated again, and the ashes poured into a river.

#adolfhitler #worldwarII

[zoltanbago]

Project Secret Sky: Mysteries of the Third Reich

Allied pilots noticed strange light phenomena over the European battlefield. These unidentified flying objects were called “foo fighters”.

But what could be behind the mysterious fireballs?

The Nazis or some other unknown power?

The Thule Society and the Vril Society, as well as the Ahnenerbe, played a significant role in the Third Empire.

What consideration led to the creation of these organizations?

And what role did they play in the rise of the Nazis to power?

The deployment of the Wunderwaffe or the “Wonder Weapon”, could have decided the outcome of the Second World War.

But what was the mysterious Wunderwaffe?

Perhaps this covers the atomic bomb or some other weapon?

Between the two world wars, the plan for the first space station orbiting the earth was already born.

Would the Nazi scientists have been able to carry out this huge project?

And what were they going to use the space station for?

The mysterious Die Glocke or the “Bell” was an anti-gravity device that may have been part of a propulsion system.

Did this strange machine really exist?

And what was the purpose of the project?

Ahnenerbe launched many expeditions to ancient archaeological sites around the world. And to places as far away as Antarctica.

But what were the Nazis looking for in Antarctica?

What did they do on the ice continent?

According to some, there is a “Hollow Earth” that can be entered through the poles.

Were the Nazis in touch with the strange inner world?

Maybe UFOs come from inside the “Hollow Earth”?

The story of the mystic Maria Orsic and the “Vril ladies” is about a cosmic relationship in which the Aldebaran beings and the Nazis made a deal.

Perhaps they had something to do with an advanced cosmic civilization?

And did the aliens share some of their knowledge with them to gain world domination?

The Nazis researched the knowledge of the ancient Vedic civilization.

Have they reconstructed the machinery of a prehistoric advanced civilization?

Or have they deciphered the technology of a crashed flying saucer?

I am looking for answers to such interesting questions in my book.