On
20 June 1942, the SS guard stationed at the exit to Auschwitz was
frightened. In front of him was the car of Rudolph Höss, the commandant
of the infamous concentration camp. Inside were four armed SS men, one
of whom – an Untersturmführer, or second lieutenant, was shouting and
swearing at him.
“Wake
up, you buggers!” the officer screamed in German. “Open up or I’ll open
you up!” Terrified, the guard scrambled to raise the barrier, allowing
the powerful motor to pass through and drive away.
Yet had he
looked closer, the guard would have noticed something strange: the men
were sweating and ashen-faced with fear. For far from being Nazis, the
men were Polish prisoners in stolen uniforms and a misappropriated car,
who had just made one of the most audacious escapes in the history of
Auschwitz. And the architect of the plot, the second lieutenant, was a
boy scout, to whom the association’s motto “Be prepared” had become a
lifeline.
A
ninety-five-year-old man is to stand trial in Rostock, Germany, charged
with being an accomplice in the murder of 3681 people at Auschwitz
Death Camp. The charge says that Hubert Ernst Zafke, who was a member of
the medical staff when 15-year-old Anne Frank arrived at the camp in
September 1944, knew that people were being murdered there.
It is alleged that Zafke was present when the murders mentioned in the indictment took place and that he supported the policy.
Sailors
in a motor launch rescue a man overboard alongside the burning West
Virginia during, or shortly after, the Japanese air raid on Pearl
Harbor.One of the survivors of the Pearl Harbor
attack, which brought the United States into World War Two 74 years ago
this year, has told the story of how he escaped death.
Site Where Caesar Slaughtered 200,000 Barbarians Discovered in The Netherlands
We
know that Caesar ran rampant through much of modern day France, Germany
and England and won great victories and also oversaw what were
essentially genocidal massacres of many tribes. One such battle and
massacre was recently discovered all the way up in the Netherlands. The
dig started many years ago near the town of Kessel in the Brabant
province. Map of the Netherlands on the left and a University created diagram of the battle on the rightEarly
dredging uncovered many metallic objects, leading to full digs
uncovering spearheads and swords as well as human skeletons. These
skeletons were of men, women and children and many bore evidence of
wounds caused by weapons. An adult woman’s skull showed a clear entry
point that would almost perfectly fit the narrow pila used by the
legionaries.
Battleship Kilkis was a 13,000 ton Mississippi-class battleship originally built by the US Navy in 1904–1908.
As
Mississippi she was purchased by the Greek Navy in 1914, and renamed
her Kilkis, along with her sister Idaho, renamed Lemnos. Kilkis was
named for the Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas, a crucial engagement of the
Second Balkan War. Armed with a main battery of four 12 inch guns,
Kilkis and her sister were the most powerful vessels in the Greek fleet.
Kilkis
and Lemnos quickly left the United States after their transfer in July,
due to the rising tensions in Europe following the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria the previous month. After arriving
in Greece, Kilkis became the flagship of the Greek fleet.
Napoleon
Bonaparte was no ordinary Joe. His family were minor nobles from
Corsica, and he was always destined to a more privileged life than 99%
of Frenchmen. His rise from such “humble” beginnings to become France’s
leading general was only extraordinary by the standards of an age in
which social status played a bigger part than ability in shaping
military careers.
His
rise to the position of Emperor was extraordinary by the standards of
any age. But he did not rise alone. His career was supported by the
Marshals, France’s leading generals. Many of the men who held these
positions under Napoleon were far more humble than the Emperor himself.
18 Ιανουάριος 2016, ΤΗΣ ΦΑΝΟΥΛΑΣ ΑΡΓΥΡΟΥ
Η αλήθεια για τις αγωγές Κυπρίων προσφύγων στα βρετανικά δικαστήρια
Η Τουρκία σκόπιμα άφησε να γίνει η διαρροή, δημοσιοποιώντας ό,τι εκείνη ήθελε
Ο Βρετανός ΥΠΕΞ, Φ. Χάμοντ, με τον Τούρκο ομόλογό του, Μ. Τσαβούσογλου.
Στις 8 Ιανουαρίου 2016 το τουρκικό Υπ. Εξωτερικών, επιχειρώντας να
προκαταλάβει την απόφαση του Δικαστηρίου στη Βρετανία, το οποίο ακόμα
δεν έχει λάβει τελική απόφαση, βγήκε να γνωστοποιήσει (πρώτο δημοσίευμα
στην τουρκική εφημερίδα «Χουριέτ») ό,τι αυτή ήθελε. ΄Ισως για να δημιουργήσει σύγχυση μεταξύ των Ελληνοκυπρίων.
Αυτό το έκανε η Τουρκία, προφανώς έχοντας υπόψη και την επίσκεψη του
Βρετανού Υπ. Εξωτερικών στη χώρα, που πραγματοποιήθηκε λίγες μέρες
αργότερα, ούτως ώστε να δοθεί η εντύπωση διπλωματικού επεισοδίου και να
δικαιολογηθεί το αδικαιολόγητο, δηλαδή μια παρέμβαση του Φόρεϊν Όφις στη
Δικαιοσύνη. Όπως έγινε με τις δηλώσεις, σε κοινή δημοσιογραφική
διάσκεψη στις 15 Ιανουαρίου 2016, μεταξύ του Τούρκου Υπ. Εξωτερικών κ.
Μ. Τσαβούσογλου και του Βρετανού Υπ. Εξωτερικών και Κοινοπολιτείας Φίλιπ
Χάμοντ στην Τουρκία.
Dr.
Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – 7 June 1945 (certificate of
death), a German military officer, was the founder and commander of the
infamous Nazi SS penal unit “Dirlewanger” during World War II.
Dirlewanger’s name is closely linked to some of the worst crimes of the
war. He also fought in World War I as well as in the post-World War I
conflicts, and in the Spanish Civil War. He died after World War II
while in Allied custody, apparently beaten to death by his guards.
He
is invariably described as an extremely cruel character by historians
and researchers, including as “a psychopathic killer and child molester”
by Steven Zaloga, as “violently sadistic” by Richard Rhodes, as “an
expert in extermination and a devotee of sadism and necrophilia” by J.
Bowyer Bell, and as “a sadist and necrophiliac” by Bryan Mark Rigg.
World War II historian Chris Bishop called him the “most evil man in the
SS.” According to Timothy Snyder, “in all the theaters of the Second
World War, few could compete in cruelty with Oskar Dirlewanger.
Oskar
Dirlewanger was born in 1895 in Würzburg. He enlisted in the Imperial
German Army in 1913 and served as a machine gunner in the 123rd
Grenadier Regiment on the Western Front of World War I, where he took
part in the German invasion of Belgium and later fought in France. He
won the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class medals, having been wounded
six times, and finished the war with the rank of Lieutenant in charge of
the machine gun company of the Infantry Regiment 121 on the Eastern
Front in southern Russia and Romania. At the ceasing of hostilities the
German units in Dirlewanger’s area were ordered to be interned in
Romania, but Dirlewanger disobeyed orders and led 600 men from his and
other units back to Germany.
According
to his German biographer Knut Stang, the war was the main factor that
determined Dirlewanger’s later life and his “terror warfare” methods, as
“his amoral personality, with his alcoholism and his sadistic sexual
orientation, was additionally shattered by the front experiences of the
First World War and its frenzied violence and barbarism.” Interwar period
After the end of World War I, Dirlewanger, described in a police report
as “a mentally unstable, violent fanatic and alcoholic, who had the
habit of erupting into violence under the influence of drugs,” joined
different Freikorps right-wing paramilitary militias and fought against
German communists in Ruhr and Saxony, and against Polish nationalists in
Upper Silesia.
Today
soccer is unequivocally the most popular sport in a world with
countless different sports vying for fans. In the ancient world there
were not many options for sports outside of the wildly exciting chariot
races, especially after Gladiatorial games were outlawed, so almost any
sports fan was simply a fan of chariot racing.
Chariot
racing had passionate and rowdy fans, and Constantinople was both the
Capital of the Byzantine Empire and the capital of Chariot racing,
having a Hippodrome (stadium) that could easily seat 80,000 spectators
and had a private box from which the Emperor would often watch.
Chariot
racing featured teams of four-horse chariots that raced around a simple
oval track with long straightaways. Pileups were common and part of the
thrill, as was cheering for your favorite team. Four teams initially
were prevalent in races, but by this period only two teams known as the
blues and the greens were popular, Justinian and his wife Theodora were
noted blues fans.
Perhaps
there is a point in a soldier’s life, where he is so certain that he
might die that he would rather dictate the terms of such death on high
moral and gallant grounds than have it occur in a manner that betrays
his fellow brothers in arms. This is the familiar story of those in
World War 2, where storming the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima on the
first wave surely had to produce such thoughts.
Yet,
for a few men there would come a time where such a decision would be
theirs and theirs alone with survival on one hand and certain death on
the other. This is the story of non-Jewish Master Sergeant Roddie
Edmonds who with a Nazi gun to his head refused to give up Jewish POWs
and instead declared with gun to head, “We are all Jews here.”
The Constant Revelation of History
Countless
stories crucial to completing a fascinating historical war record are
lost to time and the death of those who could give first-hand accounts.
Fortunately for the world, there were still multiple men who could
testify to this account and with such a high degree of certainty that
the State of Israel would recognize Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds’
sacrifice.
By
1945, the treatment of the Jewish people by the Nazi state was becoming
more and more clear. Atrocities the world knew of and those we did not
were being revealed with each square mile of Europe retaken.
American
soldiers had long been told of the German treatment of Jews and were
told if captured to destroy dog tags or identification that would mark
them as such. For Russians on the Eastern front, if they were captured
and identified as Jewish they were often if not always sent to
extermination camps.
However, that practice had made its way to
the Western front as well although these POWs were often sent to slave
labor camps where the odds of survival were very low. American POWs from the Battle of the BulgeThis
was an unfortunate fate that would meet many who fought the Germans in
the last year of the war. But for a group of prisoners of war detained
at Stalag IXA, a different fate would await them. For there was a
senior NCO in charge who rallied the men of that camp to invite certain
death upon themselves in order to protect the few who would be destined
for an unspeakable fate at the hands of Nazi Germany.
Life as a German POW
For
Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, the Reich’s last ditch offensive at the
Battle of the Bulge would unfortunately end his war by putting him in
the hands of the enemy. Edmonds served with the 422nd Infantry Regiment in Europe and when captured, found himself as the senior NCO among the Prisoners of War.
For
all the chaos that was World War 2, there was a pretty regular attempt
to maintain military discipline within prison camps and that would often
put senior leaders in charge and responsible for representing the men
to their captors.
In January of 1945, an order came out for the
Jewish POWs of Stalag IXA in Germany to fall out in the morning for an
undeclared fate. For Edmonds this put him in an awkward position as to
whether to ensure the order was followed as directed and risk a few men,
or defy the Nazi proclamation and risk them all.
And while
history won’t record how Edmonds came to such a decision, it would
vindicate him as a hero of World War 2 and in keeping with the best
traditions and spirit of the United States Military.
US Soldiers outside a German POW CampIn
the morning when the German officer in charge came to collect the
Jewish POWs, he was shocked to see that all 1,000 plus prisoner had
fallen out to report. As the highest ranking enlisted man in the camp,
Master Sergeant Edmonds had ordered that every man fall out to report
that morning.
The
German officer was reported to exclaim that not all these men could be
Jews and when he ordered Edmonds to correct the problem, Edmonds was
quoted as saying, “We’re all Jews Here.” Angered by the defiance, the
German officer put a pistol to Edmonds head, but rather than relent,
Edmonds would as the kids call it today, punk out a German officer with a
pistol to his head.
A Defiant Act of Heroism
Rather
than give up his Jewish brothers in arms, Edmonds would tell the
officer that if he killed him that he would have to kill them all and
when the Allies won this war which was ever more apparent in early 1945,
that he would be tried as a War Criminal. The German camp commandant,
then holstered his pistol and walked away.
It
is reported that up to 200 prisoners in that camp were of Jewish
descent and they were all save a horrible and almost certain life-ending
fate because Master Sergeant Edmonds said otherwise. Yad Vashem Hall of Names Memorial to the Holocaust via creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/As
this story has been reported and confirmed as a recent revelation of
History, the Jewish living memorial to the Holocaust known as Yad Vashem
would recognize Edmonds as Righteous Among the Nations which is an
honor given to those who protected the Jewish people during World War
2. The most famous recipient of this honor is Oskar Schindler known to
many through the movie Schindler’s List.
Edmonds would be one of
only 4 American given this high honor and the first American Soldier to
be recognized for his specific and gallant actions to protect the Jewish
people.
But
for a warrior like Edmonds, there was no other choice than to protect
his own and risk the life of over 800 men to do what history would
recognize as the great moral act of that day. While many would hope
they would do the same, Edmonds died an old man in 1985 never having to
wonder for himself.
What he did with a pistol to his head that
day, has been one of the long lost stories of that great struggle. But
lost no more, he deserves the highest honor one could give and the
respect of the historical record.
Napoleon
Bonaparte’s rise to power marked the death knell of the French
Revolution. His autocratic government ended the attempts at increased
democracy that had shaken the country for a decade.
The situation was a terribly ironic one. Napoleon never could have risen to power without the revolution he destroyed.
Photo provided by the Royal Navy Submarine MuseumDuring the second world war, some 40 British submarines were sunk in the Mediterranean.
Many have been found, but HMS Triumph, lost with all hands in January 1942, is still unaccounted for.
HMS Triumph (Lt. John Symons Huddart,
RN) sailed from Alexandria on 26 December 1941 to land a party on
Antiparos Island, before making a patrol in the Aegean Sea.
Despite the fact that several historians and modern day Nazi apologists are trying to exonerate the Germans for the countless atrocities and crimes against humanity they committed in Greece during WW2, the truth cannot be hidden.
In Greece, from 1941 to 1944, the civilian deaths resulting from the Nazi German, fascist Italian (until 1943, when the Italians swiftly changed sides) and Bulgarian occupation, adds up to about 578,000 persons.
