The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European theatre of World War II. Beginning on 12 January 1945, the Red Army breached the German front as a result of the Vistula-Oder Offensive  and advanced westward as much as 40 kilometres (25 miles) a day through East Prussia, Lower Silesia , East Pomeria,… Read more »

Hitler’s retreat in the mountains of Bavaria was one of the most important centers of government in the Third Reich. Hitler spent more time in the Berghof than in his Berlin office. The Berghof began as a much smaller chalet called Haus Wachenfeld, a holiday home built in 1916 (or 1917) by Kommerzienrat Otto Winter,… Read more »

Eight women, all the same types, that are thought, possibly, to have been intimate with Hitler, attempted suicide: Maria ” Mimi” Reiter   his first love, the thirty-seven-year-old Adolf became infatuated with Mitzi, a sixteen-year-old Munich shop girl. He proposed marriage but said his “duty and mission” consumed him and she would have to wait for… Read more »

The Wewelsburg castle was not built by the Nazi regime; its history started several centuries before the National Socialists came to power in 1933. In its current form, the castle was built from 1603 to 1609, as a secondary residence for Fürstbischof Theodor von Fürstenberg, the prince-bishop of Paderborn, whose primary residence was the castle… Read more »

Heinrich Himmler adored his daughter Gudrun Margarete Elfriede Emma Anna “Püppi” Himmler Burwitz and had her regularly flown to his offices in Berlin from Munich where she lived with her mother   . When she was at home he telephoned her most days and wrote to her every week. He continued to call her by her childhood… Read more »

Not all Dutch offered active or passive resistance against the German occupation. Some Dutch men and women chose or were forced to collaborate with the German regime or joined the German army (which usually would mean being placed in the Waffen-SS). Others, like members of the 35 men of the  Henneicke Column, between March and… Read more »

Three quarters of the Dutch Jews were murdered during the Second World War. In other Western European countries such as Belgium and France, these percentages were much lower. Read here what caused the differences. The German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France started on 10 May 1940. Following the defeat and the start of… Read more »

In marked contrast to Volkssturmjunge Alfred Czech’s  heroic story, the second vignette is about Hans-Georg Henke , a 16 year old soldier in an anti-aircraft detachment of the Luftwaffe. His father died in 1938 but when his mother died in 1944 leaving the family destitute, Hans-Georg had to find work in order to support the family…. Read more »

Anton Adriaan Mussert  was born 11-05-1894 in Werkendam, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. In the 1920s, he became involved in right-wing political movements that advocated a Greater Netherlands by annexing Dutch-speaking neighbouring regions. On 14 Dec 1931, he abandoned his profession as a civil engineer and founded the National Socialist Movement political party, Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, or NSB , along… Read more »

During Hitler’s last days in Berlin, Axmann was among those present in the Führerbunker. During that time it was announced in the German Press that Axmann had been awarded the German Order , the highest decoration that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual for his services to the Reich. He and one other recipient, Konstantin Hierl , were the… Read more »