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. At… Read more »
The five Sullivan brothers were World War II sailors who, serving together on the USS. Juneau DD-537 , were all killed in action on its sinking around November 13, 1942. The U.S.S. Juneau sank after being hit by a Japanese torpedo near the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands. The five brothers, the sons of Thomas (1883–1965) and… Read more »
Written by Alistair MacLean in 1957, The Guns of Navarone was made into a movie in 1961 starring Gregory Peck . The story centers on attempts to destroy a German fortress on an island in the Aegean sea. While there is no island named Navarone, the story is based on the Battle of Leros, part… Read more »
Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of massacres carried out by German forces and by local Ukrainian collaborators during their campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first, and best documented, of the massacres took place 29–30 September 1941, killing 33,771 Jews. The decision to kill all the Jews in Kiev was made by the military governor, Generalmajor Kurt Eberhard, … Read more »
Adolf Hitler was born at around 6:30 pm on 20-04-1889 at the Gasthof zum Pommer, in Braunau am Inn, Austria–Hungary, the fourth of six children to Alois Hitler, then 51 and Klara Pölzl then 24 years old (see Hitler parents). They had six children Gustav Hitler, born 10 May 1885, died of diphtheria on 08-12-1887 in Braunau am Inn,… Read more »
May 10th 1940, at 3.55 hrs Dutch time (05.35 German time) – as the first beams of light tickled the horizon – the German invasion of the west became a fact. A series of parallel events unfolded. We shall address them in an order from east to west, south to north for a country not… Read more »
From time to time photos of child soldiers in Africa holding AK-47s or some other kind of weapon appear here and there provoking outrage and compassion from the Western public. But just a few decades ago, during World War II, there were often occasions of Russian kids fighting in the regular army against the Nazis…. Read more »
The Geheime Staatspolizei, Secret State Police, abbreviated “Gestapo” was the secret police of Nazi Germany and its main tool of oppression and destruction, which persecuted Germans, opponents of the regime, and Jews. It later played a central role in helping carry out the Nazi’s “Final Solution.” The Gestapo (until 1936 also known as Gestapa, for Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt),… Read more »
AntonThumann was born in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, German Empire on 31-10-1912. In the 1930s Thumann joined the Nazi party (member no. 1,726,633) and the SS (member no. 24,444). He then served as a guard at Dachau concentration camp from 1933 onward. Starting in 1937, Thumann was employed in the Office of Guard Command and ascended to the rank of Protective Custody… Read more »
Friedrich Kussin was born on 1 march 1895 in Aurich. He joined the army on 26 march 1913 in the 2nd Regiment. He fought with this regiment in World War I. With the outbreak of World War II he was commander of the 80th Pioneer Battalion until february 1940. From 1 april 1943 until 2… Read more »
