A primary cause of death was illness due to harsh camp conditions, with starvation—and its consequent illnesses—prevalent. Malnourished and suffering from disease, many were literally “worked to death” under the Vernichtung durch Arbeit policy (extermination through labor), as inmates only had the choice between slave labor or inevitable execution.  Many inmates died as a result of human experimentationor… Read more »

The city of Leningrad endured more suffering and hardships than any other city in the Soviet Union during World War II. Hunger, malnutrition, disease, starvation, and even cannibalism became common during the siege, which lasted from September 1941 until January 1944. Many people lost weight, and grew weaker and more vulnerable to disease. If malnutrition… Read more »

The British army  prior to 1939 was quite small, still suffering the hangover of World War One, and consisted almost entirely of volunteers. The army was tentative, and reluctant to engage in anything that would be seen as similar to the reckless destruction of the First World War. However, with the threat of Hitler growing… Read more »

THE FIRST DAYS OF WAR IN ROTTERDAM The German attack on the Netherlands and on Rotterdam begins on 10th May 1940. Already early in the morning, the Germans conquer the military airbase Waalhaven and soon German water planes land near the “Maasbruggen”, the bridges across the river Meuse. By lack of resistance the enemy can… Read more »

Since 1906 a park named “Luitpoldhain” , named after Luipold, Prince Regent of Bavaria , existed here. During the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) the “Ehrenhalle” (Hall of Honour) was built in the park. In 1933 Hitler replaced the park with a strictly-structured deployment area, the so-called “Luitpoldarena” with an area of 84,000 m². During the party rallies, deployments of… Read more »

Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel, born 9 October 1907 in Bielefeld,  was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) activist known for writing the lyrics to the “Horst-Wessel-Lied”. His death in 1930 was used by the party for propaganda purposes. By 1926, the German National People’s Party   decided that Wessel had become “too radical” and he was removed. That December,… Read more »

Albert Battel was born on January 21, 1891 in Klein-Pramsen.  As a fifty-one-year-old reserve officer and lawyer from Breslau, Dr. Battel  was stationed in Przemysl in south Poland as the adjutant to the local military commander, Major Max Liedtke.  When the SS prepared to launch their first large-scale  “resettlement” (liquidation) action against  the Jews of… Read more »

Hermann Esser was a very early member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).  A journalist, Esser was the editor of the Nazi paper, Völkischer Beobachter, and a Nazi member of the Reichstag. In the early history of the party, he was a de facto deputy of Adolf Hitler  Esser was born 29 July 1900 in Röhrmoos, Kingdom of Bavaria. The son of a civil servant, he was educated… Read more »

The two cakes with Adolf Hitler portraits: In 1922 married Hermann Esser  , a party member of the first hour. Adolf Hitler had promised his shareholder at the small wedding party, but he did not want to speak: “I need crowds when I speak,” he explained. “In a small circle I just do not find the… Read more »

In January 1944, Cairo East section of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) hatched a daring plot to kidnap the commander of the 22nd  Infantry Division based on Crete, General-Leutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Muller. Müller was executed for war crimes, age 49, on 20-05-1947. The plot was led by Major Patrick Leigh Fermor, along with his second-in-command,… Read more »