“Partly completed Heinkel He-162 fighter jets sit on the assembly line in the underground Junkers factory at Tarthun, Germany, in early April 1945. The huge underground galleries, in a former salt mine, were discovered by the 1st U.S. Army during their advance on Magdeburg.”
“Adolf Hitler addresses a rally of the SA (Sturmabteilung - paramilitary stormtroopers).
North Rhine-Westphalia, 1933.”
“A U.S. soldier inspects thousands of gold wedding bands taken from Jews by the Germans and stashed in the Heilbronn Salt Mines, on May 3, 1945 in Germany.”
“A U.S. soldier inspects thousands of gold wedding bands taken from Jews by the Germans and stashed in the Heilbronn Salt Mines, on May 3, 1945 in Germany.”
Adolf Hitler: Time Magazine’s man of the year for 1938.
The ballot issued within Austria in April of 1938, during the referendum to decide whether or not Austria was to be annexed by Nazi Germany.
The results, as claimed by the Nazi Party, were near 100% turnout and nearly the same amount in favor of annexation, which took place soon after.
Translation:
“Do you agree with the reunification of Austria with the German Reich that was enacted on 13 March 1938, and do you vote for the party of our leader Adolf Hitler?”
(The large circle is labelled “Yes”, the smaller “No”)
This day in history:
Adolf Hitler gives a rambling speech at the Reichstag in Berlin (mentioning “Roosevelt” more than 50 times) in which he eventually declares war on the United States. Italy follows suit the same day.
The United States responds later that same day with unanimously passed declarations of war against both countries, each being one paragraph (although really just one run-on sentence each) long.
December 11, 1941 - 70 years ago today.
Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass:
Following the killing of Nazi official Ernst vom Rath (ironically a man critial of the party’s anti-semite views) by seveteen year old Polish Jew, Herschel Grynszpan.
In the wake of Rath’s death, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels helped incite violence by announcing to the German public that if riots were to take place against Jews, those taking part would not be stopped.
Soon after, Nazi stormtroopers and German civilians alike took to the streets across the country. Hundreds of Jewish homes and business were ransacked and destroyed; more than 1,600 Jewish synagogues were ravaged and hundreds were set on fire.
Violence continued into the next day with 91 Jews dead. Many thousands more were placed into concentration camps, where at least 2,000 more died in the following months.
Once the rioting ceased, the New York Times’ front page story on the pogrom read as follows:
“Nazis smash, loot and burn Jewish shops and temples until Goebbels calls halt.”
November 9, 1938 - 73 years ago today.
The plot on Hitler’s life:
Every year on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch since coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech in honor of the failed revolution at the original site of the party’s failed revolution.
After viewing the dictator’s speech in 1938, Georg Elser, an opponent of Hitler and Nazism realized just how lax security was inside the beer hall. Soon after, Elser made up his mind - he would assassinate Adolf Hitler at the same spot the very next year.
Despite having no experience in bomb making, Elser was able to procure the necessary materials and fabricate it. At the time of Hitler’s speech a year later he went ahead with his plan and planted a bomb inside the beer hall in the ceiling above Hitler.
As Hitler gave his speech, the bomb ticked away. Elser left the hall early in anticipation of the explosion.
And so did Hitler - at the last minute, instead of taking a plane back to Berlin, he chose to take a train and made an early departure from the hall thirteen minutes before the bomb exploded.
Elser was arrested by officials who did not believe such a man could produce a bomb on his own - they tortured to try and make him confess that he received British help, despite acting alone. Throughout the war he was held in various concentration camps; weeks before the war’s end he died at Dachau.
November 8, 1939 - 72 years ago today.
The Beer Hall Putsch:
The Nazi party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, attempts to start a revolution and overthrow the Weimar Republic. Along with high ranking officials and armed supporters, Hitler storms a beer hall and yells:
The national revolution has broken out! The hall is filled with six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave. The Bavarian government and the government at Berlin are deposed. A new government will be formed at once.
The movement went nowhere and was put to an end a day later. At one point during the Putsch, Hitler himself came close to death when the man who he was locking arms with, in defiance of authorities, was shot and instantly killed.
For his part in leading a failed revolution against the state, Hitler received a five year prison sentence but ended up serving just over one year behind bars. His trial helped attain national publicity for himself and the Nazi party.
During his time in prison he dictated his book Mein Kampf to fellow participant Rudolf Hess. Hitler also received lots of fan mail from his supporters as well as preferential treatment from prison guards, and even bought a Mercedes limousine.
November 8, 1923 - 88 years ago today.
