Category Archives: Nazi Germany

The Biggest Maritime Disaster In History – the Wilhelm Gustloff

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30 January 1945 – nine hours after leaving port, and seventy minutes after being hit, the huge ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, slipped under the waves and sunk.

A small fleet of ships and boats arrived on the scene, and managed to pluck a few from the icy waters and rescued many of those on the lifeboats. Over a thousand were rescued but… an estimated 9,343 people died, half of them children – six times the 1,517 that died on the Titanic.

It remains the biggest maritime disaster in history.

We have all heard of the Titanic. A century after that fateful night, the disaster remains within our global consciousness. Even before James Cameron’s epic 1998 film, we knew of the iceberg, the “women and children first”, the band that played on.

But how many of us have even heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff?

The Luxury Liner

The ship was named after the assassinated leader of the Swiss Nazi Party (yes, Switzerland in the 1930s had its own Nazi Party), murdered in his own home in February 1936 (Wilhelm Gustloff, pictured).

The ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, weighing 25,000 tons and almost 700 feet in length, was an impressive sight, and could carry almost 2,000 passengers and crew. Launched in 1937, it began its life as a luxury cruise liner for the German workers of Hitler’s Third Reich, and, to the outbreak of the Second World War, had sailed over fifty cruises.

Wartime

For the first year of the war the Wilhelm Gustloff served as a hospital ship before being held in dock in the port of Gotenhafen (modern-day Gdynia) on the Baltic coast where, until early 1945, it served as barracks for U-boat trainees.

Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941 and the German juggernaut had fought all the way to within sight of Moscow. But then the tide of war turned against the Nazis, and Stalin launched his own counterattack.

By October 1944, the Soviet Union’s Red Army had fought the Germans out of Russia and broken through into East Prussia.

The Red Army Approaches

With the apocalyptic Red Army bearing down on them, the German civilians of East Prussia, desperate to get away, fled to the Baltic ports hoping to be evacuated out. Those caught in the maelstrom of the Soviet advance were murdered and raped.

The Wilhelm Gustloff, along with any other serviceable ship in the area, was pressed into service to aid the evacuation of German civilians. With forty-eight hours notice before departure, the scenes in frozen Gotenhafen were of panic as people, frantic for a place, fought on the dock and surged to board the ship.

Evacuation

By the time it left, on 30 January, 10,582 people (40% of whom were children) had crammed onto a ship designed for less than 2,000. Of the three designated military escorts, two broke down, leaving one torpedo boat to accompany the huge liner. The ship had four captains who argued over the best course to take – shallow or deep waters, a straight line for speed or zig-zags to help avoid detection. Poor visibility, heavy snow and freezing temperatures further hampered progress.

When the captains were informed of a German minesweeper convoy coming towards them, they decided, after much argument, to switch on the navigation lights to avoid colliding into the convoy, but by doing so the ship also became visible to a Soviet submarine lurking nearby.

Hit

The submarine fired three torpedoes, each hitting its target. The ensuing scenes of panic cannot be imagined. Most of the lifeboats had frozen onto their davits, leaving only a few useable. As the ship listed to one side, there were people trapped below decks, others crushed in the stairways, more falling into the freezing waters, children drowned in lifejackets too big. People fought and clubbed each other to get onto the few lifeboats, whilst many jumped to their deaths.

It was, coincidentally, the birthdate of Wilhelm Gustloff, born 30 January 1895. The day the ship sunk would have been his 50th birthday. It was also the 12th anniversary of Hitler coming to power.

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff on 30 January 1945 remains the greatest maritime disaster to ever have taken place. But why, when the tragic story of theTitanic is so known to us, does the Wilhelm Gustloff remain a forgotten catastrophe?

To help answer this, I quote from David F. Krawczyk, who has put together an excellent website, http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/, devoted to the subject. Below I paraphrase some of his observations:

1. The disaster occurred during wartime

Many view wartime disasters as less “tragic” than those occurring during peacetime.

2. The victims were on the “losing” side

Although the passengers were predominately civilian, they were German, and post-war sympathy for Germany was not overly forthcoming.

3. German war-guilt has repressed the disaster

A nation’s war guilt and repression of memory has served to push the Wilhelm Gustloff into obscurity. German writer and Nobel Prize Winner, Gunter Grass, wrote of the disaster and the preceding assassination of Gustloff in his 2002 novel, Crabwalk.

4. Russian retribution for Nazi occupation

When the Nazis broke their pact with Stalin and invaded Soviet Russia in 1941, their tactics were often brutal and cold. Hitler himself made it clear that this was a war different from that waged in the West. He called it a “war of extermination”. When the tide eventually turned and the Soviets were marching toward Berlin, the Red Army showed no mercy – and exacted horrific revenge. Since the Soviets were the only Allies in control of the Bay of Danzig both near the end of the war and for many years after, they were not about to mourn the loss of life on any enemy ship.

5. World sentiment regarding Nazi atrocities

As the world learned more about Nazi war-crimes and systematic genocide – above all the Holocaust, subdued global reaction to a disaster on this scale is understandable. Under other circumstances, 4,000 innocent children dying in a single disaster would certainly be mourned by almost anyone in a “friendly” or “enemy” nation.

6. Ship was named after a prominent Nazi leader

Wilhelm Gustloff was leader of the Nazi Party in Switzerland. One wonders if the profile of the ship might have been higher if it had been named after a city or non-Nazi figure.

7. Demise of so many refugees (mostly women and children)

For months, the disaster remained largely unreported both inside and outside Germany. Inside the imploding Nazi-Germany, Hitler wanted to suppress awareness about the death of so many. The western Allies avoided it too; it would not have made for a popular news story involving the deaths of so many women and children.

8. There is no American connection or Hollywood profile

Since comparisons are inevitable, we can see how the Titanic profile was raised even higher worldwide with an Academy-Award winning movie from Hollywood. Unlike the Titanic, the Wilhelm Gustloff was not sailing toward America, nor did it have any American passengers on its decks.

9. There were no rich victims on board

In another inevitable comparison to the Titanic, none of the Wilhelm Gustloffpassengers on the fateful voyage were rich or of society’s elite. They were refugees simply trying to escape a terrible situation.

British Pathé have kindly offered this rare bit of footage of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

Rupert Colley
See also, sinking of the Armenia, the Soviet hospital ship, and the sinking of HMS Hood
Read more about the war in World War Two In An Hour 

The Wannsee Conference

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On this day, 70 years ago, 20 January 1942, took place one of the most notorious meeting in history. In a grand villa on the picturesque banks of Berlin’s Lake Wannsee, met fifteen high-ranking Nazis. Chaired by the chief of the security police, 37-year-old Reinhard Heydrich (pictured), the fifteen men represented various agencies of the Nazi apparatus.

‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’

Heydrich’s objective, as tasked by Hermann Göring (and therefore, presumably, Hitler), was to secure the support of these various agencies for the implementation of the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’, the systematic annihilation of the European Jew.

The mass murder of Jews was already taking place. The initial method of shooting Jews on the edges of pits was considered too time-consuming and detrimental on the mental health of the murder squads. The squads, often recruited from the local populations in conquered areas, willingly collaborated in the killings but eventually found the task gruelling. Seeking alternative methods, the Germans began experimenting with gas, using carbon monoxide in mobile units but although better this was still considered too slow and inefficient. Eventually, after experiments on Soviet prisoners of war in Auschwitz during September 1941, Zyklon B gas was discovered as a rapid and efficient means of murder.

The Wannsee Conference, as it became known, discussed escalating the killing to a new, industrial level. Heydrich estimated that 11 million Jews still resided in Europe and needed to be “combed from West to East.” He produced a list of nations and their respective number of Jews, not only in countries already under Nazi control but also neutral nations and those not yet occupied. For example, Britain, according to Heydrich’s figures, contained 330,000 Jews; Sweden 8,000; Spain 6,000; Switzerland 18,000; and Ireland 4,000, plus 200 Jews in Albania.

“Eliminated through natural reduction”

The more able-bodied Jews, said Heydrich, would be used for labour “whereby a large number will doubtlessly be eliminated through natural reduction.” Those that survived the labour, the toughest, would, if liberated, be the “core of a new Jewish revival,” therefore they had to be “dealt with appropriately.” The minutes of the meeting, written up by Adolf Eichmann, were littered with such euphemisms but, according to Eichmann at his trial in 1962, once the official meeting had finished, they spoke openly of executions and liquidation.

No one at the meeting objected or questioned the proposals, and Heydrich hadn’t expected any but nonetheless was pleased with the level of enthusiasm. The rest of the meeting discussed definitions of ‘Jewishness’ – to what extent persons of mixed blood could be defined as Jewish; and whether children born of mixed marriages (German and Jew) were Jewish or not. And veterans of the First World War, it was decided, would be sent to ghettos specifically for the aged.

Satisfied, Heydrich drew the meeting to a close. The men retired to comfortable chairs to smoke, drink brandy and gossip whilst admiring the view over the lake. The meeting, barely an hour and a half long, was over.

Postscript

Hitler had admired Heydrich, the ‘man with the iron heart’ as he called him and, in September 1941, appointed him in charge of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Heydrich’s ruthlessness in dealing with the Jews within his ‘protectorate’ won him the sobriquet ‘the Butcher of Prague’. On 27 May 1942, only four months after the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich was the victim of an ambush set up by four Czech resistance fighters. A week later he died of his injuries and was given a state funeral in Berlin. The reprisals in Czechoslovakia were, predictably, savage.

Following the war, Adolf Eichmann escaped to Argentina where he was eventually hunted down. His trial provided fresh details on the workings within the Nazi hierarchy. He was executed in on 31 May 1962.

The villa at Wannsee is now a holocaust museum.

Rupert Colley
Read more in Nazi Germany In An Hour and World War Two In An Hour

Ernst Rohm – a Summary

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Everyone called Hitler Mein Fuhrer, everyone except one man, a trusted comrade from the earliest days of the Nazi Party. That man was Ernst Rohm and in 1934 Hitler conspired to have him murdered.

Rohm – World War One

Born this day, 28 November 1887, Ernst Rohm fought with distinction throughout the First World War, winning an Iron Cross, First Class and being promoted to Captain. Twice he was wounded, on one occasion shot in the face, and he carried the scars for the rest of his life. In 1918, as the war drew to its close, Rohm contracted Spanish Flu which killed millions across Europe. Rohm was lucky to have survived.

Rohm’s Early Years

In 1919 Rohm joined the newly-formed German Workers’ party, forerunner to the National Socialist Workers Party, nicknamed by its opponents the Nazi Party. Rohm was the ultimate Nazi thug, relishing in his role of street revolutionary. There he met the young Adolf Hitler. Four years later he would march alongside Hitler during the failed Munich Putsch (or revolution). Rohm, along with Hitler, was arrested and charged with high treason, a charge that carried the death penalty. But the Munich court, sympathetic to the Nazi cause, showed leniency and merely handed Rohm a suspended sentence.

In 1925, following a disagreement with Hitler, Rohm resigned from the party and found employment in Bolivia. Six years later Hitler wrote to Rohm asking him to return to Germany and to head the SA. Rohm accepted the challenge.

Rohm’s ‘Second Revolution’

However, after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933, Rohm felt that Hitler had gone soft and had not given the SA due reward for helping the Nazis into power. The SA started talking of a ‘second revolution’ with Rohm the leader of the People’s Party. Talk that greatly alarmed the industrialists and businessmen that Hitler had managed to woo. Rohm wanted also to merge the army with the SA under his command, which, in turn, alarmed the army.

The army viewed the SA as an ill-disciplined bunch of homosexual thugs whilst the SA considered the army overly traditional and an anachronism. Hitler may have sympathized with his old revolutionary comrade but now, in 1934, he had his eye on the presidency. The current incumbent, President Hindenburg was frail and senile and not expected to live much longer (he died that August). But to achieve his goal Hitler needed the support of the army.

The SA’s violence, which once, as a revolutionary, Hitler would have endorsed, had become an embarrassment to the Chancellor. The SA’s agitation was beginning to threaten the country’s stability, and President Hindenburg threatened to bring in martial law and turn the country over to the army unless Hitler could bring the situation under control.

The Night of the Long Knives

Pressurized by the army and Hindenburg to act, Hitler had to do something. And he did. On the night of June 30 / July 1, 1934, the SS carried out a purge of the SA and all opponents of Hitler’s regime. It became known as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’. Men who had crossed Hitler in the past were butchered. Members of the SA, who had gathered for a weekend of debauchery in the Bavarian village of Bad Wiessee, were all arrested and promptly executed.

Hitler took it upon himself to arrest Rohm personally, marching into his hotel room and, brandishing a revolver, yelled, “You’re under arrest, you pig”. Rohm was taken to a Munich prison and there awaited his fate. But Hitler, in a fit of nostalgia, found it difficult to order his murder. He offered Rohm the chance to kill himself – a revolver was left in his room and he was allowed ten minutes. When the ten minutes elapsed and no shot had been heard, a SS officer marched in and killed the bare-chested Rohm at point blank range.

He was 46-years-old.

Rupert Colley
Read more in Nazi Germany In An Hour

The Munich Putsch – a Summary

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Rupert Colley summarises the Munich (or Beer Hall) Putsch of November 1923 when Hitler tried to seize power of Germany.

During the early 1920s Hitler became convinced that the way to power lay in revolution. Revolution had brought power to the Bolsheviks in Russia and had almost done the same for the Communists in Germany during the chaos of the immediate post-First World War period. Hitler watched, with fascination and admiration, as Mussolini took over power in Italy following his March on Rome in October 1922.

And so in Munich, Hitler planned his overthrow, or putsch, of the Bavarian government followed by a March on Berlin. The date set, Sunday November 11, 1923, was an auspicious anniversary – five years on from Germany’s defeat in the war, and, on a more practical level, being a Sunday, a day when the armed forces and police were on reserve strength.

A Beer Hall in Munich

But when Hitler learnt about, and indeed was invited to, a public meeting in a Munich beer hall on the evening of November 8th, hosted by government figures such as Gustav Ritter von Kahr, leader of the Bavarian Government, and the Bavarian chiefs of police and army, the opportunity was too perfect to pass by. At his side were Hermann Goring and Rudolf Hess.

The National Revolution Has Begun

As the meeting progressed, Hitler’s armed corps of bodyguards, the SA, silently surrounded the building. With the bulk of his men in place, others noisily barged into the beer hall, interrupting proceedings and shouting ‘Heil Hitler’.

A machine gun was hurled in and the audience, fearing a massacre, cowered and hid beneath their chairs. Hitler took his cue and brandishing a revolver, charged to the front, leapt onto a chair and firing two shots into the ceiling, declared that he was the new leader of the German government and that the “National revolution (had) begun.” He then forced the three men on the stage, Kahr and his chiefs, into a side room, apologised to them for the inconvenience, and promised them prestigious jobs in his new Germany.

Returning to the stage, Hitler delivered a rousing speech, winning over his audience who applauded ecstatically. They applauded with equal enthusiasm when Hitler’s famous co-conspirator, General Erich von Ludendorff, made his appearance. Ludendorff, as the joint head of Germany’s military during the war, was well-known and respected, and Hitler hoped that with Ludendorff as his mascot it would win him support. It seemed to be working.

Ludendorff’s task was to persuade Kahr and his chiefs to support the revolution and join the March on Berlin. After some reluctance the three men eventually acquiesced.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, the SA, led by Hitler’s confidant, Ernst Rohm, was successfully securing vital strongpoints. Hitler, his speech done and his audience converted, left the beer hall to check on progress.

The Gullible Old General

During Hitler’s absence, Kahr and his chiefs confirmed to Ludendorff their new-found allegiance and asked permission to leave in order to issue orders. Ludendorff, always trusting of fellow men in uniforms, gave his approval. Hitler, on his return, was furious that Ludendorff should have been so gullible.

Across the city scuffles continued throughout the night and confusion reigned as night turned into day. In the morning Hitler ordered a march through the city to meet Rohm who, earlier, had seized the offices of the city’s War Ministry. With the chastised Ludendorff at his side and about 2,000 men behind him, Hitler set off. But in front of the Feldherrenhalle (the Field Marshals’ Hall) in central town their way was blocked by a contingent of police. A gunfight ensued and four police officers and sixteen Nazis were killed. Ludendorff marched towards the police lines and was promptly arrested; Goring was badly injured but made his escape (eventually to Austria); and Hitler, falling to the ground, dislocated his shoulder.

Hitler managed to escape to a friend’s house, where, suicidal, he wrote various letters, including one where he handed over the leadership of the party to Alfred Rosenberg.

But Hitler’s luck was about to run out.

Hitler’s Trial

Opening on February 26, 1924 and lasting 24 days, Hitler’s trial offered him his biggest platform to date. Outside Bavaria Hitler was little known. But following the trial Hitler’s name had become known throughout Germany.

I alone bear the responsibility

Presiding over the proceedings, the Minister of Justice, Franz Gurtner, was, at heart, a Nazi sympathiser, as were the judges. Whilst Ludendorff lied about having anything to do with the putsch and treated the judges as subordinates on the parade ground, Hitler declared his guilt with pride, appealing to the nationalistic patriotism of his listeners: “I alone bear the responsibility,” he told the bench, “but I am not a criminal because of that … There is no such thing as treason against the November criminals.” (Hitler was referring to the German politicians that had surrendered in November 1918).

Hitler Guilty

The nation waited on the verdict. Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years. Ludendorff was acquitted but given Hitler’s evidence an acquittal for Hitler risked the case going to the higher court where judges made of sterner stuff would not have tolerated Hitler’s long speeches and where the maximum penalty for high treason, the death penalty, would have been a distinct possibility. Thus the sentence of five years was extremely light. Returned to the Landsberg prison, Hitler was spared prison uniform and permitted to wear his Lederhosen, granted a spacious room and greeted by the prison wardens with a ‘Heil Hitler’ whilst his fellow prisoners would wait at the table before mealtime until Hitler had sat down.

My 4 1/2 Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice

Although frequently depressed and talked of suicide, Hitler used his time in prison constructively, dictating to Hess his autobiographical, ideological rant Mein Kampf. Published on July 18, 1925, it was originally entitled ‘My 4 1/2 Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice’; the new title being suggested by his publisher.

Hitler served only eight months of his five year sentence and by the time of his release he had converted most of the prison staff and his fellow prisoners to National Socialism. Immediately on his release took up the reins of his party, and visited the Bavarian president, Dr Held, and promised that from then on the Nazi party would respect the legal process. The ban placed on the party within the province following the putsch was lifted, and Held confided to his colleagues that the wild beast had been tamed. Little did he know…

Postscripts:

Gustav Ritter von Kahr was made to pay for his treachery – he was murdered during the ‘Night of the Long Knives‘ in June 1934.

Ernst Rohm, head of the SA, became increasingly a menace and potential threat to Hitler and was the main reason and victim of the ‘Night of the Long Knives’.

Ruldof Hess was also sentenced and served alongside Hitler.

Alfred Rosenberg had been a member of the German Workers’ Party, forerunner to the Nazi Party, from its inception in January 1919, joining it even before Hitler, who joined in the October. Hitler’s handing over of power to Rosenberg following his arrest was a shrewd move. At the risk of the party disintegrating, he knew Rosenberg, lacking the necessary credentials, would make a poor leader and pose no threat to his own leadership. Sure enough on Hitler’s release from prison, Rosenberg stepped aside.

The proprietors of the Munich beer hall claimed on the damages: 143 broken beer mugs, 80 broken glasses, 98 stools, 148 pieces of cutlery, plus two unsightly holes in the ceiling.

November 8th and 9th became important occasions in the Nazi calendar as the sixteen ‘blood martyrs’ that died that night were solemnly commemorated each year on the 8th and, on the 9th, re-enactments were held of the dramatic events. The flag carried that night, stained with the blood of the Nazi martyrs, the ‘blood flag’, became a symbolic relic of the regime.

In 1935 Hitler had the martyrs reburied in front of the Field Marshals’ Hall in a ‘Temple of Honour’, adorned with flags and sarcophagi. The ceremony, on the anniversary in 1935, was accompanied by muffled drums, mournful parades down torchlit streets and the display of the blood flag.

Today in front of the Field Marshals’ Hall is a simple plaque to the four policemen who died that night. The inscription reads: To the members of the Bavarian Police, who gave their lives opposing the National Socialist coup on 9 November 1923″.

Rupert Colley

For more read Hitler In An Hour and Nazi Germany In An Hour

Rommel – the Death of the Good Nazi

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“We have a very daring and skilful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.”

The words were Winston Churchill’s and the great general, Erwin Rommel.

The Desert Fox

Born 1891, Rommel was, and still is today, the Nazi we can admire (although, technically, not a Nazi, as he never joined the party). As Churchill suggests, he was respected as a master tactician, the supreme strategist who, in 1940, helped defeat France and the Low Countries and then found lasting fame when sent by Hitler to North Africa where, commanding the Afrika Korps, he earned the sobriquet, the Desert Fox. Germany, his nation, adored him, his troops loved him, Hitler treasured him and his enemies respected him. His Afrika Korps was never charged with any war crimes and prisoners of war were treated humanely. When his only son, Manfred, proposed joining the Waffen SS, Rommel forbade it.

In June 1944 Rommel was sent to Northern France to help co-ordinate the defence against the Allied Normandy Invasion but was wounded a month later when a RAF plane strafed his car. Rommel returned home to Germany to convalesce.

The July Bomb Plot

Meanwhile, on July 20, 1944, Hitler survived an assassination attempt in his Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia, the ‘July Bomb Plot’, perpetuated by Nazi officers who hoped to shorten the war with his removal. Hitler, although shaken, suffered only superficial injury and those responsible were soon rounded up and executed. Rommel, although not involved, had previously voiced sympathy for the plan. Once his endorsement came to light, his downfall was inevitable and swift.

On October 14th, 1944, Hitler dispatched two generals to Rommel’s home to offer the fallen Field Marshal a bleak choice. Manfred, aged 15, was at home with his mother when the call came. He waited nervously as the three men talked in private, and as his father went upstairs to speak to his mother. Finally Rommel spoke to his son and told him of Hitler’s deal.

Manfred’s story

Writing after the war, Manfred described the scene as his father said, “I have just had to tell your mother that I shall be dead in a quarter of an hour… The house is surrounded and Hitler is charging me with high treason. In view of my services in Africa I am to have the chance of dying by poison. The two generals have brought it with them. It’s fatal in three seconds. If I accept, none of the usual steps will be taken against my family, that is against you.”

‘Do you believe it?’ asked Manfred.

“Yes, I believe it. It is very much in their interest to see that the affair does not come out into the open. By the way, I have been charged to put you under a promise of the strictest silence. If a single word of this comes out, they will no longer feel themselves bound by the agreement.”

Manfred continues, “The car stood ready. The SS driver swung the door open and stood to attention. My father pushed his Marshal’s baton under his left arm, and with his face calm, gave Aldinger (Rommel’s aide) and me his hand once more before getting in the car… My father did not turn again as the car drove quickly off up the hill and disappeared round a bend in the road. When it had gone Aldinger and I turned and walked silently back into the house.

“Twenty minutes later the telephone rang. Aldinger lifted the receiver and my father’s death was duly reported.”

A loyal German soldier

Having died from “the injuries sustained during the RAF attack in France”. He as, as promised, buried with full military honours (pictured), accorded an official day of mourning, and his family pensioned off.

Writing after the war, Churchill wrote that Rommel was deserving of “our respect, because, although a loyal German soldier, he came to hate Hitler and all his works, and took part in the conspiracy to rescue Germany by displacing the maniac and tyrant. For this, he paid the forfeit of his life.”

Rupert Colley
Read more about the war in World War Two In An Hour

The Munich Agreement: Peace For Our Time

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The nation of Czechoslovakia, created in 1919, had amongst its diverse ethnic groups 3.5 million Germans living on the Czech-German border, the Sudetenland. When the Czechoslovakian president, Eduard Benes, visited Hitler in Germany he was subjected to one of Hitler’s harangues about oppression and the Sudeten German’s right to self-determination. Hitler wanted to use the Sudetenland as a pretext to invade Czechoslovakia despite his generals cautioning him against the idea.

Czechoslovakia: the “last major problem”

On September 15, 1938, Neville Chamberlain (pictured), Britain’s Prime Minister since May 1937, visited Hitler at his home in Berchtesgaden and listened as Hitler proclaimed that Czechoslovakia was the “last major problem to be solved”. Despite his generals’ advice and nervousness, Hitler threatened war unless the Czech and British governments accepted his demands that the Sudetenland be peacefully incorporated into the Reich.

Chamberlain was not unsympathetic. Like many British politicians before him, he felt that the post-WWI treaty signed at Versailles had been unnecessarily unjust against Germany and the French’s determination to impose the Treaty to the letter overly harsh. Furthermore, a strong Germany, the British felt, would act as a useful buffer against the Soviet Union. Therefore, Chamberlain listened to Hitler and purposefully pursued a policy of appeasement.

When Chamberlain relayed Hitler’s demands to Benes, the Czechoslovakian president knew he had no choice. Neither Britain nor France would come to his rescue, despite their alliances, and his country could not face going to war single-handedly against the might of Germany. Reluctantly, Benes agreed to Hitler’s demands.

Chamberlain returned to Hitler, satisfied that, through his diplomacy, he had averted a war. But Hitler was now demanding more, namely the right to the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland.

Chamberlain was again prepared to accept these new demands but his government was not. A stalemate had been reached. Europe seemed on the brink of war until the unlikely figure of Mussolini stepped in as mediator and suggested a meeting between himself, Hitler, Chamberlain and the French Prime Minister, Edouard Daladier. The Czechoslovakian government was not invited.

The Munich Agreement

The four powers met for the one day in Munich on September 29, 1938. Germany, it was agreed, could have the Sudetenland in return for a guarantee that Hitler would make no further territorial demands – which would secure the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler agreed. Hitler and Chamberlain also signed a declaration of Anglo-German friendship, as “symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.”

“Peace For Our Time”

Benes protested but was firmly reminded that no one would go to war over Czechoslovakia. The triumphant Chamberlain, meanwhile, returned to Britain, waving the infamous piece of paper in his hand, declaring that the Munich Agreement had guaranteed “peace for our time.” Two days after the conference, the German army marched into the Sudetenland.

Hitler however was far from satisfied with the outcome of Munich: “That senile old rascal Chamberlain,” he complained, “has ruined my entry into Prague.” But six months later Prague would be his and the calamitous conflagration of the Second World War drew a significant step nearer.

Rupert Colley
Read more about the coming of war in Nazi Germany In An Hour

The 20 July Plot – the attempt on Hitler’s life

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The attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20, 1944, was the seventeenth known occasion that someone had tried to kill Hitler. Unlike other attempts however this, the 20 July Plot, was the most intricate, and involved plans for a new Germany following the successful accomplishment of the mission.

Count Stauffenberg loses faith

A fervent supporter of Hitler, 36-year-old Count Claus von Stauffenberg had fought bravely during the Second World War for the Fuhrer. Fighting in Tunisia in 1943 Stauffenberg was badly wounded, losing his left eye, his right hand and two fingers of his left. Once recovered Stauffenberg was transferred to the Eastern Front where he witnessed the atrocities firsthand which made him question his loyalty. As it became increasingly apparent that Germany would not win the war, Stauffenberg lost faith in Hitler.

At some point in early 1944 Stauffenberg joined a group of German officers intent on bringing the war to a quick end, and negotiating a peace with the Allies. Their biggest obstacle was of course Hitler.

But the plotters received a bit of luck when Stauffenberg was appointed onto the staff of the Reserve Army, reporting directly to General Friedrich Fromm, another officer who had lost faith in the Nazi cause. When Stauffenberg was invited to a meeting in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair in Rastenburg, East Prussia, for July 20, the opportunity seemed perfect.

The conspirators hatched their plan, codenamed Valkyrie, and crucial to its success was Stauffenberg’s proximity to Hitler.

I Am Alive, I Am Alive

About to attend the meeting, Stauffenberg, lacking time to prepare two devices, only managed to prepare one bomb. With it set to detonate after ten minutes, Stauffenberg entered the meeting room at the Wolf’s Lair and found Hitler poring over a large air reconnaissance report from the Eastern Front spread across a table. The Count placed his briefcase beneath the map table and, as prearranged, received a phone call, necessitating his immediate attention and departure.

Whilst Stauffenberg made good his escape an attendant, with his foot, pushed the briefcase further under the heavy oak table so that when, at 12.42, the two pound bomb went off, the thickness of the wood spared Hitler the main thrust of the explosion.

Billows of black smoke poured from the windows of the meeting room, and staggering out leaning on each other were two men, their clothes torn to shreds, their skin blackened, their hair singed. One of them was General Wilhelm Keitel, the other was Hitler himself, muttering “What was that? I am alive, I am alive!”

Arrest him immediately

Hitler was examined – contusion on the left arm, damage to his eardrums and wooden splinters in his legs from the floorboards. Considering his proximity to the bomb his survival was miraculous. So superficial his injuries he was able to keep an appointment that afternoon with Mussolini, meeting him in person at the local railway station and shaking Il Duce’s hand with his left. Hitler himself put his survival down to the hand of providence. Germany, the fates dictated, would win the war and Hitler’s life had been spared to ensure it.

Others had been more seriously injured and taken to hospital. Four of them later died. The movements of all were scrutinised and it soon became apparent that Stauffenberg, seen leaving hurriedly in his car, was the culprit. “Arrest him immediately!” bellowed Hitler.

Hitler is dead

Early afternoon, Thursday 20 July 1944 – Count Claus von Stauffenberg, believing that he had successfully killed Hitler, returned to Berlin. The first part of the operation had been successfully completed. Now he issued the codeword,Valkyrie, the instruction for the Reserve Army to place Germany under a state of emergency. General Friedrich Fromm, Stauffenberg’s senior officer within the Reserve Army, informed local commanders that a new administration would be formed.

However, one of those commanders, Major Remer, received a telephone call directly from Hitler where the Fuhrer informed the Major that, contrary to popular rumour, he was still very much alive – and in control.

When it became obvious that the coup had failed, Fromm, in an attempt to distance himself from the conspirators, ordered the execution of Stauffenberg. The Count was detained and duly shot, along with three others, at one in the morning, just over 12 hours after the bomb had gone off, and hastily buried in the grounds of the War Ministry.

Himmler takes control

But it did Fromm little good. Once Himmler had arrived in Berlin, he re-established control of the city and the mass arrests began, and amongst the first to be arrested was Fromm. He also ordered the exhumation of Stauffenberg’s body. The Count’s final resting place has since remained a mystery - until now.

Many committed suicide rather than face Nazi justice. The ringleaders were rounded up and hanged by piano wire, their deaths recorded onto film and the films sent to the Wolf’s Lair for Hitler to watch at his pleasure. Over the coming months more than 7,000 were arrested, of whom 4,980 were executed. Fromm remained imprisoned until March 12, 1945, when he too was shot.

Rommel’s fateful choice

The highest-ranking victim of this post-July purge was one of Hitler’s favourite and most-ablest generals, Erwin Rommel. Rommel, although not directly involved, had previously voiced sympathy for the plan. Once his endorsement came to light, he was given the option of honourable suicide or subjecting himself to the humiliation and the kangaroo court of Nazi justice, and his family deported to a concentration camp. He chose the former and, on October 14, accompanied by two generals sent by Hitler, poisoned himself. He was, as promised, buried with full military honours, his family pensioned off.

Aftermath

Those who had been at Hitler’s side in the conference room on July 20 were awarded a specially-made ‘Wounded Medal’ that bore the date and Hitler’s name. It was, for the remaining months of the war, the ultimate badge of loyalty and honour.

The buildings that made up the Wolf’s Lair were demolished soon after the war but today, on the site, is a memorial stone dedicated to Stauffenberg – the “bravest of the best” as Churchill described the fallen Count.

Rupert Colley
Read more in World War Two In An Hour

The Night of the Long Knives – Hitler purges the Nazi Party

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Hitler had come to power in January 1933 and immediately started, piece by piece, tearing up the Weimar constitution, squashing opposition and ridding Germany of democracy.

In the last parliamentary elections of the Weimar Republic, in March 1933, the Nazis polled 44% of the vote - not enough for a majority but enough to squash any future political resistance.Within a fortnight Hitler proposed the Enabling Act, a temporary dissolution of the constitution whilst he dealt with the problems facing the nation. The Reichstag passed the proposal by 441 votes to 84. There would be no more elections nor a constitution to keep Hitler in check. The Reichstag had, in effect, voted away its power. The temporary became permanent.Within a matter of weeks it had become illegal to criticise the government; a new secret police force, the Gestapo, immediately began arresting ‘unreliable’ persons; and Dachau, the first concentration camp, was opened to cater for their custody. Trade unions were banned, freedom of the press curtailed, and all other political parties declared illegal. Germany had become a one-party state with Hitler its dictator.A year later, with Hitler’s power absolute, only the excesses of the SA and their bull-necked leader, Ernst Rohm(pictured), troubled the dictator. Their violence, which as a revolutionary during the 1920s, Hitler would have endorsed, had become an embarrassment to the Chancellor. Having gained power through the proper process Hitler wanted to win over the German people and international opinion through legitimate means not by force.

But Rohm and the SA felt that Hitler was going soft and had not given them their due reward for helping the Nazis into power. They started talking of a ‘second revolution’ with Rohm the leader of the People’s Party, greatly alarming the industrialists and businessmen that Hitler had managed to woo. Rohm wanted also to merge the army with the SA under his command, which, in turn, alarmed the army and its chief, Werner von Blomberg.
In April 1934, Hitler and Blomberg signed a secret pact: Hitler promised Blomberg and the army full control of the military (ahead of Rohm’s SA); and, in return, Blomberg promised Hitler the army’s support when the time came for Hitler to claim the presidency following the anticipated death of 86-year-old Paul von Hindenburg.

Himmler and Goring, who also feared Rohm, concocted false evidence that Rohm was planning a coup against Hitler. The SA’s agitation was beginning to threaten the country’s stability, and Hindenburg threatened to bring in martial law unless Hitler could bring the situation under control. In other words – deal with Rohm and the SA.

On the weekend of June 30 – July 1, 1934, in what was to become known as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’, Hitler acted. Members of the SS stormed a hotel in the village of Bad Wiessee where the SA had gathered for a weekend of homosexual debauchery, pulled Rohm and his henchmen from their beds and had them arrested. They were all promptly executed, including Rohm who, having failed to take his own life, was shot.

Hitler took the opportunity to purge anyone whom he disliked or had crossed him in the past, including the last Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Kurt von Schleicher. The Night of the Long Knives claimed over 200 lives. Hindenburg congratulated his chancellor for having acted so swiftly. The army, relieved to be freed from its main rival, sided with Hitler, and Blomberg applauded “the Fuhrer’s soldierly decision and exemplary courage”.

All Hitler had to do now was to wait for old Hindenburg to die. He did not have long to wait.

Rupert Colley
Read more in Nazi Germany In An Hour

Anne Frank – a summary

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“I hope I shall be able to confide in you completely, as I have never been able to do in anyone before, and I hope that you will be a great support and comfort to me.”

Her voice has come to symbolise the holocaust, one victim among the six million who spoke for them all, a testament to all who perished with her.

She died aged 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early March 1945.

Born June 12, 1929, Anne and her elder sister, Margot, lived their early years in Frankfurt. But in 1933, following Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, the Franks, as a Jewish family, became concerned for their safety as the Nazis introduced increasingly fanatical anti-Semitic legislation.

The Franks Move to Amsterdam

In late 1933 Anne’s father, Otto, was offered and accepted a business opportunity in Amsterdam. In February 1934 his wife and daughters joined him in Holland. Of the half million Jews living in Germany in 1933, about 320,000 had emigrated by 1939.

In May 1940 Hitler launched his attack against France and the Low Countries. Rotterdam was heavily bombed and, on May 15, the Dutch, fearing further losses, surrendered.

Occupied Netherlands

Life for the Jewish population in Nazi occupied Netherlands became increasingly intolerable and dangerous. In July 1942 Otto Frank received an order to report his eldest daughter for a work camp. The Franks, fearing for their lives, decided they had no option but to go into hiding.

On July 6, 1942 the Franks moved into their secret annexe, behind Otto’s business premises, and in doing so left their flat in a state of chaos to give the impression of a family on the run. The annexe consisted of three floors, its entrance concealed by a large, wooden bookcase. They were to live in this self-imposed incarceration for over two years.

Anne had always shown a propensity to write and on her thirteenth birthday, a month before their flight, she received from her father an autograph book. With its thick blank pages, tartan cover and lock and key, Anne was delighted by her present and immediately began using it as a diary.

From the outside the Franks were provided with food, provisions, news and humanity by a small group of trusted business associates of Otto’s. A week after moving in, they were joined by Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their 16-year-old son, Peter. Anne and Peter had a brief dalliance, which, although pleasurable, was, for such a young girl, confusing. For Anne, becoming aware of her sexuality but in such a confined and claustrophobic atmosphere and tainted with the lack of normality and the constant nag of fear, it must have been unbearably confusing and difficult. But there was always the solace and consolation of her diary.

The Diary

As with many a teenager, a diary is a constant companion and source of comfort, allowing the writer to express their feelings, their frustrations, their fears and hopes for the future, and their beliefs and changing attitudes. And so it was for Anne, an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent, in extra-ordinary circumstances. The last entry in Anne’s diary is dated August 1, 1944.

Three days later the Nazi security police burst into the secret annexe and the Franks and their companions were arrested. They had been betrayed but by whom we will never know.

Auschwitz

After arrest and confinement within transit camps, the Franks were deported to Auschwitz, arriving in early September. Immediately Otto was separated from his wife and daughters – he never saw them again. He did, however, remain with Peter van Pels, who was to die in May 1945 whilst on a forced march. Peter’s parents both died as well, his father gassed.

In October 1944 the girls were relocated to Bergen-Belsen whilst their mother remained in Auschwitz where she was to die from starvation.

Margot and Anne, already weak, deteriorated further and when a typhus epidemic swept through the camp killing almost 20,000 inmates, the sisters were amongst the victims. The exact date of their deaths is not known but it was early March 1945, just weeks before the camp’s liberation.

Otto and his daughter’s diary

Otto, the only resident of the secret annexe to survive, returned to Amsterdam following the war knowing that his wife was dead but unsure of his daughters’ fate. He learnt, on returning home, of their deaths and received from friends Anne’s diary. This man, his life devastated by cruelty and inhumanity, sat down and read the secret diary of his deceased daughter.

He read of Anne’s desire to be published, to be recognised as a writer and decided to devote the rest of his life to Anne’s work. He was to die in 1980, aged 91.

The diary was first published in the Netherlands in 1947 and five years later in the US and the UK. The name Anne Frank rapidly became known throughout the world.

Seventy years later and her name lives on, and Anne’s diary, recognised as a timeless classic, remains essential reading for all humanity.

Rupert Colley
Read more about the war in World War Two In An Hour
See also Only Tanya is left

The Reichstag Fire: “A God-Given Signal”

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9 p.m. 27 February 1933, Berlin’s Reichstag building was set ablaze. By the time firefighters had arrived, the parliament building was already gutted. But the Reichstag Fire provided Hitler with a perfect excuse…

A communist outrage

Only four weeks earlier, Adolf Hitler had been appointed German Chancellor. On hearing the news of the fire, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were rushed (at 60 mph) to the site and there were met by a sweaty and overexcited Hermann Goering, who declared, ‘This is a communist outrage! One of the communist culprits has been arrested. Every Communist official must be shot where he is found. Every Communist deputy must this very night be strung up.’ Hitler saw it as a ‘God-given signal’.

The ‘Communist culprit’ was 24-year-old Marinus van der Lubbe (pictured), an unemployed Dutch bricklayer, found half naked, having used his shirt to start the fire.

Van der Lubbe readily confessed to the crime, stating, ‘I considered arson a suitable method. I did not wish to harm private people but something belonging to the system itself. I decided on the Reichstag.’  But he denied any involvement with the communists.

For the protection of the people and state

The following day 86-year-old Paul von Hindenburg, the increasingly senile German president, accepted Hitler’s request for a decree suspending all political and civil liberties as a ‘temporary’ measure for the ‘protection of the people and state’.

The communists, according to Hitler, were attempting a putsch, a revolt, and thousands of known communists were arrested, tortured and either murdered or placed in the newly-opened concentration camps for ‘protective custody’.

The exact events causing the fire have never been properly established but it seems unlikely whether van der Lubbe could have acted alone. Van der Lubbe was of limited intelligence and in his desire for attention had, more than once, persuaded the German press that he would swim the English Channel. With photographers and reporters poised, he coated himself in grease, swam out a few yards, only to return declaring unfavourable currents.

On another occasion van der Lubbe, following a strike at his workplace, offered to accept responsibility and take any reprimand as long as no one else was punished. It was obvious however to his employers that van der Lubbe had no or little involvement in stirring up the workers.

A bloody liar

So was the fire the work of communists, as Hitler claimed? Although once associated with the Communist Party, van der Lubbe insisted he acted alone. Rumours persisted even at the time that the Nazis were implicated, if not the government, then the party. When the head of the Berlin SA, Karl Ernst, was asked of his involvement, he replied, ‘If I said yes, I’d be a bloody fool, if I said no I’d be a bloody liar’. It was known that an underground passage ran all the way from Goering’s residence to the Reichstag.

In the post-war Nuremberg trials, witnesses testified hearing Goering boast about setting the Reichstag on fire but Goering however steadfastly denied any involvement.

But van der Lubbe did have help – it would have been impossible for him to have set such a large building ablaze with just his shirt and a few matches. He was certainly there, having been briefed and told to play his part, but others, probably on Goering’s orders, were there too.

But whoever egged van der Lubbe into his misadventure, the fire helped Hitler consolidate his power. The temporary suspension of liberties was never revoked and any active opposition to the Nazis was stifled. When, the following month, the last parliamentary elections took place, only Hitler, it was claimed, could save Germany from the Jews and communists. The SA intimidated all other parties into silence and the Nazis polled 44% of the vote, not enough for a majority but enough to squash any future political resistance.

The Enabling Act, passed in late March 1933, effectively did away with the constitution altogether. There would be no more elections nor a constitution to keep Hitler in check.

Van der Lubbe on trial

Van der Lubbe and four others were put on trial, including Ernst Torgler, chairman of the German Communist Party and Georgi Dimitrov, a Bulgarian communist who, in 1949 became Bulgaria’s prime minister. Tried by the German High Court, van der Lubbe was found guilty but Torgler and companions were acquitted for the lack of evidence.

Hitler was furious with the outcome and decreed that future cases of treason should be facilitated, not by the High Court, but by the People’s Court, where a guilty verdict was virtually a forgone conclusion.

On 10 January 1934, three days short of his twenty-fifth birthday, Marinus van der Lubbe was beheaded.

Seventy-four years later, in January 2008, the German state overturned the verdict against van der Lubbe and officially pardoned him.

Rupert Colley
For more, read Nazi Germany In An Hour