Capitalism in Decay
Due to another user’s request, I have decided to compile threads on fascism, profascism, Japanese Imperialism, & neofascism here for your convenience. This compilation is, of course, incomplete, & its structure is subject to eventual change, but I hope that it suffices. # Origins * [German towns & cities with a history of medieval pogroms were likelier to support Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/691946) * [The History of Fascism in Ukraine, with Prof. Barry Lituchy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/311560) * [The U.S.’s many influences on German Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3486522): [The colonization of North America inspired the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1248822) & [the Third Reich’s Chancellor was inspired by racist ‘Wild West’ stories](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1169177) * [How the Second Reich’s Colonialism in Africa Incubated Ideas & Methods Adopted & Developed by the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/654182) * [How European imperialism in general influenced the Third Reich’s imperialism in particular](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/376261) * [The Armenian Genocide inspired the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1498253) * [Really Existing Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2514078) * [Why Mussolini shifted from socialism to Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/769209) * [How World War I created Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3177738) * [The History of Fascism in Ukraine, Pt. I: The Origins of the OUN, 1917–1941](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/538346) * [Crash course on the Freikorps: social democracy’s pawns & German Fascism’s heritage](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1044917) * [Many of the Gestapo’s leading officials also worked for the Weimar Republic](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1052889) # Economics * [**The Functions of Fascism, a monologue by Michael Parenti**](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/457159) (highly recommended) * [The Corporate State in Action](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/420482) * [White‐collar workers in Italy from the Liberal to the Fascist era](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1727974) * [The Fascists promoted ‘class collaboration’ over class struggle](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1233966) * [The first privatisation: Selling SOEs & privatising public monopolies in Fascist Italy (1922–1925)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/462843) * [The advertising industry flourished under Fascism; many Fascist advertisers learned their techniques from the U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3743127) * [Imperial capitalists once marketed products based on three accidental deaths](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/345563) * [In Fascist Italy, state interference in the private sector was minimal](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/107037); [a refutation of the old ‘fascism is socialism’ nonsense…from 1936](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/518305) * [Analysis of the Fascist colonization of Libya](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2763896) * [Analysis on the recruitment of Italian proletarians to Eritrea under Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/936147) * [The Anglo‐American ruling classes wiped out Fascist Italy’s WWI debts](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/449626); [in the 1920s, the American govt. effectively forgave 80.4% of Fascist Italy’s war debt](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/94628) * [Fascist Italy’s economy was directly influenced by Morgan Bank](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/93323) * [How nutrition worsened under Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/535177) * [How the Fascists handled unemployment](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2460657) * [London supported Fascism’s intrusion into Albania’s economy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/103385) * [The most shockingly honest summary of Fascism that you’ll see from capitalists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/390118) * [Against the Mainstream: Fascist Privatization in 1930s Germany](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/463968) * [The Fascist prehistory of the shoes & sportswear company Adidas](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/458205) * [The Third Reich was not a planned economy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/612010) * [The transfer of Jewish‐owned property into “Aryan” hands was at first left to private initiative](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/466425) * [The Weimar Republican origins of the Reich’s “welfare” bureaucracy & its use to the Fascist bourgeoisie](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468331) * [The Workers’ Opposition in the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/508579); [the folly of the Third Reich’s ‘Strength through Joy’ initiative](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3104560); [street politics in Hamburg & the lower‐class struggle against anticommunism, 1932–3](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/510623) * [How petty bourgeois white musicians benefitted from German Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/517466) * [Adolf Schicklgruber’s capitalism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1418855) * [The Third Reich supplied Tel Aviv with building materials](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3306020) & [funded most of the Zionist settlements in Palestine from 1933 to 1941](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3294394), which [included some prefabricated buildings](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3435504) * [Zionists became distribution agents for Fascist products all over the Middle East & North Africa](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3272753); [Zionism rendered the Jewish boycott on German goods useless](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3378380) * [British bankers extended credits to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3070876) * [Consumer research in the Third Reich was based on that in the U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3124507) * [Tobacco policies (or the want thereof) in the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/608826) * [Fascist Beanie Babies](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/98252) * [Recruitment & coercion in Imperial Japan: evidence from colonial Karafuto’s forestry & construction industries](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1711549) * [The secret behind Fascist Italy’s food self‐sufficiency](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/857135) (and no, just because a country is food self‐sufficient doesn’t mean that everybody is eating well) * [The Fascists were forced to rely on Ethiopian labor to feed white colonists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/710411) * [Fascist‐occupied E. Africa received 26.9% of its oil from the U.S. in 1935](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1606626) * [An analysis of the Fascist takeover & segregation of an Ethiopian marketplace](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/753775) * [Analysis of the white proletariat in E. Africa under its Fascist occupation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/885301) * [Britain exported considerable quantities of scrap metal to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3058666) * [U.S. capitalists supplied Japanese Imperialists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3200620) * [The Third Reich was the source of 60% of all investment in Zionist‐occupied Palestine from 1933–1939](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1879120) * [Southeastern European capitalists willingly supported antisemitism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/130222) & [Southeastern European capitalists benefited the Third Reich’s rearmament tremendously](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/444213) * [The Third Reich made it easy for landlords to evict Jewish tenants](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1126810) * [How Allied capitalists supplied Fascist Germany throughout WWII](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/509269); [corporate America’s support for the Third Reich was so crucial that the U.S. might as well have been an Axis power](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3755791); [these American corporations aided the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/99758) * [Liberal capitalists greatly rearmed prefascist Romania, which traded heavily with Fascist states](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/558855) * [Native banks in Zhejiang prospered under Axis occupation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/500839) * [Norwegian capitalists asked Fascists to forge letters saying that they were ‘forced’ to collaborate](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/91272) * [How Danish capitalists willingly collaborated with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/96739); [more than one thousand Danish capitalists happily assisted the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/339909) * [The Third Reich interfered minimally in France’s private sector](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/104943) * [Netherlandish capitalists willingly collaborated with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/101104) * [Swiss capitalism was critical to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/601908) * [Antisemitism made Bulgarian capitalists richer](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/621978) * [Portugal & the Third Reich’s Gold](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/577432) * [Finland was the Third Reich’s only ally that was allowed to buy German goods on credit](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3166634) * [The Cloaking of Fascist Assets Abroad, 1936–1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/129148) * [Gold, Debt & the Quest for Monetary Order: The Fascist Campaign to Integrate Europe in 1940](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/131297) * [Finnish–Fascist Relations & the Diplomacy of the Petsamo Question, March–December 1940](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/126482) * [Fascist officials & SS commanders amassed personal fortunes](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/365362) * [The Empire of Japan employed millions of child laborers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/610574) * [How the Axis (partially) caused famines in Vietnam & Java](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/642932) * [Why fellow capitalists bailed out Axis businessman Alfried Krupp](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/88298) * [The labour movement & business élites under fascist dictator Francisco Franco, 1939–1951](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/632760) # Culture * [Why Fascism (mostly) opposed Freemasonry](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/878930) * [How Fascism Ruled Women](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/541372); [the Fascists mobilized women for their colonization of Ethiopia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3596037); [Women & Alcohol Consumption in Fascist Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/603629) * [Corporal punishment & psychological violence were common in Fascist Italy’s rural schools](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3616776) * [How the Fascists altered the ancient landscape of Rome to fit their agenda](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/547466) * [How Fascist Italy suppressed abortion](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/303741) * [Fascist propaganda in pre‐1933 Germany](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/645754) * [The history of the fascist motto ‘Slava Ukraini’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468886) * [Hermann Göring predicted that ‘nobody in Germany will know what Marxism is’ by 1983](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/785512) * [Policing under German Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/626812) * [‘Race, military training, leadership, religion! These are the four unshakable foundations of [German Fascism’s] education!’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3233952) * [Christmas under the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3114948) * [Fascists normalized imperialism for children with games, playthings, & even dishware](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/652729) * [There were competing factions in the Third Reich’s govt.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3575067) * [Police propaganda (copaganda) in Europe’s Fascist empires](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/650242) * [Redefining the Individual in Berlin, 1930–1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/217082) * [Archaeology confirms that…the Fascists avoided African cuisine like the fucking plague](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/648540) * [The Third Reich strongly discouraged marriages & sexual relations with Italians (even during Axis membership)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3647568) * [The Fascists built a zoo right next to one of their concentration camps](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3637544) * [The Fascists intentionally built a merry‐go‐round next to the Warsaw Ghetto](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3368174) * [A collection of bizarre or unsettling posters from Fascist Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/591193); [‘Russian folk, Stalin orders you to die in order to save the Jew!’ (Serbia, 1942)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3444879); [a typical example of OUN‐B propaganda, dated 1941](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/446550) * [Those Who Said “No!”: Germans Who Refused to Execute Civilians during World War II](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3156797) * [Some Fascists contemplated keeping the earth’s last remaining Jews in a zoo](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2901673) * [The Fascists were the only force in history to deploy a sonic weapon in the field of battle](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3473631) * [Scandinavia & the U.S. sterilized more people than Fascist Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2723874) * [Suicide figures of German Fascists in 1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/210404) * [The Last of the Wehrmacht to Surrender in WWII](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/434540); [Europe’s last Axis troops surrendered in September 4, 1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1640632) # Foreign policy * [Fascist Italy’s annexation of Fiume](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/553117) * [Greece & Fascist Italy signed a Treaty of Friendship, Conciliation, & Judicial Settlement](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1992453) * [Fascist Italy funded efforts to achieve cultural hegemony in Eastern Europe](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/744966) * [Fascist Italy & the Kingdom of Romania signed a ‘Pact of Friendship & Cordial Collaboration’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1859403) * [The Treaty of Defensive Alliance between Fascist Italy & Albania](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2773106) * [The Penetration of Italian Fascism in Nationalist China](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/500080) * [The Fascists skillfully manipulated many Italian‐Americans into promoting Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/688204) * [Britain’s, France’s, & the Fascists’ Four‐Power Pact](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/956413) * [Introducing the Anti‐Komintern: Fascism’s own little ‘NGO’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/124939) * [Poland & the Third Reich signed a nonaggression pact](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3437154) * [Polish–German film relations in the process of building Fascist cultural hegemony in Europe](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/595996) * [Poland’s ruling class let Fascists spread propaganda in its country](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/684106) * [Fascist Italy hired an American to train dozens of its cadets](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1513779) * [The Fascists spied on Italians living thousands of miles away from Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/705473) * [Latinism & Hispanism in the Hispano‐American Right in Interwar Spain & Argentina](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2860449) * [Italian Fascist propaganda in Finland (1933–9)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/113427) * [The Mussolini–Jabotinsky Connection: The Hidden Roots of Israel’s Fascist Past](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/142732); [Zionist support for Italian Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2409282); [the Fascists created Zionism’s first naval academy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2482078) * [Zionist collaboration](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3494119) [with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2379065): [The ‘Jewish Agency for Israel’ maintained friendly relations with the Third Reich’s head of state as early as 1933](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3534873), [Zionists saw the victory of Fascism in Germany as a ‘fertile force’ for Zionism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3658733), [the Third Reich generally supported Zionism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2334919), [the Third Reich produced Zionist films](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2534198), [it trained (Zionist) Jews in agriculture to help settle them in Palestine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2568540), & [‘The ardent Zionists […] have objected least of all to the basic ideas of the Nuremberg Laws’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/509901) * [How the Third Reich supported China’s anticommunists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/128552) * [The Anglo‐German Naval Pact of 1935](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/755482) * [How Racist Policies in Fascist Italy Inspired & Informed the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/403875) * [The Fascists drew upon British Kenya & South Africa to implement racial policies in Ethiopia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/680560) * [A sample of Italian Fascist colonialism: nursing & medical records in the Imperial War in Ethiopia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/442379) * [Maltese support for Fascism & Rome’s support for Maltese fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1954569) * [Romanian students & researchers in the Third Reich became tools of Fascist propaganda](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/613917) * [The Fascists partially created one of South Africa’s worst organizations](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/386078) * [Some Zionists compared their ideology favorably to German Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3283730) * [Transnationalizing fascist martyrs: an entangled history](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/172516) * [The Spectacle of Global Fascism: The Italian Blackshirt mission to Japan’s Asian empire](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/132098) * [Paris & Fascist Italy’s Franco‐Italian Declaration (“an outright military alliance”)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3247201) * [Fascist Italy helped train Ukrainian & Croatian ultranationalists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/331545) * [The Indians (of South Asia) who fought for the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3565222) * [A brief guide to the Blueshirts: Ireland’s Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/533683) * [Conceptions & Practices of International Fascism in Norway, Sweden & the Netherlands, 1930–40](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/631394) * [Fascism’s alleged ‘War on Slavery’ during the 1930s](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/566960); [the various native reactions to Fascism’s invasion of Ethiopia, from resistance to collaboration](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/661660) * [The Anti‐Comintern Pact](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2798921) * [The Rome–Berlin Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2551737) * [Russian anticommunist collaboration with Spanish fascists (1936–1944)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/629792) * [The Dalai Lama & the Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/594416) * [The Third Reich was a useful ally to the Spanish fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/983420) * [Fascist Plans for Mass Jewish Settling in Ethiopia (1936–1943)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/443246) * [Imperial Japan helped Finland decrypt Soviet military codes in its war on the Soviets](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/430319) * [Collaboration between Polish anticommunists & Japanese Imperialists in the 1930s & 1940s](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2224252) * [A guide to the ‘Honorary Aryans’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2599408) * [Britain, France, & Fascist Italy gave part of Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2121750) * [Paris & the Third Reich signed a Franco‐German Declaration](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2910456) * [Estonia & Latvia ratified nonaggression pacts with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1029307) * [Why Berlin signed a nonaggression treaty with Moscow](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1449043) * [Why Thailand aligned with the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/597437) * [Ukrainian fascists in Poland fled towards the Third Reich for safety from the Soviets](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/374118) * [The Tripartite Pact](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2068089) * [France’s New Caledonia: The missing link between the Third Reich & the Empire of Japan](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3669207) * [The Axis’s national policy towards the Russian minority in the Baltic States](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/436303) * [The Empire of Japan’s counterinsurgency before 1945 & its persistent legacies in Asia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/620461) * [How Fascist Italy recruited Greeks to shill for the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/943151) * [The Netherlands had one of the highest numbers of Waffen SS volunteers in Western Europe](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2701574) * [Fascist Italy was a valuable ally to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/658795) * [Denmark’s volunteers in the Waffen SS](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2161947) * [The Slovak Republic’s Axis membership](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2789527) * [The Kingdom of Hungary’s Axis membership](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2752285) * [The Kingdom of Romania’s Axis membership](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2781175) * [Percentage of ‘non‐Germanic’ troops who helped start Operation Barbarossa](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/122369) * [Liechtenstein was complicit in Axis war crimes](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1935369) * [The Estonian Security Police’s collaboration with the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/581071) * [Why the Empire of Japan went to war against Imperial America](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2921087) * [Foreigners who joined the Wehrmacht & Waffen‐SS by January 1942](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/123867) * [The Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism: France’s truly pathetic Wehrmacht formation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/920724) * [Turkey’s ‘Treaty of Friendship’ with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/761137) * [Fascists forced thousands to build a railway in Finland, barely used it, & then destroyed it](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/467552) * [Handbook on Axis imperialism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/528264) * [‘Neutral’ European states that assisted the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/76983) # Atrocities * [**Why the Fascist bourgeoisie committed the Holocaust**](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3446353) (highly recommended) * [**Masterpost on Italian Fascism’s atrocities**](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1415023) (highly recommended) * [The *brava gente* myth: Fascist Italy’s equivalent to the ‘clean Wehrmacht’ lie](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3240908) * [The Fascists repeatedly assaulted Libyan Jews in the 1920s & later](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3261132) * [The Fascists’ suppression of Libya prepared them for their invasion of Ethiopia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3516742) * [Continuities & Discontinuities: Antiziganism in Germany & Italy (1900–1938)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3220968); [Roma & Sinti in Fascist Italy: from expelled foreigners to dangerous Italians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/511249) * [The Imperial invasion of Manchuria](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1897727); [Bodies in the Service of the Japanese Empire: Colonial Medicine in Manchuria](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/369461) * [The Fascist suppression of the Free Union of German Workers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/913011) * [The Third Reich legalized the sterilization of disabled people](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/951786) * [The Fascists sometimes explicitly encouraged Jews to attempt suicide](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1744609) * [The Third Reich’s racism against the Japanese](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1563646) * [The first Nuremberg Laws](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1840544) * [Transgender People, the Third Reich, & the Holocaust](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2749636); [the life & death of a transgender woman in the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/530122); [the Fascists oppressed lesbians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/671137); [German Fascism’s early assault on LGBT rights](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/316087) * [The Third Reich intentionally neglected thousands of tuberculosis patients](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1916387) * [The fate of black Germans under Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/513263); [brief summary of the Third Reich’s persecution of black humans](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/514069); [as early as 1933, the Third Reich killed a biracial communist for his antifascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3778926) * [The unique difficulties that legally ‘Jewish’ Germans suffered under Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1662631) * [The Fascists’ massacre of Addis Ababa](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3693366) * [*Kristallnacht*](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2640599) * [Comparisons between the “State of Israel” & Fascist Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2359781); [comparisons between the “State of Israel” & the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2629552) * [Rome ordered all ‘foreign’ Jews to leave Italy within six months](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1695905) * [The Third Reich’s most infamous serial killer](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2547122) * [The Empire of Japan killed millions of people](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1354431); [it invaded Nanking, tormenting & massacring hundreds of thousands](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2975098); [Japanese Imperialists promoted a racism based on Japanese supremacy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1384660); [Japanese Imperialism (indirectly) oppressed gay folks](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/737765) * [The Reich–Slovakian joint invasion of Poland](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1589922) * [The Polish government’s antisemitism was a major factor leading to the Shoah](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/639708); [Poland’s police force had a key rôle in the Fascist oppression of Jews](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/338889) * [The Third Reich kidnapped & attempted to forcibly assimilate thousands of Polish children](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1326797) * [The Fascist destruction of Poland’s infrastructure](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3626829) * [A brief overview of Italian Fascist atrocities in Greece](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/127311); [Axis occupation resulted in an increase in infectious diseases among Greeks](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3733398) * [The Fascists first tested Zyklon‐B on Soviet POWs](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1629203) * [The Warsaw ghetto](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2387858) * [France’s ruling class willingly committed its own fascist atrocities without outside pressure](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/668540) * [Alsace, France became a testing ground for the Third Reich’s anti‐Roma policies](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/666987) * [Romanian fascists literally butchered hundreds of Jews in a parody of Judaism’s kosher butchering](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/634071) * [Oskar Dirlewanger: the Fascist whom even other Fascists thought was cruel & depraved](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/617459) * [The misogynist revenge that the fascists inflicted on women in Southwestern Spain](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1215872); [the Spanish fascists encouraged Moroccan men to abuse women](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1679877) * [The Western Axis’s invasion of the Soviet Union](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/787189) * [The Wannsee Conference: how the Fascist bourgeoisie worked on a new policy for exterminating Jews](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3387950) * [How Ukrainian fascists pioneered brutal terror techniques (later improved by the CIA)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/583731) * [The Religious Dimension of the First Antisemitic Violence in Eastern Galicia (June–July 1941)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/832784) * [This is how the Axis & its collaborators treated Soviet civilians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/460511) * [The Third Reich attempted to erase concentration camp prisoners’ identities](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2048998) * [Finland deported more than 2.8k POWs (including many Jews) to the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/452892) * [The Finnish bourgeoisie interned 24,000 ethnic Russians in concentration camps, 4,200 of whom died](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3134646) * [What the Kapos did in Axis concentration camps](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2878472) * [How the Third Reich treated Soviet POWs vs. Western ones](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1281909) * [The Wehrmacht & the anticommunist persecution of the Roma](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/372538); [the Third Reich ordered all Roma to be deported to Auschwitz](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3011695); [Auschwitz survivor Mano Höllenreiner recalls Axis death camp for Roma](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3426076) * [Therapeutic Fascism: ‘re‐educating’ Communists in Axis‐occupied Serbia, 1942–44](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/86969) * [The Wehrmacht massacred thousands of civilians in Axis‐occupied Serbia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2429584) * [Jacob Gens: the Third Reich’s deadliest Zionist collaborator](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3347821) * [A ‘Wannsee Conference’ on the Roma’s extermination? New research findings regarding 15 January 1943 & the Auschwitz Decree](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3335072) * [The Axis massacred thousands of Jews & Roma (many of whom were Muslim) in Simferopol](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2941695) * [The Axis exterminated thousands of Kharkiv’s Soviets](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3000900) * [The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, & the Axis’s Massacres in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/121464) * [A brief history of fascism & terrorism within Zionism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3503907) * [Axis auxiliaries laughed after a Gestapo commander falsely pardoned a girl, then shot her](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/439091) * [The Third Reich ran tanks over Senegalese soldiers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1776817) * [The Holocaust in North Africa](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2818860) * [The Axis massacred thousands of Jews in its liquidation of the Słonim Ghetto](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2691635) * [History of Fascism in Ukraine, Pt. II: The OUN during 1941–1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/540063); [Stepan Bandera](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/408256); [Ukrainian fascists supported antisemitism (while simultaneously claiming to oppose it…apparently)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/382178) * [Finnish volunteers in SS units took part in Axis atrocities, Finland confirms…in 2019](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/507068) * [The Axis’s capture of Banská Bystrica & its defeat of the concurrent Slovak National Uprising](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2503680) * [The Third Reich deliberately bombed hospitals](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2419988); [the Axis intentionally sunk a Soviet hospital ship, massacring over 5,000 people](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2619295) * [The Third Reich publicly massacred antifascist juvenile delinquents in 1944](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/438273) * [A Zionist collaborated with the Axis to sacrifice 800,000 ordinary Jews in return for 600 prominent Zionists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3415556) * [The Third Reich had its own kamikaze pilots](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1465678) * [‘Murder of the Jews’: The testimony of Germans & Austrians who were part of Fascism’s murder machine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3145718) * [Of the 5–6 million Jews that the Axis massacred, more than 160,000 were Sephardim](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3453600) * [Grandmother relating her experience as a Holocaust survivor](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1802943) # Profascism * [Mussolini’s Sources of Financial Support, 1914–1915](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/437339); [British capitalists in the 1910s paid Mussolini to assault antiwar protesters](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/145809) * [‘Where Lenin’s system has won for itself international ostracism & armed intervention, that of Mussolini has been the subject of widespread enthusiasm’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/63998) * [*The Economist* on Fascist Italy in 1922: ‘So far, so good.’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/520580) * [‘I can understand why a businessman would admire Mussolini & his methods. They are essentially those of successful business.’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/66099) * [Britain’s capitalist press repeatedly praised Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2681864) * [The KKK freely compared itself to European fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/861944) * [The Polish anticommunists of the short 20th century were very impressed with Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1036732) * [From Churchill to NATO: How the West built & empowered Italian Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/536751) * [How the *New York Times* reacted to the rise of Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/129729); [the *New York Times* repeatedly suggested giving the German Fascists a chance](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/399247) * [A conservative chancellor referred to violence against Fascists as an excuse to harm communists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/975079); [the Weimar Republic rarely prosecuted fascists, but suppressed socialists regularly](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/366971) * [Most German adults voted in approval of Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2671705) * [The riot at Christie Pits: Canada’s worst (and little‐known) antisemitic incident](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/380428); [documentary on the Christie Pits riot](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1340571) * [How the U.S. Associated Press cooperated with the German Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/514754) * [The little country that voted overwhelmingly to join the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/459183) * [How *The Economist* reacted to the Fascists violating the Treaty of Versailles by taking the Rhineland](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/552468) * [U.S. Responses to the Policies & Practices of the Third Reich’s Eugenics](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/521959) * [Winston Churchill](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2848151) * [Queen Elizabeth’s Fascist Salute is a Reminder how Close Britain Sailed to the Fascist Wind](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/375128); [how Queen Victoria’s Grandson Became Hitler’s Pawn & Favourite Royal](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/461277) * [U.S. capitalist Prescott Bush supported the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/618974) * [The gay men who sided with their Fascist oppressors](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/695985) * [The Jews who fought for their Fascist oppressors](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/568071) * [How the Pentagon Helped Hollywood Launder the Third Reich’s Reputation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/132989) * [Chase National Bank supported the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/127982) * [The Third Reich’s Labour Services’ influence on Swedish & U.S. politicians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/588196) * [The bourgeoisie let Fascists build summer camps across the U.S. during the 1930s](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/873227) * [About 20,000 fascists held a rally at the Madison Square Garden in 1939](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3711920) * [Many powerful Icelanders sympathized with the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/582419) * [The representation of Jews in the Finnish press before 1939](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2734853) * [How the Vatican collaborated with the Fascists throughout the 1930s](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/569730) * [When the Fascists massacred thousands in Addis Ababa, the U.S. & British govts. ignored it to avoid offending them](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3606254) * [Chinese landlords frequently collaborated with the Imperialists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1076320) * [London Deliberately Ignored Axis Factories so that the Wehrmacht could Attack the USSR](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/341056); [London intentionally played down atrocities in an Axis concentration camp on its soil](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/635302) * [Zionist militia’s efforts to recruit Fascists against Britain revealed by Zionist archives](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2808329) * [New York’s capitalists let Fascist Italy host a pavilion in their city in 1939](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/867241) * [IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad’s ties to fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/623533) * [The U.S. held more Fascist prisoners of war than it held Jewish refugees](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2439945); [Fascist POWs in Alabama had more food than they could eat, permission to attend university courses, befriend locals & leave the camp to work](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/440104) * [‘Captive Nations’: The Forgotten Origins of the ‘Victims of Communism’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/429493) * [How Australia’s Fascists got away with supporting the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/544930) * [Italian anticommunists pardoned Fascists while punishing thousands of partisans](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/557490) * [U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy defended Fascist war criminals](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/526597) * [The Western Allies became unconcerned with neofascist shrines as they now focused their aggression on the Soviets](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3722616) * [Operation Paperclip in New Jersey](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/433762) * [The CIA used ‘moderate’ anticommunists to distract people from the Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1022596) * [A fascist sympathizer suggested a monument to the ‘victims of Communism’ as early as 1970](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/700465) * [LaRouche’s ‘Ukrainian Nazi’ Legacy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/431918) * [The University of Alberta’s $1.4 million‐dollar Fascist problem](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2317037) * [Anticommunists equating us with German Fascists martyrize Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/425878) * [Zelensky & U.S. Congress salute profascist “Representatives of Diaspora”](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468887) * [Neofascists in Ukrainian military bragged about Canadian training, report says](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/136338) * [The *New York Times* on Ukraine’s neofascist imagery: It’s ‘complicated’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/743309); [NYT has found more neofascist troops to lionize in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/449943); [Hawkish Pundits Downplay Threat of War, Ukraine’s Neofascist Ties](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/102075); [Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Neofascist Publicity Stunt in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/135568); [Facebook Protects Neofascists to Protect Ukraine Proxy War](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/503727) * [‘NAFO’ exposed](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/435416) # Legacy * [The Fascist roots of Columbus Day](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2298758) * [The U.S. Army continued keeping Jews in the Axis’s concentration camps](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/317643) * [British officials recycled Fascists for their control of Eritrea in the 1940s](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/218047) * [How fascists who beat Jews to death became America’s favorite “Freedom Fighters” in 1945](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/585084); [the U.S. did not defeat Fascism in WWII, it discretely internationalized it](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/723848) * [There was no equivalent to the Nuremberg Trials for Italian Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/329377); [the liberal bourgeoisie refused to prosecute Fascists for their atrocities in Ethiopia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2141002) * [The Wehrmacht bred with hundreds of Finns](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3679429) * [The Shadow of Fascism over the Italian Republic](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/344080) * [Important elements of the Fascist era survived in postwar France](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/356395) * [The Third Reich influenced eugenics in Iberia’s anticommunist dictatorships](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/713654) * [The Western Allies reused the Empire of Japan’s system of forced prostitution](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/818028) * [How Austria’s Fascists got away with supporting the Third Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/592949) * [W. Germany’s govt. was riddled with ‘former’ Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/321206) & [its capitalist press was outraged to see Axis criminals treated as anything less than saints](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/382814) * [Latvia’s anticommunist resistance consisted of many Axis collaborators (whom NATO honored)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/364029) * [Axis servicemen provided the CIA with its most critical information on the Soviet Union](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/157722) * [Canada knowingly admitted thousands of SS members](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2350330) * [Continuities between Fascism & the post‐1945 Italian police](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/651377) * [The Kingdom of Sweden welcomed Baltic war criminals who served the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/607104) * [U.S. authorities gave Axis war criminals comfortable jobs in post‐1945 Japan](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/677360) * [A Zionist authority helped a horrifying Axis war criminal escape justice](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3405571) * [How a Romanian fascist responsible for killing hundreds of Jews found a safe haven in the U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/839908) * [In 1948, at least 53% of South Korea’s police officers worked for the Axis](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/348060) * [Historian discussing how the U.S. intentionally recruited ‘former’ Fascists & Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/450887); [interview with the author of *Old Nazis, New Right, & the Republican Party*](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1820753); [how a Slovakian fascist war criminal became a CIA asset](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/999901) * [Ratlines, NATO, & the Fourth Reich](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/110696); [NATO’s Fascist Inheritance & the Long War on the Third World](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1187682); [NATO’s Fascist Beginnings](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/108356) * [MI6 hired Fascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/409130) * [Mossad intentionally hired Axis war criminal Walter Rauff](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2945569) * [The European Union’s Court of Justice’s first President was a Fascist](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/115644) * [Benito Mussolini has his own tomb (and it’s in good condition)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/794764) * [Spain’s largest monument to fascism (still exists)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2492575) * [Denmark failed to thoroughly purge its upper classes of Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3048065) * [W. Germany’s Federal Court ruled that a 1940 deportation of Roma was not a racist atrocity](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/615760) * [When John F. Kennedy was asked when he would uproot Fascism from W. Germany, he said nothing](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/118738) * [Did Zionists cover up thousands of Axis war criminals in exchange for military technology?](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/505209) * [A former SS official became an advisor to Augusto Pinochet’s secret police](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/377458) * [Henry Kissinger’s ties to Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2842987) * [The interview that led to the arrest of Klaus Barbie, the Axis’s Butcher of Lyon](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3554553) * [W. Germany purged thousands of irreplaceable documents on Fascism & other subjects after 1990](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/852948) * [The Captive Nations Lobby: the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s fascist heritage](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1007502); [Victims of Communism’s founder Lev Dobriansky’s associations with Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/638161) * [The Latvian SS‐Legion & issues regarding its modern glorification](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/525244); [Latvia invests in Axis commander biopic](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/523625) * [Yugoslav survivors of Fascist war camp lament Italy’s apathy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/555772) * [The prolonged effects of trauma on Holocaust survivors](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1063097) * [An Analysis of Present‐Day Historical Narratives of Italy’s Colonial Wars](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3462880) * [In 2010, a Zionist judge proposed learning Fascist propaganda techniques](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2994681) & [that same year, a few Zionists repeated ‘Hitler was right’ in public & the neocolonial police did nothing](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3036749) * [Finland’s cemeteries dedicated to Axis soldiers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/448757) * [Some 1,500 statues & streets around the world honor Fascists — including in Germany & the U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/639930); [examples of monuments in Eastern Europe dedicated to Axis collaborators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/571406); [Germany still exhibits Fascist sculptures](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/515731); [Italy still exhibits Fascist monuments](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/516493); [Japan still exhibits monuments dedicated to Axis war criminals](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/572782); [Axis collaborator monuments in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/181631) * [Mass graves left by the fascists discovered in Extremadura](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1529862) * [Archaeologists are exhuming the bodies from Spain’s fascist concentration camps](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/903757) * [Analysis of skeletal remains from the Battle of Britain: A temporary cemetery of Fascist aviators](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3689788) * [A New Anti‐Bolshevik Bloc of Nations?](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/111651) * [Ottawa apologizes for honouring another Axis collaborator](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2243131) * [Survivors of the Axis’s siege of Leningrad continue to suffer worse health even after seven decades](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3396804) * [Auschwitz museum justifies the extermination of Palestinians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3093469) * [The Third Reich’s antisemitic indoctrination still survives in some elderly Germans](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/660234) * [The Axis’s barbed wire continues to harm Norway’s wildlife](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/586480) * [Even from beyond the grave, Fascists are still massacring people & inhibiting scientific research](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/447563) * [Fascist‐era parenting is still harming German youths today, & the Fascists themselves had abusive parents](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3211392) # Neofascism * [Operation Gladio](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2467689); [the CIA’s Secret Fascist‐Collaborating Terror Armies in Europe & Beyond](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1297377) * [How NATO worked with neofascists to crush communism in Turkey](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/928524) * [Swedish neofascist solidarity with the Chilean military junta](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1760462) * [The Zionists did nothing to help as Argentine neofascists terrorized thousands of Jews](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2956330) * [Refresher course on neofascist antisemitism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2449906) * [Anders Breivik](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1015457) * [The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine: Revelations from Trials & Investigation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/134417) * [A neofascist opened fire on a synagogue & massacred 11 people](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2513630) * [The road to neofascism: How the war in Ukraine has changed Europe](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/574232); [what you should really know about Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/119497); [the roots of fascism in Ukraine: From Axis collaboration to Maidan](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/136242); [successive govts. in Ukraine have accommodated neofascists to counter Soviet nostalgia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/641522); [examples of Ukraine’s head of state awarding vile antisemites](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1089216); [how Zelensky made peace with neofascist paramilitaries on front lines of war with Russia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/140217); [how neofascists made their home in Ukraine’s major western training hub](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/144732) * [Ukraine Neofascists Infiltrate Every Level of Military & Government](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/138211); [a look at the Svoboda party: Ukraine’s second largest bundle of neofascist fuckwads](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/543426); [the Bandera cult, memory warriors, & ‘patriotic education’ in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1369745); [Bandera’s ‘Insurgency‐in‐Waiting’: OUN‐B & the ‘Capitulation Resistance Movement’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/455175); [the Ukrainian Fascist Advisor from Azerbaijan](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/403052) * [Blackwater is in the Donbas with the Azov Battalion](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/124918) * [Famous Ukrainian Neofascist Visits U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/432702) * [Why is there now such an affinity between antivaxxers & neofascism?](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/120536) * [How USAID contributed to neofascism in Ukraine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1153670) * [The neofascist ‘American Banderite Network’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1433303); [defense contractors trying to ‘reactivate’ OUN‐B in Pittsburgh area](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3025755) * [‘Nazigate’ & the ‘Bandera Lobby’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2399487); [Ukrainian ultranationalism & Canada](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2105661) * [Meet Oleh Medunytsia, OUN‐B’s first Leader from Ukraine in over 20 years](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/465587) * [Neofascism strengthening in Germany (and elsewhere)](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/810122); [neofascism is becoming more popular & powerful in Europe](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/402309); [international neofascists show solidarity with Ukrainian neofascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1264914); [the Rise of Neofascism in Italy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/825539) * [“Now, All of You Are Azov”: Ukrainian Neofascists Tour U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/431205); [Azov is getting public funding from NAFO & other suckers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1142025) & [has been improving its relations with “human rights” think tanks](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1114569) * [The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s links to Hungarian neofascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/583867) * [What German neofascists have inherited from Fascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3544991) * [Nordic Resistance Movement: neofascists who hope to erect a pan‐Scandinavian ethnostate](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/662668) * [Adam Smith to Richard Spencer: Why ‘Libertarians’ (read: propertarians) turn to the Alt‐Right](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/560511) * [What is the Lukov March & why did the authorities ban it in Bulgaria?](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3760823) * [Neofascist Andy Ngô photographed with child molester Amos Yee](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/64364) * [Neofascists partook in anti‐transgender rally in Melbourne, Australia](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/560297) * [Zionist support for Azov](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2589797) * [Zionist neocolony contemplated forging ties with neofascist party accused of Holocaust denial](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2651839) * [Beware of neofascist grifters pretending to care about Palestine](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2579885) * [Spanish neofascist mercenary among others helping neocolonists in Gaza](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2609673) * [A reminder that neofascism is alive & well in the U.S.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3317466): [Former(?) Neofascist Leader Holds U.S. Dept. of Justice’s ‘Domestic Counterterrorism’ Position](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/512749); [Neofascists Parade around Florida Chanting ‘Jews Will Not Replace Us’](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1660737); [U.S. congressman ‘unaware’ that he was posing for photo with neofascists](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/546032); [Texan Republican leaders reject ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2891978); [neofascist march at the Tennessee State Capitol](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3704806) --- Feel free to suggest any resources that you have in mind or how I could structure this thread better. Lastly, if you have any questions on fascism, profascism, parafascism (e.g. Japanese Imperialism), protofascism, or neofascism, you are welcome to ask me here or in private.
>**Once [the Fascists] completed the military occupation of Ethiopia, a large stele from the city of Aksum was plundered by [Fascist] colonial troops [and transported to Rome.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aksum_Stele_n._2_(Obelisk_of_Axum-Roma)_in_Rome)** In antiquity, the Kingdom of Aksum (100 BC – 700 AD) represented the earliest form of Ethiopian civilisation.¹⁴ > >The city hosted (and still does so in its rôle as a UNESCO heritage site) an impressive number of stelae originally carved and erected to mark the location of underground burial chambers. The theft of the stele and its re‐erection in Rome in 1937 allowed the fascist régime to proclaim itself as the successor of Ancient Roman conquerors.¹⁵ > >The placement of the stele at the ancient heart of the city was meant to create vistas and axes that would connect the Circus Maximus to the Colosseum and the pyramid of Cestius, as well as creating an artery that would link the city to the newly built EUR42 imperial quarter and the nearby port of Ostia, permitting access to the Mediterranean Sea.¹⁶ The construction, facing the Aksum stele, of a new building to host the Ministry of Italian Africa, was therefore meant to celebrate Italy’s imperial geography. > >[…] > >The […] 1947 Paris Peace Treaties set the terms for the return of the stele to Ethiopia. Article 37 stipulated the restitution of looted works of art, objects of religious, and historical value to their legitimate owners. **But, despite these obligations, Italy kept the restitution on hold until 2002.¹⁷** > >By then new bilateral agreements were signed between Italy and Ethiopia, focussing around business, infrastructural projects, and development aid. These agreements, and through UNESCO mediation, **eventually led to the complete restitution of the stele in Aksum in 2008**, thus leaving the square empty and the FAO headquarters in Rome standing alone. > >However, after the removal, the apparent sense of emptiness led to a new mutation. On 11 September 2009, the Mayor of Rome, the right‐winger Gianni Alemanno, inaugurated a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York eight years earlier. > >The memorial, placed nearby the original location of the stele, consists of a plaque placed between two columns taken from the fountain of Curia Innocenziana in the Piazza di Montecitorio in Rome. This new spatial intervention clearly reproduces the profile of New York’s Twin Towers. Paradoxically, on the plaque are carved the words of the philosopher George Santayana: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.¹⁸ > >[…] > >**The […] substitution in the late 2000s of the Aksum stele with a 9/11 memorial has reinforced the coloniality of power, making room for other memorialisations and new civilisational messages.** This latest intervention has triggered the attempted making of new global historical memories that are not necessarily bound to the sense of belonging to the nation or an ethnos, but, on the contrary, they inform the identity of those communities who did not directly experience specific traumatic historical events.⁴⁷ > >The experience of catastrophe following the Holocaust and the Second World War came to create a global political and moral space where collective trauma is held hostage by an exclusive Western interpretation, providing inspiration and justification for military and non‐military interventions to prevent outbreaks of major threats to the global hegemonic order. > >Within this context, **9/11 acted as a historical turning point for the West out of which a transnational sense of ‘vulnerability’ started spreading. This has generated, and continues to generate, justifications of military aggression and war on a global scales a way to protect Western interests and concerns.** (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 20). **1887**: Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, Imperial general who sanctioned the Nanjing Massacre, was unfortunately born. **1918**: Martin Drewes, Luftwaffe aviator, existed. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/20/1944): The Axis lost Belgrade to the Red Army and Yugoslav partisans. **1953**: Werner Baumbach, Axis bomber pilot, dropped dead. [**1967**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/20/1967): Shigeru Yoshida, Imperial ambassador to Fascist Italy and the United Kingdom, expired. :::
banderalobby.substack.com
>“Jedi,” whose real name is Serhii Rotchuk, or Serhii Grushin, led the delegation. He was one of the Azovites [invited](https://golf.borderlands.com.ua/old-page-veteran-serhii-rotchuk) to [play golf](https://mossrobeson.medium.com/this-is-where-the-presidents-play-d1a88a032ce6) at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington earlier this year. “Jedi” is one of the leaders of the NGU Azov brigade’s medical service. He emphasized that Azov trains according to NATO standards. In his oldest [Instagram post](https://archive.ph/tu7sv), from 2019, he is wearing a “[Rock Against Communism](https://Wikiless.northboot.xyz/wiki/Rock_Against_Communism)” shirt produced by a National Socialist Black Metal brand affiliated with the [hardcore](https://www.bellingcat.com/?p=24891) neo[fascist] group “Wotanjugend,” which originated in Russia. Last year, he [expressed interest](https://archive.ph/slWX1) in a book by Léon Degrelle, the [Axis] collaborator who led the far‐right Rexist Party in Belgium. > >[…] > >It’s [been said](https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=_xncFkyP2jI&t=142) that “if you happen to watch Finnish television now, and are looking at any coverage of the Russian war in Ukraine, you’ll probably see Major General Toveri.” He has argued that “the only way to have lasting peace in Europe” requires the integration of Ukraine “to our economic and defence systems through membership in EU and NATO.” But even if that never happens, Ukrainian neo[fascists] are still on track to be integrated in the U.S.‐led military‐industrial complex and western intelligence services. > >The day before the Azov delegation received a warm welcome at the NATO headquarters, the commander of the Azov Brigade paid tribute to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), as far‐right nationalists do every year on October 14. The UPA, the 1940s paramilitary arm of the OUN‐B, or “Banderite” wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, hunted Jews in the forests of western Ukraine and waged a massive ethnic cleansing campaign against the region’s Polish population. > >By the early 1950s, the CIA tried and failed to utilize the UPA as a “stay‐behind army,” but it whitewashed Ukrainian [Axis] collaborators throughout the Cold War. “I am sure that the UPA fighters, looking at your daily service, are proud of you and smiling because the defense of Ukraine is in good hands,” Azov commander Denys Prokopenko said in an online post that he wrote in English. “They couldn’t have dreamt of better descendants.” --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 19). **1935**: The League of Nations placed some ineffectual economic sanctions on Fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia. **1937**: Fascist Italy raised taxes significantly in an effort to meet the cost of increased arms production and maintaining its colonies. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1939): Hermann Göring created the Haupttreuhandstelle Ost to co‐ordinate the confiscation of Jewish and Polish assets in Fascist‐occupied Poland. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1940): Axis submarines *U‐38*, *U‐46*, *U‐47*, and two others attacked Allied convoy HX‐79 two hundred miles west of Ireland, sinking five ships and damaging tanker *Shirak*. Additionally, Axis submarines *U‐99*, *U‐100*, *U‐101*, and *U‐123* continued to attack Allied convoy SC‐7 one hundred miles northwest of Ireland. *U‐123* sank Allied ship *Shekatika* as *Shekatika* received her fifth torpedo hit. *U‐99* sank Norwegian ship *Snefjeld* (but the entire crew survived). [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1941): The Axis defeated the Soviet forces within the Vyazma pocket in Russia and captured 670,000 men, 1,000 tanks, and 4,000 artillery pieces. The Axis also began rounding up men over the age of 16 in the Serbian town of Kragujevac in Yugoslavia. (Of the 2,324 gathered, about 300 of them were students from the First Boys High School.) Axis submarine *U‐204* sank Allied tanker *Inverlee* southwest of Tangier at 0300 hours; 22 were died, 21 lived. In the same region, Axis submarine *U‐206* sank Allied ship *Baron Kelvin* at 0614 hours; 26 were died, 16 lived. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1942): The Axis transferred the last twelve surviving Jewish prisoners of Flossenbürg to Auschwitz. Coincidentally, [the Axis and its collaborators exterminated one hundred eighty Jews in Manzhinsk.](https://books.google.com/books?id=DqAb5tY4Ai8C&pg=PA295) [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1943): Allied aircraft assaulted and sunk cargo vessel *Sinfra* at Crete, and two thousand and ninety‐eight Italian prisoners of war drowned with it. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/19/1944): The Fascist bourgeoisie ordered the complete and total destruction of Warsaw, but the Wehrmacht evacuated Belgrade as Walter Stettner von Grabenhofen lost his life Yugoslavian partisans in Montenegro. The Axis’s 4.Armee withdrew from around Tilsit, East Prussia, and Feldmarschal Model called off the attempts to relieve Aachen. Lastly, Takijiro Onishi met with the senior staff officers of the 201st Kokutai at Mabalacat airfield north of Manila, Philippine Islands, and asked for volunteers to form a special attack unit. :::
>**British papers regarded [Fascist] anti‐Semitism initially as a propaganda show to rouse the support of the discontented.** *The Times* and the *Manchester Guardian* reported extensively on the aims of the NSDAP, including its blatant Jew‐hatred, **but did not seriously believe that Hitler would turn his anti‐Semitism into a policy.³⁵** > >**The *Manchester Guardian* stated ironically that ‘the great majority of Germans could have nothing but dislike for the hysterical nonsense of Herr Hitler […] who blames impartially the French, the Russians, and the Jews for all his country’s ills’.³⁶ It reassured its readers that a share in political responsibility would have a sobering effect on the [Fascists]. Apparently the paper doubted that Hitler could maintain his political success in the long run if he did not adjust his programme.³⁷** > >Similarly, *The Times* trusted that Hitler’s revolutionary movement would come to reason and ‘develop into a constructive force’.³⁸ **This attitude is a reflection of the liberal theory of politics which argues that the exercise of power makes politicians inevitably more responsible.³⁹** > >[…] > >The *New York Times* also drew attention to the implications of [Fascist] Jew‐hatred. Under the headline ‘A Menace to Jews Seen If Hitler Wins’ the paper wrote in December 1931 that the possibility of Hitler assuming power […] should be of great concern to American Jews, as anti‐Semitism was an integral part of his political programme.⁴⁹ In September 1932 it warned that if the [Fascists] attained power in Germany there would be ‘substantial ground for fear that the movement itself might get out of control, producing racial excesses with the worst results’.⁵⁰ > >Still, **Anglo‐American journalists did not discuss the roots of German anti‐Semitism or the possibility that Germans might vote for the [NSDAP] because they were anti‐Semitic.⁵¹ They paid attention to the violent outbursts of [Fascist] anti‐Semitism the moment they happened but quickly closed their eyes when they were over.** > >More importantly, **it seems that they did not believe that a civilised nation could regard anti‐Semitism as an acceptable or even attractive political stance. Nor did they expect the [German Fascists] to turn their Jew‐hatred into practical politics.⁵² The extent of the assault on the Jews after Hitler’s seizure of power therefore came as a shock.** > >[…] > >From the first day of Hitler’s rule the *Manchester Guardian* was suspicious of his designs. Referring to the [German Fascists’] previous exploitation of anti‐Semitism, the paper asked: ‘What is to be expected of this Government […]? Will Hitler […] drive the Jews out of Germany and distribute the profits and property of capitalism among the impoverished middle class?’ [*sic!*] Yet **the paper believed that it would be difficult for the [German Fascists] to realise their racial ideals in a Cabinet dominated by the conservatives.⁵⁷** > >The *New York Times* was initially relieved that ‘Herr Hitler’s attainment of the Chancellorship [had] not provoked any anti‐Semitic outbreaks’. Like the *Manchester Guardian* it argued that Hitler’s moderation was due to the weakness of the [Fascists] in the Cabinet: ‘[… Hitler] will have to compromise with those who are opposed to isolating the Reich from the rest of the world. **He is not expected to carry into effect the rabidly anti‐Semitic part of his program**’.⁵⁸ > >Moreover, the *New York Times* claimed that ‘perhaps the post of great responsibility which the leader of the German [Fascists] now held might curb his avowed extremist policies and particularly his anti‐Semitism’.⁵⁹ **The other three papers reported very little during February 1933.** The *Chicago Daily Tribune* briefly mentioned that the Völkischer Beobachter predicted an exodus of the Jews from Germany.⁶⁰ > >The *Manchester Guardian* reported sporadic anti‐Semitic incidents provoked by [Fascist] students.⁶¹ *The Times* referred to [Fascist] anti‐Semitism only once in passing.⁶² **It reiterated its conviction that Hitler deserved a chance to prove his statesmanship and warned that it was too early to judge ‘whether the street‐orator will become an efficient ruler’.⁶³** > >In early March reports of [Fascist] anti‐Semitism increased in number. […] Yet **the *New York Times* qualified such disquieting reports by printing a statement by James W. Gerard, American Ambassador to [the Second Reich] during 1913–1918, who argued that Hitler would eventually dissociate himself from the anti‐Semitism of his party as ‘Nothing sobers like the attainment of high office.’ Moreover, world public opinion would not tolerate ‘a return to the prejudices and policies of the Middle Ages’.⁶⁶** > >**Both arguments — that the takeover of political responsibility would render the [Fascists] more reasonable and that world public opinion would have a restraining effect on Hitler — mirror once more the liberal understanding of government politics by the journalists.⁶⁷** > >[…] > >*The Times*’ coverage was marked by the following points: First, the anti‐Semitic outburst was treated as a passing revolutionary side‐effect. Although the paper reported the [Fascist] boycott of Jewish department stores and shops and acknowledged that incidents of violence and intimidation in relation to Jews were occurring daily, it argued that ‘much of this, as Government circles suggest, is inevitable in present circumstances […]; fine distinctions cannot always be drawn in the stress of a national revolution’.⁸³ A leader of 15 March acknowledged that ‘indiscriminate violence and persecution’ was occurring but insisted that ‘no one expects revolutions to be made with rose‐water’.⁸⁴ > >Second, **the paper maintained that Hitler was a ‘moderate’ who initially had difficulties in controlling his radical followers but who would soon restore order.⁸⁵** > >Third, *The Times* **considered the treatment of the Jews an internal German affair in which Britain had no right to interfere.⁸⁶** The paper was alarmed at Hitler’s unpredictable foreign policy and worried that he might upset the international status quo. **It therefore held that ‘the internal excesses of [Hitler’s] regime should not debar foreign statesmanship from examining with an open mind the external claims of the German, as they would of any other, Government’.⁸⁷** > >In this *The Times* followed the official line of the British government that strongly favoured a policy of non‐intervention on behalf of the German Jews for fear of worsening diplomatic relations with the new [Fascist] rulers.⁸⁸ (Emphasis added.) In addition to these, it is worth noting that [the *Wall Street Journal* published an article reading ‘BERLIN VIEWS HITLER CALMLY’; ‘Rise in Stocks Reflects Confidence He Will Not Disrupt Nation’s Affairs’.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hitler-1933-wsj-article) :::spoiler This thread would be incomplete without Michael Parenti’s own exposé. Click here to read it. Quoting Michael Parenti’s [*Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=2CC8C6A49D1C01074CDD9686729A8E3F), pages 114–5: >In marked contrast to the flood of horror stories about the Soviet Union was the treatment accorded fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In the 1920s, major publications like the *New York Times*, *Wall Street Journal*, *Fortune*, *Saturday Evening Post*, *Chicago Tribune*, and *Christian Science Monitor* hailed Mussolini as Italy’s savior, the man who had suddenly brought his nation from poverty and unrest to harmonious prosperity, rescuing his people from the perils of anarchy and radicalism.¹⁰ > >Likewise the stories that greeted Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933 were strikingly different from the shrill press treatment of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. With a few notable exceptions like the *Baltimore Sun* and the *Boston Globe*, American newspapers and radio news reports were optimistic about Hitler. In an editorial entitled “The Tamed Hitler,” the *New York Times* (January 30, 1933) told its readers to expect a “transformation” in Hitler as he begins “softening down or abandoning” “the more violent parts of his alleged program.” > >There swiftly arose the give‐Adolph‐a‐chance press claque. The *Houston Post* pleaded, “Let Hitler try his hand.” CBS national radio interviewed the *Times* Berlin bureau chief, Frederick Birchall, who said the Nazis were not intending “any slaughter of their enemies or racial oppression in any vital degree.” While the Soviets were being portrayed as ever on the edge of launching aggressive attacks against any and all, Birchall reassured listeners that the [Fascists] had no desire to go to war and Hitler could not be called a dictator. > >With that keen eye for the irrelevant that is the hallmark of American journalism, he observed that Hitler was a vegetarian and a nonsmoker, attributes that were supposedly indicative of a benign nature. And he noted that Hitler had taken upon himself “the hardest job that ever a man could undertake.” The *Los Angeles Times* (April 4, 1933) also looked at the brighter side of things, seeing Hitler as a stern opponent of communism. And even though violent attacks had begun against the Jews, [Fascist] anti‐Semitism was “understood to have been mainly rhetorical.”¹¹ > >While denouncing the Soviet Union as a menace to civilization, the U.S. press manifested an open admiration for fascism in Italy and a hopeful tolerance of [it] in Germany. Unlike the Soviets, Mussolini and Hitler were attacking not the capitalist system but its enemies. Both of them murdered leftists, imprisoned dissenters, and abolished all democratic political organizations, including opposition political parties and newspapers. They also destroyed labor unions, cut wages, reduced upper‐bracket income taxes, practically abolished inheritance taxes for the wealthy, subsidized big business enterprises, and privatized large portions of the public sector, thereby winning the approval of industrialists and press moguls in the United States and elsewhere. > >Some U.S. business leaders like Henry Ford accepted honorary decorations from Mussolini and Hitler, while others longed to emulate their rule. Former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, H. W. Prentiss, announced, “American business might be forced to turn to some form of disguised Fascistic dictatorship.”¹² > >After Hitler built up [the German Reich’s] war machine, occupied the Rhineland, annexed Austria, and grabbed Czechoslovakia, the U.S. press belatedly began treating him as a threat to peace and freedom. Yet even as late as 1939, *Time* magazine could claim that Hitler’s régime “was no ordinary dictatorship, but rather one of great energy and magnificent planning.”¹³ ::: --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 18). **1870**: Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Japanese profascist, was born. [**1887**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1887): Takashi Sakai, the Axis’s governor of Hong Kong, was delivered to the world. **1902**: Ernst Pascual Jordan, Fascist physicist, started his life. **1909**: Norberto Bobbio, Fascist philosophist and historian, existed. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1941): Axis Colonel General Erich von Manstein launched his Eleventh Army against the Perekop Isthmus but fierce Soviet resistance on a narrow front caused the Axis advance to proceed extremely slowly. On the other hand, SS Reich and 10th Panzer Divisions captured Mozhaysk, Russia. In the evening, a motorcycle battalion of SS Reich Division found the Minsk Highway toward Moscow, ninety kilometers to the east, undefended. Axis submarine *U‐101* attacked Allied convoy SC‐48 west of Iceland, damaging destroyer HMS *Broadwater* with one torpedo at 0420 hours; 46 crew and 11 previously rescued survivors died, 85 crew survived. Axis submarine *U‐132* sank Soviet ship *Argun* in the Barents Sea five miles off the Russian coast at 1320 hours; all aboard survived. At 2017 hours, *U‐132* struck again, sinking trawler RT‐8 Seld; all aboard were died. Finally, Hideki Tojo became 40th Prime Minister of Japan. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1942): Berlin’s Ministry of Justice transferred the responsibility for Jews and citizens of Eastern European countries within the Third Reich to the Gestapo. Additionally, the Chancellery issued its Kommando Befehl, ordering that any captured Soviet commandos be shot. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1943): The Axis continued deporting Roman Jews to concentration camps. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1944): The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel happened in Ulm as the Axis started losing Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union. **1947**: Michiaki Kamada, Axis vice‐admiral, was executed. [**1948**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/18/1948): Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch, Axis field marshal and the Wehrmacht’s Commander‐in‐Chief, dropped dead. :::
([Mirror.](https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020033)) >Dr. Arline Geronimus, professor of Behavioral Health and Health Education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, proposed the concept of “weathering” to explain why **people of color in the United States experience deteriorating health at earlier stages of the life course and premature aging at higher rates than white Americans.** > >According to Geronimus, “weathering” is “a process that encompasses the physiological effects of living in marginalized communities that bear the brunt of racial, ethnic, religious, and class discrimination […]. Weathering afflicts human bodies—all the way down to the cellular level—as they grow, develop, and age in a racist, classist society […]. Weathering is about hopeful, hardworking, responsible, skilled, and resilient people dying from the physical toll of constant stress on their bodies, paying with their health because they live in a rigged, degrading, and exploitative system” (Geronimus 2023, pp. 20–21). > >Human bodies naturally produce stress hormones in response to instances of oppression. **Continual exposure to such instances of racial oppression results in prolonged elevated stress levels and has detrimental effects on the body, including muscle atrophy, immunosuppression, and premature aging.** Geronimus’ research suggests that while the broad spectrum of coping mechanisms exact a protective function for individuals in the short term, in the long term, such strategies ultimately hasten physical [senescence](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/senescence#Noun) (Geronimus 1992). > >When Geronimus first introduced her hypothesis in 1992, challenging traditionally accepted explanations for observable deterioration among marginalized populations, it was met with skepticism. However, subsequent research has produced compelling evidence in support of the theory.¹ > >**Historical evidence from the Łódź ghetto lends further credence to the idea that prolonged exposure to a racist society and violence produces a weathering effect in individuals. Widespread individual weathering in the Łódź ghetto, particularly after 1941, culminated in a process of collective weathering that decimated the Jewish community.** The historical case study presented below suggests that a broader application of weathering theory could be instructive for understanding the effects of racism on marginalized communities in contemporary contexts. > >[…] > >Death became a routine part of daily life. And **those left behind suffered from accelerated aging and failing health no matter their age.** Łódź ghetto survivor Sarah Selver‐Urbach remembered how **her father’s death in the fall of 1941 hastened the decline of her paternal grandfather.** > >In a postwar memoir, Selver‐Urbach wrote: “Following father’s death, my tall, stately grandfather grew stooped; his hair, which had turned grey by father’s grave, became whiter and whiter till his head and long beard looked snow‐white. The permanent pain etched on his face augments further his naturally dignified appearance; it was sad to see him wasting away, he who had been so hale and so tough” (Selver‐Urbach 1984, p. 75). **The cumulative effects of starvation, fear, and death were manifest in the greying of the population.** > >**In the Łódź ghetto, physical weathering emerged as a widespread phenomenon that often occurred at a shocking pace.** Among the most vulnerable to accelerated aging were the 20,000 German‐speaking Jews from cities in the Reich who were deported from their native lands and forcibly integrated into the Polish‐ and Yiddish‐speaking native Jewish community of the ghetto. > >For the newcomers, the reality of occupied Poland was wholly disorienting. Still used to home‐cooked food and other creature comforts from their former lives, in the beginning, they scoffed at the meager portions of thin, watery soup that passed as food in the ghetto. The deportees from the West quickly realized that the material conditions they had left behind in Berlin, Vienna, and Prague were far superior to those they faced in the Łódź ghetto. > >**Fellow residents of the ghetto observed that the rate of decline among “foreign” Jews outpaced even the most vulnerable within the native Polish community.** In a report for the *Daily Chronicle*, a collective effort to document [Fascist] injustices against the Jews of Łódź spearheaded by Rumkoswki’s administration, Jozef Klementynowski **noted the speed with which Jews from Hamburg, Germany, succumbed to the process of weathering upon arrival in the ghetto.** > >Klementynowski reported: “**Events outpaced time; people changed visibly, at first outwardly, then physically, and finally, if they had not vanished altogether, they moved through the ghetto like ghosts. […] And indeed, it was only half a year, only six months, that had proven to be an eternity for them!** Some of the metamorphoses could not be imagined, even in a dream…Ghosts, skeletons with swollen faces and extremities, ragged and impoverished […]” (Dobroszycki 1984, p. 166). Mortality rates among the “foreign” population in the ghetto corroborate anecdotal evidence. > >In addition to physical weathering, **ghetto residents also reported psychological impacts.** Oskar Rosenfeld arrived in the Łódź ghetto in the fall of 1941, a spry and healthy 57‐year‐old. **Within just a few months, Rosenfeld noted disturbing changes in his mental faculties in his diary:** >>I am myself in the grip of **the most widespread ghetto disease: dimming of the memory**…not being able to remember things just heard, the names just read. There is a flicker in front of the eyes, a drying in the ears, one hits one’s forehead, racks one’s brain, and attempts to conjure up the past. To no avail. (Rosenfeld 1994, p. 93) > >“Ghetto disease” became shorthand for the brain fog experienced by so many ghetto inhabitants due to severe, prolonged caloric deficit. Insufficient caloric intake was just part of the problem. Foodstuffs in the ghetto lacked the most basic nutritional value. **Jewish doctors working at medical facilities in the ghetto noted with dismay the emergence of “little‐known or disregarded illnesses” in the malnourished ghetto inhabitants**, including scurvy, pellagra, and famine edema, which they linked to lack of essential vitamins and minerals in ghetto rations (Ibid., 177–178). (Emphasis added.) Aside from showing us how Łódź’s Jews suffered under Fascism, this paper should also be useful for predicting how hundreds of thousands of their Palestinian kin must be suffering under neoimperialism right now: with food, potable water, shelter, sanitation, and healthcare in short supply, it is unfortunately reasonable to suspect that many Palestinians are suffering from the same complications as the inhabitants in the Axis’s ghetti did. On a minor note, here in Imperial America the word ‘ghetto’ is something that we typically associate with black communities, not Jews. I was almost surprised that the author did not explicitly mention this, but—as Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin crudely indicated to us in an early episode of *The Sopranos*—the at times eerie historic parallels between the experiences of Jews and black gentiles are already well known. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 17). **1892**: Theodor Eicke, SS general, burdened life with his presence. **1924**: Anton Geiser, SS‐Totenkopfverbände member who later settled safely in Imperial America after the 1940s, was unfortunately born. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/17/1941): The USS *Kearny* became the first U.S. Navy vessel to be torpedoed by a U‐boat. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/17/1943): The Fascists closed down the Sobibór extermination camp after dozens of prisoners staged an uprising. [**1967**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/17/1967): Puyi (a.k.a. Yaozhi), head of the Empire of Great Manchuria, passed away. **1978**: Giovanni Gronchi, Fascist Italy’s (briefly serving) Undersecretary for Industry and Commerce, expired. :::
>**The news content and style were similar to those seen in the U.S. tabloid press.** […] By the time the reports of the strikes were being published in Paris, **the [Fascist] press devoted a large amount of coverage to USSR ‘purges’. The photographs and articles described the USSR as a mass grave. Stalin was presented to readers as the man who allowed and promoted violence, setting the conditions for the spread of moral anarchy. The [Fascist] mass media warned that anarchy would surge up in countries reluctant to join the anti‐communist crusade, as was the case in France.** > >**News coming from Republican Spanish territories was impregnated with the same rhetoric and reports of ‘Republican misdeeds’ helped to further the construction of the socialist enemy** in reports of ‘Paris, 1937’. On 18 April 1937, *Il Popolo d’Italia* published an allegorical cartoon entitled *Towards the Bolshevik Heaven*, representing the French Republic as a passenger on a roller coaster descending at full speed on a rail called ‘comfort’ before a subsequent arduous climb that represented the strikes. > >On a similar theme, *Il Popolo d’Italia* on 25 April 1937 published a front‐page editorial which reported: >>A full‐blown revolutionary scene. A gang of demonstrators stirred up by some angry and disheveled women took to vandalism, looting, attacking the town hall and taking the mayor prisoner, eventually forcing him to resign. One of the most rowdy—while the police were conspicuous by their absence—took the crucifix from above the tabernacle and used it as a baton, conducting a performance of the ‘Internationale’ in the square. > >This article contains some recurring elements used in the fascist press as part of the construction of the ‘otherness’ of the French socialists: the unruly crowd; the absence of the police; the weakness of the authorities and the frequent cases of religious worship turning into violence. > >[Fascist] journalists emphasised any episode that showed anti‐Catholic behaviour on the part of ‘others’, as was the case with news about Republican Spain. For example, **one paradigmatic report of the funeral of a communist described how ‘he died the bourgeois way in his bed’, and how ‘the “comrades” present at the funeral waved a forest of red flags’.** > >[…] > >A reporter wrote that France under the Popular Front ‘lacks national pride, it is a people where the will is missing; nobody is excited by work; nobody remembers the noble traditions of their country, which is now becoming forgetful and apathetic’ (*Il Corriere della Sera*, 19 June 1937. These opinions in the press, widespread at the time, intended to rhetorically construct a negative relationship between the [pseudo]socialist government, French national pride and the productivity system of the government lead by Blum. > >On 23 June 1937, the day after Blum’s resignation, *Il Popolo d’Italia* printed a cartoon representing the fascist view of the situation: two grotesque characters representing Blum and red Bilbao prancing on a stage **with Stalin killing prisoners** and a mendicant shown as the international exhibition begging for alms. […] In addition to the reference to the *Internationale* being played in front of foreign diplomats, ***Il Popolo* presented the French Socialists as ‘Bolsheviks’ in constant internal disagreement and with a total lack of authority.** (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 15). **1872**: Wilhelm Miklas, Austrofascist, was born. [**1891**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1891): Tadashige Daigo, Axis vice admiral, came to life. [**1893**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1893): Carol II of Romania, monarchofascist, blighted the earth. **1913**: Wolfgang Lüth, Axis U‐boat captain, was brought into the world. [**1934**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1934): Erwin Rommel’s superiors posted him to the Infantry School at Potsdam as an instructor. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1935): Axum fell to the Fascists, and the *Naval Gazette* revealed that the Kriegsmarine had already launched twenty‐one U‐boats. Likewise, the first three Panzer Divisions became established in the Wehrmacht. The Fascists placed the 1st Panzer Division under General Freiherr Maximilian von Weichs at Weimar, 2nd Panzer Division under Colonel Heinz Guderian at Würzburg and 3rd Panzer Division under General Fessmann at Berlin. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1936): The Battle of Sigüenza ended in a fascist victory, Imperial Japan founded the city of Toyonaka, Osaka, and the Third Reich officially prohibited Jewish teachers from public schools. On a minor note, Imperial cruiser *Kumano* launched at Kawasaki’s shipyard, Kobe. Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, a twoth cousin to the Emperor, represented the Imperial family. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1938): Walter Grabmann shot down an I‐16 fighter over Spain, and the Czechoslovakian government resigned after the Third Reich occupied the Sudetenland. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1939): Kriegsmarine pocket battleship *Admiral Graf Spee* refueled from tanker Altmark. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1940): The Spanish anticommunists executed President Lluís Companys of Catalonia, and Berlin noted that about half the Czechs in occupied western Czechoslovakia could be assimilated into the German population. The other half, which included the intellectuals, was to be eliminated. Additionally, the Luftwaffe launched five fighter sweeps toward London and one over Southampton, both in England; the Aixs lost sixteen fighter and three bombers, while the Allies lost fifteen fighters along with six pilots. Overnight, four hundred Axis bombers dropped five hundred thirty tons of high explosives on London, slaughtering four hundred folk and wounding nine hundred; the Axis also asssaulted Bristol and Birmingham. Axis submarine *Enrico Toti* fired at submarine HMS *Triad*, hitting her twice with the deck gun and spraying her with machine guns. As *Triad* attempted to dive, *Enrico Toti* scored a hit with a torpedo, sinking *Triad* at about 0130 hours and massacring the entire crew of fifty‐nine. Similarly, Axis submarine *U‐93* sank *Hurunui* of Allied convoy OA‐228 northwest of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland just after 0000 hours; a couple humans died (but seventy‐two did not). Five hours later in the same general area, Axis submarine *U‐138* sank Allied ship *Bonheur* (without killing anybody) and damaged Allied tanker *British Glory* (killing three) of Allied convoy OA‐228 between 0510 and 0515 hours. Axis submarine *U‐103* sank Allied ship *Thistlegarth* northwest of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland at 1933 hours, massacring thirty folk but failing to kill nine. Far to the south, Axis submarine *Comandante Cappellini* sank Belgian ship *Kabalo* west of Casablanca, killing somebody. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1941): SS General Hans Frank, the Axis Governor‐General of occupied Poland, issued a general order proclaiming that any Jews leaving the Warsaw ghetto would be liable for the death penalty as would any person who knowingly gave shelter to such Jews. SS‐Brigadeführer Franz Stahlecker of Einsatzgruppe A also sent a 130‐page report to Berlin, noting that, among other things, 71,105 Jews had been liquidated in Lithuania and 30,000 Jews in Latvia, and 3,387 Communists in Russia. Meanwhile in Russia, the 1st Panzer Division turned northwest, thus away from Moscow, to attack Soviet Northwestern Front from the rear. West of Ireland, Axis submarine *U‐553* attacked Allied convoy SC‐48 at 0815 hours, sinking Allied ship *Silvercedar* (twenty‐one died, twenty‐six lived) and Norwegian ship *Ila* (fourteen died, seven lived). Merchant ship *Silverelm* attempted to ram the submarine, and hours later Allied destroyer HMCS *Columbia* attacked with depth charges, but none damaged *U‐553*. In the Atlantic Ocean, Axis submarine *U‐558*, en route to attack Allied convoy SC‐48, came across and sank Allied ship *Vancouver Island* at 2317 hours; all aboard were lost. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1942): Alfred Jodl suggested to his Chancellor to order Vichy to strengthen its defenses in North Africa as intelligence indicated a possible Allied attack; the Chancellor rejected the suggestion as he thought that Rome would object to any moves that strengthened France. Luftwaffe unit I./KG 100 (flying He 111 bombers) briefly returned to Stalino (now Donetsk), Ukraine to conduct three bombing raids on Stalingrad. Stuka dive bombers of Luftflotte 4 flew nine hundred individual sorties against Soviet positions at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, wiping out several Soviet regiments. Pro‐Axis patrol boats VMW‐13 and VMW‐15 assaulted and sank the Soviet submarine ShCh‐311 off Porkkala Peninsula in Kirkkonummi. After a naval bombardment, 3,000 to 4,000 men of the Eastern Axis’s 230th and 16th Infantry Regiments landed at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Despite interference from U.S. Marine Corps SBD aircraft, 80% of the men and supplies successfully made to shore. With the arrival of these reinforcements, General Hyakutake ordered a new offensive against Henderson Field to take place three days later. Meanwhile, after *Portland* shelled Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts, the Axis employés on Tarawa executed twenty‐two captured Allied coast‐watchers. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1943): The first squadron of the Luftwaffe Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 special long range reconnaissance unit became operational at Mont‐de‐Marsan in southwestern France, and *U‐23* damaged Soviet minesweeping trawler TSC‐486 Sovetskja Rossiya with a torpedo just off the Georgian coast at 2131 hours. *U‐23* attempted to follow the small three‐ship convoy, but gunfire drove her away. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1944): Although Miklós Horthy announced that Hungary and Soviet Union had signed an armistice and asked the Hungarian troops to lay down their arms; the Hungarian generals rejected this order, and the troops continued to fight against the invading Soviets. Thus, Sturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny’s commandos abucted Admiral Miklós Horthy’s son Miklós Horthy, Jr., and in Horthy’s place, the new head of state, Fenenc Szalasi promised to maintain the alliance with the Greater German Reich. Among the first pro‐Axis policies implemented was the resumption of the deportation of Hungarian Jews. Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima of the Eastern Axis’s 26th Air Flotilla in the Philippine Islands attempted a special attack with a D4Y Suisei aircraft against an Allied carrier; somebody said that ‘This act of self‐sacrifice by a high flag officer spurred the flying units in forward combat areas and provided the spark that touched off the organized use of suicide attacks in the battle for Leyte.’ Meanwhile, a V‐2 rocket hit Rettendon, Essex, England, damaging the village pub slightly injuring two humans. A total of nine V‐1 flying bombs launched over the East Anglian coast of Britain. One got through the defensive cordon and came down in the London Borough of Southwark at the junction of Athenlay Road and Fernholm Road, massacring eight residents. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1945): The Axis lost Pierre Laval to Allied executors because he committed treason. Coincidentally, the Hadamar trial against the staff of the Hadamar Euthanasia Center in western Germany ended. Finally, somebody abolished the name Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, but the facilities would continue to operate under the control of the U.S. Navy. [**1946**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1946): Hermann Göring, Axis politician and war criminal, ingested cyanide… no comment. [**1954**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1954): Captain lieutenant Heinz Assmann died in Hamburg. [**1957**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/15/1957): Admiral André Marquis, Axis collaborator, died. **1959**: [Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian fascist, bit the bullet.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/408256) :::
>The infamous [Axis] round‐up in [the Roman ghetto](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ghetto_(Rome)) and its surroundings of 16 October 1943 resulted in 1,023 Jews being deported to Auschwitz, of whom only 17 returned after the war. As it was the first anti‐Jewish round‐up on this scale in Italy the element of surprise certainly contributed to the high number of victims. Though there had been no direct Italian involvement in the round‐up itself, Italian police were ordered to help put together the address lists which the German [anticommunists] used in order to search for their Jewish victims. > >This task would have been impossible without the year‐long preparatory work performed by the [Fascist] authorities in registering the personal details of all Italian Jews, which allowed completion in August 1938 of the first census of Jews (thereafter regularly renewed), which would in turn facilitate implementation of the Race Laws, promulgated the following month. > >After the traumatic events of 1943 most of the surviving Roman Jews went into hiding. There is an abundance of studies of their fate and of their rescuers which has placed stories of heroic rescue in the public consciousness, further reinforcing the notion of *italiani brava gente*, whilst parallel episodes of persecution have been neglected (Barozzi 1998; Motto 2000; Wetzel 2004). > >The round‐up of 16 October 1943 was followed by a three‐month period of relative peace, during which the [Axis] occupying forces concentrated their efforts on plundering the possessions of the deported Jews, often in cooperation with members of the re‐established Fascist Republican Party (*Partito fascista repubblicano*, PFR). Though difficult to prove, the persecution of the remaining Jews seems to have been of no central concern to the [Axis] occupiers, as British intelligence reports of January 1945 suggest. > >Though anti‐Communist and anti‐Jewish activity must be considered the almost unlimited stock‐in‐trade of any German security force, Abteilung IV (Gestapo) campaigns in Rome appear to have been sporadic and not conducted according to any coordinated plan.³ > >This lack of initiative was mostly for logistical reasons. With nearly all the remaining Roman Jews in hiding after the October round‐up, the [Axis] occupying forces neither possessed the necessary knowledge of their whereabouts nor the skills required to trace them. > >Furthermore, the ‘failure’ of 16 October—Himmler had demanded the deportation of 8,000 Jews—made it obvious that, contrary to other occupied nations, in Italy anti‐Jewish persecution was no area for distinguishing oneself with regard to the *Reichssicherheitshauptamt* (security headquarters) in Berlin. Moreover, after the Allied landing in Anzio on 22 January 1944 the occupying troops were mainly preoccupied with the advancing front as well as the increased threat of partisan attacks. > >Nevertheless, any Jew who happened to get into the clutches of the Gestapo was arrested and deported to [an Axis] extermination camp. At the end of 1943, the [Axis] introduced a reward of 5,000 lire for each Jew reported or handed over to the Gestapo headquarters in Rome,⁴ which compares to an average family income of less than 1,000 lire a month in 1943–44. This had been a common practice to which [Wehrmacht] troops in all occupied Western European countries resorted. > >Considering the lack of initiative of the occupying troops, how could it happen that during the following months, mainly between February and May 1944, almost another 1,000 Jews were deported from Rome to [Axis] concentrations camps? Picciotto’s assumption that 50% of all arrests of Jews in Italy were performed either by Italians alone or by Italians working with the [Axis] occupying forces (Picciotto 2002, p. 29) clearly applies to the Roman situation as well. > >Half of all Jewish victims were arrested and deported as a result of the actions of the Germans alone in October 1943, while Italian perpetrators were involved with the other half. However, in the case of Rome there seems to be a clear distinction between the final months of 1943 and the year 1944. For the roughly 1,000 Jews arrested during 1944 only minimal German involvement is evident. For context, the [Roman ghetto](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-minyan/episodes/30--History-of-the-Italian-Jews-Part-2-e2mqff7) was a (very cramped) spot that the Pope established in 1555. Confinement for Jews was compulsory until the Napoleonic era, compulsory again until 1848, and then compulsory again until Sardinian troops arrived in 1870. This means that there were probably still Jews alive when [the ghetto became optional in 1870 only to become reinstated late in the Fascist era.](https://books.google.com/books?id=FUjRhscAaToC&pg=PA312) Only one woman from the ghetto survived internment in Auschwitz. Quoting Robert Katz’s *The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans, and the Pope*, [page 100](https://books.google.com/books?id=zY1d1MprHtkC&pg=PA100): >Of the 1,023 Jews who would be arrested in the October 16 roundup and sent by box car to Auschwitz, [[Settimia Spizzichino](https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=tawY26Em6w0)] would be the only woman among them who would come back. […] She survived in part because she had been selected as a human guinea pig for the infamous Dr. Mengele. And her darkest wish came true. “I made a promise when I was in the camp…” she said toward the end of her life, “I didn’t know whether to curse God or pray to Him, but I said, ‘Lord, save me, save me so that I can return and recount.’”² > >From 1945, when she was found by the Allies in a pile of death‐camp corpses, asleep for two days, until she died, she spent her life recounting.³ The story [that] she tells of that Saturday morning under a driving autumn rain is much like the story of all the others who would be taken that day. --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (October 16). **1900**: Primo Conti, Fascist artist, was born. **1911**: Otto von Bülow, Axis U‐boat commander, was delivered to the world. **1919**: Adolf Schicklgruber delivered his first public address at a meeting of the so‐called German Workers’ Party. **1925**: Fascist Italy joined Belgium, France, Great Britain, and the Weimar Republic in a Locarno Treaty (or Treaty of Mutual Guaranty). **1927**: Günter Wilhelm Grass, *Kriegsmarine* volunteer and Waffen‐SS draftee, existed. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1939): As *U‐23* completed her third war patrol, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder announced that his Chancellor ordered that ‘all merchant ships definitely recognized as enemy can be torpedoed without warning.’ Coincidentally, № 603 Squadron RAF intercepted the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1940): [The Axis established the Warsaw ghetto.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2387858) [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1941): Tanks of SS Reich Division and 10th Panzer Division attacked the Mozhaysk Line at Borodino one hundred twenty‐five kilometers west of Moscow, a round of mass deportation of Jews from the German Reich commenced, and the Axis exterminated 382 Jewish men, 507 Jewish women, and 257 Jewish children in Vilnius, Lithuania (for a total of 1,146 people). The Axis captured Odessa, and Luftwaffe I./KG 4 was relocated to Pskov (German: Pleskau), Russia. Finally, Axis Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe submitted his letter of resignation. He recommended Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni as his successor. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1942): Axis air attacks wiped out the entire staff of the Soviet 339th Infantry Regiment at Stalingrad, and Axis cruisers bombarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1943): Light carrier *Ryuho* departed Sama (now Sanya), Hainan, and *Shokaku* arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1944): Heinrich Himmler visited Nürnberg to personally inspect the repairs to the bunker which housed the Imperial Regalia of the First Reich. [**1946**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/16/1946): The International Military Tribunal found ten Axis defendants guilty and executed them by hanging. These were Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss‐Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. :::
>Through its vertical integration and aggressive expansion strategy, [the Canadian‐based International Nickel Company] supplied the German market in the 1930s, as evidenced by various agreements with [Fascist] manufacturers. The company wanted to protect the newly developed German market and feared government intervention. INCO drew an important lesson from the experience of the First World War: to prevent government control by influencing both politicians and public opinion. > >To protect its business interests in [the German Reich], **INCO leveraged its information advantage and sought to influence public opinion by downplaying the rôle of Canadian nickel in [the Third Reich’s] armaments industry.** > >[…] > >In the late 1920s, the nickel market became even more concentrated. INCO became a Canadian‐based company (before U.S.) and incorporated its main competitor, the British Mond Nickel Company, a result of the company’s aggressive expansion strategy. INCO emerged as a virtual global monopoly.⁴² In the years following the [Fascist] takeover in 1933, political tensions with [the German Reich] increased. The question of a nickel embargo resurfaced, as evidenced by various newspaper articles and discussions in the British and Canadian parliaments.⁴³ > >Robert Stanley claimed at the annual meeting of INCO in 1938 that ‘Canadian nickel is neither essential for war, nor is it essentially a war material’.⁴⁴ Moreover, **Stanley stated that the amount of nickel used for war purposes was less than ten percent of the world’s output.⁴⁵ This statement was untrue and was made primarily to avoid public pressure that could lead to an embargo and to secure business interests in the [Fascist] market.** > >Based on INCO’s 1934 figures, F. E. Lathe and S. J. Cook of the Canadian National Research Council estimated in 1935 that eighteen percent of nickel production was used for war materials.⁴⁶ In the same year, Robert Stanley prepared an essay estimating the proportion to be only ten percent (or even less).⁴⁷ He repeated this [mis]information in official interviews.⁴⁸ > >Not only was Lathe and Cook’s estimate much higher than Robert Stanley’s, but Stanley’s estimate did not change after 1934. In the years after 1934, the increase in nickel demand was no longer driven by the U.S. automobile industry. Rather, global demand rose due to the increasing nickel import of European countries, the USSR and [the Empire of] Japan. Between 1933 and 1938, Britain and [the Empire of] Japan more than tripled and [the Third Reich] doubled their nickel consumption.⁴⁹ > >The U.S. maintained its status as the largest importer in the world nickel market. [the Soviet Union] emerged as the second largest importer, followed by the United Kingdom, which narrowly surpassed [the German Reich’s] imports in the fourth position, [the Empire of] Japan secured the fifth place.⁵⁰ In contrast to U.S. nickel consumption, the growth in European and Japanese consumption was largely driven by the armament industry.⁵¹ > >This shift towards armament was especially true in Germany. By 1934, [Berlin] had already begun to restrict the civilian use of nickel. In the first half of 1939, the Wehrmacht received 47% of [the Third Reich’s] nickel supply for weapons production.⁵² **In the midst of these shifts in consumption in the second half of the 1930s, Stanley consistently claimed that war materials accounted for only ten percent of world nickel consumption.** > >[…] > >**In April 1934, INCO and IG Farben, the [Fascist] chemical giant, signed a ten‐year contract. As revealed by Scherner and Sandvik, IG Farben developed a high‐pressure technology that could also be utilised for refining nickel. When IG Farben was searching for raw nickel to use this new refining technology, INCO approached the company through Mond Nickel and offered deliveries of intermediate nickel (matte). In return, INCO received a license to IG Farben’s refining process as part of the supply agreement.** > >Although the nickel matte was sourced from Canada, the contract required IG Farben to make payments in pounds sterling to the British‐based Mond Nickel.⁵⁸ **This contract made IG Farben the new leading nickel refiner in [the Third Reich] in just two years. With supplies from INCO, IG Farben’s nickel production increased from 411 tons in 1934 to 4,003 tons in 1938, accounting for one‐third of [the Third Reich’s] total annual nickel consumption.** > >**By the end of the 1930s, INCO supplied almost the entire German nickel market (see Figure 1). The German market was of paramount importance to INCO, accounting for approximately 9% of the company’s total deliveries between 1934 and 1938, just slightly behind the United Kingdom, which accounted for around 11% of INCO’s deliveries.⁵⁹** > >Of the major [Fascist] nickel refineries, only Krupp (and its affiliate Norddeutsche Hütte AG) and the Sächsische Blaufarbenwerke remained as companies not under contract to INCO. Krupp obtained most of its nickel ore from its own mine at Frankenstein, while the Blaufarbenwerke relied on deliveries from the Burma Corporation. When IG Farben sought to increase its stocks in 1938, presumably to comply with [Berlin’s] stockpiling plan, INCO increased the contractual maximum stock and even agreed to assume the stockpiling risk and cover the costs.⁶⁰ > >However, INCO disapproved of the 1934 German restrictions on the use of nickel. This disapproval indicates that INCO primarily aimed to sell its product on a large scale and not to meet the demands of [Berlin’s] war preparations. Nevertheless, **the [Fascist] authorities were pleased with INCO’s endeavours in [the Third Reich]. By supplying upstream nickel products, INCO served as an important pillar of [Fascist] resource policy, enabling the country to save foreign exchange and build up stocks.** > >Unsurprisingly, **the [Fascist] authorities for metals control (‘Überwachungsstelle für unedle Metalle’) explicitly supported INCO’s agreements with [Fascist] nickel refiners.⁶¹ Moreover, the Administration Office of the Reich’s Ministry of Economics (‘Bewirtschaftungsstelle des Reichswirtschaftsministeriums’) granted approval for the foreign exchange, which allowed a considerable saving in foreign exchange, as only about half the price of nickel metal had to be paid.⁶²** (Emphasis added.) This is another document where it was hard for me to assemble an excerpt, because it has so much damning material on both the Dominion of Canada and the United Kingdom that I had to select my fragments carefully. The evidence is also quite damning of ‘free trade’ philosophy. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 14). **1888**: Yukio Sakurauchi, Imperial Minister of Commerce and Industry, was born. [**1909**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1909): Mochitsura Hashimoto, Axis submarine commander, and Bernd Rosemeyer, Hauptsturmführer, were both delivered to the world. **1930**: The fascist Lapua Movement kidnapped former and first President of Finland, K. J. Ståhlberg, and his wife, Ester Ståhlberg, from their home. [**1933**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1933): The Third Reich withdrew from the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1939): The Axis submarine *U‐47* sunk the British battleship HMS *Royal Oak* within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland, massacring eight hundred thirty‐three folk. Additionally, Chuichi Nagumo’s superiors placed him on a committee studying capital ship bridge design, and Korechika Anami became the deputy commanding officer of the IJA. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1940): The London Blitz destroyed the Balham underground station, massacring sixty‐six people. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1941): The Axis neutralized the Soviet troops in the Bryansk pocket in Russia (50,000 captured), while the Vyazma pocket was within days of the same fate. Berlin also ordered that the Soviet capital of Moscow be enveloped, but not attacked directly. Likewise, the Third Reich announced that all Jews within the 1933 border would be deported; these Jews were beginning to be deported to ghetti in Poland, Byelorussia, and Ukraine. Lastly, the Kriegsmarine placed orders for forty‐nine more submarines to be constructed. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1942): Luftflotte 4 aided the Axis assault on the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, but the Wehrmacht offensive in the Caucasus region of southern Russia ceased with the exception of 17th Army’s attacks near Tuapse on the coast of the Black Sea. Before dawn, six Axis destroyers landed one thousand troops on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1943): Axis troops cleared the Zaporozhe bridgehead, retreating across the Dneiper River in southern Ukraine, while the Second Philippine Republic, an Axis collaborationist régime, inaugurated José P. Laurel as its president. Meanwhile, the Axis took out sixty of the United States Eighth Air Force’s 291 B‐17 Flying Fortresses during the Second Raid on Schweinfurt. Oberleutnant Walter Nowotny, Commanding officer of the I/JG54 group, also became the first pilot in the world to achieve two hundred fifty kills, for which feat he would receive the Greater German Reich’s twoth highest award, Diamonds to his Knight’s Cross medal, awarded to him by his Chancellor. Lastly, [Sobibór succumbed to a Jewish uprising.](https://hexbear.net/post/839362) [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/14/1944): Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel, Axis field marshal (who served an important rôle in controlling North Africa), committed suicide with a cyanide capsule given by General Wilhelm Burgdorf. Apart from that, a V‐1 flying bomb landed in a field by the Suffolk village of Hopton and failed to explode, but Bomb Disposal Officer Lieutenant C. H. Bassett died whilst removing one of the fuses. **2002**: Norbert Arnold Wilhelm Richard Schultze, Fascist musician, died. :::
>The plan to entirely demolish [[Gherardo Bosio’s] stadium](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Qemal_Stafa_Stadium) was met with swift objection from both opposition politicians and media. Questions were immediately raised by *Rilindja Demokratike*, the newspaper of the opposition Democratic Party, about how the wholesale demolition of the stadium could go ahead given the protected status of Mother Teresa Square in which it stood. > >Architect, academic and Democratic Party councillor on Tirana’s municipal council, Besnik Aliaj, decried the plans in stark terms, arguing that neither the [People’s Socialist Republic of Albania] nor Italy’s […] post‐war governments had demolished Tirana’s fascist‐era architecture. > >**He accused [Prime Minister Edi] Rama of hypocrisy for having objected strenuously to the proposed demolition a decade earlier of the Pyramid, the museum dedicated to Hoxha built in 1985, and summed up his view on the stadium plans as: “Let us not destroy and Talibanize even the little history and identity we have left!”** (“Prishja e stadiumit” 2016). > >**These and other vociferous objections forced Rama into a U‐turn and just a week after the announcement of the stadium design, he revealed a modified plan that would preserve Gherardo Bosio’s façade and monumental staircase, in his view “the only thing of value in that ruin”** (“Akuzat për stadiumin” 2016). > >**Rama’s initial suggestion that the original fascist‐era façade would be preserved in a museum inside the stadium was soon dropped in favour of disassembling it piece by piece and then reintegrating it, in its original position, into the new design** (“Portat e stadiumit do hapen brenda 15 muajve” 2017). > >**Rama was adamant, however, that the two Communist‐era bas‐reliefs that had been embedded into the façade in 1974 be removed and destroyed**, declaring: “Those bas‐reliefs […] shamed even socialist realism. They have fulfilled their mission of ugliness and do not possess any cultural heritage value” (“Rama, përgjegjësi penale për prishjen e fasadës së stadiumit” 2016). > >Thus, in the highly charged rhetoric surrounding the plans for the stadium, the fascist architecture of Bosio was set up as an aesthetically pleasing and historically significant counterpoint to the worthless Communist‐era interventions, **the implication being that unlike Communist heritage, the legacies of the fascist occupation could be uncontroversially celebrated and preserved as significant elements of Albania’s collective cultural memory.** > >During the three‐year‐long construction period and notwithstanding the intense public interest in the project’s development, at no point were attempts made to contextualize the original structure by Bosio within the history of the fascist occupation and how this experience of dictatorship might be incorporated into Albania’s national memory building. > >[…] > >The fate of [the National Theatre in Tirana’s city centre](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:National_Theatre_of_Albania), just beside Skanderbeg Square, had been at the centre of considerable debate since 2018 but reached a dramatic climax in May 2020 when, with no advance warning, on the final day of Albania’s restrictions to deal with the first wave of COVID‐19, the theatre was entirely demolished. […] **The theatre, overcoming its history as an edifice built by the […] fascist dictatorship, became a symbol of Albanian democracy**, or lack thereof, in the eyes of many opposition figures. > >[…] > >On the whole, the arguments employed by Veliaj to defend his position were somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, he accused those campaigning against the demolition of “neo‐colonialism,” asking why Tirana should be denied a modern theatre in a central location as was the case for other European cities. > >On the other, **he explicitly praised exactly those who had been responsible for colonialism in the Albanian context and cast the fascists in a favourable light, claiming that, “The last people on the right who did something in Tirana were the fascists.** The Albanian right has not done anything” (Veliaj, interviewed by Tonelli 2020). > >In the months that followed, the demolition of the theatre continued to be employed by the opposition Democratic Party as a political stick with which to beat the government. Opposition leader Basha used the occasion of International Cultural Heritage Day in September 2020 to draw attention to the “‘barbarism and hatred that this government nurtures for the values and institutions of our nation’ and to cast the ruling party as a ‘régime’ working against the desires of the citizenry at large” (“Basha mesazh” 2020). > >[…] > >**The partial or complete demolition of the stadium and theatre did not prompt reflections on the legacies of fascist colonialism and heritage for […] [pseudo]democratic Albania. Rather, any such consideration has been overtaken by the lived experience of the sites in subsequent decades, overshadowing their origins and establishing them as symbols not of fascist colonialism but of the survival of sport and the arts in Albania despite the years of oppressive Communist dictatorship and, latterly, as symbols of the importance of democratic transparency in contemporary Albania.** (Emphasis added.) Although the survival of Fascist‐era architecture in a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie should be unsurprising, some of you may be rightfully concerned that it was allowed to exist at all in a people’s republic, and the author herself goes so far as to liken this to the widespread reuse of Axis architecture under Italy’s and West Germany’s post‐1945 régimes. Even the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya demolished more Fascist architecture than the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania did. What happened? The anticommunist author, inevitably, offers no explanation, presumably because she wants us to arrive at a horseshoe theorist’s conclusion on our own, but she did give us this hint: >Albania emerged from the Second World War “as easily the most backward country in Europe” (Vickers 2001, 165). A third of all buildings and livestock had been destroyed, almost all transport and industrial infrastructure was damaged or with very limited functionality, many thousands were homeless and food was in short supply. Couple this with how the Fascist occupation of Libya was longer (and arguably more traumatic) and we have a possible explanation for why the Albanian lower classes preferred to simply recycle Axis architecture: demolition of these structures was simply a privilege that we could hardly afford here. We gave organized religion a higher priority because it remained an active phenomenon and we frequently associated it with subjugation or oppression. While the preference for recycling Axis architecture over demolishing it in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania may be regrettable, I would be more alarmed at how most of it not only survived under Albania’s present anticommunist régime but has received a privileged status as well. Apparently, anticommunists are more protective of Axis structures—even ones that we recycled for whatever reason—than they are of ours. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 13). [**1887**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1887): Jozef Tiso was, I am sad to say, born. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1937): In a note to Brussels, Berlin guaranteed the inviolability and integrity of Belgium. Apart from that, fifty thousand Imperialists marched for Xinkou, Shanxi, China, supported by thirty aircraft, twoscore pieces of artillery, and fifty light tanks and tankettes. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1939): With the offer for peace rejected by Paris six days earlier and by Ldon yesterday, Berlin announced that the (other) Western powers desired war, and that the German Reich could not be blamed for military action on the German–French border. As well, the 1,819‐ton neutral Norwegian merchant steamer *Kvernaas*, captured by the Third Reich in September, became released from Kiel along with its cargo of 2,585 tons of cellulose. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1940): Axis submarine *U‐103* torpedoed Estonian ship *Nora* two hundred miles west of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and an Allied flying boat spotted Axis destroyer *Camicia Nera* at dawn towing destroyer *Artigliere*, which succumbed to damage yesterday during the Battle of Cape Passero east of Malta. Flightcraft from HMS *Illustrious* forced *Camicia Nera* to cut the tow line, and then cruisers HMS *York* and HMS *Ajax* and four destroyers sank *Artigliere* with torpedoes. The Allied warships dropped rafts for the Axis survivors before departing; many of the survivors would be rescued by an Axis hospital ship on the following day. Four raids of 25–50 Axis flightcraft (consisting mostly of fighters) attacked southern England between 1230 and 1600 hours. The Axis and the Allies each lost two fighters. Overnight, the Axis bombed London from 1900 hours until 0600 hours of the next day, and the Axis also assaulted Middlesborough, Hull, Huddersfield, Grantham, Liverpool, and Manchester. Lastly, Axis submarine *U‐37* sank Allied ship *Stangrant* west of Scotland at 1957 hours, massacring eight folk (but leaving thirty alive). [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1941): The Axis captured Kalinin (now Tver) and Rzhev northwest of Moscow, and the Axis encircled the Soviet 30th Army at Rzhev and annihilated it. To make matters worse, the Axis occupation administration in France formally commenced regulating the transfer of food from the countryside to family members in cities, and announced a weight limit of fifty kilograms. Philippe Pétain visited a school in village Périgny in Allier department, France. Radio reporter M. Jean Masson praised Périgny as an ideal traditional village, hence Pétain’s visit. Children sang La Marseillaise (even though the Third Reich prohibited that song) at the radio programme’s end. Finally, Heinrich Kreipe received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross medal, and Johannes Hähle turned in seven photographs with the title ‘Umfassungsschlacht ostw. Kiew’ to his superiors. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1942): Axis battleships *Haruna* and *Kongo* bombarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, destroying more than twoscore Allied flightcraft on the ground; they retired up New Georgia Sound at 29 knots. Aside from that, *U‐132* joined wolfpack Panther, and Axis auxiliary cruiser *Komet* departed Le Havre, France, escorted by the Third Reich’s 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla (T4, T10, T14, and T19), attempting to break out into the Atlantic Ocean. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1943): Agents from the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Paris captured Noor Inayat Khan (maybe around the same time that Marshal Pietro Badoglio announced that the Kingdom of Italy has officially declared war on the Third Reich). [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/13/1944): The Axis abandoned Athens and left Rethymno in Northern Crete, retiring unharrassed to the region around Canea in the north west of the island. The Axis also lost Riga City to the Soviets, thereby discontinuing the Salaspils concentration camp, and Armeegruppe Nord withdrew to the Kurland (Latvian: Courland) pocket in western Latvia. Meanwhile, a V‐1 flying bomb fell on the Suffolk town of Southwold and caused major damage but surprisingly no serious injuries; in all 337 houses were damaged, 68 shops, three churches and the fire station were all reported as being harmed in some way to the blast. Another impacted on RAF Raydon near Ipswich; the bomb narrowly missed the bomb dump concealed in woods next to the perimeter; at the time of the strike somebody was loading bombs onto transport trucks. **2013**: Martin Drewes, Luftwaffe aviator, expired. :::
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>On October 12th, 1960, Asanuma Inejirō, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, the government’s main opposition, was fatally stabbed on live TV during an election debate. The perpetrator was a 17‐year‐old ultranationalist called Yamaguchi Otoya. Yamaguchi had been a member of a far‐right group called the Greater Japan Patriotic Party (Dai Nippon Aikokutō), **whose leader, Akao Bin, was an open admirer of Adolf Hitler.** > >Dai Nipon Aikokutō had been involved in various protests and counter‐protests during turbulent 1960, during which Yamaguchi was arrested ten times. He came to believe, however, that the group was not going far enough, and resigned a few months before stabbing Asanuma.[[2]](https://wp.me/peTedW-1b#_ftn2) Having turned himself in after the murder, Yamaguchi admitted that he’d hoped to kill the founder of the Japanese Communist Party and the chairman of the leftist Japan Teacher’s Union as well.[[3]](https://wp.me/peTedW-1b#_ftn3) > >In the figure of Yamaguchi, international fascism and Japanese myth were combined. **He consciously espoused [Fascist] rhetoric, ‘worshipped’ Hitler, and was an avid reader of *Mein Kampf*.**[[4]](https://wp.me/peTedW-1b#_ftn4) The murder weapon, however, was a samurai short sword stolen from Yamaguchi’s father, a colonel in the Japanese Self Defence Forces. Yamaguchi killed himself in prison on November 2nd, having written in toothpaste on his wall ‘long live the emperor’ and, tellingly, ‘would that I had seven lives to give for my country.’ > >Yamaguchi seemed to have viewed himself as embodying the legend of samurai Kusunoki Masashige, to whom the latter phrase is attributed, who died in the service of emperor Go‐Daigo in 1336. Just as Kusunoki defended his emperor from the forces of the Ashikaga shogunate, so Yamaguchi saw himself as defending Hirohito from communism. His rhetoric makes overt overlaps between fascism and emperor worship.[[5]](https://wp.me/peTedW-1b#_ftn5) > >Yamaguchi quickly became a martyr for the far‐right. They held memorial services in the same hall where Asanuma had been killed, and extremist groups commemorated his sacrifice every November 2nd for years to come. > >Copycat assassinations were attempted, including one instance where Communist Party chairman Nosaka Sanzō was nearly killed when a rightist attacked rushed onto a stage with a dagger. A plot was even uncovered to mobilise hundreds of right‐wing youths to assassinate the entire cabinet — amongst the plotters were several retired military officers, a chilling echo of prewar events.[[6]](https://wp.me/peTedW-1b#_ftn6) (Emphasis added.) Related: [*Violence, Masculinity, and Fascism in 1960s Japan*](https://historymatters.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/blog-archive/2023/violence-masculinity-and-fascism-in-1960s-japan) --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (October 12). [**1891**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1891): Prince Fumimaro Konoe, Axis head of state who presided over Imperial Japan’s invasion of mainland China, was unkind enough to exist. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1936): The Fascists formed the 65th Infantry Division of Grenadiers, and Nationalist flightcraft sunk the Republican submarine *B5* off the coast near Malaga. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1937): The Imperialists captured Gouxian, Shanxi, and Francisco Franco issued a decree declaring null and void all purchases of mining rights in Spain since the beginning of the Civil War. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1940): Axis Governor‐General of occupied Poland, Hans Frank, ordered 138,000 Jews in Warsaw to move into the city’s ghetto. Meanwhile, a new Wehrmacht mission set up in Bucharest to direct the training programme for the Romanian Army. Axis submarines *U‐48*, *U‐59*, and *U‐101* attacked Allied convoy HX.77 northwest of Ireland, sinking Norwegian tanker *Davanger* just after 0000 hours (seventeen died while a dozen did not), Allied ship *Pacific Ranger* at 1800 hours (entire crew survived), and Allied steamer *Saint Malô* at 2325 hours (twenty‐eight died but sixteen lived). Axis reconnaissance aircraft also scouted England between 0650 and 0900 hours, and then between 0900 and 1715 hours several raids attacked southern England, many of which reached London. During this day, the Axis lost nine Bf 109 fighters and one Ar 95 seaplane over the Dover Strait. Overnight, the Axis lightly bombed London while also assaulting Birmingham and Coventry. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1941): The Axis as well as its collaborators exterminated eleven thousand Jews of Dnepropetrovsk, and the Wehrmacht’s 250th Infantry Division of Iberian volunteers deployed on the River Volkhov near Leningrad. The Axis captured Bryansk and Kaluga in Russia, and Heinz Guderian noted in his diary that snow continued to fall amidst the campaign in the Soviet Union. After dark, Axis bombers attacked Manchester, Clayton, Denton, and Oldham in England, causing generally light damage, but slaughtering twenty‐three folk at Oldham. Axis submarine *U‐75* also discovered an Allied fleet thirty‐five miles west of Tobruk and then assaulted it, sinking two landing craft and thereby massacring thirty‐four Allied personnel and two Axis prisoners of war. *U‐75* picked up one survivor whom she would deliver to the Third Reich for interrogations. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1942): The Axis killed Polish Catholic priest Roman Sitko (formerly a rector of the theological seminary in Tarnów) at Auschwitz within only a few weeks of his arrival there. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1943): In accord with Berlin, Madrid formally announced the dissolution of the Blue Division (though many volunteers continued fighting anyway). [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/12/1944): The Axis occupation of Athens ended, and Axis troops withdrew across the Lower Rhine near Arnhem, the Netherlands. On the other hand, the Germans of the SS‐Police advanced slowly in Val d’Ossola and were practically stationary in Finero, at the end of Val Cannobina. Likewise, the Axis’s 485 Mobile Artillery Detachment, responsible for launching V‐2 rockets, began its move from Friesland to the Hague in the Netherlands. On the same day, Berlin ordered that London be the only target for V‐2 rockets in Britain; attacks on other continental cities such as Antwerp were to continue. A V‐2 rocket hit Ingworth north of Norwich, slightly injuring two people and causing damage to twenty houses and one school. (This rocket was the 28th rocket to hit the Norwich region, and was to be the last of the current rocket campaign against Norwich. None of the twenty‐eight rockets targeted at this area killed anyone, and property damage was relatively light.) The head of Wehrmacht intelligence in Vienna (Abwehrstelle Wien) until April 1944, Colonel Rudolf von Margona‐Redwitz, received the death penalty in connexion with the July Plot against his head of state. Lastly, the Axis lost one Me 262 jet fighter which was escorting bombers of Kampfgeschwader 51. This was the first victory of a jet aircraft by a Tempest fighter. The Axis pilot, Unteroffizier Edmond Delatowski, bailed out and survived. **1957**: Lev Rebet, leader of the OUN‐z, died. **1973**: Peter Aufschnaiter, Fascist mountaineer, departed from the world. :::
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>On his Rumble show, Peters continued promoting these conspiracy theories with Jeff Berwick, [[a neofeudalist]](https://archive.is/4YZYo) and cryptocurrency promoter. > >“For people out there who have still not caught on, that the globalists and whatever you wanna call them — the Jews, the globalists, whatever you wanna call them — the CIA, all these people, they have this technology and they are using it full force now in so many different ways,” Berwick told Peters. > >Berwick added that people who “wanna look into weather weapons” should look at Acapulco, where he’s lived for many years, because “it’s now been hit by three hurricanes in less than a year.” And he called the “secret ingredient” to these hurricanes “HAARP and the weather weapons stations that they’ve got all over the world now.” > >Peters responded by saying that “the secret weapon is somebody with the last name ‘Stein’ or ‘Cohen’,” and that Jewish people have the “technology to destroy the United States in so many ways.” > >Berwick agreed with Peters, saying that he wrote about “how they’re going to be destroying the West.” > >He added that “they’re doing it now” by “sending that hurricane up there” to North Carolina and blowing up a chemical plant in Atlanta, GA, calling it “World War III.” In actuality, water from a malfunctioning sprinkler system reacted with chemicals in the plant, which [caused the release of chlorine gas](https://archive.is/y4uQi) and ignited a fire. > >But Peters critiqued Berwick’s frequent use of the term “globalist,” saying that he prefers to “call ’em Jews.” > >“Everywhere I look it’s a Jewish person,” Peters complained. “I can’t help it. I’m not gonna deny that that’s a fact. A lot of other platforms — maybe you’re being cautious with your speech because a lot of other platforms wanna refer to them as ‘Frankists’ or ‘globalists’ or ‘communists’ or whatever. Communism, by the way, also Jewish.” --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 11). **1879**: Ernst Mally, Axis philosophist and educator, was delivered to the world. **1884**: Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius, Axis chemist who worked for I.G. Farben, started his life. **1901**: Masanobu Tsuji, Axis army officer and politician, was born. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1937): The Duke and Duchess of Windsor toured the Third Reich for twelve days and met Adolf Schicklgruber on 22 October. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1940): In a series of policies with the goal of boosting birth rate, Vichy passed the Married Women’s Work Act, which forbade a wife from public sector employment if her husband could provide for the family. Likewise, Axis submarine *U‐48* attacked Allied convoy HX‐77 northwest of Ireland in the evening; at 2150 hours, the Axis sunk Norwegian ship *Brandanger* (causing six deaths but leaving two dozen alive), then at 2209 hours it sunk the Allied ship *Port Gisborne* (26 killed when lifeboat capsized, 38 survived). While small Axis raids of ten or fewer flightcraft harassed southern England all day, a number of larger raids, with 25–90 flightcraft, attacked larger towns. The larger raids were composed mostly of fighters as the Axis continued to try to wear down British fighter strength. That day, the Axis lost one Do 17 bomber and four Bf 109 fighters. Then, the Axis bombed London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, and the Tyne and Tees areas overnight, but lost three Do 17 bombers over Anglesey after attacking Liverpool. Werner Mölders claimed his 43rd victory over Canterbury, England. Lastly, Axis bombers attacked Allied convoy BS.6 in the Red Sea fifty miles off of AOI, damaging escorting vessel Allied sloop HMS *Auckland*. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1941): Axis‐occupied Macedonia faced a war of liberation. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1942): Off Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercepted and defeat an Axis force. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1943): Axis antisubmarine flightcraft in Soya Strait (La Pérouse Strait) sunk USS *Wahoo* between Hokkaido and Karafuto (Sakhalin), massacring everybody aboard, including Vern Skjonsby and commanding officer Dudley Morton. Additionally, the Axis commissioned *U‐821* into service with Ludwig Fabricius in command, and assigned her to the 4th Submarine Flotilla. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/11/1944): An Axis V‐2 rocket hit Rockland St. Mary six miles southeast of Norwich, England, and was the second rocket to hit the village during the war (first being from seven days earlier). It damaged fourteen houses. **2013**: Erich Priebke, SS commander who was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre, finally dropped dead after obstinately living long enough to become a centenarian. :::
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Quoting [*Hayek: A Collaborative Biography: Part III, Fraud, Fascism and Free Market Religion*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=64DED654DFB1FE6B9B370196DE915C51), page viii: >Lieutenant Ludwig ‘von’ Mises (1881–1973), free marketeer; aristocrat; […] employee of the Foundation for Economic Education; Austro‐Fascist (*Vaterländische* or Patriotic Front) member № 282632; Austro‐Fascist social club (*Werk Neues Leben*) member № 406183; co‐leader of the third‐generation Austrian School of Economics, known to his disciples as ‘The Last Knight of Liberalism’. In his defining work, *Liberalism in the classical tradition*, he declared: >>**It cannot be denied that Fascism and similar movements aiming at the establishment of dictatorships are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has, for the moment, saved European civilization. The merit that Fascism has thereby won for itself will live on eternally in history.** > >According to *The Last Knight of Liberalism*, Mises was FEE’s ‘*spiritus rector*’ — literally: ‘Führer’ or ‘ruler’. Some capitalist apologists have claimed that Mises was forced to join the Austrofascists, but we have no good reason to believe this. As much as propertarians may grumble about ‘state interference’ and how it contradicts [their idealistic redefinition of capitalism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1762569), they have demonstrated time and again that they have no issue with the state when it is oppressing undocumented immigrants, massacring or torturing (suspected) communists in Chile, and protecting private property, to name but a few examples. Hence, [the pipeline between propertarianism and fascism is hardly a lengthy one.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/560511) Robert Leeson goes on, pages 5–6: >The ‘similar movements’ of ‘bloody counteraction’ that Mises referred to included the French anti‐Semitic *Action Française* plus ‘Germans and Italians’. ‘Italians’ obviously refers to Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome; Mises’ (1985 [1927], 44) reference to ‘Ludendorff and Hitler’ means the 1923 Ludendorff‐Hitler‐Putsch (or Munich Beer Hall Putsch). > >Mises (1985 [1927], 49) predicted that: >>The deeds of the Fascists and of other parties corresponding to them were emotional reflex actions evoked by indignation at the deeds of the Bolsheviks and Communists. As soon as the first flush of anger had passed, their policy took a more moderate course and will probably become even more so with the passage of time. > >Misesian liberals and Fascists were allies, but differed in tactics: >>What distinguished liberal from Fascist tactics is not a difference of opinion regarding the use of armed force to resist armed attackers, but a difference in the fundamental estimation about the role of violence in a struggle for power. > >Violence was ‘the highest principle’ and must lead to >>civil war. The ultimate victor to emerge will be the faction strongest in number […] The decisive question, therefore always remains: How does one obtain a majority for one’s own party? This however is purely an intellectual matter. > >Fascism would have to embrace Mises’ (1985 [1927], 50) liberalism to achieve their common aims; if Fascism ‘wanted really to combat socialism it would oppose it with ideas.’ Mises would provide these ideas: ‘There is however only one idea that can be effectively opposed to socialism, viz, liberalism.’ Mises provided an historicist inevitability justification: ‘Fascism will never succeed as completely as Russian Bolshevism from freeing itself from the power of liberal ideas […] The next episode will be the victory of communism.’ > >Mises’ political activity was consistent with his ideology: on 1 March 1934, he joined the Austro‐Fascist Patriotic Front and their *Werk Neues Leben* social club (Hülsmann 2007, 677, n149). Mises may also have been a victim of propaganda: his justification for this tactical embrace was that fascists would protect property — the protection of which he saw as the very essence of liberty. > >Meanwhile, tax‐evading fascist kleptocrats were eying Jewish property; in the Anschluss of March 1938, Austria was reunited with Austrian‐led Germany, and the Austrian Adolf Eichmann opened the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. The decree on the Declaration of Jewish Assets revealed fascism to be a conveyor belt along which Jews had their property confiscated before being exterminated or driven abroad. > >As *The Last Knight of Liberalism* bemoaned: ‘Mises family property had become free booty’ (Hülsmann 2007, 728, 677, n149). The Jewish‐born Mises was lucky to escape with his life; he devoted much of the rest of it to describing his opponents as ‘Fascists’. I’ve noticed that anticommunists who have displayed respect for fascism or neofascism ([Winston Churchill](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2848151), [A. James Gregor](https://web.archive.org/web/20070503082757/http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/tucker/ch3.html), [Timothy Snyder](https://web.archive.org/web/20200211085132im_/http://www.readmarxeveryday.org/bloodlies/intro.html), [Anne Applebaum](https://nitter.poast.org/i/status/1282727074558615554) *& alia*) seem to be **especially** fond of trying to equate us with fascists, usually by focussing on whatever superficial and petty similarities that they can find while completely omitting any and all similarities between liberal régimes and fascist ones. The blockheadedness in these false equivalences should be especially obvious here: if communism was equal to fascism, yet these anticommunists sympathized with fascism or neofascism anyway, then logically they might as well have sympathized with communism since fascism was equal to that according to their half‐baked analyses. Perhaps these anticommunists think that if they keep repetitively equating communism with fascism, no‐one will ever suspect them of sympathizing with the latter and then dig into their embarrassing histories? Who knows. In any case, Mises’s ties to fascism did nothing to impede his career. [Ronald Reagan, who has his own ties to fascism and neofascism](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/582423/384499), eulogized him four decades ago. Returning to page 6: >Subsequently, U.S. presidents and presidential hopefuls embraced the Austrian School of Economics. President Ronald Reagan (1984, 198) wrote: >>von Mises […] rekindled the flames of liberty in new generations of thinkers […] we owe an incalculable debt to this dean of the Austrian school of economics for expanding our knowledge and inspiring a new vision of liberty in our age. Of course, as we know looking at Timothy Snyder, Jordan Peterson *& alia*, anticommunist hacks don’t need to accomplish much to be praised to the high heavens by the rest of the upper classes. For example, Robert Leeson describes on pages 141–142 how ‘*Mises had a tendency to make stark — and false — predictions*’, and his alleged prediction of the Great Depression had nothing to do with the U.S. stock market at all. Hardly impressive. If it weren’t enough that Mises was an Austrofascist hack, the way that he treated his lover and her young daughter was disturbing. Page 165: >According to Mises (1951 [1922], 87, 104, n1), ‘Waking and dreaming, man’s wishes turn upon sex.’ His fiancée (1976, 28, 23) recalled: >>Sometimes I did not see him for weeks. But I knew very well that he was in town. At least twice daily the telephone rang, and when I answered there was silence at the other end of the line — not a word was spoken. I knew it was Lu […] **I was so tormented, so torn to pieces that the children must have felt it.⁵⁴** > >**Mises also gratified himself by feeling Margit’s six‐year‐old daughter: ‘I wanted to touch Gitta’s hair and think of you.’** While arguably no fault of Mises’s own, we should be unsurprised that an Austrofascist’s works would become popular in the Empire of Japan. Quoting Osamu Yanagisawa’s *The impact of German economic thought on Japanese economists before World War II* in [*The German Historical School: The Historical and Ethical Approach to Economics*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=240833598B180ED862BCCC2267E97F4C), [page 179](https://imgur.artemislena.eu/XRJjXiS.png): >Accepting the opinion of Sombart and Schmalenbach on the development of capitalism, Mukai and Hon‐iden concluded that a reasonable future system would be a partly organized economy, somewhere between socialism and *laissez‐faire* capitalism. [*sic*] > >On the other hand, they regarded socialism (perfect planning of the economy without money) as difficult and inhuman, **paying special attention to the criticism of Ludwig von Mises, who had believed that a socialist system of planning, which lacked a market price system based on private ownership, could not work. Mukai (1933:276–86) summarized von Mises’s *Kritik des Interventionismus* (1929), which attracted many contemporary [Imperial] intellectuals.⁶** (Emphasis added in all cases.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 10). **1895**: Wolfram Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen, Axis field marshal, was born. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1935): A parafascist coup d’état terminated Greece’s Second Hellenic Republic and replaced it with the Kingdom of Greece (again). [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1938): Abiding by the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia completed its withdrawal from the Sudetenland, now property of the Third Reich. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1940): Berlin initiated the Führer‐Sofortprogramm, an emergency programme to build shelters for the Third Reich’s urban populations. Between 1824 and 1844 hours, eighteen shells from Axis guns at Calais struck Dover, then the Axis bombed London, Manchester, and various airfields overnight. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1941): Reinhard Heydrich ordered the town of Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) to be converted into a camp–ghetto for deported German, Austrian, and Czechoslovakian Jews. He placed Adolf Eichmann and Rolf Günther in charge of establishing this abomination. To make matters worse, the 1.Panzergruppe reached the Sea of Azov, and Axis Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau issued the ‘Severity Order’ in which he ordered the annihilation Bolshevism and the extermination of Jews. Apart from that, the 250.Infanterie Division, also known as the Blue Division, entered service on the Eastern Front, and Berlin ordered a stop to night intruder operations over RAF airfields in eastern England; 1/NJG2 who have been conducting successful harrying of returning RAF bombers consequently transferred to the Mediterranean. Lastly, the 4th Panzer Division reached Mtsensk, Russia in Oryol Oblast, yet it would stay there for many days because of Soviet resistance. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1942): The major Axis air offensive against Malta commenced, the Third Reich increased rations by 10% for all foreign workers, and Sigmund Rascher reported from Dauchau his findings from experiments involving putting concentration camp prisoners in full flight suits and placing them in freezing conditions, concluding that the warming of the subjects’ heads and necks were vital for the subjects’ survival… on the bright side, Arnold Majewski, Axis cavalry officer, died immediately after receiving a bullet from a Soviet sniper. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1943): Franco ordered the 250th Spanish ‘Blue’ Division back to Spain from Wehrmacht service. A few thousand disobeyed this order and stayed behind, attached to either the 121.Infanterie Division or the Waffen‐SS. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1944): Armeegruppe E started its final retreat from Greece, and the Axis put down the antifascist rebellion in Slovakia. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/10/1945): After Indonesian forces took control of much of Bandung, Java, nearby Axis forces, not having officially surrendered yet, counterattacked and took back the city, preventing the Indonesians from capturing a weapon factory. **1957**: Karl August Genzken, Axis physician who committed numerous atrocities against concentration camp prisoners, was kind enough to drop dead. :::
banderalobby.substack.com
>According to an internal OUN‐B [document](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XNOdc_ajNcM6O_Pxe0OAHlZhud0I7Ils/view?usp=sharing) from 2007 by Myron Swidersky (1925–2022), the vice president of the UAFF [the so‐called Ukrainian American Freedom Foundation] in the early‐to‐mid 2000s, Mykola Bojczuk was a young entrepreneur in 1940s western Ukraine, who worked in the economic sector of OUN‐B and training camps for its Ukrainian Insurgent Army. After the war, in American‐occupied Germany, Bojczuk was reportedly “further involved in the work of the economic sector, organizing an organizational enterprise.” This might have been the “luggage factory whose profits enabled him to bring a substantial nest egg to the United States in 1949.” > >In 1941, before the [Axis] invaded the Soviet Union, Bojczuk is said to have gone into hiding from Soviet authorities that took over western Ukraine in 1939. They deported his wife and young son, Stefan, to Kazakhstan. As told by one article, “When the Germans invaded later that year, Bojczuk stayed behind and continued making money.” He fled westward in 1944, “one step behind the retreating Germans and ahead of the Red Army.” Bojczuk was only reunited with his son in 1994, over fifty years after they last saw each other. In the meantime, Mykola built a hotel, purchased a valuable tract of land, and married an American woman who owned a stone yard—all in New Jersey. By the 21st century, he was thought to be worth 30 million dollars. And maybe 40 million, according to Swidersky. > >During the Cold War, Bojczuk was reportedly a financial supporter of the Banderites. For example, he paid for at least one of their trips to Taiwan for a conference of the “Anti‐Communist League.” It’s unclear if this was the Asian People’s Anti‐Communist League (APACL), which was partnered with the Banderites’ Anti‐Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN), or the World Anti‐Communist League (WACL), in which the ABN represented the “captive nations” of the Soviet Union. According to the Swidersky report, Bojczuk’s Days Inn hotel also hosted Banderite meetings, including the 1982 World Congress of the “Ukrainian Liberation Front,” the international coordinating body of OUN‐B front groups. > >[…] > >During the Cold War, Mykola Lebed (1909–98) led a small OUN faction of ex‐Banderites that the CIA put in charge of a front company based in New York City called the Prolog Research Corporation. Smorodsky was the same age as Roman Kupchinsky (1944–2010), a Ukrainian American Vietnam veteran[¹](https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/boychukgate#footnote-1-149835704) who became a “full‐fledged CIA officer” and president of Prolog after Lebed took a step back from the operation. As the youngest member of Prolog, the CIA [reported](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/QRPLUMB%20%20%20VOL.%202%20%20%28DEVELOPMENT%20AND%20PLANS%2C%201970-78%29_0018.pdf) that Kupchinsky “maintains close connections with student groups in the New York area.” That included the “Committee for the Defense of Soviet Political Prisoners” (CDSPP) that Myron Smorodsky joined. Some of its other early members, Adrian Karatnycky and Alexander Motyl, became part‐time student employees of Lebed’s CIA front. > > > >In 2020, a friend from the Toronto‐based “Committee for the Defense of Valentyn Moroz” (CDVM) recalled that Smorodsky had “worked closely with Roman Kupchinsky and Prolog.” The CDVM was spearheaded by top Banderites in Canada, such as Stepan Bandera’s son Andriy, and Oleh Romanyshyn, a nephew of OUN‐B leaders Yaroslav and Slava Stetsko. According to a declassified CIA [document](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/QRPLUMB%20%20%20VOL.%201_0004.pdf), the Banderite‐led CDVM “played a very active role in 1973–74 in mobilizing Canadian public opinion around the question of persecution in the USSR. In the USA similar type committees were also active, but with less measure of success.” The CDSPP, established in 1972, “has taken a less ideological role while agitating among left and liberal intelligentsia on matters concerning dissent in Ukraine and in the USSR.” Apparently the two organizations learned to work together. Andy Semotiuk, a Ukrainian Canadian lawyer from the CDVM, helped to facilitate this when he moved to New York, joined the CDSPP, and befriended Smorodsky. “In the years that followed,” according to Semotiuk, who now [writes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk) for *Forbes*, >>*Myron and I worked on estates involving decedents who died in the U.S. but left Ukrainian beneficiaries. We worked together while I was practicing in California for ten years, and later when I was in New York and finally after I returned to Canada again. Myron was very knowledgeable about wills and estates and litigated Ukrainian estate cases successfully in the U.S. He helped to defend Ukrainians that were wrongfully accused of collaboration with the Nazis, a task that was not always easy.* > >The CIA pulled the plug on the Prolog Research Corporation when the Cold War ended. Cooperation between the CDVM and CDSPP however paved the way for a greater convergence of Banderites and ex‐Prolog staffers in the years to come. After CIA funding for Lebed’s OUN faction dried up, several Prologers went on to help the U.S. government “promote democracy” in the former Soviet Union. Adrian Karatnycky, from the CDSPP, became the president of Freedom House (1993–2004), and his wife Nadia Diuk (1954–2019) rose through the ranks of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a founder of which infamously said in 1991, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” Prolog was “a fascinating place” to work, Diuk once remembered, “but after a while it became very clear to me that Kupchinsky was the gravitational force that brought together a number of intersecting universes.” > >From 1990 to 2002, Roman Kupchinsky directed Radio Svoboda, the Ukrainian language service of the US‐funded Radio Liberty, which was established by the CIA. Kupchinsky led Radio Svoboda in the years that it got set up in Ukraine, but Andriy Haidamakha, a former editor of the OUN‐B’s newspaper in Munich, almost the same age as Kupchinsky, was put in charge of the Kyiv bureau that they founded together. Haidamakha kept that job until 2000, when he was crowned the next international leader of OUN‐B—a first for his generation of Ukrainian nationalists, and a first for someone from the postwar Ukrainian diaspora. I suspect this represented a turning point for the Banderites’ relationship with Washington. > > >Andriy Haidamakha’s 1987 Radio Liberty press pass --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 9). **1907**: Horst Wessel, SA officer and musician, was unfortunately born. **1908**: Werner von Haeften, Axis lieutenant who failed to oust the Third Reich’s Chancellor, was delivered to the world. **1934**: An ustaša murdered King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France, in Marseille. **1937**: Somebody massacred nine Catholic priests in Zhengding, China who were protecting the local population from the advancing Imperialists. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1940): The Axis’s occupation government in the Netherlands banned Jews as well as legally ‘Jewish’ people from public employment, and the Wehrmacht began to secure oil fields in the Kingdom of Romania, which was vital for the Axis war effort. Additionally, Axis fighter‐bombers dropped bombs in London, Maidstone, Hastings, Falmouth, and other British towns. The Axis lost three fighters and one Ju 88 bomber. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, Liverpool, and Manchester; St. Paul’s Cathedral in London took a hit, destroying choir stalls and the High Altar (but the building itself was structurally undamaged). Lastly, Axis submarine *U‐103* attacked Allied convoy SC‐6, sinking Greek ships *Zannes Gounaris* (killing somebody) as well as *Delphin* (killing nobody) and damaging British ship *Graigwen* (massacring seven but leaving twenty‐seven alive). *U‐103* became subject to a depth charge attack, yet escaped unharmed. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1941): The Kingdom of Romania deported Jews to Transnistria. (Hence this day is known as the National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust in Romania.) Likewise, the Axis exterminated 1,169 Jewish men, 1,840 Jewish women, along with 717 Jewish youths in Svenciany, Lithuania (for a total of 3,726 people), and Berlin announced that the war against the Soviet Union was nearly over. Berlin also signed a trade agreement with Istanbul under which the Third Reich would get no deliveries of chrome until 1943. Lastly, Georg von Bismarck became the commanding officer of the 20th Panzer Division. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1942): Alois Brunner declared Vienna *Judenfrei* (free of Jews), and Galeazzo Ciano noted in his diary that Axis intelligence had learned that the Allies were planning on invading North Africa, which concerned him as a successful Allied campaign there would put Fascist Italy in danger. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1943): Axis flightcraft attacked the Dobodura Airfield in Australian Papua, setting oil dumps on fire, and Oberfeldwebel Johann Boos as well as Oberleutnant Robert Seib of the Kampfgeschwader 55 wing received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1944): The garrison at Aachen rejected the Allies’ surrender ultimatum, and Léon Degrelle received the German Cross in Gold. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1945): Gottlieb Hering, SS commander involved in Action T4, finally died. **1947**: Yukio Sakurauchi, Imperial Minister of Commerce and Industry, expired. [**1959**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1959): Shirō Ishii, the Axis director of Unit 731 and later contributor to the U.S. biological warfare program, did a nice thing for once and dropped dead. [**1974**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/9/1974): Oskar Schindler, a moderate fascist who famously saved (but occasionally abused) hundreds of Jewish workers, perished in Hildesheim. **1976**: Walter Warlimont, Axis staff officer, died. **1988**: Felix Wankel, Axis engineer and SS member, departed from the world. :::
([Mirror.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233142589)) >Angelo Piccioli, director of schools in Tripoli in 1922, believed that education in the colonies was a ‘political’ problem to be solved — more urgently in Libya than in East Africa — by total subjugation of the colonised by the colonisers (Piccioli 1933b, 1094). > >Fascism discontinued the educational policy that liberal governments had previously pursued in Libya, and domination became the pervasive approach. Italian decrees issued in 1924 and 1928 established a separate educational system for the local population in pursuit of ‘peaceful moral conquest’ (Festa 1932, 25), aiming to instil respect and devotion towards [Fascist] Italy. Such measures put an end to the pre‐Fascist period of cooperation and marked the beginning of overt subordination of the local population. > >**In 1924, it was decided to have separate Italian‐style schools for Italian children and Arabic schools for Muslim Libyans. Secondary education (*scuole medie*) for Libyans was abolished, as both politicians and Italian experts on colonial issues believed that this could easily ignite anti‐Italian rebellion and subversion.** > >In 1928, schools for Libyans were required to teach all subjects in Italian except for Arabic, the Koran and religion. In addition, **Koranic schools were placed under surveillance, as they were regarded as a potential source of anti‐European fanaticism** (Mininni Caracciolo 1930, 21–25; Micacchi 1931, 2–20; De Leone 1933). > >In Fascist rhetoric, teachers played the rôle of educators and colonisers who were supposed not only to promote health education among the local youth (Festa 1930, 11–12), but also — according to Andrea Festa, the education officer for Libya and Eritrea — ‘to work towards the moral and spiritual education of the next generation, which must understand Italy’s civilising mission’ (1932, 14). **The task of the Fascist school was to produce workers.** > >According to Festa (1930), Libyan children should become a means by which Italian civilisation could penetrate their clans and tribes. **Young people were the main target of Fascism in Libya because they were more malleable than adults**; the wish was that ‘the child should learn something of our civilisation, and become a conscious propagandist within inaccessible families; the people should know about Italy, her glories, her ancient history, and thus become willing soldiers under our flag; they should feel, like us, the pride of being Italian, if not in reality then at least in spirit’ (Festa 1930). > >[…] > >According to the Fascists, primary education in Ethiopia, too, was to improve living conditions and teach basic health education, which would also benefit the Italian colonists. **The ultimate goal was to train a skilled labour force for practical jobs such as farmers, interpreters and soldiers; the Italian rulers could not be employed in these rôles as this would diminish their ‘racial prestige’.** These workers could potentially be trained in relation to the particular characteristics of local agriculture (Governo Generale A.O.I. 1939, 185–87). > >[…] > >According to Festa, Africans would learn what had turned Italy into a ‘great, powerful, and feared’ country. They were to study the key stories of the Italian *Risorgimento*, Italian victories and the Fascist contribution to Italy’s status as one of the most powerful European nations. **Italian revolutions were passed over for fear that they could fan the flames of anti‐colonial revolt**, but the history of Ancient Rome, and Roman monuments in the Mediterranean area, received significant attention. > >Geography was another subject in which the Italian rôle in the Mediterranean was emphasised (Festa 1932, 36–38). In Eritrea, before Fascism, education for local children included geography and history classes: the former focused on Italy and Eritrea, while the latter offered a grounding in Sudanese, Ethiopian and Egyptian history in addition to an explanation of Italian colonisation, with special emphasis on Italy’s rôle as a civilising peacemaker. > >These rudiments of history also included consideration of a number of key Italian historical figures (Negash 1987, 87; Smith‐Simonsen 1997, 75–76). **In [Fascist Eritrea](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/664326), however, schools suppressed any themes in Italian history that might arouse subversive feelings, confining the teaching to basic material that stressed ‘Italian glories’ in order to encourage Eritrean children to identify with their rulers and to operate as propagandists on their behalf** (Negash 1987, 95–97; Smith‐Simonsen 1997, 95–97). > >[…] > >Italian history was used to illustrate the political message: **Libya had been a productive land under Ancient Rome, but when the Romans left there followed dark centuries under Arab and Turkish dominance; a new renaissance resulted from Italian rule, and in particular that of Fascism, which was portrayed as the heir to Ancient Rome and a benevolent ruler of the Italian colonies** (Contini 1931, 3, 2, 77–78; Festa et al. 1933, 12–31). (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 8). **1884**: Walter Karl Ernst August von Reichenau, Axis Field Marshal who was partly responsible for the Babi Yar massacre, polluted the earth. **1888**: Ernst Kretschmer, Axis psychiatrist, was born. **1910**: Helmut Kallmeyer, Axis chemist who was involved in Action T4, forced his existence on us. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1935): The *Regio Esercito* entered Makalle, Ethiopia. General Emilio de Bono claimed that slavery was now abolished in Ethiopia, and dispatched emissaries all over the Tigre province to spread the news that Fascist rule was going to be beneficent. Rome was livid. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1938): Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Hungary negotiated over territory, but the negotiations soon broke down, and the Kingdom of Hungary threatened Czechoslovakia with war. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1939): The Third Reich annexed western Poland. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1940): The Luftwaffe mounted four raids of thirty to one hundred sixty flightcraft consisted mostly of fighter‐bombers and fighters, with few medium bombers, against London; various government offices in Whitehall and the Charing Cross Railway Station took damage from the bombs. The Axis lost one Bf 109 fighter and three bombers. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, East Anglia, East Midlands, Portsmouth, and Southampton, with a serious fire damaging wharves and nearby warehouses. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1941): During the preliminaries of the Battle of Rostov, Axis forces reached the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol. As well, Panzergruppe 1 reached Berdyansk and Mariupol in Ukraine in an attempt to reinforce the Third Reich’s 11th Army against Soviet 9th and 18th Armies. Across many sectors of the Eastern Front of the European War, heavy rain set in, resulting in mud that crippled the Panzers’ mobility and held up supplies. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1942): An Axis radio announcement stated that from mid‐day (German time) officers and men captured at Dieppe, France had been manacled as a retaliation for the alleged tying of prisoners during a small‐scale raid on Sark five days earlier. Meanwhile, troops of the Eastern Axis’s 81st Naval Garrison executed the following Allied prisoners: war airman Harl Pease, airman Chester Czechowski, airman Harold Massie, coast watcher Cecil John Trevelyan Mason, coast watcher Arthur King, and coast watcher Ray Woodroffe at Rabaul. The Axis executed them either rifle fire or bayonet. An Axis doctor was seen dissecting at least one of the six men after the execution. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/8/1943): Friedrich Schubert's paramilitary group executed approximately thirty civilians in Kallikratis, Crete. :::
[It is a common misconception that the sole or main reason for imposing an ethnostate on Palestine in 1948 was to atone for the Shoah.](https://decolonizepalestine.com/?p=4380) Such a summary is, at best, an exaggeration. Quoting [Tony Greenstein’s commentary on *The Arabs and the Holocaust*](https://doi.org/10.3366/hls.2011.0007): >In actual fact [the Zionist movement averted its eyes and kept silent during the Holocaust.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4125267) Clearly [European Fascism] gave the proto‐[ethnostate] its critical mass and British imperialism would not have been so weakened by 1948 but for the war. However, like the other White Dominions, the Jewish settlers would have achieved independence, probably around the mid‐1950s. Even so, the ethnostate’s origins cannot be entirely separated from the Shoah, the explosive impact of which originated in Europe and swept over Palestine like a shockwave. Not only did the Shoah provide ([and continues to provide](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=a7cgzz5W8uM)) an effective justification for imposing an ethnostate on Palestine, but a fraction of Shoah survivors chose to contribute to establishing this régime anyway ([even though many pre‐1940s settlers disrespected them](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2850531))! Quoting Amnon Raz‐Krakotzkin in [*The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=4A35BC5A91782D51CBDF756ED3127C64), page 94: >Second, **many of the Holocaust survivors participated directly in the Palestinian Nakba through their enlistment in the combatant Zionist forces. Statistics indicate that a large percentage of those enlisted in the Zionist forces in 1948 were Holocaust survivors; according to Hanna Yablonka (1997), they made up nearly half the total number of conscripts. In this context, Yair Auron emphasizes the significant rôle played by Holocaust survivors in the battles of 1948 and their significant contribution to the establishment of the [so‐called] State of Israel.¹¹** > >Auron also notes that **at one point their percentage of total personnel in the combatant units would reach a third or even a half, which leads Auron to conclude that “the Holocaust was present through the tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors who reached Palestine after 1945 and participated in the war of 1948, in which some of them were killed.”¹²** As much as I adore the simple, charming image of Jews as history’s underdogs, the complex truth is that they, like us gentiles, have played a wide variety of rôles in the theatre of history, from heroes to victims to villains and sometimes even all three at once. Even the Torah has examples: many of us remember Moses as the hero who liberated his people from Egypt, yet the same scriptures also say that he commanded atrocities! In what feels like either a dark joke, or perhaps the script for Oscar bait, adults who should have been the least likely of all to commit atrocities did so anyway. This is what has lead many to characterize the present tragedy as an example of the cycle of violence, like the maltreated youth who eventually grows up to inflict the same abuses that he endured on his children. Nevertheless, as with some real cases of maltreated youths, [there were some](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2829847) [Shoah survivors who recognised these atrocities when they saw them.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2629552) Quoting Nawal Musleh‐Motut’s [*Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba Through Photograph‐based Storytelling: Willing the Impossible*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F60C4D7E58D7B7F36985E69CC0C29A1B), page 8: >Idith Zertal […] cites the diaries and commentaries of **[Jewish] fighters involved in the events of 1948 who were horrified by the cruelty of their fellow [Jewish] soldiers toward Arab villagers, comparing it to [Wehrmacht] troops during World War II.** > >**Zertal stresses the reversal of rôles was finally complete: “The licensed heirs of the Holocaust had transformed themselves into efficient and murderous ‘Germans.’ While the ‘reincarnation’ of the Nazis […] simple Arab villagers, became by this deed the total victims of the misdeed of transposing the Holocaust into the local conflict”** (p. 173). Nonetheless, most of the damage had been done. Rather than making room for Shoah survivors in Poland (as the Allies discussed) or in Germany, the Allies settled on what most of the Zionists already wanted: Palestine, something which I am sure that West Germany and its surviving Axis personnel preferred over allocating European land to Jews. Thus, the Zionists effectively forced Palestinians to pay for the Shoah. Quoting Honaida Ghanim in *The Holocaust and the Nakba*, page 111: >**The attempt to heal the Holocaust survivors’ wounds was carried out through theft of the Palestinians’ homeland. Or, to put it differently: the Palestinians are made to pay the price of a heinous crime that was committed in a faraway land, without having had anything to do with it.** > >Palestine tragically turns into a sacrifice offered to redeem the victim, in a deadly and bloody relationship that renders the Palestinian a victim of the victim who had become a partner in crime. Or, as Hussein fatally describes it. “Did you flay my arm / to patch the arms which others have flayed?” In this way, too, the Palestinians were, and are, practically second‐hand victims of the Shoah: do you understand what I mean when I said that its impact swept over Palestine like a shockwave? Evidence that Zionists consciously use the Axis as an inspiration for their own atrocities may be [limited](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2970754) (at least for now), but whatever the case may be, the Nakba remains one of the many consequences of the Shoah, and little about the former can be understood without the latter. To quote one Jewish Palestinian’s work, *The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After*, pages 207–9: >**[T]here is a link to be made between what happened to Jews in World War II and the catastrophe of the Palestinian people, but it cannot be made only rhetorically, or as an argument to demolish or diminish the true content both of the Holocaust and of 1948. Neither is equal to the other; similarly, neither one nor the other excuses present violence; and finally, neither one nor the other must be minimized. There is suffering and injustice enough for everyone.** > >But **unless the connection is made by which the Jewish tragedy is seen to have led directly to the Palestinian catastrophe by, let us call it “necessity” (rather than pure will), we cannot coexist as two communities of detached and uncommunicatingly separate suffering.** > >It has been the failing of Oslo that it planned in terms of separation, a clinical partition of peoples into separate, but unequal, entities, rather than grasping that the only way of rising beyond the endless back‐and‐forth violence and dehumanization is to admit the universality and integrity of the other’s experience and to begin to plan a common life together. > >[…] > >**The simple fact is that Jewish and Palestinian experiences are historically, [indeed organically](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4826633), connected: to break them asunder is to falsify what is authentic about each. We must think our histories together, however difficult that may be, in order for there to be a common future.** And that future must include Arabs and Jews together, free of any exclusionary, denial‐based schemes for shutting out one side by the other, either theoretically or politically. That is the real challenge. The rest is much easier. (Emphasis added in all cases.) The Nakba is not merely similar to the Shoah. **It is an extension thereof.** This conclusion may be the greatest breakthrough that I have made in my time studying the short twentieth century. --- ### For ## Edward Wadie Said ### 1935 – 2003 --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 7). **1866**: Włodzimierz Halka Ledóchowski, Fascist sympathizer, was born. [**1900**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1900): Heinrich Himmler, Axis commander and politician, stained the human race for all time. **1904**: Armando Castellazzi, one of Fascist Italy’s professional footballers and managers, started his life. **1920**: Georg Leber, Luftwaffe member, was delivered to the world. **1923**: Irmgard Ilse Ida Grese, SS officer and concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz… I don’t even want to say it. Just thinking about her makes me mad. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1940): The Luftwaffe dispatched large raids of fifty to one hundred flightcraft against southern England, with fighters being 66% to 75% of each wave. The Axis lost twenty‐one fighters and six bombers. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, Bristol, Liverpool, Firth of Forth, and other locations. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1941): As Helsinki ignored London’s demand to cease hostilities against the Soviets, the 10th Panzer Division captured Vyasma, Russia at 1030 hours, surrounding five Soviet Armies, then Axis submarine *U‐502* damaged Allied whaling ship *Svend Foyn* one hundred miles south of Iceland at 1617 hours. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1942): A group of seven British and Canadian commandos (captured at Glomfjord, Norway) transferred to the Oflag IV‐C prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle. Additionally, General Josef Kammhuber presented Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn‐Wittgenstein the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, and Kurt Fricke received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania with Swords and Military Band of Virtue of Romania. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1943): Axis defences halted the U.S. Fifth Army on the Volturno River, Axis troops executed ninety‐eight U.S. captives on Wake Island on Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara’s orders as reprisal for an October 5 air raid, and the Axis deported German artist Charlotte Salomon (who had married a French Jew) from Drancy to Auschwitz. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/7/1944): During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burnt down Crematorium IV (as portrayed in the excellent motion picture, *The Grey Zone*), then some of the prisoners were successful during the havoc in cutting through the perimeter fencing and got outside, but the SS guard responded and successfully rounded up all escapees and killed them all. After the revolt was put down in the camp, about two hundred fifty prisoners, including leader Zalmen Gradowski and Józef Deresinski, were dead. Three SS men also died; ten were wounded. Meanwhile, Helmut Lent, Axis night‐fighter ace, died having suffered injuries in a crash landing two days earlier, and the 20.Gebirgsarmee began a fighting‐withdrawal from Finland toward Norway. **2014**: Siegfried Lenz, Fascist and Kriegsmarine draftee, expired. :::
>Even if the Race and Culture Committee’s task of producing a consensus anti‐Nazi statement was never explicitly expressed to most of its members, [Reginald Ruggles] Gates and [George] Pitt‐Rivers quickly realized the political implications of its activities and took a shared defensive stand for [Fascist] racial views. At the same time, **they carefully cloaked their own activities in the guise of the same scientific objectivity that Seligman himself was keen to cultivate.** > >[…] > >Pitt‐Rivers was also deeply concerned about the possible political implications of such a statement being published by an authority as venerable as the Royal Anthropological Institute. Since 1934, **he had been regularly travelling to [the Third Reich] to give university lectures on anthropology, eugenics, and racial issues, finding the country to be particularly welcoming to his views.** > >In lectures at Königsberg and Berlin he began to publicize a new academic field he envisioned creating, termed ‘ethnogenics’, which would deal with ‘the prognosis of race, population, and culture change, and the aetiology of that change in the past’.⁵² The ultimate aim, he claimed, was ‘preserving those types and those races which enrich our civilization’.⁵³ > >Perhaps predictably, **these assertions, and their clear political implications, were well received in the racially and eugenically charged climate of Germany, and Pitt‐Rivers enjoyed a number of prominent contacts in the country’s anthropological establishment.** >Concerned that the Race and Culture Committee was about to disseminate an explicitly or implicitly anti[fascist] statement, in mid‐1935 he reached out directly to one of these connections, Königsberg racial anthropologist Lothar Loeffler, for information he might be able to use to influence the Committee’s discussions. Loeffler was a high‐profile […] eugenicist and anthropological researcher who had once served as legendary racial hygienist Eugen Fischer’s assistant.⁵⁴ > >In 1932 Loeffler joined the [NSDAP] and soon became the head of the Königsberg University Racial Biology Institute.⁵⁵ Pitt‐Rivers met him in this capacity during a 1934 lecture tour at Fischer’s personal urging.⁵⁶ > >In April 1935, **Pitt‐Rivers leaked Loeffler draft documents from the Race and Culture Committee’s confidential discussions, along with a pamphlet authored by Zollschan and an appendix entitled ‘Scientific as Against Political Implications of the Aryan Question’ that he had authored and planned to distribute to his fellow members. ‘I should be very glad to know from you that I have correctly interpreted the attitude of German anthropologists’, he told Loeffler.⁵⁷** > >**If Pitt‐Rivers was indeed seeking ammunition to use against his fellow Committee members, Loeffler was happy to provide it. Through a mutual acquaintance, Loeffler provided Pitt‐Rivers with a scathing rebuke of the Committee’s work. Remarkably, however, Loeffler also explicitly admitted to Pitt‐Rivers that [Berlin’s] own assertions about the Aryan race were themselves *not* scientifically valid, but had to be maintained for political purposes.** > >Pitt‐Rivers summarized the situation to his fellow Committee members in a memorandum: >>The German Government privately agree that the public use by them of the word *Aryan* is unscientific, but it has now acquired a new meaning as a result of their use of it, and to change the word would be interpreted as dropping the *Aryan* clause [of the Nuremberg Laws and other legislation] — or weakening it. German University anthropologists [Loeffler] interpret their duty as to back up their Government politically but to secure their scientific position in a way that does not interfere with that. **The original *Aryan* clause was issued in a hurry without consulting the scientists.⁵⁸** > >**This memorandum was effectively a warning against including provocative anti[fascist] statements in the Committee’s final report. To denounce [Fascist] racial views, Pitt‐Rivers was effectively arguing, would take the Committee into the realm of politics rather than science.** > >At the same time, however, this scientific *tu quoque* also opened the door to the possibility of a strange scientific détente between [the Third Reich] and Britain, **under which the scientific practitioners of these countries would admit privately that the wider public and political understanding of race was effectively incorrect, but should not be attacked openly for fear of antagonizing wider international issues.** > >**With German anthropologists effectively conceding that their own definitions did not stand up to scientific scrutiny, Pitt‐Rivers was implying, the British scientific establishment had no right to attack [Fascist] racial theory without entering the nonscientific domain and potentially heightening international tensions.** To increase the perceived gravity of the situation, Pitt‐Rivers referred to Loeffler as merely ‘an academic source’ in his memorandum, and explicitly stated that his assertions were ‘communicated privately’ to the Committee.⁵⁹ > >The second half of Pitt‐Rivers’ memorandum, also derived directly from Loeffler’s letter, accused the British of equally misappropriating racial science to attack [the Third Reich]: >>The attitude of German Anthropologists has recently stiffened by finding, since the International Anthropological Congress in London, that the sentence the German delegation objected to in the Chairman’s address by Grafton Elliot Smith was not eliminated from the published report recently received. They claim that its withdrawal was promised […] and that the English Chairman’s reference to the *Aryan* question represented a straying from the scientific to the political field […] so that in both counties there is an equal misuse of the word outside the scientific world, while within that world there should be perfect identity of view.⁶⁰ > >Thus, **Pitt‐Rivers was effectively claiming, statements attacking [German Fascism] would endanger scientific collaboration and wider relations between the countries during a particularly delicate period.** (Emphasis added.) Further reading: [*George Pitt‐Rivers and the Nazis*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=135E0E8EAD08B905A0BCDFAAAAB9D0BB) [*Fellow Travellers of the Right: British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany, 1933–1939*](https://annas-archive.org/md5/cd9f6764040a7a6c15ca14dc72cdd015) [*What Did You Do During the War? The Last Throes of the British Pro‐Nazi Right, 1940–45*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=FB75D9BC525D04D6C84FCC5FA31D022B) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 6). **1900**: Willy Merkl, a mountain climber whom the Third Reich briefly sponsored, was born. **1916**: Chiang Wei‐kuo, Japanese–Chinese Wehrmacht(!) officer candidate, was brought to the world. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1935): The *Regio Esercito*’s 2nd Army Corps entered Adowa. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1936): Francisco Franco decided that the time was ripe for an attack on Madrid, and he entrusted the task to José Enrique Varela, the most dynamic Nationalist commander, who was fresh from his Toledo triumph. His force of 10,000 men was to be divided into four columns; two of which under Juan Yagué (now recovered from his ‘collapse with exhaustion’) would advance along the Toledo–Madrid road, while Varela would take the other two columns along the Mérida–Madrid road. A subsidiary force of 5,000 men under General Valdes Cabanillas was ordered to make a diversionary attack from the west across the Sierra Guadarrama. Less importantly, Oswald Mosley married Diana Mitford in secret at the home of Joseph Goebbels in Berlin. Their guests included the Chancellor. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1938): The Imperialists resumed the offensive in the Dabie Mountains region of Hubei, China after being bogged down by Chinese troops for more than a month. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1939): In a speech at the Reichstag in Berlin, the Third Reich’s head of state noted that he did not wish to wage war against France and the United Kingdom, and it would not be worth the blood of British, French, and Wehrmacht soldiers for Poland, since it was created unjustly by the Versailles Treaty. He proposed a multipower conference to achieve peace. Additionally, the Imperialists called off the attack on Changsha, Hunan Province, China after suffering heavy casualties, and the Battle of Kock became the final combat of the September Campaign in Poland. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1940): Axis Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighter‐bombers conducted day time raids against Allied factories and RAF airfields, accompanied by a small number of medium bombers. On this day, the Axis lost one Do 17 bomber (and the Allies lost one fighter as well as one pilot). Axis submarine *U‐123* sank Allied ship *Benlawers* west of Ireland at 1304 hours; she was carrying military supplies from Britain to Egypt, including trucks; 23 crew members and one Royal Navy gunner died (but twenty‐seven folk lived). Axis submarine *U‐103* sank Norwegian tanker *Nina Borthen* west of Ireland at 2204 hours, killing the entire crew of thirty‐five. Axis submarine *U‐37* damaged Allied tanker *British General* with a torpedo west of Ireland at 1855 and then again at 2310 hours; *U‐37* could not surface to finish off the tanker with the deck gun because the British ship was armed. Overnight, the Axis raided London again. Hauptmann Helmut Wick, the Gruppenkommandeur of 1/JG 2, received the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross, making him only the third German fighter pilot (after Mölders and Galland) to be so honoured. Finally, Axis submarine *Tricheco* sank fellow Axis submarine *Gemma* five miles south of the Greek island of Karpathos in a case of misidentification. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1941): The Axis annihilated 213 Jewish men, 359 Jewish women, and 390 Jewish children in Semiliski, Lithuania (for a total of 962 people). Likewise, a surprise maneuver conducted by the 17th Panzer Division encircled eight Soviet Armies at Bryansk and Vyazma. In less than two weeks, the Axis had taken nearly 700,000 prisoners and destroyed or captured 1,200 tanks and five thousand heavy guns. Heinz Guderian noted in his diary that he had observed snow for the first time in the campaign in the Soviet Union. Aside from that, Axis bombers attacked shipping in the Gulf of Suez east of Egypt, sinking Allied ship *Thistlegorm* (which carried aboard, among other items, two steam locomotives), ending nine lives, and damaging three other vessels. Lastly, Axis submarine *U‐129* transferred 119 rescued survivors of sunken Axis supply ship *Klara* to a Spanish tug. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1942): Luftwaffe unit I./KG 100 (flying He 111 bombers) transferred from Morozovskaya to Saki to support the Caucasus offensive. The III.Panzer Korps also captured Malgobek on the Terek River in the Caucasus in southern Russia. Far to the west, the Axis also captured Novorossiysk. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1943): A paramilitary group in Crete burnt thirteen civilians alive during the Axis occupation of Greece. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/6/1944): An Axis V‐2 rocket hit Shotesham All Saints five miles south of Norwich, England, slightly injuring somebody while damaging a score of houses, one church, and one school. Eleven Heinkel bombers carrying V‐1 flying bombs took off on the evening but British Mosquito flightcraft from 25 Squadron met them, resulting in losses for both sides. Feldwebel Viktor König of the Kampfgeschwader 55 wing received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, and Axis troops evacuated Tiddam, Burma. **1945**: Leonardo Conti, SS‐*Obergruppenführer* who was involved in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of disabled people, hung himself in prison… no comment. :::
banderalobby.substack.com
>Kuzan led the MNK during the 2013-14 “Euromaidan” protests in Kyiv, when it created the 14th “Free People” company of the “Maidan Self-Defense Force” led by far-right politician Andriy Parubiy. After they toppled the “pro-Russian” president, Kuzan became an advisor to Parubiy, the new secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. Meanwhile, MNK member Andriy Levus, another Parubiy associate, served as the deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine “[responsible](https://zaborona.com/en/murder-of-sheremet-the-version-which-was-ignored-by-the-police-part-2) for work with the volunteer battalions that were being created at that time.” Years later, Levus led the Capitulation Resistance Movement. > > >The USCC team traces its origins to the 14th “Free People” company of the Maidan Self-Defense. On the left is USCC communication director Olesia Horiainova. > >By 2015, Levus and Kuzan were coordinators of the MNK’s “Free People” volunteer network, which supplied miscellaneous aid and sometimes Banderite literature to various volunteer battalions and military units, including those in the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). Serhiy Kuzan and his budding sidekick Dmytro Zhmailo, the deputy chairman of the MNK (2015-19), served as liaisons to their Banderite backers in Canada, including the Buduchnist Credit Union Financial Group and its BCU Foundation, which is dominated by the OUN-B’s League of Ukrainian Canadians. > >When Kuzan kicked off his spring 2015 tour of Canada’s Ukrainian community, which included meetings with leading Conservative politicians, the Banderite newspaper in Toronto, “Homin Ukrainy,” reported that “over the past year,” “Kuzan has been working closely with the League of Ukrainian Canadians […] to ensure that money raised […] is received, well-spent, and that materials purchased are directly delivered to the front lines.” After conducting an “exclusive interview” with him in 2016, the NATO Association of Canada described Serhiy Kuzan as “the coordinator of the Kharkiv division of the Ukrainian Volunteer Network ‘Free People’ and *one of the main coordinators of the [BCU Foundation’s] Friends of Ukraine Defence Forces Fund*, sponsored by the League of Ukrainian Canadians.” > >A few years later, after leaving Andriy Levus’ latest iteration of “Free People,” Kuzan and Zhmailo presented themselves as representatives of another fund at the BCU Foundation to support the families of the “Heavenly Hundred” who died in the false-flag Maidan massacre of February 2014. Amidst those mass killings, which took the lives of protesters and police, it was Levus, as a deputy commander of the Maidan Self-Defense, who ominously told a government official, “We will guarantee the safety of the police if they leave the city.” > >[…] > >In early 2022 the USCC also arranged a trip to eastern Ukraine for *The Guardian*’s Luke Harding, the author of a 2017 book, “Collusion,” the story of “How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win.” Harding, a prominent journalist and Russiagate peddler who wrote a fake story about Julian Assange taking meetings with Paul Manafort, subsequently gave the Kuzan team shoutouts online. He became just the second person to follow the USCC on Twitter. In his 2022 book, “Invasion,” the acknowledgements section named Serhii Kuzan, Dmytro Zhmailo, Olesia Horiainova, and Volodymyr Yurchenko, the USCC’s Banderite videographer who worked with *The Guardian* multiple times that year. > >Perhaps with a boost from Harding, in the spring of 2022 the USCC chairman started to be regularly quoted in major Western publications. Meanwhile, the organization forged an important connection to the HUR’s new Kraken unit based in Kharkiv, where Serhii Kuzan used to coordinate the Free People network. Kuzan doesn’t hail from Kharkiv, but Andriy Rudenko does. The latter is a former “Turn off Russian” activist from the MNK and Free People. He appears to coordinate the Kraken regiment’s “Support Group,” and maybe also the “Humanitarian Center Kharkiv” that has rebranded as “USCC humanitarian” on Facebook. According to Pete Shmigel, an Australian USCC supporter from a Banderite family, Rudenko is a “Kraken soldier who runs a humanitarian program” and is responsible for the neo-Nazi HUR unit’s cooperation with the center in Kharkiv. > >[…] > >Meanwhile, the USCC chairman wrote an op-ed for *The Hill*: “Ukraine doesn’t have a Nazi problem, but Russia sure does.” Earlier that year, Kuzan promoted a documentary about the HUR’s “Russian Volunteer Corps” which is led by Russian neo-Nazis from the Azov movement. That was surprising to see coming from a Banderite, but then again, this one is likely in cahoots with the HUR. In any case, the USCC team, and especially its chairman, have been extensively quoted by Western media over the past couple years—such as this summer by the Wall Street Journal editorial board about Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk, Russia. Another example from *The Hill*, “Ukraine pushes for long-range strikes as troops advance in Russia” (8/21/24): >>Dmytro Zhmailo, executive director of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, said the “threat of escalation has actually no basis,” and that view has been reinforced by Ukrainian military intelligence. > >Daniel Fried, a “distinguished fellow” at the Atlantic Council, and former Coordinator for Sanctions Policy in the State Department under Barack Obama, recently spoke to students at the SBU National Academy, with moderators from the USCC. Shortly after Biden took office in 2021, Fried told a conference organized by U.S. Banderite leaders, “It will not be a return to the Obama administration. It will be a return to the best [—in other words, the most hawkish—] sides of the Obama administration, without some of the disheartening debates that happened internally.” Fried was the co-author of an Atlantic Council policy paper, “Biden and Ukraine: A strategy for the new administration.” In December 2021, the journalist Leonid Ragozin observed, “For now, it seems that Biden is closely following its suggestions.” --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 5). **1912**: Fritz Ernst Fischer, Axis doctor who performed medical atrocities on inmates of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, polluted humanity. **1921**: Adolf Schicklgruber gave a speech in which he explained the NSDAP’s flag’s significance. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1938): The Third Reich revoked passports belonging to Jews (along with anybody else of recent Jewish heritage) and made reissuance of new passports more difficult; the Reich stamped new passports with ‘J’ to signify ‘Jewish’ ownership. Apart from that, Egmont Prinz zur Lippe‐Weißenfeld received the Luftwaffe Pilot’s Badget, and the Imperialists captured Ruoxi, Jiangxi, China. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1939): The Third Reich’s head of state visited Warsaw and held a victory parade. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1940): Between 0930 and 1600 hours, four Axis raids of mainly fighters attacked southern England. At 2035 hours, the Axis bombed the Royal Navy base at Portland, but the Axis lost two bombers and twenty fighters (while the Allies lost nine fighters along with two pilots). Overnight, London suffered a heavy Axis raid which started a large fire at the West India Dock on the River Thames in the East End area of the city. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1941): As Field Marshal Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist became the commander of 1.Panzerarmee, the Second Panzer Group reorganized as the Second Panzer Army; Heinz Guderian remained the unit’s commanding officer, and the leading Axis formations reported that they were only about one hundred kilometers from Moscow. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1942): Heinrich Himmler ordered that all Jews in the German Reich proper’s concentration camps be transferred to Auschwitz or Majdanek. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1943): One thousand one hundred ninety‐six Polish Jewish children originally from the liquidated Bialystok ghetto in Poland transferred from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. As well, the Wehrmacht completed its evacuation of Corsica, but Axis forces on Wake Island executed ninety‐eight American POWs, and the 16th Panzer Division nearly wiped out the British bridgehead on the Biferno River near Termoli, Italy. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/5/1944): An Axis V‐2 rocket hit Acle near Norwich, England, temporarily causing blockage to a road. Another rocket hit Surlingham, downing several telephone lines. On the other hand, the Axis lost three dozen Linsen boats—small motorboats packed with explosives—attempting to disrupt traffic in the Scheldt estuary controlling the approach to the port of Antwerp, Belgium. :::
My earliest memory involving dogs in the Third Reich is perhaps from trying the shareware version of *Wolfenstein 3D*, where the weakest foe is a German Shepherd who tries to compensate for its pitifully low health by zig‐zagging towards the protagonist. Although undoubtedly unnerving to first‐time players, they’re otherwise only menacing to somebody who is out of bullets and low on health.  Pictured: The attack dog from *Wolfenstein 3D*. Most other adults, however, are likelier to think of [Blondi](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Blondi): the dog whom the head of state received as a gift in 1941 before he used her as the unwilling test subject for cyanide in April 1945. Media portrayals of Blondi’s little rôle in history range from the accurate depiction in the motion picture *Downfall* to being parodied in the series [*Danger 5*](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=7eQwAilMWtE) — to name only a few examples. While most of us are going to be at least slightly familiar with the Third Reich’s mass deployment of dogs as camp guards, we rarely wonder about the fuller extent of their usage. The reality is that the Fascists deployed many dogs (especially German Shepherds) for a variety of purposes in addition to guarding camps. Quoting Susan Bulanda’s [*Military Dogs of World War II*](https://annas-archive.org/md5/28178cfbdc0c656c76faf03864fb2fcb), pages 115–122: >By the time Hitler came into power in 1933, the [Fascists] had already formed training camps which included the Sturmabteilung (SA, the “Brownshirts”) K9 units. These camps provided trained men for the new […] Army and because the [Fascists] had masked the training programs so well, by the time World War II started, [the Third Reich] had [over 200,000 dogs](https://sci-hub.ru/10.1177/0011128797043002001) trained and ready for war. If that wasn’t enough, [the Third Reich] then publicized a call for more dogs which added another 100,000 to the ranks. > >Primarily, the [Third Reich] used German Shepherds, Dobermans, Airedales, and Boxers. These dogs were trained to act as sentries, scouts, guards, and messenger dogs. Patrol dogs worked with their handler, accompanied by a patrolman who would check identity papers or perform other routine duties. > >The dogs in the Bahnschutz K9 units were also used to round up Jews and were used in ghettos as well as concentration camps to control, herd, and attack Jewish prisoners. Some 90 percent of the dogs used in this unit were German Shepherds. Throughout the war, prisoners, soldiers and Jews alike were forced to march in file, and dogs were used to keep them in line. If someone lagged or got out of formation, the dogs would nip them. These dogs were used in France, the Soviet Union, Italy, Poland, and North Africa in the same manner. > >The [Fascists] also used ambulance dogs. These dogs were trained to ignore any soldiers standing or walking. If a dog found a soldier lying on the ground, he would grab a short, detachable leather strap attached to his collar—called a bringsel—and go back to the handler. The handler would put the dog on a leash and the dog would lead the handler to the wounded soldier. > >For messenger dogs, the [Fascists] used only the smartest dogs. They taught the dog to follow a scent trail using a molasses‐type scent that would be dispensed in a few drops every three feet. These dogs had one handler. > >As dog lovers know, sometimes a well‐trained dog will show a talent, or adapt to a task that goes beyond its training. There is an account of such an incident in North Africa that transpired between Allied and Axis troops, where, it seems, the [Axis] had taught pure white dogs to act as pointers. The [Allies] controlled the western part of a small valley in Ousseltria, Tunisia, while the [Axis] controlled the eastern side. > >During the ensuing battle, dogs played an important part on both sides. When an [Allied] lieutenant and two sergeants were sent out to reconnoiter enemy positions, they spotted a pure white dog standing quietly and pointing. Within a few minutes, the [Allies] were raked with machine‐gun fire. > >Later, when a patrol was sent out to look for the beleaguered [Allied personnel], the dog was gone. The dog’s job had been to show the [Axis] where the enemy soldiers were located. This was not the only time [Allied] soldiers saw pure white dogs pointing out their positions and then returning to the [Axis]. > >Sadly, when the [Axis powers] had to withdraw quickly from Africa, they abandoned most of their dogs. Throughout the war, the [Axis] used so many dogs that there were few left for breeding stock after it ended.  Pictured: Waffen‐SS volunteer Kalju Jakobsoo with his dog Caesar in 1944. >Before [the Imperial Japanese] attacked Pearl Harbor, they had already built up their army to a war footing and were engaged in a war of conquest with China. Their [Western] allies had supplied [the Empire of] Japan with about 25,000 trained dogs. Most were German Shepherds, the breed that the [Eastern Axis] seemed to prefer. The [Eastern Axis] then set up several dog training schools in [the Empire of] Japan and one in Nanking, China. > >The [Eastern Axis] used dogs for patrols, as scouts, and as sentry dogs. [It] also used them as suicide dogs. Instead of trying to blow up tanks as the [Soviets] had tried to do, the [Eastern Axis] had the dogs pull small carts loaded with bombs onto [Allied] positions. Once the carts were close enough, the [IJA] would detonate the cart. The [Eastern Axis] also used untrained, vicious dogs in various campaigns and let them attack soldiers and civilians alike, as was the case in Hong Kong. > >Interestingly, the [Eastern Axis] had also tried to use small mixed‐breed dogs to locate enemy troops, in much the same way as the [Western Axis] used the white dogs trained to point. Instead of pointing, the small dogs would search an area and once they located the enemy, would run back to [their masters] to alert them to the [Allied] positions. These dogs were not vicious, but the [Allies] soon figured out what the dogs were doing and would instead follow them back to the [Axis] positions. > >The soldiers who encountered [Eastern Axis] war dogs often commented that the dogs were, for the most part, poorly cared for; they were not well groomed, were half‐starved, and had not been well trained. The [Eastern Axis] used the typical village street mongrel as patrol and messenger dogs. Not many of the purebred dogs that were owned by the more affluent members of [Imperial] society were donated for the war effort. Quoting Robert Tindol’s *The Best Friend of the Murderers: Guard Dogs and the Nazi Holocaust* in [*Animals and War: Studies of Europe and North America*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=7EF2D62F49DAFFA29C549FEB891A3C3A): >Though the [Fascists] utilized dogs in various wartime rôles, they also trained and employed canine guards for use in most if not all of the concentration camps and death camps. In fact, most of the eyewitness accounts of the camps mention and sometimes even focus on the guard dogs that terrorized, often mauled, and occasionally killed the camp prisoners. > >Moreover, the reports seemingly indicate that the dogs were not necessarily trained and brutalized as indiscriminate and uncontrollable killers, but often were friendly companion‐dogs from breeds not normally known for their unpredictability and viciousness. > >[…] > >Although Höss would have us believe he is merely describing cruel and crude attempts at self‐amusement, dogs were also used for garden‐variety sadism at Auschwitz. Such was the case with Otto Moll, who was in charge of the Auschwitz crematoria and who was executed after the war. Moll’s psychosexual predilections had a particularly gruesome twist, for he “had a preference for setting his German shepherd loose on young, attractive Jewish women.”²⁰ > >The most notorious of the [Axis] camp guards’ canine companions was a St. Bernard cross named Barry, who served commandant Kurth Franz at both the Sobibór and Treblinka death camps. Contemporary photographs show that the dog was scarcely the type of animal that would normally elicit terror in adults or even children, and at least from outward appearances looked more like a docile and loving family companion than a killer. But Barry’s credentials are well‐documented: >>[T]here was a dog named Barry who was trained by the SS men to bite the Jews, especially when they were naked on the way to the gas chamber. The beatings, the biting of Barry, and the shooting and shouting of the guards caused the Jews to run through the “tube” and push themselves into the “baths,” hoping to find some escape from the hell around them.²¹ > >Barry was not used merely to herd victims into the gas chambers, either. Other reports indicate that Franz often walked through the camp, unleashing his dog on hapless victims in an arbitrary fashion: >>When Franz and his dog Barry would approach the group of prisoners, they would all instantly be on their guard, for they knew his tour always ended with someone being victimized.²² The Third Reich also inhibited the friendly relations that Jews, Roma and Sinti could have with canines and other animals, though the results were not always successful. Quoting Boria Sax’s [*Animals in the Third Reich: Pets, Scapegoats, and the Holocaust*](https://annas-archive.org/md5/85b1dc17fee0fa8f2a0881be8d7a0202), page 119: >The [Third Reich’s] animal protection laws contained little aspiration toward universality. Both legal documents and public announcements repeatedly emphasized their specifically German character, and violations were ‘sometimes referred to as “foreign to the spirit of the people” [*Volks‐fremd*]. The [Third Reich] tried to deny the comfort offered by animals and nature to many people. > >[Roma and Sinti], living on the fringes of European society for centuries, had learned to exploit sources of food that were shunned by the majority; at times they hunted hedgehogs. These were protected (Giese and Kahler, p. 242), and Hermann Göring had given them special status as “useful animals.” To make the hunt for hedgehogs more difficult, [Roma and Sinti] were forbidden to own dogs. This regulation, which had precedents before [1933] (Wippermann, pp. 195–96), was among the earliest that restricted the contact of despised groups of people with animals. > >Laws were designed, whether consciously or not, to confirm the identification of Jews with the decadence of urban civilization. A decree of February 15, 1942, prohibited Jews, whom the [Axis] considered naturally cruel to animals, from having pets (Wippermann, p. 196). The decree was a preliminary step toward deportation of the Jews to concentration camps, where conditions would not be compatible with the animal protection laws. > >Since there was a lack of shelters, the pets confiscated from Jews were almost always euthanized. Jews were also forbidden to hunt, a favorite activity of rural people. The literature of the period, especially that of victims, documents how precious contact with animals often became for those living under [Axis] domination. > >The Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, forced to work under severe conditions as a French prisoner of war, reports that friendship with a stray dog reaffirmed the humanity of the prisoners. The prisoners named the dog “Bobby.” “He would appear at morning assembly,” Levinas writes, “and was waiting: for us as we returned, jumping up and down and barking with delight. For him, there was no doubt we were men” (p. 153). As with [humour](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4154684), canines could be instruments of healing as well as oppression. For example, Sharon Peters wrote a book titled *Trusting Calvin: How a Dog Helped Heal a Holocaust Survivor's Heart*, and Isaiah Spiegel’s [*A Ghetto Dog*](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=95qVeG0EupQ) indicates that these quadrupeds could be of some consolation to the people trapped in ghetti. Further reading: [*Breeding Racism: The Imperial Battlefields of the “German” Shepherd Dog*](https://www.animalsandsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/skabelund.pdf) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 4). [**1881**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1881): Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch, Axis field marshal and the Wehrmacht’s Commander‐in‐Chief, decided that life wasn’t miserable enough for us, so he had to come along. **1892**: Engelbert Dollfuß, Austrofascist Federal Chancellor, plagued the earth. [**1903**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1903): Ernst Kaltenbrunner, lawyer, general, and the Reich Security Main Office’s director, arrived so that he could embarrass the human race. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1936): [The fascists failed to overtake Cable Street.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2199972) [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1940): Chancellor Adolf Schicklgruber met Benito Mussolini in the Brenner Pass on the Italian–Austrian border. Benito Mussolini was happy to notice that the Chancellor seemed to have given up on any talks of invading Britain. Coincidentally, Axis bombers attacked Kent in southern England and the area near London, damaging homes, farms, and factories. The Axis lost two Ju 88 bombers (and the Allies lost three fighters along with one pilot). Aside form that, the Secours National, being planned for revival in preparation of the first winter under Axis occupation, came under Philippe Pétain’s authority. That same day, Pétain wrote to Henry Dhavernas, founder of the youth group Compagnons, in support of his efforts. Afterwards, the Axis bombed London again between 1900 and 2100 hours. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1941): The Axis exterminated 432 Jewish men, 1,115 Jewish women, and 436 Jewish children in Vilnius, Lithuania (for a total of 1,983 humans). Panzergruppe 3 and Panzergruppe 4 also began to surround rear elements of the Soviet Western Front in Russia, capturing Kirov and Spa‐Demensk in the process. The Axis continued to advance toward Vyasma to complete the envelopment. Elsewhere, Axis submarine *U‐129* picked up 119 survivors of Axis supply ship *Klara* (sunken by Allied cruiser HMS *Kenya* on the previous day) three hundred miles northeast of the Azores islands. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1942): The XIV Panzer Korps attacked the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, and Type IXC U‐Boat *U‐505* departed at Lorient, France on her fourth patrol to the northern coast of South America. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1943): Heinrich Himmler talked openly about the Final Solution at a meeting in Posen, Reichsgau Wartheland, noting that he cared little about the livelihood of Slavs and other peoples in occupied Eastern Europe since the conquered people were mere slaves to the Third Reich. He warned his lieutenant, however, that this task would be unwritten in history despite its importance in German history. As that was going on, the 16th Panzer Division attacked the newly gained bridgehead on the Biferno River near Termoli, Italy on the eastern end of the Volturno Line, and the Axis captured Kos in the Dodecanese Islands. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/4/1944): An Axis V‐2 rocket hit Rockland St Mary six miles southeast of Norwich, England. It hit the village school directly, injuring two grown‐ups along with thirty‐four children, and the blast damaged twenty‐three houses nearby. It was the worst assault on the Norwich region during the war. **1976**: Francis Joseph Collin sent out letters to the park districts of the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, requesting permits for the NSPA to hold a white power demonstration. **1997**: Otto Ernst Remer, a Wehrmacht officer who was partially responsible for German neofascism, dropped dead. **2009**: Günther Rall, Wehrmacht major and Luftwaffe aviator, expired. :::
www.workers.org
>The elections will come and go, but no matter who wins, the danger of [neo]fascism and [neo]fascist activity remains, because its potential is tied to the crisis of the capitalist system. Whatever happens in November, the need to address what is necessary for the development of a new working-class movement will remain. > >If Trump loses the election, it is likely that he will refuse to concede, claim that the election was stolen and call on his supporters to rise up. We can only speculate on what that might mean. What we do know is that within the MAGA movement there are forces prepared to mobilize, to use violence and to target the most oppressed sections of the working class. It may even target political opponents. > >There exists in the United States an armed neofascist infrastructure with the covert and overt involvement of considerable segments of the police. While this is not on the level of the KKK in its heyday or the brownshirts (storm troopers) in Germany in the 1930s or the blackshirts in Italy in the 1920s, it should not be dismissed. > >If a struggle breaks out after the elections that threatens the workers and oppressed, the working-class movement must be prepared to respond. This would have to include the readiness to organize workers’ anti-fascist defense committees. There are already calls for a united front against fascism. Depending on events, it’s possible that such a united front could be a stepping stone towards a mass workers’ formation. > >All who are serious about breaking the political dictatorship of the capitalists must revisit and seriously reassess the relevance of the class question to the situation we face today. There is no way of getting around this. Moreover, this reassessment for those who are ready must be theoretical. > >The Marxist thesis on the centrality of the class struggle and the role of the working class in the revolutionary process has been under attack since the publication of the Communist Manifesto. In the wake of setbacks to the working- class movement, especially in the epoch of neoliberalism, more than a few have abandoned Marxism or dulled its sharpness and abandoned its revolutionary objectives in order to make it more compatible with the view that capitalism is going to last for a long time, maybe even forever. > >This belief has only served to suppress the centrality of the class struggle and the development of the working-class movement. It has created the false, paralyzing and prevailing conclusion that organizing the working class is the exclusive domain of the traditional union movement, with all of its limitations. > >The union movement and its current leaders have tied themselves to the Democratic Party and the policy of business unionism over mass organization and militancy. They have, by and large, succumbed to the fragmentation of the working class and the backwardness of some sections of the working class. This leadership has embraced the orders given to it by bosses that their unions are supposed to be fighting, orders that they must support U.S. imperialism and keep radical and revolutionary politics out of the labor movement. > >Particularly since the 1980s, they have resigned themselves to representing a shrinking base of unionized workers instead of organizing and militantly fighting for the entire multinational working class. > >Radicals and militants were purged en masse from the labor movement during the height of the anti-communist witch hunt in the 1950s and in many ways the once decisive influence of radicals during the historic working-class struggles of the 1930s has never recovered. But nothing in existence remains constant, and the labor movement is changing from the bottom up.
[The liberal bourgeoisie’s refusal to prosecute Fascists for their atrocities against Ethiopians](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2141002) was more cringeworthy than you think. >Labour MP, Ben Riley, […] who had seen such Parliamentary evasion practiced previously, was not silenced. Reverting to the main issue, Ethiopia’s exclusion, he declared: “I have not seen the reply, but **may I ask whether it is not a fact that all the Allied nations are entitled to be represented on that Commission except Ethiopia, and why is Ethiopia excluded?**” > >[Speaker for Foreign Affairs, Richard] Law was obliged to say something. Acting on the earlier Foreign Office brief, he lamely began by following the line pursued by Eden and Hall, and declared: “Generally speaking, the policy of the United Nations in this matter is only that those nations which were associated with this matter at the beginning should be members of the Commission.” > >Then, doubtless realizing the inadequacy of this answer, he improvised. Seeking, like Hall, to make it appear that the British Government had no wish to exclude Ethiopia, he added, disarmingly, “I can assure the hon. Member […] that the Ethiopian Government were informed at the time these negotiations began and that they offered no comment on them.” **Both observations were untrue, but since no one in the House knew this, Law’s “inexactitudes” passed uncorrected.** > >Law’s reply nevertheless created disquiet on the Opposition benches. Emanuel Shinwell, a prominent Labour member, and committed anti‐fascist, had not forgotten [the use of poison‐gas in Ethiopia.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3815069) He jumped up to ask the Supplementary question: >>In view of the use of poison‐gas by the Italians against the Abyssinians, would it not be an act of justice to hand over Italian war criminals to the Ethiopians? > >**Law tried to stifle this question with four brief words: “That was another war.”** > >This attempt to discourage discussion provoked a Conservative MP, Kenneth Pickthorn, to ask, reflectively, “Is it part of the war for democracy that the elaboration of this new technique about trying war criminals should be completely accepted without discussion in this House or any effective discussion in this country?” > >Law turned this question to his advantage, declaring with exaggeration: “There has been a good deal of discussion at Question time at any rate.” > >That was not, however, the end of the story. Two further MPs intervened. The first, Sir Herbert Williams, a Conservative, defended the Government’s position, by questioning the right of Ethiopia to commission membership. He asked, sarcastically, “Can the right hon. Gentleman say on what fronts Ethiopian troops are now engaged in capturing any of these prisoners?” > >Reginald Sorensen, a pacifist Labour member, then spoke more philosophically. “In view of the obvious difficulties and embarrassments which this and similar questions are causing,” he demanded, “could we not have some clearer definition as to what exactly a war criminal is and to what extent that should cover not only this campaign but others?” > >**To these interventions, the Government spokesman vouchsafed no reply.²⁸** :::spoiler (Emphasis added. Click here for trivia.) >President Franklin Roosevelt declared on 21 August that those “committing barbaric crimes” should, at the end of the war, be “subjected to due process of law.”⁵ **On 7 October**, he announced that the United States would “co‐operate […] in establishing a United Nations Commission for the investigation of war crimes,” and promised that “just and sure punishment” would be meted out to those “responsible for the organized murder of thousands of innocent persons” and “the commission of atrocities violating every tenet of Christian faith.”⁶ No comment. ::: --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 3). [**1892**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1892): Sentaro Omori, Axis vice admiral, existed. **1894**: Walter Warlimont, Deputy Chief of the Operations Staff of the Third Reich’s Armed Forces High Command, blighted the earth. **1904**: Ernst‐Günther Schenck, SS doctor, joined him. [**1932**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1932): Imperial luxury ocean liner *Hikawa Maru* departed Kobe for Seattle, her 13th round trip across the Pacific. [**1934**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1934): The Fascists of Gil Robles entered the Spanish government, sparking four days of violence by the workers in Barcelona and Asturias. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1935): [One hundred thousand Fascist troops & Askari mercenaries, headed by Emilio De Bono, invaded Ethiopia from Eritrea](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2183070) (without a formal declaration of war). Coincidentally, Brixia Model 35 light infantry mortars entered service with the *Regio Esercito*. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1937): Imperial flightcraft sank Chinese torpedo boat *Hupeng* at Jiangyin. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1939): Hans Frank ordered a ‘ruthless exploitation’ of occupied Poland. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1940): Vichy passed antisemitic laws that excluded Jews from positions in the army, government, commerce, industries, and the press (in other words, Vichy reduced France’s Jews to second‐class citizens). Philippe Pétain, Pierre Laval, Raphaël Alibert, Marcel Peyrouton, Paul Baudouin, Yves Bouthillier, Charles Huntzinger and François Darlan all signed this law. Meanwhile, the Axis assaulted London, Worcester, Birmingham, and Wellingborough through single‐bomber raids. The Allies suffered damage at the De Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield, while the Axis lost one Ju 88 bomber to ground‐based antiaircraft fire. Overnight, several small Axis raids targeted London again. Lastly, Prince Kotohito stepped down as the Chief of the IJA’s General Staff. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1941): At about 0001 hours, Axis submarine *U‐431* sank Allied ship *Hatasu* east of Newfoundland, massacring forty humans, and only seven survived. Afterwards at the Berliner Sportpalast in Berlin, the Chancellery announced during a rally that the Third Reich had captured 2,500,000 Soviet prisoners of war, destroyed or captured 22,000 guns, destroyed or captured 18,000 tanks, destroyed 14,500 aircraft, and since 1939 had expanded by an area four times as large as Britain. The Chancellery stressed that the Soviet Union had been broken and would never rise again. Coincidentally in Russia, Panzergruppe 2 of the Armeeguppe Mitte captured Orel 220 miles south‐southwest of Moscow. Elsewhere, the Axis attempted to encircle the Soviet Bryansk Front. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1942): The Axis and the Eastern Allies both incurred heavy losses as the 6.Armee pushed the Soviet 62nd Army back to the Volga River at Stalingrad. Additionally, the first successful A4 test flight reached the altitude of 84.5 kilometers (52.5 miles) at Peenemünde. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1943): The Wehrmacht invaded Kos Island under a heavy air umbrella, and the Axis massacred ninety‐two civilians in Lingiades, Greece. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/3/1944): The Third Reich’s Air Force III/KG 66 at Burg, near Magdeburg reported an inventory of thirteen Mistel unmanned glide bombs, of which tenwere serviceable. Five of the flightcraft took off on this night to attack the bridges at Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The weather conditions were poor and three of the vehicles crashed into the Teutoburger Wald; Oberst Horst Polster, the Staffelkapitän, died as did Unteroffizier Fritz Scheffler and Unteroffizier Paul Barinski. The other pilots could not find the target in the fog and yet another was brought down. Additionally, the Axis established the first Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter unit at Achmer and Hesepe near Osnabrück under the command of Austrian‐born ace Major Walter Nowotny. The unit had thirty flightcraft distributed among two squadrons and took the task of intercepting USAAF day bomber raids on the heart of the Greater German Reich. As well, an Axis V‐2 rocket hit the Hellesdon Golf Course near Norwich, England at 1950 hours, injuring somebody and damaging a glasshouse, five farm buildings or barns, several haystacks, and one acre of sugar beet. On the other hand, Axis troops evacuated Tiddim, Burma. :::
www.cambridge.org
([Mirror.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382895042)) >To salvage the bond market and raise revenue, in 1936 the régime offered to convert the Redeemable Bond—purchased at L. 80 with a nominal value of L. 100 but now valued at only L. 68 on the market—into a new bond of L. 100 nominal value, if the bondholder paid L. 15 in cash. With little alternative, most bondholders accepted the conversion, generating six billion lire net.⁷⁶ While these bonds generated some revenue, they mostly allowed the state to monopolize savings capital and control inflation.⁷⁷ > >**Raising capital by restricting liquidity and suppressing consumption also led to wage compression among workers, as economic historians Vera Zamagni, Maria Gómez‐León, and Giacomo Gabbuti demonstrated; the wages of industrial workers, in particular, declined or stagnated, even as industry flourished.⁷⁸ Workers’ well‐being, measured by any metric, fell substantially throughout the 1930s. For example, the number of under‐nourished Italians grew from one in five in 1922 to one in three by 1938.⁷⁹** > >**As working‐class tables grew more spartan, the property owners remained relatively unmolested.⁸⁰ After 1936, Thaon di Revel studied various tax reforms to target the wealthy, but few were successfully introduced, such as a 10% withholding tax on the coupons of all private bearing securities and other taxes to limit the distribution of dividends.** > >More serious reforms failed. Property owners decried the October 1936 special property tax as a “forced loan,” pressuring the régime to modify the measure to allow property holders to borrow the taxed amount from the bank, in effect, using the tax as cover for further money creation.⁸¹ Consequently, **the régime continued to rely primarily on indirect taxes, which disproportionately affected working‐class consumers and increased inequality.⁸²** > >**By creating money, soaking up liquidity, and suppressing consumption, the régime financed military operations and multi‐million‐lire public contracts to [Fascist] industrial firms, especially those in IRI’s portfolio, to supply and support the invading armies.** > >The largest civil expense was road construction, which represented some 81% of public expenditure on civil projects (ca. 8,075 million lire).⁸³ Most of the work was done by Italy’s premier road construction company, Puricelli. By 1936, the firm had been taken over by IRI and its leader, Piero Puricelli, was replaced with a man of IRI’s choice, suggesting it was more closely controlled than other firms in IRI’s portfolio.⁸⁴ > >According to economic historian Gian Luca Podestà, Puricelli obtained 1.3 billion lire in public contracts to build roads in AOI between 1936 and 1940, putting the company in the black by 1939.⁸⁵ By February 1939, the Italians had built or reinforced an estimated 3,352 km of road in AOI.⁸⁶ > >**All sorts of enterprises popped up to supply and service the advancing [Fascist] military apparatus and the construction sites across the Horn.** One of the largest was trucking, as everyone and everything had to be trucked from the low‐lying Italian Red Sea ports to the Ethiopian high plains. > >**Mid‐sized trucking companies, like Gondrand Transports, saw the imperial project as a chance to make themselves a globally significant firm. Even very small companies like Gotti S.p.A. of Massa Lombardo, a company with only eight trucks, jumped at the opportunities offered by the imperial market flush with public money.⁸⁷** > >The booming battlefront economy pulled Italy’s under‐ and unemployed workers to AOI. An estimated 330,000 Italian soldiers and militiamen, together with 100,000 militarized Italian workers, were in East Africa by late‐Spring 1936.⁸⁸ Many furloughed soldiers stayed. An estimated 102,548 Italians migrated to AOI in 1936 alone.⁸⁹ > >By June 1937, an estimated 63,530 Italians were employed as roadworkers, alongside 43,720 “native” workers, and 10,680 Yemeni and Sudanese workers.⁹⁰ **Unskilled Italian workers could expect to make about ten times the daily wage of an equivalent African worker (ca. 1934–1936) and about twice what they earned in Italy. The differences were even greater for Italian skilled workers and professionals, who had ample opportunities as African workers were summarily removed from skilled positions and excluded from most forms of skilled work.⁹¹** This seems like a good spot to stop the excerpt, but there are a few more paragraphs that I wish to quote as they feel particularly relevant given recent events. >**[A]s the war dragged on, Guarneri and Thaon di Revel grew increasingly concerned about Italy’s reserves and Italy’s difficulty accessing foreign markets.¹⁰⁰** In October 1936, Guarneri and Thaon di Revel convinced Mussolini to devalue the lira under the guise of pegging it to the floating dollar. This devaluation of more than 40% would enable Italy to continue buying and selling on foreign markets.¹⁰¹ > >Guarneri privately urged Mussolini to be cautious with the treasury reserves—as the liberal government had been—because Italy would need them to rejoin the global capitalist market.¹⁰² Extending the Italian economy so far was a colossal risk. > >And it did not pay off. > >**The war was neither lightning‐fast nor conclusive. The [Fascists] confronted a much stronger and more enduring resistance than they had anticipated. By early 1937, the [Fascists] occupied only the main cities of Ethiopia and some of the hinterlands. The countryside was a stronghold for the Ethiopian resistance, which grew only stronger in response to the régime’s brutal attacks on the civilian population. The regions around Gondar, Lake Tana, and Addis Ababa were in continuous revolt (see Fig. 2).¹⁰³** > >**Not only did the war last longer than expected, but the cost ballooned. While more research is needed to establish exact expenditures, even Podestà’s conservative estimates show the régime far exceeded the estimated 2,400 million lire per year in expenditures (Table 1).¹⁰⁴** > >Maione, in contrast, estimates [that] **the [Fascists] spent in total 57,303 million lire (1935–40).¹⁰⁵ By most estimates, the occupation and colonization of AOI amounted to about 25% of all public expenditure and between 10–12% of national income.¹⁰⁶** > >**The war was the most important factor in increasing these expenses. Roads were also costly, especially because the hastily built roads needed constant repairs.¹⁰⁷ Moreover, [the Kingdom of] Italy had to use its reserves to buy war matériel, including petroleum, and pay taxes and service fees at Djibouti in French Somaliland and the British‐controlled Suez.¹⁰⁸ And it was precisely here—the weakest point in the Italian economy—that the League of Nations’ economic sanctions hit the hardest.¹⁰⁹** > >**While sanctions eased in 1936 and European powers had largely accepted [Fascist] Italy’s claims to Ethiopia by 1937, Ethiopians continued to resist [Fascism].¹¹¹** As a result, agricultural output in the Horn of Africa diminished substantially due to the ongoing conflict, land seizures and failed agricultural experiments, and the number of Africans abandoning agriculture for wage work.¹¹² (Emphasis added in all cases.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 2). **1847**: Paul von Hindenburg, conservative who helped promote the NSDAP to institutional power, was born. [**1934**](http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/LNTSer/1934/221.html): Helsinki signed the ‘Agreement concerning Payments in connection with Goods Transactions between the Two Countries’ in Berlin. **1935**: Benito Mussolini announced amid a large gathering of ministers, state secretaries and specially selected foreign dignitaries that war with Ethiopia was imminent. **1938**: Alexandru Averescu, profascist Romanian, dropped dead. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1939): Friedrich Ruge received a clasp to his Iron Cross 1st Class medal, and Luftwaffe Friegerkorps X under the command of General Hans Geissler formed at Hamburg. The Korps would specialise in anti‐shipping operations. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1940): Berlin ordered Hans Frank and other Axis officials in occupied Poland to keep the standard of living low and to deprive the Polish population of education, for the Poles were now nothing but lowly labourers for the Fascist bourgeoisie. Additionally, Berlin ordered that the Polish gentry be exterminated. Apart from that, a Ju 88 bomber became lost in the darkness during an early morning reconnaissance mission and landed at Brightlingsea, Essex, England at 0630 hours before falling into Allied captivity. During the day, the Luftwaffe launched six raids of Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters and fighter‐bombers against London and Kent in southern England; only one of the raids contained bombers. The Axis lost five bombers and five Bf 109 aircraft. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, Manchester, and Newcastle. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1941): The remainder of Armeegruppe Mitte launched Operation Typhoon, the attack on Moscow. Meanwhile, Panzergruppe 2 under General Guderian became split into two pincers at Sevsk, Russia; the northern pincer moved toward Bryansk while the northeastern pincer moved toward Orel. After sundown, Axis bombers attacked the Tyneside and Tees‐side areas in northern England (massacring fifty humans, destroying 250 buildings, and severely damaging shipbuilding and repairing facilities at South Shields) and the Dover area in southeastern England (slaughtering ten folk). As well, Axis submarine *U‐94* chased and attacked Allied tanker *San Florentino* west of Ireland over a course of six hours, sinking her at 0552 hours; twenty‐three folk died but thirty‐five lived. Two and a half hundred miles east of Iceland at 0652 hours, Axis submarine *U‐562* sank the Allied catapult‐armed merchant ship *Empire Wave*, ending twenty‐nine lives but leaving thirty‐one alive. At 0709 hours, west of Ireland, Axis submarine *U‐575* sank the Netherlandish merchant ship *Tuva*, killing somebody (but leaving thirty‐four alive). Finally, the third Messerschmitt Me 163A rocket‐powered prototype flightcraft, piloted by Heini Dittmar, achieved an unofficial world speed record of 623.85 mph. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1942): Z35 launched at the DeSchiMAG shipyard in Bremen, and Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn‐Wittgenstein received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1943): Berlin issued orders to deport Danish Jews to concentration camps. On the other hand, the Ar 234V‐2 jet bomber suffered a fire in its wing and crashed at Rheine Airfield north of Munster, killing test pilot Flugkapitän Selle. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/2/1944): The Wehrmacht terminated the Warsaw Uprising after sixty‐three days of fighting largely due to its enemy’s want of food and ammunition. Although the Axis occupation forces suffered sixteen thousand dead, it still massacred 15,200 insurgents and 200,000 civilians, and it devastated many buildings in the fighting. Likewise, Friedrich Christiansen ordered a raid on the village of Putten, Gelderland, the Netherlands as retaliation for the murder of his subordinate Leutnant Sommers by resistance fighters. The Axis subsequently executed many civilians and deported 661 men to labor camps. In Lapland, General Lothar Rendulic ordered the Axis’s 20th Mountain Army to open hostilities against the Finnish III Army Corps. :::
>On 20 February, [not long after the [Axis’s new] administration was set up [in Italy]](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5707348), the newspaper reported on a meeting between the gauleiter and a workers’ delegation. Rainer had begun by making a speech of welcome in which he expounded a favourite concept of [Fascism’s] social ideology: the [supposed] elimination of all social classes and distinctions. ‘The supreme law of all true socialism’, he said, ‘should be that there is no privileged class and no one is entitled to live at other people’s expense’. > >After which, reported the *Deutsche Adria Zeitung*, he held a long conversation with the workers, ‘discussing economic and social matters and listening to their requests’,⁴¹ promising that the latter would receive the fullest consideration from the [Axis] authorities. > >**The real experience of workers in the operations zone was quite different from this rosy propaganda picture.** No doubt Rainer was sincere in his desire to review wages and salaries, and he made a demagogic promise personally to ensure the creation of a welfare system; **but the scanty measures actually taken were quite insufficient to guarantee workers, especially manual workers, a decent standard of living, and if improvements were made to working conditions in the factories, they merely papered over the cracks.** > >**Propaganda carried small conviction to people who endured daily privation and overwork; shipyard workers in particular — to whom communism had much more appeal than [Fascism] — were prominent in the Italian resistance, many of them joining the ‘Garibaldi’ brigades in the mountains of Friuli.** > >Conditions were particularly bad for those working for the Todt organisation, either on the impressive defences being constructed to guard against a potential Allied invasion of the Adriatic coast or on securing vital road and rail links, which were being continually damaged by partisan attacks.⁴² > >While the propagandists promised new clothes and shoes, abundant food and generous wages, **the Todt workers — ostensibly volunteers, but most of them under coercion — were forced to work in appalling conditions, dressed in rags, living in improvised barracks near the building sites, ill‐fed and subject to implacable [Axis] surveillance.** > >The wages, it is true, were not to be despised, being rather above the regional average. **But those who benefited most from Rainer’s labour policies were not the manual workers but the numerous entrepreneurs who chose to collaborate with the [Axis] and made huge profits out of munitions orders with the help of a thoroughly browbeaten workforce.** This is why no anticommunist’s appeals to the proletariat should be taken seriously: benefits for the lower classes invariably cut into the upper classes’ funds. One cannot serve two masters. >Besides wooing workers in the regional economy, the [Axis] propagandists had another primordial objective: to persuade as many local men as possible to go and work in [the Third Reich], either in munitions factories or for the Todt organisation. This recruitment of workers was a major preoccupation, vigorously pursued by the [Axis] occupiers all over Italy, not merely in the *Adriatisches Küstenland*: it engaged the attention of both the Reich plenipotentiary for the employment of labour, Friedrich Sauckel, and the Wehrmacht. > >**When calls for volunteers proved unprofitable, from early 1944 Sauckel’s organisation began to round up workers. But even forced recruitment did not yield the expected results: from 8 September onwards a mere 87,517 Italians went to [the Greater German Reich], whereas [Axis officials] had expected to send at least a million and a half.** > >As Klinkhammer has pointed out, this failure was partly caused by rivalry between various elements in the [Axis] occupation apparatus, and partly by curbs imposed on German rapacity by the RSI, whose representatives were quite successful in frustrating deportation plans, at least at local level.⁴³ :::spoiler (Emphasis added in all cases. Click here for more.) >To defend the region’s Italian character and preserve its traditional politico‐social orientation, Coceani and Pagnini, with the approval of the great majority of Trieste’s business community, preferred to support the [Axis], whom they saw as the only force capable of combating the Slav and communist partisans. > >But this pretence that the [collaborationist] authorities were defending national values, and their anti‐Slav pact with the [Greater German Reich], proved substantially counterproductive, giving the impression that the local Italian population was radically, indeed violently, nationalistic and negating attempts by the Italian resistance to forge a national identity based on the defence of the political liberties destroyed by the ‘border’ Fascists. > >Nationalism apart, some of Trieste’s leading businessmen and financiers chose collaboration in the hope of reaping huge short‐term profits from [Axis] orders and, in the longer term, of re‐establishing themselves at the centre of [Axis]‐dominated Europe, as [Axis] propaganda had promised they would do. > >But it was when evoking defence against the partisan threat, and the region’s commercial ambitions, that Rainer’s legitimising strategy scored its greatest successes: >>social demagogy and the will to power can be seen as the common denominators of Nazi administrators, and this would ensure the collaboration of local groups (particularly ship‐builders, insurance agents and forwarding agents) who were willing to adapt to the new conditions in the hope of securing a leading position — and their own future — in the south‐eastern corner of the greater Reich. Of course there were serious conflicts of interest and of course the German take‐over was not a painless one […] but each and every potential conflict was suppressed by the determination to avoid overt clashes and acknowledge the common interest of defence against the Slavs and Communists. It is hard to imagine a more perfect fusion between class and national interests.⁷¹ ::: \ Here we can see the Axis’s usage of both the carrot and the stick: when the Fascist bourgeoisie’s promises and (very modest) concessions failed to attract workers, it called in the muscle. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (October 1). **1878**: Othmar Spann, Austrian protofascist, stained the earth. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1936): Francisco Franco became the head of Spain’s Nationalist government. (Coincidentally, the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia dissolved itself, handing control of Catalan defence militias over to the Generalitat.) [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1938): Pursuant to the Munich Agreement signed the day before, the Third Reich commenced the military occupation and annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1939): After a month‐long siege, the Wehrmacht occupied Warsaw. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1940): Small Axis raids of twenty to seventy flightcraft each attacked RAF airfields in England, though London was untargeted during the day. The Axis lost four fighters (and the Allies lost five fighters with four pilots). Overnight, the Axis bombed London. Additionally, Luftwaffe ace Erich Hartmann began basic training with Friegerausbildungsregiment 10 at Neukuhren, near Königsberg in Ostpreußen or East Prussia. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1941): Operations began at the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, and the Axis established Italian ‘M’ battalions. Apart from that, Wilhelm Keitel ordered that, in regards to the hostages the Wehrmacht had been holding and executing in retaliation of partisan attacks, choice of victims would be important, as well known victims would have greater effect in keeping the occupied peoples in line. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1942): Egmont Prinz zur Lippe‐Weißenfeld became the commanding officer of the 1st Group of the Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 wing as Kurt Fricke received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and Francis Tuker received the temporary rank of major general. On a side note, USS *Grouper* torpedoed *Lisbon Maru*, not knowing that the ship was carrying British prisoners of war from Hong Kong. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1943): The Gestapo arrested two hundred twenty Danish Jews, and troops from the Wehrmacht’s 1st Mountain Division massacred eighty‐seven people in the village of Lingiades, Greece in retaliation for the murder of Oberstleutnant Josef Salminger by partisans. On the other hand, the Axis lost Naples to the partisans and then the Allies. Finally, the Axis set up a zone of operations, the Adriatisches Küstenland (Adriatic Coast), in Italy. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1944): The Axis‐occupied island of Jersey became a Fortress, but the Axis garrison at Calais, France capitulated to the Allies. **1945**: Shizuichi Tanaka, the Axis’s Military Governor of the Philippines, took his own life. [**1946**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/10/1/1946): Nuremberg trials sentenced several leading German Fascists to death or imprisonment. **1959**: Enrico De Nicola, President of Fascist Italy’s Chamber of Deputies in the early 1920s, expired. **1994**: Paul Lorenzen, Fascist philosophist and mathematician, perished. :::
>On 9 April 1933, **a few weeks after Adolf Hitler’s nomination as Reich Chancellor, a group of communist activists tore down the German flag of the German general consulate in Beirut and wrote explicit slogans on its walls: “Down with Hitler, the tyrant, the executer of the German workers! The German workers and their heroic Communist Party shall live!”⁸** > >For a broader, left‐leaning spectrum, including not only the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party but other non‐party‐affiliated workers, students, and intellectuals as well, opposition against fascism gradually shifted to the center of ideological and strategic debates.⁹ > >[…] > >The threat of fascist coups in Europe, the formation of Popular Fronts in France and Spain, and [Fascist] preparations for an attack against Abyssinia in 1935 ever more highlighted the need to revise the [Communist] party’s isolationist strategy. In close contact with the Comintern and the French [Communist Party], **the communist movement in Lebanon and Syria set up a Committee for the Popular Struggle in Defense of Ethiopia explicitly meant to raise public awareness and to create broader alliances against fascism in the Arab world itself.¹⁴** > >In addition to the publication of the clandestine newspaper *Nidal al‐Shaʻb* (*People’s Struggle*) and the takeover of the renowned monthly cultural magazine *Al‐Duhur* (*Ages*), the organization of strikes and manifestations extended the popular basis of its activities—and further shifted its political priorities to questions of Arab independence, national unity, and the struggle for Palestine.¹⁵ > >Internationally, the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, held in July–August 1935 in Moscow, marked a turning point for Communist strategies vis‐à‐vis Italian Fascism and German [Fascism], confirming the gradual revision of past tactics whose devastating consequences had become all too visible in the ultimate defeat of political opposition in [the Third Reich]. > >**The proceedings of the conference and the speeches by representatives of the national communist parties highlighted these changes, drawing particular attention to the need to unite mainstream nationalist forces in an attempt to thwart further fascist successes.** Summarizing recent developments in Syria and Lebanon, Yusuf Khattar al‐Hilu, the delegate of the Syrian Communist Party, outlined the menaces posed by several imperialist powers striving to extend their influence into the Arab world: >>Italian Fascist propaganda has greatly increased in recent times. Each year Mussolini’s agents organize free trips to Italy for young Arabs. The station Radio Bari broadcasts Arabic‐language programs three times a week about “Italian–Arab friendship” and “fascist well‐being” in Italy. It is the same with German fascism. **Hitler has purchased the largest bourgeois newspapers in Syria which every day are full of photographs and articles about Hitlerism, which they represent as the “saviour of the German people.” Nazi agents try to use the national hatred the Arab people have for French imperialism to obtain their fascist goals.¹⁶** > >The resulting strategy to confront [Fascism] echoed the dilemma of the communist movement under French mandate rule. The congress’s decision to form broad popular fronts in Europe and national fronts in the colonies further emphasized the national struggle of the colonized populations, shifting attention from local “reactionary” powers and social and political rights to imperialism and European fascist régimes. The [Fascist] invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935 gave credibility to these needs. > >As in the case of Libya, Italy’s latest aggression illustrated the immediate dangers posed by European fascism. The struggle against fascism as a threat to independence increasingly served to mobilize popular support and helped link the [Communist Party] to mainstream nationalist currents. While larger sectors of the local population continued to voice fascination for the [German Reich], **Italy’s brutal policies in Libya and its attack against Abyssinia had fostered the image of fascism as an imperialist power.** > >Notwithstanding significant efforts to ameliorate its standing in the Middle East, **suspicion of [Fascist] ambitions was shared—as in Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq—by many in Lebanon and Syria.¹⁷** > >[…] > >The [Fascist] advance against France in summer 1940 left the Levantine public in a state of shock. On 22 June 1940 the German–French armistice agreement was signed. Three days later, on 25 June, a similar agreement was concluded in Rome between Italy and France. > >The agreed‐on conventions were intended to regulate France’s relations to the Axis and to set preliminary rules for cooperation and the administration of territories affected by the French defeat. Both armistice conventions called for the demobilization and disarmament of French forces not required for an immediate preservation of public order and territorial defence.²⁹ > >Despite the immediate influence of the Axis and the rule of Vichy forces in the mandates, **opposition to rapprochements to the Axis and its agents had not completely ceased. Local communist circles were among the most outspoken objectors of the Axis’s growing influence.** The publication of the clandestine newspaper *Nidal al‐Shaʻb* in the name of the party was part of their activities.³⁰ > >As a handwritten pamphlet consisting of a few pages, **the paper provided one of the rare opportunities to voice uncensored criticism of the local government and its Axis partners.** Demands for an amelioration of the economic and social conditions were linked to calls for neutrality of the mandates in the international conflict. Despite its explicit criticism of the Axis as an immediate threat and the most aggressive expression of imperialist rule, such a position did not imply concession to the Allied powers. > >On the eve of the Iraqi–British conflict, in March 1941, the paper strongly criticized not only Axis ambitions in Africa and the Arab Middle East but British intentions as well, with its slogan “No British, no Germans, no Italians, but bread, freedom and independence!”³¹ Under current conditions, neither European power could count on sympathies among the local population. As imperialist states driven by shared interests in the region, they were no allies in the struggle for independence, political rights, and economic prosperity. > >[…] > >**News of the Soviet army’s encirclement of Berlin had reached the Levantine public in the early evening of 24 April 1945. Soon after, large crowds took to the streets. People gathered spontaneously in Beirut and other Lebanese and Syrian cities.** From a local perspective, the war against [the Western Axis] had effectively come to an end. (Emphasis added.) Quoting Harvey Henry Smith’s *Area Handbook for Lebanon*, [page 299](https://books.google.com/books?id=JvWPPs7dADQC&pg=PA299): >Upon the surrender of the Vichy […] troops in [West Asia] in July 1941, volunteers from the Troupes Spéciales du Levant were enlisted in the [Allies] and saw action in north Africa, Italy, and Southern France. > >In June 1943 the [Allies] reconstituted units of the Troupes Spéciales du Levant, which then operated as part of the British forces in the Middle East. In 1945, as a result of continuing pressure by Lebanese leaders for control of their own forces, [Paris] turned over to them the Lebanese units of the Troupes Spéciales du Levant. These units totaled about 3,000 men and became the nucleus of the present Lebanese Army. [In 1942, these troops participated in the Battle of Bir Hakeim against the Wehrmacht.](https://books.google.com/books?id=JM1xpHXZumAC&pg=PA41) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 30). **1883**: Bernhard Rust, Reich Minister of Science, Education and Culture, was unkind enough to exist. [**1934**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1934): Erwin Rommel met Adolf Schicklgruber for the first time, and Reich Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht reported to his Chancellor on his progress of planning the German Reich’s economy for another war. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1935): The Third Reich commissioned *U‐12* into service under the command of Kapitänleutnant Werner von Schmidt. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1936): *Mutsu* completed her reconstruction at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1937): Imperial flightcraft bombarded Chinese coastal battery positions overlooking the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1938): Shortly after midnight, Adolf Schicklgruber, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, and Édouard Daladier (in that order) signed the Munich Agreement at the Führerbau building in München, which ceded Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich (the actual document was backdated to the previous day). Upon returning to the United Kingdom, Chamberlain announced outside 10 Downing Street in London that ‘I believe it is peace for our time’! [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1939): As General Władysław Sikorski became the Polish government‐in‐exile’s prime minister, Reinhard Heydrich became the leader of new Reich Main Security Office, RSHA, and *U‐23* completed her twoth war patrol. Additionally, Walther von Brauchitsch received the Clasps to his Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class medals as well as the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1940): Four Axis raids, each consisting of sixty to two hundred bombers and escorted by large numbers of fighters, crossed into southern England at 0900, 1000, 1300, and 1600 hours; some got through to London, but some did not drop their bombs as they had little visibility due to low clouds, overshooting their targets as radar operators misread the Knickebein radio beacon signals. Meanwhile, two groups of about one hundred bombers each attacked cities on the southern coast. On that day, the Axis lost fourteen bombers, twenty‐eight Bf 109 fighters, and one Bf 110 fighter (while the Allies lost 19 fighters and 8 pilots). The daylight attacks would represent the last major raids of such type conducted by the Luftwaffe. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, Liverpool, and several others cities; the aircraft factory at Yeovil was only lightly damaged as most bombs fell on the town instead. Apart from that, Axis submarine *U‐37* sank Allied ship *Samala* west of Ireland at 1013 hours, massacring everyone aboard (65 crew, 1 gunner, and 2 passengers). At 2156 hours, in the same area, *U‐37* sank Allied ship *Heminge*, killing somebody. Axis mines laid by destroyers *Eckholdt*, *Riedel*, *Lody*, *Galster*, *Ihn*, and *Steinbrinck* two days earlier off Falmouth in southwestern England destroyed two Allied vessels, resulting in twenty‐nine and fifteen deaths, respectively. Elsewhen, Karl Dönitz inspected the Axis submarine *Alessandro Malaspina* at Bordeaux, and *Alpino Bagnolini* ended her third war patrol arriving there. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1941): The Axis finished the Babi Yar massacre, but the Jager Report noted that the Axis exterminated 366 Jewish men, 483 Jewish women, and 597 Jewish children in Trakai, Lithuania (for a total of 1,446 people). As well, Operation Typhoon got an unofficial start when Guderian’s Panzergruppe 2 attacked two days ahead of schedule, and Axis bombers attacked shipyards at Tyneside in northern England, severely damaging submarine HMS *Sunfish*. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1942): The Third Reich’s head of state publicly repeated his forecast of the annihilation of Jewry while a transport containing 610 Jews arrived at Auschwitz from the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands; the Axis registered 37 men and 118 women into the camp but exterminated the remaining 454. As well, Axis bombers attacked Lancing and Colchester, England, and Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss forbade his SS guards to consume raw fruits, raw vegetables, and raw milk due to the typhus epidemic in the camp. On the bright side, Hans‐Joachim Marseille, Axis pilot, died falling to his death. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1943): On the eve of the Jewish New Year, the Gestapo and Danish fascists began rounding up Danish Jews. A Danish businessman passed the news of the operation and passed the information to the Danish resistance, which then arranged fishing boats to ferry a large number of Danish Jews to Sweden. Meanwhile, SS‐Hauptsturmführer Eduard Weiter became the commandant of Dachau (replacing Martin Wei), and the Wehrmacht began evacuating Naples amidst continued fighting, leaving behind a burning city historic archive and many traps. A ‘wolfpack’ consisting of Axis submarines *U‐703*, *U‐601*, and *U‐960* also attacked Soviet convoy VA‐18 near the Sergey Kirov Islands in the eastern Kara Sea and sank freighter Arhangelsk. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1944): The Third Reich commenced a counteroffensive to retake the Nijmegen salient, this having been captured by the Allies during Operation Market Garden. Likewise, a V‐1 flying bomb caused five deaths and many injuries when a row of houses was demolished at Ardleigh in Essex, England. The USAAF base at Thorpe Abbots, home of the 100th Bomb Group (‘The Bloody 100th’) reported buzz bombs flying over the airfield at one hundred fifty feet before exploding in the farm fields surrounding the base. A U.S. 8th Air Force 750‐bomber raid on Munster and Handorf in the Greater German Reich killed the Staffelkapitän and the training officer of Axis Air Force 7/KG3; records captured by the Allies showed that the Staffel had launched one hundred seventy‐seven flying bombs during thirteen nights of sorties in Sept. 1944. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1945): The Western Allies disbanded *I‐401*’s crew, and all of the officers and other men went back into the civilian population, including the few who had committed war crimes! [**1946**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/30/1946): Takashi Sakai, Axis governor of Hong Kong, died at the hands of a Chinese firing squad. :::
web.archive.org
Quoting Regula Ludi in [*Refugees from Nazi Germany and the Liberal European States*](https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=70AF91F97EDF02C1BFA8859437484468), pages 94–5: >In Bern, throughout the spring and summer of 1938, different agencies were tackling the problem of how to identify Jewish refugees at the border and distinguish them from other German travellers.⁵⁸ **Anxious not to disturb ‘normal relations’ with the Third Reich, Swiss diplomats were eagerly seeking a practicable solution.** > >In May of 1938, Rothmund was the first to propose a visa requirement for the Jews only in an internal note. While his suggestion found the approval of colleagues from other government agencies, it did not resonate well with [Fascist] authorities. Such a provision was obviously in direct contradiction to the [Fascist] goal of removing Jews from the Third Reich. In addition, it would require mechanisms for the identification of Jews that were not yet in place. > >By the end of July 1938, Swiss worries materialised: the [Third Reich] officially announced the replacement of Austrian passports by German ones.⁵⁹ Some time later in August, **the idea to mark the passports of ‘non‐Aryan’ German citizens emerged in a letter by Hans Frölicher, the Swiss ambassador to Berlin.** > >However, the documents are not clear about whether German or Swiss negotiators first came up with this suggestion. They only testify to the persisting reluctance of the [Third Reich] to agree to any solution reducing the chances of emigration for the Jews. Eventually, in August of 1938, the Swiss threatened to reintroduce a general visa requirement. As Rothmund stressed, such a step would require German applicants to ‘present proof that they were Aryan’, which implied additional administrative work for Swiss consulates.⁶⁰ > >In addition, **the general visa requirement would probably have failed to find federal government approval because of its unpredictable economic repercussions and potential damage to the tourist industry. As a bluff to speed up negotiations, however, it was successful.** In early September, the Swiss sensed a breakthrough as the [Fascists] gave up their opposition and agreed to mark the passports of Jewish nationals, but they insisted on reciprocity. **This entailed that the Swiss government condone discrimination against its own Jewish citizens.** > >Rothmund objected to this compromise, even though he had been the first to propose discriminatory measures, and he warned that such a step would not only alienate Swiss Jews, but also expose Switzerland internationally to the accusation of becoming embroiled in [Fascist] antisemitism. As a consequence he reiterated the demand for a general visa requirement. None of these considerations eventually entered the final agreement. > >**The German–Swiss Protocol of 29 September 1938 included the [Third Reich’s] promise to mark the passports of its nationals belonging to the ‘Jewish race’, to be defined according to the Nuremberg Laws, with a distinctive mark and thus prevent their holders from entering Switzerland. The mark should be a clearly visible and indelible ‘J’‐stamp, as the two parties agreed. The document also included provisions that introduced discrimination against Swiss Jews.** Rothmund, who was directly involved in the last rounds of negotiations, did not endorse the agreement. > >The Federal Council did not heed his reservations and adopted the Protocol in a meeting of 4 October 1938. Simultaneously, it introduced the visa requirement for ‘Non‐Aryan Germans’. **It thereby allowed [Fascist] racial terminology and ‘German racial legislation to penetrate Swiss administrative law’.⁶¹** The federal authorities had to deal with the international and domestic protests that followed publication of the visa requirement. > >This decision, however, was the only part of the whole story to become publicly known in 1938, in contrast to Switzerland’s active rôle in the preceding negotiations that only entered public knowledge through an Allied edition of German documents in 1953.⁶² Within days, **on 15 October 1938, Sweden followed the Swiss example and signed a similar agreement with the [Third Reich].** > >More than ever, the federal authorities were zealously dedicated to fighting ‘foreign inundation’, but **by the autumn of 1938 they had dropped all pretences, leaving no doubt of whom they had in mind when talking of ‘undesirable elements’. Official discourse no longer distinguished between Jewish foreigners and refugees but used the terms ‘emigrant’ and ‘Jew’ in an interchangeable way.** And all those considered ‘emigrants’ were treated as if they were undocumented or even stateless persons. > >The introduction of the visa requirement for German Jews was soon followed by mandatory visa for all ‘emigrants’ on 20 January 1939, regardless of their country of origin and subsequently also for holders of Czechoslovakian passports on 15 March 1938. Eventually, **not only German Jews, but all Jews and any potential refugee had to reckon with expulsion, even when they arrived from a country that had no travel restrictions between itself and Switzerland.** > >As a consequence, they were trapped in a dilemma: either they risked being turned away when entering without permission or they forfeited almost any chance of acceptance when revealing their true intentions by submitting a visa application. (Emphasis added.) It may seem odd that the Third Reich wanted to prevent Jews and legally ‘Jewish’ people from escaping to the Swiss Confederation and the Kingdom of Sweden in the 1930s, but this was likely so as to maintain good relations with the Swiss and Swedish ruling classes, which were disinterested in providing for a huge influx of refugees. --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (September 29). **1881**: Ludwig von Mises, Austrofascist turned neoclassical liberal, rudely burdened us all with his presence. **1912**: Michelangelo Antonioni, Axis journalist and draftee, was born. [**1933**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1933): The Third Reich passed a hereditary farm law that protected farmers against potential predatory practices by financial institutions, but it also bound the farmers to the land comparably to serfs. [**1934**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1934): The Third Reich recommissioned *Emden* into service, with Karl Dönitz in command. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1936): The Nationalist cruiser *Canarias* sunk the Spanish Republican destroyer *Almirante Juan Fernandez* during a naval battle off the coast near Gibraltar. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1937): Imperial aircraft sank Chinese gunboat *Chuyou*. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1938): The Munich Conference between Adolf Schicklgruber, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, and Édouard Daladier took place at the Führerbau building in München, during which London and Paris ceded Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich in an attempt to avoid war. The two Czechoslovakian representatives at the conference became locked in an adjacent room, unpermitted to actually participate in the negotiations. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1939): Berlin issued a repatriation order for the 86,000 ethnic Germans living in Estonia and Latvia, knowing that Moscow would soon demand the Baltics. Aside from that, the Imperialists reached the outskirts of Changsha, Hunan Province, China; the Empire of Japan had thus far suffered 40,000 casualties on this assault. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1940): At 1600 hours, a large group of Luftwaffe flightcraft, mostly fighters, conducted a sweep in Kent in southern England. This sweep failed to draw Allied fighters, but overnight the Axis heavily bombed London while assaulting Liverpool. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1941): The Einsatzgruppen, with the aid of Ukrainian anticommunists, commenced the two‐day Babi Yar massacre, resulting in the deaths of 50,000–96,000 Soviets (33,771 of whom were Jewish). Likewise, Berlin ordered that Leningrad be wiped out by artillery and aerial bombardment. The Third Reich could not and would not feed its population, which was of no use for the future of the Fascist bourgeoisie. Lastly, Reinhard Heydrich became Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1942): A lone Axis bomber assaulted the rural town of Petworth in Sussex County, England in the morning, destroying a boys’ school, killing twenty‐three folk (a score of whom were children), and seriously injuring thirty (two dozen of whom were children). The Axis also attacked Somerton, Somerset County; Shrewton, Wiltshire County; and Betteshanger Collthbourne, Kent County. Aside from that, somebody informed Max Merten that, starting two days later, he would be the head of the Administrative and Economic Department of the Axis occupation administration in Thessaloniki. Meanwhile, Axis submarine *I‐25* surfaced off Cape Blanco, Oregon in the early morning darkness. Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita took off in *I‐25*’s Yokosuka E14Y “Glen” floatplane and flew inland from the Cape Blanco lighthouse and dropped two incendiary bombs on an Oregonian forest, but nobody reported any fire! This was the twoth and last ever aerial bombardment of the mainland United States. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/29/1943): Axis occupation troops fought against the resistance in the Giuseppe Mazzini Square (where an Axis tank fired on the Italians), the Ponticelli district, the Capodichino military airfield, the Piazza Ottocalli square, and other locations in Naples. As the scale of the uprising continued to grow, Colonel Walter Schöll began negotiating with some of the Italian leaders, using captured resistance fighters as collateral. **1998**: Bruno Munari, Axis artist, expired. :::
>**During the fascist period, a series of commercial accords between Norway and Italy were successfully concluded thanks to parallel cultural diplomacy.** These agreements were organized through an arrangement that was defined as ‘clearing’, organized through an exchange of goods between the two countries. The clearing operations were often used in trade relations between Norway and other countries. According to Einar Lie, the clearing system was the result of a weak financial position that limited credit opportunities for Norway.⁷¹ > >**1933 ended with an increase in exports to Norway for a total of 10,701,000 Norwegian kroner against imports of 19,094,600. [Fascist] Italy therefore aspired to increase exports to Norway in such a way that the figures were balanced to [Fascism’s] advantage. [Fascist] Italy ‘fully absorbs the production of cod, stockfish and dried fish in general from Norway’, and was thus Norway’s most important customer in the trade of these products.** > >According to a commercial report drawn up by the Italian Legation, in addition to fish, [Fascist] Italy imported cellulose, cod liver oil, newspaper paper, copper, nickel, chromium, leather, fur, and whale fat from Norway. [Fascist] Italy for its part exported salt, bran, citrus fruits, walnut flour, almonds, hazelnuts, tomato paste, linen fabrics, wool, jute and canvas, artificial silks, hats, tires, and cars. Usually, [Fascist] merchant ships unloaded their cargoes in the ports of Tromsø, Trondheim, or Lofoten.⁷² > >**The [Fascist] government was able to make important sales contracts with Norway and, in addition to traditional sectors such as fishing, began to sell ships and planes to Norway. These were the contracts that most interested the fascist authorities and that [Fascist] Italy aspired to consolidate. The sales of aircraft and ships would not only increase the number of exports, but also enhanced the prestige of the [Fascist] mechanical industry.** > >In 1934, the [Fascist] company Breda sent a seaplane purchased by the Norwegian navy to Norway.⁷³ **It was one of the first contracts of this type**, followed by many others. These agreements often entailed skilful diplomatic work that in many cases involved intermediaries residing in Norway, and who therefore knew the reality of the country and the language. > >On 8 August 1934, a telegram was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which it was communicated that it had ‘happily flew from Italy to the military airport of Horten, the first of the Breda seaplanes’. Upon arrival, the Legation secretary announced: ‘I was accompanied by the sales representative Luzi, and I had the opportunity to personally ascertain the full satisfaction of the local aviation authorities’.⁷⁴ > >On 2 October 1935, with the [Fascist] invasion of Ethiopia, the relations between the two countries reduced. As highlighted above, Norway officially disapproved of the invasion, and the Norwegian press was very critical. The Italian Legation in Oslo tried in every way to regain the Norwegian market and to unblock ‘a series of projects and conventions presented at various times’. > >Despite the apparent Norwegian hostility towards [Fascist] Italy, the slowdown in relations between the two countries was strongly felt also by the Norwegian economy, to the extent that **Norwegian authorities grew concerned about a rupture in commercial activities.** > >**The Norwegian authorities were led to define the sanctions imposed on [Fascist] Italy as ‘unhappy’, ‘in which we took part during the Ethiopian war’. ‘The Norwegian fishmongers suffered, suffer and will suffer considerable losses following Norway’s participation in punitive action against one of the main buyers of our products’.⁷⁵** > >**After just over a year, the tensions between the two countries eased, and commercial transactions resumed even more strongly than before, to the great satisfaction of the [Fascists] and Norwegians. In 1937, through a clearing operation, Norway purchased five Fiat production fighter planes. The purchase was preceded by numerous trips to [Fascist] Italy by Colonel Trygve Klinge[n]berg, Norwegian Air Force Chief Inspector, who had visited many [Fascist] factories in order to find a convenient plane for military aviation in his country.** > >**The colonel expressed great satisfaction with the treatment received [under Fascism], declaring that he had found an atmosphere of real sympathy for Norway. The agreements seemed to satisfy both parties and were met with much approval in the Norwegian newspapers.⁷⁶** > >A new compensation agreement was signed between the Bergen group of fish exporters through director Nil[s] Marthinussen and Oslo’s *Fiat Norsk–Italiensk*. It included the exchange of 120 Fiats for 450,000kg of fish. > >Again in 1937, **the Norwegian trade minister enthusiastically communicated a new compensation agreement that ‘will drain all the dry fish warehouses’** and was reported by the main Norwegian newspapers, including *Arbeiderbladet*, *Dagbladet*, and *Aftenposten*.⁷⁷ **[Fascist] Italy purchased from Norway 7,100 tons of dried fish at a value of more than 5 million crowns.** > >**[Fascist] Italy, for its part, provided to the Norwegian company Bergenske two ships of 9,000 tons and a speed of 19 knots.** The price of the boat was around 6 and a half million Norwegian kroner, of which 60 per cent would have been paid in fish.⁷⁸ > >The ship was to be used by Norway for the Bergen–Newcastle line in the spring of 1938. The Minister of Commerce, Alfred Madsen, communicated the news to the Norwegian media with great satisfaction. **From the Lofoten Islands and from the Finnmark region in the far north, great happiness was expressed, as the fish warehouses were entirely emptied and the entire fish production for the year was sold. This greatly boosted the economy of the poorer regions of northern Norway.⁷⁹** > >On 13 September 1937, the Italian Legation sent a telegram to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to communicate that the *Trolla* steamer in Trondheim had left for [Fascist] Italy with 1,000 tons of Lofoten stockfish purchased by the *Glipesco* company in Rome.⁸⁰ (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 28). **1937**: [The *Boletín Oficial del Estado* officiated the ‘Fiesta Nacional del Caudillo’, the first time that somebody referred to Francisco Franco as the Caudillo.](https://books.google.com/books?id=nhOMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99) Meanwhile, Mussolini and Schicklgruber spoke together at a famous rally in Berlin. While the League of Nations officially condemned the Imperial bombing of Chinese cities that day, [two of the League’s members, Britain and France, balked at the Spanish Republic’s demand to condemn Germany and Italy as aggressors and allow arms exports to the Spanish government, fearing it would worsen the general situation in Europe.](https://chroniknet.de/extra/was-war-am/?ereignisdatum=28.9.1937) **1939**: The siege of Warsaw ended. Coincidentally, [Berlin and Moscow renegotiated their Spheres of Influence.](https://web.archive.org/web/20230130223954im_/http://www.readmarxeveryday.org/bloodlies/ch07.html#rosoi) [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/28/1940): At 1000 hours, over a great hundred of Axis flightcraft crossed the coast of Kent in southern England in two waves, but Alliued fighters intercepted most of them, and only six bombers were fit to reach London to release their bombs. At 1330 hours, thirty‐five Axis bombers escorted by one hundred twenty‐five fighters attacked targets in Kent; this group turned back by 1410 hours. At 1415 hours, sixty Axis flightcraft flew toward Portsmouth, southern England from Cherbourg, France; the Allies intercepted them over the English Channel, they released their bombs into the water, and they returned to base. Although most Luftwaffe missions failed to reach their targets, the kill ratio of the day favored the Axis: sixteen Allied fighters were shot down with nine pilots dead, while the Axis only lost six fighters. Overnight, the Luftwaffe heavily bombed London, while also assaulting Liverpool; Axis aircraft mined the Thames Estuary. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/28/1941): The Axis occupation in northern Greece now faced the Drama uprising. Less importantly, the Oak Leaves and Swords to the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross award, along with the Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, both became established in the German Reich. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/28/1942): Axis bombers attacked Colchester and Broadstairs, England, and Erwin Rommel telephoned Hans‐Joachim Marseille because he wanted accompaniment to Berlin for a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast. Marseille rejected the offer, citing his wish to save his leave time to marry Hanne‐Lies Küpper later in the year. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/28/1943): The Axis recaptured Split, Dalmatia from the partisans, and Axis occupation troops fought against the resistance in the Materdei district, the Vomero district, the Porta Capuana city gate, the Castel Nuovo fortress, the Sant’Anna dei Lombardi church, and other locations in Naples. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/28/1944): Beginning on this date and through the following month, about 18,402 prisoners from Theresienstadt transferred to Auschwitz, and Axis Air Force III/KG3 flew twenty sorties yet lost two of their flightcraft. The Axis also surrendered Calais Citadel in France after further intensive bombing raids by Allied bombers (but there were a few isolated pockets of resistance). Lastly, the grand Shinto shrine in Lushun, the Empire of Manchuria (Liaoning Province, China), having its construction completed in March that year, held its opening ceremony. :::
>**Spain soon became a major destination for postwar German tourism.** This is especially relevant taking into account that tourism is not only one of the most powerful tools for shaping cultural imaginaries but was also a key diplomatic instrument for the Franco dictatorship.¹¹ > >[…] > >The emphasis placed on the figure of Charles V as the epitome of the alleged Spanish–German friendship also played another particularly important rôle: **it helped minimize the importance of the much more recent alliance between Franco and Hitler.** > >**The memory of [Third Reich] collaborationism had to be “whisked away as a parenthesis or blank historical space”** according to Carlos Sanz, “so that it would not interfere in an idealized ‘traditional Spanish–German friendship’ that would have its roots in the times of Charles V—now celebrated […] as precursor and paladin of the ‘Christian West.’”³⁴ > >The imperative need to bury the recent past under layers of the distant past becomes easier to understand if we bear in mind that, according to reports analyzed by Birgit Aschmann, **it was still common in 1950s Spain that “any German man” was greeted with the fascist salute as a sign of friendship.³⁵** > >Such displays shocked German observers and diplomats, who helplessly noted **the “undeniable admiration that the Third Reich arouses in Spain,” to the extent that for the average Spanish citizen, “the existence of a federal president as the highest representative of the German State was, even in 1960, ‘largely unknown.’”³⁶** > >[…] > >Among the sources consulted, it is striking, first of all, that most of the documents in which the monastery is mentioned were written by **authors that are directly associated with the rehabilitation of the Franco dictatorship in the German public opinion.** > >Of particular note among these are Werner Schulz, who reported on it in several of his articles in *Merian* (a popular travel magazine of the time in the FRG);⁴² Heinz Barth, who, even before the end of World War II, had published an article entitled “Yuste,” in which he wrote wistfully about the Europe of the past;⁴³ and Otto Roegele, who covered the Monastery of Yuste in his *Diary of a trip to Spain* in the mid‐1950s.⁴⁴ > >**Werner Schulz and Heinz Barth have been identified as two of the main correspondents who contributed to disseminating a pro‐Franco perception among the German public throughout the 1950s.⁴⁵** (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 27). **1864**: Andrej Hlinka, Slovakian fascist, was born. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1938): Franz Halder and other Wehrmacht officers set September 29, 1938 as the launch date of their revolt should Berlin lead the Third Reich into a war over the Sudetenland crisis. In the early afternoon, the Third Reich’s Chancellery moved several divisions to the German–Czechoslovakian border. In the late afternoon, it called for a military parade on the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin to rouse a patriotic sentiment; Berlin citizens responded coolly, however. Apart from that, the Third Reich passed law to revoke licenses to practice law for all Jewish attorneys, effective November 30, 1938; thereafter Jewish attorneys could only act as ‘consultants’ for other Jews on matters of law. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1939): Berlin ordered its top military leaders to begin planning for a war in the west, with a target launch date of November 12, 1939. The generals would complain that the date was too soon. As well, Reinhard Heydrich became the head of Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and the Dachau concentration camp temporarily closed until February 18, 1940 for use of training SS units; prisoners of Dachau transferred to Mauthausen. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1940): [The European Fascists and Japanese Imperialists signed the Tripartite Pact.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2068089) On the other hand, Julius Wagner‐Jauregg, Fascist eugenicist, dropped dead. At 0900 hours that day, eighty Axis bombers escorted by one hundred fighters flew over Kent toward London, but most of the bombers turned back near Maidstone and Tonbridge; some got through and released their bombs over London. Between 1200 and 1230 hours, three hundred Axis aircraft, mostly fighters, conducted a sweep and engaged in dogfights near London; a score of bombers within this group were able to bomb London. By the end of the day, the Axis lost twenty‐one bombers and thirty‐four fighters. Overnight, the Axis bombed London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Nottingham. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1941): The Axis and its collaborators exterminated 23,000 Jews at Kamenets‐Podolsk, Ukraine, and the Jager Report (issued on December 1, 1941) noted that the Axis slaughtered 989 Jewish men, 1,636 Jewish women, and 821 Jewish children in Eysisky, Lithuania (for a total of 3,446 people). Additionally, Axis submarine *U‐201* attacked Allied convoy HG‐73 north of the Azores islands, sinking two merchant ships and the antiaircraft ship HMS *Springbank*; thirty‐two folk died but two hundred one survived. On the other hand, the Axis garrison at Wolchefit Pass in Ethiopia surrendered to British King’s African Rifles regiment, and Axis troops in plain clothes infiltrated the north gate of the walled city of Changsha, Hunan Province, China, but failed to complete their sabotage mission. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1942): Luftwaffe unit III./KG 4 (flying He 111 bombers) flew its last bombing sortie over Stalingrad. The unit would soon be transported out of its base in Morozovsk, Russia for the German Reich to undergo glider towing training. As well, Axis troops landed on Kuria, Gilbert Islands. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1943): One of the Axis officials in Rome demanded that the Jewish community pay one hundred pounds of gold within three dozen hours or three hundred Jews would become prisoners. The Vatican would open its treasury to help the Jews reach the required amount. Meanwhile the Wehrmacht started to withdraw all forces out of Ukraine to defensive positions on the west side of the Dnieper River, and Italy’s Axis occupation administration arrested thousands of rioters in Naples. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/27/1944): Armeegruppe E withdrew from western Greece, and the Kassel Mission (which aimed to destroy the factories of the engineering works of Henschel & Sohn, which built tracked armoured vehicles and their associated infrastructure) resulted in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II. **2006**: Helmut Kallmeyer, a chemist involved in Action T4, died. :::
>Lazar was able to spread these messages widely by inserting articles in the Spanish press and broadly distributing two specific publications: *ASPA*, a weekly bulletin created by Goebbels’ propagandists that had proved its effectiveness during the Spanish Civil War, and the official bulletin for political information issued by the embassy and addressed to the Spanish authorities, which, thanks to Lazar and the Francoist government, was disseminated to a larger audience, while the British one had far fewer readers.²⁶ > >The bulletins, which appeared three times a week with a circulation of 45,000 to 60,000,²⁷ made an effort to justify [the Third Reich’s] actions, especially the attack on Poland. Following the same arguments [that the Third Reich’s] propaganda had been using since May 1939,²⁸ **they attempted to prove that Poland had been persecuting its German minority, in turn criminalizing the nations that had crafted the Versailles Treaty.** > >**This propaganda framed the repatriation policies established by the Polish government as a clear de‐Germanization policy, part of an extermination campaign against the German minority that resulted in 58,000 deaths, and was the product of a ‘twenty‐year orgy of violations and destruction’.²⁹** > >However, it was not easy to convince Spain of the righteousness of an attack on a friendly, Catholic country. Franco’s government ordered journalists to refrain from making damaging references to Poland, a friendly and anti‐Bolshevik nation, always without endangering the friendship with [the Third Reich]. Lazar acknowledged that his fight against this attitude produced only mixed results.³⁰ > >[…] > >The *Große Plan* […] also focused on the use of irony, humour and entertainment to spread anti‐Allied sentiment. Crossword puzzles thematically connected to the course of the war, other publications like *Humor de bolsillo* (Pocket Humour) and illustrated fiction stories were widely distributed.⁴⁶ Most of them aimed at making fun of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, especially showing that Stalin could not be trusted (Figures 1 and 2). > >Additionally, the plan had an economic purpose, that of integrating Spain in the New Order. The embassy had begun to issue a brand‐new bulletin of economic information in early 1941. Throughout 1942, **these bulletins, addressed to the Spanish authorities, increasingly mentioned the self‐sufficiency of the European continent and highlighted how all occupied areas, from the Netherlands to Poland, were economically thriving under [the Third Reich’s] rule.⁴⁷** > >[…] > >Given Lazar’s skill at managing propaganda campaigns, it is not surprising that **Hitler came to describe the Spanish press as the best in the world.¹⁰⁰** Years later, when writing his memoirs, Lazar would try to tone down his contributions during the war by jokingly reflecting on how he should have tried to make the Spanish press less pro‐German.¹⁰¹ > >However, not even the most skilled propagandist could counteract the hard realities of the front and the conflict’s trajectory. The shift in Spanish politics established by Jordana found, albeit slowly, its counterpart in the Spanish media. This new attitude provoked confusion among the Falangists, as the complaints of one local leader of the single party reflected: >>[I don’t know] if I should bust the heads of all those new Anglophiles, if I should incarcerate them at the mere provocation, or if, on the contrary, I should shake hands with them and turn into one of them.¹⁰² (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 26). **1877**: Ugo Cerletti, Axis neurologist, was born. **1889**: Martin Heidegger, Fascist philosophist, was delivered to the world. [**1895**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1895): Jürgen Stroop, SS commander who led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, made the mistake of living. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1939): As a Fascist seaplane shot down a civilian KLM aircraft, killing somebody, Werner Mölders’s superiors relieved him of his duty as the commanding officer of 1./JG 53, making him the commanding officer of III./JG 53 instead. Additionally, the Third Reich buried former German Army Commander‐in‐Chief Werner von Fritsch in Berlin, but neither Adolf Schicklgruber, nor Joachim von Ribbertrop, nor Heinrich Himmler attended the ceremonial state funeral. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1940): Erich Raeder met with his Chancellor, noting that the Fascist territories in the Mediterranean Sea were in danger of being attacked by the British; he deduced from the importance the British had placed on the region historically. To prevent this, he recommended that the Chancellery make plans to seize Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, and the Suez Canal. At 1630 hours, one hundred Luftwaffe flightcraft attacked Southampton in England, causing damage to the factory at Woolston producing Spitfire fighters. RAF fighters claimed sixteen bombers and sixteen fighters shot down (which was likely an overestimate), while losing ten fighters and three pilots. Overnight, the Fascists bombed London for the 26th consecutive night, and they also assaulted Liverpool as well as other towns and cities. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1941): Axis battleship *Tirpitz* sailed with other warships to patrol off of the Aaland Islands in the Baltic Sea to prevent Soviet naval maneuvers, and Axis submarines *U‐124* and *U‐203* attacked Allied convoy HG‐73 north of the Azores islands and sank six merchant ships. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1942): The Wehrmacht began a ‘final’ reattack on Stalingrad, and Senior SS official August Frank issued a memorandum detailing how Jews should be ‘evacuated’. Likewise, the Schutzstaffel began to confiscate possessions of Auschwitz’s and Majdanek’s prisoners. Currency, gold, and jewelry transferred to the SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks, and pens went to the troops on the front lines. Finally, clothing went to needy German families. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1943): Otto Skorzeny presented three Knight’s Cross medals at the Harvest Thanksgiving festival at the Berlin Sportpalast. In the early afternoon, he had lunch with the Goebbels family. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/26/1944): Axis shore batteries, cut off behind Allied lines around Calais in France, bombarded Dover, England, massacring forty‐nine folk. :::
:::spoiler [Transcript] >Strikingly similar remarks to Ilgner’s were made barely four months later by Erich Neumann, the [Fascist] Secretary for the Four‐Year Plan. On 25 January 1941, he drafted a memorandum entitled ‘Towards the Question of Future Economic Policy in the South‐East’. > >According to him, the penetration of German capital and industry was only natural. Although Germany overall had an interest in improving the living conditions of its neighbours, **any increase in standard of living and purchasing power was not to be allowed in the future if it came at the expense of the surplus exports of the goods on which [the Third Reich] relied.** > >**The only reason why those countries could provide an export surplus of the goods which [the Third Reich] needed was their low average consumer spending, which in Yugoslavia, as he stressed, was seven times lower than in [the Third Reich]. The average consumption of meat and bread in Yugoslavia was one third of that in [the Third Reich] and according to Neumann it should stay that way.** > >**[Fascism’s] task was not to increase the living standard of the region, but to help with technical improvements which could increase production and yield. Any independent economic development of these countries was to be prevented from now on, they should be kept in the status of raw material and foodstuffs suppliers to the Reich and their surplus population used as migrant workers in [the Reich].** > >Such a policy would ‘keep us [the Germans] from danger […] that the consuming power of the people from the south‐east grows faster than their production abilities, which would leave only smaller and more expensive leftovers for our import needs’.³³ (Emphasis added. [Source.](http://udi.rs/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/02.-hadzi_jovancic_2017_2.pdf)) ::: \ (I know that this is a short post today, but my other ideas for subject matters looked less interesting and I’m too tired to research something else.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 25). [**1934**](http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/LNTSer/1934/222.html): Helsinki ratified the ‘Exchange of Notes constituting an Agreement modifying the Treaty of Commerce of March 24th, 1934, between the Two Countries’ in Berlin. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1937): Imperial bombers flew ninety‐five sorties over Nanjing between 0930 and 1630 hours, dropping five hundred bombs which caused more than six hundred (mostly civilian) casualties. The National Central Hospital, which had a large red cross painted on the roof, also took damage from these bombs. Coincidentally, sixteen Imperial carrier flightcraft from *Kaga* sank the Chinese light cruiser *Yixian* at Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, but the Imperialists lost two flightcraft in the attack. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1939): The Luftwaffe bombed Warsaw heavily as the Third Reich’s head of state arrived to observe the assault, then he returned to Berlin, which reintroduced food rationing throughout the German Reich. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1940): Vichy instituted a court martial body for crimes committed against the state. There was no appeal, and the sentence was to be carried out within two dozen hours. At 1145 hours, meanwhile, twenty‐seven Luftwaffe bombers escorted by thirty fighters attacked the Bristol Aeroplane Company factory at Filton in southwestern England, destroying construction sheds, eight newly‐built aircraft, 132 lives, and wounding 315, but the Luftwaffe lost six aircraft, eight lives, ten men became prisoners. At 1647 hours, two dozen Luftwaffe bombers escorted by 12 Bf 110 fighters attacked Plymouth in southern England, losing one bomber. Overnight, the Luftwaffe bombed London and other cities, while other Luftwaffe bombers laid mines in the Thames Estuary. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1941): Berlin ordered a halt to attacks on Leningrad in northern Russia, instead ordering that the city be starved into submission. Likewise, various Axis troops reached the Perekop Isthmus in Russia and began to cut off the Crimean Peninsula. Lastly, the Axis slaughtered 215 Jewish men, 229 Jewish women, and 131 of their children, all in Jahiuna, Lithuania (for a total of 575 people). [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1942): The Axis exterminated 472 Jews in Bogdanovka. (There was only one survivor: a fifteen‐year‐old named Alisa Prizova, whom the Axis spared after she screamed, ‘Don’t kill me. I am not a Jew, I am a Kabardian.’) As well, Axis troops landed on Beru, Gilbert Islands, and the Third Reich’s Chancellor dismissed the Chief of the Army General Staff, Colonel‐General Halder, and appointed General Zeitzler to succeed him. At the same time, Berlin took away responsibility for the employment of General Staff Corps personnel from the Chief of the General Staff and gave it to the Army Personnel Office, which was directly subordinate to the Chancellor. After sundown, the Luftwaffe attacked Penzance, southwestern England. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1943): The Axis liquidated all Jewish ghetti in Byelorussia, and General Otto Fretter‐Pico became the commanding officer of the Wehrmacht’s 148th Infantry Division in Italy. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/25/1944): The Greater German Reich formed the Volkssturm as Norwegian ministers urged its Teuton occupiers to withdraw from Norway. **1946**: Hans Eppinger, Jr., Axis physician who joined the NSDAP (despite his Jewish ancestry) and performed experiments on concentration camp prisoners, took his own life. **1968**: Hans Friedrich Karl Günther, the only leading racial theorist to join the NSDAP before 1933, was kind enough to drop dead. **1991**: CIA asset and the Butcher of Lyon, Nikolaus ‘Klaus’ Barbie, finally kicked the bucket. **2005**: Friedrich Peter, active Fascist, finally hit the dirt. :::
>Evidently, **there was an enormous difference between what was happening in Republican Spain and what was actually known about it, especially in a context of scarce information and inordinate political manipulation in Italy.²⁴ Many legionnaires based their decision to go to fight in Spain on distorted, propagandistic information. Indeed, stereotypes and biased news reports regarding anti‐clericalism, killings of priests and sacrophobic violence carried immense qualitative weight in motivating the first wave of enlistments.** > >**Echoes of religious persecution in revolutionary Spain had helped to magnify what Giulio Castelli described — in 1951’s *La Chiesa e il fascismo* (a somewhat conditioned interpretation written six years after the end of fascism) — as the ‘generous, heroic participation of Italian volunteers’ in the fight ‘against barbarism and atrocities of international atheistic communism in all its Bolshevik extremism and terrorism’.** > >According to Dario Ferri (a pseudonym given by the person who interviewed him, who did not have permission to reveal the individual’s real identity), the volunteers went into combat as the ‘new legionnaires of Christ’.²⁵ ‘We volunteers’, they would say, ‘are the true crusaders of the fascist idea that will triumph with our infallible victory over all Spain, imposing on our enemies the human and divine truth it brings with it’. These fascist Italians were on a sacred crusade ‘for the homeland and for Christ’ against atheistic terrorism **and Bolshevik barbarism.²⁶** > >Edgardo Sogno’s perspectives on the war were later collected in a small volume *Due fronti*, where he recalls his decision in 1938, at the age of 22, to fight for the victory of the ‘national’ Spain and ‘eject the communists from within Europe’.²⁷ The violent ‘revolution’ of the war facilitated a clash between ‘Bolshevik materialism and Roman Catholic spiritualism’;²⁸ only a poor Italian or a bad fascist would not have followed the ‘so, so many Italians who spontaneously go there, where the Ideal [sic] calls them’.²⁹ > >The section of the book *La Grande Proletaria* attributed to Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi (‘Count Rossi’) is clearly plagiarized from the Spanish falangist Agustín de Foxá, and as such **repeats many classic images of Red terror** and odious characterizations of the enemy. > >Nevertheless, **its rhetoric provides some enlightening insights into Italian fascist antirevolutionary perceptions. ‘Count Rossi’ depicts a Spain of ‘*azano* [sic, referring to Azaña] and *quirosa*’ [sic, referring to Casares Quiroga]’ which has been turned into ‘a province of the Socialist Homeland’, a ‘branch office’ of the Soviet Union in Europe.** > >This ‘forward base’ is full of loveless women with flaccid bellies and rickety, hunchbacked men, alcoholics reeking of blood, people who have never set foot in a museum and satanic beings with ferocious smiles, driven by diabolical obsession.³⁰ > >**Mussolini himself wrote in the Proceedings of the Grand Council of Fascism that in Spain for the first time — and perhaps the last — the Blackshirts had faced Bolshevik forces on the international stage in the first confrontation between two revolutions: the reactionary one of the nineteenth‐century, and the twentieth‐century fascist one.³¹** > >Later on, **another book in honour of the legionnaires described them as ‘Volunteers for Civilization, defenders of human and divine law, soldiers of the new Europe’ who would be endowed with the ‘supreme and eternal principle’ of faith, progress, peace, concord, exaltation of life, for honouring women and defending children, for opposing the ‘spasmodic hordes’, the ‘barbarians’, the ‘unleashed human beasts’ and their obsession with death, massacre and savagery.³²** > >**This narrative would permeate all Italian fascist cultural, literary, scientific and technical fields just as European Red Terror literature had. General Sandro Piazzoni recalled how the national anthem played as the volunteers were shipped off to Spain to face ‘sacrifice and death for the triumph of fascism over Bolshevism and of social order over crazed criminal barbarism’.³³** Here we see the power of atrocity stories, a strangely chivalrous self‐image, and a lack of self‐awareness, as these antisocialists not only failed to understand Fascism as reactionary but also forgot about the atrocities that they committed in Libya, Corfu, and Ethiopia, and some of which they were about to repeat in Spain, too. The similarities between Fascist antisocialism and generic antisocialism are also hard to overlook. However, these antisocialists needed more than just chivalrous duties and solidarity with a fellow Latin civilisation to risk their necks out in the wild. They needed a reason to believe that this was in their best self‐interest, specifically that a communist victory in Spain would eventually mean the triumph of communism in Italy and the rest of Europe: an assertion that bears a resemblance (almost strikingly so) to the ‘domino theory’ that later antisocialists used to justify the war on Vietnam. >This offensive and defensive anti‐communism would protect fascist identity: **volunteers would not be shedding their blood under a foreign flag, but ‘for the salvation of a common civilization’ under the fascist flag**, as only the *Duce* understood. ‘Anti‐fascists’ included all the enemy forces, and **fascism was what ‘democratic Bolshevism’ strove to bury.** To some, ‘so much Italian blood sacrificed’ for the cause was crucial for Spain but not always considered beneficial for Italy. > >However, this was not mere generosity and sacrifice. **These aristocrats**, imbued with warrior courage, would fight to fulfil the ‘political and spiritual objectives of the Italian Nation [sic]’.³⁴ ‘It was right’, said Italian National Volunteer Commander Eugenio Coselschi in the commemorative volume *Legionari di Roma*, that in ‘Mediterranean Spain one fought and won in the name of Rome’. **To defend the Mediterranean was to defend ‘the tradition and unity of the entire European continent’ and to stop ‘Soviet leprosy’, that ‘voracious Empire’ from corroding its shores.³⁵** :::spoiler Click here for a review of the Italian Fascists’ atrocities in Spain. Naturally, somebody spread rumours about us committing cruelties reminiscent of *The 120 Days of Sodom*: >Sandri conceded that testimonies of the ‘Red terror’ […] were appalling. **However, he also noted that they were somewhat incongruous, given that retreating forces have little time for such excesses.** This is inevitably going to remind readers of the many dubious October 7th atrocities that Zionism’s propagandists have attributed to Hamas, most of which were improbable given the nature of the similarly time‐sensitive operation (among other reasons). Moreover, not only did the Fascists commit similar atrocities, but they are much better substantiated: >**The camp authorities — as the director of the San Juan de Mozarrifar concentration camp complained — imposed punishments which contravened the code of military justice, such as tying prisoners by their hands and feet to trees or lampposts ‘for several days’. Frecce Nere officials from Dario Ferri’s unit summarily executed four Civil Guards who had shot at them from the Girona castle as they occupied the city.⁷⁰** > >[…] > >**[Fascist] forces bombed Lleida on 2 November 1937 (wounding many civilians, including schoolchildren), Barbastro on 4 November and other parts of Aragon such as Bujaraloz, Caspe and Alcañiz**, ending an intense year of aerial destruction. However, this destruction was but a prelude to the campaign of 1938, the year in which the *Aviazione* would carry out its highest number of attacks. **These bombing raids, which increasingly targeted non‐combatants, formed part of a mission to terrorize the Red rearguard and especially urban centres.** > >**Almost all the larger cities along the Catalan and Valencian coast were bombed regularly during these months by both the Italian forces and the German Condor legion.** These included Tarragona and Reus (more than fifteen times), Gavá, Badalona and Mataró. From its Logroño base, the *Aviazione* devoted itself fully to supporting the territorial occupation of Aragon (Alcañiz, Sariñena, Fraga, Monzón) and inland areas of Catalonia. > >However, **few aerial raids had such lasting repercussions as those carried out on the Republican capital of Barcelona. The bombardment that took place on New Year’s Day was ordered by Mussolini and carried out by General Valle, though Ciano had not been notified beforehand. General Valle wrote that this aerial terror campaign had two objectives: to demonstrate clearly that [Fascist] planes could carry a tonne of bombs for over a thousand kilometres and to ‘give the Reds in Barcelona a New Year’s welcome that will cause them to meditate on the Teruel defeat.’** > >In complete radio silence and with 850 kilograms of bombs loaded into his S.79, bombs were dropped from 3,000 metres (and from 5,000 meters when reflectors were lit), catching the defenders by surprise: the gunners must have been out ‘celebrating New Year’s Eve’. > >As an epilogue to this macabre report, General Valle thanked the *Duce* for the ‘high honour’ of having been chosen for this mission and having demonstrated ‘with legitimate pride’ that in the nineteen years that had passed since his last bombing raid, his physical prowess and military experience had remained, as always, in the hands of […] fascist fortune.⁷³ > >**This terror campaign on Barcelona reached its greatest intensity with the attacks of 30 January and especially 16–18 March. [Fascist] planes bombed the port and city centre for up to eight days in January, destroying aerial defence shelters such as the San Felipe Neri church.** > >**Ciano confessed in his diaries that the report which described the 30 January bombing raid was the most horrifying one that he had ever read, despite the fact that the attack had been conducted by only nine S.79 planes and had lasted only one and a half minutes: ‘pulverized buildings, interrupted traffic, panic that turned into madness, with 500 dead and 1,500 injured. A good lesson for the future’, as it revealed the ineffectiveness of anti‐aircraft defences and shelters. Thus, ‘the only means of salvation against aerial attacks is to abandon the cities’.⁷⁴** > >On 16 March, **Mussolini directly ordered the *Aviazione* to ‘initiate from this evening’ a ‘violent action on Barcelona’ in the form of ‘rhythmic hammering’ with thirteen flights organized in such a way that the city centre would experience the bombs and sirens from beginning to end.⁷⁵** > >This supplies empirical evidence of the degree of autonomy that the *Aviazione Legionaria* exercised with respect to Francoist command. Scholars consider the [Fascist] bombing of Barcelona to be a series of deliberate attacks on civilian populations on the home front. In 1938, there were also attacks on munitions and weapons factories, ports, airports and petrol deposits, all of which were located outside the city centre. > >The *Aviazione Legionaria* chain of command did not even go through the CTV [*Corpo Truppe Volontarie*] command, but depended directly on the government in Rome. **The bombings of Barcelona, Alcañiz, Granollers, Alicante, and later Sitges or Torrevieja were indiscriminate attacks on military and civilian targets; their random nature was intended to terrorize non‐combatants and decrease resistance.** This conclusion has been corroborated by others. […] Smyth‐Piggott and Leneune concluded that the bombings were deliberate attacks on civilian areas. I feel like this is so obvious that I need not spell it out, but in case somebody reads this several years later: this sounds identical to Zionism’s aerial terror bombings of Gaza. ::: \ Fascist Italy’s contribution to the Spanish Civil War was so important that it is doubtful that anticommunism would have triumphed otherwise: >In late September 1937, [Fascist Italy] had 376 airplanes in Spain, compared with forty‐two Spanish planes. […] The final count of 78,474 troops (45,000 regular army, 29,000 MVSN fascist militia (*Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale*)) may not appear numerically significant at first glance. However, if we understand [Fascist] Italian involvement as an intervention in support of an allied faction in a domestic war, **we see that [the *Regio Esercito*] represented a quarter of the total forces used in conquering the fascist empire, and almost double the number of soldiers who fought in the International Brigades.** > >Mussolini achieved the true internationalization of the Spanish Civil War, **deploying the largest contingent from one single foreign country to Spain. His troops accounted for approximately one tenth of the estimated overall total membership of Franco’s Army, and he spent the equivalent of an entire annual budget for the armed forces — some 8.5 billion liras — in Spain.⁷⁷** > >[…] > >**[Fascist Italy was] crucial to the success of the Rebel army in occupying Malaga, Bermeo and Santander, in breaking through and stabilizing the Aragon front, in the occupation of Barcelona and Girona and in concluding the Levantine campaign.** (Emphasis added in all cases.) Hence, [il Duce could brag on January 26, 1939 that](https://books.google.com/books?id=dOPuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38) >The shout of your legitimate exultation merges with the shout rising from all the cities of Spain now wholly free from the Reds’ infamy, and with the shout of the anti‐Bolsheviks from all over the world. The bright victory of Barcelona is another chapter in the history of the new Europe we are creating. Franco’s magnificent troops and our intrepid legionnaires did not defeat only Negrín’s government. Many others among our enemies are biting the dust right now. The Reds’ watchword was ‘*No pasarán*’, but we passed and, I am telling you, we will pass.¹³⁰ Well, I hate to say it, but with the loss of the Republic in 1939 it does look like he had a point there (for once)… then again, given the [thousands of holdouts in the Spanish State](https://libcom.org/article/armed-resistance-franco-1939-1965-antonio-tellez), the Axis’s defeat in 1945, how the institution of Iberian parafascism [ended with a bang](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=9LT2jBeV_PU) in the mid‐1970s, and the decline of Imperial America as we speak… I’ll let you decide who is getting the last laugh. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 24). **1884**: Hugo Schmeisser, Axis arms designer (who, I’ve read, frequently influenced Schicklgruber and Göring’s decisions), started existing. **1922**: Ettore Bastianini, Axis aviator, was born. [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1935): The Third Reich’s Minister for Church Affairs, Hans Kerrl, appointed a Reich Church committee to supervise the local committees of dissident Evangelical Churches. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1936): The Fascists commissioned *U‐23* into service. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1938): As Neville Chamberlain departed Bad Godesberg to return to London, Berlin promised him that the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia would be the last German territorial demand in Europe. Paris rejected Berlin’s latest demands; the French military partially mobilized in preparation for war. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1939): Limited food rationing began in the Third Reich, and Einsatzgruppen exterminated eight hundred members of the Polish intelligentsia at Bydgoszcz. As well, the Fascist submarine *U‐4* (Oberleutnant zur See Harro von Klot‐Heydenfeldt) stopped the 1,510‐ton Swedish merchant steamer *Gurtrud Bratt* southeast of Jomfruland. As the ship was registered in a neutral country, the Fascists demanded to see the ship’s papers. The Swedish ship was loaded with wood pulp, paper and cellulose and bound for Bristol. Regarding this cargo as contraband, the Fascists ordered the master of the Gurtrud Bratt, E. K. Jönssen, to get his crew into the lifeboats as he was going to sink his ship. As there were no more scuttling charges on board, the submarine sunk her with a torpedo. According to the survivors the Fascists had promised to tow the two lifeboats towards the nearby Norwegian coast but apparently the submarine left without helping them after sighting a flightcraft. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1940): At 0830 and then again at 1115 hours, a couple hundred Fascist bombers, escorted by twice as many fighters, took off to assault targets in Kent in southern England; Portsmouth, Southampton, and the nearby Spitfire fighter factory at Woolston were among the targets. Meanwhile, as the Prime Ministry announced plans to expand evacuation, 444,000 children had already evacuated from the London area. The arrival of Fascist bombers on this night marked the eighteenth consecutive night in which London had been bombed; Liverpool, Dundee, and other cities and towns were also bombed. Meanwhile, the Imperialists occupied Lang Son, Indochina. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1941): The Armeegruppe Sud started its offensive from southern Ukraine towards Crimea, and Einsatzgruppe C set up its headquarters in Kiev. As well, Axis submarines *U‐107* and *U‐67* attacked Allied convoy SL‐87 and sank four ships west of Madeira island, slaughtering sixteen folk, but 197 survived. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1942): The Armeegruppe A launched an assault against Tuapse on the Black Sea, and the Third Reich’s 94th Infantry Division and 24th Panzer Division effectively wiped out all Soviet units in the southern pocket in Stalingrad. To make matters worse, Axis bombers attacked Hastings in England, leaving nineteen dead and seventeen seriously injured. The Axis also assaulted Seaford in southeastern England. Axis troops landed on Maiana, Gilbert Islands, and Berlin sacked General Franz Halder as Chief of Staff, replacing him with General Kurt Zeitzler. Axis submarine *U‐432* sank Allied ship *Penmar* east of southern Greenland at 0144 hours, leaving two dead but fifty‐nine alive. In the same general area, *U‐617* sank Belgian ship *Roumanie* at 0158 hours, massacring forty‐two people and leaving only one human alive. At 0924 hours, *U‐175* sank Allied ship *West Chetac* north of Georgetown, Guyana; thirty‐one died while nineteen did not. At 1825 hours, *U‐512* sank Allied merchant ship *Antinous* (under two by British rescue tug HMS *Zwatre Zee*) also north of Guyana. At 1910 hours, *U‐619* sank Allied ship *John Winthrop* southeast of Greenland, slaughtering all fifty‐two aboard. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1943): Axis submarine *U‐711* shelled the Soviet wireless telegraph station at Blagopoluchiya in northern Russia. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1944): Axis submarine *U‐739* sunk the Soviet minesweeper T.120 (formerly the USS *Assail*) in the Kara Sea in the Arctic Circle. Additionally, the Axis sealed off the U.S. Third Army’s bridgeheads across the Moselle River, south of Aachen. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1945): Hans Geiger, Axis physicist, expired. [**1978**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/24/1978): Freiherr Hasso Eccard von Manteuffel, Axis general who was born into a Prussian noble family and eventually lectured at the United States Military Academy at West Point, mustered up the decency to finally drop dead. :::
Quoting Paul Isaac Hagouel’s [*The Holocaust of Jewish Greeks and Jews of Thessaloniki: Italian Truncated, Selective & Hybrid Humanity, Italiani Brava Gente into the 21st Century*](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344319639), page 5: >Preventive censorship continues unabated, perhaps to guard the myth of Italiani brava gente. After the 1953 publication of the screenplay of *L’Armata s’Agapò* about the presence of the Italian army in Greece during the Second World War,⁵⁶ screenwriters Renzo Renzi and Guido Aristarco, both also film critics and essayists, were accused of insulting the armed forces (vilipendio alle forze armate, bringing disgrace to the armed forces) and sentenced to forty‐five days in prison. > >They were arrested and taken to the fortress of Peschiera and, even more incredibly, on 5 October, they were put on trial in Milan, by the military court, not the ordinary judiciary. The reason was that both were former members of the Italian Army, Renzi as lieutenant, Aristarco as a sergeant major, which, in 1953 was still considered “a historical continuity of the fascist army.” The accusation against them was that of “disgracing the armed forces.” > >Renzi had dared to tell the truth of the lack of honorable behavior of the Italians in Greece, including episodes ranging from the shooting of hostages to the decision to send the cavalry to commit massacre, from the colossal round of prostitution to the overbearing requisition of food. The trial ended with sentences of eight months to Renzi and four and a half months for Aristarco. Renzi was also demoted. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 23). **1861**: Robert Bosch, Axis industrialist, was born. [**1888**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1888): Raffaele de Courten, Axis commanding officer, started his life in Milan, Lombardia. [**1890**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1890): Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, Axis field marshal (who failed miserably in his assault on Stalingrad), was rude enough to exist. [**1900**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1900): Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Axis collaborator, imposed his presence on the earth. **1916**: Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro, Axis university student and draftee, was born. [**1921**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1921): Naoshi Kanno, Axis squadron commander, was born in a village near Edano (now Kakuda), Miyagi Prefecture. [**1925**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1925): The protofascist Prince Philipp (of the House of Hesse‐Kassel) married Princess Mafalda of the House of Savoy, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy, at the Castello di Racconigi in Fascist Italy. [**1928**](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1992453): Greece and Fascist Italy signed a Treaty of Friendship, Conciliation, and Judicial Settlement. [**1933**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1933): The Third Reich’s head of state made an announcement in Nürnberg stressing the importance of separating the functions of the S.A. and the Reichswehr. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1938): In the evening, Neville Chamberlain and Chancellor Adolf Schicklgruber met again in Bad Godesberg. The Chancellor demanded that Czechoslovakia leave the Sudetenland area by September 28, 1938; Chamberlain expressed frustration that this Chancellor was now demanding more than what had originally been discussed; after some heated discussion, Schicklgruber returned to the original demand of October 1, 1938. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1939): The Third Reich’s police began confiscating radios from Jews as the construction work for slip III at Deutsche Werke Kiel AG completed. In Hunan Province, China, the IJA’s 6th Division crossed the Sinchiang River at dawn, followed by a similar crossing by another division at 0620 hours at Yingtian (now Miluo). Likewise, naval vessels landed the IJN’s Shanghai Special Naval Landing Force and the IJA’s 3rd Division east of the city of Changsha. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1940): Two Fascist raids approached London at 0930 hours and 1730 hours, yet few flightcraft reached it; the Fascists lost ten Bf 109 and one Bf 110 fighters (while the British lost eleven fighters). Overnight, Fascist bombers assaulted London and Liverpool. Apart from that, the IJA invaded Indochina (despite French agreement to Imperial demands during negotiations on the previous day). Lastly, the Vichy forces in West Africa imprisoned the crew of two Allied flightcraft that had landed at Dakar, and then fired upon a boat containing Allied personnel approaching to negotiate (wounding two). [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1941): Axis dive bombers attacked naval facilities at Leningrad, sinking submarines P‐2 and M‐74 and damaging cruisers *Maksim Gorki* and *Kirov*. Additionally, the Axis authorities in Paris issued a decree that stated that any Frenchman concealing or assisting a British Airman would be shot, and any woman would be sent to a concentration camp. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1942): The Axis struggled to liquidate the Tutzin ghetto in western Ukraine, and Erwin Rommel departed North Africa for a six‐week rest in the Third Reich to recover from sinusitis, high blood pressure, and other ailments linked to the North African environment. Axis submarine *U‐617* attacked Allied convoy SC‐100 east of the southern tip of Greenland just after the start of the day, sinking British tanker *Athelsultan* at 0019 hours (fifty‐one died, ten did not) and British merchant ship *Tennessee* at 0142 hours (fifteen died, twenty did not). At 0026 hours, *U‐211* sank Allied tanker *Esso Williamsburg* south of Greenland; most of the sixty aboard died, and the few survivors never reached land. Hundreds of miles southeast of Newfoundland, *U‐582* sank Norwegian merchant ship *Vibran*, and all forty‐eight aboard perished. At 0615 hours, *U‐515* sank Norwegian ship *Lindvangen* off British Guyana; fifteen died, but eight survived. At 1103 hours, *U‐515* struck again in the same area, damaging Allied ship *Antinous*. At 2334 hours, *U‐125* sank British ship *Bruyère* 380 miles southwest of Freetown, West Africa after an eight‐hour pursuit, but nobody died. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1943): Joseph Goebbels visited his Chancellor at Rastenburg, East Prussia. The two had dinner together, during which the Chancellor shared his belief that Winston Churchill would be unwilling to consider peace offers coming from Berlin. Meanwhile, the Axis liquidated the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1944): The Axis exterminated the Jewish prisoners of the Kluga concentration camp in Estonia. In northern Italy, the microstate of San Marino declared war on the Greater German Reich after a mere platoon of Axis soldiers rounded up its three hundred‐man army. Meanwhile, Patrick Hurley asked Chiang Kaishek to accept communist assistance in the war against the Empire of Japan, but Chiang rejected the request! [**1963**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/23/1963): Karl Burk, Axis commanding officer, dropped dead. **1968**: Pio of Pietrelcina, fascist cleric, expired. :::
>The reporters wanted to know why the appointed minister president of Bavaria, Fritz Schaeffer, was still in office since he was corrupt. [[General George S.] Patton](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:George_S._Patton) responded that the appointed officials did what they were told from the U.S. command or they were removed. The questions then turned to why there were still [Fascists] in the government. Patton stated that all top [Fascists] had been purged, though there were probably many other lower [Fascists] who eventually would be removed. Then he said, >>suppose that AMERICA had lost the war and the conquering nation started the removal of persons in power. **Denazification would be like removing all the Republicans or all the Democrats who were in office, who had held office or were quasi Democrats or Republicans** and that would take some time.¹⁴⁴ > >He went on to say that Germany needed to be put back on its feet to save the U.S. taxpayers money and keep the Germans from starving and the displaced persons from freezing.¹⁴⁵ The press conference ended, and Patton confided to his diary, “I will probably make the front page, but frankly, do not give a damn.”¹⁴⁶ > >The next day’s headline in the *New York Times* read, “Patton Belittles Denazification; Holds Rebuilding More lmportant.”¹⁴⁷ Its author, Raymond Daniell, stated that Patton’s remarks were important “not only because he is head of the Military Government of Bavaria, but because some of the views he expressed in the occupation policy toward Nazis appeared to be in conflict with the ideas laid down in the Potsdam Declaration and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s directives.” > >**Raymond Daniell quoted Patton saying that “this Nazi thing is just like a Democratic and Republican election fight” and “[d]o you want a lot of Communists?”¹⁴⁸ Finally, Raymond Daniell wrote that the views expressed by Patton and others below him were little different “from those expressed from the beginning by German apologists.”¹⁴⁹** General Patton apparently did not consider the NSDAP to be an especially criminal organization, which would explain why he made this analogy; he intended no disrespect. After all, Patton was not a Native American, or a Korean, or a Vietnamese person, or an Iraqi, or a Palestinian, or any of the other millions of victims of U.S. capitalism, in which case the analogy would be perfectly easy to understand. I believe that it would be an exaggeration to call Gen. Patton a fascist… but only a slight one, because we have good reasons to suspect that he was, at minimum, sympathetic to the Fascists. There is a rumor that Gen. Patton said ‘We’ve defeated the wrong enemy’ in 1945, but even if he never said those exact words, we can see that they accurately summarize what he thought during that year. Quoting Jacques R. Pauwels’s [*The Myth of the Good War*](https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=82DF34B3CEB88C4BDED541B7BDE7DB31), pages 181–2: >Looking back at that era, an American war veteran later echoed this sentiment: >>*We were aware that the Russians had taken enormous losses on the eastern front, that they really had broken the back of the German army. We would have been in for infinitely worse casualties and misery had it not been for them. We were well disposed toward them. I remember saying if we happen to link up with ’em, I wouldn’t hesitate to kiss ’em. I didn’t hear any anti‐Russian talk. I think we were realistic enough to know that if we were going to fight them, we would come out second best […] In the final campaign down through Bavaria, we were in Patton’s army. **Patton said we ought to keep going [to Moscow].** To me, that was an unthinkable idea. The Russians would have slaughtered us […] I don’t think the rank of the GIs had any stomach for fighting the Russians. We were informed enough through press and newsreels to know about Stalingrad.⁹* > >[…] > >In a telephone conversation with General Joseph T. McNarney, Eisenhower’s deputy, General Patton reportedly made this statement: >>*We are going to have to fight them [the Soviets] sooner or later […] Why not do it now while our army is intact and the damn Russians can have their hindends kicked back into Russia in three months? We can do it ourselves easily with the help of the German troops we have, if we just arm them and take them with us; they hate the bastards. In ten days I can have enough incidents happen to have us at war with those sons of* [insert slur here] *and make it look like their fault. So much so that we will be completely justified in attacking them […]¹²* > >**Patton was not the only American leader who saw things that way.** The American historians Russell D. Buhite and William Christopher Hamel emphasize that many other military and political leaders “had begun to consider preventive war [against the USSR] in 1945.”¹³ [Here is a summary of a letter that he typed in 1945](https://web.archive.org/web/20220914123554/https://www.thejc.com/news/world/general-patton-letter-in-which-he-refers-to-jews-as-'sub-human'-goes-on-sale-online-4WZX5S5VW0NrqsYUUlV3pp): >Patton seems to respond to a combative press conference that took place just two weeks prior in which **Patton was blamed for the appalling living conditions at many camps for Displaced Persons, many of whom were Jews.** > >As a result of this press conference, General Eisenhower reportedly ordered Patton to improve [the camps under his area of command](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/317643) and to attend a Yom Kippur service. > >**The letter, all but confirming the poor conditions of the Displaced Persons camps, reads: “So far as the Jews are concerned, they do not want to be placed in comfortable buildings. They actually prefer to live as many to a room as possible. They have no conception of sanitation, hygiene or decency and are, as you know, the same sub‐human types that we saw in the internment camps.”** > >**The letter also refers to the people of the Soviet Union as “the degenerate descendants of Genghis Khan” and says the envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness in Europe “passes beyond belief.”** Unfortunately, [that was not all that he had to say about Jews](https://archive.is/3YiVs): >**“Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals,” Patton wrote. He complained of how the Jews in one camp, with “no sense of human relationships,” would defecate on the floors and live in filth like lazy “locusts,”** and he told of taking his commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, to tour a makeshift synagogue set up to commemorate the holy day of Yom Kippur. > >**“We entered the synagogue, which was packed with the greatest stinking mass of humanity I have ever seen,” Patton wrote. “Of course, I have seen them since the beginning and marveled that beings alleged to be made in the form of God can look the way they do or act the way they act.”** > >**Other evidence emerged revealing not only Patton’s disdain for the Jews in the camps, but an odd admiration for the [Axis] prisoners of war under his watch.** > >**Under Patton, [Axis] prisoners were not only bunked at times with Jewish survivors, but were even allowed to hold positions of authority, despite orders from Eisenhower to “de‐Nazify” the camps. “Listen,” Patton told one of his officers of the [Fascists], “if you need these men, keep them and don’t worry about anything else.”** (Emphasis added in all cases.) Gen. Patton, like many of the other white gentiles who fought for the Western Allies, did not see defeating the Axis as a heroic, altruistic quest to rescue millions of innocents from oppression. It was a job that they had to get done, nothing else. --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (September 22). [**1882**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1882): Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel, Axis field marshal, stained the earth with his existence. **1905**: Eugen Sänger, Fascist aerospace engineer, was delivered to the world. [**1906**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1906): Ilse Koch, Axis war criminal, arrived to worsen life. [**1933**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1933): The Third Reich’s Culture Ministry passed laws banning Jewish writers and artists. [**1934**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1934): The first stage of renovations at the SS castle of Schloß Wewelsburg in Büren completed, and the Fascists held a ceremony to mark the transfer of its possession to Heinrich Himmler. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1938): Seeing that the Czechoslovakians gave in to Berlin’s demands, the Kingdom of Hungary made demands of its own on Czechoslovakian territory. Coincidentally, Sudeten Freikorps occupied two Czechoslovakian towns close to the German border. In Prague, the Czechoslovakian cabinet resigned. In Bad Godesberg, Chamberlain met the Third Reich’s head of state, who demanded that Czechoslovakians allow the Wehrmacht to occupy Sudetenland by next month. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1939): The Fascists won the Battle of the Bzura (also known as Battle of Kutno to the Germans); it was the largest battle of the Polish campaign during which more than 18,000 Polish troops and about 8,000 Wehrmacht ones died. Former Wehrmacht Commander‐in‐Chief Werner von Fritsch died from a Polish bullet whilst on a tour of inspection at Praga, Warsaw. Following the Battle of Bzura, Polish General Tadeusz Kutrzeba arrived in Warsaw, Poland where he briefly became the Deputy Commander of the Warsaw Army. However, his valiant efforts proved futile. The commander of the Warsaw Army, Juliusz Rómmel, could see the writing on the wall and implored his colleague to begin surrender talks with the Wehrmacht. Lastly, the Third Reich held a [farewell parade](https://web.archive.org/web/20200210211747im_/http://www.readmarxeveryday.org/bloodlies/ch08.html#twnjv) in Brest‐Litovsk. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1940): France tentatively agreed to meet increased Imperial demands for Indochina, and Fascist submarines continued assaulting Allied convoy HX‐72 about six hundred miles west of Inishtrahull, Ireland in the Atlantic Ocean. In the United Kingdom, the weather restricted flying on both sides; only one Fascist flightcraft (Ju 88 bomber on reconnaissance mission shot down near the Isle of Wight, with entire crew captured) was lost that day, but the Luftwaffe bombed London heavily overnight. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1941): On the Jewish New Year Day, the SS massacred six thousand Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. (Those were the survivors of the previous massacred that took place a few days earlier in which the Axis exterminated about two dozen thousand Jews.) As well, Axis submarine *U‐562* sank the Allied ship *Erna III* east of Iceland at 0233 hours, killing all twenty‐five folk aboard. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1942): The Axis advance down the Taritsa River gorge in Stalingrad split the Soviet 62nd Army in half, and the Axis now held nearly the entire southern half of the city. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1943): Wilhelm Kube, Axis official and war criminal, would never wake up again thanks to a Soviet time bomb hidden in his mattress. On the other hand, the Axis occupation administration in Naples announced that all men between 18 and 33 years of age were to go to labour camps in northern Italy and in the Greater German Reich. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1944): The Axis garrison in Boulogne, France surrendered to Canadian troops. [**1957**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/1957): Soemu Toyoda, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, expired. [**2000**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/22/2000): Saburō Sakai, Axis naval aviator, died. :::
>One of the most active IAdN [*Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Nationalisten*] members was [[Hans] Keller](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hans_Keller)’s pen pal [Herman Harris Aall](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Herman_Harris_Aall), a Norwegian jurist and party ideologue of the National Gathering who became the co‐host of the Oslo congress.⁴⁹ > >Another example was the leader of the Danish Nazi Party (DNSAP), [Frits Clausen](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Frits_Clausen), who gave a lecture on ‘Nation and Race’ at the London congress. **Only months earlier, Clausen had also lectured at a meeting of the CAUR [*Comitati d’Azione per l’Universalità di Roma*] executive committee in Amsterdam, making him the only fascist party leader who was actively involved in both competing groups.⁵⁰** > >In Switzerland, the IAdN cooperated with the pro‐[Reich] party National Front and its leaders Rolf Henne and Hans Oehler.⁵¹ The Dutch National Socialist Workers Party (*Dutch Nationaal‐Socialistische Nederlandsche Arbeiderspartij*; NSB) was represented at the London congress by its founding member and leading propagandist Herman van Houten, and the Swedish National Socialist Workers’ Party (*Nationalsocialistiska Arbetarepartiet*; NSAP) sent two members to the Oslo congress.⁵² > >In all these cases, the character of the IAdN as a rather loose, ephemeral network with a supposedly academic purpose was helpful. **Politicians from fascist parties such as Frits Clausen or Rolf Henne could make appearances at its congresses without fearing a backlash within their national movements for being too involved in an international organisation which would contradict the nationalist aims of their own parties.** > >In addition to politicians, fascist intellectuals and writers participated as well. Many came from the Balkans, such as the poet Ion Sân‐Giorgiu, a sympathiser of the Fascist Party Iron Guard, as well as Janko Janeff, a Bulgarian philosopher and follower of the *völkisch* intellectual [Arthur Moeller van den Bruck](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Arthur_Moeller_van_den_Bruck). > >However, beyond these ‘fascist’ politicians and intellectuals in a narrow sense, **there were also delegates representing […] aristocratic and conservative political beliefs.** > >For example, **at the London congress, the large British section included Daniel Gerald Somerville, a member of parliament from the Conservative Party. The** Catholic **aristocratic [Count Henry Carton de Wiart](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Henry_Carton_de_Wiart), a former prime minister of Belgium, also sent a long message to the congress (without being present himself ).⁵³ France was represented by Louis Bertrand, a well‐known conservative French novelist, historian and member of the *Académie française*.** >To conclude, **an analysis of the international delegates of the IAdN illustrates the fluid entanglements between fascism, the radical right, conservatism and existing élites in the interwar period. All were united in their antagonism towards their internationalist enemies**, as will be addressed in the following section. > >[…] > >Communist internationalism was perceived as the other main enemy of the delegates. For example, Arnold Huber, the leader of the anti‐communist Swiss Patriotic Federation (*Schweizerischer Vaterländischer Verband*), 1919–48, argued at one congress that the IAdN should take action against Bolshevism and its international activities.⁶¹ The anti‐communist stance was often blended with anti‐Semitism in general and the ‘Jewish‐Bolshevist’ myth in particular. > >This was most openly expressed by [Ulrich Fleischhauer](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ulrich_Fleischhauer) from the anti‐Semitic organisation *Welt‐Dienst* (World Service) at the Berlin congress. Fleischhauer argued that international Jewry would destroy all national development; hence, the Jewish question should not only be addressed by Germans but by all nationalists.⁶² This demonstrates an overlap of interest between the IAdN and other interwar organisations such as the *Welt‐Dienst* involved in anti‐communist and anti‐Semitic propaganda. > >[…] > >Ideas of a ‘racial community’ of the ‘Nordic’, ‘European’ or ‘white’ race(s), which had to be protected from miscegenation and from other ‘black’ or ‘yellow’ races, featured prominently at the IAdN congresses. **Examples were two speeches at the Oslo congress by the Norwegian racial researcher Jon Alfred Mjøen and by the South African Herman Dirk van Broekhuizen (of Dutch descent), who talked about the white race as a larger community of destiny.⁷⁷** (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 21). **1894**: Anton Piëch, Fascist lawyer, was born. **1934**: A large typhoon struck western Honshū, Japan, killing more than three thousand people. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/21/1939): The Iron Guard murdered Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/21/1942): On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Axis scum sent over one thousand Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp, while in Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, other Axis paskudnyaks massacred 2,588 Jews. At Yom Kippur’s end, the Third Reich ordered Konstantynów’s Jews to permanently move to Biała Podlaska. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/21/1944): Artur Gustav Martin Phleps, Axis lieutenant general, died in combat. **2012**: Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen (a.k.a. Sven Hazel), Axis soldier, expired. :::
threadreaderapp.com
>The OUN had been preparing itself ideologically to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing in Ukraine since 1928. These preparations began in [the first issue of R.N.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920014356im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4P-wSGWYAE2CZx.png) which came out openly against democracy, against the Soviet Union and socialism. > >The OUN’s opposition to ‘demo‐liberalism’ and ‘humanitarianism’ was consciously based on a philosophical rejection of reason and the Enlightenment. Rozbudova’s fascist, anti‐socialist politics, and its genocidal schemes, sprung from the same rotten philosophical soil as [Germanic Fascism]. > >In 1928 #3, E. Onatskyi’s infamous ‘On Fascism’ appeared. He compared Ukrainian nationalism and Italian fascism, but declared that Ukrainians must work hard to build a state before they can call themselves ‘fascists.’ [The article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240907085743im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QEj8KWUAIKB9F.png) is full of praise for Italian fascist youth. > >1928 #12, [a fascinating article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920010217im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QYyR1WQAAG0cy.jpg), ‘Ukrainization of Ukraine’ attacks the original, Bolshevik nationalities policy of support to national minority cultures, the policy of ‘Korenizatsiya.’ I will discuss this article at length as it exposes the reactionary basis of racial politics. > >Reviewing mid‐1920s Soviet statistics, nationalists were forced to admit the successes of the ‘Ukrainization’ policy. [The article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920010217im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QHfAhXUAAW5wq.png) exposes as a lie the Ukrainian nationalist assertion that the early Bolshevik policy oppressed Ukrainians. […] > >[The Bolshevik policy of 'Ukrainization'](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920010816im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QH60kWEAAIVGI.jpg) [was NOT about ‘creating a Ukraine for Ukrainians only’ but about raising the cultural and political level of Ukrainian peasants and workers, part of a struggle for a world socialist republic enabling the full participation of Ukrainians.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920010909im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QIGMJXwAEHDvC.jpg) > >[R.N.’s ‘Ukrainization’ article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011013im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QIj6oXcAAe-wK.jpg) is the first of many in which ‘Jews’ are counted as separate from Ukrainians using statistical information from the Soviet Union. The nationalists were very concerned to quantify the ‘Jewish problem’ which they qualified using antisemitic slanders. > >1929 #3–4: [“Russian–Jewish Domination and the role of Russian culture in Soviet Ukraine” by 'V. Bogush'.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011114im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QJkU6WoAA2oSk.jpg) It is an extended complaint using demographic statistics, that although Ukrainians are a majority of the population, power and influence in Ukraine rest with Jews and Russians[.] > >1929 #8–9 [“Jewry, Zionism and Ukraine” by Yuri Milyanich](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011221im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QKESaWMAAoe6b.png): Jews are the “enemies of the Ukrainian independent national idea” and “[In the fight against Jewry, which is hostile to us in every respect, we must develop the most advantageous forms for solving the Jewish question.](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011344im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QKM8dXIAAgp4x.png)” > >1930 #9–10. Mykola Stsiborskyi, later author of the 1940 OUN‐M constitution publishes “[Jewry and Ukraine](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011506im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QKrr1WQAImECq.png)” in which [he argues for assimilation of “Jewry” subordinate to Ukrainian state goals, in order to re‐start capitalist social relations, after the future collapse of the USSR[.]](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011555im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QLHeEXUAAtWG1.png) > >1932 #1–2 [Mitsiuk's antisemitic account of ‘Pre‐revolutionary Jewish trade relations’](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011643im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QM44eWIAAdt1A.png) accusing ‘Jewry’ of monopolizing trade and exploiting the peasants of the Hutsul region. [A 1943 Krakivski Visti article](https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011725im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F4QNM01X0AAWz0K.png) would later rejoice that ‘there were no more Jews in the Hutsul region.’ > >Rozbudova published Mitsiuk’s incitement in every issue for two years, and then issued the articles as a book. What is clear is that well before the [German Fascists] constituted a mass movement, Ukrainian nationalists had developed clear plans for a ‘Ukraine for Ukrainians only.' > > > >I will follow this up in the coming weeks with [an examination of OUN's ideology into the 1930s, after the [German Fascists’] seizure of power, and how fascist ideology was openly expressed in the Ukrainian Canadian press of that time.](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1706290479778742581.html) This author has published [quite a few other interesting examinations](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/JamesClay1917), including [one on how the Ukrainian anticommunists, under Stepan Bandera and with Axis support, organized expedition groups that followed an advance into the U.S.S.R.](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1672961778240614402.html) Yes, I know that many of you are going to roll your eyes or groan at this author’s ‘ultraleftist’ politics, like his periodic urges to point a finger at ‘Stalin(ism)’ or the ‘Stalinist bureaucracy’ for something, but if you can force yourself to grin and bear through it then you’ll find it a rewarding experience. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 20). [**1880**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1880): Ugo Cavallero, Axis commander, and Ildebrando Pizzetti, Fascist composer, were born. **1925**: After a long delay, Rome finally opened its first underground rail line: the Villa Literno–Napoli Gianturco railway. [**1933**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1933): Rudolf Höss applied for a transfer into the Schutzstaffel, which gave him the rank of an SS recruit: SS‐Anwärter. **1935**: Berlin newspapers published photos of five new U‐boats, the Reich’s first public admission to having any. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1938): Berlin pressed the Kingdom of Hunary to assert greater demands on Czechoslovakia, and Sudeten Fascist leader Konrad Henlein urged Slovakians to demand autonomy with greater vigor. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1939): The RAF and Luftwaffe clashed for the first time over the Westwall, Fascism’s defensive line on the border with France. The British lost two aircraft, the Fascists one. Meanwhile, Wehrmacht General Johannes Blaskowitz noted in his order of the day that, at the Battle of the Bzura in Poland (also known as Battle of Kutno to the Germans), his troops were fighting ‘in one of the biggest and most destructive battles of all times.’ Elsewhere, Wehrmacht troops withdrew to their agreed sphere of influence in Poland. Finally, the remaining Polish garrison in Grodno exterminated eight hundred Soviet troops and destroyed at least ten Soviet tanks (even though [marshal E. Rydz‐Smigly ordered Poles **not** to engage the Soviets in military actions](https://web.archive.org/web/20090823071759im_/http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje01/text03p.htm)). [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1940): Jean Decoux allowed Imperial forces to enter Haiphong harbor in Indochina! Less surprisingly, Fascist flighcraft detected and assaulted Allied convoy BN‐5 in the Red Sea, damaging British ship *Bhima* with near misses and necessitating a towing to Aden, but the *Regia Aeronautica* still lost one bomber. (The escorting New Zealand cruiser HMS *Leander* sustained no damage.) Three waves of Bf 109 fighters totaling over one hundred flightcraft flew across the English Channel for London, successfully lured out British fighters, then shot down seven of them (slaughtering four pilots) at the cost of two of their own. Overnight, Fascist bombers reattacked London. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1941): Lithuanian anticommunists and local police commenced a mass execution of 403 Jews in Nemenčinė. Additionally, Axis submarine *U‐111* sank British ship *Cingalese Prince* east of Brazil, slaughtering fifty‐seven folk (but leaving twenty alive), and Axis submarine *U‐552* (Kapitänleutnant Erich Topp) torpedoed the 6,325‐ton Norwegian motor tanker Barbro carrying 9,000 tons of petrol off Greenland’s east coast. Two torpedoes hit the ship and she immediately burst into flames, trapping the thirty‐four crew aboard, and other ships in convoy SC‐44 could only watch helplessly as she sank. Axis submarine *U‐69* (Kapitänleutnant Zahn) had fired a torpedo to finish off the vessel but this failed to detonate. The crew included three Swedes, one Dane, five Britons and four Canadians apart from the Norwegians. (The Barbro’s master, Lauritz Knudsen had previously commanded the motor tanker *Britta* that was torpedoed and sunk by Axis submarine *U‐47* (Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien) on 6 Dec 1939.) [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/20/1945): Eduard Wirths, chief SS doctor who performed experiments on prisoners, committed suicide in captivity… I have no comment. **1993**: Erich Alfred Hartmann, Axis pilot, dropped dead. :::
([Mirror.](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA617477.pdf)) >With Antonescu’s ascension to power, the relationship between [the Third Reich] and [the Kingdom of] Romania warmed considerably. Antonescu began by promising closer collaboration with [the Third Reich]. He also renewed the request for German military assistance, with the idea of having Germans train and reorganize the Romanian army. > >This time, Hitler agreed and on September 19, 1940, he decided to send a military mission to [the Kingdom of] Romania. The improvement in relations would culminate on November 23, 1940, with [the Kingdom of] Romania’s adherence to the Tripartite Pact.⁶ > >To be precise, **[the Third Reich] actually sent four missions to [this Kingdom]. The umbrella organization was the [Third Reich’s] military mission**, commanded by Army General Erik Hansen, who was also the military attaché to Bucharest. Hansen also commanded the [Wehrmacht] mission (*Deutsches Heeres Mission in Rümanien*, or DHM) to [the Kingdom of] Romania. > >The next major element was the [Luftwaffe] mission (*Deutsches Luftwaffe Mission in Rümanien*, or DLM), commanded by Luftwaffe Lieutenant General Wilhelm Speidel. The final part of the military mission was the [Kriegsmarine] mission, headed by Admiral W. Tillesen.⁷ This article looks at the activities of the DLM to a small degree, but the major focus will be on the DHM. > >[…] > >The DLM had two principal missions. The first was to create air defenses around the vital oil region of [the Kingdom of] Romania in the vicinity of Ploiești and the Black Sea port of Constanța. Also involved was the regulation of air space over the defended areas. The second mission was to modernize the Romanian air force. The DLM was more successful in completing the first mission. **Speidel and his staff were able to use both Romanian and German matériel and procedures to make Ploiești one of the most heavily defended targets against air attacks.** > >This was to prove invaluable in the initial Romanian participation in Operation *Barbarossa*. Between late June and mid‐October 1941, Ploiești and Constanța were attacked 91 times by Soviet aircraft. Led by the efforts of the Luftwaffe’s Jagd Geschwader 52, the combined [Axis] defense brought down some 81 Soviet aircraft.⁹ > >[…] > >Like the DLM, the DHM had two missions. Aside from the training mission, the [Third Reich’s] units were to assist the Romanian force in erecting defenses against a possible Soviet invasion, although the mere presence of [these] units in [the Kingdom of] Romania did act as a guarantee against further Soviet encroachments. > >The second mission was to train the Romanian army up to a level that was as close to [the Fascist bourgeoisie’s] standards as possible. These units would play a part in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler had distinctly mentioned this in his December 5, 1940, speech to the heads of the Wehrmacht. Both Finland and [the Kingdom of] Romania are mentioned as possible allies in the execution of Operation *Barbarossa* in Hitler’s first official directive on the subject issued December 18, 1940.¹² > >[…] > >Training was conducted at the tactical and operational levels, at least in a theoretical sense. There was also an ideological aspect to the training. > >**Tactically, the [Third Reich] set up training centers for the Romanian 5th, 6th, 13th, 18th, and 20th infantry divisions as well as for the Romanian Panzer Division. These centers aimed at training Romanian soldiers in both German weapons and tactics. Later on in the spring of 1941, the [Third Reich] extended the training in a limited way to artillery.¹⁹ [It] also sought to improve the quality of Romanian general officers through education.** > >**The DHM set up the equivalent of the German *Kriegsakademie* in [the Kingdom of] Romania. All aspirants for general officer rank were to take a 2‐year course of instruction. Like its German counterpart, the Romanian war college was tactically oriented and focused on division‐sized operations. The course was also aimed at producing officers who could undertake all staff and administrative functions associated with division and brigade operations. A course was also set up for general officers and older staff officers as well, lasting from 1 to 3 months.²⁰** > >As might be expected of such an effort mounted by [an empire] such as [the Third Reich], there was the previously mentioned ideological component to DHM activities. In a situation report, Hube noted that, in addition to the need for measures to be taken against corruption in the officer corps, friendly attitudes toward Great Britain and the Jews had to be eliminated. To aid this, **[Fascist] German propaganda was disseminated that found a degree of receptivity in [the Kingdom of] Romania**, although not as much as the [Third Reich] hoped.²¹ > >The various endeavors of the DHM brought about a record of mixed success. :::spoiler (Emphasis added. For a summary of the Romanian army’s combat performance in 1941, click here.) >In the first phase of the campaign, Romanian performance might be regarded as satisfactory. The army was able to accomplish its task even though, in a number of places, the Romanians’ Soviet opponents were often better armed and equipped. > >Even Colonel General Franz Halder, the chief of the German Army General Staff and no particular admirer of Romanian military prowess, confessed pleasant surprise at the initial performance of the Romanians. The liaison staff with the Romanian 1st Border Division thought well enough of the division’s conduct to submit the names of some 37 members for [Wehrmacht] awards.³¹ > >Things were much tougher in the second phase of the 1941 campaign. The Romanian Third and Fourth Armies were now required to undertake missions well beyond their normal operational radius. That often left them requiring logistical support from the German [Fascists], who were not always in a position to deliver it when needed. Dumitrescu’s Third Army narrowly avoided a deadly clash with the Hungarian Mobile Corps, which was also operating on that part of the front, thanks to the efforts of German liaison officers with both formations.³² > >The siege of Odessa proved long and costly to the Romanian [anticommunists]. The Soviet High Command was able to keep the Independent Coastal Army, garrisoning Odessa, supplied by sea. That allowed the garrison to conduct an active and energetic defense. Several successful Soviet sorties forced the Fourth Army to fight repeatedly over the same ground in bloody assaults. > >It was only after the Romanian [anticommunists] secured key points in the fortress’s defense system, combined with the threat of intervention by [the Third Reich’s] airpower on a massive scale, that the Soviets evacuated the city on October 15, 1941. Odessa’s occupation marked a clear end of the campaign for what was by that time an exhausted Romanian army.³³ ::: --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (September 19). **1909**: Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, bourgeois Fascist, was born. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/19/1939): The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concluded, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/19/1940): Witold Pilecki was voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/19/1942): [The Axis brought some two thousand Jews to Mineralnye‐Vodi (from Esentuki) and exterminated them.](https://books.google.com/books?id=DqAb5tY4Ai8C&pg=PA294) [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/19/1944): The Battle of Hürtgen Forest commenced, and would become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought. (Coincidentally, the Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union was signed, which officially ended the Continuation War.) :::
Quoting Carlo Moos in [*World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia*](https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=39C48DD44DC9812B0B76D8001EC63598), page 585: >The [so‐called] [Italian Social Republic](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Italian_Social_Republic) (RSI), or Salò Republic (named after the seat of the régime on Lake Garda in northern Italy), arose as a consequence of the [Kingdom of Italy’s] withdrawal from World War II on 8 September 1943 and the occupation of northern and central Italy by the Wehrmacht. > >Mussolini had been dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel III on 25 July 1943 after the Grand Council of Fascism voted to unseat him; he was transferred from one detention place to another but [liberated from imprisonment on the Gran Sasso by [Axis] paratroopers on 12 September 1943.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gran_Sasso_raid) > >Following a radio address by Il Duce from Munich on 18 September, a [postmonarchic] fascist government was formed in northern and central Italy, and the Fascist Party was revived along with the militia, which was later brought over with the Carabinieri into the Republican National Guard. > >The Salò régime continued the battle against the Allies on the side of the [Axis] in competition with the royal government under Badoglio in the south. But relations with the Germans and their governor, Ambassador Rahn, and with the army commanders Rommel, Kesselring, and Vietinghoff, as well as the SS under Wolff, were always difficult. Mussolini was unable to reassert his authority successfully, for not only the south, freed by the advancing Allies, but also a part of Italy controlled by [Berlin] remained wholly or more or less completely beyond his grasp. > >The *Alpenvorland* and “Adriatic Coast” zones were to all intents and purposes annexed by Germany and subjected to the Reich governors of the neighboring regions (Friedrich Rainer in Karinthia, Franz Hofer in Tirol‐Vorarlberg). Mussolini retained what autonomy he could in the remaining area, and a new republican army under Marshal Graziani was established, whose four divisions were initially sent to Germany for training and from the summer of 1944 were used chiefly for the battle against the anti‐Fascist partisans. > >The RSI began by dealing with those members of the Grand Council who in the night of 24/25 July 1943 had voted against Mussolini and who had thereby made possible his fall, and with all who were classified in the widest sense as “traitors” to Fascism. > >In January 1944 the trial of the chief conspirators was held in Verona, concluding with eleven death sentences *in contumaciam*, of which five were carried out immediately (on 11 January 1944). Victims included Mussolini’s own son‐in‐law Galeazzo Ciano and the quadrumvir Emilio De Bono. At least 1,500 death penalties were also handed down and implemented by specially established provincial special tribunals. > >The Salò Republic manifested an intensification of violence and pursued a race policy that was deeply anti‐Semitic, declaring all Jews to belong to a hostile nation and requiring them to be herded into camps and ordering that their property and investments be confiscated. > >The deportations organized subsequently by the [Greater German Reich] could never have been implemented without these preparations and without the collaboration of the organs of the Salò Republic. Altogether, more than 6,800 Jews were deported in forty‐three transports to the East (for the most part to Auschwitz), of whom only 837 survived. > >Salò had to engage in an increasingly brutal struggle with the developing resistance, and that struggle became the main job of the forces of order (police, national guard, black brigades) and the armed forces of the RSI. Assessment of this has remained a matter of controversy down to the present day, but it is increasingly interpreted as a real civil war. > >At the same time, relations with the [Axis] occupiers/allies worsened: agreement could not be reached as to the problem of the Italian military internees sent to [the Greater German Reich] as forced labor, while the increasingly heavy‐handed [Axis] reprisals—which degenerated into downright massacres in such cases as that of the Fosse Ardeatine on 24 March 1944—led to catastrophic consequences for the standing of Fascism in the country. > >Mussolini’s last public appearance in Milan, on 16 December 1944, was astonishingly successful, but four months later he was killed by partisans on 28 April 1945 as he attempted to escape to Switzerland in the face of the advancing Allied forces. The war in northern Italy ended with the capitulation of the [Wehrmacht] on 29 April, which came into force on 2 May, about a week before the complete capitulation of the Wehrmacht. The Salò régime was a brief but interesting and important episode in Fascism’s history. Whereas previously Fascist Italy had a significant degree of autonomy from the Third Reich (I would argue), it is much harder to convince somebody that the Salò régime in particular also possessed this, with the Greater German Reich intervening frequently and directly in its affairs, practically producing a sort of hybrid between German and Italian Fascism. (The latter phenomenon had not quite yielded to the German one as Austrofascism had in the late 1930s.) Hence, we see the only Italian division of the SS: the [29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:29th_Waffen-Grenadierdivision_of_the_SS_(1st_Italian)); we can hear the Italian translation of *Horst Wessel Lied*: [*È l’ora di marciar*](https://archive.org/details/e-l-ora-di-marciar); and we witness the Italian Fascists being as aggressive as possible in their antisemitism.  Pictured: Pio Filippani Ronconi in the uniform of a foreign volunteer of the Waffen‐SS. The Salò régime officially had [an army](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Army_of_the_Italian_Social_Republic) (*Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano*), a police force (*Corpo di Polizia Repubblicana*), [an airforce](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aeronautica_Nazionale_Repubblicana) (*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana*), and technically [a navy](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Marina_Nazionale_Repubblicana) (*Marina Nazionale Repubblicana*). We can find hardware (e.g. the [FNAB‐43](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=XwY5ZQDqG70), the Armaguerra OG‐43, the [TZ‐45](https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=z5RYzCmK4-Q)) manufactured for this régime. We can even find [postage stamps](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Stamps_of_the_Italian_Social_Republic) for it. All of this is probably unsurprising, but the point here is that collaborationist régimes should not be glossed over simply for being cardboard cutouts of ‘real’ governments. They can continue to hold a great deal of meaning or hope for the thousands who fight for them; a much more preferable alternative to outright colonization, and sometimes regarded merely as transitory phases before actual independence. :::spoiler There is plenty more that I could add, but I am omitting it to keep this post at a manageable length… with the following exception. For an examination of the Salò régime’s pseudosocialism, including the misnomer ‘Italian Social Republic’, click here. Quoting [*Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945: The Failure of a Puppet Regime*](https://web.archive.org/web/20240226180544im_/http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/70965/1/pdf.175), page 30: >To underline the renewed ideological solidarity between the two régimes, Hitler strongly urged the Duce to include “Fascism” in the new Italian state’s title, but since the Fascist canon had fallen into disrepute, Mussolini, on 25 November 1943, formally ushered into existence the more neutral‐sounding Italian Social Republic. This was to be Mussolini’s final crack at holding power. The exceedingly vague expression ‘social republic’ has been attested [since at least the 1820s](https://books.google.com/books?id=121CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA137) and [was in vogue during 1848](https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution-1848/ephemera/democratic-socialists.htm), but whether its reintroduction in 1943 was a conscious misappropriation or a mere coincidence remains uncertain. In any case, we can see right off the bat that this was another marketing decision to make fascism less unappealing to the proletariat. Not being content with one euphemism, though, the Salò régime made some promises to proletarians to confuse or pacify them. Quoting Philip Morgan’s [*Italian Fascism, 1915–1945*](https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=721B8F777FAE8627EDD7DBCFA70D3471), pages 226–8: >The [Salò régime’s] programme was agreed at the unruly congress of the *Partito Fascista Repubblicano* (Republican Fascist Party or PFR), the reconstituted successor to the PNF, held in Verona in November 1943. It was an attempt to give a meaning and content to the [Salò régime], other than doing the [Third Reich’s] business, and to win the support of the population nominally under its jurisdiction, whose loyalties were contested by the anti‐Fascist and anti‐German Resistance movements. > >It called for a constituent assembly to replace the monarchy with a [so‐called] social Republic, an elected head of state based on the U.S. model, a scarcely credible charter of citizens’ rights, a single party for the political education of the people, socialisation of the economy, treating the Jews as enemy aliens, and a foreign policy whose talk of ‘living space’ and European federation was a rehash of the former régime’s New Order wartime propaganda. > >The abolition of the monarchy and socialisation were both a rejection of and an alibi for Fascism’s past. The desire for revenge and scapegoating was brutally evident in the extraordinary Special Tribunal’s trial and execution of those of the July 1943 Grand Council ‘traitors’ who could be found, including Ciano. > >It was they, in league with the king and conservative bourgeois and capitalist interests, who were charged with not only bringing about Mussolini’s fall and the Allied invasion but also subverting and sidetracking the Fascist Revolution during the twenty years of the regime. Now shorn of its conservative fellow‐travelling elements and liberated from the ‘pluto‐monarchical compromises of 1922’,³ Fascism could ‘return to the origins’ and enact the national syndicalist and republican strands of the revolutionary interventionism and early Fascism of 1915–19. > >This was myth‐making in the grand style, and to justify it Salò’s propaganda evoked the legacy of Giuseppe Mazzini, D’Annunzio and Fiume. > >Socialisation owed as much to the ‘Third Way’ corporatist rhetoric of the 1930s and of the Fascist New Order as to national syndicalism, at least in the proposals put together by the Republic’s Ministry of Corporations. The principle of private property was still sacrosanct, but the state could regulate it in the context of a national economic plan and would take over or retain the running of essential national utilities and services. > >What the measure approved by the government in February 1944 proposed was a kind of socialisation of management, not capital, to create that collaborative and productivist ‘community of producers’. The running of state and private firms was to be shared between an elected assembly of employees and shareholders, a management council of representatives of capital and labour, and an executive director elected by the assembly or chosen by the government. Here it is at last: the smoking gun that fascism was socialism! Not that utopian capitalists needed it, since they are convinced that **every political or economic system** ([with the sole exception of their completely unregulated free market phantasy](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1762569)) is socialism already, but now the evidence is undeniable! Wait until TIK and other propertarians get their hands on this knowledge. Then all that they need to do is broadcast this to every unionizer on the planet, and the entire working‐class movement will grind to a halt! Yes, reversing the tides of history is just that easy! Oh wait a minute, what is this? >But the [régime] could decide on anything and enact little to nothing. Making ‘labour […] the foundation of the Social Republic’⁴ in this abortive ‘return to the origins’ cut across the two unavoidable realities of the Republic’s tenuous existence: [Berlin’s] control of Italy for the exploitation of its economy, and the worsening civil war between the Fascists and the Resistance. Hitler was mystified by the RSI’s social policy but thought it irrelevant and innocuous. **The [Third Reich’s] authorities on the ground intervened to nullify it.** > >**Hans Leyers, the head of the Italian arm of the German Ministry of Armaments and War Production, regarded socialisation as ‘sabotage’⁵ of the Italian industries working for the [Axis] war effort and co‐operated with the industrialists themselves to exclude or obstruct its implementation in key areas. By April 1945 perhaps 60–80 firms with about 130,000 employees had been ‘socialised’, mainly newspapers and publishers under the auspices of the Ministry of Popular Culture, which took the measure seriously.** > >**The decree of February 1945 for the socialisation of large industries was a dead letter, not only because of [Reich]‐inspired procrastination by employers but also because most workers boycotted the council elections. Industrial workers had enough experience of the Fascist régime not to trust in this false dawn or twilight of labour reforms. The left‐wing Resistance movements certainly warned them off, as they did employers. Fascism’s attempt to redefine itself could not escape the taint of its past.** (Emphasis added.) ::: \ Further reading: [*The Fallen Hero: The Myth of Mussolini and Fascist Women in the Italian Social Republic (1943–5)*](https://sci-hub.ru/10.1177/002200949603100104) --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (September 18). [**1931**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1931): [The Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria, (arguably) beginning World War II.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1897727) [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1939): The Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki fled to Romania while the radio show *Germany Calling* began transmitting Fascist propaganda. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1940): The Axis submarine *U‐48* sunk the Allied liner SS *City of Benares*; those massacred included 77 child refugees. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1941): Although it captured Poltava, Ukraine, the Axis modified its strategy against Leningrad, switching from assault to besiegement; tanks from the 4th Panzer Army loaded onto trains for Moscow. This shift in strategy partially resulted from Berlin’s order earlier on this date that Leningrad be razed to the ground. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1942): Heinrich Himmler ordered the SS to have full judicial control over Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish, and Romani prisoners; all prisoners of the Third Reich’s ‘justice’ system capable of work were to transfer to concentration camps for neoslavery, and food rations for Jews in the Third Reich were to diminish. Coincidentally, Theresienstadt surpassed its maximum capacity; 58,491 prisoners now resided in that camp. Meanwhile, Axis troops began retreating back along the Kokoda Track across the Owen Stanley Range in Papua, and one dozen He 111 torpedo bombers attacked Allied convoy PQ‐18 at the entrance of the Kola Inlet, Russia, sinking Allied ship *Kentucky* (without killing anybody) at the cost of three aircraft. Stuka dive bombers hampered a Soviet defence by destroying forty‐one of the one hundred six Soviet tanks committed, while escorting Bf 109 fighters destroyed seventy‐seven Soviet aircraft in the immediate area. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1943): Berlin ordered the deportation of Danish Jews. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/18/1944): The British submarine HMS *Tradewind* torpedoed the Axis cargo steamship *Jun'yō Maru*, tragically massacring 5,600 humans, mostly neoslaves and POWs. Meanwhile in France, the Battle of Arracourt commenced. :::
>The Working Group,²⁵ an unofficial Jewish organization formed to help protect Jews from anti‐Semitic forces, had for some time exploited every means of ensuring the survival of the Jewish people of Slovakia. **One of the tactics used by the Working Group to stop Jewish deportations was to prove to those in the Slovak government charged with expanding the economy that Jews were a vital asset to their cause.** > >[…] > >In June the SD [Sicherheitsdienst] reported that the deportation of Jews was very unpopular with the Slovak population and blamed this unpopularity on the clerics and “English propaganda.”³³ The pressure was so significant that Prime Minister Tiso specifically requested that he not be told anything about the deportations. An SD report states a fear expressed by Mach that Tiso would not be able to stand up to the pressure of the clerics. Another speaks of Tuka’s loyalty to the cause but states that he was thwarted by “clever maneuvering.”³⁴ > >The clever maneuvering to which the report referred is almost certainly the efforts of the Working Group. The Working Group reached out with appeals to the morality and compassion of some government officials **but more often with bribes.** For example, Josef Sivak towed the party line with regard to the Jews well enough to “pass muster” but was in fact also a close friend of Rabbi Frieder, a member of the Working Group. > >Sivak was appointed Minister of Education and Culture and gave Frieder a secret phone number that allowed them to stay in direct contact. He warned the Working Group of planned measures and during the deportations did what he could to ensure Jewish schoolmasters were excluded.³⁵ > >**In other cases, it was necessary to bribe officials, as was the case with the head of the president’s bureau**, Dr. Isidor Koso. In fact, it was from Koso that the Working Group first learned of the planned deportations. They responded by quickly putting forward the plan for Steiner’s labor camps but feared that by the time the camps were fully established, there would be no Jews left. **They then sought to bribe the head of Department 14**, the government department in charge of solving “the Jewish question” in Slovakia, Dr. Anton Vasek, “the Jew King.” > >**They not only appealed to his bank account but also to his vanity, encouraging him to write a book about his fascinating life in politics. This was so successful that Vasek arranged for several transports already scheduled to leave the country to encounter technical difficulties that caused lengthy delays.** > >Koso and Vasek seem to be examples of Slovak **officials that were described as wanting “money, motor‐cars, resounding title’s [sic], and the maximum of personal pomp and circumstance. They seem to have been quite indifferent to the means by which these things were obtained.”³⁶** > >The Working Group’s attempts to bribe the Slovak officials produced such success that the Group even went so far as to meet with the German [Reich’s] representative Dieter Wisliceny. They enlisted a corrupt member of the official Jewish Committee named Hochberg, who was familiar with Wisliceny, to present the equivalent of $40,000 as a bribe to the German. **Hochberg pocketed half of the sum and only presented Wisliceny with $20,000.³⁷ However, the German accepted that amount immediately** before a scheduled visit to Berlin for consultation. > >[…] > >Wisliceny continued to appear to cooperate with the Working Group, even going so far as to report upcoming activities that might lead to the resumption of the deportations. Steiner, Wisliceny’s primary contact, became so emboldened by his manner and continued cooperation he once asked Wisliceny, “if he so much wanted to help the Jews why was he in charge of the expulsions?” to which Wisliceny reportedly replied that he was not an anti‐Semite but was doing his duty as a German soldier.⁴² > >Steiner continued to work with Wisliceny **and also to work on improving and expanding the Jewish labor camps which became more and more important to the Slovak economy.⁴³ These camps differed so greatly from the concentration and labor camps in Germany and Poland that Edith Katz, an imprisoned 21 year old Jewish woman with a heart condition, was transferred to the camp at Novaky because it was thought the environment would be better for her health.⁴⁴** > >Meanwhile, cultural activities were encouraged within the camps, and members of the Working Group, namely Y.O. Neumann and Steiner, were successful in sneaking weapons into the camps intended for the inmates’ self‐defense.⁴⁵ > >The efforts of the Working Group to make the Jews an essential asset to the Slovak economy were successful. The religious community succeeded in turning a significant portion of public opinion against renewed deportations. The Working Group bribed certain officials, distracted others with appeals to their vanity, and convicted others with appeals to their humanity.⁴⁶ > >Though there were many efforts made to renew the deportation of Jews from the region of Slovakia, they were all met with opposition and failed. When concrete plans were presented, politicians openly opposed them.⁴⁷ Roman Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter read in all the Catholic churches of a country that was 80% Catholic, decrying the attempt to resume deportations.⁴⁸ > >[…] > >In August of 1944, there was a rebellion against the HSĽS government and by extension the [Third Reich]. Slovak partisans were encouraged to revolt by [Soviet] authorities who promised military support.⁵⁰ With [the Axis] faring so badly on the Eastern front and the assurances of the [Soviets], the Slovaks believed they could succeed. > >They were wrong. [The Greater German Reich], finally freed of diplomatic restraint, attacked in force and quickly quelled the rebellion. 20,000 Jews, almost all which remained in the Slovak Republic, were deported in October and November of 1944. Most of them never returned. > >All of the efforts to both stop the deportation trains and keep them from resuming were significant. The influence of the Vatican and both the Catholic and Protestant church was substantial in directing public opinion against the deportations. By providing significant economic incentives, both personal and political, to Slovak and German politicians, the actions of the often marginalized Working Group were undeniable contributing factors in the halt of deportations. > >The actions of these groups were seldom conducted in conjunction with each other but nevertheless worked together, placing pressure on Slovak officials to create more and more exemptions. > >Yet, **the most startling and arguably most important contributor to the halt of deportations remains Germany itself. Few of the other influences and factors previously discussed would have succeeded or even been possible had Germany not allowed Slovakia an unprecedented amount of autonomy. The most compelling evidence for the importance of Germany’s diplomatic policies in the thwarting of its own goals is the fact that the deportation of Jewish Slovaks only resumed when Germany abandoned that diplomacy.** (Emphasis added.) --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 17). [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/17/1939): The Reich submarine *U-29* sunk the British aircraft carrier HMS *Courageous*. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/17/1940): Due to setbacks in the Battle of Britain and approaching autumn weather, Berlin postponed Operation Sea Lion. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/17/1944): Axis forces occupied San Marino but quickly suffered an Allied assault. (Coincidentally, Allied airborne troops parachuted into the Netherlands as the ‘Market’ half of Operation Market Garden, and Soviet troops launched the Tallinn Offensive against the Third Reich and anticommunist Estonian units. Lastly, an Axis war criminal, General Friedrich Zickwolff, died of a disease whilst in France.) **1953**: Hans Feige, Axis general, mustered up the decency to drop dead. **2013**: Eiji Toyoda, Axis industrialist, expired. :::
www.thecanadafiles.com
>In ‘honour’ of [neofascism’s] 12th Azov Special Brigade, indoctrinated Ukrainian Canadians did a ‘charity run’ to collect funds for the rogue and criminal unit largely responsible for brutally enforcing the [neofascist] ideology of the state. The fundraiser was sold shamelessly as a battle for ‘independence’. The [Maidan coup](https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/anatomy-of-a-coup-how-cia-front-laid), instigated by NATO leadership in 2013-2014, that made Ukraine a full-on NATO anti-Russia proxy, is well known. > >[The 12th Azov Special Brigade was founded and run initially by Andriy Biletsky](https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/05/10/azov-regiment-founder-andriy-biletsky-says-ukrainian-forces-defeated-russian-brigade-in-bakhmut), infamous for [threatening to kill Volodomyr Zelensky](https://wp.me/p9MxL0-nTN) while asserting military rule of the state of Ukraine, and for the [following quote](https://web.archive.org/web/20230928025300/https:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11025137/Ukraine-crisis-the-neo-Nazi-brigade-fighting-pro-Russian-separatists.html) in a written commentary: >>“The historic mission of our nation in this moment is to lead the white races in the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.” > >It is illegal under Canadian law for a registered non-profit or charity to [support a foreign government’s military](https://www.canadiancharitylaw.ca/?p=18490). However, this is being shamelessly done out in the open by the UCC. As an added insult, the Canadian government is regularly rewarding the UCC for its repeated legal transgressions and [[Fascist] honouring](https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canadian-mp-wont-condemn-honouring-of-hunka-or-2007-2010-2021-honourings-of-nazi-ss-division) with regular grants in [the hundreds of thousands](https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/?sort=agreement_start_date+desc&search_text=%22Ukrainian+Canadian+Congress%22&page=1). > >Glenn Michalchuk, President of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians says the story: >>“raised the concern of many that such an open display of support for an organization with such close links to neo-nazism would be the centre of a local activity especially on Ukraine Independence Day.” > >Michalchuk emphasized that such fundraising in connection to Ukrainian history is egregious: >>“The history of Ukraine is intimately connected to the struggle against Nazism in World War II. >> >>The land and people of Ukraine suffered tremendous losses from the Nazi invasion. The injuries were made more grievous by the role of collaborators who joined the Nazis with the plan that they would rule a Nazi occupied Ukraine.” > >It should be of little surprise that the same UCC has [repeatedly honoured](https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canadian-mp-wont-condemn-honouring-of-hunka-or-2007-2010-2021-honourings-of-nazi-ss-division) the Waffen SS 14th (Galicia) Division. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 16). **1878**: Karl Albiker, Axis sculptor, was born. [**1891**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/16/1891): Karl Dönitz, Axis admiral who briefly served as the Greater German Reich’s head of state, existed. Likewise did the Reich spy and ‘honourary Aryan’ Stephanie von Hohenlohe. **1910**: Erich Kempka, SS member and chauffer, polluted life with his presence. Karl Kling, Axis mechanic, was born on the same day. [**1926**](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1859403): Fascist Italy and the Kingdom of Romania signed a ‘Pact of Friendship and Cordial Collaboration’. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/16/1940): Fascist troops conquered Sidi Barrani. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/16/1943): The German Tenth Army reported that it could no longer contain the Allied bridgehead around Salerno. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/16/1945): The Axis occupation of Hong Kong was over. **2012**: Friedrich Zimmermann, Axis lieutenant, expired. :::
After reusing the [Twoth Reich’s flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Flag_of_Germany_(1867–1918).svg) for merely two years, the Third Reich deprecated it for what would soon become [the most infamous symbol of Fascism.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Germany_(1935–1945).svg) Since World War II, the swastika in the West has become associated with white supremacy and tyranny, and despite [minor](https://reclaimtheswastika.com) [efforts](https://web.archive.org/web/20221127194925/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/visceral-impact-hindus-buddhists-try-to-reclaim-the-swastika-from-its-nazi-taint-20221128-p5c1pi.html) at reclamation (not universally regarded as a worthwhile enterprise), it shall likely remain so for a very long time, especially given the neofascists who are unafraid to show it. It didn’t help that the German Fascists liked to paste this shape on [pretty](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/1934_Wecker_mit_Swastika,_Junghans_Schrambert.JPG) [much](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/"Nazi-Glocken"_in_der_Sonderausstellung_des_Lutherhauses_Eisenach.jpg) [everything](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/WW2_Norway._German_Chirstmas_decorations_stars_baulb_Nazi_swastika_Die_Handgranate_Nachrichtenblatt_der_Division_front_paper_Kriegsweihnachten_1944_memorabilia_Lofoten_Krigsminnemuseum_Museum_2022IMG_7681.jpg) [imaginable](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Swastikatree.jpg). But what was it that inspired them to misappropriate this symbol? Quoting William L. Shirer’s *The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich*, pages [43](https://archive.org/stream/B-001-014-606/page/43/mode/1up)–[4](https://archive.org/stream/B-001-014-606/page/44/mode/1up): >In the summer of 1920 Hitler, the frustrated artist but now becoming the master propagandist, came up with an inspiration which can only be described as a stroke of genius. What the party lacked, he saw, was an emblem, a flag, a symbol, which would express what the new organization stood for and appeal to the imagination of the masses, who, as Hitler reasoned, must have some striking banner to follow and to fight under. > >After much thought and innumerable attempts at various designs he hit upon a flag with a red background and in the middle a white disk on which was imprinted a black swastika. The hooked cross—the hakenkreuz—of the swastika, borrowed though it was from more ancient times, was to become a mighty and frightening symbol of the [NSDAP] and ultimately of [the Third Reich]. Whence Hitler got the idea of using it for both the flag and the insignia of the party he does not say in a lengthy dissertation on the subject in *Mein Kampf*. > >The hakenkreuz is as old, almost, as man on the planet. It has been found in the ruins of Troy and of Egypt and China. I myself have seen it in ancient Hindu and Buddhist relics in India. In more recent times it showed up as an official emblem in such Baltic states as Estonia and Finland, where the men of the German free corps saw it during the fighting of 1918–19. [The Ehrhardt Brigade had it painted on their steel helmets when they entered Berlin during the Kapp putsch in 1920.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1971-091-20,_Kapp-Putsch,_Marine-Brigade_Erhardt.jpg) > >Hitler had undoubtedly seen it in Austria in the emblems of one or the other anti‐Semitic parties and perhaps he was struck by it when the Ehrhardt Brigade came to Munich. He says that numerous designs suggested to him by party members invariably included a swastika and that a “dentist from Sternberg” actually delivered a design for a flag that “was not bad at all and quite close to my own.” > >For the colors Hitler had of course rejected the black, red and gold of the hated Weimar Republic. **He declined to adopt the old imperial flag of red, white and black, but he liked its colors not only because, he says, they form “the most brilliant harmony in existence,” but because they were the colors of a Germany for which he had fought. But they had to be given a new form, and so a swastika was added.** > >Hitler reveled in his unique creation. “*A symbol it really is!*” he exclaims in *Mein Kampf*. “In *red* we see the social idea of the movement, in *white* the nationalist idea, in the *swastika* the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man.”²⁰ > >Soon the swastika armband was devised for the uniforms of the storm troopers and the party members, and two years later Hitler designed the [Fascist] standards which would be carried in the massive parades and would adorn the stages of the mass meetings. Taken from old Roman designs, they consisted of a black metal swastika on top with a silver wreath surmounted by an eagle, and, below, the initials NSDAP on a metal rectangle from which hung cords with fringe and tassels, a square swastika flag with “*Deutschland Erwache!* (Germany Awake!)” emblazoned on it. > >This may not have been “art,” but it was propaganda of the highest order. The [NSDAP] now had a symbol which no other party could match. The hooked cross seemed to possess some mystic power of its own, **to beckon to action in a new direction the insecure lower middle classes which had been floundering in the uncertainty of the first chaotic postwar years. They began to flock under its banner.** (For a brief explanation on why the Germanic Fascists saw theirselves as ‘Aryans’, [see here](https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/1924062).) Samuel Koehne’s [*The Nazis’ use of “Sieg Heil”: A Point of Continuity with the Völkisch Movement*](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278683211): >According to Nicholas Goodrick‐Clarke, some of the leaders in the early *völkisch* movement were interested in the idea that the swastika was especially ‘Germanic,’ leading to the esoteric writer Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (Adolf Lanz) hoisting a swastika flag in 1907.¹³ Indeed, there were a number of antisemitic organisations, including the *Reichshammerbund* (founded 1912 by Theodor Fritsch), which used the swastika as a symbol. This example comes from the Stuttgart chapter in around 1912.¹⁴ > >[There were also ‘Yule’ celebrations by such groups that were held for winter solstice.](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3114948) This is a 1919 invitation issued by the *Reichshammerbund* and another major organisation, the *Deutschvölkischer Schutz‐ und Trutzbund* in Stuttgart.¹⁵ It included both the swastika and ‘Heil!’ (an expression used from 1902 by Georg von Schönerer).¹⁶ > >Neo‐pagan ‘secret societies’ like the Thule‐Society (*Thulegesellschaft*), the Germanic Order (*Germanenorden*) and the Order of Odin’s Children (*Wälsungen‐Orden*) also made use of the symbol. This is an example from the monthly publication of the Germanic Order Walvater in January 1918, the *Runen* paper that declared itself to be ‘for Germanic spiritual revelations and studies’ as well as the ‘pamphlet for the Friendship‐Grade of the Germanic Order’[.] > >The *Wälsungen‐Orden* made use of both the swastika and the phrase ‘Heil und Sieg’ (Hail and Victory, or Salvation and Victory) around 1918 in their newsletter[.] > >There were some common features: the swastika was believed to be a an ‘sunwheel,’ a particularly ‘Aryan’ symbol and an antisemitic sign. These points were reiterated by leading [German Fascists]. Hitler repeatedly argued of the [Fascist] flag that ‘The red is social, the white is national, and the swastika is antisemitic.¹⁷ In his Official Commentary on the NSDAP Programme, Gottfried Feder argued: ‘Our flags of attack (*Sturm‐Fahnen*) flutter before us…Eternally young, radiant and bright the sun‐wheel, the swastika, the symbol of reawakening life, rises before us.’¹⁸ While I have no proof of this, I suspect that it was no mere coincidence that [this was also the day when the Third Reich officially passed the first Nuremberg Laws](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1840544), since one of them reads ‘*§ 4: Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors.*’ --- :::spoiler Click here for other events that happened today (September 15). **1913**: Johannes Steinhoff, Luftwaffe fighter ace and later NATO official, existed. **1919**: Angelo Fausto Coppi, Axis soldier (and cyclist), was born. [**1932**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1932): Ambassador Nobuyoshi Muto and Prime Minister Zheng Xiaoxu signed the Japan–Manchukuo Protocol at the State of Manchuria’s capital Xinjing (Changchun, Jilin Province, China). [**1935**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1935): Fascism’s 1st Submarine Flotilla officially incorporated a unit trained in motored torpedo boat warfare; the new unit was based at La Spezia. [**1937**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1937): The Imperialists took the town of Luodian near Shanghai after four days of attacks. [**1938**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1938): Neville Chamberlain visited Adolf Schicklgruber at Berchtesgaden in southern Germany to discuss Fascist demands on Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain expressed his personal approval for Berlin’s previous demands for Sudetenland, but would need to discuss further with his cabinet and the French. The Chancellery expressed its appreciation and promised that no military action would be taken. [**1939**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1939): The Wehrmacht captured Gdynia, and the IJA’s 101st Division under Lieutenant General Masatoshi Saito engaged in Chinese troops near Mount Lianhua near Gao'an, Jiangxi Province, China, capturing the city shortly thereafter. On the other hand, Tōkyō and Moscow signed a ceasefire that ended the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1940): Fascist submarine *U‐99* attacked Canadian ship *Kenordoc* with the deck gun northwest of Ireland just after midnight, killing seven and wounding thirteen; heavily damaged, Canadian destroyer HMCS *St. Laurent* and British destroyer HMS *Amazon* later scuttled her after the destroyers took the survivors aboard. Fascist submarine *U‐48* sank British sloop HMS *Dundee* northwest of Ireland at 0025 hours; twelve died but eighty‐three lived. At 0123 hours, *U‐48* attacked Greek ship *Alexandros* with a torpedo, slaughtering five yet leaving twenty‐three alive. At 0300 hours, *U‐48* reattacked and sunk British ship *Empire Volunteer*; six died but thirty‐three did not. West of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland at 0605 hours, Fascist submarine *U‐65* sank Norwegian ship *Hird*, but the entire crew survived. At 1130 hours, 250 Fascist bombers with fighter escort crossed the English Channel, with one hundred of them targeting London. At 1430 hours, another 250 bombers arrived in two waves, with seventy of them reaching London. At 1600 and 1800 hours, the aircraft factory at Woolston in Southampton, building Spitfire fighters, took a bombing, but with little damage. The Fascists lost 56 flightcraft and 136 airmen either died or fell into Allied captivity. Overnight, the Luftwaffe conducted heavy bombing raids over Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Southampton. This was the climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated assault of the entire campaign. [**1941**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1941): The XXXXI Armeekorps fought the Soviets in the southwest of Leningrad on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, but Axis soldiers in Paris suffered an assault from local partisans. On the other hand, Axis submarine *U‐94* sank British ship *Newbury* at 0816 hours (all aboard survived but were never seen again), Greek ship *Pegasus* at 2038 hours (sixteen died after lifeboat capsized, yet thirteen survived), and British ship *Empire Eland* at 2348 hours (all aboard survived but were never seen again) eight hundred miles west of Ireland. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1942): Axis torpedoes sunk the Allied Navy aircraft carrier USS *Wasp* at Guadalcanal, and Axis frogmen entered Gibraltar harbor and attached limpet mines on the British ship *Ravens Point*, causing her to sink in shallow water shortly thereafter. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1943): To combat the growing strength of Allied bombing attacks, the Luftwaffe reorganised its air defences into two territorial fighter commands: one in the Greater German Reich and the other in the western occupied territories. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1944): The Battle of Peleliu commenced as the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division and the United States Army’s 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Axis infantry and artillery. [**1945**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/15/1945): Anton Webern, ambivalent Axis musician, expired. **1975**: Franco Bordoni‐Bisleri, Axis pilot, died. **1978**: Willy Messerschmitt, Axis aircraft designer and manufacturer, perished. :::
I first learned about the [Schutzstaffel](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SS_(Nazi_Germany)) nearly two decades ago when I read about *Doom II: Hell on Earth*’s characters. A website succinctly described them as the head of state’s bodyguards, but the Schutzstaffel did more than just protect somebody, or even commit war crimes, which is the likelier reason that you are familiar with them. Members of the Schutzstaffel had a great deal of responsibilities as well as privileges: >**The SS in general had a multitude of duties that included but were not limited to police work, honor guard rôles, concentration camp duties, and eventually combat operations.** The Waffen SS fulfilled the personal guard and army aspect of what the SS would be to the [Fascists] but could also be considered the élite within the élite. If the SS were to be the Third Reich’s general élite then the Waffen SS was the method through which the SS could use an élite group for extreme force. > >John Steiner stated SS members across all sections were encouraged to think of themselves with an “*Elitebewusstsein* (élite consciousness) as a group.”¹⁶ This quote is important when looking specifically at the Waffen SS regarding statements that gave the Waffen SS the title of the Imperial Guard of the [Third Reich].¹⁷ It was very clear that the Waffen SS was designed to be Adolf Hitler’s and by extension, the [NSDAP’s] personal army, police force, and political enforcers. > >Moreover, the Waffen SS was encouraged to take their imperial guard idea beyond the confines of Germany. Historian Evertjan van Roekel stated that the SS had to think of themselves as “the advocate and protector of the Germanic or Nordic race.”¹⁸ This quote shows that **the SS assumed a peculiar hybrid rôle in society. They were intended to serve as a [Fascist] praetorian guard while also serving as the military will of the Germanic race according to [Germanic Fascism’s] ideology.** If this wide variety of responsibilities sounds similar to the knights of the Middle Ages, [that is because it is supposed to be](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4009664): >**The new aristocracy was not new in the sense that it had never been done before. It was new in its combination of élite warriors with a modern fascist régime and the fact that many [Fascists] thought [that] the nobility of old was lost and had to be reintroduced.** There were many references to ancient knights, Vikings, and Prussian imperial guards all of which were respectively considered élite in their native cultures. The naming conventions of certain SS units were indicative of these references. If you ever tried *Wolfenstein 3D*, you likely noticed that the Élite Guard was an abnormally tall (as well as blond and blue‐eyed) foe. At first I thought that this was a quaint reference to the Aryan archetype conceived of by European protofascists, but in fact the Schutzstaffel did have rules pertaining to physique: >The Waffen SS as an élite group had a difficult selection process. **Waffen SS requirements were stringent regarding aspects like height, race, and health. Here is where physical aspects played a part in the general notion of SS élite status. Before the start of the Second World War height requirements for the SS was a minimum of five feet, ten inches** which was noticeably taller than the average German man of military age in the 1930s.²⁶ > >Furthermore, the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler stated “Until 1936 we did not accept a man in the *Leibstandarte* (1st SS division) or the *Verfügungstruppe* (2nd SS division) if he had even one filled tooth.”²⁷ These strict physical requirements established the SS as a physical élite. This naturally made the SS appealing to the physically fit in Germany or young men who saw tall and active men who boxed, ran, rode horses, or competed in other sports. > >The reputation of being tall, strong, and racially pure was just one part of what made the SS achieve its own place in the [Third Reich]. The SS being physically larger and more fit on average made them seem better than other groups in society due to their participation in major athletic events and the publicity that followed. For example, **the SS was involved in the 1936 Olympic Games which shows a certain degree of elevation above normal people.²⁸** Hans Woellke broke the Olympic record in the shot put.²⁹ The Schutzstaffel participated in the Olympics! That surprised me. Now, let us focus on understanding the privileges that came with joining the Schutzstaffel. >**Job security and future career prospects were a large component of volunteering for the SS both domestically and outside of Germany. The long service requirements while a disadvantage for some did provide the potential for years of steady employment. For the volunteers who were not from Germany proper, there was a hope that in their nation of origin, there would be some level of autonomy or favorable job placement in a post‐war context.** > >A case of study for favorable post‐war status is the case of Léon Degrelle, the commander of the Walloon Legion of Belgian SS collaborators.⁴⁵ Degrelle is problematic because he was a member of Belgium’s far‐right Rexist party and was an SS apologist. > >However, in his memoir, there were potentially good outcomes for Belgium to Degrelle and his fellow Belgian SS men. When [the Western Axis] declared war on the Soviet Union there was a need for more men. Degrelle and many Rexists viewed this as the opportunity “to command respect of the Reich” and a chance to win a position of prestige that would be favorable for them after the war when Europe would be reorganized under the Third Reich.⁴⁶ > >These men under Degrelle’s command were eventually deployed to the Ardennes forest in Belgium in 1944 where they were given the task of recognizing Belgium.⁴⁷ Despite Degrelle's complicated past, he and his Belgian SS men believed that for their service they would gain something for Belgium. > >The logic that encouraged Belgians to join the SS also applied to the Dutch. According to historian Evertjan van Roekel, the Waffen SS made membership appealing. **Rationing was common during the period due to the war and the need for supplies but “SS soldiers and their families received supplies as a matter of priority.”⁴⁸ Dutch SS volunteers were also promised that they could receive job training and civil jobs whenever they returned home like their Belgian counterparts.** > >Diary entries from a Dutch SS volunteer named Mr. Luiken states, “They are conscripted into the SS for 6 months. On their return to the Netherlands, they are placed in a secretarial office and, after a longer period of study, may also qualify for higher‐level jobs. My interest has been piqued.”⁴⁹ He wrote this when describing friends who were about to depart for Munich for their SS training. Belgian and Dutch volunteers were told that they would be rewarded for SS service. > >**Aside from jobs, education was a large perk that the SS could offer.** In many countries, different classes have different levels of education. Historians acknowledge this and bring up examples of attempts at “élite” education throughout the rest of the world.⁵⁰ One would think of the stereotypical delineation between public and private schools or finishing academies as a certain barrier that is difficult to cross. While the lines are not always strict, they do represent a distinction in education among class lines. > >The Waffen SS provided a partial bypass on the notion of an educated versus uneducated distinction amongst the classes. The SS created officer cadet schools and worked with the [Fascist] idea of education to foster institutions that would fuel the SS. **Despite the demanding racial and physical requirements, educational requirements were less stringent. Due to a different set of standards, roughly 40% of officer candidates pre‐1938 had an elementary school education.⁵¹** > >While this appears as though the SS was watering down the quality of their officers, this was not the case due to the SS being a form of social mobility. **For those who were racially worthy, it did not matter how educated one was. One could be molded by the schooling that the SS said was a “holistic approach to individual development.”⁵²** > >If a farmer’s son could prove that he was Aryan, not communist, and physically fit, he could go and be educated to move into the new breed of [Fascism’s] élite men. **Upon acceptance to an SS officer school a candidate would learn sports, basic military history, and tactics along with other “élite” activities like fencing and sailing.⁵³** > >[…] > >**Protection from arrest was the most unsavory perk the SS could provide.** Herbert Maeger (1922–present) is the case study for this benefit of SS membership. […] Despite being ethnically German, **his parents were not fans of Adolf Hitler, and this caused tensions when the [Fascists] occupied Belgium. Maeger’s mother openly called Hitler a criminal and a local official pointed out this was “ a very grave matter, and serious consequences could only be avoided by a very broad‐minded course of action.”⁵⁸** > >Maeger recalled that given his situation, **“It would be extremely helpful in this respect if I volunteered for the Waffen SS and my father agreed.”⁵⁹ He joined the SS as a teenager and was assigned to the 1st SS division in exchange for his mother not being arrested.** (Emphasis added.) If you haven’t the time to work your way through a book such as Herbert F. Ziegler’s [*Nazi Germany’s New Aristocracy*](https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D46C82AF37A644390CEC846999EAFD56), this forty‐page document is mostly worth reading. [It is naïve to believe that any Fascist seriously wanted to realize a classless nation](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1233966) (at best, he might have wanted to somehow render class irrelevant), but liberal blemishes aside, you’ll learn a good deal about the SS and why so many men chose to join it. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 14). [**1940**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/14/1940): The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, massacred 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania. [**1943**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/14/1943): The Wehrmacht commenced a three‐day retaliatory operation targeting several Greek villages in the region of Viannos, whose death toll would eventually exceed 500 persons. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/14/1944): The Axis slaughtered eight hundred Romani children (more than one hundred of whom were boys between 9 and 14 years of age) at Auschwitz, and three Axis V‐2 rockets hit Britain. One of them hit the centre of Walthamstow, London at 0455 hours, killing six immediately and another one later from wounds. (The resulting crater was 50′ wide and 10′ deep.) On the other hand, the Axis lost the Netherlandish city of Maastricht and the Italian town of Coriano to the Allies. Lastly, Léon Degrelle received the Close Combat Clasp award in Gold. **1966**: Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, dropped dead. :::
inv.nadeko.net
I should note that the author overstates his case, and his perception of the Soviet Union is… flawed, but you may still find this of some interest. --- :::spoiler Click here for events that happened today (September 13). **1877**: Wilhelm Filchner, Reich explorer, was born. **1885**: Wilhelm Johann Eugen Blaschke, Fascist mathematician, was brought into the world. **1891**: Max Pruss, Fascist captain, arrived on this dust ball. **1899**: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist, stained the earth. [**1936**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/13/1936): Stefano Delle Chiaie, neofascist terrorist, worsened life with his presence. Coincidentally, Berlin promoted Karl Burk to the rank of SS‐Hauptsturmführer and Rudolf Höss to SS‐Untersturmführer as the Spanish Nationalists captured San Sebastian, Spain. [**1942**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/13/1942): Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign: U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Japanese with heavy losses for the Axis forces. [**1944**](https://ww2db.com/event/today/9/13/1944): Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions. :::