Tom McMahon

Holocaust Graph from Der Spiegel

Holocaust Graph from Der Spiegel

Anne Frank Had a Photo of Actress Deanna Durbin on Her Wall

Anne Frank Had a Photo of Actress Deanna Durbin on Her Wall

Anne Frank pasted pictures of Deanna Durbin (1921- ) to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis where the Frank family hid during WW2. It's amazing to me that someone whom Anne Frank admired is still around today in 2011.

The Last State Funeral of the Third Reich Held May 15, 1945, One Week After Its Surrender to the Allies

The Last State Funeral of the Third Reich Held May 15, 1945, One Week After Its Surrender to the Allies

Charles McCain writing on the funeral of Wolfgang Lüth:

Lüth was charged with securing the grounds of the Marineschule because of the unsettled conditions - to put it mildly - in the vicinity with released POWs, slave workers, refugees from the Soviets, and desperate humanity of all kinds milling about. With the permission of the British Army, which had just moved into the area on Eisenhower's orders to keep it out of the hands of the Soviets, the German sentries were armed. Everyone was tense, everything was uncertain, no one had slept more than a few hours a day for weeks. Lüth and the officers responsible to him in the guard unit took their duties very seriously.

While inspecting the sentries on the night of 13/14 May 1945, Lüth was challenged by a sentry. No response. The sentry, who was only supposed to challenge once then shoot according to Lüth's written orders, nonetheless challenged twice more. Receiving no response either the second or the third time, the sentry fired into the darkness and killed Lüth with a shot to the head. ...

In what I personally find sickening and inexplicable, Kapitan zur See Wolfgang Lüth was then given a full state funeral, conducted by Dönitz in his uniform of Grand Admiral, with an honor guard of six U-Boat commanders - five days after the Germans surrendered to the Allies. This last state funeral of the Third Reich was carried out with the permission of the local British commander. With swastikas abounding, the last tawdry spectacle of this criminal régime was conducted. On 23 May 1945, Dönitz and all members of his government, including the reptilian Albert Speer, were arrested by the British and the Dönitz government dissolved. ...

In July 1945, the German state was dissolved by an inter-Allied declaration. It would not be until 15 March 1991 that the four victorious Allied powers: Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States would renounce all rights they had in Germany by virtue of the original armistice and of edicts issued by the Allied Control Commission after victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. Only then, was the German state finally able to be fully sovereign on their own territory.

The Story of McHale's Navy's PT-73

From imdb:

The vessel used for shots of the PT-73 under way was a 72-foot type II Vosper MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat), a British design built under license in the U.S. for export to Russia. The war ended in August 1945 before the boat, the real number of which was PT-694, could be sent to the Soviet Union. The boat was then purchased by Howard Hughes and used as a chase boat for the one and only flight of his Spruce Goose aircraft. The boat was then sold to the studio - as there were few other real PT boats left in existence at the time - and some liberties were taken in reconfiguring it to look like a PT Boat. Vosper PT's did not have machine gun turrets on either side of the pilot house (though ironically the real PT-73, a Higgins design did) as the PT-73 in the show did. Other irregularities are the main mast aft and a small mast right in front of the cockpit. Shots of the crew aboard the PT-73 were filmed on a full-scale mock-up in a soundstage. "PT-73" was later sold to the mayor of Hawthorne, California, and was converted to a sport fishing boat. It was later destroyed when it broke loose of its mooring near Santa Barbara and washed up on the beach during a storm. The real PT-73 was a 78-foot Higgins boat assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13, which saw service in the Aleutians and in the Southwest Pacific theater. On 15 January, 1945 it ran aground, and was destroyed to prevent it falling into enemy hands.

You can read about Ernest Borgnine's 10 years in the real Navy here.

Hermann Goering on The de Havilland Mosquito, The Most Versatile Plane of World War Two That Was Made of Wood

The quote:

It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminum better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I’m going to buy a British radio set – then at least I’ll own something that has always worked.

The aircraft was the brainchild of Geoffrey de Havilland, the design and industrial genius behind the de Havilland Aircraft Company in Great Britain. He was a first cousin to actresses Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine – who were sisters. Their father and Geoffrey’s father were half-brothers.

George Soros, Nazi Collaborator

The summary:

When the Nazis took total control of Hungary in 1944, the Holocaust followed. In two months, 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to death camps.

To survive, George, then a teenager, collaborated with the Nazis.

First he worked for the Judenrat. That was the Jewish council set up by the Nazis to do their dirty work for them. Instead of the Nazis rounding up Jews every day for the trains, they delegated that murderous task to Jews who were willing to do it to survive another day at the expense of their neighbours.

Theodore hatched a better plan for his son. He bribed a non-Jewish official at the agriculture ministry to let George live with him. George helped the official confiscate property from Jews.

By collaborating with the Nazis, George survived the Holocaust. He turned on other Jews to spare himself.

This is the guy who funds Media Matters and just gave $1.8 million to NPR.

World War II General Electric War Department Standard Indoor Blackout Bulb

World War II General Electric War Department Standard Indoor Blackout Bulb

Liberators: 1944 German Propaganda Poster

1944 German Propaganda Poster

Interesting use of every cliche in the book, from the Ku Klux Klan to Jitterbugging Negroes. 

August 19, 1939, 11 Days Before The Start of World War II: The Daily Telegraph Reports Heavy Buying of Copper and Rubber by the Germans

August 19, 1939, 11 Days Before The Start of World War II: The Daily Telegraph Reports Heavy Buying of Copper and Rubber by the Germans

The Home Front: A Really Terrific World War II Radio Documentary

The Home Front: A Really Terrific World War II Radio Documentary

From AudioBookVault:

The stirring drama of the war years, told through voice and song by people who lived it. The Home Front is an audio program prepared for radio broadcast. It is a composite of songs, music, newscasts and commentary that presents a view of the years 1938-1945. It even includes pauses for commercials, “We’ll be right back. . . .”

Three veteran broadcast journalists share the narration. The recordings of famous people’s voices, from Princess Elizabeth speaking to the children evacuated from the London Blitz to Humphrey Bogart delivering lines from Casablanca, are the highlights of the series. The script of historical events is blended with original soundtracks of movies, Broadway shows and news broadcasts. 1985 radio documentary.

This would be great to listen to on a long drive. While not available on CD, you can find the used cassette version on Amazon.