ADOLF HITLER
Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the other Muslim League leaders wanted to stir up India's Muslims in order to prevent Indian Independence from Britain unless India were partitioned and the Muslims could have their own nation. At that point the British and the Congress Party of India—the majority political party were both starting to plan for independence. Jinnah and most of the Muslim nationalists did not want to have Muslims in a Majority Hindu nation. To stop it, they first used fear to try and separate the many Indian Muslims who were politically active from their roles in and loyalty to the Congress Party which although Hindu dominated had Muslim members and officials. All the Muslims who were literate were aware of the terrible revelations of the Nazi Concentration Camps and the attempted extermination of all the Jews of Europe. The "party line" of the Muslim League was that once the British turned the government of India over to the Congress Party, they would turn on the Muslims and exterminate them so that India would be all Hindu. There were no such plans or even suggestions be anyone in the Congress party, the paranoia and the conspiracy theory resonated with many Indian Muslims just as conspiracy theories are believed by some people in every society. In this case, the paranoia that was unleashed by the Muslim League would have tragic consequences as with Independence getting closer many Muslims struck out and preemptively attacked and butchered Hindus and Sikhs who retaliated in kind and the butchery went on all through the Independence process and the partition of India to create a Muslim state—Pakistan. Almost 2 million people would be murdered in the sectarian violence that was unleashed.
He had abdicated and was serving as the Governor of the Bahamas at the time. While the public was given the reason for has abdication as his love for a divorced woman, his pro Nazi viewpoints which were not publicly known in England, made him unacceptable and his treason a danger to England at war with Nazi Germany.
There were millions of refugees in Europe trying to escape the Nazi’s. When France fell and collaborators established the Vishey government, the French began rounding up Jews, Gypsies, and others for the concentration camps. They could escape France only if they had a transit visa from some nearby country. Salizar, the Portuguese strongman, currying favor with Hitler, prohibited the issuance of transit visas to Jewish refugees. Some unethical diplomats would only issue visas if large bribes were paid. Sousa Mendes, a devout Catholic, had seen all the desperate refugees in the streets of Bordeaux and decided to issue transit visas despite his government’s orders. He issued 30,000 taking no payments at all and saved tens of thousands of lives. Salizar investigated and demanded an explanation. Sousa Mendez was fired and was not even allowed to practice law. He died in poverty. Later he was posthumously awarded his country’s highest medal and a stamp was issued in his honor. See {67378}.
The Home Front Propaganda Purpose was to maximize industrial production. A norm was developed where anyone relaxing and resting on the home front was looked at askance and made to feel guilty.
In addition to the men who feared communism so much that they ignored the then greater menace of Fascism, there was also a small but influential pro Fascist influence in England which included the King who was forced to abdicate as The Duke of Windsor.
This is the quotation that came to define Chamberlain’s naivety for history and the icon of failed diplomacy. However to see the beginning of the sequence of events that would lead up to this statement, see {585940} when Chamberlain suggested the infamous meeting in Munich. There had been an interesting history to Chamberlain’s appeasement of Germany. 39 years earlier, Chamberlain’s father, then Britain’s Colonial Secretary, and advocated a natural alliance with Germany. See Joseph Chamberlain, 1836-1914: {585939}.
“Lord Haw Haw” was the name that he used in his propaganda broadcasts from Germany to England. Despite the fact that the broadcasts were anti-British and pro German, many in Britain listened to him regularly. He was very witty and many of his criticisms of British society were views held by many patriots in Britain. As pure entertainment, he was better than most of the BBC broadcasts during WWII. At the end of the war, Joyce was captured, tried and executed for treason.
Frau Wagner was one of several agents of Nazi Germany sent to the United States to develop good will for Germany and funds for Hitler. Anti-German feeling was still high from the First World War but America had its share of right wingers like Ford. Hitler and Ford were mutual admirers. See {586988} for Hitler’s view of Ford.
Leval was an appeaser and a collaborator with the Nazi’s. He led the government in name but the Germans really controlled the country. His actions killed tens of thousands of French men and women by turning them over to the Germans. After the Germans were defeated in WWII, Leval was shot as a traitor by the Free French forces. See {587231}, {587228} and {587230}.
In WWII the Nazis invaded Lithuania and packed 30,000 Jews into the Kovno ghetto where they were systematically starved and were shot if they tried to escape. Only 3,000 survived, one of who was a little child, Aharon Barak, who would immigrate to Israel and become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
German-Americans were split before the war into pro and anti-Nazi factions.
Coughlin was a great admirer of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and the Fascists. He was one of the American “heroes” in Nazi Germany, receiving assistance from the Nazi government. Between his anti-Semitism and support for Hitler, Fascism and radical socialism, the Vatican ordered him off the air and shut down his political demagoguery.
The Christian Front was one of the network of Fascist organizations established and controlled by “radio priest” Charles E. Coughlin. In 1940 investigative reporter Lawrence Spivak did an expose of the Christian Front and The FBI raided its offices and confiscated many weapons intended for the assassination of people including a dozen members of Congress. See {588482}.
This was one of the most hateful of his public speeches. He was one of the American “heroes” in Nazi Germany, receiving assistance from the Nazi government. Between his anti-Semitism and support for Hitler, Fascism and radical socialism, the Vatican ordered him off the air and shut down his political demagoguery.
Although Churchill, FDR, and a few other world leaders also recognized this reality, most people, even in America and Europe were not yet knowledgeable about the danger of Hitler and Nazi Germany. What is fascinating is that a theoretical scientists—one whose work had little to do with reality could be that perspicacious to identify major political trends. But Einstein was not only one of the world’s great scientific thinkers but he was a very sophisticated political and philosophical thinker.
Germany was in a catastrophic depression with hyper inflation at the same time. Einstein was one of the few world leaders who realized that as long as Germans had not enough to eat, they were easy prey for demagogues like Hitler and philosophies like Nazism and Fascism.
He had been part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. There were a small group of Anti Nazi Germans during WW II. Carnaris was one. Most were killed.
This would be the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany.
This was Churchill’s first Radio Address as Prime Minister.
Truman had been briefed on the number of Japanese who committed suicide rather than surrender—including civilians—in Saipan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and other locations where United States troops had invaded. He and his experts agreed that the Japanese would not surrender unless there was a new dramatic factor that was outside the usual thinking—the atomic bomb. He was proved right about the warning. Not only did the Japanese ignore it, but they did not even surrender after the nuclear devastation at Hiroshima. It took a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki to motivate the surrender. So even a demonstration with all those Japanese casualties did not cause the surrender until it was repeated.
The FBI was accused of tapping congressional phones and infiltrating college campuses:
Browder, had been prohibited by Court Order from touring the country during the 1940 Presidential Campaign. He personally blamed FDR although the Communist vote was so small that no matter where and how Browder campaigned it would not have made any difference. However, the court order gave Browder the opening leading some to believe that the communist following was larger than it was—why else would the establishment want to keep the campaign limited?
who worked with the Communists. The Communists were to Flip-flop again when Russia needed arms and assistance to fight Hitler when the pact broke down. See {595773}
After a reception given by Lady Astor, Channon wrote in his diary that the “Cliveden Set” {598323} would be criticized because it was in favor of the policy of appeasement. The name came from the seat of Lord and Lady Astor, who were both supporters of the policy. To some the policy was seen as pro-Hitler, but Channon saw it as reasonable and in concert with Neville Chamberlain’s views. Even so, Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement was very controversial. This very policy prevented early Allied involvement in World War II and therefore gave Hitler time to buildup the German military while invading much of Eastern Europe.
The set was in favor of the policy of appeasement. The name came from the seat of Lord and Lady Astor, who were both supporters of the policy. To some the policy was seen as pro-Hitler, but in reality they were supporting the position of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. For more on this topic see {597331} and {597329}
Donovan had been criticized for utilizing "leftists" for intelligence activities. Precursor to CIA. Donavan was a prominant attorney, banker and financier as well as a Medal of Honor Winner when he was asked to organzie the OSS. America was far behind the axis and even our allies in spy craft. J Edgar Hoover focused the FBI on leftists and had veritually no capability for spying in Western Europe and Asia. Donavan's OSS produced almost all of the actionable intelligence and did a wonderful job in organziaing covert operations. He used people who would normally never be considered by an espionage agency including many scholars, intellectuals, scientists, and entertainers. His agents ranged from Julia Child, the gourmet chef. to Moe Berg, a New York Yankee Baseball Player who spoke many languages. Hoover and some if the military intelligence agencies were jealous of his success and his access to President Roosevelt, and complained about anything they could find and hisi agents were an easy target for their wealth, societal connections, sexual indescretions, liberal politics, Bohemians, upper class right wing politics and culture. None of thus phased Donavan. After the war and FDR's death, Donavan's enemies got the OSS disbanded. Soon, something was needed, and the CIA was organized along the lines of Donavan's recommendations.
He defeated Adolf Hitler at the polls in 1932, but the next year he was compelled to yield to Nazi power and appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
The elder Kennedy was an admirer of Hitler and Fascism and was convinced that democracy was finished in England. As the U. S. Ambassador to England, his views—see also {610124} and {610122}—destroyed his own political career in the United States, and he thereafter kept a low profile and maintained his political aspirations through his children.
The meeting between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler in September 1938 marked a marked a change in diplomacy. For one, most diplomacy in the past had been conducted through diplomats and secondly the ability to meet quickly was enhanced through advances in communication and transportation technology.
After Rudolf Hess was found missing, Hitler and others presumed he had become mentally instable and had been seeking a peace agreement with the Allies.
One of the predictions of the oncoming war with Germany.
All German Jewish Citizens were immediately disenfranchised including decorated military veterans.
Hitler ridiculed the letter after receiving it in public speech.
His judgment was as flawed here as with his belief that he had agreed to a peace with Hitler. He completely misjudged and underestimated the Nazi dictator.
Statement when she was told that FDR would run for a third term as President.
Hitler’s concept of a “New World Order” was the Conquest of Europe by Germany and thereafter the control be Nazi Germany. Germany’s ally, Japan, also used the idea of a New Asian Order where peace would be brought to Asia controlled and enforced by Japan.
War between England and Germany had just commenced.
War between England and Germany had just commenced. The last sentence refers to the fact that Hitler had recently signed a peace pact with Stalin to everyone’s surprise as Hitler told the German people over and over that Russia was Germany’s biggest enemy. The pact was only a ruse on Hitler’s part to delay Russia’s entry into the war. Hitler broke the treaty and invaded Russia a little later.
He had publicly been criticizing Hitler and the Nazis in their early years and his wife was concerned that he might be physically attacked. The Queen of Belgium actually assigned bodyguards to protect him. Finally, with a price on his head, he escaped Germany and came to America.
The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, preceded him with the announcement of declaration of war against Germany, but it was left up to the Foreign Minister to explain the implications. This was the first time in history that a nation had used radio to communicate such momentous events to its population.
There was a small but influential pro-Nazi segment of British society which had a small parallel in the United States. Even the Duke of Windsor had pro-German sympathies as did the American Ambassador to England, Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK) see {610119}.
1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. There was a small but significant pro-Nazi faction in England as in the United States.
Accusing her of being a fellow traveler with Communist sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." See {627826} and {619498}. Douglas and her campaign thought the accusations were so absurd that at first they did not even bother to respond. Nixon repeated the them and stayed “on message” and by the time that Douglas, who had opposed communism all her life, was believed to be one or at least a “fellow traveler” by most Californians—and finally she responded with statements like this, but it was way too late to turn public perception around. She awarded Nixon the derogatory nickname “Tricky Dick” which the majority of the public used for him throughout his career--{600036}.
Both Hitler and Stalin were gross egomaniacs who each thought that they had gotten the better of things. The result was that 22 million Russians were killed and the industrial base if Russia Was destroyed. On the German side, the German military was virtually destroyed, many civilians were killed, the nation reduced to rubble and starvation, German leaders were killed, jailed or committed suicide including Hitler, and the country was occupied for years. Neither leader appeared very smart if one judges by the results.
Kaltenbrunner was one of the major war criminals declared guilty at the Nuremberg Trials and hanged. In this message he reported that he personally saw to the murder of Italian Jews and political prisoners in custody. As his defense, he claimed that he was just following orders, and he personally did not kill anyone.
The Nazis persecuted the Freemasons along with the Jews and Gypsies. The rationale was that the Freemasons were traitors and enemies of Germany. There is no record of any organized opposition to the Nazis by German Freemasons. However, it is likely that the older aristocratic German families which tended to join Masonic lodges, were not great enthusiasts about Hitler. For Nazi Germany, lack of enthusiastic support was treason. Kaltenbrunner was one of the major war criminals declared guilty at the Nuremberg Trials and hanged.
The Daily Mail was a very conservative newspaper which supported English Fascist Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts and wrote articles favorable to Mussolini and Hitler before the war. There was a small but powerful part of English Aristocracy who were pro German and pro Fascist including the King, Edward, Duke of Windsor {584507} who was persuaded to abdicate and relegated to the Bahamas where his views were not so public. The Daily Mail catered to that part of the English Aristocracy. See also {623171}
The Daily Mail was a very conservative newspaper which supported English Fascist Oswald Mosley and wrote articles favorable to Mussolini and Hitler before the war. There was a small but powerful part of English Aristocracy who were pro German and pro Fascist including the King, Edward, Duke of Windsor {584507} who was persuaded to abdicate and relegated to the Bahamas where his views were not so public. The Daily Mail catered to that part of the English Aristocracy.
This is an important quotation because it shows that Franco was not only a Fascist but one who supported and approved of Hitler personally and his criminal programs. Most Spaniards have thereafter regretted that the Spanish Dictator could take such a murderous and inhumane position on behalf of the Spanish people. Franco was supported only by some of the very wealthy, part of the military and the Catholic Church leadership. The latter also makes this quotation important, in that it is very doubtful that the Spanish church leaders would support Hitler if the Pope and the Vatican were opposed to Hitler and the Nazis. Yet some Vatican representatives have maintained that the Pope was definitely opposed to Hitler and Nazism, but the evidence for this is not strong. This quotation tends to lend more credence to the Papal critics.
Dodd, in Berlin from 1933 to the onset of WWII, was able to see first hand what Hitler and the Nazi Movement was really like, Although he for the United States and Churchill for England warned early on, the politics of the times would not allow any action to stop or curtail Hitler. America, in particular, had a strong isolationist Republican wing and in addition, a small but loud core of pro Fascist, Hitler admirers such as Charles Lindburg, Father Coughlin, and Henry Ford. America had virtually no serious military capacity at the time, and with the Depression, FDR had all he could do to just gradually build up the military. By the time the Democracies realized that Dodd and Churchill were right, it was too late to prevent WWII. Dodd died in 1940 just when it was clear that he had been right.
He was convicted and jailed for inciting violence. After serving a few years, he was deported to Jamaica. He then went to Africa to preach and was expelled from several countries there.
He had knocked out Joe Louis earlier. Hitler and the Nazi propaganda machine promoted the championship fight to prove their racial policies. Schmelling was Aryan—the Master Race of the World according to the Nazis while Joe Louis, a Black American, was considered to be an untermenchen—a lower man. For the two boxers, this was all nonsense, but symbolically this boxing match was a geopolitical event. Louis won by a knockout in a minute and a half of the first round and for a while the German racial propaganda machine was silenced.
Nostradamus made thousands of prophecies most of which seem not to have occurred as he predicted. However there were a few that some people believe predicted later events. In this case, it is argued that he foretold the rise of Adolf Hitler. The crooked cross was supposed to be the Swastika symbol of the Nazi Party.
The man who was “the best war photographer in the world” but was a refugee from Hungary in New York. The Government actually prohibited him from having a camera and would not give him a visa to go to Europe to cover the War. Finally the government relented from its absurd concept of security and Capa became the leading photographer of the American Army effort in Europe and shot the greatest photos of the D-Day landing. Incredibly, in the McCarthy era, his passport was rescinded by the State Department because he had photographed the Spanish Civil War and was wrongly thought a communist. After legal action he got his passport back and covered Vietnam. While with front-line American troops he was blown up by a mine, the first American journalist killed in the Vietnam war. And the man who the State Department thought disloyal in three wars, was given a military funeral in Vietnam and his family was offered burial in Arlington National Cemetery reserved for American military.
Many scientists were reluctant to work on instruments of death and destruction. Roosevelt and others were so successful that virtually every major scientist in America worked on the war effort including the development of the atomic bomb.
Hitler’s Germany promptly passed the law which was the beginning of their program of human extermination and the Holocaust.
It is amazing what explanations religious and biased fanatics can come up with to explain history.
While England was under attack by the Germans in World War II, Congress was debating Roosevelt's proposal for lend-lease. The president had set the passage of this legislation as his main priority, and a critical meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt was deferred until passage was obtained. Roosevelt dispatched Hopkins to London. Urging a prompt meeting, Hopkins cabled:
Hopkins was a social worker with no military of political experience. But the President trusted him implicitly. Most American military officers and Ambassador to England Joseph P. Kennedy, a Nazi sympathizer & father of JFK, believed that England could not stand up to Hitler. Any military aid we gave England would fall into the hands of the Germans. Everyone was shocked when Roosevelt sent Hopkins to England to make a military recommendation. To impress Hopkins with something he thought Hopkins would be interested in, Churchill led a tour of workers cottages built by the government. Hopkins surprised Churchill and his aids who would never forget this statement & then asked to see the military facilities. Hopkins distressed the American military by recommending that Britain could hold out against invasion if they received military aid. Despite the contrary military advice, FDR accepted Hopkins’ recommendations, and the rest is history. He had been right and much of the military wrong.
- Born: April 20, 1889
- Died: April 30, 1945
- Nationality: German
- Profession: Politician
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming Chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about 6 million Jews and millions of other victims.
