Berlin in July 1945 in color

[Jaga]

amazing footage:




BERLIN CHANNEL
Published on Apr 28, 2015
That's how it looked like just after the German surrender! Fascinating moving pictures in color show the situation of the city in summer 1945 and daily life in the ruins.

[karl]

Jaga

An example of the reasons I hate war, the destruction of such cities as Berlin in as well as all other such cities as in your Poland, all for no good reason.

At least in this year of 1945 the streets are clean and the Brandenburg Gate left intact.

Karl

[pieter]

A few months earlier

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

What I find the most disturbing of these video's is the things you don't see. The Berlin jews that were brought to Gestapo cells and concentrationcamps and before that had to witness the Kristallnacht, the Berlin opponents of the Nazi's (Social democrats, German conservatives, German communists, German Christian democrats, people of the Bekennende Kirche -the Confessing church-, German liberals), the innocent Berlin citizens who died during the mass bombardments of allied bombers and during the heavy battles between the Sovjet Red army, and the Polish army on the Sovjet side on one side and the fanatic Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht and Volkssturm and Hitlerjugend units that were fighting until the bitter end. The innocent that were killed, maimed, raped, hanged or tortured by the Nazi's or the advancing Stalinist Sovjet forces, Red army and NKVD (secret police) forces. I see these images and also think about Polish and German women that were raped in Poland and Germany by Red army soldiers and officers. And I think about these ppor German men and boys who wanted to give up a useless fight and were hanged or shot dead by fanatic Waffen-SS, Gestapo/SD men or Nazi member Wehrmacht or Hitlerjugend fanatics who wanted to fight a useless fight for a useless system for a rediculous leader, who sacrified Germany for his own mecholomanian dream, genocidal hatred (the Holocaust/Shoa) and the destruction he caused for Germany itself and Europe.

The brutality of war. Hatred, fury, resentment and revenge were unleashed on the Germans by Russians, Poles and Czechs, but especially Russians was understandable but terrible.

[pieter]

[karl]

My self am not so sure as to what to say or answer in reply to this presentation, but it needs be shown and remembered for the terrible years of the war. For those that choose not to see with their eyes or their mind, if once again such a situation should arrise as of that war in repeat, they will suffer what the dead now will not tell.

For whilst in my early teens, my self did hate quite openly ever Russian born in this world for the loss of my father. It was only after Auntie had a long talk with me, was I to understand war and those that lost love ones. For also was uncounted numbers of Russian families, husbands, wives, fathers, and sons, also lost love ones.

There is an very old saying that perhaps is not so old, but one that comes to mind:

{He who fights monsters should see to it, that in the process, he him self does not become a monster}


Karl

[Jaga]

Karl,

this footage often show regular people and how they had to live through this time after war.

+++
For whilst in my early teens, my self did hate quite openly ever Russian born in this world for the loss of my father. It was only after Auntie had a long talk with me, was I to understand war and those that lost love ones. For also was uncounted numbers of Russian families, husbands, wives, fathers, and sons, also lost love ones.
+++

sorry for that

[pieter]

Karl/Jaga,

Due to very old Dutch and Polish family I am and was connected to people who witnessed the First World War, the Interbellum crisis years (from 1929 until halfway the Thirties) and the Second World War. I always heard family stories from the twenties, thirties and forties, and in the same time got some information and knowledge of my families life in the destroyed Europe of the late forties and early fifties (the rebuilding years we call them, with the Marshall help plan in the Netherlands and Germany), and later the more normal years of the late fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. Ofcrourse the seventies and eighties I witnessed myself. The fact that my parents, grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles, aunts and uncles experienced that war in the Netherlands and Poland in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Poznań, the Augustow region (Tworki), Lwów, Siberia, Katyn (a murdered family member who was a Polish officer), and survived Market Garden, Monte Casino, The Warsaw Rising, the Battle of Poznań (24 January – 23 February 1945) . The battle of Poznań left over half (90% in the city center) of Poznań severely damaged by artillery fire and the effects of infantry combat in the city blocks. Somehow my Polish family in Poznań managed to survive, maybe because one of the family members was half German. This uncle wasn't pro-German, but via his German connections (like the German family firm) he could do something to help at least the Poznań family. Of course during the war there was no normal transport like you have today. No highways, no fast train connections and no direct connection between Warsaw and Poznań. In administrative Nazi terms, within the Nazi occupation Poznań and Warsaw were part of different Third Reich administrative zones, which functioned like Gau's, like a sort of autonomous zones with borders.

Poznań was part of Reichsgau Posen, and later Reichsgau Wartheland (Warthe being the German name for the Warta river). After the invasion of Poland, the conquered territory of Greater Poland was split between four Reichsgaue and the General Government area (further east). The Militärbezirk Posen was created in September 1939, and on 8 October 1939 annexed by Germany, as the Reichsgau Posen, with SS Obergruppenfuhrer Arthur Greiser as the only Gauleiter.


SS Obergruppenfuhrer Arthur Greiser, Gauleiter of Reichsgau Wartheland

Back to my Polish family in Poznań and Warsaw. The Warsaw family in the General Government area was under the rule of the sadist Generalgouverneur Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) and Staatssekretär Josef Bühler. The the General Government was closed off as a autonomous part of the Third Reich in which the Nazi looting colonising policies were implemented. Poles from Warsaw couldn't travel freely to Reichsgau Wartheland, but the Nazi authorities of Reichsgau Wartheland ethnically cleansed Reichsgau Wartheland of many ethnic Poles replacing them with Volksdeutsche from the Baltic lands. Thank god my Poznań family was spared that faith.

The name Reichsgau Wartheland was introduced on 29 January 1940. Although every Gauleiter was expected to fully Germanize his assigned area by any means, Greiser emphasized brutality to achieve this goal. He was an ardent racist who enthusiastically pursued an 'ethnic cleansing' program to rid the Warthegau of Poles and to resettle the 'cleansed' areas with ethnic Germans. This was along the lines of the racial theories espoused by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Mass expulsions of Poles from the Warthegau to the General Government and summary executions were the norm. A Polish servant in Greiser's house described him as "a powerfully built figure. He was a tall man, you could see his arrogance, his conceit. He was so vain, so full of himself—as if there was nothing above him, a god, almost. Everybody tried to get out of his way, people had to bow to him, salute him. And the Poles, he treated them with great contempt. For him the Poles were slaves, good for nothing but work". Greiser himself stated his beliefs: "If, in past times, other peoples enjoyed their century-long history by living well, and doing so by getting foreign peoples to work for them without compensating them accordingly and without meting out justice to them, then we too, as Germans want to learn from this history. No longer must we stand in the wings; on the contrary, we must altogether become a master race!".

Greiser, with the encouragement of Reinhard Heydrich and Martin Bormann, launched a severe attack on the Polish Catholic Church in Wielkopolska and Poznań, his Reichsgau Wartheland. Properties of the Polish Catholic Church in in Wielkopolska (Reichsgau Wartheland) and funds were confiscated, and lay organisations shut down. "Numerous clergy, monks, diocesan administrators and officials of the Church were arrested, deported to the General Government, taken off to a concentration camp in the Reich, or simply shot. Altogether some 1700 Polish priests ended up at Dachau: half of them did not survive their imprisonment."



Poznań's Jewish population, which had numbered 2,000 in 1939, was largely murdered in the Holocaust. Property belonging to expelled or murdered Poles and Jews was often given to Volksdeutsche resettled from Baltic States, Eastern Europe and central Germany. Figures for 1944 show 94,000 Germans living in Poznań.

By 1945 nearly half a million Germanic Volksdeutsche had been resettled in the Warthegau alone among the areas annexed by Nazi Germany while the Soviet forces began to push the retreating Nazi forces back through the Polish lands. Most German residents along with over a million colonists fled westward. Some did not, due to restrictions by Germany's own government and the quickly advancing Red Army. An estimated 50,000 refugees died from the severe winter conditions, others as war atrocities committed by Soviet military. The remaining ethnically German population was expelled to new Germany after the war ended.

I have a Polish jewish cousin in my mixed Polish-Roman Catholic and Polish-Jewish family. In this family there was never a single discussion about religion, ethnicity, Catholic or Jewish, they were all Poles. Only after the collapse of communism I found out. I wonder how my Polish jewish family survived the war, but I probably will never find out. Because also the tragic, dramatic and harsh past of the Roman-Catholic family is largely a mystery to me. Probably it was so heavy, tough and dark that family members during communism in Poland and in the USA (the Polish branch that moved to the USA to escape Stalinist Poland, because they were Western allies, Poles who went to England and fought on the Western front and Italy - Market Garden and Monte Casino, after having survived Siberia and the long tough journey throught the SovjetUnion to Iran, Palestine, Northern-Africa (Egypt) and to the UK from there, and then got their tough training in Scotland before being sent to Europe for their final battles before the war ended).

My babcia (Polish grandmothers) memoires is called "Eleonora Kotowicz WWII Uprising Memoires July 1944 - Februari 1945" and tell her story about that period from the start of the Warsaw Uprising to her transport to Austria to Mauthausen Concentration camp, her escape from Austria (with risking her own life, by driving illegaly by train from Austria to Poznań), and the dangerous situation in the family country house in the periphery of Poznań, where half hysterical, exhausted and extremely retreating Germans looted and murdered a neighbouring farmers family in their farm, and where she by miracle was reunited with her husband and their daughters. Due to the Warsaw rising the family was split in three. During the rising the parents stayed in their apartment in Mokotow and their daughters went to a summer childrens colony in a nuns monastery, where they stayed for months. At the end of the Warsaw Uprising their parents were forced into a Waffen-SS selection process. Men and women were separated. Young men were executed in mass executions. My grandfather (dziadek Jozelf Kotowicz) avoided being executed when he changed place from a row of young men to a row of old men. The young men were killed shortly after.

Eleonora Kotowicz WWII Uprising Memoires July 1944 - Februari 1945

Chapter 1 Wille The Be an Uprising

July 1944

"In July 1944, the Russian Army approached Warsaw. Rumors were being circulated about the eruption of the Uprising. They were spread confidentially from person to person... Germans began to evacuate the residents from Warsaw. The Underground press, which was available to us regulary, was much more effective in relaying information than the government press and mail. From the press, we concluded that the Germans were gathering in the Warsaw area and organising a new division of military. This made us realize that we may be facing battle in Warsaw. Polish local youth from the schools and universities(formed underground schools) and young labourers normally belonged to various Underground organisations. These groups gathered together, discussed the situation, read the secret press, studied the military regulations and learned how to defend themselves. They did this on excursions to the outskirts of Warsaw... and waited for further orders from the elders. We knew about this from the elders by way of rumors, because the "conspirators" did not share the information about the Uprising with the closest members of their own families. However, we knew that the sons of our cousins Olus P. and Yurek W. belonged to the Underground Military Organisation.

Around the middle of July, we learned that in the very near future the Russian (Red) armies would be approaching Warsaw and the Uprising will begin. Towards the end of July, the news reached us that the date of the Uprising was postponed. At the same time, we were aware that the military front was approaching the border of Warsaw. We didn't need to to read the German press and Underground Press. It was enough to ride a street car to the Praga or Grochow (which were districts of Warsaw) to hear the sounds of distant explosions. Through the bridges of the Vistula (Wisła) River, particulary the Kierbedz Bridge, one could see the remnants of the beaten and overpowered German army. There were German military horses vehicles and farmer's carriages which were confiscated. The horse's harnasses were from Kraków, Bialorus with many distinctive features. The marching German soldiers were visibly tired, exhausted, and some were missing equipment and uniforms. Many men had bandaged heads, body parts and some were also limping. Others needed to be driven in carriages. It was very difficult to recognize the well equipped, well nourished, clean shaven army which a couple of years ago marched through Jerozlimskie Avenue and Poniatowski Bridge, heading east to the SovjetUnion.

We were fearful that that the battle of Warsaw will seperate us from our daughters Marysia (later the Polish American aunt of Pieter Maria Kwasieborski Rybak from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, mother of Pieters Polish American cousins Eva Melenchuk and and Mary Kazmierczak) and and Alina (the mother of Pieter) Kotowicz who were on summer Vacation (colony/camp) organised by the Immaculate Conception Sisters. The Summercamp was organised by the sistersfor their pupils form the school. They met in private homes in small groups. We decided to visit with our daughters and say good-beye during the time when the communication was uninterrupted and supply them with additional clean clothes and toiletries. To get to Pruszkow located 16 km (9.94194 miles) from Warsaw was not hard; we needed take the commuter rail to the suburbs of Pruszkow. We walked 3 km (1.86411 mile) through the railroad tracks near the repair shops and continued past Zbikowa Street. The house were the camp was located was approximately 2 km (1.24274 mile) away. The house was separated from the street by a large amount of bushes and trees, therefore, was not visible from a distance. Behind the house was and orchard and a vegetable garden. On the other side of the street stood a church that was frequented by children for Sunday mass. The house contained bedrooms, a kitchen, several utility rooms and living quarters for the sisters that were closed off to the children."

So it was hard for my grandparents to say good beye and leave their children in Pruszkow. The Warsaw Uprising would separate them from their daughters and they only would see them back in Poznań in 1945, not knowing from each other if they had survived the war.

My babcia wrote:
"At home in Mokotow in Warsaw, my husband Jozef Kotowicz was saying two large German Tiger tanks arrived that day in the area neighbouring our house. Located on the other side of the street, were the German (Wehrmacht) barracks. This was great cause of concern because we until today we had never seen the tanks. Evidently, the Germans forsaw the possibility of the uprising and were preparing based on communication from their information of the Polish Underground. Indeed the next day, August 1, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising did begin. The tanks were moving in the first minutes of the battle. We lived in Mokotow at Kazimierzowska Street and the corner of Rakowiecka in Warsaw. Our apartment was on the 3rd floor. From the the forth room at the back of our apartment we could see the brick wall that was about 4 or 5 meters in height and behind it stood the Mokotow prison."

Wikipedia writes about Mokotów Prison: "After the invasion of Poland, the prison became part of the German District of Warsaw, in the borough, reserved for the German administration of the General Government and the German occupational army. The prison was one of several prisons of the Gestapo in Warsaw. It housed Polish politicians, freedom fighters, resistance workers and ordinary people caught in łapankas on the streets of Warsaw. The site became infamous due to constant torture of the inmates. It was known as one of the places of no return (Nacht und Nebel), from which the only way out was to the execution site, or to a German concentration camp. It was also a place of detention of innocent hostages, taken by Germans as punishment for actions by the Home Army. Later they were killed in mass executions announced publicly.

During the first hours of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the prison was attacked from the outside by the WSOP platoon of the GRANAT group of the Home Army. The partisans successfully broke into the prison and liberated approximately 300 inmates. However, they did not manage to capture the entire prison and were soon counter-attacked by the SS forces stationed nearby and forced to retreat. As a reprisal, the SS and Wehrmacht murdered approximately 500 inmates. Until the end of the uprising both the prison and the area of Rakowiecka street were held by the Germans, despite numerous attacks by the Home Army. After the Uprising the German District was spared the fate of the rest of Warsaw and survived the war in a relatively good condition."


Home Army soldier armed with Błyskawica submachine gun defending a barricade in Powiśle District of Warsaw during the Uprising, August 1944

My grandmother writes about the prison: " From our windows, you could observe the prisoners walking around in circles around the courtyard and others looking through the cell windows. The prisoner's families would come come to our staircase to make contact with their loved ones. The other wing of our house (apartment building) was connected with the top of the prison's brick wall. On the North side of Rakowiecka Street there was a large building many stories high in which the Germans established their barracks for the Waffen-SS troops and called it "Staufer Kaserne".

Thanks to our location in the German District during the whole period of the Second World War, we could observe smaller and larger marching German troops with or without arms, with a song or without.


Waffen-SS troops enter Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising

It became known to us that there will be a medical station in our apartment building organised by the Underground (Armia Krajowa, AK, the Home Army). During the start of the Uprising my grandparents and the other people in their apartment block (tenants) went into the cellar. My grandparenst began to load their boxes with various valuables, clothing, food and other necessary items to be taken down to the cellar. My grandmother wrote: " In the cellar, we attempted to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Some of us sat on chairs, others sat on items that were brought down from the apartments. Fortunately, the adults were used to the war experiences of the days of September 1939. The air raids during the German occupation were capturing innocent men on the streets, storming apartments of innocent citizens, and other cruel contact with the German occupation.

Several minutes after the onset of street fighting, the German tanks left their barracks and were seen on the streets shooting near our windows. The vibrations were felt in our shelter and the loose paint fell from the ceiling. One could hear the officers shouting commands to their soldiers and it was difficult to determine what language was used. There was no doubt that the insurgents were attacking and the fighting was occuring in the neighbourhood of our building. The Polish soldiers of the Armia Krajowa (AK) attempted to capture the German barracks but to no avail. We were listening to the the sounds of the street battle with great intensity. On the morning of August 2nd, it was peaceful in our neighbourhood. We could go back to our apartments, open some windows. Some of them were missing glass. Women made breakfest in their apartments upstairs. I could hear the battle raging from the central city the left and from Mokotow to the right. One would hear artillery, hand grenades or just shots being fired.

When my grandmother (babcia) visited her best friend who was heartbroken over the situation in the city and because her husband hadn't returned yet she took a great risk going outside. After staying a while with her best friend, she decided to return to her husband who didn't know where she was."

My Grandmother: " I came out of the courtyard and in fear I saw German SS soldiers in the gateway. I had to pass them because there was no other way I could get back. One of the soldiers stopped me and inquired where I was going. I explained and despite that, I was ordered to stay with them. I then situated myself next to the SS men and at that moment from our building at Kazimierowska Street the rounds of gunfire started. The bullets penetrated the wooden gate and ricocherated off the wall near me. The Germans an I found ourselves covered with paint particles and dust. The soldiers took cover under the opposite wall. I tried to hide on then staircase leading from the gate to the to the apartment of the caretaker but the Germans wouldn't allow me to. They were saying "Your bandits are shooting, so stay here with us." From their barracks I heard, I heard another series of gunfire erupting. One had a feeling that there were several machine guns in operation. I was terrified. I felt that at any moment I could be shot or killed. I prayed and examined my conscience. I was ready for death and in my thoughts I said my farewells to my husband and children. It seemed to me that this incident lasted much longer, like an eternity. In reality it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes. Then gunfire became less intense and ceased completely. The attack was terminated, the Poles backed down toward Mokotow. The silence was overwhelming. After a while, the Germans let me go into the street with my hands raised up like a prisoner and let me into the vicinity of the barracks. I was escorted by SS men who surrounded me completely. From the other homes of Pulaska and Niepodleglosci Streets the Germans led groups of inhabitants towards their headquarters.


Members of the SS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger fighting in Warsaw, pictured in window of a townhouse at Focha Street, August 1944

There were physical sings of recent military activity. You could see scattered bullet casings from the sub machine guns and several other varieties of weapons. Further on Kazimierszowska Street several bodies were lying in the road. There was a house burning next to ours. On the other side of the street there was another fire, next to which stood a garage repair shop. In the background of the Kazimierszowska Street there was a dense smoke, the air was slightly dim and the visibility was poor. There was an overwhelming smell of destruction and burning. "

I stop here. The rest of the memoires my grandmother writes about the SS gathered the Warsaw population of her neighbourhood and probably other parts of Warsaw, that men and women were segregated, the she saw her husband again and that they had to say good beye, not knowing if they would see each other ever again, if they would live or die. Her husband survived the selection by changing row, moving from the young men row to the row of old men who were spared. The young men were killed, because they were executed. Being a young Pole in that moment, and that particular time and place in Warsaw ment death.

With a group of Warsaw women my grandmother was put on a train by the SS guards, and transported to Austria to Mauthausen concentration camp. Because she was a Polish Roman Catholic woman she survived doing slave work for Austrian farmers, and experiences some of the awful, brutalities, inhuman behavior and suffering of people from various countries from Europe. In early 1940, many Poles were transferred to the Mauthausen–Gusen complex. The first groups were mostly composed of artists, scientists, Boy Scouts, teachers, and university professors, who were arrested during Intelligenzaktion and the course of the AB Action. Camp Gusen II was called by Germans Vernichtungslager für die polnische Intelligenz ("Extermination camp for the Polish intelligentsia"). But mind you that also German and Austrians suffered in that camp. Until early 1940, the largest group of inmates consisted of German, Austrian and Czechoslovak socialists, communists, homosexuals, anarchists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons and people of Romani origin. extermination through labour of the intelligentsia – educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II.

My Polish grandmother said that the Polish women suffered, but told me that the jews, gypsies and Sovjet Red army soldiers had less chance than the Polish women, because they were starved to death, by hard labour and no food or very limited food. The Polish women were forced labourers and had to watch out how they behaved, whom to trust and whom not to trust. Inside and outside the camp you had vicious, mean, rotten, indoctrinated, poisonous, inhuman, xenophobe, racist, fiercely anti-semitic, anti-Polish (Anti-slavic), superior acting, unpleasent, dogmatic, and fanatic Austrian and German Nazi's. German and Austrian SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) officers and guards (SS soldiers/SS concentrationcamp guards) of Mauthausen concentrationcamp. Men like Obersturmführer and (later) SS-Standartenführer Franz Ziereis, SS-Obergruppenführer August Eigruber and SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) Georg Bachmayer (August 12, 1913 – May 8, 1945) who served as the Schutzhaftlagerführer, with responsibility for prisoners while they were inside the Mauthausen concentration camp. Next to these men you had the other SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) officers and guards (SS soldiers) and the Kapo's who made the lives of the camp inmates a living hell. My grandmother met a German communist in the Konzentrationslager Mauthausen (August 1938 – May 1945) who was in the camp since the beginning. On 9 August 1938, he, with other prisoners from Dachau concentration camp near Munich weas sent to the town of Mauthausen in Austria, to begin the construction of a new slave labour camp. After that he stayed in the concentration camp and met my grandmother there in late 1944. The most brutal thing my gradmother witnessed in Mauthausen was the following: "The Russians (Sovjet Red army soldiers) proceeded up the hill in formation surrounded by SS officers armed with guard dogs and whips in their hands. Those lagging behind were hurried along with whips and attacking dogs. I saw with my own eyes when the dog attacked the Russian jumping on the up on the poor man's chest and knocked him down and started tearing him apart. I could not look at this horrible sight and I turned away and left. It was totally inhumane. The Russians probably lived at Guzen at the bottom of the mountain where our camp was located. The camp was a sister camp to Mauthausen. The formations of soldiers carrying the stones could be seen several times a day. You could see they were hungry and the Polish women tried to treat them with soup from the camp that they wish not to consume. The Russians were grateful and in a hurry to repour the soup into their own containers which were attached to their waist and consumed their meal ravenously. We felt much compassion toward these people. Their fate was much worse than ours and the prisoners of the dreaded Mauthausen camp."

My grandmothers number in Mauthausen concentration camp was number 2164.

Her story about the Russian rore apart by guard dogs reminds me about the story I read about Georg Bachmayer in Wikipedia. I really wonder of my grandmother had seen Bachmayer And if that murder of the Russian by the SS guard dogs was carried out by Bachmayer at that moment? We will never know, but the stories seem to be similar.

Georg Bachmayer



Georg Bachmayer (August 12, 1913 – May 8, 1945) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände who served as the Schutzhaftlagerführer, with responsibility for prisoners while they were inside the Mauthausen concentration camp, he also oversaw granite production in the quarry. In this position he also inspected the satellite camps and supervised the construction of the Ebensee camp. He was considered a brutal sadist.

"Bachmayer was clearly a sadist. His speciality was to set two mastiff-like bloodhounds (one in 1944 "Lord") on inmates, which would literally tear them to death. This was known in camp jargon as ‘dying from the dog’s kiss’. The real cause of death from a medical point of view was usually general sepsis, if the inmate didn’t die immediately of heart failure. Of the thousands of inmates that Bachmayer himself killed or tortured, just two cases are mentioned here. One day the evening roll call in block 20 didn’t tally and one inmate was missing. In block 20 the unfortunate victims of Action K were housed under special security measures [...] where they were left to die of hunger. When the missing inmate was noticed, all the other inmates in the entire camp were first required to fall in and remain standing in the roll call area. At the same time a search was initiated and the missing inmate was ultimately found in one of the normal inmate blocks where he had hidden in the hope of avoiding starvation. When Bachmayer received the report that the inmate had been found, he was standing by chance next to the undersigned. He began to tremble with gleeful excitement and said half to himself ‘I’ll batter this one to death myself’, which he then proceeded to do." Gerhard Kanthack, former German government official and political prisoner at Mauthausen (AMM V/3/20)."


SS-Totenkopfverbände Schutzhaftlagerführer with another SS-Totenkopfverbände officer in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria

Several examples of Bachmayer's brutality are described by Vasily Bunelik.

Bachmayer committed suicide nearby Prihetsberg (Austria) on May 8, 1945 after shooting his wife and two children.

Presenter Pieter

[pieter]

Jaga and Karl,

I want to ad to that my grandmother also met empathic, human, decent Austrians in Austria, but like Germany Austria was infected, poisoned and indoctrinated by the deadly Nazi virus of Ultra-Nationalism, Germanic superiority feeling (Pan-Germanism), biological anti-semitism, hatred for Slavic people, mixed with the specific brand of the German and Austrian National Socialist movement, an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement, emphasizing the will of the charismatic dictator (Adolf Hitler, the Führer) as the sole source of inspiration of a people and a nation, as well as a vision of annihilation of all enemies of the Aryan Volk as the one and only goal of Nazi policy. In that Nazism had a strong emphasis on instinct and the past, and its proclamation of the rights of Friedrich Nietzsche’s exceptional individual (the Übermensch [“Superman”]) over all universal law and rules. My grandmother met Roman Catholic Austrians during the war in Austria that were clearly conservative or liberal Austrians. They were shocked by the stories they heard about occupied Poland and the Nazi attrocities against the civilian population there. Because Poles were fellow Roman-Catholics they felt empathy for the christian, Roman Catholic Polish women. Decent Austrians from a human and unversalist perspective would also have objected they terrible treatment of Jews, Roma- and Sinti people, Gays and Lesbians, Jehova Witnesses, Free Masons, Social Democrats, Communists, Russians and the conservative and liberal opponents of Nazism.

The Nordic, Ayrian, Germanic Übermensch [“Superman”] was White North-West and Central European, tall, blue eyed, blond and strong and dominant. In Adolf Hitlers vision Scandinavians, Germans, Austrians, Swiss people, Dutch people, Flemish people and Anglo-Saxon English people from the United Kingdom, the English people from Great Britain belonged to that Aryan, Nordic, Germanic race who should be dominant and rule Europe and the world through colonalization. The Germanic Übermensch (“Superman”) was superior over the non-Germanic Untermensch. The Nazi imperialistic and colonialistic started Second World War was a race war next to a geopolitical, traditional and military one. Because colonalisation and extermination was part of the war effort and planning.

Untermensch (German pronunciation: underman, sub-man, subhuman; plural: Untermenschen) is a term that became infamous when the Nazis used it to describe non-Aryan "inferior people" often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs – mainly Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians. The term was also applied to Blacks, Mulattos and Finn-Asian. Jewish people were to be exterminated in the Holocaust, along with the Polish and Romani people, and the physically and mentally disabled. According to the Generalplan Ost, the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder in the Holocaust, with a majority expelled to Asia and used as slave labor in the Reich. These concepts were an important part of the Nazi racial policy.

When I look back at the causes, development and damage National Socialism caused to Germany and Europe I first look at Germany. The first victims of the German far right individuals and organisations that would merge into National Socialism via organisations like Freikorps, SA and SS were Germans. I think about the assassinations of the German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922), the German politician and pacifist Hans Paasche (3 April 1881, Rostock – 21 May 1920), the German publicist and politician, Reich Minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920 Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921), and the German independent Socialist (USPD party politician) Karl Gareis (* 14. November 1889 in Regensburg; † 9. Juni 1921 in München). The Social Democratic SPD politician Philipp Scheidemann (26 July 1865 – 29 November 1939) was assaulted on 4 June 1922 with prussic acid in the eyes, but escaped mostly unharmed. His attackers were members of the ultra-nationalist, antisemitic and anticommunist terrorist organization Organisation Consul (O.C.) which wasactive in Germany from 1920 to 1922. The murders of Walther Rathenau, Hans Paasche, Matthias Erzberger and Karl Gareis were also carried out by far right assassins of the Organisation Consul. Organisation Consul was formed by members of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps unit which disbanded after the Kapp Putsch failed to overthrow the German Weimar Republic in March 1920.


Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, banker, intellectual, and politician, who served as German Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.


Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a German publicist and politician, Reich Minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920. Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and as authorized representative of the Reich government signed the armistice between Germany and the Allies. He was assassinated in 1921 by the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul.


Hans Paasche (3 April 1881, Rostock – 21 May 1920) was a German politician and pacifist. He was the son of the Reichstag vice president Hermann Paasche and Lisi Paasche, and was married to Gabriele (Ellen) Witting. An Imperial Navy officer and combative pacifist, Hans Paasche was also a big game hunter and nature conservationist, explorer of Africa and life reformer, alcohol abstainer and vegetarian, author and revolutionary. His brief but active life was marked by attempts to change the Prussian Deutschland-über-alles military mindset. His assassination was ultimately decreed by the ultra-nationalist death squad Organisation Consul. In 1920, at the age of 39, he was shot by a commando of sixty soldiers from District Command III while supposedly trying to escape. The soldiers had mounted the operation under an anonymous call with the pretense of finding a hidden weapons cache, which was never found. Few were prosecuted and none were convicted.


Karl Gareis (* 14. November 1889 in Regensburg; † 9. Juni 1921 in München) war Fraktionsvorsitzender der USPD im bayerischen Landtag und fiel vermutlich einem von zahlreichen Fememorden während der Weimarer Republik zum Opfer.

After Rathenau's murder, the Organisation Consul (O.C.) became the Viking League. Related to it was the Olympia Sports Association (Sportverein Olympia).

The Viking League eventually became related to the Nazi SA (storm troopers), but apparently by 1923, Hermann Göring writes that the Viking League had "declared war against the party and the SA". In 1934, Ehrhardt was on the list of people to be killed by the Nazi party during the Night of the Long Knives purge, but he escaped, and was later invited back to Nazi Germany. O.C. members went on to serve in the Nazi Schutzstaffel and were hailed as "heroes of the national resistance" under the Nazi regime.

The terror of the Nazi SA storm troopers during the twenties and thirties intimidated, wounded, maimed and killed many German citizens who were opposed to the Nazi's or simply belonged to another political movement, political party or Union. During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 not only many SA men were killed but also other non-Nazi conservative and other opponents of Nazism. The concentration camps that were built during the thirties housed many German Social Democrats, communists and other opponents of the NSDAP party and regime of Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich.

German political prisoners the first victims of Nazi Germany


German nazi propaganda posters of Dachau concentration camp, June 28th 1938. German prisoners before the Second World War in the Third Reich.


German political prisoners before the Second World in Dachau concentration camp, July 20th 1938.


German political prisoners before the Second World in Dachau concentration camp, June 1938.


German political prisoners in Dachau concentration camp 1933


Heinrich Himmler inspects Dachau concentration camp. Next to him a very German looking political prisoner of the camp. This is an inspection of Dachau Concentration Camp on 8 May 1936. Wonder if this prisoner left from Himmler has survived the war?

I also think about the victims from Nazi Germany who were conscientious objectors and thus refused military service in the Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe or the the National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, NSKK) due to their objections to the imperialist, racist, xenophobic and racist war of Adolf Hitler, and because they opposed Hitlers and Himmlers genocidal anti-semitic and anti-Slavic Holocaust policies which was aimed at the systematic killing of jews and Slavic elites. I think about the Bekennende Kirche (Dietrich Bonhoeffer 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945, Martin Niemöller 14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984), people like Wehrmacht general Hans Paul Oster (9 August 1887 – 9 April 1945), the German diplomat and intelligence officer Hans Bernd Gisevius (14 July 1904 – 23 February 1974), Wehrmacht Oberst Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944), Generalmajor Henning von Tresckow, Generaloberst Ludwig Beck (1880 – 1944) and one of the leaders of the conservative widerstand movement in Nazi Germany, the monarchist conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945). Goerdeler opposed some of the anti-Jewish policies while he held office and was opposed to the Holocaust. As a conservative and self-proclaimed follower of the Bismarckian tradition, Goerdeler was opposed to what he considered the extreme radicalism of the Nazis and was fearful of what the results of Hitler's foreign policy might be.[3] From 1936, Goerdeler worked to build an opposition faction out of his circle, comprising mostly civil servants and businessmen.



The German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Clemens Augustinus Emmanuel Joseph Pius Anthonius Hubertus Marie Graf von Galen (16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946), better known as Clemens August Graf von Galen, was a an active and brave opponent of the Nazi regime. During World War II, Galen led Catholic protest against Nazi euthanasia and denounced Gestapo lawlessness and the persecution of the church. He was appointed a Cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.



I have great respect for die Weiße Rose, the White Rose, the non-violent, intellectual resistance group in the Third Reich. The White Rose was led by a group of students and a professor at the University of Munich; the students Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Kurt Huber, a professor of philosophy and musicology. The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies. They denounced the Nazi regime's crimes and oppression, and called for resistance. In their second leaflet, they openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. By the time of their arrest, the members of the White Rose were just about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red Orchestra. Today, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and worldwide.







I am very positive about most Germans, Austrians and Swiss Germans today, because they are part of the Democratic and Free world, defending humanistic (Human rights ideas), equality of peoples, the democratic principle of Separation of Powers (Trias Politica), Checks and Balances, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of organisation, Freedom of movement, coexistence of the European Peoples in Europe without wars, irredentism, imperialism, expansionism (governments and states who expand their territory, power, wealth or influence through economic growth, soft power, or the military aggression of empire-building and colonialism), Drang nach Osten, militarism,Ultra-Nationalism, Pan-Germanism, superiority feelings, being pedantic (smarty ; clever-clever), snobbish and too dominant. A positive form of mild Bundespatriotismus (German Federal Republic Democratic Patriotism) has replaced an aggressive Prussian militaristic nationalism, National Socialism and the East German National Communist state Patriotism. Germans love their country, are proud of the financial and economical achievements of Democratic Germany and their place in Europe. They are critical about their government and know that they are different than other Europeans as Germans with their German language, culture, science, technology, German products (Made in Germany) and German Human Capital. I hope that the German-Polish relations could improve in Central-Europe, and would find it a good idea when Austria would join the Visegrád Group to strenghen the V4 (Visegrád Four).

Cheers,
Pieter

[karl]

Sept 1, 2019 4:33:21 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Karl,

this footage often show regular people and how they had to live through this time after war.

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For whilst in my early teens, my self did hate quite openly ever Russian born in this world for the loss of my father. It was only after Auntie had a long talk with me, was I to understand war and those that lost love ones. For also was uncounted numbers of Russian families, husbands, wives, fathers, and sons, also lost love ones.
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sorry for that

Jaga

Thank you for your polite reply, for with my own, was not in the original spirit of your presentation, and for this, my own was remiss by virtue of emotional feelings that have little place here.

For as not being in post war Berlin as for one thing, I was much too young at end of war, and did not live in Germany but in that stead, Denmark. My only knowledge was in years after, of hearing and reading about how the people had survived.

What I do know is we were very much fortunant in Denmark for we lacked very little other then such things as sugar and bananas. We had plenty to eat by our own means being in the midst of farming and fishing. Being also of Frisian, the German occupiers of our land and then the British military also fairly well left us alone. The Brits though did bring to our school, school books in English, each of us children were given two pencils, one tablet which we guarded with our lives. It was then we were to learn English.

A little trick we children used to play on the British was when approched by any of them who spoke to us in Dansk, we replied in Frisian. We later were corrected about this in school and of course my self, Anikka and Adrianna caught it from Auntie at home. This was from that time on an absolute no no to never do that again.

I realize of drifting from your subjet...

With the Berliners of post war in their rubble city, would do as what most people would do in that time, do with what they had and make it work. Obtain food and clean water, find what ever shelter, care for them selves and surviving family. Form work groups with what ever equipment could be found and make usable and clear off the rubble to begin rebuilding.

The following professional url perhaps describes much better the work of the Trümmerfrauen:

www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/berlin-s-rubble-women-did-much-of-the-post-war-work-1.2205344



karl

[pieter]