The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Four

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Five/C
"The End of Hitler's Reich" Part Three

In 1945 in western Germany, the Allies gradually pushed back the German defenders, crossing the Rhine River at Remagen in March. By April, a large German force was encircled in the Ruhr industrial region. With Berlin temptingly lying east of their advancing forces, the Allies chose not to risk a drive on the German capital, leaving the job to the Red Army. In Italy, the Allies finally dislodged the stubborn German defenders in northern Italy, and the Germans surrendered there in early May 1945. German forces in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands also surrendered in May.

In mid April, the long awaited Soviet offensive against Berlin commenced. With tremendous superiority in men and equipment, some Soviet units broke through the beleaguered German line in quick fashion, although not without losses, but the German line directly in front of Berlin along the Oder River held out temporarily, with substantial casualties inflicted upon the Red Army. The German forces held some high ground, and they tenaciously defended it against the Soviet attack, but the inevitable breakthrough came, and the Red Army forces headed for Hitler's capital. The decimated German forces, a mixture of regular army units and Waffen SS forces,* fell back toward Berlin, where Nazi diehards organized Hitler Youth and old men to try to hold the city. While the fighting was very bloody, from street to street, and building to building, the outcome was never in doubt, although Hitler held out hope that a German force south of the city would break through the Russian lines to relieve the capital. This was just another of his fantasies, and the German attack made little headway. The last known pictures of Hitler were taken as he ventured above ground to the Chancellery garden to decorate some Hitler Youth boys for their fighting against the Soviets in the streets of Berlin. There was just no shame by this man or his regime; sending children into combat.

News came that Mussolini had been caught and executed by Italian resistance fighters in northern Italy. The "Duce" and his entourage were then hung upside down from girders for Italians to revile, which they did, often spitting on the dead fascists. For Hitler, already determined not to fall into Soviet hands, Mussolini's death and exhibition convinced him beyond any doubt that suicide was the only way out. He married his long time mistress, Eva Braun (not pronounced "brawn," but rather pretty much like English "brown," its close relative, and with the same meaning), who had arrived from Bavaria. Interestingly, the German public really did not know about her, as that information he been strictly controlled by the Nazi propaganda machine. Hitler dictated his will to his secretary, in which he named a new government to take over after his death. Still the hate spewing psycho, he ranted about how Jews had instigated the war and about how the German people had proven themselves to be too weak by not winning the war. Not long after their marriage, Hitler and Eva retired to his room, and killed themselves. The Russian forces were only a couple of blocks away. The German commanders surrendered Berlin a couple of days later, and German military leaders surrendered for Germany a few days after that. The nightmare, while not over, was beginning to subside.

* The Waffen SS was the "militarized" or "armed" force ("Waffen"="weapon," and is closely related to the English word) part of the vast Nazi SS organization, with a number of its units being considered elite. The early units had all been volunteers and composed completely of Germans, more specifically Reich Germans; that is, Germans born and raised in Germany or Austria. During the early war years, the Waffen SS expanded, and it took volunteers from other countries, most often initially from "Germanic" countries, like the Netherlands, Flanders (see note), Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Later still, it recruited Germans who had not been born in Germany or Austria, called "Volksdeutsche," typically from places like Slovenia, Croatia, Rumania, and later Hungary. Eventually casualties were so high, the SS began drafting men instead of relying strictly upon volunteers. By mid war, the expansion of the Waffen SS included men who were neither German, nor Germanic, but rather Latvian, Estonian, Russian, Italian, French, Walloon (see note), and even Albanian and Bosnian Muslims! (see note 2) The Waffen SS was noted for its toughness and combat prowess, with some exceptions, but it was also known for atrocities, as many of its members were steeped in fanatical Nazi ideology.

(Note 1) Belgium essentially consisted of two main groups of people; the people of Flanders, called Flemings, who spoke a Germanic language, now usually referred to by linguists as a dialect of Dutch, and who comprised roughly 60% of the population, and of the French dialect speaking Walloons, who comprised slightly less than 40% of the population (Germans comprised the remaining small percentage).

(Note 2) Much of Albania and Bosnia had been occupied for quite some time by the Turks, who were Muslim. The Turks forcibly converted some of their subjects to Islam, thus the Muslim population of these areas.

WORD HISTORY:
Want-This common verb traces back to an Indo European base "wen(o)" or "weun," with the general notion of "to leave, to abandon," and by extension, "be lacking, be empty." This gave Old Germanic "wanaton(an)" meaning "to be lacking." This then gave Old Norse "vantr," with the meaning "to lack, to be lacking." English borrowed the word in the late 1100s as "wanten," with the same "lack" meaning. Gradually the notion of "lacking something" took on more of the meaning "desire for something 'lacking,' " and that "desire, wish," meaning has carried through to modern English. From what I could find, Icelandic and Faroese, both North Germanic languages descended from Old Norse, still have "vanta(r)," meaning "lacking." The other Germanic languages, including Old English already had similar words with the same general meaning of "lack(ing)." See "Word History" in next article, "wane," a relative of "want," and "wan" is "likely" a relative from the notion of "lacking color," but its history is more than a little sketchy; thus, I put the quotation marks around "likely." 

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Five/B
"The End of Hitler's Reich" Part Two

The Soviet offensive of the summer of 1944 took the Red Army to the gates of Warsaw and to the northeastern German border in East Prussia. It also cut off about a quarter of a million German troops in Latvia. Hitler, ever the nutcase, refused to evacuate these troops by air or sea, insisting they were holding a springboard for his next offensive into the northern Soviet Union. Given the state of the German military, it just shows how detached from reality this man was. This large body of German troops continued to hold out in Latvia until the end of the war; thus removing them from the defense of Germany.*

In January 1945, as the "Battle of the Bulge" was winding down, the Red Army launched a massive offensive against German forces in Poland and in the German province of East Prussia. Soviet troops advanced into German East Prussia, besieging the provincial capital of Königsberg. A major breakthrough in Poland sent Red Army troops racing across Poland toward the former Polish Corridor territories, Silesia, Danzig, Posen, and the pre-war German-Polish border. German refugees streamed westward in an attempt to escape the clutches of the Soviets, who were in the mood for vengeance.** Given the weather conditions, the clogged roads, and the speed of the Soviet advance, many of the refugees never made it. Others managed to get to ports along the Baltic where they were transported by ships to territory still under German control.***

When the Soviet offensive halted, the Red Army had reached the Oder River, at one point only about 45 miles from Berlin. The Red Army also entered Auschwitz (in Silesia), seeing first hand the atrocious criminal behavior of the Hitler regime. After the failure of his offensives in the West, Hitler returned to Berlin, where he lived in his extensive underground bunker, rarely going above ground.**** While the Nazi authorities still preached victory and "wonder weapons" ("Wunderwaffen") that would be unleashed to save Germany, Germans awaited the end, although even at this point they had to be careful not to fall victim to Nazi execution squads, which sought out Germans making "defeatist" remarks, or old men who did not take up arms to defend the Fatherland. Incredible! The criminality continued to the end. Extermination camps and execution squads, that's what such fanaticism can bring. It was sheer lunacy! The end of this lunacy was near, but it would not be painless.

* Before the war ended Hitler consented to a few units being transported out of Latvia to help with the defense of Germany.

** A number of Germans, including from the Baltic states and the Soviet Union, had been resettled in former parts of conquered Poland. They now had to pick up and run for their lives.

*** A prewar Nazi Party vacation ship, the "Wilhelm Gustloff," was used to transport refugees and troops out of the former Polish Corridor area via the Baltic Sea. In January 1945, it was loaded (actually overloaded), primarily with refugees, but also with military personnel. A Soviet submarine torpedoed the ship, sinking it. No one knows the actual number of dead, as not all passengers were properly recorded. This was January, and the water was extremely cold, so many of those who survived the explosions died in the frigid water, but nearby German vessels did manage to save some people. Estimates of the dead, however, run to over 9000 (it was a huge ship somewhat on the order of some of today's cruise ships).

**** Hitler's famous bunker was built beneath the Reich Chancellery (Reichskanzlei) complex. There were still functions held within the actual Chancellery, but Allied air raids limited activities there.

WORD HISTORY:
Police-This noun traces back to the Indo European root "pol/pel," with a general meaning of "fortified place on high ground." This gave its Greek^ offspring "polis," which meant "city" (cities were often fortified back then, and 'high ground' offered even more protection). Latin borrowed the notion of "polis" as "politia," but with the meaning "city administration." French had the word from its Latin roots as "police," but it retained the "administration" meaning until the early 1700s, when it came to be used in reference to "law enforcement." English borrowed the word in the 1500s, with the "administration" meaning, and it wasn't until the late 1700s that it began to take on the "law enforcement" meaning, which wasn't complete until the mid 1800s. The other Germanic languages, except Icelandic, borrowed a form of "police," as their word for this law enforcement branch, and German and Low German Saxon have "Polizei," for example.

^ Greek is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. English has acquired a number of words either directly from Greek, or by way of Latin, which borrowed extensively from Greek, as in the word "polis," above.

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Two

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Five/A
"The End of Hitler's Reich" Part One

The Germans withdrew many of their armored units from the front line in western Europe. Why? Allied intelligence reports indicated the Germans were preparing to defend their homeland, and after the tremendous losses in Normandy and the retreat across France, they were trying to replenish their units for a last stand. This proved to be wrong, as Hitler planned a major offensive against the Americans. He hoped for something of a repeat of 1940's stunning victory over France by breaking through the American lines in the Ardennes region,* as German forces had broken through the French lines at that time in the some region, but this time, unlike in 1940, his armies would turn northward to capture the port city of Antwerp, and thus split the Allied forces, with mainly British and Commonwealth forces to the north, and American forces to the south. With the prospect of the war continuing, the Allies might then negotiate, or so the logic seems to have been. If he could get a treaty with the Western Allies, he then could turn all of his forces against the Soviets. While much of this was nonsense, even a straw floating on the surface looks good to a drowning man.

The plan was daring, but essentially unrealistic. First, the Allies had announced previously that they would only accept "unconditional surrender" from Germany. Historians have debated whether this was the proper Allied policy, as it gave the Germans little choice but to resist, and it gave the Nazis lots of fodder for their propaganda machine to keep the German public behind the war. The memory of the armistice in November 1918 and the subsequent Versailles Treaty made Germans wonder what would be in store for them with "unconditional surrender." The Nazis answered the question for Germans by saying the victors would destroy Germany (as if the Nazis weren't already doing so). There's no question in my mind that Nazi leaders absolutely feared for themselves, for once the victorious powers learned of the extermination camps and the multitude of other atrocities committed with the knowledge, support, and often, the direct participation of the various Nazi leaders, severe punishment would be called for. Trials would certainly follow Germany's defeat, and they knew it.

Further, in 1940, German tanks were much lighter and more agile. By late 1944, German tanks, while some of the best produced by any nation during the war, were necessarily much heavier. Why is this important? Because the Ardennes is a hilly, forested area with a limited number of narrow roads. The region is largely countryside, with small villages dotting the landscape. These heavy tanks would have to navigate these narrow roads in order to get through the American lines and then race for Antwerp. Not only that, heavier tanks meant more fuel consumption, and that meant more vehicle traffic along those same narrow roads, as the supply units sought to keep the tanks and motorized units rolling forward. And then too, in 1940, the German army was well trained and fresh. By late 1944, after suffering hundreds of thousands of casualties on all fronts just since summer, German units, especially infantry and motorized infantry units, were badly under strength. Replacements were often quickly rushed to front line units without full training, and a fair number of these men had been transferred from naval units or from the Luftwaffe, where they no longer fulfilled a necessary role, but morale then also became a problem. Additionally, experienced officers at every level had suffered heavy casualties which could not be easily replaced. Unlike 1940, the Luftwaffe did not rule the skies, and Allied aircraft would be able to pounce on moving German columns, especially along those narrow roads mentioned above. All in all, it just wasn't 1940.

One thing was like 1940. Like the French, the Americans "assumed" the Ardennes would be a "quiet sector," due to the difficult terrain. It was lightly held, and some of the units there were just recently arrived in Europe and did not have much combat experience. Other units had experience, perhaps too much so, but just as the German units had to be replenished due to casualties, these American units received replacements, but again, these were not experienced men. Now these forces would have to face a major German offensive, and while it was not 1940 again for the German army, the Germans were still deadly. Also, weather conditions during that time of year would help keep Allied planes from hovering over the battlefield, giving the German forces one less problem, although it turned out to be only a temporary respite.

The attack came on the morning of December 16, 1944. Hitler had moved to a temporary headquarters in western Germany, near Bad Nauheim in Hessen, to oversee the offensive. The German forces penetrated American lines in places, but not all, and the clogged roads proved to be a major headache for their armored and supply units, as I noted above. Thousands of Americans were killed or surrendered, but thousands held out, especially at a key road center, the town of Bastogne. Try though they might, the Germans could not dislodge the Americans, and eventually the offensive sputtered to a halt. The maps showed a huge "bulge" in the American lines where the Germans had broken through, and to the Western Allies the battle thus became known as "The Battle of the Bulge."

In early 1945, the Germans launched another, but smaller, offensive in Alsace, but it too soon broke down. A daring air attack by German fighter planes often flying below radar struck Allied airfields on January 1, 1945, and while there was limited success in destroying aircraft still on the ground, the Luftwaffe suffered further irreplaceable casualties, while the Allies quickly made up for their losses.

* The Ardennes lies largely in eastern Belgium, including the German populated area of Eupen-Malmedy, but also in a portion of northern Luxembourg.

WORD HISTORY:
State (Status)-This noun goes back to the Indo European root "sta," which meant "to stand, be standing." This gave its Latin offspring "stare" (not the same as the English word), also meaning "to stand," which produced the derived "status," meaning "how things stand, condition." Status was borrowed from Latin into English in the late 1600s as a term for a person's "legal standing." It has since expanded in meaning beyond the legal sense to "person's or matter's condition," as in, "What's the status of my online order?" "State," a derivative of "status" ("What's the 'state' of my online order?") was borrowed into English in the 1200s. The idea of "the ruling power of a country, or region, government," came from the idea of "the condition of the nation." This then came to be applied to the "government." The verb form of "state," "to say things," came from the noun, and ties in with the word's basic connection with the meaning "stand;" thus "place words in a standing order," or "put words on the record," and the derived word "statement" still typically carries the notion of being "official" ("The mayor issued a statement"). German also borrowed the word "state" (with the government meaning), as "Staat" (Low German and Dutch use the same spelling). Other Germanic languages have similar words, also from borrowings.

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-One

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Four/B
"German Heroes: The Plot Against Hitler"

Resistance (German: "Widerstand") to Hitler and the Nazis was not easy for the average German, nor any German for that matter. Spies reported the least little things to Nazi authorities, and this could result in imprisonment or even death for the perpetrator. Here is where fear also took over. By instilling fear in people, Germans were careful in just about everything they said, and some undoubtedly even reported "unwise" statements to the authorities made by neighbors, fearful that if they didn't report it, and the person who made the statement was found out anyhow, they themselves might be implicated. It was a vast circle of fear. It is not easy for most people to oppose their own country, and Germans were much the same, especially once the war started. Still, some searched their souls and decided that resistance to Hitler and criminality was more important than Germany's war effort under the Nazi regime. And again, there was always that fear of being found out. During the war, Sophie Scholl, her brother, Hans, and a friend, Christoph Probst, were arrested for distributing leaflets at the University of Munich urging Germans to resist the Nazis and the war. They were "tried" before a Nazi court (see below) and beheaded shortly after the sentencing. There are several memorials and honors to this young courageous German woman and the other young Germans who tried to fight evil, and who gave their lives doing so. I hope all of you will be interested enough to read more about these German heroes, or to watch the movie, "Sophie Scholl-The Final Days," a German language movie, with English subtitles. (Note added 12/8/22: To be clear, opponents of the Nazi regime were NOT perfect people, and I doubt that any of them will ever be proposed for sainthood. Many had been supportive of Hitler until the war turned against Germany, while others were opposed to Hitler much earlier, especially around the time of the crisis over the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia; but even then, one of the main objections to Hitler was that he was going to get Germany into a war it was not prepared to fight. Some were outright Nazis. So, there were seldom, if ever, any high sounding ideals, rather for military people it was a very simple and practical feeling that the country was not ready to fight a major war. On the other hand, the reality with these people was, they chose to oppose Hitler, at whatever time during his rule, under very dangerous circumstances, and indeed, many paid with their lives for their decision. Would we rather that they had remained loyal to the fanatical furious Führer?)  

The military was in something of a different category. With many German officers coming from the nobility, there was a tendency by these men to look down on some of the Nazi thugs as, well.... THUGS! Highly respected by the German public, officers enjoyed sort of a club of their own; thus, much of the organized resistance to Hitler came from the German military, with some government officials also involved. General Ludwig Beck, one of the early opponents of the regime, resigned prior to the war, when he felt Britain and France were too timid in dealing with Hitler. He may have resigned his military position, but he remained active in conspiracies to remove Hitler from power, including the option of assassinating the Nazi leader. As the war went down hill, military officers knew first hand that Germany stood a good chance of losing the war, no matter what all the Nazi propaganda told the public. They also knew a good deal about atrocities committed by Germans as part of Nazi policy, especially in Russia. Still, they had sworn an oath to Hitler personally, and that oath was not easily overcome by many, even with the knowledge that the oath had been given to a criminal.

There were various plots against Hitler, but the most famous plot came very near to killing him. It took place on July 20, 1944 at Hitler's military headquarters in northeastern Germany, near Rastenburg, in the province of East Prussia. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg* carried a bomb inside his briefcase into a military conference that day. He was to give a report at the conference, but excused himself "for a phone call" just moments before the bomb went off. The bomb, activated by acid that ate through a trip wire, exploded under the conference table, but Hitler was only injured; one of the other officers having moved Stauffenberg's briefcase to the other side of the stout table support so he could see the maps better.** Stauffenberg left the compound and flew to Berlin fully believing Hitler was dead. Other conspirators in Berlin and elsewhere (including Paris and Vienna), mainly army officers, awaited confirmation that Hitler had indeed been killed. Some Nazi officials were taken into custody in various locations across Germany and in occupied territories. A group of army soldiers was sent to arrest propagandist Joseph Goebbels, but Goebbels cleverly put a call through to Hitler, who told the officer in charge, Major Otto Remer, that he was very much alive, and that the officer and his troops were to arrest the conspirators instead. With Hitler still alive, the plot fell apart. Later that night, Hitler addressed the German nation by radio from his headquarters (the speech had been recorded by Hitler earlier and then transported from the headquarters for broadcast). Secret agent reports showed the attack to be generally unpopular with the German public, which saw the attack as "unpatriotic" in a time of war (fascists LOVE to wrap themselves in patriotism and claim that acts specifically against them are actually acts against the country).

Stauffenberg, Beck, field marshals, generals, mayors and hundreds of others were executed as a consequence. Those arrested were put on "trial" before the Volksgerichtshof, the so called "People's Court,*** led by fanatical Nazi judge, Roland Freisler, who screamed insults at defendants. The proceedings were filmed, as were the resulting executions.

Anyone suspected of having participated in, or having known about, the plot, was arrested. Field Marshal Rommel's name was mentioned by some conspirators under interrogation, although apparently he was not actively involved, and his family later maintained that Rommel wanted Hitler arrested, but did not support killing him. Whatever the case, Rommel, home on leave to recover from injuries,**** was visited by German officers who brought an ultimatum with them. Hitler gave Rommel the choice of killing himself, and being given full military honors, as having died from his wounds, or of being arrested and tried, in which case there would be no guarantees for the safety of his wife and son. Some choice! Rommel chose to take his own life, and Hitler at least kept his word. Rommel was given a hero's funeral, with none other than Field Marshal von Rundstedt, the most respected of German generals, giving a eulogy. Rundstedt, upon later learning the truth about Rommel's death, lamented that he had believed the Nazi story that Rommel had died of his injuries.

As I noted above, please read more or watch documentaries or docu-dramas (one of the more recent ones starring Tom Cruise) to learn more about these German heroes. Historians usually choose to dwell upon all of the negatives about the Germans during the Nazi period, with good reason, and I know I have too in these most recent articles, but we can't forget that there were Germans who tried to stop the madness that had enveloped their country. They saw evil and they tried to stop it. We all should be very proud of them. It is not without reason Germans have placed a memorial plaque at the site of the executions of Stauffenberg and four others of the main conspirators against Hitler. The heading to the plaque reads: "Hier starben für Deutschland" ("Here died for Germany"); it then lists the names of the men: Colonel General Ludwig Beck; General of Infantry Friedrich Olbricht; Colonel Claus Count Schenk Von Stauffenberg; Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz Von Quirnheim; First Lieutenant Werner Von Haeften.   

* Stauffenberg, who also carried the noble title "Graf;" that is, "Count," had been severely wounded in North Africa in 1943, losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye, over which he wore a black patch. No one could claim he hadn't sacrificed for his country, but he made the ultimate sacrifice by opposing Hitler, as he was executed in Berlin early on July 21, 1944, on orders of General Fromm, the commander of the Replacement Army, which was headquartered in Berlin.

** The military conferences normally took place in a concrete bunker, but it was being refurbished and strengthened against potential air attack. On July 20th the conference was held in a wooden conference room, with the windows open, due to the heat of July. Various experts have noted that Hitler, and probably all present, likely would have died if the conference had been in the usual concrete bunker, as the force of the blast would not have easily escaped, which is what happened with the wooden conference room and open windows. As it happened, four people died out of more than 20 in the conference room, and Hitler only suffered some contusions and bruises, plus a damaged eardrum.

*** The "People's Court" was a Nazi invention. It was set up early in Hitler's rule to get around the legal court system in place under the Weimar Republic. It was truly a "Nazi court system," and few people were ever acquitted after going before this court, with the verdicts in most cases, being determined beforehand.

**** Rommel was the commander of a German army group in France. In July of 1944, during the Normandy campaign, his staff car was strafed by an Allied aircraft. The car crashed and Rommel suffered severe injuries, especially to his skull and face.

WORD HISTORY:
Plot-This word is a mystery word. It appears in English circa 1000, although that doesn't necessarily mean it didn't exist in spoken English before that time. Where it came from is unknown. Its recorded history shows that initially it meant "parcel of land," a meaning still present in English to this day. From this meaning also came "a plan of grounds, a map." In this meaning, the "plan" part became the part that stuck, and from the notion of "calculating the dimensions for a map or sketch," we have its meaning, "scheme, plan" and also, "a story line, the major plan of a book or script." The verb was derived from the noun in the 1500s. It appears the English word was reinforced by French "complot," which had the general meaning "plans joined together (often secretly)." This was borrowed from French in the 1500s, and its ultimate origins are also unknown, but it goes back to "compeloter," with the meanings "com"="combine," and "peloter"="ball;" thus "combine into a ball, put together." In English, undoubtedly under the influence of the native word "plot," the "com" prefix, denoting "combined, joining," was dropped from the French borrowing. German too borrowed this word from French, as "Komplott," and it means "a plot, a scheme."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Four/A
"The End Draws Near"

While Germany was under heavy aerial bombardment and its military was in retreat in much of Russia by mid 1944,* the fact is, Hitler still controlled much of Europe, but that was about to change. The Allies captured Rome on June 4, 1944 and the Germans retreated to northern Italy where they again dug in and held the Allies back until near the end of the war.**

Along the coast of western Europe the Germans awaited the Allied invasion. In early June, terrible weather conditions stretching from Britain and into northwestern France convinced German leaders that the Allies could not launch an invasion at that moment. In a daring decision during a respite in the bad weather, General Eisenhower, the overall head of Allied military forces, gave the order for the invasion to proceed. On June 6, 1944 Allied forces landed in the Normandy area of France. Field Marshal Rommel, the German commander in that area, away in Germany for his wife's birthday, a decision taken because of the bad weather, rushed back to France to lead the German defense, but any chance of preventing the Allies from gaining a major foothold had already been lost, and the Germans shifted plans to trying to contain the Allied invasion. After nearly two months of bloody fighting, the Allied armies broke out of Normandy and headed for the German and Belgian borders. Paris fell to the Allies in late August. Meanwhile in southern France, the Allies carried out a second landing and, facing much less determined resistance than in Normandy, advanced northward toward Germany.

In Russia, just a couple of weeks after the Allied invasion of France, the Soviets launched a massive offensive against German forces located primarily in White Russia (Belorussia, now largely Belarus). The Soviets overwhelmed the badly outnumbered Germans and raced for Poland. By the time the offensive halted, the Red Army stood just outside of Warsaw, and the Germans had suffered somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 killed, wounded or captured. In Warsaw, Polish freedom fighters rose against the German occupation, expecting help from the nearby Red Army, but the Soviets did nothing, and the Germans ruthlessly crushed the uprising.***

Further, the Red Army broke into Rumania (also spelled "Romania"), a German ally, and that country surrendered in August, and then declared war on Germany. Finland, another German ally, signed an armistice in September. Bulgaria, another German ally, also declared war on Germany under Soviet pressure.****

Back in western Europe, the Allied drive toward Germany began to sputter, as supply lines lengthened and German resistance stiffened. In an attempt to bring the war to a conclusion before winter, the Allies tried a daring operation in mid September. They carried out large paratroop operations in the Netherlands (still German occupied), dropping thousands of paratroops behind German lines near the Dutch-German border. A ground offensive was launched in conjunction with these airborne operations in the hope of gaining a quick and easier route into Germany's Ruhr industrial region. The idea was, with the Ruhr captured, the German war machine could not function effectively. The operation failed, as the Germans reacted quickly and decisively, and the Allies suffered thousands of casualties. While fighting elsewhere along the German border areas continued, there was a bit of a lull as winter approached. That would soon change, as Hitler had plans.

Next... "German Heroes: The Plot Against Hitler"

* The siege of Leningrad had been broken by Soviet forces in January, 1944.

** After his rescue by the Germans in September 1943, Mussolini was put in charge of the German occupied part of Italy, which was called "The Italian Social Republic." He raised his own military forces, used primarily to combat a tough Italian resistance movement that had developed in the mountainous north. Essentially Italy was in civil war.

*** Stalin, every bit as plotting as Hitler, preferred not to have Polish forces outside of his control, as the forces in Warsaw were; thus he let the Germans destroy these "free" Polish forces. Stalin had his own plans for post-war Poland, with the Soviet Union taking much of eastern Poland, and with the remainder of Poland being pro-Soviet.

**** Bulgaria is an interesting case. Although an Axis ally, Bulgaria had never declared war on the Soviet Union. When the Soviet armies approached the country in early September 1944, the Soviets simply declared war on Bulgaria and entered the country. The Bulgarians then declared war on Germany. 

WORD HISTORY:
Stalag-This word for a German prisoner-of-war camp was borrowed into English during the World War Two era. It is really a contraction of "Stammlager," a compound, with both parts having closely related words in English: For "stem" see:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/05/making-choice-part-one.html

For "lager/lair" see: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-eighty-one.html

Gestapo-Another word borrowed into English during the Nazi era, it is a contraction of "Geheime Staatspolizei;" that is, "Secret State Police." (Note: The German adjective "geheim" is a word derived from "Heim," a close relative of English "home." Interestingly, German "geheim" (the noun for "a secret" is "(das) Geheimnis") didn't become common with the meaning "secret" until the 1600s!^ The idea behind the meaning goes to your home being private and personal; thus, eventually, the word developed the meaning "something kept private;" thus, "secretive." English "homely" is a word closely related to German "heimlich," another adjective meaning "secretive, having to do with things done in private." While the word "homely" originally meant "of the home, personal, familiar," it also later developed a meaning of "plain, unattractive," and even "ugly," that meaning is now used more in American English (Canadian?), but like its German cousin "heimlich," it also meant "private, personal."  

^ German "geheim" also was borrowed by Dutch, and seemingly also West Frisian, as both languages have "geheim," while Low German has "geheem," but whether this "may" be an original development that simply took the "secret" meaning. 

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Nine

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Three/B
"The Greatest Shame of German History"

Not long after the Nazis took power, the first concentration camps were set up. They were prison camps, often for political prisoners like communists, or opponents of the regime, real or perceived. Since German Jews were seen by the Nazis as enemies of the state, some Jews were also incarcerated in these camps during the earlier years of Nazi rule. Prisoners led a wretched existence, often doing forced labor, where they were mistreated and malnourished. Some were executed for any number of reasons. When the war started, the first country to fall, Poland, contained a large Jewish population, although initially, a good number of these people lived in what became the Soviet annexed areas, as much of this territory had belonged to the former Russian Empire, where Jews had been more concentrated in western Russia.* When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, special execution units, called "Einsatzgruppen" (literally "action groups")** followed right behind the army forces to round up and execute Jews, Communist officials, and anyone perceived as a potential threat to the German occupation. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were executed throughout the western regions of the Soviet Union.

In Germany, German Jews had dwindled in number since the 1933 appointment of Hitler as chancellor. Many had emigrated, although some did not go far enough, as they crossed into other European countries soon to be taken over by the Nazis. Still others had been put into concentration camps or had already been killed by the time of the early war years. With the occupation of Poland and large areas of the Soviet Union, the Nazis then had control over millions of European Jews, and they planned their destruction, as a businessman would plan to increase production in his factory. It is absolutely mind boggling, and no matter how much actual newsreel footage I've seen over the years, or how many books and articles I've read, it is still difficult to get my mind around these terrible events. And by the Germans! (Although often aided by non-Germans.) Nothing I write here can even scratch the surface of this disturbing subject, which is about sheer evil.

The overall plan for the extermination of European Jews was under the control of Heinrich Himmler's "SS."*** In various parts of Europe, but especially in Poland, camps were set up with the purpose of using Jews (Gypsies were also a major target of Nazi racial theories) for labor purposes, but with the ultimate aim of killing them; that is, if they hadn't already been worked to death. Those deemed unfit for work were killed, often within just a short time after their arrival at a camp. The organization for transporting Jews from across Europe to these death camps came under one SS officer, Adolf Eichmann (he had the right first name, if you get my point).**** Of all of the camps set up in Germany and throughout Europe during Nazi rule, "Auschwitz" was the most notorious, and millions died there. Rooms were made to look like shower areas, but once inside, victims were locked in, and poison gas canisters were dropped inside, killing everyone. The bodies were then burned in huge ovens, "crematoria." Any and all valuables were confiscated from these helpless people. Even when dead, gold or silver fillings were extracted.

Amidst all of the hatred and death, there were still some acts of heroism, and if you haven't seen "Schindler's List," please do so; you will never forget it. Above all, DON'T BE A RACIST OR A HATER!

* This area was known as the "Pale" in Russia. It was the western part of the Russian Empire where Jews were permitted to settle and live on a permanent basis beginning in the late 1700s. Most Russian Jews were not permitted to live east of the Pale (in interior Russia) for any major period of time, but there were exceptions.

** The "Einsatzgruppen" were part of the "SD," the initials of the "Sicherheitsdienst" ("Security Service), which was a branch of the SS.

*** Himmler was a Bavarian, born in Munich, and he joined the Nazi Party in the early 1920s.

**** Eichmann was born in Germany, but his family moved to Linz, Austria when he was just a child. Interestingly, besides the shared first name, Hitler, who was considerably older than Eichmann, had lived in and around Linz as a child, too, and he always considered the city to be his home town, so much so, that he had grand plans to make Linz into one of the primary cities of Nazism, if they had won the war.

WORD HISTORY:
Camp (noun and verb)-This is another one of those words with an uncertain ancient history. What is known is, it goes back to Latin "campus,"^ with the general meaning "open area or field," which then progressed to "field of military contest, battlefield." Old Germanic borrowed the word as "kampan," with this "contest, battle" meaning. This then gave Old English "camp," but with that same "contest" meaning. This also gave Old High German "champf," which then later became "Kampf," meaning "battle, struggle," still in use today, and it is part of the title of Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf," covered earlier in this series on "The German Question." The same word also gave German the verb form "kämpfen," meaning "to fight." English "camp" then got a bit of a twist in meaning via French "camp" (also from the Latin source) in the 1500s, this being a "field used for military training and lodging," which then later in English also came to be applied to non-military situations, and both military and non military senses are still used today.^^ The "contest" meaning died out in English. The verb form, as in, "we'll camp by the river," came from the noun during the 1500s. So here we have English and German with essentially the same word, "camp/Kampf," and both from the same source, but with different meanings; the German word retaining much of the original "contest" notion. By the way, Italian has "campo," obviously from its Latin roots, and it means "field." 

^ "Camp" is related to "campaign" and to "champion" (also the shortened form "champ"), Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French, and to "campus," a word English borrowed directly from Latin.  

^^ Generally, the modern meaning in English means, "a place in the rural countryside, often, but not always, near a lake, river or stream, where people congregate for some temporary purpose, like hunting, fishing, vacationing, recreation, or some educational or instructional purpose, often with tents, cabins, huts or other type of basic shelter. This meaning came from an older meaning in English based around "a place to temporarily stay ("put up/set up camp") to provide shelter to sleep and to fix food around a fire, called a campfire." 

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Eight

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Three/A
"The German Home Front"

Rationing in Germany was fairly limited during the early years of the war. With Germany in control of much of Europe, goods from other areas poured in for German consumers, and this all served to keep most Germans behind the war effort. The tight control of the nation by the Nazis did not allow much criticism of the regime, especially of Hitler, but it is interesting to note that in a film about Frederick the Great, released in 1942 and sanctioned by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels,* a group of German public officials approach the king's aide and tell him the public is complaining and grumbling about the war (it is set during the 1760s and the Seven Years War, covered earlier in this series here). The aide tells them "that is just the nature of things," and that the soldiers complain too, and that Frederick is aware of the complaints and understands them. Then, however, comes the warning. One of the officials says "people no longer believe in victory," and the aide declares this is "high treason."

In early 1942 the head of German war production, Fritz Todt, was killed in a plane crash. He was replaced by Hitler's former architect Albert Speer. Speer organized German industry to produce tremendous amounts of armaments, but with the aid of slave laborers, often, but not always, from eastern Europe. In spite of the Allied bombing attacks on German industry and cities, German factory output rose, reaching its peak in mid 1944.

Allied bombing attacks took their toll, but just as German air attacks on Britain had failed to destroy British morale, such was the case with the Germans. The Luftwaffe exacted a terrible price on Allied aircraft and pilots over Germany and parts of occupied Europe, but Allied production of aircraft was able to make good all of the losses. One of the biggest air attacks came on Hamburg during a one week period in the summer of 1943. British planes bombed the city by night and American planes bombed by day. Civilian casualties amounted to some 75,000, with about 40,000 of those being killed. Most of Germany's large and medium size cities were heavily bombed during the war, and Berlin itself became a major target from 1944 onward.

The surrender of the German forces at Stalingrad brought shock to the German public, and reports by Nazi officials and agents (spies) noted the German public's disheartened mood. Joseph Goebbels took to the podium at the Berlin Sports Palace (Berliner Sportpalast) in mid February 1943, just a couple of weeks after the surrender at Stalingrad. The speech was broadcast on radio and much of it was filmed for later showing as newsreel shorts in movie theaters. The crux of the speech was a series of questions Goebbels posed to the approximately 20,000 people in attendance. He so roused the passions of the audience, that his main question, "Do you want total war,"** was answered by a thunderous "Ja," and by chants of the familiar Nazi slogan, "Fuehrer command, we follow!" ("Führer befiehl, wir folgen!") If I remember correctly, I've read somewhere that Hitler was listening to the speech on the radio at his military headquarters. So German public opinion ticked up, but perseverance alone would not win the war.

Meanwhile, at camps in Germany and elsewhere, especially in occupied Poland, thousands of people were being killed EVERY DAY! Not because they were enemy soldiers or because they were spies, but they were killed just because of who they were.

Next..."The Greatest Shame of German History"

* The movie, "Der Grosse König" ("The Great King"), is available on DVD with English subtitles. It is well worth seeing, with a good deal of historical accuracy, and some stirring battle scenes, with bombardments, infantry assaults, cavalry charges and all, but be aware, there is also a good deal of propaganda in it, and it is only partially about Frederick the Great, as Frederick is often symbolic of Hitler in the movie, more obviously near the end.

** German: "Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?"

WORD HISTORY:
Storm-This word is closely related to "stir," a word from the Germanic roots of English that essentially means "to disturb," as a verb, and to mean "disturbance" as a noun; as the weather meaning of "storm" undoubtedly came from the notion of "disturbance in the skies, weather disturbance, agitated weather." Old Germanic had "sturmaz," with the basic notion of "agitate, disturb." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "storm," which has since remained the same. The word, usually the verb form, also came to mean "full attack, assault," as in "storm the enemy position." This meaning came about in the 1600s, and as it also has this same meaning in some other Germanic languages, it is unclear to me if English developed this extended meaning of the word itself, or borrowed it from a "relative." Further was the meaning "rage with anger," as in "He stormed about the room." Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Sturm" ("stürmen" is the verb form), Dutch has "storm," Icelandic has "stormur," Swedish & Norwegian have "storm," Danish has "storm, storme," Frisian has "stoarm," and Low German Saxon has "Störm."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Seven

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/G
"Germany in Retreat"

Just two months after the Axis surrender in North Africa, the Allies invaded the large Italian island of Sicily. Italian resistance was sporadic, at best, and essentially collapsed, but German forces on the island cost the Allies heavy causalities, before successfully evacuating to the Italian mainland. During the fighting for Sicily, Mussolini was deposed and then arrested. He eventually was held in a ski resort hotel on a mountain, Gran Sasso, in central Italy. Hitler ordered a special operation to rescue Il Duce ("the leader"), and in September German paratroopers and commandos landed by gliders near the resort and freed Mussolini.*

The new Italian government assured the Germans they would remain true to the alliance with Germany, but the Germans correctly suspected otherwise, and the Italians were in negotiations to surrender to the Allies. The Allies invaded parts of southern Italy in early September, and the Italian surrender was announced. Hitler already had military units in Italy, and he sent more troops to disarm the Italian military and to establish a front against an Allied advance northward. It was an agonizingly slow and bloody process for the Allies to capture Rome, and the German holding action was highly effective.

In Greece and Yugoslavia, strong resistance forces, many with communist affiliations, had developed against the Axis occupation, causing the Germans and Italians to use scarce troops and resources to try to truly secure these areas; something they were unsuccessful in doing.** The threat of Allied invasion, especially of Greece, also kept Axis forces tied down. When Italy surrendered, German forces ruthlessly disarmed and took custody of Italian troops, and many Italians were killed. Some Italians, however, remained committed to the German side for the rest of the war, while others joined the resistance movements.

In western Europe, the Germans continued to fortify the coastal areas against an expected Allied invasion. When 1943 passed without an invasion, the Germans believed 1944 would be the decisive year. Bunkers, coastal obstacles, barbed wire and massive reinforced concrete artillery emplacements lined the areas deemed most likely for the Allied invasion force. The guessing game continued for the Germans, as they tried to learn the exact location where Allied troops would try to come ashore and gain a foothold.

In Russia, after the disaster at Stalingrad, the German forces regained their balance, and Hitler decided to attack. While most of his military advisers opposed the new offensive, Hitler went ahead with the assault anyway. The German forces, especially armor, had made a remarkable recovery, and the Germans threw their forces against the Soviets near the city of Kursk. When the heaviest combat operations had ended in the spring of 1943, a large "bulge" remained in the Soviet lines. The German plan called for attacking at the base of this bulge on both sides (pinching it off), thus cutting off substantial Soviet forces. The Soviets were ready, and the clash of major forces took place in early July 1943. The German offensive failed, and the Soviets launched their own offensive against the now weakened German front. The German "home front" was shaken by the mounting casualties and defeats.

* The German military did some extraordinary things during the war; but they were serving such an evil nutcase.

** Bulgaria, part of the Axis alliance, also supplied troops to help garrison the area, as did Croatia, which had its own army and fascist militia in the aftermath of Yugoslavia's defeat in 1941.

WORD HISTORY:
Room-This noun goes back to Indo European "reu/rew/row," with the basic notion of "open space." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "ruman," with essentially the same meaning, "open space, space." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "rum," with a long "u" sound, with the same meaning. Later it became "roum," before the modern spelling. During the late 1300s it developed the sense "cargo space inside of a ship," which then expanded in the 1400s to "individual spaces inside of a house or building," which from then on became the predominant meaning in English. The verb form, meaning "to occupy a place for residency" or "to share a living space with someone," didn't come along until about the early 1800s. English still retains the "space" meaning when we say "make room for;" that is, "clear space for." Common in the other Germanic languages, although most retain the "space" notion as the primary meaning: German has "Raum," which tends to be used more for "space," as well as "room" (German "Weltraum" means "outer space"). It also can mean "vicinity" or "region," as in "im Raum Berlins," "in the Berlin region, in the Berlin vicinity." Hitler's term, "Lebensraum," meant "living space," or "living room," but not "living room" in the English language sense of "one of the main rooms in a dwelling, often used for entertainment, including for guests." Low German Saxon has "Ruum," Frisian has what now "seems" to be the rarely used "Rüm," Dutch has "ruim," Danish and Swedish have "rum," Norwegian has "rom," and Icelandic has "rúm."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Six

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/F/3
"Germany Versus the Soviet Union" Part Three
"The German Tide Ebbs"

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (then a U.S. territory, not a state). President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress agreed to a declaration of war on Japan. Roosevelt had been trying to help Britain as much as possible, without getting the U.S. directly involved in the war, by sending material aid to the British. Before Pearl Harbor, the American public was split over possible American involvement in the war. Hitler solved the issue of American participation in the war against Germany by declaring war on the United States on December 11 at a session of the Reichstag. Always the racist, Hitler didn't seem to realize that he was bringing a formidable foe into the war against him. Various statements indicated he believed Americans could not fight well, because they were such a mixture of ethnic and racial groups. Such nonsense helped to hasten his demise. Mussolini followed suit with a declaration of war by Italy on the United States. It wasn't long before heavily armed convoys were transporting American troops and war equipment to Britain.

In North Africa, Rommel's German and Italian forces faced a new British commander, Bernard Montgomery, and "Monty" launched a major offensive against Rommel in late October 1942, in what became the last part of the El Alamein battle. After terrible losses of men and equipment, and in spite of Hitler's order to hold his positions, Rommel ordered a retreat. Thousands of Axis prisoners were taken by the Allies. Meanwhile, the Americans and British forces landed troops in the French North African colonies of French Morocco and Algeria, which were behind Rommel's retreating army. Hitler and Mussolini rushed troops to Tunisia, another French colony sandwiched between Rommel's retreating forces in Libya and the Allied forces which had just landed. French resistance to the landings was relatively light, and the struggle then centered on Tunisia. While Rommel inflicted a punishing defeat on the Americans at a place called "Kasserine Pass" in February 1943, the German and Italian forces surrendered in May 1943. This now left Italy vulnerable to attack.

In the Soviet Union, Hitler's stalled capture of Stalingrad gave the Soviets time to gather fresh troops north and south of the city. In mid November 1942 they struck, breaking through primarily overwhelmed Rumanian lines and trapping a large German, and a smaller Rumanian force, in and around Stalingrad. By early February 1943, the remaining encircled forces surrendered to the Soviets. During the overall Soviet operations that winter, the whole southern sector of the Axis front was pummeled, and a Hungarian army and an Italian army, besides two Rumanian armies and a German army were essentially destroyed. The Germans did not stabilize the front until February/March 1943, but they had lost virtually all of their gains from the previous summer. Although there would still be much intense fighting, Hitler's days were numbered.

WORD HISTORY:
Ebb-This word, closely related to "off," goes back to Indo European "apo," which meant "off, away (from)." This gave Old Germanic "ab," with the same meaning, and from that Old Germanic developed "abjon," with the meaning "tide flowing away, tide flowing 'off' from shore;" thus, "low tide." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ebba," which later dropped the ending "a." The figurative use to mean "decline of someone or something" was already in use in the 1300s. There are various forms present in the other Germanic languages: German has "Ebbe," Low German Saxon has "Ebben," West Frisian has "ebbe," Dutch "eb," Icelandic has "ebbið" (=ebbith), Swedish has "ebb," Norwegian has "ebbe" and Danish has "ebbe." Some of the Germanic languages still retain a verb form, English being one of those, and in Old English it was "ebbian." Dutch has "ebben."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Five

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/F/2
"Germany Versus the Soviet Union" Part Two "The Attack"

With Britain still undefeated, but relatively contained, Hitler felt confident to pursue the goal of all the maneuvering in eastern Europe, the conquest of Russia, the Soviet Union. While Stalin was usually prone to paranoia, in this case, though he was given many warnings of an imminent German attack by other nations and by some in his own military, he did not take these warnings as seriously as he should have, and while not naive, he thought he still had time to prepare for any German attack, and possibly enough time to even carry out an attack of his own on Germany.* The world was dealing with two major scoundrels, Hitler and Stalin, and if you had put them in a bag and shook it up, you wouldn't have known which one would have hopped out first.

On June 22, 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union. From East Prussia, German armored and motorized units thrust through the Soviet annexed Baltic states toward the metropolis of Leningrad.** Simultaneously from the north, Finnish troops sought to reclaim the territory lost to the Soviets in the recent war. Further north in Finland, actually near the Arctic Circle, German troops moved to capture the Soviet port city of Murmansk. From German occupied Poland, German units attacked toward Moscow. In the south, aided by Hungarian, Slovak, and Rumanian forces,*** the Germans advanced toward the Ukrainian city of Kiev, and toward the Crimea. Huge Soviet forces found themselves surrounded by the fast moving German mechanized units, and Soviet troops surrendered by the hundreds of thousands.**** Leningrad was surrounded and much of the Soviet leadership evacuated Moscow as the Germans approached the city. The Germans and Rumanians entered the Crimea and besieged the fortress city of Sevastopol. It certainly looked as if Hitler would win a stunning victory over Stalin and the Soviet Union, but time was running out.

Winter set in, and German forces found themselves unprepared for it, as the giddiness of early victories caused many Germans to assume the fighting would be over before winter arrived. Further, while the Axis forces won many astounding victories, the Soviets inflicted severe casualties on the invaders. Their units depleted, and the cold and snow taking its toll, the German offensive ground to a halt. The Soviets, reinforced by fresh units from Siberia, launched their own massive attacks, driving the Germans back in many places, but the German retreat was not a rout, and before long, the front stabilized. Both sides were exhausted.

With his units diminished, Hitler sent some fresh troops to bolster his forces for a new offensive in 1942. Leningrad remained surrounded in the north, Murmansk was still in Soviet hands, and German forces had retreated from the outskirts of Moscow to points somewhat further away from the capital. Hitler decided to narrow his 1942 offensive to the southern areas of the Soviet Union. Sevastopol fell to the Germans and Axis forces advanced toward the Caucasus, the center of Soviet oil production.***** Hitler then divided his southern forces, sending one segment after the oil fields, and the other after the city of Stalingrad, which was located on the Volga River, the capture of which would have deprived the Soviets of using that part of the river for shipping. The German forces entered and eventually captured about 90% of Stalingrad, but the Soviets hung on. With the city so devastated by the fighting, and especially by earlier German air attacks, there was plenty of rubble to provide cover for the stubborn Soviet defenders. The Germans could never completely dislodge them, and the situation stagnated as another winter approached. This time it was Stalin who had a surprise for Hitler.

* Stalin had a major streak of paranoia, although the political system in which he had functioned for so long didn't lend itself to any leader getting too comfortable, and his paranoia may well have kept him alive and in power. In the mid to late 1930s, Stalin carried out a huge purge in the Soviet Union, including of his military leaders, ruthlessly removing and putting on trial many commanders at various levels. Hundreds in the military were imprisoned or executed, leaving the military with a leadership gap. Most historians agree that the Soviets' poor military showing against Finland in 1939-40 showed the negative effects of the military purge. By the time of the German invasion, the Soviet army was still in the midst of reorganization, and the leadership gap had not been closed significantly.

** This was the former capital of St. Petersburg, renamed by the Communists in honor of Lenin. They moved the capital to Moscow.

*** In a short time, Mussolini sent an Italian corps, later expanded to an army, to fight in Russia.

**** In and around Kiev, the Germans claimed to have captured more than 600,000 Soviets troops. and that was just one battle!

***** As I mentioned in Part 144, the fight for oil was well under way well before our own time, and Hitler made the strategic decision to go after the significant Russian oil supplies in hopes of solving his own potential oil shortage, as well as depriving the Soviets of the oil.

WORD HISTORY:
Live-This verb goes back to Indo European "leip," which had the notion of "continue (on), remain, exist further." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "libjanan," meaning "to be alive." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "lifian," and "libban," depending upon dialect, both with the same "to be alive" meaning. Later, the two forms merged into "liven," and then the modern spelling. It is, of course, closely related to the noun "life." Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German has "leben," Dutch and Low German Saxon have "leven," Frisian has "libje," Norwegian and Danish have "leve," Swedish has "leva," and Icelandic has "lifa."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Four

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/F 1
"Germany Versus the Soviet Union" Part One "Background"

Going back to his book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"), Hitler talked often about Germans needing "Lebensraum" ("living space"). In Europe (and elsewhere, for that matter), looking well back in history, as various peoples settled into areas, developing their respective homelands, they often lacked various resources to help with their existence or to keep up with the changes taking place over the centuries, or to keep up with their own population growth. This led to one of two things happening; either they developed some sort of commerce with other people to get the items or land they needed, or they tried to take what they needed by conquest. If you have followed this series, you have seen how rulers tried to gain lands or specific resources by a variety of methods, including "strategic marriages," trade deals, and certainly wars (indeed "ego" played a part, too). For centuries, the "ethnic" composition of a region did not much matter to the rulers. They wanted certain territories for waterways, raw materials or other resources, including later, factories these areas possessed, not necessarily for the people who lived there. Later, however, the people living in these various territories developed a much more cohesive sense of "belonging to particular groups," which brought on the development of "nationalism" and the desire of these groups of people to live together and be ruled by people with much their same background, especially language, and often other characteristics, like religion. With so many territorial changes over the centuries having been made with little or no regard to the "ethnic background" of the population, the new sense of nationalism was bound to bring conflict. With western and central Europe more densely populated, Hitler saw the more sparsely populated, but agriculturally, and even industrially productive, areas of the Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union as the target for German expansion.

The population of these areas would become slaves to Germans, or be "eliminated." In Poland, many Poles in the areas annexed to Germany were moved to other regions, and per the agreement with the Soviet Union, Germans were resettled from Soviet controlled areas to places like the former Polish Corridor. Further, again per the German-Soviet agreement, in 1940 the Soviets moved into the small Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and they then annexed them to the Soviet Union. There were German minority settlements* within both Latvia and Estonia, some of these German settlements dating back centuries. A process of resettlement of these "Baltic Germans" to former Polish territory started, but it was interrupted by Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Further, also per the German-Soviet agreement, the Soviet Union pressured Rumania for a large region of its eastern boundary, called Bessarabia, and also a part of the Bukovina region, and these areas were annexed to the expanding Soviet empire. The turmoil caused the abdication of the Rumanian king, who was succeeded by King Michael, a great-great grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria. However, much of the real power lay with right wing general, Ion Antonescu, who became Prime Minister. Antonescu was pro-German, and Rumania became much closer with Hitler's Reich as a consequence. Rumania signed the Axis alliance within weeks of Antonescu's taking power. Rumania was very important to Hitler's plans, because of extensive oil reserves and oil refineries located there.** German troops and military advisers were permitted on Rumanian territory. Germany now had a common border with the Soviet Union from northern Europe to southern Europe; that is, with its own border in East Prussia and in occupied Poland, combined with the pro-German nations in eastern Europe, and Finland, in the far north, a nation anxious to get back the territory it ceded to the Soviets in 1940. Hitler now prepared to use that lengthy border to invade his "pact partner," the Soviet Union.

* These Germans were often referred to as "Baltic Germans."

** So, as you can see, the battle over oil was well under way long before our own era. It also demonstrates the point I made in the opening part above about nations and resources. Germany was technologically advanced in the automotive and aviation industries compared to many other nations, including the various military aspects of these industries, but it lacked extensive oil of its own as fuel for its vehicles, although this was not a situation limited to Germany, as other nations suffered similar low domestic oil production.

WORD HISTORY:
Soviet-This word came into use in English in the aftermath of the Bolshevik takeover in Russia. It is a compound formed from "su" and "vetu;" "su" meaning "with" and "vetu" meaning "counsel, advise." The history of both of these words is sketchy beyond about 900 A.D., but the compound goes back to Old Church Slavonic "suvetu," with a general meaning of "with agreement" (to something). Old Church Slavonic was the oldest form of written Slavic, developed back around 900 to translate religious texts into Slavic; thus the "church" terminology. The term passed into Old Russian, still with the same spelling, before altering to "sovet" ("совет" in the Cyrillic alphabet used by Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian, for instance), which meant "council." The Bolsheviks used the term for a type of "governance council of workers." Once in power, the Bolsheviks "united" these various councils, giving the former Russian Empire the name "Soviet Union," a shortened form of "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Three

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/E
"Greece & Yugoslavia Fall"

In late October 1940, Benito Mussolini launched an ill prepared and untimely (nearly winter) invasion of Greece from Albania, an Italian possession in those days. Greece has many rough and mountainous areas, where winter comes early, and the Greeks were no push overs, they were tough. Not only did they stop the Italian forces, they counterattacked, throwing the Italians back into Albania! Mussolini then sent more troops to help halt the Greek advance. The Greeks were halted by the Italians and winter weather, but once again Hitler prepared to step in to bolster his sagging ally. The British had sent some forces to help the Greeks, but this diminished their forces and supplies in North Africa, where they too had the Italians on the run at that time. With spring in the offing, the Germans had an invasion plan to overrun Greece.

Yugoslavia, another creation of post-World War One, had similar problems to Czechoslovakia; that is, it was a multi-ethnic nation governed by its largest ethnic group, the Serbs.* Other groups were not happy with the arrangement, especially the Croats, or Croatians, who wanted much more autonomy, with some more radical elements wanting an outright independent Croatia. Further, there were increasingly strong fascist-type groups throughout the country, including the much stronger Croatian group the "Ustaše," which maintained close ties to the fascist nations of Germany and Italy.

Yugoslavia was ruled by a regent, Prince Paul, until the king, Peter II, reached maturity. The Serb leaders, once committed more to the western powers of Britain and France, saw these powers as too weak after their behavior over Czechoslovakia, and they turned more and more to Italy and, especially Germany, for economic ties, and for protection against the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted the Yugoslav government to sign the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan, as other eastern European countries were doing. Prince Paul reluctantly agreed, but the action was not popular with Serbian military leaders or with much of the non-Croatian population, especially the Serbs. Prince Paul was overthrown and King Peter II, by then 17, took power. In spite of assurances by the king and Serb leaders that the treaty with the Axis would be honored, Hitler had the German military draw up plans for the invasion of Yugoslavia, to be undertaken simultaneously with the invasion of Greece. Mussolini committed an Italian army to the invasion from northeastern Italy, where Italy had a common border with Yugoslavia. Bulgaria also participated on a limited basis, as did Hungary; both were signatories to the Axis alliance.

The invasions started in early April 1941, and the Yugoslav army, fractured by the Serb-Croatian split, was overwhelmed by the invaders. The Germans rolled through Greece also, and while there were periods of intense fighting in both Yugoslavia and Greece, the outcome was not in doubt, and both countries surrendered after a short time. The British forces, along with some Greek forces, evacuated to the Greek island of Crete. The Germans launched an assault on the island, led by a massive paratroop drop, the largest ever undertaken up to that time. German casualties were heavy, but again, the outcome was not long in doubt, and once again, the British evacuated many of their forces from the island. "Evacuation" was becoming a word all too familiar to the British.

The Germans, Italians and their allies now ruled Greece and Yugoslavia, at least on paper or maps. The terrain of both countries was rough and mountainous, ideal for insurgency groups to hide and launch attacks on the occupiers, and this happened with increasing frequency. You can see how Germany and her allies were stretching themselves thin, as they now had to garrison these countries with substantial forces to try to control the insurgency forces of both Greece and Yugoslavia. From a military viewpoint, they gained little for all of these efforts. Croatia was set up as an independent nation, but naturally tied to the Axis.

* There was a substantial German minority in Yugoslavia of about 700,000. Most of the Germans lived in areas that had been a part of Austria-Hungary until the end of World War One, with the largest group being the "Danube Swabians" ("Donauschwaben"), a general term for the German population living in or near the Danube River valley, although not just in Yugoslavia, but also in Hungary and in part of Rumania. Part of these "Danube Swabians" in Yugoslavia was the German population in a region called the "Banat," with the Germans there called "Banater Deutsche." Many of these Danube Swabians came to America after World War Two, with a fairly large number coming here to Cleveland. For many years there was a club called "The Banater Club," in Cleveland (West 140th Street, near Lorain Avenue), and then these Germans built a new, much more extensive club in the mid 1980s here, called "The Donauschwaben German-American Cultural Center," at Lenau Park on the suburban West Side.

WORD HISTORY:
Hit-The origin of "hit" is unknown. Old Germanic had "hitjanan," which meant "to come into contact with, come upon, meet." Apparently the word only endured in Old Norse, as "hitta." It wasn't until about 1100 that English borrowed the word as "hittan," and it still retained the meaning "to meet, to come into contact with." This later became "hitten," and it also extended the notion of "meet, come into contact with" to mean "strike." The native English word for "strike" was "slean," the forerunner of modern "slay," which in those times meant both "strike, hit," but also "kill." Gradually "hit" overtook "slay" in that meaning, leaving "slay" with the meaning "to kill." The original sense of "hit," however, is still around in the expression, "hit upon (something)." A noun version appeared in the late 1400s or early 1500s, derived from the verb. Forms of the word are still present in the North Germanic languages: Norwegian "hitte," which seems to now be archaic, Danish "hitte" and Swedish "hitta," both of which mean "find" (Get it? "Come upon, come into contact with"="find"), and Icelandic "hitta," which means "to meet."    

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Two

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/D
"He Was Called The Desert Fox"

If ever there has been a "popular" part of modern war, the war in North Africa would undoubtedly be a leading candidate for the title. While the men killed on both sides were just as dead as those killed on the continent of Europe, or somewhere on the vast seas, the outright hatred by the two sides was lacking in this war in the desert. Any atrocities were limited to acts carried out by individuals, rather than by policy from higher commands. The war in North Africa has been romanticized from the time it was taking place until the present, with books, articles, movies and television shows. I "guess" what all of this means is, if there have to be wars, then let them be like the war in North Africa, where even enemies sort of "had respect" for one another.

When Italy declared war on June 10, 1940, the Italians found their African colonies bordered in East Africa and in North Africa by enemy forces or colonies.* In East Africa, Italy controlled the colonies of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland, and in August of 1940, the Italians ousted the British from their small colony of "British Somaliland." It wasn't long, however, before the British and British Commonwealth military forces launched operations against the Italians in East Africa. Far removed from Italy, the Italians and their colonial forces could not prevent an eventual defeat by late 1941.

In North Africa, Italy controlled the colony of Libya. To the west lay the French colonies of Tunisia and Algeria; to the east lay Egypt, a kingdom, but with substantial British influence, including British and Commonwealth troops stationed there to protect the Suez Canal and the major British naval base at Alexandria.**

Mussolini sought to restore the long defunct Roman Empire, and in September of 1940, his forces advanced into Egypt with the Suez Canal as the grand prize. The terrain in both Libya and Egypt was mainly desert or extremely rough, with hot and dry conditions. Major military operations were thus usually carried out only from the Mediterranean coast to about 40-60 miles inland. The Italians advanced against light British opposition, and then they paused and set up defensive camps. The British took the opportunity to launch an offensive in December 1940, even though they were outnumbered by the Italians. Instead of having a unified defensive position, the Italians had formed defensive camps that were separated from one another, and one camp was thus unable to support any other camp or camps that came under attack. The British forces won a decisive victory, not only destroying the Italian forces, but pursuing the remnants of Mussolini's army back into Libya, threatening to conquer all of Libya. Events on the continent (see next article) and sheer exhaustion hampered the British advance, and they stopped the offensive to rest and resupply their forces. They had captured some 130,000 Italian troops! This achieved by a British force of only 36,000.

Alarms sounded in Germany about Mussolini's failed exploit. Hitler, not wanting to get bogged down in North Africa, nor to embarrass his ally Mussolini, decided to send a relatively small German mobile force under the command of General Erwin Rommel, a former commander of Hitler's headquarters' protection unit, to hopefully stabilize the situation. The German units came to be called the "German Africa Corps" ("Deutsches Afrikakorps"). Not long after his arrival, and before all of his units were even delivered to North Africa (through the Libyan port of Tripoli), Rommel launched an attack against the British forces in Libya, chasing them back to the Egyptian border, and surrounding British and Commonwealth forces in the Libyan port city of Tobruk. The British held out in Tobruk, and eventually their forces along the Egyptian border launched an attack against Rommel's German and Italian units (Mussolini had sent reinforcements).*** Rommel retreated all the way back to his original starting point, but then turned on the British and launched a new offensive, this time capturing Tobruk and driving deep into Egypt.**** It looked as if the Germans and Italians would capture both Alexandria and the Suez Canal, and Mussolini even went to North Africa to be present for the victory celebration, but the British weren't defeated yet. Rommel, short of supplies and faced with increasing British resistance, halted near a tiny railway station called El Alamein in the late summer of 1942. His mastery of the battlefield and his tendency to go right to the front line to assess and direct situations helped earned Rommel the nickname, "The Desert Fox" (Der "Wüstenfuchs," see Word History below).

* The armistice signed by France on June 22, 1940, ended hostilities, and part of the agreement carved out a central core of France to be administered by the French, referred to as "Vichy France," as the government operated out of the city of Vichy, not Paris, which remained under German occupation. The French also retained their colonies in Africa and the Middle East. The French military was restricted in size, but they continued to have troops stationed in their colonies. These forces, like two other belligerents, Britain and Italy, were a combination of "national" troops and colonial troops; the colonial units usually commanded by national officers. "National" means French, British, or Italian, respectively.

** This control of the Suez Canal and the eastern Mediterranean Sea by the British prohibited Italy from supplying her military forces in East Africa, mentioned in the above segment. The only way for Italy to send substantial military aid to East Africa by ship was to try to get ships through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar (Gibraltar was under British control), then go clear around Africa, and given British naval superiority this gave them two chances; slim and none. They were able to send some transport planes with aid for their forces in East Africa, but the limited number of such planes available to the Italians made this impractical for sustaining their army in East Africa.

*** It needs to be noted that Rommel was technically subordinate to the Italian High Command in Rome, something he resented, as politics intruded onto the battlefield. On the other hand, the Italians were not always taken with Rommel's insubordination to their orders, and the relationship between the two sides was never really cordial, to say the least, although Rommel did seemingly like and respect some of the Italian field commanders subordinate to him in North Africa.

**** Hitler promoted Rommel to Field Marshal for the capture of Tobruk, and Rommel's exploits in North Africa captured the imagination of the German public. Rommel's friendship with Hitler's propagandist Josef Goebbels helped too, as Goebbels gave Rommel lots of stories in the press and in newsreels. It wasn't only in Germany that Rommel was known, however, as the British and the rest of the world took note of his dashing persona, and with the British, a strange sort of admiration developed for Rommel, albeit a fearful one. One British commander was so alarmed by Rommel's reputation among British troops, that he ordered his commanders to quash Rommel's "bogeyman" image among their men.

WORD HISTORY:
Fox (Vixen)-This noun goes back to Indo European "puk," which meant "tail," and the extended form, "pukso," meaning "with a tail, tailed." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "fuhsaz," then West Germanic "fukhs;" English is a West Germanic language. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "fox," and it has remained such for all of these centuries. The North Germanic languages do not use the word, although their ancestor, Old Norse, had a form of the word, "foa," which has died out, but it is common in the other West Germanic languages: German has "Fuchs" (be careful how you pronounce that! The 'u' is pronounced pretty much like the 'oo' sound of English 'food'); Low German has "Voss," Dutch has "vos," and West Frisian has "foks." For those studying German, "Fuchs" is masculine, thus "der Fuchs," although a female fox is feminine, and is "die Füchsin," similar in pronunciation, but with a beginning "f" sound, to its close relative, the English word for female fox, "vixen."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-One

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/C
"Britain Holds Out In Their Finest Hour"

The German victory over France was cause for celebration throughout Germany, especially in Berlin, where a huge victory parade, the highlight of which was Hitler's motorcade, ended with massive crowds cheering Hitler and other Nazi leaders at the Reich's Chancellery. To Germans, the shame of defeat in World War One and the postwar treaty had now been erased. Many Germans, it seems, thought the war would soon be over, once the "English"* saw the hopelessness of their military situation. There was, however, one problem. The "English," now led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, did not see their situation as hopeless. The British people rallied to the cause and prepared to defend their homeland against an expected German invasion.

Hitler planned an invasion,** but as a preface, he needed the Luftwaffe to rule the skies over the island fortress. In the summer of 1940, masses of German planes began an intensive bombing campaign against British airbases and aircraft production plants, mainly in the southern part of England, the obvious landing area for any German invasion force. British fighter planes rose to meet the German air onslaught, inflicting heavy losses on German aircraft and aircrews. The Germans then began massive bombing attacks on cities, against infrastructure and military targets, but also to some degree against civilian areas.***

The British also managed some of their own bomber attacks on Germany during this period, including on Berlin. The attacks on Berlin so incensed Hitler, he changed course, some historians believe, "fatally," choosing to concentrate German air attacks on London, rather than on British airbases and other military targets. German fighter planes, mainly the famous "Messerschmitt," did not have enough fuel capacity to remain in battle over the skies of London for the duration of bombing raids, leaving the slow moving German bomber force vulnerable to British fighter planes, like the famous "Spitfires." German aircraft losses mounted, but not only that, by flying over British territory, when German pilots parachuted from damaged planes, they were then captured and interned in POW camps. A shortage of adequately trained pilots began to become a problem for the Luftwaffe. By October 1940, Hitler "postponed" the invasion of England until the next year. For the first time, Hitler had been stopped! British morale soared as people began to believe that Hitler could be defeated. Meanwhile, off in the desert of North Africa....

* There is a "tendency" for Germans to use "English" when they mean "British," just as "some" Americans use "British" when they mean "English." One time when I was in Frankfurt, Germany, a German guy called Guinness Stout, "Englishes Bier;" that is, "English beer." Luckily, no Irishman was present, or he would have either fainted or suffered a fatal heart attack; more than likely, the latter.

** Whether Hitler ever truly had the physical means; that is, the transport vessels, to launch an invasion of southern England has been a matter of debate among historians. Further, Hitler saw things so much in "blood" terms; that is, "ethnic" and "racial" terms, that some argue he never really wanted to destroy England, a country founded by "Germanic tribes," the Anglo-Saxons, and he did seem to admire the English quite a lot.

*** The idea was to break the morale of the civilian population and thus force the British government to make peace. Of course, it did NOT work, nor did the Allied attacks against German civilians at that time, or later, when such attacks intensified.

WORD HISTORY:
Set (Sect)-noun-meaning "collection, group" or "collection of items," like "set of dishware" or "set of tools." It is closely related to "sect," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English most likely from French, but with Latin also being a possible candidate. The noun "set" goes back to Indo European "sekw" or "seqw," with the general notion of "to follow." This gave its Latin offspring "sequor," and the derived "sequi," with the same "follow" meaning, extended as "come after, come one after the other." This then produced Latin "secta," which meant "sequence of thoughts or beliefs," which then came to be associated with religious beliefs, as a "group of followers of particular beliefs, a religious faction." This was inherited by Old French, a Latin-based language, as "secte," and derived from that was the Old French "sette," or "group of followers, sequence of items." This was borrowed into English in the 1500s from French as "sette," but it wasn't long before the modern spelling, "set," took hold.