A Bomb For Hitler: "Valkyrie," 2008 Tom Cruise Movie

I've done a few articles on the subject of the attempt on Hitler's life and this one provides an overview to the actual historical events, if you are interested: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-fifty_29.html

The problem with these kinds of pictures is that they are based upon historical events; thus, we already know the overall outcome. It's like with the various pictures about the Titanic, the ship hits an iceberg and sinks. It always ends the same. Damn! You'd think after the first movie, they'd know to stay away from icebergs! With the July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler's life, the subject has been covered, in whole or in part, in numerous films dating back decades. Perhaps we need to have new versions to continue to show younger generations that resistance to fascism did exist, even in a totalitarian system like that of Germany under the Nazis. Notice too, I said, "based upon historical events." This doesn't mean that the movies are documentaries, but rather, that they contain scenes depicting, "to some degree," events that actually took place historically.* Movies are written, filmed and released to make money and in many cases the overall real historical events wouldn't keep people in their seats or make them want to buy tickets to a movie theater, so..... things get spiced up to hold the attention of the audience; or at least, that's what the movie studios hope. So it is with this film, "Valkyrie," although you must admit, planting a bomb near Hitler and then trying to take control of Germany from the Nazis is a story that should hold the attention of most viewers.  

"Valkyrie" (German: "Walküre")** comes from that word's use as a German code name for a military plan to secure parts or all of Germany due to any threat to German government control for any reason, including rebellion. A number of the officers with responsibilities for carrying out any such military operation were anti-Nazis, and they cleverly decided to use the plan to take over the German government FROM the Nazis, once Hitler was either arrested or killed.     

There is a large cast for this movie, and some of  the main cast members are: American actor Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, British actor (from Northern Ireland) Kenneth Branagh, as Colonel (later General) Henning von Tresckow, English actor Bill Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht, English actor Terence Stamp as General Beck,*** English actor Tom Wilkinson as Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, German actor Thomas Kretschmann as Major Otto Remer,**** English actor Jamie Parker as Stuaffenberg's military aide, Werner von Haeften, and last, but not least, The Wacko-in-Chief, Hitler, is played by English actor David Bamber.

This version of the nearly successful attempt to kill Hitler begins with Claus von Stauffenberg serving with the German army in Tunisia, where he is severely wounded. The scene shifts to Hitler visiting a group of officers, including then Colonel, and soon to be General, Henning von Tresckow,  on the Eastern Front in Russia. When Hitler boards his plane to leave, Tresckow asks one of the officers who will accompany Hitler on the flight to take a package containing a bottle of liquor with him to be delivered to another officer. The package indeed contains a liquor bottle, but it is specially fitted with a bomb. The plane flies off, and later Tresckow learns that it lands safely; that the bomb failed to go off for some reason. The bomb must now be retrieved, lest the plan by Tresckow and others be discovered. He contacts the man with the "package" and he then makes the trip to get the bomb back into his possession. When he arrives, he learns from General Friedrich Olbricht, that one of the other conspirators has been arrested for unknown reasons, but Tresckow retrieves the package containing the bomb without incident. This whole segment shows how dangerous it could be to plot against Hitler.

The badly wounded Stauffenberg is released from the hospital, minus his right hand, two fingers on his left hand and his left eye. Stauffenberg, a devout Catholic, meets General Olbricht in church, where Olbricht tells him the resistance movement needs someone like him. Stauffenberg tells him that as he lay on the ground badly wounded in North Africa, and thinking he would die, he hung on because he says he thought, "If I die, I will leave my children nothing but shame," but he also tells Olbricht that if any plot against Hitler fails, that he fears for what will happen to his wife and children at the hands of the Nazis. Stauffenberg goes to a meeting of a number of army officers of the German resistance, but he doesn't like their lack of a plan for what they will do if Hitler is successfully removed from power, as other Nazi leaders will be able to step in; so, he leaves the meeting without making a commitment to the resistance. Afterwards, Stauffenberg sees his wife and children, but the air raid sirens sound and Allied aircraft drop bombs in the area, which helps to convince Stauffenberg that something has to be done.

Stauffenberg is assigned to the German Replacement Army (German: Ersatzheer), which the Germans used to induct, train, equip and then dispatch men to combat units in need of replacements. This substantial military force also acted as a "home army," with the general assignment to help keep public order or quell any rebellion. Several officers of the Replacement Army were anti-Nazis, with some being active members of the resistance. Stauffenberg meets with a couple of high ranking resistance officials and proposes using the army plan for securing Germany during a rebellion, but to use the plan AGAINST the Nazis. The idea was that once Hitler was killed, that the resistance would tell the German military and the German public that the Nazis and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the notorious Nazi SS, are the ones responsible for Hitler's death; thus, the army will oppose the Nazis and the SS out of German patriotism. One person they will need is Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, as he is the head of the Replacement Army and he will be needed to issue orders if this plan is to be put into operation. Stauffenberg and Olbricht go to see Fromm and they make "obvious hints" about him becoming a high official in any post-Hitler army. Fromm listens, understands the "hints," but he tells them that they have all sworn an oath of loyalty to Hitler, and that as long as Hitler is alive, he will remain loyal, and that he will forget that this meeting has ever taken place. This leaves a major lose end, but the plotters move on with their plan for the use of the army to suppress the Nazis and the SS and they lay out an actual assassination plan to kill Hitler. Further, they establish who will form the new German government to replace the Nazis.
  
Stauffenberg goes to meet Hitler and takes a bomb along in his briefcase. The plotters hope to kill Hitler, Göring and Himmler at the meeting, but Himmler is not present, so the plan is canceled.***** A few days later, however, on July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg attends another meeting with the intention of carrying out the assassination, regardless of which other Nazi leaders are there. Stauffenberg puts his bomb laden briefcase under the conference table with Hitler nearby and then he leaves the room for a prearranged telephone call. The bomb goes off and Stauffenberg and his aide, Werner von Haeften, manage to get through security and head to a waiting plane to fly to Berlin, where Stauffenberg believes that "Valkyrie" is being put into effect. Once back in Berlin, nothing has happened, as none of the leading conspirators were bold enough to act, because there was no confirmation that Hitler was dead. In fact, reports come in saying that Hitler is alive. The order for Valkyrie is given without Colonel General Fromm's actual signature, and in fact, Fromm is arrested by the conspirators. Various scenes show the army forces rounding up Nazis and SS personnel, but Berlin itself is not under the control of the army as yet. An order goes out to arrest Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist and one of Hitler's chief subordinates. The "Grossdeutschland" Battalion is mobilized to take Goebbels into custody and to help secure Berlin.****** As the unit arrests Nazi officials, the unit's commander, Major Otto Remer, receives a new, but conflicting order to arrest Colonel Stauffenberg. Remer and his battalion go to the Goebbels residence to arrest the Nazi. Goebbels watches the army troops arrive and he places a poison capsule into the side of his mouth. He then telephones Hitler's headquarters so that, when Remer comes into the office, Goebbels hands him the phone. On the other end is Hitler himself, who orders Remer to take the conspirators alive. When Remer leaves, Goebbels pulls the poison capsule from his mouth and swallows hard.

Like Remer had been, other army officers are left with a decision to follow the orders coming from Stauffenberg and his associates in the War Ministry in Berlin, or to follow orders from Hitler's headquarters, where communications to elsewhere have resumed after being shut down in the aftermath of the explosion. More and more officers choose the latter, as word spreads that Hitler is not dead, as Stauffenberg had believed, although Stauffenberg at first remains in denial. The army communications center cuts the phone lines from the War Ministry and the main participants of the plot are now isolated. Remer and his men arrive and take the anti-Nazi officers into custody. Colonel General Fromm is released and he orders that the arrested officers be shot. The men are taken outside and one by one they face a firing squad. (Note: I've read somewhere, but I don't recall where, that before filming of the scene began, the film crew and actors observed a moment of silence for the real plotters executed in the scene, as the scene was filmed on the exact location of the executions in Berlin.)

* While not terribly important, I caught a mistake early on in the film. The scene showing Stauffenberg being wounded comes before the scene of the attempt to blow up Hitler's plane with a bomb hidden in a liquor bottle. In fact, the attempt on Hitler's life came in March 1943 and Stauffenberg was wounded in Tunisia in April 1943, just 4 to 5 weeks before the surrender of the Germans and Italians in North Africa to the British and American forces there. 

** "Valkyrie" is a term from Old Germanic, "perhaps" more specifically from Old Norse, for female subjects of the god "Odin"/"Wotan" who led selected fallen warriors to "Valhalla," a large hall ruled by Odin; thus, they are "super heroes." The Old Norse mythology has endured to the present, but it seems that the various gods and characters in these stories were widespread among the Germanic tribes, not just the Norse. English once had several words for "Valkyrie," including "wælcyrie," and "wælcyrge." Just my opinion, but the first seems to be more of a true English form, while the second may have come from the closely related Old Norse form "valkyrja." Old Norse and English are related languages, and Old Norse had many influences on English, as the Norse and the English often clashed. Norse speakers conquered and settled in large parts of northern and eastern England; thus, many Norse forms of existing English words, and some new words, came into English.      

*** Terence Stamp became a sensation in his first major film in the title role of "Billy Budd," a movie I went to see with my father when it was released in the early 1960s.

**** Remer survived the war and promoted right wing, fascist-like, political stances.

***** This part of the movie goes partially against history, as Stauffenberg did indeed meet Hitler, but it was at his villa above the town of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian/Austrian Alps, not at his military headquarters in a forested area near Rastenburg in northeastern Germany. Hitler had remained at his villa, because his headquarters was being strengthened against attack. The meeting took place, but the bomb plan was called off, because Heinrich Himmler was not at the meeting. Not long thereafter, Hitler did, indeed, leave for his military headquarters where the assassination attempt would take place a few days later.

****** The "Grossdeutschland" Battalion was an elite German army unit that provided security in Berlin. It also provided personnel for ceremonial purposes in the capital. It was part of a very large overall military formation that also provided Hitler with an army security detail, as well as combat units for the front during the war. The name is usually rendered as "Greater Germany" in English, but it literally means, "Large Germany," as it goes back in German history to the debate over whether the German states would unite into a modern nation with Austria (known as the "large Germany" plan) or without Austria as a constituent part (known as the "small Germany" plan; "Kleindeutschland"). The Habsburg family that then ruled Austria had amassed a large number of territories populated by non Germans, which made this a contentious issue. After Austria was incorporated into Germany in March 1938, the term "Grossdeutschland" came into more use.     

Photo is from the 2009 2 disc Special Edition United Artists/MGM DVD 

WORD HISTORY:
Cost-This word is a contracted form of a previously prefixed word beginning with the common Latin prefix "co/con/com," which had the general meaning, "with, together." The second part is from Indo European "sta," which meant, "to stand," and it is the ancestor of a whole series of words in English and other Indo European languages, including original English word "stand," which is from its Germanic roots. The two parts gave Latin "constare," which meant, "to stand at/with;" thus also, "to consist of," ("components which makes it stand/be firm") and "to cost" ("a set/standing price or cost for something"). This then became "costare," and it passed into Latin-based French as "co(u)ster" (to cost) and the noun "co(u)st." English borrowed the noun in the early 1200s, but when the verb was borrowed is unclear to me (1390s?). An interesting tidbit: German also borrowed the verb, as "kosten," with the same meaning, "to cost," but the noun form, "Kost," by its older meaning in German of "a cost in money or effort for food" saw the meaning transfer to "food," and it is one of German's words for "food." 

Operation Valkyrie (2004): The Plot to Kill Hitler

Note: "Valkyrie" (German: Walküre) was the cover/code name of a plan by the German army to implement a form of strict martial law in case of a breakdown of order in Germany. The anti-Nazi plotters in the army cleverly decided to use this plan to take over the German government from the Nazis after Hitler had been killed (or perhaps, arrested). 

Main Cast: Colonel Stauffenberg: Sebastian Koch; Henning von Tresckow: Ulrich Tukur; Werner von Haeften: Hardy Krüger, Jr; Nina Stauffenberg (the Colonel's wife): Nina Kunzendorf; Joseph Goebbels: Olli Dittrich; Friedrich Fromm: Axel Milberg   

There have been a number of movies about the plot to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944, and this German/Austrian production should not be confused with the film "Valkyrie," starring Tom Cruise, released in 2008 (I have now posted the article on this movie as of July 17, 2018). The 2004 film's original German title was, "Stauffenberg," after the man who actually planted the bomb near Hitler that July day. Since the end of World War Two, Germans/Austrians* have struggled to come to terms with the Nazi period of their history. It has not been an easy thing to do, as fascism is a movement that is tough to define precisely, but it always mixes in ultra nationalism with other elements. Nationalism can make people highly sensitive to criticism of one's country, as some folks allow themselves to become so identified with their country, they seem to feel personally attacked and insulted by any attempt to point out real or perceived flaws in their country or its leaders. And, in this case, I mean criticisms coming from their fellow citizens, not from people outside of their country, which, when that happens, can quickly ruffle feathers and cause tempers to flare. The more distant the war's end has become, the more some younger Germans have tried to face their history. This movie is one of those attempts at such. It is available on DVD, and it has settings for the original German, with subtitles in English (or, presumably for other languages in other editions), or for dubbed English, so you will not have need to read along in subtitles.

The horrific crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi era left many postwar Germans very defensive and conflicted about their own roles during those times. Some tried to deal with it by pretending (or maybe even believing) that things weren't as bad as claimed by historians, foreign governments and survivors of Nazi terror, while others said, "I was just following orders," and others still felt some degree of shame and complicity. Traudl Junge (pronounced as if, "yung-eh" **), one of Hitler's personal secretaries during the last two and one half years of his life, felt so much guilt after the war, she had pretty serious emotional troubles, even involving hospitalization.*** This movie and others that have dealt with this subject, faced a difficult task, as it is almost impossible to show all of the feelings and motivations involved in the anti-Nazi German resistance. Further, films are made to make money, and that means movies are made to try to maintain audience interest, but actual history is not always so dramatic at every turn. The movie does correctly show that Claus von Stauffenberg, played by German actor Sebastian Koch, was supportive of Hitler for quite some time. The thing to remember about the anti-Nazis is, they were NOT saints who opposed Hitler and the Nazis from the very first, but rather, they were people who gradually saw that Hitler was exposing Germany to great danger by leading the country into an ever expanding war, and that later, Hitler's racism and murder would also drag Germany's honor and reputation into the abyss with the defeated nation. This is "essentially" Stauffenberg's own history up until about 1942, and it is so depicted in the film. He begins to learn of other officers who are more than a little troubled by the course of the war and by atrocities committed by Germans, especially in Russia. One of those officers is Henning von Tresckow, played by German actor Ulrich Tukur, who moves Stauffenberg's doubts about the Hitler regime along by providing him with an eyewitness to mass murder. The disillusioned Stauffenberg is sent to Tunisia in North Africa, where the German and Italian forces are facing the end of their military resistance to the Allies. His rising anti-Nazi feelings are reinforced when a young German officer from Stauffenberg's home province of Swabia is killed just after reporting for duty. He sees the futility of it all and he smashes Hitler's photo.

Allied aircraft attack a German column and Stauffenberg is severely wounded; so severely, in fact, he is sent back to Germany for treatment. He loses his left eye (over which he always wore a black patch after his release from the hospital), his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. He is now also more convinced that Hitler must be removed from power, which means Hitler will have to be killed. The anti-Nazi plotters eventually agree to have Stauffenberg make the actual move to kill Hitler, as he is on the staff of the German Replacement Army (German: Ersatzheer), the part of the army responsible for inducting, training and then sending men to units as replacements, and also responsible for the raising of new units. This gives Stauffenberg periodic access to Hitler at military conferences, and indeed, on July 20, he will again be in Hitler's presence. Plans are made to take over the German government once Hitler is dead, and on July 20 the whole operation begins with Stauffenberg and his aide flying to Hitler's military headquarters in northeastern Germany, located in a forested area of East Prussia. Stauffenberg carries the bomb into the military conference in his briefcase. After a momentary exchange with Hitler, Stauffenberg gets as close as possible to the Führer and he places the briefcase under the large conference table. Stauffenberg then exists the conference with the excuse of a telephone call. I'm not going to go into everything that happens, as much of the film deals with actual historical details, as known. When the bomb explodes, Stauffenberg is convinced that Hitler could not possibly have survived, a view quickly reinforced when he sees a body being carried out of the devastated room covered with Hitler's cloak. Stauffenberg flies back to Berlin only to learn that virtually nothing has been done to advance the take over of the government. The problem: reports that Hitler is alive! Stauffenberg tries to convince other conspirators that the Nazis are lying and that Hitler is really dead. Orders go out to military units in Berlin to ignore orders from Nazi leaders, and some SS officers and men are arrested in Vienna and Paris (which is still in German hands), but the conspirators mistakenly leave a pro-Hitler major, Otto Remer, played by Italian actor Enrico Mutti, in charge of part of one of Germany's elite army units, "Grossdeutschland." Remer is summoned to the home of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who then contacts Hitler directly by telephone. Hitler speaks to Remer and issues orders to put down the revolt and the major sets about doing just that. Once it is confirmed that Hitler is alive, the plot, already on life support, is left with the final acts to be played out; namely, the arrest of the army leaders of the conspiracy. General Fromm, the actual head of the Replacement Army, is, at first, arrested by the conspirators when he won't commit himself to the anti-Hitler side, but he is then freed by pro-Hitler army troops. Fromm sets about rounding up the officers in the building, including Stauffenberg.

Longtime anti-Nazi (dating back to the 1930s), General Ludwig Beck, asks that he be allowed to take his own life, but he botches it, and Fromm orders others to finish off Beck. The other officers are led outside during the early part of July 21. A vehicle's headlights are used to provide light for the executions. When Stauffenberg is led up, just before the order to fire (German: Feuer) is given, his aide, Werner von Haeften (played by Hardy Krüger, Jr.), attempts to run in front of him, and both are killed by the execution squad. We then hear a part of the actual radio broadcast of Hitler speaking about the assassination plot.***** The film ends with General von Tresckow, one of the leading conspirators, holding a hand grenade to his body to commit suicide just behind the Eastern Front, where he was stationed.             

* For the sake of simplicity; hereafter, I will use "German," in the broad ethnic sense, to include Austrians, as well as people of German ethnicity who lived in German communities in other countries back then. Switzerland and Liechtenstein are excluded, but it should be noted, some men from both countries did serve in the German armed forces during the war, including in the Waffen SS, although the overall numbers were very small. To make this clear too, however, I must also say that MANY non Germans participated in Hitler's military or in his murder apparatus, in some way.

** The German name "Junge" is closely related to the English name, "Young."   

*** For more detail about Traudl Junge, I did a three part series on her. Here are the links:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/02/traudl-junge-working-for-evil-part-one.html

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/02/traudl-junge-working-for-evil-part-two.html

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/02/traudl-junge-working-for-evil-part-three.html

**** General Friedrich Fromm has long been a controversial figure regarding the anti-Hitler conspiracy. Fromm's exact involvement with the conspirators has never really been satisfactorily explained, but he certainly generally knew of the conspiracy and he did not report it, which legally made him culpable. Since Fromm had the main conspirators in Berlin executed within hours (detractors feel Fromm 'conveniently' had these officers executed, as they knew of his complicity), it's doubtful we'll ever know everything about Fromm's participation prior to July 20, 1944. Even though the Gestapo could not make a direct link with Fromm and the conspiracy, he remained under heavy suspicion and the Nazis removed him from his military positions. Two months before the end of the war, Fromm was sentenced to death by a Nazi court for "cowardice before the enemy" (German: "Feigheit vor dem Feind;" see Word History, below). The sentence was carried out just days later.

***** As Hitler's headquarters was in an isolated part of Germany, a recording unit had to be  dispatched there by Goebbels to record Hitler's speech, then the recording was transported from there to a plane and flown to Berlin. It wasn't broadcast on German radio until late at night.  

Photo is from the 2009 The Weinstein Company DVD 

 WORD HISTORY:
Fiend-This word goes back to Indo European "pheyeh," which had the notion, "to give pain, to hurt." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "fijand," which meant, "to hate;" perhaps from the notion, "we hate someone or something that brings us pain," or perhaps even the reverse, "someone or something that causes pain, hates us." The Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "feond," which meant, "enemy" (someone we hate, someone who wants to do us harm; thus, the opposite of friend). This meaning even expanded later to mean, "the enemy of humanity, enemy of all;" thus, it was also a way of referring to, "the devil, Satan," and later to the less specific, "evil spirit." Its primary meaning of "enemy," which it shared as something of a synonym with the old form of modern "foe," began to be lost in English, when a form of the word "enemy" was borrowed from French, although "foe" has kept that meaning to this day. The notions of "evil spirit" and "someone wishing to harm us," still underlie the modern meanings of "fiend," as in the meaning of being possessed (in the sense of being "obsessed"); thus, "I'm a real music fiend," or the less flattering, "He is a dope fiend." The primary modern meaning, "someone who is evil and cruel," still connects to the old meaning, just not in the direct sense of "enemy" today. The Old English form later became "feend/fend," before what became the modern form. Other Germanic forms: German has "Feind" (enemy), Low German Saxon has "Feend" (enemy), West Frisian "fijân" (enemy), Dutch "vijand" (enemy), Danish "fjende" (enemy), Swedish and Norwegian "fiende" (enemy), Icelandic "fjandi" (enemy, but no longer the primary word for such). 

On Your Death Bed ... Reflecting

Lying on your death bed, what will you be thinking? Will it be, "Wow, I'm so proud of the nastiness and hatred I felt and tried to spread in my life. It makes me feel so good! I'm so happy I supported and witnessed the way Donald Trump made America hate again; how Ted Cruz and other far right wing supporters ranted against modern times and opposed the rights of some people to love one another. Gee they make me proud. There weren't many as brave as Trump, Cruz, Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Hannity, and of course, Ann Coulter, who might be a better hater than all of them combined, well, except for maybe the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members cloaked their hate in religion. What a great bunch! 

Yes, I'm proud of my hate and nastiness and I celebrate the hater in chief, Adolf Hitler. Now Hitler was a hater to make other haters super proud, a role model any want to be hater can look up to. Even as his life ticked down in its last hours, old Adolf kept hating, he never quit. In those last hours, he even had his own brother-in-law shot and he ranted against Jews in his final testament, so he never changed his positions, he stayed true to his hate. Wow, what a guy! And how about that Magda Goebbels? She was the wife of Joseph Goebbels, a great hater in his own right. It takes quite a hater to murder your own six kids, but Magda proved she was up to the task of being a true hater, supported by Joe, of course. So to all of you liberals, see, I don't discriminate against women.

So, like my hero, old Adolf, as I prepare to leave this world, I remain true to the cause of hate and I offer a big 'thank you' to all who have ever helped to prevent other human beings from receiving food, shelter or medical care, and an even bigger shout out, if it was to give tax cuts to billionaires, the truly needy among us; also to those who worked or spoke against military veterans and their families; who promoted war over peace; who knowingly trashed the planet, especially to pad their bank accounts; who promoted hatred against different races, religions, ethnicities, or hell, anything different from themselves, especially to derive political power. There are so many hateful things people do, I can't even think of all of them, but you've all earned the thanks of this grateful hater. And unlike some of you, I and Adolf don't claim to have our hate sanctified by a deity or deities, we just plain HATE!"

So is this how you would like to be remembered, even if not quite as extreme as I've presented here? None of us is perfect, but some are so hate filled and show little or no attempt to retreat from their hate. Assessing your own life and feelings is a start, so reflect now, before you go to your death bed.  

WORD HISTORY: 
Legacy-This word is related to "legation" and "delegation," but its distant Indo European origin presented here is not firm, although I am "definitely maybe" convinced. It was borrowed in the latter part of the 1300s from French "legacie," which meant, "group of envoys or deputies with written orders to fulfill a given task or tasks." This came from Latin "legatia," "an area over which a deputy has jurisdiction," from Latin "legatus," which meant, "deputy, envoy, official, officer, someone given power by a higher authority," from Latin "legare," a verb with the broad meaning, "to pick, to gather;" ^ thus, "choose," and in a specific sense, "to send a 'chosen' person or group (thus, "authorized") on a mission." This came from Latin "lex," which meant "law," perhaps from the idea, "gathered words used to rule, or in a contract." This went back to Indo European "leg-," which had the notion, "to gather, collect, pick."  

^ It also meant "to read," from the notion of picking out written markings and deciphering them." 

Baron's Tales Make For Good Fantasy Movie: Münchhausen

Baron Münchhausen was a real life German noble of the 1700s who became noted for the fantastic stories he told of his life's adventures. Books recounting the stories were written, "seemingly" based upon the stories told by the Baron, but the thing was, Baron Münchhausen became famous, especially in England and Germany.* By the early 1940s, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist and overall head of the German film industry, ordered the making of a film about Münchhausen's adventures. Goebbels hoped the color film would demonstrate that the German movie industry could compete with Hollywood in the making of elaborate color films, complete with trick photography.

Erich Kästner, a highly regarded German writer, did much of the screenplay for the movie, but the thing was, Kästner was an anti-Nazi, and although Goebbels admired some of Kästner's works, he kept the author's name from the credits of the film. Kästner's earlier works had been burned as part of the Nazi campaign to limit the German public's access to writings by German Jewish or foreign authors, and to those writings they deemed to be "dangerous;" the translation of which was really, "writings that might make Germans oppose Nazi ideology." After that Kästner settled on publishing children's books and works that were non-political. Very likely Kästner's script for the movie was gone over word by word by Nazi censures, perhaps even by Goebbels himself.

The movie was filmed in 1942 and starred then well known German actor Hans Albers as the Baron. For those who remember actor Walter Slezak, known for films like "Lifeboat" (with Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix) and "Bedtime for Bonzo" (with Ronald Reagan), as well as for appearances on the television series "Batman" in the 1960s, his father, Leo Slezak, co-starred in the film as the Turkish Sultan. Leo Slezak was well known in Europe in those times for his opera singing. The movie, with the title "Münchhausen," was released to theaters in March of 1943 and it returned a profit. The movie is available on DVD, with English subtitles, and it has some history of the film included, from which I took some of the info here.

I won't go into all of the movie, but it has some interesting turns to it, including the opening part, which is likely to give you a surprise after a few minutes. The most famous scene, taken from one of the books about the Baron, shows the Baron riding a cannonball into a Turkish fort. Other scenes depict the Baron's time in Russia, including with Tsarina Catherine the Great, a sword duel in Venice, and his visit to the moon in a balloon. Don't be concerned, as the movie is NOT a Nazi propaganda film (remember it was largely written by an anti-Nazi), and in fact, when I first saw it, I was surprised that Goebbels had allowed the film to be shown without more editing or script changes, as for instance, the Turkish sultan is shown meting out severe punishment, including beheading, at times for minor infractions. Also, the time on the moon is different from time on Earth, and Kästner has one of the characters in the script say, "the time is broken," seen by many as his subtle way of saying the same about the Nazi era.

* Münchhausen was from the Hannover (English: Hanover) area of Germany, which had close ties to England, as the "House of Hannover" provided the monarchs of England from the early 1700s until the early 1900s.

WORD HISTORY:
Baron-The ultimate origins of this word are complex, as there are two strong possibilities for the Indo European base of the word, both of which later provided English with words that are both spelled and pronounced the same; that is, "bear," but with one meaning "to carry" and "to give birth or to yield produce," while the other is a word for an animal. The problem is, in Old Germanic the source of baron meant, "servant, male follower, warrior." It is certainly not difficult to connect the dots for the use of "bear," the animal, for a "warrior," but it is far less likely for "servant" or "male follower." On the other hand, the connection of those last two meanings, which are similar anyway, to "carry," is not difficult to imagine, as a servant or follower has to "bear" responsibility to someone or to others. I very much favor this explanation, which therefore goes back to Indo European "bher," which meant the above noted "to carry" and "to give birth or to yield produce;" thus the notion "bearer," for the noun form. Indo European "bher" gave its Old Germanic offspring "beran," with the same meanings, which then produced "berun," "carrier," which then developed the "servant, follower" meaning, which then further developed the "warrior" meaning, as in feudal times, the "(male) servants" ("vassals") provided military service to the lord. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "biorn/beorn," meaning "warrior, (minor?) chieftain, man." In the meantime, Latin had borrowed a form of the same word from Germanic, perhaps from Frankish or Langobardic,^ as "baro" (with varied spellings using "n," depending upon usage in a sentence). This gave Old French "baron," a title in the nobility. The term was carried to England by the Normans and blended with the native English term, but with the French spelling "baron" prevailing. German too borrowed the term, initially as "Barun," but then as "Baron," with a long "o" (all German nouns are capitalized), but German also kept their own word "Freiherr" (literally "free (gentle)man," from the notion in the Middle Ages of a man owning his land outright and not being subservient to a lord directly above him. "Freiherr" became synonymous with "Baron."

^ The Franks and the Langobards were Germanic tribes, with the Franks having a strong presence in what developed into modern France, with the name "France" coming from the Franks, and the Langobards having a strong presence in part of northern Italy, where they gave their name to the province "Lombardia" (usually rendered in English as "Lombardy").

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era/Goebbels

NOTE: I really liked the suggestion by one of the readers to do this, and, to keep some balance, I've decided to also do some important Allied leaders in the near future.

Part One/B "Joseph Goebbels"

Joseph Goebbels (also "Göbbels, but less frequently) was from the Rhineland in western Germany. He became an important part of Hitler's march to power and to the consolidation and expansion of that power once Hitler was in office. Highly intelligent, he understood personality and psychology, and this made him a very dangerous man. He was a little guy, only like five feet in height, and he had a deformity in his one foot/lower leg, which caused him to wear a special brace, although he still walked with a slight limp. Some have attributed Goebbels militaristic behavior to his handicap.* Hitler sent him to Berlin in the earlier days of his rise to power to win converts to the growing Nazi Party and to combat the "red" influence in Berlin; that is, to defeat the Communists in Berlin, and street battles between the two groups were not uncommon. Goebbels loved movies and film making. Not long after Hitler became chancellor, he appointed Goebbels to be the head of the new "Propaganda Ministry." In this new position, Goebbels came to control every aspect of news read or heard by the German people. He used films to influence the public, putting a "Nazi touch" on movies about famous Germans, like Bismarck and Frederick the Great. He and his wife, Magda, had six children, and he had the family portrayed in newsreels as the exemplary family for Germans.** Interestingly however, Goebbels liked the ladies, especially some of the actresses he came into contact with because of the German film industry. He got into hot water due to an affair with a Czech actress, Lida Baarova, in the mid 1930s, which brought a reprimand from none other than Hitler himself, who ordered the affair ended; after all, Hitler was spouting off about how bad the Czechs were, and here his own Propaganda Minister was involved with one. While he didn't like it and threatened to resign, Goebbels followed Hitler's order.

Goebbels was also responsible for much of the open Nazi persecution of Germany's Jews, including the infamous "Night of the Broken Glass" ("Kristallnacht"), when many Jewish businesses and religious institutions were ransacked or burned, and many Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. During the war, Goebbels helped keep Germans fighting to the bitter end with his appeals to German patriotism and with a major dose of fear, both of Nazi informants and of Germany's enemies. His famous speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, just a couple of weeks after the German surrender at Stalingrad, created a frenzy among his listeners present at the arena and those listening on the radio, especially after the intense build up to the question he asked the audience, "Do you want total war?" Those in attendance answered with a resounding "Ja!" (The Allies and Soviets responded with bombs and victories.) Late in 1944, Hitler put Goebbels in charge of the "Volkssturm," the equivalent of the German home defense, consisting of older men and young boys. As the Soviets stormed into Berlin in April 1945, Goebbels and his family (they lived in Berlin) moved into Hitler's bunker. Some reports say that Hitler wanted Goebbels to take his family and leave Berlin for safety, and that, upset to the point of tears by Hitler's order, Goebbels refused to go. Goebbels may have been intelligent, but he didn't use his intellect when it came to Nazi nonsense, and he and his wife poisoned all six of their children, before then taking their own lives not long after their "master," Hitler, had committed suicide ("Selbstmord").*** The Soviets found the bodies and displayed them for cameras.****

I had intended to combine Goebbels and Martin Bormann into one article, but Bormann will be in the next article, perhaps with Albert Speer.

* This makes him similar to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany during World War One, who had been born with a deformity of his one arm/hand. The Kaiser loved military matters, and his militarism may well have been the result of his handicap, but please don't think that every person with a physical handicap is apt to want to start a war or turn into a Nazi.

** His wife had been married previously, and she had one son by that marriage, who survived the war.

*** Literally "self murder," and you can see the similarity of the words to their English counterparts.

**** Goebbels and his wife were partially burned, per his order. The children were found separately, and unburned.

WORD HISTORY:
Swelter-This is another word of uncertain origin, but with a presence in Old Germanic, as "sweltanan," which passed the word onto its offspring, English; actually more specifically, to the Germanic dialects which evolved into English. Its meaning in Old Germanic was "to die." In Old English it was "sweltan," also meaning "to die," but later a variation, "swelten," meant "to be faint with heat, to be overcome by heat." Later this became "swelteren," before the modern version, which has retained the notion of "oppressive heat," but not really the "fainting" part. Icelandic has "svelta," which means "to starve, or to starve someone;" Swedish has "svälta," also with that meaning, so in North Germanic, the word took the "to die" meaning in the direction of "starving to death,"^ while English, a West Germanic language, took the direction of "fainting from the heat," perhaps from the idea that a person who "faints" appears to be dead. Other Germanic languages once had forms of the word too (Old High German had "swelzan," for instance, and it also meant "to die"), but apparently they have died out (no pun intended), just as the old form and the "die" meaning died out in English. German has been prone to tacking prefixes on to many old base words, and they may still have a form of the word, but a bit disguised, and I'm "almost" certain I've encountered it in German before.

^ Danish and Norwegian both have "sulte," for "starve" (both are North Germanic languages), but whether these are related to "swelter," I cannot say for certain.

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era: "Göring"

"Political Leaders" Part One/A "Göring"

I'm doing this in response to a suggestion by a regular reader. The information on each of these leaders is from memory (unless otherwise noted), and comes from the many books and articles I've read over many, many years, plus from documentaries I've seen during that period, which is now closing in on five decades. As I so often note here, if something interests you, please check online sources for more information, or, better yet, go to your local library and see what books and articles they have on the subject of interest to you. I've simply picked out a few of the top German leaders from the Nazi era, and there were many more, but it is always important to remember about that time, that Hitler was THE final authority on EVERYTHING. The whole Nazi system was built around him, and he continued to assume more and more power over the years. While Hitler is seen as the all powerful dictator, he was not much of an administrator, being somewhat lazy, by many accounts, especially in the prewar years. He preferred to set out "themes" then taken by his underlings, who translated their interpretations of these themes into actions. That is likely the reason why no direct order has ever been found with Hitler's signature on it, directing the extermination of Europe's Jews. He did however talk about such, even publicly, as he did in a speech to the Reichstag just months before the war began in 1939. In that speech, he said that if war came to Europe, it would not result in the victory of "Jewry" ("Judentum"), but instead it would result in the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe ("die Vernichtung der jüdische Rasse in Europa).* It can't be much clearer than that, so don't buy the nonsense from Hitler apologists who say he knew nothing of the death camps and mass executions of Jews.

Hermann Göring (also: Goering, but less common)-Göring was a genuine hero as an ace pilot in World War One. He was highly decorated, and in fact, he became the commander of the same unit of the famous Baron von Richthofen, popularly known as "The Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron," in German), not long after the Baron's death. Since his name was quite familiar to the German public, there's no question that Göring's joining the Nazi Party gave it a certain credibility. Göring became the president of the Reichstag (parliament), and he became the head of the revived German Luftwaffe (airforce) under Hitler. If you compare pictures of Göring from World War One with those taken through the years thereafter, you can see he lived a pretty good life, as his waist line expanded tremendously. He loved the benefits of power, and when German forces occupied various countries, but especially France, he grabbed many great works of art for himself.

Severely wounded in the thigh during the attempted Nazi takeover of Germany in 1923, Göring became addicted to the morphine used to ease his pain, and his addiction was a chronic problem throughout the rest of his life, with periods where he kicked the habit, and periods where he returned to drug use. Göring's jovial personality was popular with the German people, seemingly even when the severe air raids began during World War Two, and, as head of the Luftwaffe, he bore responsibility to protect Germany from Allied bombers. Early in the war, Göring "supposedly" said something to the effect, "You can call me 'Meier' if any bombs are dropped on _______."** It wasn't long before Germans began referring to him as "Herr Meier," so there must be some truth about Göring's statement. Göring must also bear a good deal of the blame for the eventual surrender of German forces at Stalingrad, as he assured Hitler shortly after the Red Army surrounded the Germans there, that the Luftwaffe could supply the army inside Stalingrad, something that did not happen. While Hitler may have kept the army there anyway, Göring's assertion certainly solidified Hitler's position of not permitting his forces to breakout of the encirclement. Hitler publicly named Göring as his successor on September 1, 1939 (the day of the German invasion of Poland). Göring is really a mixture of political leader AND military leader, and he was first a general, then Hitler promoted him to field marshal, then to a special rank created only for Göring, "Reichsmarshall" ("Marshal of the Reich").

In the waning days of the war, with the Russians advancing inside Berlin and Hitler hidden deeply away in his bunker beneath the German capitol, Göring, who was in southern Germany, sent a message to Hitler asking about succeeding him. In the message, Göring noted that he realized that Hitler may not have had the ability to respond under the circumstances, and that if he, Göring, didn't receive an answer within so many hours (I just forget the time Göring used), that he would assume Hitler was incapacitated in some way, and that he, Göring, would assume the role as Hitler's successor, as Hitler had ordered in 1939. Göring's message was entirely proper, and according to accounts from survivors who were in the bunker, Hitler seems to have seen it as such, AT FIRST. Hitler's deputy, Martin Bormann, however, supported by Joseph Goebbels,*** Hitler's propaganda chief and personal foe of Göring, told Hitler that Göring's message was an ultimatum, and that Göring was trying to seize power. Ah, excuse me. Helllllllooooooo!!! Seize power of what? A destroyed nation on its knees? It just shows how nuts these guys really were. Hitler exploded and ordered Göring to be stripped of all ranks and offices. He also ordered Göring's execution. With the Russians only blocks away, Hitler was still consumed by such nonsense. The execution order was never carried out, and Göring was captured by American troops. He was put on trial at Nuremberg and mounted a defiant defense. Interestingly, Göring was in the midst of a drug bout when captured, and Allied doctors not only cleaned up his "habit," but reduced his huge hulk to a more manageable size. With a clear mind, this all served Göring well during the trial, as he was shown to be highly intelligent, but his crafty defense didn't save him, and he was condemned to "death by hanging" ("Tod durch den Strang, " literally "death through the rope," and "Strang" is indeed closely related to English "string"). Just a couple of hours before the sentence was to be carried out, Göring took poison and died in his cell. There have been many theories as to how Göring got the poison, and if interested, that might be something you will want to check on, as an American officer at the prison is one of the possible people involved.

Finally, during episodes of drug use, Göring's behavior was reported at times to be bizarre, and many people who knew him commented or wrote about such after the war. Some devout supporters denied many of the scandalous stories about Göring, but I believe there is more than a little basis of truth to most of them; not everyone could have been lying. While I mentioned Göring's jovial personality, it MUST be noted, he could be absolutely RUTHLESS, at times. To his credit, he did try to stop the war from breaking out in 1939, just prior to the invasion of Poland. In my opinion, he was enjoying power too much. He didn't want to jeopardize all the fun by a war that could, and eventually did, end badly (obviously, from his point of view).

* For the entire passage, see "Hitler-Reden und Proklamationen" ("Hitler-Speeches and Proclamations") Band (Volume) II, page 1058, from Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on January 30, 1939.

** It is tough to pin down the exact quote of Göring, and I left the space blank, because some say he mentioned Berlin, others the Ruhr (the major industrial region of Germany), and still others, Germany.

*** Goebbels and Bormann will be covered in Part One/B of this series.

WORD HISTORY:
Singe-This word for "to lightly burn around the edges or tips of something, often hair," has an uncertain origin. It "may" be a Germanic invention, or perhaps more specifically a West Germanic invention (English, German, Low German, Dutch and Frisian are West Germanic), and some believe it is actually related to "sing;" the connection being the sort of "hissing" sound made when something is singed, but I'm not completely sold on that, but don't laugh, words take on meanings in strange, even comic, ways at times. Anyway, West Germanic had "sangjanan," which meant "to burn, scorch." This led to Old English "sengan" (also spelled "sencgan"), which had the "lightly burn" meaning first noted above. Later it was spelled "sengen," before the modern version. German has "sengen," Dutch has "zengen," both also meaning "to singe, to scorch." Frisian had a form, "sendza," but apparently it died out. Icelandic once had "sangr," which also meant "burned," but was this a borrowing from West Germanic? (Icelandic is North Germanic) Or is this a tie to Old Germanic? By the way, "singeing," with the "e" intact, while it looks odd, is the proper spelling, in order to distinguish it from "singing."

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 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 Twenty-Nine

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B"
Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Seven
"A Possible Turning Point; Hitler Takes Czechs Into The Reich"

NOTE: I forgot to mention that during the "Sudeten German crisis," the German public was highly apprehensive about going to war, according to the many correspondents there. The hysterical crowds at the 1938 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg and at a Hitler speech in Berlin* just prior to the Munich Conference were not really representative of the average German (from what is known). While there were no actual public opinion polls, there were many foreign reporters in Germany during that era, including Americans, and virtually all noted the downbeat mood of the German public about the possibility of war.

So now Czechoslovakia was much smaller in size,** but still with problems, primarily now from the Slovaks, who wanted total independence. Hungary had received some territory with substantial Hungarian population as part of a separate agreement made at Vienna the month after the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany, but the Hungarians still harbored ill feelings toward the peace treaties and border adjustments made after World War One, especially as they applied to the rest of Slovakia, which they ruled prior to the end of the war. By March 1939, the Czechs sent troops into Slovakia and Slovak leaders were removed from their positions. The Slovaks declared independence (with Hitler's support and insistence). President Hacha went to meet Hitler in Berlin, where he was told the capital of Prague would be bombed unless he cooperated with Germany. Hacha gave in and German troops crossed into his country later that morning, and Hitler himself followed a bit later. The Czech territories were occupied by Germany and declared the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia," and Slovakia was independent, although with foreign policy tied to Germany (as a satellite country, in other words).

During the Sudeten crisis the previous year, Hitler had said Germany wanted "no Czechs." Further, he made the statement that the Sudetenland was his "last territorial demand in Europe."*** These two things and Hitler's signing of Chamberlain's "peace for our time" agreement were not forgotten in other countries, and Hitler, by taking Czechs into Germany, lost any credibility for just being a German patriot who wanted to unite Germans. Other European governments now began to reassess their policies toward Hitler and about how to deal with him.

* In a much anticipated speech given to 20,000 at the Berliner Sportpalast (Berlin Sport Palace), Joseph Goebbels whipped the faithful into a frenzy as he introduced Hitler. The speech was given on September 26, just three days before the Munich Conference, and I believe it was carried on radio throughout various parts of the world. No question in my mind that Goebbels, the propaganda genius, arranged everything to demonstrate German public support for Hitler's demands made on the Czech leaders. Twenty thousand Nazi Party members, however, were not the same as millions of average Germans, but in times of crisis, humans don't always think of such things, and the effect of the speech as it came across on radio with the hysterical crowd shouting "Führer befiehl, wir folgen" ("Führer command, we follow"), served Goebbels' purpose of making the world believe Germans were totally committed to Hitler's policy (although even if they weren't committed, there wasn't a hell of a lot they could do about it in a totalitarian police state).

** Technically, the official name of the country became "Czecho-Slovakia," to indicate the Slovaks had declared self government in the Slovak region, under Jozef Tiso. Edvard Beneš resigned as president of the country and went to England. He was replaced by Emil Hacha.

*** It is hard to believe that others from those times would have accepted this statement about territorial demands, as there were still several contentious issues of Germans living under non-German rule; especially, the city of Danzig, where the population was more than 90% German, and under a League of Nations Commissioner, the Polish Corridor and parts of Silesia where more than a million Germans lived under Polish rule, and in Memel and environs, where a substantial German majority lived under Lithuanian rule.

WORD HISTORY:
Hail-This is not related to "hail"=ice pellets, rather this word is used as a verb, an adjective and an interjection. This is the word used as an old greeting. It is closely related to "health," and indeed, that was the basic meaning lying behind its use as a greeting; that is, "health (to you)." Like its relatives, "health, heal and whole," it goes back to Indo European "koilos/kailo," with the general meaning "healthy, unharmed, in a sound, complete ("whole") condition." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "(k)hailaz," with the same general meaning. This produced Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "hal," also with the same meaning. It "seems" Old English "hal" was then influenced in extended meaning by Old Norse "heill," or more specifically by the Norse expression "ves heill," which meant "be healthy, have good health." This expression gave Old English "wæs hæil," with the same meaning, and it eventually was contracted into "wassail;" that is, "a toast to someone's health," that later came to also be applied to a specific drink used for such a toast. The general idea, however, remained just in the word "haeil," which came to be used as a greeting, and was later spelled "hail." The same idea lies behind the closely related German word "heil," which the Nazis used in greetings "Heil Hitler" and "Sieg heil," the latter meaning "hail to victory." By the way, before English borrowed the word "victory," English had "sige," obviously a close relative to German "Sieg."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Twenty-Eight

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Six
"Kristallnacht"

In early November 1938, a German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, serving with the German embassy in Paris, was shot by a Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan, whose parents had been forcibly taken out of Germany and put over the border into Poland.* As vom Rath lay in the hospital severely wounded, Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels prepared a massive attack on Germany's Jews to demonstrate Germans' "spontaneous" revenge for the shooting. Folks, you can't have a "prepared 'spontaneous' attack." The Nazis "claimed" a Jewish conspiracy, which was absolute nonsense.

Vom Rath died two days later and Nazi thugs, I mean Storm Troopers, and other thugs rampaged through Jewish businesses, community buildings and religious facilities, smashing windows and setting fires. German authorities simply stood by and did not intervene. The name "Kristallnacht," literally "Crystal Night," comes from the "broken glass" on the streets from all of the broken windows. Jews were assaulted and others were arrested, with many sent to concentration camps. Nearly all of Germany's synagogues were damaged or destroyed.

Now....get this. The Nazis "fined" the German Jewish community for the outbreak of violence!!! Further, a special charge was also put into effect to repair all of the broken windows and to secure damaged property. All in all, the whole terrible matter lowered world respect for Germany, at least for people with any sense of decency and conscience. Any illusions held by Germany's remaining Jews that the Nazi repressions would pass or lessen should have now been dispelled. In fact, far worse was to come. International protests were really just symbolic,** and many people seemed to remain in a state of denial that the escalating Nazi anti-Jewish persecutions were leading to the possibility of far more drastic actions.

* Poland was not renewing passport papers for Polish citizens who had lived outside of Poland for an extensive period of time, and this included the Grynszpans. The German authorities rounded up several thousand Polish Jews without notice, forcing them to leave with few belongings, and they simply put them over the border into Poland. The Grynszpans' son had been staying with relatives in Paris, so the expulsion of his parents was the apparent motivation for the shooting.

** The United States, for instance, temporarily recalled its ambassador from Germany.

WORD HISTORY:
Terror-This word goes back to Indo European "ter/tre," with the general meaning "to shake." This gave Latin "terrere," a verb meaning "to frighten." From the verb came the noun "terrorem," with the meaning "tremendous fear, dread." Old French inherited the word as part of its Latin-based vocabulary as "terreur," which was then borrowed into English in the late 1300s, first as "terrour," before the modern spelling. German also borrowed the word, and for those studying German it is masculine; thus "der Terror."