Trump & The United States Are NOT One And The Same

Way back in 1934, in Nuremberg, Germany, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party held their annual party rally, a series of special events and speeches that took place in September of that year. Hitler had been chancellor of Germany only since January 30, 1933, and he had only been total ruler for about a month, as President Paul von Hindenburg had died in early August, bringing Hitler to combine the presidency with the chancellorship, as "Führer." During one event, Rudolf Hess, a major Nazi official, declared: "The party is Hitler, Hitler however is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler" ("Die Partei ist Hitler, Hitler aber ist Deutschland, wie Deutschland Hitler ist.").

The most important aspect of Hitler's assumption of the presidential powers was that he became the supreme commander of the armed forces, a situation that worked out so well for the world (written, of course, with GREAT SARCASM, for those in need of clarification). With this power now vested in Hitler, he had the military forces swear loyalty to HIM, not to Germany: "I swear to God this sacred oath, that I shall give unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people (and) supreme commander of the armed forces, Adolf Hitler, and, that as a brave soldier, I shall, at any time, be prepared to lay down my life for this oath." (German: "Ich schwöre bei Gott diesen heiligen Eid, daß ich dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes, Adolf Hitler, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht, unbedingten Gehorsam leisten und als tapferer Soldat bereit sein will, jederzeit für diesen Eid mein Leben einzusetzen.")

So, one can see the entwining of Hitler and the German nation with the idea that an attack on, or criticism of, Hitler, being seen as an attack on, or criticism of, Germany itself. It had stunning affect, as German officers (including Austrians), long associated with respect for powerful, and even autocratic rulers, but with otherwise a general lack of political involvement, could not easily bring themselves to oppose this little man with the toothbrush mustache, because of this oath, even though they could see the terrible destruction he was bringing to others and to Germany. A few independent thinkers in the military opposed many aspects of Nazism from early on, but most German officers remained in denial right up to the very end, cowering behind the above oath. A few military officers, with the knowledge they had of Nazi crimes and the downward spiral of the war, did act, risking their own lives FOR Germany, but AGAINST Hitler. They finally admitted the truth to themselves, that Hitler and Germany were TWO different things, not one and the same. While their attempt against Hitler and the Nazis failed, there is a memorial plaque in Berlin where some of the anti-Hitler participants were executed. The plaque reads: "Here died for Germany," followed by the names of those executed on that spot, but it represents ALL who tried to overthrow the evil they saw. And note, it says, "died for Germany," not a word linking Germany and that son-of-a-bitch Hitler.

Any president of the United States, including Donald Trump, is chosen by Americans as their temporary national and international representative and head of the executive branch of a three part system of government, along with the legislative and judicial branches. Criticism of our presidents, including Donald Trump, does not mean Americans hate their country, as the president and the nation are separate, not linked in any way as the Nazis did with Hitler and Germany. Presidents of the United States are asked direct questions by the media, and sometimes even by every day citizens. Presidents also receive criticism, fairly, unfairly, or somewhere in between, by the media and every day citizens. It is not only permitted, it is expected. We are not a nation of lockstep zombies, although some Americans seem to be doing a great imitation of such. Americans also can, and should, question military leaders, including four star Marine generals, an act we recently were told was "highly inappropriate," by the spokesperson for the current Trump administration. In our system, no one in a position of authority is immune from being questioned or criticized, it goes with the territory, and those who assumed those positions of authority "knew what they were getting themselves into," as Trump told the widow of Army Sergeant La David Johnson, a man who was killed in operations in Niger, along with three other Green Berets, in October 2017.   
     
WORD HISTORY:
Cower-This word, unrelated to "coward," in spite of the modern similarity in spelling and meaning, has a cloudy history, but it goes back to Indo European "guh/geu," with the notion, "to bend, to curve, to arch." The problem comes as to how some Germanic languages got their forms of the Indo European word; that is, was it by a direct offshoot from the parent Indo European? Or an indirect borrowing by way of another language? I can find no form in Old Germanic, and "perhaps" a form entered Germanic by way of its North Germanic branch, where it then spread southward to Low German, which eventually passed it to High German and to English. Its basic meaning in the long distant past seems to have been, "to sit or kneel down in a hunched (arched, bent) position." Lithuanian, a Baltic language in northeastern Europe, had "gurnas," from the Indo European form, and meant, "hip, hipjoint;" that is, "the bone or joint that permits crouching down." The word first appears in English circa 1300 as "curen," although there could have been an earlier unrecorded form, but it seems to have been borrowed from Low German "kuren" ("watch or peek out from a hiding place in the woods"). Some relatives are Old Norse "karr," more directly tied in meaning to the Indo European, meant "curly, wavy" ("bent, curved"), while Swedish "kura" means "huddle." German has "kauern," which means "to crouch in an arched position, to cower." The Brothers Grimm, who not only assembled fairy tales, but who also did extensive work on word histories, wondered if "cower" might be related to the English verb "cow," meaning, "to intimidate;" thus with the possible original meaning, "to cause someone to crouch in fear." I must admit the two words likely come from the same Indo European base (Old Norse had "kuga," meaning, "to oppress;" so, a likely relative of "cow." It has nothing to do with the noun for the name of the animal, "cow.")

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). 

The Desert Fox, The Movie & History

I first saw this 1951 movie in the 1960s on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, which showed movies for their first time on television. The film was based upon a popular book, "Rommel: The Desert Fox," * by British officer Desmond Young, who served in North Africa with the Indian forces stationed there during World War Two (India was still a British colony at that time). German General/Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, has enjoyed a popular and respected place in the history of the world's worst war, as even the British and Commonwealth forces that opposed him heaped praise upon him at times, and this movie does much the same (remember, this movie was made just six years after the war ended). After a few decades of praise for Rommel, historians turned to scrutinizing the former field marshal's record, and such scrutiny was not a bad thing, in my opinion. The thing is, like many Germans, including those of the German officer corps, Rommel's association with Hitler and the Nazis is not always easy to untangle. In essence, all were tainted to some degree, including highly respected senior general Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. Rommel was much liked by Hitler, probably somewhat because he was not from the German nobility, another segment of German society with a mixed record with the Nazis. He also became a favorite of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels during the war. As for Rommel's association with Hitler, early in the war, the fanatical furious Führer chose Rommel to lead his escort battalion, a highly trained army (not SS) unit that provided security for Hitler. 

Like American general, George Patton, Rommel was insubordinate at times, but like Patton, he was also known for appearing anywhere on the battlefield. In the movie, one of Rommel's subordinate commanders in North Africa, General Bayerlein (pronounced as if, "buyer-line"), played by George Macready, tells the headquarters staff, after repeated attempts to reach Rommel in the field, that he wishes they had a commander with at least a little bit of cowardice about him, so he would report back to his headquarters occasionally. The biggest "plus" to the Allied view of Rommel's record was his "participation" in the plot to kill Hitler in 1944, although the extent of Rommel's involvement is still debated and likely it will never be truly known in great detail. The movie shows Rommel's anguish as he gradually comes to terms with the need to rid Germany of Hitler. At first he makes excuses for Hitler and he blames the crowd around Hitler for Germany's growing prospect of defeat. To be quite honest, the movie's portrayal of Rommel's participation in the plot is probably close to what it actually was; that is, Rommel certainly knew of the plot, but he didn't report it, which indeed made him complicit in it, although admirably so. Any further role Rommel had with the plotters is just not completely known; after all, everything had to be very secret, lest the Gestapo and other Nazi agents find out about it, so few written records were kept, but the fact that Hitler wanted Rommel dead speaks volumes as to what the Nazis knew, or, at least, thought they knew.    

The movie deals with Rommel's life from about the time of the decisive Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, which began in the summer of 1942. Rommel, played by James Mason, is first seen returning a salute from captured British Lieutenant-Colonel Desmond Young (played by himself). Young tells how, after the war, he decided to find out what had actually happened to Rommel, since the Nazi line had been that the renowned field marshal had died from wounds he had suffered during the battle in Normandy, in July 1944. He mentions that to compile the story, besides using Rommel's papers and official records in Germany and England, he talked with Rommel's son Manfred, his widow Lucie, with Germans who had served with him and with some who had served under his command, and with British troops who had fought against him. 

The scene shifts to the British offensive at El Alamein, with Young noting that Rommel was in Germany recovering from nasal diphtheria at the time of the attack, but that he immediately returned to North Africa to take command.** There is a lot of actual World War Two combat footage incorporated into the movie for the large scale battle scenes. Rommel finally admits that his forces can't keep up the fighting, and that they need to retreat to fight another day. Meanwhile, Hitler (played by Luther Adler) sends a message that there is to be no retreat, only "victory or death." At first Rommel seems inclined to obey the order, as it is from Hitler himself, but then Bayerlein tells him that obeying would double the madness, and that it is an order to throw away an entire army. Rommel gives the order to retreat. The movie quickly moves to the surrender of the German and Italian forces in North Africa in May of 1943, but with the explanation that prior to the surrender, Rommel had again returned to Germany due to illness. 

We next see Rommel in the hospital in Germany, visited by his wife Lucie (played by Jessica Tandy), his son Manfred (played by William Reynolds) and the Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Dr. Karl Strölin (played by Cedric Hardwicke), who is on the Gestapo list to be "watched." After Rommel tells Strölin that Hitler knows that none of the Allies will negotiate a peace settlement with him, Strölin says that "abdication" is the answer, but Rommel bristles at the idea, and Lucie brings the visit to an immediate end to relieve the tension. When Strölin leaves, he is followed by a Gestapo agent, but Strölin manages to lose him. 

Rommel checks the German defenses in France and then meets with the commander-in-chief of the German forces in western Europe, Field Marshal von Rundstedt (played by Leo G. Carroll).*** Von Rundstedt, known for his little quips and bluntness, tells Rommel that neither of them will really be in charge of much of anything when the Allies invade, because "the Bohemian Corporal himself is assuming sole and total command of this operation."**** He also tells Rommel to be wary, as he will be under constant observation by "friends of the management." 

Rommel returns home and receives another visit from Strölin, ***** who tells Rommel there are some very respected people, military, religious, labor, and government, who want to end Hitler's rule. Rommel immediately throws up the "soldier's duty is to obey" defense, prompting Strölin to tell Rommel to stop hiding behind his uniform. When the Field Marshal orders Strölin to leave, he tells Rommel that he knows his true feelings about Hitler and the war, because Lucie has told him. This stuns Rommel.  

The Allies successfully invade France and Rommel and von Rundstedt confer. The old field marshal tells Rommel that Hitler believes the real invasion is yet to come and that Hitler is following his usual pattern of hold at all costs, no retreat and "victory or death." Von Rundstedt says he wishes he had a free hand and that the Allies would know they had fought an army, "not a series of stationary targets. He'll never lets us, of course. You know how firm corporals are." (That is such a GREAT line!) Rommel discusses with von Rundstedt the idea of overthrowing Hitler, and asks the respected commander, if he would receive any of the plotters, if they asked his advice, to which von Rundstedt replies, "Oh no, it's too late." Rommel assumes he means the war is so far gone that even an overthrow of the Nazi government couldn't save Germany, but the Field Marshal corrects him, and tells him he means that it is too late for himself, as at his age (the picture says 70, but he was 68 at that point), "I'm too old to revolt. Too old to challenge authority, however evil." After telling one of  Hitler's staff generals, Field Marshal Keitel, "make peace, you idiots" (German: "den Krieg beended, ihr Idioten"), he says to Rommel that he's not too old to wish him and "his friends" the best of luck in their plans. (Historically, after that remark, von Rundstedt was fired by Hitler the very next day, although von Rundstedt was brought back in a couple of months.) 

Rommel goes to meet Hitler personally at Margival, France, and the meeting shows Rommel the nutcase Hitler really is. While on the road in Normandy on July 17, 1944, Rommel's car is strafed by a British plane and he is seriously injured (historically, fractures to his skull and facial wounds). Just three days later the plot to assassinate Hitler was carried out, with a bomb carried into a military conference by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. The bomb exploded, but failed to kill Hitler, who was only injured. He took quick revenge.****** This is all depicted in the movie. In October, with Rommel still recovering at home, he receives a call from Keitel to receive a couple of officers being dispatched to him. Rommel assumes it is about a new command. When the officers arrive, they tell Rommel there is substantial evidence against him for treason. At first he wants to fight the charge in court, but is told, "the verdict is already in." He is also told that they have brought a quick acting poison and that if he takes the poison, his wife and son will be taken care of and it will be announced that he died of his wounds. While reluctant, concern for his family matters more, and he accepts the "offer." He says goodbye to his wife, and then to his son (but doesn't tell him he will be dead in a few minutes). He gets into the car with the officers and it drives off. The movie ends with film and a description of his most famous exploits and then a quote of Winston Churchill honoring Rommel.  (Note: Richard Boone appears several times in the film as Rommel's military aide, Captain [German: Hauptmann] Hermann Aldinger, who indeed was his historical aide.)   

* The Desert Fox, in German der Wüstenfuchs, and the German compound word is closely related to English "waste" (see Word history below), although English tends to use "wasteland" to equal "desert," and of course, German "Fuchs" is English "fox." For the history of the word "fox," this is the link to the article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-forty_20.html 

** In Rommel's absence, General Georg Stumme, who had commanded a corps on the Eastern Front, was sent to North Africa. On the day after the opening of the British offensive, Stumme apparently suffered a heart attack while in the field, as his body was found with no wounds, after his staff car had come under attack. 

*** Three things: first, the movie makes numerous mention of "Berlin" sending orders, but in reality, after Hitler launched the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, he and the key officers of the German High Command were seldom in Berlin, as Hitler preferred his military headquarters near Rastenburg, in northeastern Germany (East Prussia), or his villa in southern Germany above Berchtesgaden. Second, the film shows von Rundstedt, Rommel and other high ranking officers giving the Hitler salute to one another. This most certainly did not happen; at least, not at that point in the war, as the traditional military salute was used. After the bomb was placed in Hitler's headquarters in July 1944, the Nazi salute was mandated, but I don't recall if that included between officers. Of course, the Nazi salute had always been part of the SS, a Nazi organization. Third, while Rommel and von Rundstedt were both field marshals, von Rundstedt was the senior commander and in western Europe, Rommel was subordinate to von Rundstedt, and the movie correctly shows that relationship. 

**** Hitler had been born on the border of Austria and Germany, in an area near the Czech lands of Bohemia, once a part of the Old German Empire. During World War I, Hitler served in the German army and rose to the rank of corporal; thus, von Rundstedt referred to him, derogatorily, as "the Bohemian corporal" ("böhmischer Gefreiter") a term he likely learned from Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the late president of Germany, who used the term to describe Hitler in the early 1930s.    

***** It should be understood, Karl Strölin was a longtime Nazi and an official in the Nazi Party, but he began to become disenchanted during the war. While suspected of being involved in the bomb plot against Hitler in 1944, the Nazis could not obtain evidence against him, but he was dismissed from his position in the party. 

****** For more detail on the bomb plot, here are two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/07/heroes-against-hitler-overview.html

 http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/07/heroes-against-hitler-colonel-klaus-von.html

Photo is from the 2003 20th Century Fox DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Waste-This word, with noun, verb, and adjective forms, and distantly related to "vast," goes back to Indo European "euehst," which had the notion of "empty, lacking, absent, alone, abandoned, desolate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring the verb form "wostijanan," which meant, "to make desolate, to ruin, to ravage." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "westan," with the same meaning. The Indo European form also gave West Germanic the noun "wosti," which meant "a waste(land)." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "westen," meaning "waste(land), wilderness." In western Europe, the Germanic tribe the Franks had the related "wostijan," which was borrowed into Old Northern French as "waster" ("to ruin, to spoil, to lay waste to"). When the Normans went to England the existing English word and the French word merged. The same thing happened with the noun. German has the verb "wüsten" (to waste, to squander), also the verb, "verwüsten" (to ravage, to lay waste, to devastate) and the noun "Wüste" (desert, desolate area); Low German Saxon "Wööst" (desert, wasteland); Dutch has the adjective "woest" (bleak, desolate, also fierce, savage, from the notion of making things desolate) and the noun "woestijn" (desert); West Frisian "woastine" (desert).

Heroes Against Hitler, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

I first published this article on November 9, 2011.

"Colonel Claus Graf (=Count) von Stauffenberg"

The man who nearly killed Hitler was born in eastern Swabia, a part of Bavaria, although the German dialect (German: Schwäbisch or Swabian in English) is not Bavarian, but rather it is more closely related to Swiss German and Alsatian German, located in that same overall region. A devout Catholic, his religious beliefs may have had an influence on his later opposition to Hitler and the Nazis, although not all historians agree on that. His first love was the cavalry, and he became an officer, although by the mid to late 1930s, traditional horse cavalry were giving way to mechanized cavalry. Stauffenberg began to have serious doubts about Hitler when the Führer sent troops to occupy the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, after the little nation had ceded German populated regions to Germany just six months earlier. He served in the campaigns in Poland in September 1939 and in France in May-June 1940. Like many Germans, Stauffenberg favored the reclaiming of territories lost to Poland after World War One. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Stauffenberg served as a staff officer in the army high command, not in a field unit. He tried to help change or limit German ill treatment of Soviet civilians, including Jews, and Soviet prisoners of war in the early months of the German invasion, but the brutal and murderous policies pushed Stauffenberg to embrace other German officers in opposition to Hitler.

Early in 1943 Stauffenberg was sent to Tunisia in North Africa, where German and Italian forces, under the operational control of Field Marshal Rommel, were trying to prevent the total loss of North Africa to the Allies. Just a month before the final Axis surrender there, Stauffenberg was severely wounded, losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye, over which he eventually wore a black patch. It took several months in the hospital and further convalescence at home before Stauffenberg was able to resume service, this time as a staff officer at the headquarters of the Ersatzheer (Replacement Army), which was located in Berlin.* The Replacement Army had a number of anti-Nazi conspirators and plans for a takeover of Germany were developed, but most were not put into operation, while others failed, or had to be changed due to important Nazi leaders not being present. Eventually Stauffenberg carried a bomb-laden briefcase into Hitler's headquarters in northeastern Germany. The briefcase was placed under the conference table, just a short distance from Hitler, and Stauffenberg excused himself by saying he had to make a phone call. Just a few minutes later the bomb exploded, but Hitler, though shaken and bruised, survived, as one of the officers had moved the briefcase to the other side of the table support, and thus further away from Hitler, with the table support deflecting some of the direct affects of the blast. Stauffenberg witnessed the explosion from a distance and managed to get through the headquarters' security, convinced Hitler was dead. He flew back to Berlin and found that plans for the takeover of the government had not really moved, as many conspirators were uncertain about Hitler's death. Word came that Hitler was very much alive and Colonel General Fromm, the commander of the Replacement Army, and aware of the plot,** now tried to save himself by having Stauffenberg and other conspirators arrested, tried and executed in the early morning hours of July 21, 1944. There is a memorial in the courtyard where Stauffenberg and the other plotters were executed. Its heading reads: "Here Died For Germany" ("Hier Starben Für Deutschland"), and then it lists the names of the executed men. These men and hundreds more were executed for the attempt to kill Hitler. They weren't perfect, and many had supported Hitler earlier, but they saw evil and tried to do stop it. That makes them heroes in my book.

The information I've provided here is very basic. There are numerous detailed books on the July 20 plot, as well as the overall German Resistance movement. A very good source, and one I used, is by German historian Joachim Fest, "Plotting Hitler's Death, The Story of the German Resistance," Metropolitan Books, New York, 1996, published in the original German as "Staatsstreich, Der Lange Weg zum 20. Juli," Berlin, 1994 (translation:. "Coup, The Long Way (or Path) to July 20")

For more, see my article in "The German Question" series on the plot:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-fifty_29.html

* The Replacement Army was in charge of inducting men into the army and then training and equipping them for service with units in the field. Germany was divided into numerous military districts (Wehrkreise), with various training units stationed in each district under the control of the Replacement Army. Collectively these units totaled many hundreds of thousands of men. A number of anti-Nazi conspirators were in high positions in the Replacement Army, and they planned to use these substantial forces to secure control of Germany by disarming SS units and other Nazi formations, if Hitler were arrested or killed.

** Fromm's depth of involvement in the plot has been a subject of debate (after all, he had some of the main conspirators killed), but by all accounts, he knew of the plot and did not report it. That certainly implicated him. The Gestapo investigation did not uncover direct evidence against Fromm, but he was removed from the army a couple of months later. Just two months before the war ended, Fromm was sentenced to death by the Nazi court and the sentence was carried out only days later (by firing squad). Even with the walls crashing down around them, the Nazis pursued their enemies at home.

WORD HISTORY:
My/Mine-"My" is simply a shortened form of "mine," which was used to show possession by being placed before nouns. Both go back to Indo European "meyn." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "minaz," which then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "min" (long "i" sound). By the 1100s or early 1200s, the shortened form had developed as its own distinctive word to show possession, "mi," and later "my," although "min" (also "myn") stuck around for quite awhile for use before words beginning with a vowel; thus it is still found in old Bibles. Of course "mine" is still with us to show possession, but instead of showing possession before a noun, it comes afterward: "That is my book," but "That book is mine." Common throughout the other Germanic languages: West Frisian "myn," Dutch "mijn," German "mein," but in Bavarian dialect "mei," Low German Saxon "mien," Icelandic "minn," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish "min."

Heroes Against Hitler (Overview)

On July 20, 1944 the German Resistance nearly killed Adolf Hitler at his military headquarters near the city of Rastenburg, in the province of East Prussia in (then) northeastern Germany. After the war, East Prussia was divided between Poland and the U.S.S.R. In honor of those who attempted to rid the world of "the nutcase in chief," I'm republishing this article, which I first published on October 31, 2011 as part of a series "Heroes Against Hitler."  

"Heroes Against Hitler" Part One/"Overview"

In Hitler's Germany resistance to the government and to the Nazi Party was not easily accomplished, especially on an organized basis. A person confiding anti-Nazi feelings to anyone, even to a family member, could bring about their own arrest and imprisonment in a concentration camp, or even their own execution. The Gestapo (the secret police) had agents throughout society, and Nazi supporters were apt to report people of anti-Nazi sentiment to the police. Even citizens less than thrilled with the Nazis might report others for "inappropriate" remarks, simply out of fear of guilt by association. Much of the more serious resistance to Hitler came from within the ranks of the army. One reason for this was the army was such a respected institution in German society, even Hitler had to tread lightly where it was concerned, and it was several years into his rule before he really felt confident enough to try to dominate the army.*

With army leaders thus having a bit more freedom of expression than other segments of society, this provided a kernel of resistance to the Nazis. Further, many of the army's officers, especially the higher ranks, came from some part of the German nobility, a group never collectively quite as supportive of Hitler, with some members actually being hostile to the Nazis.** Initially though, the army was supportive of Hitler due to his desire to expand the army and to restore Germany's lost territories and position in Europe; however, as Hitler's policies became increasingly aggressive, many in the upper levels of the army began to worry that he would get Germany into a war with Britain and France, a war, they believed, Germany would lose. This was especially true over Czechoslovakia, but when Hitler came away with a settlement over the German areas of the little nation, without a war, the resistance within the army diminished. Other members of the army, and of the armed forces intelligence service, known as the "Abwehr," contained not only men concerned about Hitler getting Germany into a war, but these men were really more "anti-Nazis" in general; and thus they were opposed to the regime, including to its anti-Jewish policies.

Hitler's successes early in the war kept a lid on resistance, but the failure to capture Moscow in 1941, and most certainly the catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43, energized the German resistance, as many desperately wanted to save Germany from total defeat and annihilation as a matter of patriotism and morality.*** Various plans were developed, including one in 1943, where a bomb, disguised as a bottle of liquor in a box, was carried aboard Hitler's plane in Russia. The bomb failed to explode, seemingly because of the cold temperature in the cargo hold, and the supreme nutcase lived to bring death and destruction to millions more. Of course, the most famous attempt on Hitler's life came on July 20, 1944. That day Colonel Graf (Count) Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg attended a meeting at Hitler's military headquarters in a heavily forested area of East Prussia in northeastern Germany. Stauffenberg carried two bombs in his briefcase, but he was only able to activate one of the bombs due to time constraints and fear of discovery. Upon entering the meeting, Stauffenberg placed the briefcase beneath the conference table and told officers nearby he had a telephone call to make and that he would return shortly. One of the officers found the briefcase was in his way as he leaned over to see the maps spread out on the table. He moved the briefcase to the opposite side of the heavy table support; that is, AWAY from Hitler, who was not far away. This action undoubtedly saved Hitler's life, as the force of the explosion went in the opposite direction from the sturdy table support.

Next I'll do a little biography of some of the key members of the German resistance to Hitler. These men deserve our respect, as they tried to get that son-of-a-bitch, and they gave their lives in that effort. Understand, these men were NOT perfect and it took some of them quite some time to open their eyes to the evil doings of Hitler and the Nazi regime.

* The 1934 purge of the Storm Troopers by Hitler was largely (but not exclusively) an attempt to placate the army, which was uneasy over a possible takeover of the army by the Nazi Storm Trooper organization (commonly called the "SA," for "Sturmabteilung").

** There were Nazi Party members and supporters from the nobility, but I'm saying the overall support was less than from many other groups or segments in German society.

*** By this time there was general knowledge among many in the military of crimes committed in other countries, especially in the Soviet Union, against civilians, including Jews; thus many in the resistance not only wanted to save Germany from catastrophic defeat, but they also wanted to put a halt to the atrocities and to restore Germany's honor. (Note: Initially, removing Hitler in some way can be seen as the main basic objective, but as the military leaders learned of numerous atrocities, the realization developed that not only was it important to eliminate Hitler, but it was necessary to remove other Nazi leaders too; that is, that the government had to be taken over. Further, many of the plotters undoubtedly feared that the deteriorating war against the Soviet Union could bring communist domination of Germany and much of Europe, if the Russians weren't soon held back.)  

WORD HISTORY:
Boat-This word goes back to Indo European "bheid," which meant "to split," which by extension had the notion of "split wood into planks to make something, woodworking." This gave Old Germanic "bait(an)," which apparently meant "water going vessel made from planks." Now, it is "possible" this only remained, or took this semantic course, in North Germanic, and then it was borrowed into Old English,^ a West Germanic language, as apparently the other West Germanic languages, and even Old French, borrowed forms of "boat" from English, or perhaps from Old Norse; at least in some cases, with French, especially, being a likely candidate, as Old Norse speaking raiders, often called "Northmen," frequently landed along the coast of what is now France, eventually settling in one particular area thereafter named for them, "Normandy." Anyway, Old English had 'bat," with a long "a," with the meaning "boat." This then became "boot" with a long "o" sound, and then "bot," (also long "o") before the modern spelling. Low German "Boot" (long "o" sound) was likely borrowed from English (then it was borrowed by High German as modern "Boot," long 'o'), plus Dutch "boot" was probably borrowed from English. West Frisian has "boat," but this may have the same basic history as the English word, not because of the spelling, although Frisian is the closest living relative of English, along with some Low German dialects, but rather, like English, Frisian had much contact with Old Norse and the word likely came to Frisian by way of Old Norse. Forms of the word are common in the North Germanic languages, all directly from their Old Norse ancestor: Icelandic has "bátur," Norwegian has "båt," Swedish has "båt," and Danish has "båd."

^ Norse raiders harassed the English coast, even settling in some areas, and providing English with a reinforcing shot of Germanic vocabulary, although from the North Germanic branch. Old Norse had "beit," which meant "boat," an important word for a seafaring people. The Frisians also had much contact with Old Norse.

Traudl Junge, Working For Evil, Part Two

During her interviews, Traudl Junge was asked about how much Hitler and other Nazi leaders talked about Jews. She said the subject was really not discussed, at least not around her or the other secretaries, but it's important to remember a couple of things here. First, neither Traudl Junge nor the other secretaries were involved in Hitler's meetings with Nazi leaders, where the subject most certainly would have been discussed. Second, the Nazis talked in "code," if you will; that is, they used euphemisms about their plans or ongoing operations to murder German and other European Jews, and indeed other people too. Terms like "resettlement" and "final solution" were used in place of "shipping Jews off to be killed" or "extermination." They KNEW what they were doing was an abomination, otherwise, they wouldn't have tried to hide it. Traudl also mentioned how Hitler would tell subordinates to just follow his orders about whatever the subject, that he assumed all responsibility, as if, Traudl noted, "one person can assume the conscience of another." After the war, and really up to recent times, apologists for Hitler have noted that no written order, signed by Hitler, was ever found among the many tons of captured Nazi records ordering the extermination of Europe's Jews. Hitler was a psychopath, but that didn't make him unaware of his criminality. Somewhere deep inside that disturbed mind was the reality of wrongdoing on an incomprehensible scale.

Traudl did cite one telling incident, which took place in 1943 at Hitler's villa, "the Berghof," above the town of Berchtesgaden. She admits that she only heard about it from others who were present, including her husband, who was one of Hitler's personal aides. The Schirachs had been invited to the Berghof, at Henriette von Schirach's request, to see and dine with Hitler. The husband, Baldur, had been head of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s and then the Gauleiter (Nazi Party district leader) of Vienna, and if you've seen any of the documentaries on the Nazi Hitler Youth, you've undoubtedly seen Baldur von Schirach in the films or still photos from that time. By the way, Schirach was under lots of American influence from both sides of his family, as his mother was an American and his paternal grandfather served in the Union army during the American Civil War, and Baldur grew up speaking both English and German. At the time of the dinner with Hitler, Henriette von Schirach had recently been in Amsterdam, where she had witnessed the brutal round up of Dutch Jewish women, who were then packed into railway cars and sent to the "east," which was another Nazi euphemism for "sending Jews to their death," as the extermination camps, designed to kill Jews and others as quickly as possible, were located primarily in Poland. "Auschwitz," the most infamous of all, was located there, and others were too. Mrs. Schirach told Hitler the terrible things she had witnessed in Amsterdam, adding that people there felt these Jews would never be heard from again. She apparently was under the impression that Hitler was unaware of such things. The conversation at the dinner table stopped, Hitler momentarily went silent, then he told Mrs. Schirach not to get involved in matters that she didn't understand, adding that she was "too sentimental." Hitler abruptly arose from the table, left the room and did not return, nor did the Schirachs ever return to Hitler's company, as he never invited them back *

Traudl Junge also talked and wrote extensively about the plot to kill Hitler in July 1944, when a bomb was carried into a temporary conference room by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg inside his briefcase. She and the other secretaries had been out swimming in one of the nearby lakes and they returned to their rooms, located near to where Hitler was holding a major military conference. An explosion shook their building, but at first they thought a deer may have stepped on a landmine. They heard the commotion outside and were told that a bomb had exploded in the military meeting. Since initially they did not know if Hitler had been killed, they fretted about what would happen to them without Hitler. She mentioned how conditioned they had all been to Hitler's thoughts on everything and the idea that he might have been killed left them badly shaken. One of Hitler's aides finally told them Hitler had not been seriously injured and that they could even visit him, which they did. Traudl mentioned how funny he looked, as his hair was still standing on end from the blast and his trouser legs were in tatters. The more ominous thing, however, was that he took his survival as a sign he was  destined to fulfill his "mission," and she noted that she had often thought before this incident, that one day Hitler would say, "Alright, I can't win the war, so I'll make peace," but after he survived the bomb plot, she said he seemed more determined than ever to win or take everyone and everything down with him.

For more on the failed bomb plot against Hitler, see my article, "Heroes Against Hitler/Stauffenberg":

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/11/german-military-leadersheroes-against.html 

Next, the final part and the end in Berlin, but Traudl Junge finds herself.

* At the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, Baldur von Schirach was convicted of "crimes against humanity," primarily for transporting thousands of Viennese Jews "to the east," and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He served the entire sentence and was released in 1966  He "claimed" he didn't know about the extermination camps, and that he thought Jews were being sent to live in ghettos in eastern Europe, which was criminal enough. It "may" have been an act of "denial," rather than of actually "not knowing" (there is a difference), but I must admit, I've never read all that extensively about von Schirach to give a firm opinion, but it seems rather difficult to believe he didn't at least hear the rumors that circulated about the mass killings, just as his wife saw the mistreatment and heard opinions offered in Amsterdam. Of course, even if he did firmly know about the atrocities, it is unlikely he could have done anything, because once such a criminal regime is allowed into power, it is very difficult to remove it. The key is to keep such people out of power and marginalized at the fringes of the political system, as there will always be extremists, but when they come to be accepted as just politicians and anything like mainstream, this is the beginning of accepting them into governing positions. Von Schirach denounced Hitler as a mass murderer during his trial, and after his release from prison he did speak against Hitler and Nazism, but that's scant consolation to those whose loved ones suffered and died.

 

More in Part Three, the final part, and the end in Berlin ...

 

Photo is from the paperback edition of "Bis zur letzten Stunde" (Until the Last Hour) by Traudl Junge, with cooperation from Melissa Müller, published in paperback in 2003 in German (there have been English language editions also), although there have been various printings since the original paperback. This is the 8th German paperback printing from 2011 from List Taschenbuch.

WORD HISTORY:

Team-This word goes back to Indo European "deuk," which meant "pull" and by extension "lead" (for example, a leader pulls people in his/her direction on issues). This gave its Old Germanic offspring "taugjanan," with the same meaning (it is also the ancient ancestor of "tow," as in "pull something," and "tug"). This then produced Germanic "taumaz," meaning "something that pulls," which came to be associated with animals that pulled carts/wagons, or with the reins used to equip animals for such. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "team," but pronounced in two distinct syllables, "te-am." which meant "animals harnessed together to pull a wagon or cart," and this later became "teme/tem," before the modern version. Later, the notion of animals working together to pull a wagon brought the extended meaning, "people working together toward a common objective," which also came to be applied to players of sporting events. The verb form developed from the noun in the 1500s, although it is sparsely used in American English, and then often as "team up with." Dutch, West Frisian and German all borrowed "team" directly from English, with the meaning "group working together and sports team." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Zaum" (the "Z" is pronounced "ts"), which means "bridle gear for animals," Low German Saxon and Dutch have "Toom," with that same meaning; West Frisian has "team" (also = bridle), Danish and Norwegian have "tømme" (rein), Icelandic "taumur" (=bridle/rein), Swedish has "töm" (rein).

Heroes Against Hitler, Stauffenberg

"Colonel Claus Graf (=Count) von Stauffenberg"

This was first published 11/9/11, edited somewhat, with an additional photo, 7-20-22


The man who nearly killed Hitler was born in eastern Swabia, a part of Bavaria, although the German dialect is not Bavarian, but rather it is more closely related to Swiss German and Alsatian German, located in that same overall German-speaking region. A devout Catholic, his religious beliefs seem to have had an influence on his later opposition to Hitler and the Nazis, although not all historians agree on that. His first love was the cavalry, and he became an officer, although by the mid to late 1930s, traditional horse cavalry were giving way to mechanized cavalry. Stauffenberg began to have serious doubts about Hitler when the fanatical furious Führer sent troops to occupy the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, after the little nation had ceded German populated regions to Germany just six months earlier. Stauffenberg served in the campaigns in Poland in September 1939 and in France in May-June 1940. Like many Germans, Stauffenberg favored the reclaiming of territories lost to Poland after World War One. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Stauffenberg served as a staff officer in the army high command, not in a field unit. He tried to help change or limit German ill treatment of Soviet civilians, including Jews, and Soviet prisoners of war in the early months of the German invasion, but the brutal and murderous policies pushed Stauffenberg to embrace other German officers in opposition to Hitler.

Early in 1943 Stauffenberg was sent to Tunisia in North Africa, where German and Italian forces, under the operational control of Field Marshal Rommel, were trying to prevent the total loss of North Africa to the Allies. Just a month before the final Axis surrender there, Stauffenberg was severely wounded, losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye, over which he eventually wore a black patch. It took several months in the hospital and further convalescence at home before Stauffenberg was able to resume service, this time as a staff officer at the headquarters of the Ersatzheer (Replacement Army), which was located in Berlin.* The Replacement Army had a number of anti-Nazi conspirators and plans for a takeover of Germany were developed, but most were not put into operation, while others failed, or had to be changed due to important Nazi leaders not being present. Eventually Stauffenberg carried a bomb-laden briefcase into Hitler's headquarters in northeastern Germany. The briefcase was placed under the conference table, just a short distance from Hitler, and Stauffenberg excused himself by saying he had to make a phone call. Just a few minutes later the bomb exploded, but Hitler, though shaken and bruised, survived, as one of the officers had moved the briefcase to the other side of the table support, and thus further away from Hitler. Stauffenberg witnessed the explosion and managed to get through the headquarters' security, convinced Hitler was dead. He flew back to Berlin and found that plans for the takeover of the government had not really moved, as many conspirators were uncertain about Hitler's death. Word came that Hitler was very much alive and Colonel General Fromm, the commander of the Replacement Army, and aware of the plot,** now tried to save himself by having Stauffenberg and other conspirators arrested, tried and executed in the early morning hours of July 21, 1944. There is a memorial in the courtyard where Stauffenberg and some of the other main plotters were executed. Its heading reads: "Here Died For Germany" ("Hier Starben Für Deutschland"), and then it lists the names of the executed men (see photo below). These men and hundreds more were executed for the attempt to kill Hitler. They weren't perfect, and many had supported Hitler earlier, but they saw evil and tried to stop it. That makes them heroes in my book.

For more, see my article in "The German Question" series on the plot:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-fifty_29.html

* The Replacement Army was in charge of inducting men into the army and then training and equipping them for service with units in the field. Germany was divided into numerous military districts (Wehrkreise), with various training units stationed in each district under the control of the Replacement Army. Collectively these units totaled many hundreds of thousands of men. A number of anti-Nazi conspirators were in high positions in the Replacement Army, and they planned to use these substantial forces to secure control of Germany by disarming SS units and other Nazi formations, if Hitler were arrested or killed.

** Fromm's depth of involvement in the plot has been a subject of debate (after all, he had some of the main conspirators killed), but by all accounts, he knew of the plot and did not report it. That certainly implicated him. The Gestapo investigation did not uncover direct evidence against Fromm, but he was removed from the army a couple of months later. Just two months before the war ended, Fromm was sentenced to death by the Nazi court and the sentence was carried out only days later (by firing squad). Even with the walls crashing down around them, the Nazis pursued their enemies. 

Unaltered photo of the plaque honoring some of the prominent leaders who tried to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944. It is mounted at the Bendler Block Memorial in Berlin, where these men were executed by the Nazis. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

My/Mine-"My" is simply a shortened form of "mine," which was used to show possession by being placed before nouns. Both go back to Indo European "meyn." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "minaz," which then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "min" (long "i" sound). By the 1100s or early 1200s, the shortened form had developed as its own distinctive word to show possession, "mi," and later "my," although "min" (also "myn") stuck around for quite awhile for use before words beginning with a vowel; thus it is still found in old Bibles. Of course "mine" is still with us to show possession, but instead of showing possession before a noun, it comes afterward: "That is my book," but "That book is mine." By the way, some German dialects, like their English cousin, use a shortened form of "mein," as "mei," essentially pronounced like English "my." Common throughout the other Germanic languages: West Frisian "myn," Dutch "mijn," German "mein," but in Bavarian dialect "mei," Low German Saxon "mien," Icelandic "minn," Swedish, Norwegian and Danish "min."

Heroes Against Hitler, Part One, Overview

This was first published 10/31/11


"Heroes Against Hitler" Part One/"Overview"

In Hitler's Germany resistance to the government and to the Nazi Party was not easily accomplished, especially on an organized basis. A person confiding anti-Nazi feelings to anyone, even to a family member, could bring about their arrest, imprisonment in a concentration camp, and even death. The Gestapo (the secret police) had agents throughout society, and Nazi supporters were apt to report people of anti-Nazi sentiment to the police. Even citizens less than thrilled with the Nazis might report others for "inappropriate" remarks, simply out of fear of guilt by association. Much of the resistance to Hitler came from within the ranks of the army. One reason for this was, the army was such a respected institution in German society, even Hitler had to tread lightly where it was concerned, and it was several years into his rule before he really felt confident enough to try to dominate the army.*

With army leaders thus having a bit more freedom of expression than other segments of society, this provided a kernel of resistance to the Nazis. Further, many of the army's officers, especially the higher ranks, came from some part of the German nobility, a group never collectively quite as supportive of Hitler, with some members actually being hostile to the Nazis.** Initially though, the army was supportive of Hitler due to his desire to expand the army and restore Germany's position in Europe; however, as Hitler's policies became increasingly aggressive, many in the upper levels of the army began to worry that he would get Germany into a war with Britain and France, a war, they believed, it would lose. This was especially true over Czechoslovakia, but when Hitler came away with a settlement over the German areas of the little nation, without a war, the resistance within the army diminished. Other members of the army, and of the armed forces intelligence service, known as the "Abwehr," contained not only men concerned about Hitler getting Germany into a war, but these men were really more "anti-Nazis," in general; and thus they were opposed to the regime, including its anti-Jewish policies.

Hitler's successes early in the war kept a lid on resistance, but the failure to capture Moscow in 1941, and most certainly the catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43, energized the German resistance, as many desperately wanted to save Germany from total defeat and annihilation as a matter of patriotism and morality.*** Various plans were developed, including one in 1943 where a bomb, disguised as a bottle of liquor in a box, was carried aboard Hitler's plane in Russia. The bomb failed to explode, seemingly because of the cold temperature in the cargo hold, and the supreme nutcase lived to bring death and destruction to millions more. Of course, the most famous attempt on Hitler's life came on July 20, 1944. That day Colonel Graf (Count) Schenk von Stauffenberg attended a meeting at Hitler's military headquarters in a heavily forested area of East Prussia in northeastern Germany. Stauffenberg carried two bombs in his briefcase, but he was only able to activate one of the bombs due to time constraints and fear of discovery. Upon entering the meeting, Stauffenberg placed the briefcase underneath the conference table and told officers nearby he had a telephone call to make and would return shortly. One of the officers found the briefcase was in his way as he leaned over to see the maps spread out on the table. He moved the briefcase to the opposite side of the heavy table support; that is, AWAY from Hitler, who was not far away. This action undoubtedly saved Hitler's life, as the force of the explosion went in the opposite direction from the table support.

Next I'll do a little biography of some of the key members of the German resistance to Hitler. These men deserve our utmost respect, as they tried to get that son-of-a-bitch, and they gave their lives in that effort.

* The 1934 purge of the Stormtroopers by Hitler was largely (but not exclusively) an attempt to placate the army, which was uneasy over a possible takeover of the army by the Nazi Stormtrooper organization (commonly called the "SA," for "Sturmabteilung").

** There were Nazi Party members and supporters from the nobility, but I'm saying the overall support was less than from many other groups in German society.

*** By this time there was general knowledge among many in the military of crimes committed in other countries, especially in the Soviet Union, against civilians, including Jews; thus many in the resistance not only wanted to save Germany from catastrophic defeat, but also wanted to restore its honor. (Note: Initially, removing Hitler in some way can be seen as the main basic objective, but as the military leaders learned of numerous atrocities, the realization developed that not only was it important to eliminate Hitler, but it was necessary to remove other Nazi leaders too; that is, that the government had to be taken over. Further, many of the plotters undoubtedly feared that the deteriorating war against the Soviet Union could bring communist domination of Germany and much of Europe, if the Russians weren't soon held back.)  

WORD HISTORY:
Boat-This word goes back to Indo European "bheid," which meant "to split," which by extension had the notion of "split wood into planks to make something, woodworking." This gave Old Germanic "bait(an)," which apparently meant "water going vessel made from planks." Now, it is "possible" this only remained, or took this semantic course, in North Germanic, and then was borrowed into Old English,^ a West Germanic language, as apparently the other West Germanic languages, and even Old French, borrowed forms of "boat" from English, although French may have borrowed the word from Old Norse, as Norse raiders, called "Northmen," frequently landed along the coast of what is now France, eventually settling in one particular area now named after them, "Normandy." Anyway, Old English had 'bat," with a long "a," with the meaning "boat." This then became "boot" with a long "o" sound, and then "bot," (also long "o") before the modern spelling. German and Low German "Boot" (long "o" sound), plus Dutch "boot" were borrowed from English. West Frisian has "boat," but this may have the same basic history as the English word, not because of the spelling, although Frisian is the closest living relative of English, along with some Low German dialects, but rather, like English, Frisian had much contact with Old Norse. Forms of the word are common in the North Germanic languages: Icelandic has "bátur," Norwegian has "båt," Swedish has "båt," and Danish has "båd."

^ Norse raiders harassed the English coast, even settling in some areas, and providing English with a reinforcing shot of Germanic vocabulary, although from the North Germanic branch. Old Norse had "beit," which meant "boat," an important word for a seafaring people. The Frisians also had much contact with Old Norse.

German Military Leaders/Nazi Era/Rommel

"Field Marshal Erwin Rommel"

No doubt about it, this is the most famous German general of World War Two in western Europe and in the United States. Rommel was born in Württemberg, then a kingdom within the German Empire. As an officer in the Alpine troops in World War One, he served primarily in Italy, a country then allied with Britain and France. Rommel remained in the treaty-limited army after the war, where he developed many ideas about tactics for tanks and infantry, which he set down in writing in a couple of books, which became highly popular in military circles inside and outside of Germany.*

About a year before the invasion of Poland, Rommel was named commander of Hitler's personal escort battalion, an army unit which provided protection for Hitler in his military travels. During the war in Poland, Rommel, recently promoted to major-general (Generalmajor), commanded Hitler's military headquarters. When German forces launched their offensive in western Europe, Rommel was in command of a panzer division (the 7th), which was one of the units that helped break through Belgian and French lines to cut off British forces. What was to become Rommel's famed "lead from the front" style, started in this campaign, as he often personally led hard charging attacks that demoralized enemy troops. His division was dubbed "the Ghost Division," since Rommel pushed it so hard, it seemed to burst upon rear area enemy positions from nowhere. The downside was, he was so often right up front, he was out of communication with his command staff, as well as with his superiors.

By early 1941, the defeat of Mussolini's army in Libya (then an Italian colony) by British and Commonwealth forces, brought a German commitment of military forces to help their struggling ally avoid the entire loss of Libya.** Called the "German Africa Corps" (Deutsches Afrikakorps), the corps would become one of the most famous units of the war on any side. Rommel's take charge attitude and his ability to assess a situation to exploit enemy weaknesses, brought a surprise German-Italian offensive success just weeks after his arrival in Libya. The offensive carried the Axis forces back across Libya, clear to the Egyptian border, trapping some Allied forces in the port city of Tobruk. The Allies then launched an attack of their own which broke the siege of Tobruk and caused Rommel to retreat to his original starting point. This was not the end, however, as Rommel launched a new attack of his own in 1942, throwing the Allies back, capturing Tobruk, driving deep into Egypt, and threatening to capture the Suez Canal. Stiffening Allied resistance, lack of supplies and sheer exhaustion halted Rommel's offensive at the little railway station of El Alamein in Egypt. The capture of Tobruk brought Rommel promotion to field marshal by Hitler.

Rommel had met, and was befriended by, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in the late 1930s. The desert war captured the imagination of the German public and Goebbels made Rommel a household name throughout Germany and occupied Europe with many newsreels depicting the combat in North Africa. Rommel, by then dubbed "the Desert Fox" (Der Wüstenfuchs***), became a hero to many a German, and a much feared opponent among Allied troops, although the fear also had a certain admiration to it. One British commander was so alarmed by Rommel's reputation with British troops, that he ordered his commanders to quash Rommel's "bogeyman" image among their soldiers.

By late October of 1942, the Allied forces, now under the command of General Bernhard Montgomery, launched a devastating attack on the German-Italian positions in and around El Alamein. 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 far to the rear of 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. The war in North Africa was over.

Rommel was given command of some forces in Greece and then in northern Italy before being transferred to France to take command of the area seen as the most likely for the anticipated Allied invasion. He found the German fortifications wanting, and he immediately set upon a course to strengthen those defenses, especially along the beach areas, as he believed the Allied landing had to be crushed on the beaches as they attempted to land, not after they had already landed. This idea was not universally accepted among other German generals, including Field Marshal von Rundstedt, the overall commander of German forces in western Europe. Rommel wanted all sorts of mines and obstacles along the water's edge to hamper the landings, so that his forces could then finish off the survivors (he also had obstacles placed further inland to prohibit or hamper paratroop or glider landings). He also wanted German armored forces (the Panzer divisions) stationed close to the beaches so that they could quickly be dispatched to mount attacks on any Allied troops who made it ashore, before they could be reinforced. Other generals argued the armor should be kept further back until a definite location of the landings was determined. Remember, the Germans did not know exactly where the Allies would land in France. In the end, there was sort of a compromise, as one Panzer division, interestingly stationed in Normandy (which came to be the site of the invasion), was moved relatively close to the beaches, but others were kept further back. This was complicated by the fact that these divisions could not be committed to any attack without the direct personal permission of the fanatical, ferocious, furious Führer.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy during a brief lull in a period of bad weather (rain, wind, choppy seas). Rommel was away in Germany for his wife's birthday, having been convinced the Allies would not dare to cross the English Channel under such weather conditions. While some German forces, especially in the area known as "Omaha Beach," put up stout resistance, with Rommel away, the German reaction to the invasion was (thankfully) slow to develop. Hitler and others believed the Normandy landings were a ruse to draw German forces there, to allow an easier major landing somewhat further north. With the Allies having gained a foothold in France, the battle became a slogging match for almost two months; the Germans trying to contain the Allies in Normandy. In mid July, Rommel's car was strafed by Allied aircraft, the car crashed and the field marshal was severely injured. This was the end of Rommel's days of command, as he was hospitalized for quite some time and then sent home to recuperate. Just three days after the strafing of Rommel's car, a bomb, planted by an army officer, Klaus von Stauffenberg, exploded in Hitler's military headquarters in northeastern Germany (Rastenburg, East Prussia). The fanatical, ferocious, furious Führer, now VERY furious, survived the attack, and the Gestapo sought out anyone involved in the slightest way in the plot. Under interrogation and torture, Rommel's name was mentioned a few times by officers in custody, and by October 1944, Hitler dispatched some army officers to Rommel's home in southwestern Germany, where the field marshal was convalescing. Rommel was given the choice of taking his own life, with protections for his wife and son, or of being arrested, put on trial, and then executed, with no protection for his family. He chose to die, and after just a short time to say goodbye to his wife and son, Rommel got into a car accompanied by the other officers. The car traveled a short distance and Rommel took poison. Hitler and the Nazis could ill afford the true story to come out about such a prominent general, so it was announced by the Nazi press that Rommel had died of his wounds. He was given full military honors, and Hitler did keep his word about Rommel's family.*****

After the war, Rommel was held in high regard, even by his former enemies. His eventual opposition to Hitler, which only came out after the war, only enhanced his stature. He is best remembered as "the Desert Fox," during the war in North Africa, a war, that while brutal like all war, was not consumed by hatred, ideology or racism, such as happened in the Soviet Union, especially. Rommel forbade the execution of any captured troops of Jewish heritage or of legitimate Allied commandos, which ran counter to Hitler's orders.

* If you've seen the movie "Patton," you may recall General Patton shouting, upon defeating Rommel's forces in one battle, "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!!!" While this was only a scene in a movie, it has much truth in it, because many of the successful commanders of the war read the works of military men from other countries in an effort to learn anything and everything they could about strategy and tactics.

** Rommel and the German forces were actually under the overall command of the Italians, which caused some friction, especially due to Rommel's independent personality. In late 1941, a German command structure was implemented for southern Europe and North Africa under the command of Albert Kesselring, but North Africa remained under overall Italian command.

*** German "Wüste," meaning "desert, wasteland," is closely related to English "waste," which we also use in the context of "barren, desert" land in the compound "wasteland." For those studying German, the noun is feminine; thus, "die Wüste," but when combined with the masculine noun "Fuchs" (fox), it becomes "der Wüstenfuchs," as German compounds take the grammatical gender of the last word in compounds. Aren't you glad English gave up using gender a long time ago?

**** In typical Hitlerian nonsense, the fanatical, ferocious, furious Führer ended his order to Rommel to hold fast with, "Ihrer Truppe aber können Sie keinen anderen Weg zeigen als den zum Siege oder zum Tod." (You can but show your troops no other path than the one to victory or death.")

***** Rommel was never all that involved in the plot to actually kill Hitler. He wanted Hitler arrested and put on trial for Germans to see the criminality of the nutcase-in-chief, and so as not to make the fanatical, ferocious, furious Führer a martyr. The major plotters decided that a live Hitler, even one under arrest, would be too much of a threat to German unity, as fanatical Nazis would resist, possibly bringing about a civil war. They wanted and needed someone of Rommel's stature to aid them with the German public, once Hitler, and hopefully SS Chief Himmler, and or Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring, had been killed.

WORD HISTORY:
Arm (2)-This is the noun meaning "weapon," which is more commonly used in the plural, "arms." This goes back to Indo European "ar," which had the notion of "fit or join together." This gave its Latin offspring^ "arma," which meant "tools, tools of war; thus, 'weapons.' " Old French, a Latin-based language, had "armes," which was then borrowed into English with the same spelling during the early 1200s. It was a couple of hundred years before the English spelling "arms" developed. The verb form, meaning "to supply or equip with weapons," was borrowed in the 1200s from French "armer," which traces back to Latin "armare," a derived form of "arma," mentioned above. In English the verb was initially spelled "armen," before the modern spelling.

^ Latin is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree, although English and many other non Latin-based languages have borrowed much vocabulary either directly from Latin or from one of the Latin-based languages; in the case of English, from French.