December 10

1887 Death: Gustav Hitler —of diphtheria—at two and a half years of age.

1915 World War I: Turkish Front: After suffering extremely heavy casualties, most Allied troops and supplies at Gallipoli are evacuated by this date.

1917 World War I: Red Cross awarded Nobel Peace Prize: After three years of war, during which there had been no Nobel Peace Prize awarded, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the 1917 prize to the International Committee of the Red Cross. [For further information, click here]

1920 Wilson awarded Nobel Peace Prize: On this day in 1920, the Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for his work in ending the First World War and creating the League of Nations. Although Wilson could not attend the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, the U.S. Ambassador to Norway, Albert Schmedeman, delivered a telegram from Wilson to the Nobel Committee. [For further information, click here]

1926 Weimar: Adolf Hitler publishes the second volume of Mein Kampf.

1928 Weimar: An essay by Goebbels is published in Der Angriff:

The Jew is your blood brother, the German the enemy of your people. The Jew provides for you by the sweat of his brow, the German is a lazy good-for-nothing. The Jew stood alongside you at the front for four years, shoulder to shoulder, and risked his life for Germany's fame and greatness, but the German skulked about in the rear echelon. The Jew died so that Germany could live. Where can you find a Jew who did not lose everything he had in the war and revolution, and where a German who did not grow rich and arrogant? Isn't it true that the German nailed Jesus to the cross and the Jew transformed his teaching of love into reality? Buy only in Jewish department stores. What does the small German merchant matter to you? He should go to Palestine and sell his wares there. He does not belong with us in Germany! We are tired of this constant chattering about dying small businesses. It is so comfortable and cozy in the Jewish department store.

Note: 1) In spite of the words of the poison dwarf, 100,000 Jews served in the German army alone in World War I, a very respectable showing in relation to the total number of German Jews. 2) We also see in his words the use of religious antisemitism for Nazi purposes.

1936 Abdication: Britain's newly proclaimed king, Edward VIII, abdicates because of his insistence on marriage to an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. He is succeeded by his brother, George VI. The reason for the abdication was not a social one. In accordance with the law, a monarch must subscribe to the 39 Articles, in which divorce is forbidden. There were also rumors that Edward was encouraged to abdicate because he was too friendly with the Germans. It remains to be seen what Prince Charles's position will be, if he ever makes it to the throne.

Note: In order for them to be married, Mrs. Simpson needed a divorce from her (second) husband. The distinguished advocate, Norman Birkett QC was briefed, which was rather over the top in an undefended divorce lasting a few minutes, and it was a rare occasion when Birkett was reprimanded by a judge—for saying that he knew what the judge was thinking.

1940 World War II: Various:

North Africa: The British capture Sidi Barrani. 20,000 prisoners have been taken so far in the Egyptian offensive.

Hitler's fourth major World War II address, at the Rheinmetall-Borsig Works in Berlin:

Nowadays I do not speak very often. In the first place I have little time for speaking, and in the second place I believe that this is a time for action rather than speech. We are involved in a conflict in which more than the victory of only one country or the other is at stake; it is rather a war of two opposing worlds.

1941 World War II: Various:

Japan becomes master of the Pacific and South China Sea:

On this day, 4,000 Japanese troops land on the Philippine Islands, while Japanese aircraft sink the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Guam, an American-controlled territory, was also seized. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally exclaims, "We have lost control of the sea."

The attack on Pearl Harbor was only one step in a larger plan to dominate the Pacific, which entailed knocking out first American, then British, naval opposition. Japanese bombing raids on Guam, Midway Island, and Wake Island followed the attack on the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. American airfields there were destroyed, as were Clark and Iba airfields in the Philippines, wiping out more than half of the United States' aircraft dedicated to the Far East. These bombing raids were followed up, on December 10, by 2,000 Japanese troops that landed on the Philippine island of Luzon in the north, and another 2,000 that landed at Vigan on the western coast. And in Guam, 700 Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces invaded and occupied the American-controlled military outpost of Guam after only a 25-minute military engagement, resulting in the capture of 500 American soldiers.

The United States was not alone in its struggle for the Pacific. Great Britain had also declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8. The next day, Japan occupied the capital of Thailand and then landed in the Malay Peninsula, which could not be repulsed by the outmatched Australian and Indian troops. Britain responded by dispatching Force Z, their Royal Navy unit dedicated to supporting Singapore, when Japanese bombers spotted Z's battleship, the Prince of Wales, and its sister ship, the Repulse, sailing for Kuantan on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula, on the erroneous belief that the Japanese had just put troops ashore there. The bombers rained down torpedo bombs on the British warships, sinking them and killing 840 men. "In all the war, I have never received a more direct shock," Churchill lamented.

And the Japanese were far from finished: The humiliation of the United States in the Philippines and a more extensive occupation of Indochina and the South Pacific were still to come. (History.com)

From an order to the 512th German Infantry Regiment:

A zone which, in view of the circumstances, is to be evacuated, upon withdrawal of the troops should present a desert zone. In order to carry out a complete destruction, all the houses shall be burned. To this end they should first be filled with straw, particularly stone houses. Structures of stone are to be blown up, particularly cellars. Measures for the creation of desert zones . . . . are to be prepared beforehand and carried out ruthlessly and in their entirety . . . . In razing our towns and villages, the German command demands of its troops that a desert zone be created in all Soviet localities from which the invaders are successfully expelled by the Red Army.

Holocaust: Himmler orders that commissions, made up of physicians who were formerly concerned with 'euthanasia' are to be set up to 'comb out' prisoners in concentration camps who are unfit for work, are ill, or are 'psychopaths.' Tens of thousands of prisoners, picked out in this way by Professor Heyde, Professor Nitsche and other physicians, are killed by gas in the extermination centers at Sonnenstein and Hartheim.

1943 World War II: Italy: Eighth Army crosses the Moro River in strength.

1944 World War II: Various

Romania:Horia Sima and seven other Romanian delegates sign a formal constitution in Vienna for a new Romanian National Government-in-exile. Five of the eight are Legionaries.

General Scobie to Churchill:

We should at once inform you should any peace offer be made by E.L.A.S., but neither the Ambassador nor I know of any such approach. I have clearly before me the objective you mention. While any one party is able to back its views with a private army Greece can never achieve peace and stability. Fighting may, I hope, be restricted to Athens-Piraeus, but I am ready to see it through in the rest of the countries if necessary. It is a pity that tear gas may not be used. It would be of great help in this city fighting. Your assurance that large reinforcements are being sent is most welcome.

Stalin to Churchill:

I communicated to General de Gaulle your opinion about your preference for an Anglo-Franco-Soviet Pact of Mutual Assistance, and spoke in favor of accepting your proposal. However, General de Gaulle insisted on concluding a Franco-Soviet Pact, saying that a three party pact should be concluded at the next stage, as that question demanded preparation. At the same time a message came from the President, who informed me that he had no objection to a Franco-Soviet Pact. In the result we reached agreement about concluding a pact and it was signed today.

FDR to Churchill:

Perhaps I am not close enough to the picture to feel as disappointed about the war situation as you are, and perhaps also because six months ago I was not as optimistic as you were on the time element. On the European Front I always felt that the occupation of Germany up to the Rhine would be a very stiff job. Because in the old days I bicycled over most of the Rhine terrain, I have never been optimistic as to the ease of getting across the Rhine with our joint armies as many of the commanding officers have been. However, our agreed broad strategy is developing according to plan. You and I are now in the position of Commanders-in-Chief who have prepared their plans, issued their orders, and committed their resources to battle according to those plans and orders. For the time being, even if a little behind schedule, it seems to me the prosecution and outcome of the battles lie with our field commanders, in whom we have every confidence. We must remember that the winter season is bringing great difficulties, but our ground and air forces are day by day chewing up the enemy's dwindling manpower and resources, and our supply flow is much improved with the opening of Antwerp. General Eisenhower estimates that on the Western front line he is inflicting losses in excess of the enemy's capability to form new moments. I still cannot see clearly just when, but soon a decisive break in our favor is bound to come. As to the Italian front, Alexander's forces are doing their bit in keeping those German divisions in Italy, and we must remember that the Germans are really free to withdraw to the line of the Alps if they so decide. The same thing applies to their troops in the Balkans. I have never believed that we had the power to capture any large German forces in the Balkans without assistance by the Russians. On the Russian front we also give full allowance for the vile weather, and the Russians seem to be doing their bit at the present time. This of course you know more about than I do. The Far Eastern situation is of course on a somewhat different footing, and I am not at all happy about it.

1948 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, representing the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled.

1950 Bunche receives Nobel Peace Prize: For his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war, American diplomat Ralph Joseph Bunche receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Bunche was the first African American to win the prestigious award. [For further information, click here]

1968 Death: Karl Barth: one of the foremost Protestant thinkers of the twentieth century and a vigorous opponent of National Socialism who strongly opposed the 'German Christians' that supported Hitler. In 1935, Barth, born in Switzerland, was removed from his position at the University of Bonn for refusing to declare an oath of loyalty to Hitler, and returned to the University of Basel where he published his most famous work, Kirchliche Dogmatik, one of the central works of modern Protestantism.

Edited by Levi Bookin (Copy editor)
levi.bookin@gmail.com

 


 







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