1939 Various:

Karl Maria Weisthor (Wiligut) officially retires from the SS. Himmler requests the return of Weisthor's SS Totenkopfring, (Death's-head ring), SS dagger, and sword. Himmler personally keeps them under lock and key.

He was called "Himmler's Rasputin." He sent scores of Nazi agents around the world on a quest for magical artifacts. He literally wrote the book on Esoteric Nazism. And he claimed to be the last warlock or magician of an order dating back to the lost continent of Atlantis. Of all the strange personalities in Adolf Hitler's entourage, Karl Maria Wiligut was certainly the oddest . . . . 

[Another] disciple, Richard Anders, introduced the elderly sorcerer to his good friend, Heinrich Himmler, a rising star in the Nazi Party. Himmler, who was deeply interested in German prehistory, "was evidently impressed by Wiligut's ancestral-clairvoyant memory and decided to exploit as fully as possible this unique source of information on ancient Germanic religion and traditions."

Money was no obstacle. Himmler created the SS-Ahnenerbe in 1936, promoted his elderly mentor-in-magick [sic]to SS-Brigadefuehrer (General), and turned him loose on several dozen crackpot projects. First prize undoubtedly goes to "Wiligut's Tunnel." This was a vertical tunnel 16 kilometers (10 miles) deep begun in Hungary in 1941, designed to carry an elevator car that would lower Himmler and Wiligut into "the Inner World of Agharti" (Better known to readers of Edgar Rice Burroughs as Pellucidar--J.T.) Millions were spent on the tunnel, and work continued until November 1944, when the lack of supplies forced the SS project to close. (See The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, New York University Press, 1992, pages 177 to 191)

Countdown to war:

Mediation: Amateur peace envoy Birger Dahlerus continues his shuttle diplomacy. Dahlerus has an early morning meeting with Hermann Goering and Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, Counselor of the British Embassy, before breakfasting again with Goering.

Goering: It must have been clear from the entire action that this was a nonofficial negotiation which only at one or two points touched the official negotiations, or overlapped them. For instance, the phase where Ambassador Henderson, instead of returning immediately to Berlin, remained 1 or 2 days in London in order, first of all, through the unofficial negotiator, Dahlerus, to explain to the British Government the basis of these intentions, or for the negotiations, or to explain the note, as I shall call it; and when that had been done, the preparation for entering into these conferences was thereby considerably improved. And that not I alone was of the honest conviction on that day that a considerable step had been taken in the direction of a peaceful solution at that time--I believe it was the 28th--is demonstrated by the fact that the same view was held at the British Embassy at that moment

Poland: Reply of the British Government to Hitler's August 23 and 25 messages:

A just settlement of these questions between Germany and Poland may open the way to world peace. Failure to reach it would ruin the hopes of better understanding between Germany and Great Britain, would bring the two countries into conflict, and might well plunge the whole world into war. Such an outcome would be a calamity without parallel in history.

Poland: From a telegram to Viscount Halifax in Berlin from Sir N. Henderson:

Herr Hitler replied that he would be willing to negotiate, if there was a Polish Government which was prepared to be reasonable and which really controlled the country. He expatiated on misdoings of the Poles, referred to his generous offer of March last, said that it could not be repeated and asserted that nothing else than the return of Danzig and the whole of the Corridor would satisfy him, together with a rectification in Silesia, where 90 per cent of the population had voted for Germany at the post-war plebiscite but where, as a result of Haller-Korfanti coup, what the Plebiscite Commission had allotted had nevertheless been grabbed by Poland. 6. I told Herr Hitler that he must choose between England and Poland. If he put forward immoderate demands there was no hope of a peaceful solution. Corridor was inhabited almost entirely by Poles. Herr Hitler interrupted me here by observing that this was only true because a million Germans had been driven out of that district since the war. I again said the choice lay with him

Polish Foreign Minister Beck refuses to go to Berlin: Beck says he accepts the principle of direct negotiations, but towards midnight tells British Ambassador Kennard that Polish mobilization is proceeding.

Chamberlain requests information concerning Hitler's intentions towards Poland.

Ambassador Henderson returns from London to Berlin.

Slovakia: Premier Father Josef Tiso invites the Germany army to occupy the puppet state of Slovakia. (THP)

The Netherlands: A general military mobilization is ordered.

1940 World War II: The Luftwaffe launches the first of a series of four air raids on Liverpool. About 160 aircraft are sent each night.

1941 World War II: Various:

War at Sea:The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph.

Church and Reich: The Bavarian order forbidding prayers in school and the gradual removal of all crucifixes is revoked. A number of public protests and a strong stand by Bishop Faulhaber prompts the revocation. (See April 23, 1941). (THP)

Over 600,000 Volga Germans are deported by Stalin to Siberia and Kazakhstan:

In 1762, Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst, a German native of Stettin, Pomerania, [succeeded] her husband Peter III and took the vacant Russian imperial throne, assuming the name of Catherine II. "Catherine the Great" published manifestos in 1762 and 1763 inviting Europeans, (except Jews)[1] to immigrate and farm Russian lands while maintaining their language and culture. Although the first received little response, the second improved the benefits that were offered and was more successful. In addition to land developed in particularly large numbers due to poor conditions in their home regions . . . . 

Following the Russian Revolution, the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Autonome Sozialistische Sowjet-Republik der Wolga-Deutschen in German . . . ) was established in 1924, and it lasted until 1942. Its capital was Engels, known as "Pokrovsk" (Kosakenstadt in German) before 1931. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin was worried that the Volga Germans might collaborate with the invaders. On August 28, 1941, he dissolved the Volga-German ASSR and ordered the immediate relocation of ethnic Germans, both from the Volga and from a number of other traditional areas of settlement. Approximately 400,000 Volga Germans were stripped of their land and houses, and moved eastwards to Kazakhstan in Soviet Central Asia, Altai Krai in Siberia, and other remote areas. Similar deportations happened for other ethnic groups, including North Caucasian Muslim ethnic groups, Kalmyks and Crimean Tatars. In 1942 nearly all the able-bodied German population was conscripted to the labour army. About one third did not survive the labour camps.

Holocaust: Mass slaughter in Ukraine:

On this day in 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union had advanced to the point of mass air raids on Moscow and the occupation of parts of Ukraine. On August 26, Hitler displayed the joys of conquest by inviting Benito Mussolini to Brest-Litovsk, where the Germans had destroyed the city's citadel. The grand irony is that Ukrainians had originally viewed the Germans as liberators from their Soviet oppressors and an ally in the struggle for independence. But as early as July, the Germans were arresting Ukrainians agitating and organizing for a provisional state government with an eye toward autonomy, and throwing them into concentration camps.

The Germans also began carving the nation up, dispensing parts to Poland (already occupied by Germany) and Romania.

But true horrors were reserved for Jews in the territory. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews had been expelled from that country and migrated to Ukraine. The German authorities tried sending them back, but Hungary would not take them. SS General Franz Jaeckeln vowed to deal with the influx of refugees by the "complete liquidation of those Jews by September 1." He worked even faster than promised. On August 28, he marched more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews to bomb craters at Kamenets Podolsk, ordered them to undress, and riddled them with machine-gun fire. Those who didn't die from the spray of bullets were buried alive under the weight of corpses that piled atop them.

All told, more than 600,000 Jews had been murdered in Ukraine by war's end. (History.com)

1942 Vichy France: Abetz, Papal Nuncio to Vichy France, requests Laval to mitigate the severity of measures taken against the Jews during the mass deportations that had recently begun in France. (THP)

1943 Holocaust: Denmark: Resistance to the German occupation undermines continued German cooperation, and the Danish-German Agreement is abolished. Martial Law is declared. The SS hopes to use this opportunity to deport all 7,200 of Denmark's Jews.

Claims of the Reich Government: The Danish Government must immediately declare the entire country in a state of military emergency. The state of military emergency must include the following measures: 1. Prohibition of public gatherings of more than five persons. 2. Prohibition of all strikes and of any aid given to strikers. 3. Prohibition of all meetings in closed premises or in the open air; prohibition to be in the streets between 2030 hours and 0530 hours; closing of restaurants at 1930 hours. By I September 1943 all firearms and explosives to be handed over. 4. Prohibition to hamper in any way whatsoever Danish nationals because of their collaboration or the collaboration of their relatives with the German authorities, or because of their relations with the Germans. 5. Establishment of a press censorship with German collaboration. 6. Establishment of courts-martial to judge acts contravening the measures taken to maintain order and security. Infringement of the measures mentioned above will be punished by the most severe penalties which can be imposed in conformity with the law in force concerning the power of the Government to take measures to maintain calm, order, and security. The death penalty must be introduced without delay for acts of sabotage and for any aid given in committing these acts, for attacks against the German forces, for possession after 1 September 1943 of firearms and explosives. "The Reich Government expects to receive today before 1600 hours the acceptance by the Danish Government of the above-mentioned demands.

1944 World War II: Various:

Churchill to FDR:

General Alexander received a telegram from SHAEF asking for efforts to be made to prevent the withdrawal of more (German) divisions from the Italian front. This of course was the consequence of the great weakening of our armies in Italy...The plan is that the Eighth Army of ten divisions, very heavily weighted in depth, will endeavor to pierce the Gothic Line and turn the whole enemies position...if all goes well I hope that the advance will be much more rapid after that and that the continued fighting will prevent further harm being done to Eisenhower by the withdrawal of divisions from Italy . . . . 

Holocaust: Hundreds of Jews die when the Germans evacuate slave labor camps in Estonia by sea. (THP)

1945 Various:

Eduard Schulte—the man said to have first warned the West about the Holocaust—becomes an important official in the new German central government set up by the Allies. He is recommended for the position by Allen Dulles, head of the OSS in Switzerland. (THP)

American Action: The principal speaker of the evening at a meeting of American Action at the Clark Hotel in Los Angeles tells guests and members that Jews, international bankers and Jewish Communist immigrants from Russia had acquired almost complete control of American business, government and labor. (THP)

 


 







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