Third Reich History: February 27

1859 Birth: Bertha Pappenheim, Austrian-Jewish pioneer of the Jewish feminist movement social pioneer, founded the League of Jewish Women (Juedischer Frauenbund). [For further details, Click here.]

1861 Russian troops fire on a crowd in Castle Square, Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland, killing five protesters. [For further details, Click here.]

1876 Japan imposes the Treaty of Ganghwa on Korea, forcing Korea to open itself to Japanese and foreign trade and to proclaim its independence from China in its foreign relations. [For further details, Click here.]

1916 WWI: Austrians occupy Durazzo in Albania: "After completing their conquest of Serbia and Montenegro, the Austro-Hungarian army turns its attentions toward Albania, occupying the coastal city of Durazzo on the Adriatic Sea on February 27, 1916." [For further information, click here.]

1920 Munich: For the purpose of organizing propaganda campaigns and Party activities, Munich is divided into four districts, with Propaganda Chief Hitler picking the section leaders. Every Monday night, the four section leaders meet with Hitler at Party Headquarters for indoctrination sessions, along with other students being trained by Hitler in public propaganda speaking. The section leaders are then expected to conduct their own propaganda meetings in their various districts on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. [For further details, Click here.]

1923 Between February and November, the NSDAP will gain 35,000 members, and the SA will grow to a total strength of 15,000. The party now has assets of 173,000 gold marks.

1925 Hitler speaks in public, for the first time since his release from prison. The venue he chooses is the Bï¿½rgerbrï¿½ukeller, the very place where the Putsch had begun, just two Novembers previously. It is uncertain just how many people are present on this night, in the now-infamous Bï¿½rgerbrï¿½ukeller. The meeting is chaired by the party's business manager, Max Amann, because Anton Drexlerï¿½the founder and nominal head of the NSDAPï¿½had refused to attend. He will have nothing to do with the party, unless and until Esser and Streicher are dismissed from their posts. The Hitler who takes the stage is not the unassuming fellow Dr. Held had interviewed in January, but a version of the "wild beast" that Held assumed had been tamed. Hitler strikes a defiant tone:

This is an absolutely new beginning. You must forget your personal quarrels. If you will not, I shall start the party alone, without you! . . . .

If anyone comes and wants to impose conditions on me, I shall say to him: Just wait, my little friend, and see what conditions I impose on you. I'm not wooing the masses you know. After a year has passed, you be the judges, my party comrades. If I have not acted rightly, then I shall return my office to your hands. But until then, this is the rule: I and I alone shall lead the movement, and no one sets me conditions as long as I personally bear the responsibility. And I, on the other hand, bear all the responsibility for everything that happens in the movement . . . .

To this struggle of ours there are only two possible issues: either the enemy pass over our bodies or we pass over theirs, and it is my desire that, if in the struggle I should fall, the Swastika banner shall be my winding sheet.

Hitler speaks for over two hours. When he is finished, Max Amann shouts: "The wrangling must stop! Everyone for Hitler!" Gottfried Feder, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Esser, Julius Streicher, Artur Dinter (Thuringian District Leader), and Rudolf Buttmann (Bavarian District Leader) join Hitler on the platform in a gesture of unity. Some of them are controversial figures, others had previously been in opposition to his leadership. A party that had been at odds with itself now unites to declare Hitler their Fuehrer, and pledge themselves anew to the cause. However, Rï¿½hm, Strasser, Drexler, and Alfred Rosenberg are notable by their absence. [For further details, Click here.]

1932 Before a crowd of 25,000 in the Berlin Sportpalastï¿½perhaps feeling invincible now that he is officially a citizen (See February 26, 1932)ï¿½Hitler calls out Hindenburg, his main opponent in the election for Reich President, yelling: "'Old man . . . you must step aside! . . . . Dear old man, our veneration for you is too great for us to allow those whom we would destroy to hide behind you. With our deep regret, therefore, you must step aside, for they want to fight us and we want to fight them." The NSDAP uses all its resources in this campaign. During the eleven-day campaign, Hitler will speak in twelve cities. [For further details, Click here.]

1933 Church and Reich: A law is announced recognizing seven Catholic feast days as legal German Holidays. [For further details, Click here.]

1933 A huge fire destroys the Reichstag, the seat of German Parliament. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, is arrested after he is found bare to the waist inside the Reichstag. [For further details, Click here.]

1935 Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg denies that his government intends to expel eastern-European Jews or reduce the number of professional Jews.

1936 Ni-niroku jiken: On the second day of the rebellion, Hirohito is told that little progress is being made in quashing the rebels. Hirohito, shaming his advisors, reacts angrily: "I Myself will lead the Konoe (Imperial guard) division and subdue them!" [For further details, Click here.]

1940 Holocaust: 389 Jews are deported from Amsterdam to Buchenwald concentration camp. [For further details, Click here.]

1941: From an Agreement between Germany, Bulgaria and Rumania for attacking Greece and eventually Turkey:

During the operation of the German troops against Greece or Turkey, the Bulgarian army will not be committed in an offensive way against the two mentioned countries, according to an agreement between the two governments. It will be reinforced, in order to safeguard the new order on the Balkan. 2. Up to the arrival of German troops on the Bulgarian South and Southeast border, the Bulgarian army will alone defend its territory with its own troops. [For further details, Click here.]

1942 WW2: Various:

The Battle of Java Sea begins as 13 US warships sink 2 Japanese ships. [For further details, Click here.]

U.S. aircraft carrier Langley is sunk: "The U.S. Navyâ€™s first aircraft carrier, the Langley, is sunk by Japanese warplanes (with a little help from U.S. destroyers), and all of its 32 aircraft are lost." [For further details, click here.]

Death: Dutch Rear-Admiral Karel Willem Frederick Marie Doorman--Dutch Rear Admiral who commanded ABDACOM Naval forces, a hastily-organized multinational naval force formed to defend the East Indies against an overwhelming Imperial Japanese attack. Doorman was killed and the main body of ABDACOM Naval forces destroyed during the Battle of the Java Sea.

Holocaust The first French Jews are transported to Nazi Germany. [For further details, Click here.]

Holocaust A monthly report signed by Heydrich details the number of Jews they had killed by the various Einsatzkommandos: [29,000 Jews in Riga had been reduced to 2,500, and 33,210 were shot by the special unit]: "I herewith enclose the 9th summary report concerning the activity of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD in the USSR. This report will be sent out periodically in the future."

1943 Rosenstrasse Protest: During the course of deporting the last German Jews, the Gestapo in Berlin seizes 6,000 Christian "non-Aryan" men married to "Aryan" women. Then something unexpected and unparalleled happens: their "Aryan" wives follow their husbands to the place of temporary detention and stand for several hours screaming and howling for their men. With the secrecy of the whole machinery of destruction threatened, the Gestapo yields and the "non-Aryan" husbands are released. [For further details, Click here.]

1943 Holocaust: The SS puts into operation the "Factory Action" (Fabrikaktion) deporting more than 10,000 Jewish factory workers in Germany to the east. Only a few survive. [For further details, Click here.]

1943: Goebbels' Diary:

Speer, Ley and Funk at the house--we talked about everything until 2 AM . . . . Speer & Funk ... feel, however, with Goering now so lethargic and resigned ... I should take over leadership of Council [of Ministers], on the face of it as his deputy. I [tell them] I am quite prepared to do this but we would at least nominally need his agreement. He is at present ... yet again ... vacationing . . . . Speer offers to get on his plane in pursuit, in order to persuade him to agree. If we get him on our side, I have no doubt we'd very quickly get the Fuehrer's backing and ... could begin work. I would propose a group of ten leading personalities with whom I would then govern, i.e., set up a structure of inner-political leadership. All of us know there will be problems, but on this evening it is perfectly clear to us that if there was ever a repetition of events such as we witnessed this past winter on the Eastern front, we would be facing a most severe crisis of public confidence . . . . Our only reason for fear is the never-to-be-thought-of-possibility that we could lose the war ... but the time to consider this danger and take all measures against it, is now. The discussion this evening was incredibly productive. What a relief to talk with true National Socialists such as these three.

Speer travels to Berchtesgaden to enlist Goering in the plan for a new Council of Ministers.

From Speer's Nuremberg Draft: He [Goering] viewed the situation exactly as we did and he was particularly struck when I told him that we were sure Bormann was seeking to succeed Hitler. I was able to present him with a number of details supporting this view. That certainly activated his juices! We reached complete agreement and decided to ask Goebbels to fly up the next day for a second conference. By the next evening everything was decided: we would set up the Council of Ministers as a joint instrument of power; Goebbels and I would be appointed members. We set a date for a third meeting in Berlin [with Funk and Ley] after which we would proceed together against Bormann and his group. We would stand together, supporting each other in the decisive meeting with Hitler. All was agreed: a small conspiracy. (See: April 12, 1943) [For further details, Click here.]

1946 Nuremberg Tribunal Day 69:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/02-27-46.asp Holocaust Testimony of Abram Gerzevitch Suzkever on persecution of Vilna's Jews [For further details, Click here.]
Holocaust Testimony of Severina Shmaglevskaya on Treatment of Children at Oswieczim Camp [For further details, Click here.]
Holocaust Testimony of Samuel Rajzman on Treblinka [For further details, Click here.]
Testimony of Very Reverend Nikolai Ivanovitch Lomakin on Religious Persecution [For further details, Click here.]

1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st Israeli president. [For further details, Click here.]

1958: Werner von Braun testifies before a congressional committee:

In the field of satellite and moon rockets, we need a well planned, long-range national program which makes maximum use of rocket hardware . . . . emerging from our ballistic missile and supersonic aircraft programs. This program must be backed up by a firm budget, which permits its steady execution over a period of several years. There is a crying need for more money, for basic and applied research in these areas, and for development of bigger booster engines . . . .

[While there are] adequate research funds . . . available for clearly defined weapons systems, there is never enough to "advance the art." A typical example is that we don't have a really powerful rocket engine today, simply because none of our present crash missile programs requires it. But in order to beat the Russians in the race for outer space, we absolutely need it, and the development and perfection of such an engine requires several years . . . .

Herein lies the real threat to our security, and only the immediate enactment of a well-planned, determined United States space flight program, covering all aspects of unmanned and manned flights through outer space can neutralize it. [For further details, Click here.]

1969 POTUS Nixon visits West Berlin.

1969 General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup. [For further details, Click here.]

1980 Israel and Egypt exchange ambassadors.

1989 German war criminals Franz Fischer and Ferdinand Hugo aus der Fï¿½nten, two of the "Breda Four", the only German WW2 war criminals to be imprisoned in the Netherlands, are released.

2007 Death General Bernd Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven. [For further details, Click here.]