March 22
1912 Weltanschaung: Hitler walks across town to the Sofie Halls in the Third District, to attend a lecture by his favorite author. May is an ex-convict and avowed pacifist from Saxony who had authored numerous popular adventure stories set in the American Wild West, while never personally setting foot outside the continent of Europe. Hitler had read all of his many works, and would continue to read and admire May until his final days.
May is at this time steeped in controversy. A story had recently been published that he had spent time in prison as a young man, for fraud and theft. Hitler defends May to the other boarders at the hostel, saying that using his past against him is unfair, and that those who would do so are hyenas and scoundrels. Three thousand people attend the sold-out lecture, the title of which is "Up into the World of the Noble Man." [For further details, Click here.]
What was particularly interesting was the lecture evening�s audience. Petit bourgeois and suburban women and men, small white-collar workers, adolescents of both sexes, and even boys. Every one of them is bound to have a subscription to a public lending library, and to have read all sixty volumes of Karl Mays works: the fantastic travel stories and novels, whose authenticity has been doubted so often, and which have been the object of long, bitter legal suits . . . .
May is a seventy-year-old gentleman; a gaunt, old-fashioned figure, with a half-bureaucratic and half-pedagogical head, which is surrounded by short white curls. He alternately puts a pince-nez made of horn, or glasses in front of his cheerful eyes . . . .
May explains his Weltanschauung [worldview] in a rather unstructured and erratic manner. He says he has always striven upward, toward a freer, spiritual world of noblepeople. He alternately calls himself a soul, a drop of water, and—his favorite—a mental-spiritual aviator, and, now and then, reaches under the table for one of the numerous volumes of his collected works, to read more or less philosophical observations, fairy tales, parables, and poems. The strangest thing about what he says is his seriousness, his bathetic and genuine enthusiasm, which has something of a religious kind of enthusiasm about it.
1915 World War I: The Austrian garrison at Przemysl, Galicia (Poland), surrenders after a siege of 194 days: One hundred and ten thousand troops are taken prisoner by the Russians. From an Account of the Austrian Surrender of Przemysl by Alexander von Krobatin:
The garrison of the fortress held Przemysl to the very last hour that human force could do so in the military sense of the word. General Kusmanek only surrendered when such a course was dictated by feelings of humanity and military consideration. On the day of the surrender there was not one morsel of food in the fortress, and no breakfast could be supplied to the men.
1916 World War I: Gefreiter Adolf Hitler endures trench warfare in Flanders (Artois) with 3 Company, 16 Reserve Infantry Regiment [List Regiment]. [For further details, Click here.]
1917 Russia: The US becomes the first country to recognize the provisional government of Russia formed by Prince Lvov and Aleksandr Kerensky, following the collapse of the monarchy.
1933 Various:
Church and Reich: Negotiations between Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Frick and the Center Party are concluded (See March 20). Hitler promises to continue the existence of the German states, not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and to retain civil servants belonging to the Catholic Center Party. Hitler also pledges to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to respect the concordats signed between the Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1931). Hitler also agrees to mention these promises in his speech to the Reichstag before the vote on the Enabling Act. (THP)
[See: Was Adolf Hitler a Christian?]Albert Einstein's apartment in Berlin searched by the Gestapo:
Einstein early on marked himself out as a political nonconformist, a pacifist, a radical liberal democrat. He was one of the few German scientists to oppose World War I. Though never a revolutionary, he was targeted by German nationalist reactionaries and anti-Semites, who disrupted his lectures. Hitler's accession to power, and the Gestapo's interest in Einstein, made him spend his last 22 years in the USA until his death in 1955. He befriended the socialist writer Upton Sinclair, supported a minimum wage, age pensions and a cap on individual wealth. This attracted the FBI, which kept tabs on Einstein for nine years. Einstein believed in the liberal values of "truth, justice, liberty". He supported the civil rights of communists, believing that witch-hunts infringed liberty, though his libertarianism landed him onside with opponents of revolutionary as well as Stalinist Russia: he supported asylum for Trotsky, though he regarded both Trotsky and Stalin as "political gangsters". He opposed Cold War anti-Sovietism, which was enough to make J. Edgar Hoover fret about Einstein being an atomic spy.
Holocaust: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise testifies before the US House of Representative's Immigration Committee. (THP)
Another "Stop Hitler, Now" rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City is attended by 20,000 people.
Prohibition: FDR legalizes sale of beer and wine:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Beer and Wine Revenue Act. This law levies a federal tax on all alcoholic beverages to raise revenue for the federal government and gives individual states the option to further regulate the sale and distribution of beer and wine.
With the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act in 1919, temperance advocates in the U.S. finally achieved their long sought-after goal of prohibiting the sale of alcohol or "spirits." Together, the new laws prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of liquor and ushered in the era known as "Prohibition," defining an alcoholic beverage as anything containing over 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. President Woodrow Wilson had unsuccessfully tried to veto the Volstead Act, which set harsh punishments for violating the 18th Amendment and endowed the Internal Revenue Service with unprecedented regulatory and enforcement powers. In the end, Prohibition proved difficult and expensive to enforce and actually increased illegal trafficking without cutting down on consumption. In one of his first addresses to Congress as president, FDR announced his intention to modify the Volstead Act with the Beer and Wine Revenue Act.
No fan of temperance himself, FDR had developed a taste for alcohol when he attended New York cocktail parties as a budding politician. (While president, FDR refused to fire his favorite personal valet for repeated drunkenness on the job.) FDR considered the new law "of the highest importance" for its potential to generate much-needed federal funds and included it in a sweeping set of New Deal policies designed to vault the U.S. economy out of the Great Depression.
The Beer and Wine Revenue act was followed, in December 1933, by the passage of the 21st Amendment, which officially ended Prohibition. (History.com)
1934 Austria: A census calculates that 183,000 Jews live in approximately 750 Austrian towns and villages.
[See: Austria: The Other Germany.]1935 Various:
Holocaust: The German Ministry of Education proudly reports that not a single Jewish student was admitted to German universities in the academic year 1933-34. (THP)
Television: The first ever television service is officially inaugurated by the director-general of German broadcasting in Berlin.
1936 Various:
Sir Oswald Mosley makes an anti-Semitic speech that almost causes a riot in London's Albert Hall.
Effective Statesmanship: Italy, Austria, and Hungary sign an anti-Nazi mutual defense treaty in Rome.
1937 Church and Reich: The Gestapo confiscates all copies of the Pope's encyclical (see March 22) it can find. Twelve print shops are soon closed and dispossessed without compensation for having printed the encyclical letter. Strong protests are lodged with the bishops and the Vatican. (THP)
1938 Holocaust: Britain announces a drive against Jewish 'illegal' immigration to Palestine. (THP)
1941 World War II: Marshal Pétain signs a new law authorizing the construction of a Trans-Sahara railway. The work is done by all who had been interned: former Spanish Republican soldiers, Poles, Czechs, Greeks and Jews (See May 1941). (THP)
1942 Cripps and Gandhi meet:
Sir Stafford Cripps, British statesman, arrives in India for talks with Mohandas Gandhi on Indian independence, in what will become known as the Cripps Mission.
Cripps was a gifted student with a background in such diverse disciplines as chemistry and law. Always of weak health, he was deemed unfit for military service during World War I; instead, he worked in a government factory. After the war, Cripps was made a King's Counsel (1927). Shortly thereafter, he was knighted, and in 1931 was elected to Parliament as a Labour Party member for Bristol East. Cripps' politics were left of even the Labour Party, and when he advocated a united front with the Communists in 1938 against a growing European fascism, he was expelled from the party.
Once World War II erupted, Cripps was made ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1942, he joined the War Cabinet and ventured to India to begin discussing two pressing issues: Japan's threat to India, and India's independence from Britain. The first meetings of the Cripps Mission took place on March 22, 1942. The first item on the agenda was India's defense against a growing Japanese empire. Cripps wanted to rally the Indian National Congress behind the cause. The leader of the Congress was Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Nicknamed Mahatma, the "Great-Souled," Gandhi was at the center of India's quest for independence from British colonial rule. His use of nonviolent protest both in South Africa, where he practiced law, and in India made him a model and icon for later social-protest movements. Gandhi deemed the negotiations made with the British government through the Cripps Mission unsatisfactory. It did not guarantee Indian independence‑-never mind the immediate autonomy that the Congress demanded‑-and threatened to "divide and keep conquered" by playing Hindu Indians against Muslim Indians. Consequently, though Gandhi hated fascism, he could not promise unqualified Indian support of the British during the war.
The Cripps Mission failed; Cripps returned to Britain and was eventually transferred to the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Gandhi was arrested as a "threat" to Indian security. He was interned for two years before health issues forced his release.
1944 World War II: Various:
Hungary: Germany announces its occupation of Hungary and the formation of a new government under Dome Sztojay.
[See: What Were Adolf Hitler's Major Blunders?]Holocaust: Koldyczewo slave labor camp: Ten SS guards are killed, and hundreds of prisoners escape. (THP)
1945 Various:
Himmler meets with General Heinrici—who records in his diary that the Reichsfuehrer looks 'unusually white and puffy.' During the meeting, General Ferdinand Busse, commander of the Ninth Army, telephones with the dire news that the endangered German forces have finally been surrounded by the Red Army. Himmler quickly hands the phone to Heinrici: 'You command the Army Group now. Please give the appropriate order.' Heinrici glares at the Reichsmarschall: 'I don't know a damn thing about the army group. I don't even know what troops I have or who is supposed to be where.'
When Himmler fails to reply, Heinrici realizes he will get no help from that quarter and asks General Busse what he proposes. 'I'd like to counterattack as soon as possible, to restabilize my forces around Kuestrin.' Heinrici: 'Fine. As soon as I can I'll come to see you and we'll both look over the front lines.' After replacing the receiver, Heinrici attempts to acquire some information about his new command, but Himmler, displaying a disagreeable face, leads the general over to a nearby couch, sits down, and addresses him conspiratorially, 'I want to tell you something personal. I have taken the necessary steps to negotiate a peace with the West.' Heinrici: 'Fine. But how do we get to them?' Himmler: 'Through a neutral country. I'm telling you this in absolute confidence, you understand.' Later that evening, Heinrici tells a confidant: 'He (Himmler) was only too happy to leave . He couldn't get out of here fast enough. He didn't want to be in charge when the collapse comes. No—he wanted just a simple general in for that, and I'm the scapegoat.' (Clark, Read)
Arab League formed: Representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen meet in Cairo to establish the Arab League, a regional organization of Arab states. Formed to foster economic growth in the region, resolve disputes between its members, and coordinate political aims, members of the Arab League formed a council, with each state receiving one vote. When the State of Israel was created in 1948, the league countries jointly attacked but were repulsed by the Israelis. Two years later, Arab League nations signed a mutual defense treaty. Fifteen more Arab nations eventually joined the organization, which established a common market in 1965. (History.com)
1946 Nuremberg Tribunal: On day 88, Hermann Goering's cross-examination by the prosecution concludes:
General Rudenko: On 8 March, here in the Tribunal, your witness Bodenschatz stated that you told him in March 1945 that many Jews were killed and that for that you will have to pay dearly. Do you remember this testimony of your witness?
Goering: This testimony, in the form in which it was translated now, I do not recollect at all. The witness Bodenschatz never said it that way. I ask that the record of the session be brought in.
General Rudenko: How did Bodenschatz say that? Do you remember?
Goering: That if we lost the war we would have to pay dearly.
General Rudenko: Why? For the murders which you had perpetrated?
Goering: No, quite generally, and after all, we have experienced just that. [For the full text of today's proceedings, Click here.]
From the letters of Thomas Dodd: Executive Trial Counsel for the Prosecution:
Today saw the end of Goering on the stand and of his defense, at last . . . . Jackson argues well for our side and the defense put up a strong fight and one or two of them again came very close to insolence. The court temporized again but did finally admit that Goering had been allowed to make speeches and that it must stop. This was a victory for us and I know now that these judges are beginning to know that we have them licked.
From Janet Flanner's World by Janet Flanner:As the trial moved out of its preparatory period of massive, static documentation and entered its period of skirmishing and battle in the open, where the brains and personalities of the opponents were what counted, Jackson began to show inadequacies as the leading Allied man. Up to then his main contribution to this very special legal scene had been the high humanitarianism which marked his fine opening address in November. Beneath that humanitarianism there lies his burning private conviction that the Nazi prisoners are mere common criminals. This, too logically, led to his treating them in a blustering police court manner, which was successful with the craven small fry but disastrous for him in cross-examining that uncommon criminal, Goering, himself accustomed to blustering in a grander way. Even physically, Jackson cut a poor figure. He unbuttoned his coat, whisked it back over his hips, and, with his hands in his back pockets, spraddled and teetered like a country lawyer. Not only did he seem to lack the background and wisdom of our Justice Holmes tradition, but his prepared European foreground was full of holes, which he fell into en route to setting traps for Goering.
1947 Cold War: Truman orders loyalty checks of federal employees:
In response to public fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees.
As the Cold War began to develop after World War II, fears concerning communist activity in the United States, particularly in the federal government, increased. Congress had already launched investigations of communist influence in Hollywood, and laws banning communists from teaching positions were being instituted in several states. Of most concern to the Truman administration, however, were persistent charges that communists were operating in federal offices. In response to these fears and concerns, Truman issued an executive order on March 21, 1947, which set up a program to check the loyalty of federal employees. In announcing his order, Truman indicated that he expected all federal workers to demonstrate "complete and unswerving loyalty" the United States. Anything less, he declared, "constitutes a threat to our democratic processes."
The basic elements of Truman's order established the framework for a wide-ranging and powerful government apparatus to perform loyalty checks. Loyalty boards were to be set up in every department and agency of the federal government. Using lists of "totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive" organizations provided by the attorney general, and relying on investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, these boards were to review every employee. If there existed "reasonable grounds" to doubt an employee's loyalty, he or she would be dismissed. A Loyalty Review Board was set up under the Civil Service Commission to deal with employees' appeals.
Truman's loyalty program resulted in the discovery of only a few employees whose loyalty could be "reasonably" doubted. Nevertheless, for a time his order did quiet some of the criticism that his administration was "soft" on communism. Matters changed dramatically in 1949-1950. The Soviets developed an atomic bomb, China fell to the communists, and Senator Joseph McCarthy made the famous speech in which he declared that there were over 200 "known communists" in the Department of State. Once again, charges were leveled that the Truman administration was "coddling" communists, and in response, the Red Scare went into full swing. (History.com)
1952 Wunderwaffen: Collier's Weekly Magazine publishes Man Will Conquer Space Soon: Top Scientists Tell How in 15 Startling Pages, the first of a series of articles on manned space exploration by von Braun and a team of experts, with edits by Willy Ley. From the Introduction:
On the following pages, Collier's presents what may be one of the most important scientific symposia ever published by a national magazine. It is the story of the inevitability of man's conquest of space. What you will read here is not science fiction. It is serious fact. Moreover it is an urgent warning that the US must immediately embark on a long-range development program to secure for the West "space superiority." If we do not, somebody else will. That somebody else very probably will be the Soviet Union.
Werner von Braun, whose article Crossing the Last Frontier is the centerpiece of several articles in the issue, writes:
Within the next 10 or 15 years, the earth will have a new companion in the skies, a man-made satellite that could be either the greatest force for peace ever devised, or one of the most terrible weapons of war—depending on who makes and controls it . . . .
Small, winged, rocket missiles with atomic warheads could be launched from the station in such a manner that they would strike their targets at supersonic speeds. By simultaneous radar tracking of both missile and target, these atomic rockets could be accurately guided to any spot on earth. In view of the station's ability to pass over all inhabited regions of earth, such atom-bombing techniques would offer the satellite's builders the most important tactical and strategic advance in military history.
Q: Would Soviet Russia enjoy any advantages in a race for space superiority?
Werner von Braun: Just one advantage of any importance so far as is known. Because the country is huge, and barricaded behind the Iron Curtain, the initial phases of a space program could be kept secret much more easily in the Soviet Union, than in the Western World . . . . The advantage in competition to conquer space probably rests with us—if we move quickly.
[See: Wunderwaffen: Hitler's Deception and the History of Rocketry.]2011 Holocaust: Prosecutor asks for six years jail for Demjanjuk:
After nearly 18 months, a court in Munich, Germany has closed the evidentiary phase in the trial of Ukrainian-born Ivan [John] Demjanjuk, and closing arguments have begun. The prosecution asked the court to sentence the 90-year-old to six years in prison. Prosecutor Hans-Joachim Lutz said there was "no reasonable doubt" that Demjanjuk had participated in the Holocaust and that he worked at the Nazi death camp Sobibor in occupied Poland for six months during 1943. "The accused was at first a victim of German aggression. Then he became a perpetrator with his participation in the mass murder of Jews," said Lutz in his closing remarks. "It is not about passing off German guilt for the mass murder committed by the SS onto someone else," he told the court. Demjanjuk stands accused of helping to murder at least 28,000 Jews and other as a guard at the Nazi death camp Sobibor in occupied Poland during World War II. The 90-year-old has denied the charges, saying he never served the Nazis in any camp. A verdict is now anticipated for May. [For further details, Click here]
Edited by Levi Bookin (Copy editor)
levi.bookin@gmail.com
Click to join 3rdReichStudies
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of historical, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, environmental, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Please note that the list-owner and the moderator are not responsible for, and do not necessarily approve of, the random ads placed on our pages by our web server. They are, unfortunately, the price one pays for a 'free' website.
