December 13

1856 Birth: Heinrich Heine: German poet and dramatist, born Jewish and baptised. In a line from a play, he prophesied "In a place where they burn books, they will come to burn people." [For further details, Click here.]

1916 World War I: Various:

Soldiers perish in avalanche as World War I rages:

A powerful avalanche kills hundreds of Austrian soldiers in a barracks near Italy's Mount Marmolada on this day in 1916. Over a period of several days, avalanches in the Italian Alps killed an estimated 10,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers in mid-December. The avalanches occurred as the Austrians and Italians were fighting World War I and some witnesses claim that the avalanches were purposefully caused to use as a weapon. Though there is little evidence that this was the case with these avalanches, it is possible that avalanches were used as weapons at other times during the war. [For further information, click here]

Iraq: General Maude begins a movement up both banks of the Tigris River with 166,000 men, two-thirds of them Indian.

1918 Wilson arrives in France:

"On this day in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson arrives in France to take part in World War I peace negotiations and to promote his plan for a League of Nations, an international organization for resolving conflicts between nations." [For further information, click here]

1921 Four Power Treaty: The United States, Britain, Japan, and France pledge to consult one another if any of their Pacific Island possessions is threatened.

Fellow Senators and Gallery . . . Observe the hideous iniquity of this outrageous Treaty of Four which that bloodthirsty Hughes and gore-loving Harding are trying to put over on us. Was ever a peacefully inclined nation requested to sign such a dangerous document? What does it say, gentlemen? It says, in frightful words of dire import, that the high contracting parties "agree between themselves to respect their rights in relation to their insular possessions in the regions of the Pacific Ocean!" To respect their rights, gentlemen! That means war! Is it not a well-known historical fact, gentlemen, that whenever one nation respects the rights of another there is bloodshed and murder? I fear that word "respect! Gentlemen . . . . Sit still and let the full significance of this sink into your thick skulls. It means we agree not to steal each other's islands. That means war. You may not understand it so but I have a better scoopful of brains. The only way to prevent the Pacific Ocean from becoming the Bellicose Ocean is to have all hands free to sneak up on an unsuspecting island any dark night and steal it. But that is not all, gentlemen! There is worse. If trouble comes, the four high contracting parties agree to call a conference to talk things over and to meet the exigencies of the particular situation.

1922 Weimar: The NSDAP holds ten mass demonstrations in Munich. (Maser)

1931 Volkishness: In the third edition of his textbook (with E. Baur and E. Fischer), professor Fritz Lenz writes:

We must of course deplore the one-sided anti-Semitism of National Socialism. Unfortunately, it seems that the masses need such 'anti' feelings . . . we cannot doubt that National Socialism is honestly striving for a healthier race. The question of the quality of our hereditary endowment is a hundred times more important than the dispute over capitalism or socialism, and a thousand times more important than that over the black-white-red or black-red-gold banners." Note: This latter is in reference to the banner of the Weimar Republic, which had replaced that of Imperial Germany, black-white-red.

1935 Holocaust: Germany publishes additional restrictions for German Jews in the legal and medical professions.




Benes

1935 Czechoslovakia: President Thomas Masaryk resigns and is succeeded by Eduard Benes.

1937 Countdown to Infamy: Japanese forces take the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). Over the following six weeks, they kill an estimated 200,000 Chinese in what will become known as the 'Rape of Nanking'.

At one point, civilians and ex-soldiers of the Chinese Army were gathered together, their hands were bound and they were collectively marched to the outskirts of the city where they were systematically, in groups, raked with machine gun fire or individually: beheaded and/or otherwise victimized by Japanese samurai sword practices; used for bayonet practice, doused with gasoline and set afire, beaten to death or buried alive. Two Japanese lieutenants maintained an ongoing competition as to who would be the first to behead 100 victims. Both reached their goal and kept right on going.

1938 Holocaust: Various:

Neuengamme: The concentration camp is established as part of Sachsenhausen. It will eventually become independent with many sub-camps of its own.

Slovakia: Jewish property is pillaged and synagogues burned in during a renewed anti-Jewish campaign.

1939 World War II: The battle of the River Plate takes place off the coast of South America between the British cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles, and the German battleship, Graf Spee.

1940 World War II: Various:

Hitler issues Directive #20: additional planning and preparation for Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece.

In the introductory part of the directive Hitler pointed out that, in view of the confused situation in Albania, it was particularly important to thwart British attempts to establish air bases in Greece, which would constitute a threat to Italy as well as to the Romanian oil fields. To meet this situation twenty-four German divisions were to be assembled gradually in southern Romania within the next few months, ready to enter Bulgaria as soon as they received orders.

North Africa: A small British force already in Libya cuts the road to Bardia, an important Italian position.

1941 World War II: Various:

War with Japan: British forces retreat to Hong Kong island as the invading Japanese army takes Kowloon and the New Territories.

From a letter from the Military Commander addressed to the General Delegate of the French Government:

The General Secretariat of Youth has informed us by letter of 11 November 1941 of its intention to establish so-called social youth centers whose aim shall be to give to youth a civic education and to safeguard it from the moral degeneracy which threatens it. The creation of these social youth centers, as well the establishment of youth camps, must be sanctioned by the Commander-in-Chief of the Military Forces in France. Before being able to make a final decision as to the creation of these social centers, it appears indispensable that greater details should be furnished, particularly about the persons responsible for these centers in the various communes, the points of view which win prevail when selecting the leaders of these centers, the principal categories of youth to be recruited and detailed plans for the intended instruction and education of these young people.

1942 World War II Various:

From captured Nazi files:

According to the last sentence of the Fuehrer Order of 18th October, individual saboteurs can be spared for the time being in order to keep them for interrogation. The importance of this measure was proved in the cases of the Glomfjord, 2-man torpedo Drontheim, and glider plane Stavanger, where interrogations resulted in valuable knowledge of enemy intentions. Since in the case of Egersund the saboteur was liquidated immediately and no clues were obtained; therefore, Armed Forces Commander refers to the above mentioned last sentence of the Fuehrer Order calling for liquidation only after a short interrogation.

FDR praises Maritime service:

It is with a feeling of great pride that I send my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to the officers and men of the new United States Maritime Service Training Station at Sheepshead Bay, N. Y. Ten thousand apprentice seamen in training at one station is a magnificent achievement, and the entire country joins me in wishing you every success and in paying tribute to you men of the Merchant Marine who are so gallantly working and fighting side by side with our Army and Navy to defend the way of life which is so dear to us all.

Goebbels complains of Italians' treatment of Jews:

On this day, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels records in his journal his contempt for the Italians' treatment of Jews in Italian-occupied territories. "The Italians are extremely lax in their treatment of Jews. They protect Italian Jews both in Tunis and in occupied France and won't permit their being drafted for work or compelled to wear the Star of David."

Joseph Goebbels had made the persecution, and ultimately the extermination, of Jews a personal priority from the earliest days of the war, often recording in his diary such statements as: "They are no longer people but beasts." "Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of our enemies." "[T]he Jews . . . are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is pretty barbaric and is not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews." It was on his recommendation that all Jews in occupied Paris be forced to wear a yellow star on the left side of their coats or jackets in order to identify and humiliate them.

His vituperative anti-Semitism, which included blaming the war itself on the Jews in a screed published in the German magazine Das Reich, could not be contained within the boundaries of Germany. He expected the same of his allies. But, truth be told, in the earliest days of fascism, Mussolini had denied any truth to the idea of a "pure" race and had counted Jews among his close colleagues-and was even a Zionist!

But with Italy's failing fortunes militarily, Mussolini needed to stress the Italians' "superiority" in some sense, and so began to mimic many of the racial and anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazis. Nevertheless, Mussolini never had the stomach—or the conviction—for the extremes of Goebbels, Goering, and Hitler. And certainly the majority of the Italian people never subscribed to the growing anti-Semitic rhetoric of the regime. In fact, the Italians refused to deport Jews from Italy-or from Italian-occupied Croatia or France-to Auschwitz.

The majority of Italians' courage to reject the worst of fascist ideology—its anti-Semitism—remains one bright spot in Italy's otherwise appalling World War II record. (History.com)

1944 World War II Various:

FDR to Churchill:

I have been as deeply concerned as you have yourself in regard to the tragic difficulties you have encountered in Greece. I appreciate to the full the anxious and difficult alternatives with which you are faced. I regard my role in this matter as that of a loyal friend and ally whose one desire is to be of any help possible in the circumstances. You may be sure that in putting my thoughts before you I am constantly guided by the fact that nothing can in any way shake the unity and association between our two countries in the great tasks to which we have set our hands. As anxious as I am to be of the greatest help to you in this trying situation, there are limitations, imposed in part by traditional policies of the United States and in part by the mounting adverse reaction of public opinion in this country. No one will understand better than yourself that I, both personally and as Head of State, am necessarily responsive to public feeling. It is for these reasons that it has not been possible for this Government to take a stand along with you in the present course of events in Greece. Even an attempt to do so would bring only temporary value to you, and would in the long run do injury to our basic relationships. I don't need to tell you how much I dislike this state of affairs between you and me. My hope is to see it rectified so that we can go along, in this as in everything, shoulder to shoulder. I know that you, as the one on whom the responsibility rests, desire with all your heart a satisfactory solution to the Greek problem, and particularly one that will bring peace to that ravaged country. I will be with you whole-heartedly in any solution which takes into consideration the factors I have mentioned above.

Belgium: From a secret report of the German Chief of Police in Belgium:

The increasing incitement of the population, by enemy radio and enemy press, to acts of terrorism and sabotage the passive attitude of the population, particularly that of the Belgian administration, the complete failure of the public prosecutors, the examining judges, and of the police to disclose and prevent terrorist acts, have finally led to preventive and repressive measures of the most rigorous kind, that is to say, to the execution of persons closely related to the culprits. Already on 19 October 1941, on the occasion of the murder of two police officials in Tournai, the Military Commander-in-Chief declared through an announcement appearing in the press that all the political prisoners in Belgium would be considered as hostages with immediate effect. In the provinces of the north of France, subject to the jurisdiction of the same Military Commander-in-Chief, this ordinance was already in force as from 26 August 1941. Through repeated notices appearing in the press the civilian population has been informed that political prisoners taken as hostages will be executed if the murders continue to be committed. As a result of the assassination of Teughels, Rexist major of Charleroi, and other attempts at assassination of public officials, the Military Commander-in-Chief has been obliged to order, for the first time in Belgium, the execution of eight terrorists. The date of the execution is 27 November 1942.

1945 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: Eighteenth Day: The prosecution introduces grisly evidence from Buchenwald concentration camp.

1951McCarthyism: John S. Service dismissed from State Department:

Foreign Service Officer John S. Service is dismissed from the Department of State following a determination by the Civil Service Commission's Loyalty Board that there was "reasonable doubt" concerning his loyalty to the United States.

Service was one of a number of so-called "China hands"—State Department officials who were experts on China and the Far East—who saw their careers ruined during the 1950s by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his cohorts. [For further information, click here]

1981 Katyn: Poland's Solidarity erects a memorial to victims of Katyn with the correct date of 1940. The Polish communist government promptly removes the memorial as General Jaruszelski imposes martial law and takes strong steps to stifle Solidarity's unprecedented challenge against Communist rule.

1998 Genocide: The Toronto Sun prints "Ukraine's Unknown Holocaust" by Eric Margolis:

While the world is fully aware of the destruction of Europe's Jews by the Nazis, the story of the numerically larger holocaust in Ukraine has been suppressed, or ignored. Ukraine's genocide occurred 8-9 years before Hitler began the Jewish Holocaust, and was committed, unlike Nazi crimes, before the world's gaze. But Stalin's murder of millions was simply denied, or concealed by a left-wing conspiracy of silence that continues to this day (sic). In the strange moral geometry of mass murder, only Nazis are guilty. Western historians skirt the sordid fact that Britain, the US and Canada were fully aware of the Ukrainian genocide and Stalin's other monstrous crimes. Yet they eagerly welcomed him as an ally during World War II. Stalin, who Roosevelt called Uncle Joe, murdered four times more people than Hitler.

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









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