Tag: Oswald Mosley

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“Children of the Damned”

We all have our personal demons. It’s the magnitude of the demons which ultimately determine the hold they have on someone. Most of us can adequately deal with them but for others, some demons are just too great, and their lives are affected each and every day.

Today’s blog introduces you to some of the children of high-ranking Nazis including Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Hans Frank, and Rudolf Hess. Each child or relative dealt with or continues to deal with the infamous legacy of their father in different ways. The spectrum ranges from those who continued to embrace Nazi philosophy, ignore Nazi crimes and the complicity of their father in those crimes to those who essentially disowned and distanced themselves from the father and their family. In-between, there are the children who acknowledge the father’s crimes but cannot bring themselves to completely detach themselves from his evil legacy.

Did You Know?

Did you know that Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens was not the first Tivoli Gardens? Jardin de Tivoli or, Tivoli Gardens was located in Paris in the late 18th– and mid 19th-centuries and there were actually, three different parks by the same name. Located in what is now the 9th arrondissement and south of Place de Clichy, the first Jardin de Tivoli opened in 1795 and is considered the ancestor of amusement parks. It was a public garden where high-society type folks would gather for entertainment such as panoramas, marionettes, and magic lantern shows. It was closed in 1810 after Napoléon’s troops trashed the place. A second Tivoli was quickly reopened, and it lasted until 1825 when it was destroyed one night by people celebrating the coronation of King Charles X. The third and last Tivoli opened in 1826. This one was a “real” amusement park with roller coasters, labyrinths, and fireworks. One of the most popular “games” was pigeon shooting. Unfortunately, more than 300,000 pigeons were killed during an eleven-year period. This park was closed in 1842 and never reopened. One year later, the iconic entrance gates to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark opened, and the park has run continuously since then despite much of it being burned down by the Nazis in 1943.

Main entrance to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by Dilveen (May 2019). PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
Main entrance to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by Dilveen (May 2019). PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
Marketing poster for Jardin de Tivoli, Paris. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Bibliothèque nationale de France. PD-70+. Wikimedia Commons.
Marketing poster for Jardin de Tivoli, Paris. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Bibliothèque nationale de France. PD-70+. Wikimedia Commons.

Edda Göring/Hermann Göring

Second in command behind Hitler for most of the war, Hermann Göring (1893-1946) committed suicide only hours before he was scheduled to hang for war crimes. His only daughter, Edda Göring (1938-2018) was eight years old at the time. Hitler was her godfather and like many daughters of high-ranking Nazi officials, she was referred to as Kleine Prinzessin or, “Little Princess.”

Emmy Göring (left) and Edda Göring (center) meet with Adolf Hitler. Photo by anonymous – presumably by Heinrich Hoffman (c. 1940).
Emmy Göring (left) and Edda Göring (center) meet with Adolf Hitler. Photo by anonymous – presumably by Heinrich Hoffman (c. 1940).

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“British Fascists and a Mitford”

England, France, and the United States were certainly no strangers to Hitler and his Nazi party philosophies during the 1930s. In fact, England and America were home to large fascist organizations while France hosted several influential right-wing fascist groups which would directly influence the Vichy government and its collaboration with Germany.

America saw the founding of the pro-Nazi “Friends of New Germany” (FoNG) in 1933 after Hitler gave his permission for the organization’s formation. The FoNG closely followed the Nazi party’s tactics including propaganda, harassment of Jews, and infiltration of other German American groups. Congress investigated the FoNG and determined it represented a direct subsidiary of the Nazi party. By late 1935, FoNG ceased to exist but was quickly replaced by the German American Bund with Fritz Julius Kuhn as its Bundesführer. The Bund mimicked the real Nazi party with respect to its organizational structure. Training camps were set up around the country and rallies were held with members displaying the Hitler salute. The Bund’s primary attacks were centered on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish organizations, and Communists.

Nearly 1,000 uniformed men of the New Jersey division of the German American Bund march in Camp Nordland. Photo by anonymous (18 July 1937). The Atlantic.
Nearly 1,000 uniformed men of the New Jersey division of the German American Bund march in Camp Nordland. Photo by anonymous (18 July 1937). The Atlantic.

After Bund leaders traveled to Berlin, giving the impression that Hitler was supporting the Bund, Congress passed the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act requiring foreign agents to register with the United States State Department ⏤ an act which remains in place today. After this, Germany purposely tried to distance itself from the Bund. A rally at Madison Square Garden on 29 February 1939 resulted in violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers after the president was referred to as “Frank D. Rosenfeld” and the New Deal was referred to as the “Jew Deal.” Predictably, the Bund was dissolved in 1941. Sadly, it was followed in 1959 by the American Nazi Party, founded by George Lincoln Rockwell, and is known today as the World Union of National Socialists. Read More “British Fascists and a Mitford”