Just to the north-west of Frankfurt, Germany is an area known as Oberursel, Taunus. (It is located in the Taunus Mountains and a short distance to the east is the small town of Falkenstein, Königstein im Taunus where I lived in the 1960s⏤just thought you’d like to know.) During World War II, this was the site of a transit camp for downed Allied airmen where they were interrogated before being sent to a permanent POW camp. Twenty-years before my family moved to the area, the Oberursel camp had become an American army interrogation center and intelligence post. Between 1945 and 1953, Camp King (named after Col. Charles B. King) served primarily as a location for interrogations of captured war belligerents and the post-war process known as “denazification.” Some of the camp’s “guests” were Karl Brandt (the physician responsible for Aktion T4, Hitler’s euthanasia program), Reich Marshal Hermann Göring, Gen. Alfred Jodl, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, and Mildred Sisk Gillars (a.k.a. “Axis Sally”)⏤click here to read Hitler’s Directives, here for Extermination Camp Doctors, and here for Hitler’s Enablers.
Downed Allied airmen at Dulag Luft in Oberursel (later, Camp King). Photo by anonymous (c. pre-1944).Downed Allied airmen leaving Dulag Luft (later, Camp King) for their permanent POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Mildred E. Gillars (née Sisk), aka “Axis Sally” during one of her interrogation sessions at Camp King. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Baatz/AP.
Mugshot of Mildred Gillars (née Sisk), a.k.a. “Axis Sally.” Photo by anonymous (date unknown). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
However, today’s discussion will pick up around July 1946 when a former German general, Reinhard Gehlen, arrived at the intelligence post. It is a story of how the United States spared certain war criminals because of their expertise in areas perceived to be a threat from the Soviet Union. These men (whom the Soviets and the Allies were competing to obtain their services) included scientists, engineers, doctors, and within the context of our story, the intelligence and counter-intelligence world (i.e., spies). Read More Camp King
Do you remember the 1971 fictional story, The Jackal, written by Frederick Forsyth? It was about an assassination attempt on General Charles de Gaulle and based on the actual 1962 unsuccessful attempt on the general’s life. Today’s story takes place less than twenty years earlier during World War II however, this time, the assassination targets were the Allied leaders, commonly known as the “Big Three.”
The Allied “Big Three” at the Tehran Conference: Stalin (left), Roosevelt (center), and Churchill (right). Photo by U.S. Government (c. November 1943). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
Did You Know?
Did you know that twenty-two percent of Millennials surveyed several years ago knew nothing about the Holocaust and an amazing sixty-six percent of them had never heard of Auschwitz? Frankly, I find those statistics to be unbelievable and clearly, it is a sad commentary on our education system. I’m the first one to stand up for teaching more of the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic). However, I cannot comprehend that we ignore teaching our children about the Nazis and the twelve years of their systematic murder of eleven million people. Aren’t there some very important basic and fundamental lessons here to be learned?
We will very shortly reach the time when the last World War II participant dies. This is true of Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp survivors. When these people are gone, who will tell their stories to future generations? Allied troops demanded General Eisenhower tour the liberated Buchenwald Ohrdruf concentration camp (the first camp liberated by the Americans). Eisenhower was so appalled that he ordered photographers to come in and document the atrocities. The general later said that one of the reasons he ordered photographic documentation was to prevent future generations from being able to deny the Nazis’ crimes.
General Dwight Eisenhower (center) and high-ranking officers view the charred remains of prisoners who were burned during the Nazi evacuation of Buchenwald Ohrdruf concentration camp. Photo by Colonel Meches (12 April 1945). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park. PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
When Sandy and I toured the former Nazi rally grounds at Nuremburg, we had the opportunity to visit the nearby museum. There were no attempts to whitewash what the Germans and the Nazis did during the twelve years of the Third Reich. The museum was organized in such a way as to take you through the journey of how and why these events evolved. The museum is considered so important that after a young man or woman enters the German military, they are immediately required by law to take a tour of this museum.
Thirty-years ago, Jack was a client of mine and he was a brilliant businessman who lost some of his family during the Holocaust. One day on the way out to see his new manufacturing facility, we had a discussion about the Holocaust. At some point, I mentioned it was so horrific that it could never happen again. Jack slammed on the brakes and once he pulled the car over to the side of the road, he turned to me and sternly said, “Stew, don’t you ever think something like this couldn’t happen again. It can and it will should the right circumstances and people present themselves. We must study how and why this happened because that is the only way we have any hope of preventing it again.”
The creation of Holocaust museums and memorials were driven primarily by Holocaust survivors. Education programs have relied on first-hand stories from these survivors. When these people are gone, who will step up and ensure no one ever forgets?
Forgive but never forget.
The Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the first of the major meetings involving the “Big Three” (United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union). Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in the Soviet Embassy in Tehran between 28 November and 1 December 1943. Despite different agendas, the primary outcome was agreement that a second front would be established against the Nazis in May 1944. This was a “win” for Stalin who had been pushing for this since the Nazis had invaded the Soviet Union in mid-1941. The second front would divert German troops away from the east. One of the overriding factors of the conference was the security of the three Allied leaders. The night before the meetings began, Stalin’s right-hand man, Vyacheslov Molotov, informed British and American representatives that an assassination plot against the Big Three leaders had been uncovered. A Soviet agent, Nikolai Kuznetzov (1911-1944), working undercover while posing as a Wehrmacht officer had been tipped off by a German officer who had had a little too much to drink. Click here to watch the video The Big Three in Teheran (1943).
“Informative and entertaining, Stew Ross’ newest work evokes a difficult and frightening time in the history of the City of Light. The detailed descriptions of sites such as the Vél’ d’hiv’ or Gestapo headquarters reminds us of the choices people made during those years.”
Cynthia Bisson, PhD, Professor of History, Belmont University, French Resistant Expert
“Another outstanding, well-researched, and presented book by Stew Ross. It gives a detailed guided walking tour full of facts about the activities of the Gestapo during their occupation of Paris during World War II. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in what life was like during the Nazi occupation in France.”
Richard H.F. Neave, President Royal British Legion Paris branch, member Paris-based Libre Résistance SOE “F” Section and author of SOE: A Life in the Shadows
