Tag: RSHA

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Hitler’s Blueprint

In his absorbing book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer made sure to point out on numerous occasions how Hitler’s 1925 book, Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle” (it was really more of a “manifesto”) laid out the agenda the future Führer would pursue once in power. Hitler’s book was first published seven years after Germany signed the armistice ending the conflict of World War I and subsequently, the Treaty of Versailles acknowledging their responsibility. (There were two volumes of Mein Kampf published; 1925 and 1926 for a total of 720 pages.)

CBS war correspondent, William L. Shirer, in Compiègne reporting on the signing of the armistice between Germany and France on 22 June 1940. The building in the background housed Marshal Foch’s rail car where the World War I armistice was signed on 11 November 1918. It was relocated to the Compiègne forest by Hitler for the signing of the June 1940 armistice. Photo by Kreigsberichter Jager Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (22 June 1940). PD-Author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.
CBS war correspondent, William L. Shirer (center at typewriter) in Compiègne, France,  reporting on the signing of the armistice between France and Germany. The building in the background housed the rail car used by Marshal Foch on 11 November 1918 to sign the German armistice after the end of World War I. Photo by Kreigsberichter Jager Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (22 June 1940). PD-Author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. Wikimedia Commons.

The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to disarm, give up thirteen percent of its European territory, lose all its colonial possessions, and subjected the country to onerous financial reparations. Germans, including Hitler, were humiliated and at the same time, outraged. The Weimar Republic came into existence in 1919 and things went downhill from there. The book was written during a time when Germany was suffering from hyperinflation, political extremism, quarrelsome relations with its European neighbors, and within five years, a severe depression. It was a period when people began looking for a scapegoat for their problems and Hitler found a group of people who, for millennia, were forced to play this role: the Jews.

Did You Know?

Did you know there was one thing that Hitler and the Nazis feared more than Jews, Communists, or homosexuals? It was cancer. Well, the 1931 Nobel Prize winner for medicine was a German who was Jewish and openly gay. Otto Warburg (1883−1970), a biochemist, was nominated for a Nobel award forty-seven times during his career. He is remembered for his work on how cells metabolize food and sugar. He discovered that cancer cells eat up more glucose than other cells. Warburg believed the cause of cancer was faulty cell metabolism. As time went on, his theories were proven wrong, and Warburg announced his critics were idiots. The scientist was extremely vain and filled with self-conceit. When another scientist was asked to rank Warburg’s arrogance from one to ten, he took a moment and answered, “Twenty.” Read More Hitler’s Blueprint

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Camp King

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 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).
Downed Allied airmen leaving Dulag Luft (later, Camp King) for their permanent POW camp, Stalag Luft III. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).

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