Tag: Schutzstaffel

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The Dalai Lama and the Nazis

“So, we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, ‘Hey, Dalai Lama, hey how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So, I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.

                                                            ⏤Carl Spackler

                                                         Caddyshack

Bill Murray as Carl Spackler in the movie, “Caddyshack.” Film still from “Caddyshack.” Douglas Kenney, producer⏤Orion Pictures, 1980.
Bill Murray as Carl Spackler in the movie, “Caddyshack.” Film still from “Caddyshack.” Douglas Kenney, producer⏤Orion Pictures, 1980.

Click here to watch Bill Murray.

Did You Know?

Did you know that several home builders recently found 239 gold coins while renovating a 13th-century manor located in Brittany, France? They found a metal box hidden inside the wall of a barn. The box contained gold coins and several days later, above a ceiling beam, a purse was found with more coins.

The coins were minted during the reigns of King Louis XIII and his son, Louis XIV. The oldest coin dates to 1638 while the most recent is 1692. The occupants of the manor would likely have been successful merchants or farmers. (The earliest known occupants can only be traced to the 18th-century.) The collection includes some very rare coins including the Golden Louis with Templar Cross, Golden Louis with a long curl, and Louis XIV by the Atelier de Dijon. (About one hundred years later, it would have been Louis XVI without a head⏤ha ha, I couldn’t pass up that one.)

The estimated value of the collection has yet to be established but it is thought to be around US$356,000. The owner of the manor and the contractors will split the proceeds from a future auction.

Schutzstaffel (SS) Race and Settlement Main Office

The SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA) was the Nazi organization responsible for “safeguarding the racial purity of the SS.” One of its duties was to oversee the marriages of SS personnel (i.e., ensuring the SS man’s fiancée and her parents could trace their Aryan lineage back to 1800) as well as screening all SS applicants for racial purity. It also controlled the settlement of discharged SS men into the occupied eastern European countries. The RuSHA established and operated the Lebensborn network of maternity homes. Another task was to conduct “racial-biological” investigations. Read More The Dalai Lama and the Nazis

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OB West

I thought perhaps you might like to read about a site I’ve decided to include in the first volume of our new book series, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi-Occupied Paris. For those of you who have read one or more of my prior books, you know that four walks are included along with a section called “Métro Walks.” Each of the four walks has multiple stops and you can walk from one stop to the next without having to jump on the métro. However, there are sites that are interesting, but I couldn’t fit them into any of the walks or they are stand-alone stops accessible by means other than the métro. Typically, I include four of these sites in each book. For example, in volume two of the book, Where Did They Burn the Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar? A Walking Tour of Medieval Paris, one of the Métro Walk stops is Château-Gaillard. This is the castle built by King Richard the Lionheart after he was released from captivity in 1194 by Leopold V, Duke of Austria. It has a very interesting history and the castle’s ruins are situated on a hill overlooking the Seine River and easily accessible by car.

Today’s subject is in the town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a suburb of Paris about seventeen miles (twenty kilometers) to the west. It also sits on a hill overlooking the Seine. Its strategic location was one of the reasons why Hitler chose Saint-Germain-en-Laye as headquarters for the Oberbefehlshaber West (Ob West), or German Commander-in-Chief in the West. It is a somewhat compact town and perfect for walking to the numerous bunkers built by the Germans as well as their command headquarters. It is also a town with quite a bit of French history.

Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Château Neuf, 1637. The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye can be seen in the background. The Pavilion Henri IV is the pavilion on the right. Illustration by Auguste Alexandre Guillaumot (c. 1800s). Bibliothèque nationale de France. PD-GallicaScan. Wikimedia Commons.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Château Neuf, 1637. The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye can be seen in the background. The Pavilion Henri IV is the pavilion on the right. Illustration by Auguste Alexandre Guillaumot (c. 1800s). Bibliothèque nationale de France. PD-GallicaScan. Wikimedia Commons.

Read More OB West