Tag: WWII

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Noah’s Ark

Official stamp of the Réseau Alliance. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Official stamp of the Réseau Alliance. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).

My attention is always drawn to stories about the brave members of the resistance movements who fought the Germans in their respective occupied countries. These men and women were always aware of their potential fatal outcomes if caught but largely ignored it to continue the fight for liberation. I’ve written in the past about some of these fighters including Nancy Wake (read here), the Boulloche sisters (read here), the Sussex Plan (read here), Rose Valland (read here), and the SOE—Special Operations Executive (read here).

Today, I’ll introduce you to the remarkable Hedgehog and the other animals of Noah’s Ark, one of the most successful résistance réseaux (resistance networks) operating in France during the German Occupation.

Did you Know?

Nazi concentration camp prisoners (i.e., those chosen for labor and not sent directly to the gas chambers) received a number tattooed on their arm. The misconception is that all camps tattooed their prisoners. That is not true. Only Auschwitz and two of its sub camps, Birkenau and Monowitz, practiced tattooing the prisoners. Learn more in our next blog, The Auschwitz Tattooist.

 The French Resistance

Most people have the mistaken idea that the French resistance movement was a single organization comprised of men and women with the same motivation: identify and sabotage strategic German targets for the purpose of driving the occupiers out of France. It’s not that simple.

Strasbourg France memorial for the Réseau Alliance agents executed by the Nazis on 23 November 1944. Photo by Rolf Krahl (2014). © Rolf Krahl. PD-Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.
Strasbourg France memorial for the Réseau Alliance agents executed by the Nazis on 23 November 1944. Photo by Rolf Krahl (2014). © Rolf Krahl. PD-Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

The French Resistance movement was largely comprised of hundreds of independent networks, each with its own set of politics, motivations, and specific purposes. These networks were Communist, apolitical, right-leaning, left-leaning, and Christian democratic. Resistance activity began to gain strength after Hitler attacked Soviet positions in eastern Poland on 22 June 1941 in violation of the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Prior to the German attack, French communist resistance activities were not allowed by Moscow.

Eventually, Charles de Gaulle assigned Jean Moulin the task of uniting and organizing the various resistance networks. In May 1943, Moulin created the Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR) under which the primary networks would coordinate their activities with the Free French Forces of the Interior. Read More Noah’s Ark

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What’s in a Last Name?

What’s in a last name? Everything. A last name can have consequences: positive or negative. In Albert’s case, it was both.

I’ll bet 99.9 percent of you didn’t know Hermann Göring had a brother let alone one who was a fervent anti-Nazi credited with saving hundreds of Jews and other Untermensch (sub-humans) during the twelve years of Nazi rule.

Well he did. Unfortunately, his last name has been etched in the infamy of the 1930s and 1940s world events which kept him from receiving the recognition and honors afforded others who took the same type of risks during World War II.

Albert Göring. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Spiegel Online - International.
Albert Göring. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Spiegel Online – International.

Let’s Meet Albert Göring

Albert Göring (1895−1966) was the fifth child of a German bureaucrat (Heinrich) and his second wife (Franziska), a Bavarian peasant. Heinrich was frequently absent and the family lived with the Göring children’s godfather, Dr. Ritter Hermann von Epenstein. He was a wealthy real estate investor and the Göring family would migrate every year between Epenstein’s castle in Mauterndorf (during the summers) and his primary residence, the Veldenstein castle. Dr. Epenstein was Catholic but his heritage was Jewish (his father had converted in order to marry). Read More What’s in a Last Name?