The spires of the cathedral of Cologne, Germany, stand on April 24, 1945, amid ruins of buildings bombed during World War II.
Posted on 04/24/2015 4:17:19 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
The spires of the cathedral of Cologne, Germany, stand on April 24, 1945, amid ruins of buildings bombed during World War II.
By the time it was apparent Stalin was going to reneg, the war was won. Truman did cut off the Lend-Lease, I think as early as this summer. It didn’t matter.
Interesting news from Argentina on page 11. Peron insists he has no presidential ambitions ...
Have to give him some credit ... he didn’t assume the presidency until June of ‘46.
http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/04/24/1945-a-day-in-the-death-penalty-around-the-reich/
April 24, 1945
Lehrter Street Prison, Berlin. Bavarian Social Democratic politician and trade union activist Ernst Schneppenhorst — who spent most of the war years under detention — was executed by the SS.
Moritz Police Barracks, Berlin. While most petty criminals being held by the police were released as the war’s conclusion drew near, an exception was made for four gay policemen.
Otto Jordan, Reinhard Höpfner, Willi Jenoch and a man named Bautz were, instead, summarily shot at Berlin’s Moritz police barracks. In 2011, a memorial plaque honoring the four was installed near the place of their execution.
Regensburg. The pastor of Regensburg Cathedral, Dr. Johann Maier, was hanged here for participating in the previous day’s public demonstration begging the Nazi government to surrender to approaching American forces in order to minimize destruction.
When the government responded by turning water cannons on the crowd, Maier began to protest:
“We have not come here to make a disturbance; we Christians do not register any indignation against divinely ordained authority. We have come simply with a request: we ask that the city be surrendered for the following reasons … “
Rather than let him enumerate his reasons, the divinely ordained authority seized him on the spot and hauled him away for a summary trial that night, followed by a hanging and gibbeting the following morning. A pensioner who protested Maier’s arrest was hanged alongside him, while a policeman who argued the point at the foot of the gallows was promptly shot there and demonstratively laid out to make the group a trio.
When the Americans entered Regensburg on April 27, Maier’s corpse was still strung up in the town marketplace, bearing a placard denouncing him as a “saboteur.”
Today, however, the memorial plaque for him in the cathedral salutes him for “giving his life for the preservation of Regensburg.”
Somewhere in Southern Germany. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a story on this date attributed to no exact date or locale reporting on the recent, routine execution by the U.S. army of a German civilian believed to be a spy.
It seemed like an innocent enough offer at the time. A friendly German civilian approached soldiers from the U.S. 7th Army, offering to help set up a civilian government. But he broke down after being questioned, admitting he was a spy bent on sabotage. The spy was executed, but that wasn’t the end of trouble for the advancing U.S. army, says CBC correspondent Sam Ross, reporting on developments for the U.S. troops.
Remaining pockets of German soldiers are now attempting to ambush the Americans. Nevertheless, the U.S. 7th has managed to take some prisoners from the German People’s Army, the Nazis’ last-ditch militia composed of very young and very old men. And there are other people to contend with on the roads behind Allied lines; German civilians are returning home after fleeing from war, and displaced persons freed from forced-labour camps are heading home on foot to Russia, Belgium, Poland and France.
"They Took the Other Road" - Organized Resistance in Austria
The significance of the resistance group operating between 1942 and 1944 around Chaplain Dr. Heinrich Maier (1908-1945) and Semperit Director General Franz Josef Messner (1896-1945) was chiefly in its contacts to the American military secret service. Thanks to information provided about the locations of industrial companies, the latter could be bombarded by the Allies with precision and the destruction of residential areas could be, at least partially, avoided. The group was uncovered by a traitor between February and April 1944. Eight leading members were sentenced to death for "preparation toward high treason" on October 28, 1944 and later on executed or murdered.
Franz Josef Messner (1896-1945) was sentenced to death on October 28, 1944 and murdered in the gas chamber at the Mauthausen concentration camp on April 23, 1945. (Photo DÖW)
"On April 23, 1945 at 3 p.m., Commander SS Standard Leader Franz Ziereis personally came to the bunker and ordered me to take forty prisoners, among them Dr. Franz Messner, to the gas cellar. While leaving his cell, Messner still wanted to tell me something, but the Commander's presence prevented that. None of the prisoners were beaten. The Commander himself had the gas flow in. The gassing worked since already five minutes later, I had to open the doors and switch on the ventilators. That same night of April 23 to 24, 1945, the corpses of the gassed individuals were incinerated in the crematory of the Mauthausen concentration camp."
- The Tyrolian Ernst Martin, at the time a Mauthausen prisoner, on Messner's murder
Very true, never trust a communist, whether his name is stalin, obama or clinton
German loot stored in a church. Since their God was money and power, where else would they keep it?
It looks like the units he was to assemble are just north of Berlin, but considering only the Russian forces on the map they would obviously have no chance of advancing.
There was a gap in the maps for the days April 20-24. The ephemeral “Army Group Steiner” may have come and gone on the maps during those days.
I too am disappointed in the absence. It was an episode immortalized by the movie “Downfall.” I really wanted to see the map over which Hitler had his rant, whether it was about Steiner, having his X-Box live account suspended, the Cubs failure to make the world series, or Indiana University Basketball losing Cody Zeller to the NBA.
Definitely fitting.
Have you seen any of my recent FRmails to you?
I did.
That didn’t take long. Expected of course.
unbelievable
LOL!
You’ve got FReepmail.
Sorry—I don’t get your point, and I don’t care to assume. Kindly explain, please.
~ Journalists, accompanied by American military police, conduct an inspection tour of the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.
Date:Wednesday, April 25, 1945
Locale:Buchenwald, [Thuringia] Germany
Credit:National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Copyright:Public Domain
[Photograph #23646] USHMM Photo Archives
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