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Hitler's Forgotten Library: The Man, His Books, and His Search for God You can tell a lot about a person from what he reads. The surviving—and largely ignored—remnants of Adolf Hitler's personal library reveal a deep but erratic interest in religion and theology by Timothy W. Ryback ..... 'D id you know that today is Hitler's birthday?" the attendant said as he handed me Adolf Hitler's personal copy of Mein Kampf, a tattered red-leather volume (a special second edition issued in 1926) with the title and author's name embossed in gold on the spine. The young man, clean-cut and dressed...

By Peter Roper The Pueblo Chieftain Published: January 28, 2016; Last modified: January 28, 2016 11:01PM Elmer Melchi survived parachuting into Normandy on D-Day and he survived jumping into Holland in Operation Market Garden -- although a German soldier shot him when the young 82nd Airborne paratrooper tried to escape from a POW camp. But death finally caught up with the tough 92-year-old veteran Thursday afternoon, taking him in his sleep at the Sangre de Cristo Hospice here. It was expected. Melchi had cancer and knew he was dying. "My dad went for his last jump," said a tearful...

Profiles the seminal events that helped Hitler rise to power and consolidate his position, including the end of World War I, the Beer Hall Putsch, the Burning of the Reichstag, and the Night of the Long Knives "I cannot remember in my entire life such a change in the attitude of a crowd in a few minutes, almost a few seconds ... Hitler had turned them inside out, as one turns a glove inside out, with a few sentences. It had almost something of hocus-pocus, or magic about it." - Dr. Karl Alexander von Mueller It is often claimed that...

'Our freedom was threatened by a madman. Somebody had to stand up and why not me?' A Second World War veteran, who now calls Oakville home, is receiving the Legion of Honour for his part in liberating France and the rest of Western Europe from the Nazis. Edward (Ted) James Kersey, 92, joined the Canadian Army in 1943 at the age of 19 and served as a dispatch motorcycle rider with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corp. During fierce fighting in France, Belgium and Holland Kersey relayed vital messages from the front lines to various military headquarters in the rear thereby...

Hal Baumgarten was a 19 year old private on D-Day. Jewish and originally from NYC, Baumgarten was in Company B of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th. He landed in the 2nd wave on Omaha Beach in one of the most heavily defended parts of Omaha, the Dog Green sector below the village of Vierville-sur-Mer (as depicted in the movie Saving Private Ryan). Hal was wounded 3 times on D-Day and twice more on June 7th. He had 23 surgeries after June 6, 1944, to repair wounds suffered on the Normandy coast of France. Hal has written several books...

Harriet Cohen plays "Cornish Rhapsody," which is associated with the 1940s film Love Story. The theme from "Cornish Rhapsody" is the film's musical theme. Composer is Hubert Bath. Hubert Bath himself conducts the rhapsody on the record, but Sidney Beer conducts on the film soundtrack.

"Warsaw Concerto" was composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight. It is played by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson. It seems the film studio wanted a famous Rachmaninoff piece, but that was too costly--the next best thing is to pay a composer to write in the manner of Rachmaninoff (with some Grieg, too). Louis Kentner is at the piano. Louis Kentner is not named on the disc label nor on the original matrix cards, probably because as a "serious" performer he did not wish at that time to be associated with a film. If this was the...

Did you know that the Millennium Falcon's cockpit was inspired by the WWII B-29 Superfortress bomber? Did you know that the Star Wars saga most famous spacecraft featured a cockpit clearly inspired to a World War II heavy bomber? Well, the iconic greenhouse-style window of the Millennium Falcon was designed with the style of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a strategic bomber flying 30 years before Han Solo and Chewbacca first appeared driving the iconic spacecraft into the hyperspace, in mind.

During WWII a young boy and his mother living in an isolated cabin take in soldiers from the U.S. and Germany on Christmas Eve. The war was nearly over and Fritz's mother insisted that the men come together for the meal.

Charlie McCarthy Show Titled The Night Before Christmas. Original Air Date Was 12/24/1944. This is the "Armed Forces Radio Service" version of the program, minus the original Chase & Sanborn opening, closing and commercials...

A class project where our group took first hand accounts of the men at Bastogne and the Battle of Bulge. Thank you to the service men for their sacrifices and efforts.

AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CLASSICS was inspired by those who nobly served in our country's military services, especially the veterans of World War II.

Travel back to the 1940s and taste the bittersweet experience of wartime Christmas--at the front and on the American home front.

Tried by Fire - Winter battles by 84th Infantry Division in Battle of the Bulge, crossing of the Roer and Rhine, and the desperate race to the Elbe. The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 -- 25 January 1945) was the German offensive campaign launched through the Ardennes forested region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces bore the brunt of...

World War II Battle of Bastogne Belgium, part of the larger Ardennes Offensive or Battle of the Bulge. Encircled by the German Army the 101st Airborne Division fights to survive in the frigid cold winter weather. C-47 transport planes drop supplies by parachute to the encircled 101st Airborne Division. American troops gather the supplies. Scene of a crashed C-47 on snow covered field. Snow covered tanks. Soldiers in snow covered foxholes and trenches. Tanks on snow covered field firing. Close-up of soldier in foxhole using a field radio. U.S. soldiers firing rifles and machine gun from foxholes. Captured German soldiers...

This two part 1965 film begins with the background of events on Hitler's Ardennes offensive December 1944, with focus on 19 December attack on St. Vith and marking the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. The second part continues with the Battle of the Bulge along with highlights of the U.S. Army's 84th Infantry Division fighting the German Army in World War II, including the penetration of the Siegfried Line in November 1944 and the move into Belgium in December 1944. The film is narrated by actor, Robert Taylor. The Big Picture two episodes produced by the U.S. Army...

By December 23rd holding the line around Bastogne was less of an issue compared to the crisis of dwindling supplies. Not only were troops short on food and medical supplies but ammunition was frighteningly low. Rounds were rationed and soldiers were ordered not to fire unless attacked directly and even then to only fire two rounds. Colonel Thomas L. Sherburn, the artillery commander, was intentionally reporting overestimates of supply levels simply to maintain morale.

A two hour flight later I was in my beloved South, assaulted by humidity and cold. A heavy and constant rain made it difficult to drive my rented Corolla. I expected humidity and hot and I was shivering in my light clothes. The roads were deserted compared to the heavy constant traffic in D.C. Once in a while a solitary car would pass going in the opposite direction. I had the excellent road all to myself. The dense vegetation and trees displayed lovely shades of green. Hanging lavender wisteria formed nature’s intricate draperies. White, pink, and fuchsia azaleas were in...

December 15, 1944. All is mostly quiet along the western front in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It's cold, and the nights are dark. So dark that GI Joe, sitting and waiting, can't see his hand in front of his face. Four divisions of the US army are parked at a 75-mile front along the western frontier of Germany. The American commanders believe that the German Wehrmacht is finished and not capable of offensive operations. They either haven't been talking to some of the GI Joes in the front lines, or they aren't taking GI Joe seriously. He has been hearing...

In a recent article titled “Why Hitler Wished He Was Muslim,” the Wall Street Journal draws our attention to two books that reflect the historical Nazi-Islamic supremacist axis. Given the goings-on in Europe, we thought these to be poignant titles adding necessary context to a continent that appears to be a potential powder-keg. Of Stefan Ihrig’s ”Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination,” the Journal writes: Through the 1920s and 1930s, Nazi publications lauded Turkey as a friend and forerunner. In 1922, for example, the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s weekly paper, praised Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the “Father of the Turks,” as...