Posted on 09/21/2009 5:02:53 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
A key to the map symbols is on my profile.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
interesting. the domestic issues that are being rolled along with neutrality have an amazingly familiar ring.
Thrilling article about the raging artillery duel on the western front. /s
As to Shirer’s claim that Heydrich was telling the Army in 1939 about the “Final Solution”, that's a crock.
I certainly don't intend to present bogus info as fact. My impression is that Shirer is generally reliable since he is supposedly working from legitimate sources. For today's excerpt he cites the following: NCA, VI, pp. 97-101 (Nuremberg Document 3363-PS), where NCA = Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (Part of the Nuremberg documents). This may be available online but I don't have time to run it down right now.
The Nazis didn't have a ‘final solution’ policy in 1939. It wasn't even clear if the SS would be in charge of the ‘Jewish Question’. Heydrich wasn't given written authority for the Final Solution until July, 1941 [from Goering]. Prior to that, you had the Madagascar Plan, and a whole bunch of other ideas floating around the SD
The murdering of Jews in Poland was done on an ad hoc basis. The Einsatzkommandos primarily targeted the Polish intelligentsia, priests, politicians, etc.,capable of leading resistance to the German occupation. The Jewish population was more likely to be killed by Waffen SS and Army troops, either as individuals, or as small units, than to be killed by Einsatzkommandos carrying out a plan.
If you want to read up on the development and practice of German Jewish policy, send me an e-mail, and I'll forward you a list of books [too long for this post].
And my apologies, if you thought I was questioning your work on this thread. It's magnificent. The only person I am questioning is Shirer.
My understanding is that Final Solution was not even a concept until the Wansee Conference in 1942.
Just what I thought when I was transcribing the passage for posting. So though, as I stated, it is not my intent to post bogus information as fact I did knowingly post something that made my eyebrows go up. That is to say, questionable information. The great thing about these threads is their self-correcting nature. The ping list represents an astounding amount of accumulated knowledge about the war and the era.
ON THIS DAY: Sept. 21, 1939
In Bucharest...
The Romanian Prime Minister, Armand Calinescu, is murdered by members of the Iron Guard, a fascist organization. Calinescu had brutally repressed and killed members of the pro-Nationalist Fascist, Anti-Communist group the year before.
Assassins blocked the path of his car with a wooden cart and fired pistol shots into him and his bodyguards. The assailants then forcibly enter a radio station and broadcast that “the death sentence on Calinescu has been executed.”
They are later overpowered and shot to death at the location of their murder of the prime minister. A large crowd is present. Their bodies are left to lie there for the next 24 hours. A placard was set up on the spot, reading “De acum inainte, aceasta va fi soarta tradatorilor de tara”, (From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country).
Students from several Bucharest high schools were required to visit the site (based on the belief that this was going to dissuade them from affiliating with the Guard)
The assassination is in apparent retaliation for the tolerant, even sympathetic, attitude of the Romanian government toward Poland, exemplified by the acceptance of Polish military and civilian refugees.
A harsh repression of the Iron Guard followed under the provisional leadership of Gheorghe Argesanu
Executions of known Iron Guard activists were ordered in various places in the country (some were hanged on telegraph poles, while a group of was shot in front of Ion G. Duca’s statue in Ploiesti) In all, 253 were killed without trial.
Calinescu was succeeded by Marinescu as Minister of the Interior and by Ioan Ilcus as Minister of Defense.
Two years later, under the National Legionary State (the Iron Guard’s government), Marinescu and Argesanu, alongside other politicians, were executed in Jilava (September 1940). It was also at that time that the Calinescu family crypt in Curtea de Arges was dynamited, while a bronze bust of him which awaited unveiling was chained and dragged through the streets of Pitesti.
Calinescu’s wife Adela was required to hand all of her husband’s personal documents, and, in a letter to Conducator Ion Antonescu, claimed to have been repeatedly harassed by agents of Siguranta Statului.
In Poland... German forces intensify the artillery bombardment of key points in Warsaw.
In Occupied Poland... Nazi occupation authorities initiate “The Heydrich Plan” which involves the deportation of 600,000 Jews from Danzig and western Poland to central Poland to be concentrated in urban ghettoes.
In Luxemburg... Radio Luxemburg closes down.
In London... The British government publishes its Blue Book of prewar diplomatic documents.
In Washington... President Roosevelt addresses a special joint session of Congress and urges the repeal of the Neutrality Act provisions embargoing arms sales to belligerent countries. “Our acts must be guided by one single hard-headed thought — keeping America out of this war,” the president said. Allowing arms to be sold on a cash-and-carry basis would be “better calculated than any other means to keep us out of war.”
In the United States... Newspapers allege that senior Nazis, including Goebbels and Hess, have foreign investments worth over $12 million.
UBOAT Command War Diary-21 Sept. 1939:
The long awaited report from U 30 was received. The boat put into Reykjavik on the 19th and is at present SE of Iceland. It is now essential to get news of U 39. In radio message 0837 she was ordered for the first time to report her position.
Naval War Staff has sent a T/P to F.O. U/B, ordering that all attacks on French ships are to be avoided at all costs. This means that U-boats cannot operate in the Channel against troop transports. This operation (U 35 see also F.O. U/B West’s War Log) was arranged because of Naval War Staff’s orders that convoys could be attacked North of the Latitude of Brest even if the escort consisted of French Forces.
It can be taken as certain that these transports sail at night; and at night the U-boat must be able to assume that a darkened ship is an enemy ship, even if in convoy. It is often impossible to establish the nationality of ships in convoy even by day and when flags are not being misused, but at night it is quite out of the question.
I therefore informed Naval War Staff that, if this order is to stand, I cannot let the boats operate in the Channel.
At first Naval War Staff would not make a final decision as to conduct towards France, but later Captain Fricke informed me by telephone, that today’s order was cancelled and that things stood as before, i.e. French ships could be sunk without warning if they were proceeding in convoy North of the latitude of Brest.
Avalon Project Telegram from Yesterday:
Telegram
STRICTLY SECRET
Moscow, September 20, 1939-2:23 a. m.
Received September 20, 1939-4:55 a. m.
No. 395 of September 19
Molotov stated to me today that the Soviet Government now considered the time ripe for it, jointly with the German Government, to establish definitively the structure of the Polish area.
In this regard, Molotov hinted that the original inclination entertained by the Soviet Government and Stalin personally to permit the existence of a residual Poland had given way to the inclination to partition Poland along the Pissa-Narew-Vistula-San Line. The Soviet Government wishes to commence negotiations on this matter at once, and to conduct them in Moscow, since such negotiations must be conducted on the Soviet side by persons in the highest positions of authority, who cannot leave the Soviet Union.
Request telegraphic instructions.
SCHULENBURG
In Heydrich’s meeting it was declared that ‘The Leadership” had an “Ultimate Aim”(Quote) for the Jewish Question, and that they were to be concentrated, but there was no mention of a “Final Solution” at this time.
International Diplomatic Corps leaves Warsaw on 21 September, when it was arranged for personnel of the neutral embassies, consulates, and missions to leave the city through the Third Army lines.
From HyperWar:
On 21 September, German ground forces were ordered by OKH to draw back along a series of phase lines, each located progressively farther to the west.
Where possible, an interval of 15 miles was to be maintained between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, but unit commanders were authorized to deal with the Russians should they overtake German troops on the move. The wounded were to be left behind with medical personnel for later evacuation. Captured matériel was to be evacuated by the Germans where practicable, otherwise it would be left behind for the Russians. German matériel that could not be evacuated was to be left under guard and removed later. Particular care was to be taken to destroy disabled Mark IV tanks that could not be salvaged.
Negotiations with the Red Army during the evacuation were often to prove exasperating to German commanders. Despite the offers of the Soviet Government and Red Army commanders to give armed support to German units still engaged with the remnants of the Polish Army, the Russians procrastinated about active assistance in most cases until the Germans no longer needed it.
The problem of identification was also to plague German commanders. The Red Army and Polish Army uniforms were somewhat similar, and German units not infrequently mistook one for the other.
The civilian population that had fled eastward at the approach of the Germans was also to become a problem during the evacuation of eastern Poland. Fearful of the Russians, the mass of refugees that had fled into eastern Poland before the Germans turned about and moved westward again, clogging the already inadequate road system and blocking military traffic.
Wouk's "Winds of War" contains a good fictitious account of this event.
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