[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Tunisia, 1942: Situation 22 April and Operations Since 26 February 1943
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943

[Berlin_Freeper]

STuG III found in the mud

[fso301]

Interesting p5 article about the German soldier who took the advice of his father by volunteering for the Africa Corps, volunteering for a front line unit and then taking the first opportunity to surrender. It's interesting because surrendering in combat, or to combat units is always a hazardous proposition.

[RedHeeler]

I am humbly awed. Thank you, Homer_J_Simpson.

[BroJoeK]

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April 14, 1943:

• "The slave-labor camp at Siedlce, Poland, is dissolved.

• "A paper, Program for the Rescue of Jews from Nazi Occupied Europe, is submitted to the Bermuda Conference by the Joint Emergency Committee for European Jewish Affairs; See April 19, 1943.

• "Gerhart Riegner, World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva, suggests that money be deposited in a Swiss account to be paid after the war to enable the 70,000 Romanian Jews previously offered to the Allies to immigrate to Palestine.
  This comes to be known as the Riegner Plan; See May 1943."

"Alfried Krupp was head of the famous German arms manufacturer from the early 1930s to the end of the war.
This photograph shows him being taken into custody by American troops prior to being put on trial at Nuremberg.
Under his oversight, the Krupp works made extensive use of the cruel and cost-effective slave labor provided by the Third Reich's system of concentration camps. He paid the government for his workers, who received no wages.
Thousands died in the appalling conditions that characterized his factories."

"These mountains of shoes were once the property of victims gassed at Auschwitz.
The Nazis made a considerable effort to exploit their victims economically, and this included seizing any property that could be used in the war effort. At Auschwitz, confiscated property was kept in Effektenkammern (storerooms of movables).
The inmates called the area "Canada" because of the sheer amount of loot stored there, which they associated with the riches of Canada."

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[Chad N. Freud]

The front page is rich in unintentional (if retrospective) irony.

Left column: “organized labor began its offensive to . . .adjust wages upward to correct ‘gross inequities’ and to eliminate ‘inequalities’ . . . “ (Sound familiiar?)

Below that, an article about the government stepping in to fine 15 department stores for boycotting the New York Times. (Can’t allow free-market freedom of choice — government knows better.)

In the far left column (more irony) is Roosevelt, hypocritically declaring “No king, no tyrant, no dictator can govern for [men] as wisely as they can govern for themselves.” (Apparently he doesn’t read the New York Times, either.)

And, in the right-hand column, a subheading of two words: “Noose Tightening.” Indeed it was.