Free Republic

WEST HOLLYWOOD—What if Adolf Hitler had just been an actor? In another rendition of history, he had all the makings for it. David Bowie, in his oft-forgotten national socialist phase, called Der Fuhrer “one of the first rock stars.” Bowie later said he was on a lot of cocaine. Pop historians would say as much of the high command. But it’s there: Hitler had “the look.” Not starting quarterback stuff (or whatever the non-Amerikaner equivalent), but a true aesthete’s presentation that was straight out of Hollywood. Was he even good-looking? It doesn’t matter, because we could not—still cannot—look away.

Poland estimates its World War II losses caused by Germany at 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.32 trillion), the leader of the country's ruling nationalists said on Thursday, and he said Warsaw would officially demand reparations. Poland's biggest trade partner and a fellow member of the European Union and NATO, Germany has previously said all financial claims linked to World War II have been settled. Poland's new estimate tops the $850 billion estimate by a ruling party lawmaker from 2019. The ruling Law and Justice (PIS) partyu has repeated calls for compensation several times since it took power in 2015, but Poland...

The United States is credited with building a battleship that, to this day, is certified as completely unsinkable. It sported four 14-inch naval rifles in two turrets with impressive arcs of fire, along with a variety of smaller guns in casemates along the sides. Though completely unsinkable, this battleship had one major drawback — it could not move. In fact, it was fixed in place in Manila Bay in the Philippines. It was also made of concrete. The name of this battleship was not New Jersey, or Missouri, or North Carolina. It was Fort Drum. If you visit the Philippines...

Much of what American soldiers fought for in World War II has “gone down the drain,” according to U.S. Marine Carl Spurlin Dekel, who celebrated his 100th birthday last week. Dekel says serving his country in WWII was the most important thing he ever did, according to Fox 13. The veteran and Silver Star holder says he wouldn’t hesitate to put his life on the line again, but regrets that the U.S. has slipped away from what he remembers. “People don’t realize what they have,” Dekel told the outlet. “The things we did and the things we fought for and...

A previously sunken World War II-era landing craft that once was 185 feet below the surface of Lake Mead, is being exposed as waters keep shrinking. The Higgins landing craft is nearly two-thirds exposed. It is beached less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemenway Harbor. The boat was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, then was sold to a marina and eventually used as an anchor for a breakwater in the sediment, according to D.J. Jenner of Las Vegas Scuba, which conducts various tour dives on the lake, previously including the sunken boat. National Park...

The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services within eight categories of combat arms. Units such as artillery, engineering, and heavy weapons engaged the enemy directly. Yet of all categories, the foot soldier faced the greatest hazard with the least chance of reward.These civilians become warriors confronted the most dismal fate of all, and whose duty was uninterrupted by missions completed or a fixed deployment time. The infantryman was enveloped within a most deranged, barbaric, and brittle existence against a resolute enemy where victory often...

Harold Billow, 99, the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, will be laid to rest Thursday in Pennsylvania. Billow, who died May 17, was attached to the Army’s 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when his unit surrendered and he was taken prisoner by Waffen SS soldiers as German forces launched an offensive in Belgium to try to change the war’s tide in December 1944. According to various accounts, the Germans opened fire on the unarmed prisoners in a field, killing more than 80 in what came to be known as...

“Light is everything,” says the sculptor. And, all at once, it is. You see light as if for the first time. Not as some condition of simple illumination, but as the maker of solids, the hand, the hammer and the chisel, the creator. You see it sifting down from the ceiling and sneaking through the glass doors, cascading from the two big windows up front, the long room filled with it in every angle and on every surface, the whole place swelling with daylight pouring through the glass bricks out back. Iron light, straw light, light bright as brass, sun-yellow...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday evil has returned to Ukraine as he gave an emotional address for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates the formal surrender of Germany to the Allies in World War Two. The life that soldiers fought for in that war came to an end on Feb. 24 when Russian forces invaded, he said in a video message.

Germany has filed a case against Italy at the UN's highest court over attempts within Italy to claim compensation for Nazi-era war crimes. In a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Germany says Italy continues to allow cases in its domestic courts despite a 2012 ruling that such claims were inadmissible. It says that, since that ruling, over 25 new cases have been filed in Italy. In some of those, the courts have ruled that Germany should pay compensation. Berlin says it is bringing the complaint now because of two ongoing cases that could see properties in Rome...

Pictures feature in Images of War: The Nazis' winter warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1945, by Ian Baxter They show the plight of German troops unaccustomed and ill-equipped for the fierce weather conditions Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 and ultimately ended with Soviet troops' offensive on Berlin Wrapped up against the bitter cold with looks of grim resignation on their faces as they faced a resolute enemy, German troops are seen battling through the harsh Russian winter during their invasion of the Soviet Union. The rare image, taken in the cold months of 1941, is among hundreds which feature...

Chris Wallace got into a heated exchange with “1619 Project” author and New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, who told him that the generation that fought in World War II “brutally suppressed” black people. Hannah-Jones, who said the US is a country “founded on racism,” got pushback from Wallace in response to her claim that the “Greatest Generation” that fought in World War II “brutally suppressed democracy” by denying African Americans the right to vote in the US. During his CNN+ show, Wallace read aloud a passage from the “1619 Project” — the controversial, Pulitzer Prize-winning series from the New...

Captain James T. Kirk didn't often endure unhappy endings before the first generation of Star Trek movies arrived. He did, however, in “The City on the Edge of Forever” from the series' first season. Often named as the best story in the entire franchise, the April 6, 1967 episode is also star William Shatner’s personal favorite. Dr. McCoy is accidentally injected with a dangerous drug that drives him insane. He evades attempts to capture him, instead beaming down to a planet the crew was scanning since it showed signs of emitting time-changing energy. Kirk, Spock and others follow McCoy down...

The largely forgotten Winter War of 1939-40 When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it seemed apt to compare it to the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, when those states sought to throw off Moscow’s yoke and go their own way. The Soviet army needed barely a week to extinguish the last breaths of the Hungarian resistance, and it took only a day to put down Czechoslovakia’s. But Ukraine is not Hungary, and it is not Czechoslovakia. Five weeks in, the Ukrainians have killed thousands of Russian soldiers, destroyed entire enemy columns, downed planes,...

Dick Schermerhorn said he is feeling pretty good at 100 years old. The World War II veteran's family, including five of his children, 12 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren came together from all over the country for the big day. "It's great. The great part about it is you have a family that's willing to do this for you," said Dick Schermerhorn. Some of his military medals and patches were on full display inside the celebration, even sand from Normandy Beach where he landed during the D-Day invasion sat on a table. He said he went on to join another...

“Appeasement,” “Munich,” and the years of 1938-9 retain immense rhetorical power when invoked by political and media actors in the English-speaking world. In the media landscape, foreign policy pundits often insinuate that to negotiate with rivals is to risk repeating the mistakes of Neville Chamberlain, the pre-World War II British Prime Minister who is said to have “given away” a part of Czechoslovakia in exchange for “peace in our time.” Subsequent events cast the phrase into infamy.

President Joe Biden warned the world Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could invade Ukraine, which would be the largest global invasion since World War II. “This would be the largest, if you were to move in, we’re almost forced to do the largest invasion since World War Two,” Biden said. “And it will change the world.”

Not long after a museum opened on the former Nazi party rally grounds at Nuremberg, locals began turning up in sheepish dribs and drabs with Third Reich memorabilia that had been kept in their families for generations. Over time the collection grew to thousands of books, including numerous copies of Mein Kampf, and hundreds of knick-knacks and relics, ranging from Adolf Hitler action figures to SS dress daggers and a cast-iron eagle with a 10ft wingspan. Now the curators must work out what on earth to do with it all. The Documentation Centre, housed in the north wing of the...

Retired Army Air Forces Col. Charles McGee, who was one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, died at the age of 102, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "Today, we lost an American hero," Austin tweeted Sunday. "Charles McGee, Brigadier General and one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airman, passed at the age of 102. While I am saddened by his loss, I'm also incredibly grateful for his sacrifice, his legacy, and his character. Rest in peace, General." SNIP McGee was one of the Air Force’s most celebrated pilots. He flew 409 fighter combat missions over...

She has played the Queen and a gangster’s moll but her latest casting has sparked controversyNobody is quite what they seem. And actors? Well, for actors that’s the job. Dame Helen Mirren, as well as being herself for 76 years, has by now notably been Lady Macbeth, a London gangster’s moll, a thief’s wife, an alcoholic cop, an action hero, Prospero and also a British monarch at least four times. Now she takes on Golda Meir, the late prime minister of Israel, in a new biopic, and the casting has caused controversy. The choice of a non-Jewish actor to star...