The Nazis

Hitler’s Military Options in 1940 (Click Magazine, 1940)

A Phony War magazine article by Major General George Ared White (1880 – 1941) in which he muses wistfully (as Oregon men are wont to do) as to all the various, dreadful choices that were spread before Herr Hitler in the early months of 1940.


As varied as Hitler’s military options were, the General believed that France’s Maginot Line was impregnable and he did not think that Hitler would commit to such an undertaking. General White believed Hitler had six options before him which are all illustrated on the attached cartoon map.

Hitler’s Military Options in 1940 (Click Magazine, 1940) Read More »

Hitler’s Final Days (Pageant Magazine, 1960)

This article pieces together the last few days of Hitler’s bunker experiences – who was there, how did he pass his time and the subjects he addressed. All the matters discussed herein was gleaned from the intelligence agencies of the three victorious armies that marched into Berlin during the Spring of 1945. The author goes into some detail as to whether he and his entourage could have escaped on foot plane or tank and rules each one out categorically. He further examines the possibility as to how this same group could have escaped to Argentina by submarine or air – and rules these possibilities out as well (the author, however, omits the possibility that they could have escaped through the elaborate tunnel system below the streets of Berlin).

Hitler’s Final Days (Pageant Magazine, 1960) Read More »

‘The Strange Death of Heinrich Himmler” (Coronet Magazine, 1947)

Here is an eyewitness account of the suicide of Heinrich Himmler as told by Major John C. Schwarzwalder, a former member of the intelligence division of the U.S. Army Services Forces:

…At the end of the search an army doctor told Himmler to open his mouth. The prisoner did so, but Himmler bit down. The doctor withdrew his finger hastily. Himmler then ground his teeth together and swallowed hard. Some say he smiled grimly. In another second he was on the floor writhing in agony…

‘The Strange Death of Heinrich Himmler” (Coronet Magazine, 1947) Read More »

Protestant Churches Forced into Submission (Literary Digest, 1933)

Hitler wasted little time in securing control over the Christian churches in Germany: within six months of taking power he began to put the screws to the Protestant churches. This article devotes much column space to the pastors who had no problem with any of Hitler’s commands.

The issue, then, is broader than the Reich. Jews, Protestants and Catholics the world over have seen another scrap of paper torn up in Hitler’s repudiation of his pledge on taking office that the Nazi regime would respect the freedom and legal rights of German churches… Hitler modified an order requiring all Protestant pastors on a recent Sunday to display Nazi banners from their church spires…. The Nazis have also suppressed the German branch of International Bible Students’ Society, outlawed the Boy Scouts, and, to make their program more effective – given a Nazi cast to the Lord’s Prayer.

Protestant Churches Forced into Submission (Literary Digest, 1933) Read More »

Buchenwald (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Howard Katzander of YANK filed this short dispatch regarding all that he witnessed following the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimer, Germany:

The camp is a thing that has to be seen to be believed, and even then the charred skulls and pelvic bones in the furnaces seem too enormous a crime to be accepted fully. It can’t mean that they actually put human beings –some of them alive –into these furnaces and destroyed them like this.

Buchenwald (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »