Ludwig van Beethoven - Overture Op. 72c “Fidelio”

Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Performance: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Year of recording: 1985

 

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 658, 14 April 1943

1. New Guinea and Australia.

 

Japanese naval units are advancing toward the coast of New Guinea.

 

– American bombing of Japanese ships.

 

– Japanese troops land in New Guinea.

 

– Japanese troops advance through the jungle.

 

– Capture of a British airfield destroyed by the Japanese air force.

 

– Japanese planes take off to bomb the port of Darwin, an important British stronghold in Australia.

 

– Pilots in the cockpit.

 

– A view from the plane of the northern coast of Australia, looking toward the port of Darwin.

 

– Bombs are falling on the port.

 

2. The Eastern Front.

 

The central sector.

 

– A thaw on the front; streams are flowing.

 

– Spring mud.

 

– Vehicles are driving along a flooded road.

 

– Soldiers advance along laid planks; their boots sink into the mud.

 

– Soldiers help motorcyclists pull their vehicle out.

 

– Laying plank roads on strategic routes.

 

At positions between Lake Ladoga and Lake Ilmen.

 

– On Lake Ladoga.

 

– Soldiers are scooping water out of the trenches, using a pump, and carrying water out of the dugouts in buckets.

 

– Cleaning weapons, artillery pieces, and helmets; washing tanks.

 

– Inspection of personal weapons.

 

– A soldier washes his hair by pouring water from a mess kit over his head, while another shaves his comrade.

 

– A soldier stands near a willow tree with swollen buds and breaks off a twig.

 

– Artillery opens fire on Soviet positions.

 

– Damaged Soviet tanks stand after the battle.

 

– The bodies of Soviet soldiers.

 

– Terrain ravaged by battle.

 

– Disabled Soviet tanks.

 

– The famous tank killer, First Lieutenant Nigeman (wearing glasses), recipient of the Knight’s Cross.

 

– Commander of the 2nd Army, General of the Infantry Walter Weiss, greets soldiers who distinguished themselves in destroying tanks; he shakes Nigemann’s hand.

 

3. Northern Finland and Karelia.

 

The Lapland Front.

 

– Soldiers with Haflinger horses.

 

– Small and hardy, they are well-adapted to the conditions of this land and find their way even on narrow trails.

 

– They arrive at a German military base carrying their loads.

 

– Weapons, ammunition, and mail are unloaded every six days.

 

– The horses rest.

 

– A Karelian forest in winter; a reindeer moves among the trees.

 

– Scouts in camouflage gear set out on a combat mission.

 

– They must destroy a recently established Soviet base.

 

– They march through the snow.

 

– The gun is set up; the barrage begins.

 

– A grenade launcher fires.

 

– Infantrymen launch an attack and capture the enemy base.

 

– Soldiers march along a trench and enter a dugout.

 

– A captured gun; the bodies of Soviet soldiers lie in the snow.

 

– A wounded soldier is placed on a sled and pulled by ropes.

 

– A dog sled pulls the sled carrying the wounded soldier.

 

4. Norway.

 

One of the fjords.

 

– Wounded soldiers are loaded onto a hospital ship.

 

– The ship at sea.

 

– Disembarkation at a German port.

 

– A medical train en route; further transport of the wounded across Germany.

 

5. Austria.

 

Mussolini’s visit to the Führer, April 7–10, 1943. The train arrives; Hitler waits on the platform.

 

– Mussolini steps out of the train car.

 

– Meeting between the Führer and the Duce at Kessheim Palace near Salzburg.

 

– Ribbentrop and Keitel greet Mussolini.

 

– Colonel General Kurt Zeitzler, Chief of the General Staff, reports on the situation at the fronts.

 

6. Germany.

 

The Führer’s headquarters.

 

– Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz with the Führer.

 

– Dönitz is awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross for his exceptional achievements in submarine warfare.

 

– The Führer converses with the Grand Admiral.

 

– A newsreader reports on the successes of the German submarine fleet.

 

7. Additional film – Im Wald von Katyn a black-and-white short documentary film about the Katyn massacre from 1943, directed by Fritz Hippler.

Adolf Hitler – Final Speech at the Party Congress, 14 September 1936

 

Nuremberg, September 14, 1936

 

Thanks to the National Socialist idea and through the work of the National Socialist leadership, a new Germany has arisen! One can love it or one can hate it, but no one will change it, no one can do away with it!

 

The first and most difficult of our appointed political tasks can be said to be solved today. With the introduction of the two-year period service, the German Reich has once again been liberated, in scarcely four years of National Socialist leadership of state, from the worst consequences of that unscrupulous mutiny that attempted to defame us not only militarily, but first and foremost morally! It may be that the peoples who were not visited by a misfortune comparable to that of Germany have no concept of the emphasis we place on settling this question above all.

 

We did not defend Germany against Bolshevism back then because we were intending to do anything like conserve a bourgeois world or go so far as to freshen it up. Had Communism really intended nothing more than a certain purification by eliminating isolated rotten elements from among the ranks of our so-called ‘upper ten thousand’ or our equally worthless Philistines, one could have sat back quietly and looked on for a while.

 

The aim of Bolshevism is not, however, to liberate peoples from what is sick, but the opposite: to exterminate what is healthy, what is healthiest of all, in fact, and to place in its stead the most degenerated of all.

 

I cannot ally myself with a Weltanschauung which, as its initial action upon taking power, would invariably choose not to first liberate the working Volk, but to liberate instead the asocial scum of the earth concentrated in the penitentiaries, and then to let them loose like animals upon their frightened and stunned fellow beings. [-] We also reject this doctrine as a consequence of the more humane approach we have to our fellow men. The remarks of our speakers at this Party Congress and the events in Spain have once again provided to the world and to our German Volksgenossen an insight into atrocities of Bolshevist combat methods and government maxims. The German Volk is too good and too decent for such hideous monstrosities.

 

I have only been able to score these successes because, first of all, I endeavored to see things as they are and not as one would like to have them.

 

And secondly, because I have never allowed weaklings to talk me out of or lead me away from an opinion I had once formed; and thirdly, because I have always resolved under all circumstances to respond to a necessity once recognized.

 

Today, now that Fate has bestowed such great success upon me, I will not abandon my principles.

 

May the peoples living around us comprehend that, if they respect German independence, freedom and honor, they will nowhere find a more sincere friend than the National Socialist Third Reich. May, however, that very Bolshevism of which we learned only a few months ago that it intends to arm its forces in order to open the door to revolution among other peoples with force, if necessary; may this Bolshevism know that the new German Army stands guard at the German door.

 

The brutal mass slaughter of nationalist officers, igniting the gasoline drenched wives of nationalist officers, the slaughter of the children and babies of nationalist parents, for example in Spain, should be a warning to all like-thinking powers in other countries to shrink from any act of resistance in a similar situation.

 

Should these methods achieve their aim and the modern Girondins be replaced by Jacobins and Kerensky’s People’s Front by Bolshevists, Europe will perish in a sea of blood and mourning. European culture which-fertilized in prehistoric antiquity-will soon celebrate 2,500 years of history, will yield to the cruelest barbarity of all time.

 

No one will harbor a single doubt that National Socialism will defend itself everywhere and under any circumstances against the attacks of Bolshevism, and will conquer and destroy it. [-] We are marching in a rapid step toward turbulent times. The tempo requires men of determined toughness, and not weakly Philistines. It will not judge people according to the superficial manners of society, but according to the quality and toughness of their character in times of heavy burdens.

 

Now more than before, it is the Party’s task to ensure that hard views are established in our Volk and that above all a relentless war be declared on every trace of that pitiful cleverness Clausewitz castigated as the worst symptom of cowardice. We are approaching great historic periods; in courses of time such as these, pure cleverness has never triumphed, but invariably brave courage. Above all, the Party must embody the optimism we National Socialists know so well.

 

Every fault can be overcome, and its manifestations are easier to eliminate than pessimism and its consequences.

 

Let him beware who has no faith. He is committing a sin against the meaning of life as a whole. He is of no use for anything, and his existence will be nothing but a burden to his Volk.

 

In the course of my political struggle-and unfortunately I must stress this again-it was particularly in bourgeois circles that I encountered these sorry pessimists who, in their pitiful state, are incapable of any faith whatsoever and hence could not be used for any redeeming action. And even today I often meet them.

 

I have but one question I must confront them with: What would have happened to Germany had an unknown soldier not had the faith in 1919 that he would one day be able to rescue the German nation from its demise by steadfastness and dedication, by bravery and a willingness to sacrifice? What did Germany rescue after all? Was it the pessimism of these petty carpers, these pitiful doubters, these invariable despondent defeatists? Or was it not the unshakeable confidence that the eternal qualities of our Volk would win out against the inferior and the burdensome? No! It was the miracle of faith that rescued Germany.

 

Today, after all these historically unique successes, it is more than ever the duty of the Party to recall this National Socialist profession of faith and to carry it once more at its force as the holy symbol of our fight and our certain victory.

 

This is why the Party too must penetrate again and again to the heart of the Volk at large which is the best and the strongest supporter of the faith we have.

 

This Volk alone has in itself the courage and the bravery and the confidence Nature provides to primitive beings for their own self-preservation. Had commanders always been as courageous as grenadiers must be at all times, many battles would not have been lost. And if politicians are as strong of faith as the broad masses of a Volk are true, then they are invincible as leaders of their peoples.

Formation of the Volunteer Legion „Wallonie“

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume X, Number 6, Whole Number 62,

Fall 1996

  

ABOVE: The Legion „Wallonie“ transport train arrives at the Regenwurm Training Camp from Brussels in August 1941. The slogan on the side reads: „Stalin We're Coming!“.

 

 

In early August 1941, the first several hundred volunteers of the Volunteer Legion „Wallonie“ left Belgium for the Regenwurm Training Camp near Meseritz, Germany after receiving a big, festive send-off in their homeland. The Walloon volunteers were to be formed into an infantry battalion. Each company had a German training officer along with some German NCO's and translators assigned to it, otherwise the command personnel were all Belgians.

 

Prominent among the first group of recruits was Leon Degrelle, the leader of the Belgian Rexist Pary and one of the most important political figures in all of Europe. He had been offered an automatic officer's position but turned it down so he could undergo basic training and serve first as an enlisted man. Degrelle was trained as a machine-gunner and his progress and conduct was exemplorary. He continually refused any „special treatment“ due to his celebrity status.

 

The Legion training program was hard but conducted at a rapid pace. The Walloon volunteers adapted readily and with enthusiasm to the tough training regimen and within two months the battalion was a reality. On 17 October 1941, the training came to and end and the Legion„Wallonie“ was designated the independent Infantry Bataillon 373. A final inspection parade was held for the Legion at Regenswurm before General of the Cavalry Frhr. von Daiwigk zu Lichtenfels. Immediately afterwards the Legion began its journey to the Eastern Front where it would serve with the German Army and Waffen-SS as a battalion, brigade and finally as a division until the bitter end.

 

ABOVE: Members of the Legion at Regenwurm. On the far left is Leon Degreiie as an ordinary private. BELOW: The first Legion CO, Hauptmann (CpL) Georges Jacobs takes the oath of allegiance on the sword of GeneraI of the Cavalry Frhr. vom Daiwigk zu Lichtenfels. Leutnant Vermeire, on the right, translates.

 

 

ABOVE: Gen. von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels and Hauptmann Jacobs inspecting the drawn-up Legion „Wallonie“ at Regenwurm on 17 October 1941. BELOW: The Legion color party marching past Gen. von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels and Hauptmann Jacobs on 17 October.

 

 

Legion „Wallonie“ unit commanders 1941-1943

 

CO: Jacobs, Pauly, Tchekhoff, Lippert. Co.: Van Damme, Lisein, Mathieu, Dum 2nd Co.; Heyvaert, Daulne, Vermeire, Closset. Co.: Tchekhoff, Thys, Ruelle, Vermeire. 4^th Co.: Dupre, Buydts, Daulne, Bosquion, Mirgain.

Feldzug in Polen (1939)

The Campaign in Poland

 

Feldzug in Polen (The Campaign in Poland) is a 69-minute National Socialist propaganda film released in 1940 depicting the 1939 invasion of Poland and directed by Fritz Hippler. Exposing the Poles as aggressors and ethnic Germans living in Poland as an oppressed minority, the film alleges that the Poles employed unheroic tactics in the war and characterizes as senseless the defence of a besieged Warsaw. The film was often screened by German minorities overseas to clarify the German point of view.

 

French involvement was de-emphasized, in order to present Great Britain, in its attempt to encircle Germany, as the villain, to justify the German-Soviet pact. Polish provocations finally resulted in the blitzkrieg, led by Hitler; Poles were sometimes depicted as brave, to emphasize the German triumph.

 

Production

 

The film was directed by Fritz Hippler and the music was composed by Herbert Windt. Footage shot by Gustav Lantschner and Sepp Allgeier, who were working for Leni Riefenstahl’s Special Film Troop, was used in the film. In addition, Hippler made use of footage from the newsreels Ufa Ton-Woche 471/38/1939 and Ufa Ton-Woche 472/1939.

 

It was first shown to a select audience on 8 October 1939, but the military’s leadership was concerned that it did not completely reflect the army’s role in the invasion. A second version of the film was made and Joseph Goebbels made changes to the script. Adolf Hitler watched this version on 11 December, and asked for more edits. One of Hitler’s demands, as reported by Alwin-Broder Albrecht, was to have the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia coloured the same as the rest of Germany rather than having its own colour. The first version of the film only covered up to 20 September, and the second version covered up to 5 October.

 

Release

 

Its premiere was held in the Berlin Ufa-Palast um Zoo, usually used by Goebbels to present important films. It received massive media support and was officially described as „valuable from a political viewpoint,“ „artistically valuable,“ „educational for the nation,“ and „a film of instruction. It was theatrically released in February 1940.

 

Model of the New Königsplatz in Munich, designed by the Architect Paul Ludwig Troost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postcards Collection – The Olympic Games in Germany, 1936