Free Republic

By 1939, more than 10,000 Catholic schools had been closed and the Catholic boys and girls sent to Nazi public schools for indoctrination. Catholics are constantly confronted with the claims that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, that vast numbers of Catholics collaborated with Hitler's diabolical regime, and that Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops were ardent members of the Nazi Party and supporters of its policies. It is true that many Catholics turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and others remained silent out of fear for their lives and the safety of their families. There were certainly...

In 1934, the Harvard class of 1909 held its 25th reunion—then as now an occasion for members of the American elite to parade in public and celebrate their achievements. But this year the star attraction was a German: Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, the son of a Munich art dealer and publisher who had joined the Nazi movement and enjoyed personal access to Hitler (Hitler liked hearing him play the piano, as had his Harvard classmates, for whom he composed football fight songs). In the early 1930s he served as foreign press chief for the Nazi party. Ernst Hanfstaengl (center, with raised...

The children of the Nazi party began as a shining hope for the future, but by the end of the war they became reserve soldiers as the Germans faced military defeat. That descent from twisted idealism to cynicism and eventually disillusionment is traced in “Tempted, Misled, Slaughtered: The Short Life of Hitler Youth Paul B.,” an exhibit at the American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The exhibit, on display in the Kaufmann Building through Dec. 31, is presented with the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh — part of a busy schedule...

A friend of a friend in Midland, Texas is protesting the federal government's spending and push for nationalized healthcare. Thomas Flournoy, a WWII veteran, is flying his flag upside down, as a sign of distress. From KWES: One Midlander says enough is enough with the federal government. He says outragous spending and a push for Nationalized healthcare has put him over the top. Now, he's not only protesting, but sending out a sign of distress. On Tuesday, NewsWest 9 spoke with the World War II Veteran who is telling everyone to fly their flags upside down. "We've got to concentrate...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2009 – For three days in October 1944, a Japanese-American military unit fought in dense woods, heavy fog and freezing temperatures in the mountains of France, answering the prayers of an American battalion pinned down by German forces. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks with Medal of Honor recipient George "Joe" Sakato at the 65th anniversary of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in Houston, Nov. 1, 2009. The event honored the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit composed mostly of Japanese-Americans. The unit rescued 230 men, lost more than...

The ‘Lost Battalion’ was surrounded by Nazis and near certain death – until the men of the 442nd appeared. Now, they meet again Even 65 years later, Astro Tortolano thinks almost daily of his struggle to survive in the Vosges Mountains of northern France in October 1944. Surrounded by German soldiers after stumbling into a trap, Tortolano and about 280 men in the 1st Battalion of the Texas 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division rationed food and bullets. They fended off Nazi assaults. They thought all hope of surviving was lost. Six days into the crisis, different soldiers...

The last member of Adolf Hitler's notorious inner circle has died at age 96, leaving behind instructions to publish a manuscript about his time spent alongside the German dictator, the Telegraph reported. Fritz Darges was present for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements during World War II — and experts believe his memoir could disprove claims by some disputed historians that Hitler never directly ordered the extermination of the Jews, and that the "final solution" was the brainchild of SS chief Heirich Himmler. Darges rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and thought Hitler was a genius. It...

Today, October 28, marks the anniversary of one of the most important days in the history of the world, yet few people remember it’s significance. But the Greeks do, and they celebrate OXI day, every year. The day was October 28, 1940. At dawn that morning (4:00am), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, Mussolini (through Emanuele Grazzi, the Italian ambassador in Greece) issued an ultimatum to Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to surrender, or face open war with Italy. Metaxas, a career military officer and more importantly a proud Greek, was not inclined to acquiesce to Mussolini’s...

Testimony of Captain Walter R. Mansfield, first American Liaison Officer with General Mihailovich, before the Commission of Inquiry Captain Walter R. Mansfield, U.S. General Draza Mihailovich 1943 MR. KIENDL TO CAPTAIN MANSFIELD: You never saw any evidence of collaboration all the time you were there? CAPTAIN MANSFIELD: I never saw any evidence of collaboration between Mihailovich personally and the Germans. Q: Did you ever hear any reports from any Americans to the effect that there was such collaboration between Mihailovich and the Germans? A: I have only heard reports to the contrary, that there was none. From the first day's...

Charlie Bond, one of the last pilots of a covert World War Two fighter squadron, died recently, but the heroics of the US servicemen who took on the might of the Japanese air force in Burma will never be forgotten Published: 25/10/2009 at 12:00 AM Newspaper section: Spectrum Charlie Bond, one of the last surviving pilots of the legendary World War Two 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), dubbed the "Flying Tigers", died in Dallas, Texas, on Aug 18, at the age of 94. Major General Charles R Bond, Jr, served 30 years in the US Air Force, retiring in 1968....

A lot of colorful phrases are associated with World War II. Like, "Nuts!" -- one American commander's defiant response to German surrender demands. Or, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition," attributed to a U.S. Navy chaplain during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But here's another one, appropriate for this season. Trick or treat! The trick was setting up phony, inflatable tanks, trucks and artillery under cover of darkness. Then generating some ersatz radio traffic between units and commanders. Igniting flash canisters mimicking the glare of cannons firing. Erecting loudspeakers and playing the pre-recorded sounds of troops and vehicles...

Veterans Day is coming up, but there are few vets who have a story to tell like Mario Avignone.His life was changed during World War II when he was stationed near the monastery inhabited by St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Avignone, a salt-of-the-earth Chicagoan, and two fellow soldiers befriended the stigmatic miracle worker. Since then, he expresses his devotion to the saint by sharing his experiences with others, visiting the sick, and praying with the aid of relics.After a talk Avignone gave at St. Mary of the Angels Church on the city’s North Side, the 90-year-old veteran, over a meal...

Oscar E. and Anna Anderson of Willmar died believing that their only son had been buried at sea after being killed in action during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. Now, surviving family members hope to learn whether the remains of U.S. Navy Motor Machinist Mate 1st Class John E. Anderson were interred in the Saint Laurent Cemetery, Baveux, France, as an unknown American casualty of World War II. The cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach has since been designated as the Normandy American Military Cemetery. His name is listed there as among the “Missing In Action’’ from...

Standing ramrod straight as they assemble in their blazers and caps emblazoned with BMS, the pupils of the British Memorial School fall silent as their headmaster raises the Union Jack before them. The school captain steps forward to salute the flag. It is the cue for the entire school to launch into I Vow To Thee My Country. ..... Of any British school in the 1930s, none could surely have had such a patriotic streak as this remarkable establishment. Yet, ironically, it wasn't in Britain at all - it was in Ypres, Belgium. And it had another unique feature: it...

Billy Lynch left Dorchester 72 years ago, and they’re pretty sure they’ve finally found him, a long way from home, deep in the ground in China. Staff Sergeant Billy Lynch was a Marine. He grew up on Victory Road, and if you go to the corner of Victory and Neponset Avenue, you’ll see the black street sign with the gold star that commemorates William Joseph Lynch Square. It is a place of honor for a Marine who disappeared 67 years ago. He left Neponset for the Marines in 1937, right out of high school, and never came back. He was...

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-excerpt- A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas. Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division. Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City...

TOKYO – Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of the only atomic bombings in history, are teaming up to try to bring the Olympics to Japan in 2020, the cities' mayors said Sunday. Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue told a press conference they will establish a joint committee to work on a proposal based on world peace. Both men are founding members of the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign, which advocates for a global ban on nuclear arms. In a speech last month in Mexico City, Akiba said he firmly believed the world could abolish nuclear...

'The British serviceman who first fired on Japanese forces during World War Two has died at the age of 90. Jim Mariner was on board the gunboat HMS Peterel when he secured his place in history at about 4am on December 7, 1941. The vessel was in China's Shanghai Harbour and the crew had been issued with cutlasses and told they should be prepared to die defending the ship. It was the last commissioned Royal Navy craft on the Yangtze River and had been stripped of most of her weapons. She had a skeleton crew and was clearly in no...

Michael Kuryla Jr. found strength from his fellow stranded Navy comrades floating in shark-infested waters of the South Pacific for nearly five days in 1945 during World War II. Their ship, the USS Indianapolis, sank in just 12 minutes after being hit by two Japanese torpedoes shortly after the ship had delivered the atomic bomb that would level Hiroshima. Three hundred of Mr. Kuryla's shipmates died that day when the ship went down. Nine hundred were left floating in only life preservers, facing a harsh sun and sharks, as three SOS calls went unanswered. An anti-submarine plane spotted them four...

Below are all the American Presidents and Vice Presidents who have received the Nobel Peace Prize, in order from first to most recent. It was an educational experience to review all the awards since the first was given in 1901. That bears on whether the Prize just awarded to President Obama is a positive or negative thing with respect to international war and peace. 1906 - (President) Theodore Roosevelt who “drew up the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan.” This was an actual shooting war, which ended with the Treaty which Roosevelt negotiated. 1919 - (President) T. Woodrow Wilson...

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.08.2009 advertisement Six decades after surviving a battle in which many soldiers froze to death, World War II veteran John Swett still dislikes the cold. This week, he and scores of surviving comrades are basking in Tucson's warmth during the national reunion of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. More than 100 of these 80- and 90-somethings, who were part of the biggest, bloodiest land fight in U.S. history, are in town for a week of sightseeing and remembrance ceremonies. It's the first time their annual reunion has been held in the Old Pueblo, hosted...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of WWII Warsaw Ghetto uprising, died Friday in Warsaw at the age of 90. Paula Sawicka told The Associated Press that Edelman died at her family's home at 2 p.m. EDT (1800GMT) of old age. "He died at home, among friends, among his close people," Sawicka said.

Leading atheists are arguing that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime were theist and specifically Christian. Christopher Hitchens in God Is Not Great depicts Hitler as a pagan polytheist -- not exactly a conventional theist but still a theist. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, "By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that "the Holocaust marked the culmination of...two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews"...

WWII Vets Take To The Sky For Flight Of Honor101 Local Veterans Visit WWII Memorial UPDATED: 9:31 pm EDT October 3, 2009 GREENSBORO -- With family and friends looking on in anticipation, 101 local veterans took to the sky Saturday morning for a daytrip visit to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. These were the men and women who 65 years ago stormed the beaches in France, battled at sea, liberated Paris, marched to Berlin and served on the home front, all to squash the surge of tyrannical Nazism and preserve freedom in the world. The veterans, now...

A video showing the only footage of Anne Frank ever recorded is now available on YouTube. The video, uploaded by the Anne Frank House of Amsterdam on Wednesday, depicts the front of an apartment building where Frank's family lived on July 22, 1941, roughly a year before her family went into hiding in a secret apartment. Frank is seen on video leaning out of the second-floor window of her Amsterdam home to get a glimpse of her neighbor, who is getting married. Click here to see the video. Additional videos of an interview with Frank's father, Otto, and Frank...

The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut.

WARSAW (Reuters) - The last leader of the wartime Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, Marek Edelman, died in Warsaw on Friday at the age of 87, friends said. Edelman was the last surviving leader of small Jewish militant groups which fought against the Nazis in 1943 when the occupiers moved to liquidate the ghetto. Jewish fighters were poorly armed and the uprising was crushed in a few weeks of fighting. "It's a very said day. He was a man of great character," said Szewach Weiss, former Isreali ambassador to Poland.

This site will always support and honor our men and women in the military and express gratitude to those who serve, both past and present, those living and those who have past. To the brave who have survived and to the ones who have given life and limb in defense of this country. To feel differently would be to ignore and belittle those who are the backbone of our freedom. Yet, sadly, this is exactly what our President, Barack Obama has done to those members of the WWII era, Alaskan Territorial Guard. (ATG) As incredible and insensitive as this sounds,...

Trailer for "The Pacific", the HBO series on the war in the Pacific during WWII

I have been playing this over and over thinking of O's in strategic locations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8wfzAu8WU

War II ThoughtsWe can learn a lot about our present dilemmas through looking at the past. This month I’m teaching an intensive class on World War II, and again reminded how history is never really history. One lesson: do not judge past decisions by present considerations or post facto wisdom from a Western point of view, but understand them given the knowledge and thinking of the times from an enemy perspective.We ridicule the disastrous Japanese decision to go to war against the American colossus on December 7, 1941. But that correct analysis enjoys the benefit of hindsight, and does not...

Thousands of World War II prisoners ended up in mills, farm fields and even dining rooms across the United States In the mid-1940s when Mel Luetchens was a boy on his family’s Murdock, Nebraska, farm where he still lives, he sometimes hung out with his father’s hired hands, “I looked forward to it,” he said. “They played games with us and brought us candy and gum.” The hearty young men who helped his father pick corn or put up hay or build livestock fences were German prisoners of war from a nearby camp. “They were the enemy, of course,” says...

He was a soldier in one of the most fanatical divisions in Hitler's war machine. As a member of the SS, Heinrich Steinmeyer expected little mercy as he surrendered to British troops towards the end of the Second World War. But instead, he says he was treated with humanity by both the troops who captured him and the guards at the Scottish prison camp where he was kept until the end of the war. Sixty-five years later, Mr Steinmeyer has pledged to leave his home and life savings of £430,000 to elderly residents in the village of Comrie, Perthshire, as...

Adolf Hitler may not have shot himself dead and perhaps did not even die in his bunker, it emerged yesterday. A skull fragment believed for decades to be the Nazi leader’s has turned out to be that of a woman under 40 after DNA analysis. Scientists and historians had long thought it to be conclusive proof that Hitler shot himself in the head after taking a cyanide pill on 30 April 1945 rather than face the ignominy of capture. The piece of skull - complete with bullet hole - had been taken from outside the Fuhrer’s bunker by the Russian...

Ninty-five North Dakota Veterans spend a weekend remembering their service to their country. The RoughRider Honor Flight took the veterans to Washington DC to tour many monuments...including the World War Two Memorial. On the trip, most of the stories had to do with attacks on the ground by sea or the air. Brad Feldman shows you one veteran with a little different perspective. (Dorothy Pence) "We'll I have changed quite a bit since then...especially now.." Dorothy Pence served her country (Dorothy Pence) "Of course when I went in it was new for women." She didn't wear body armor...carry a gun...

Did Disney get this right? A chilling video from WWII that was banned from viewing.

Did Disney get is right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3UCc17AI&feature=related

My understanding is that WW2 debt was close to our current level of GNP/debt. What were the mechanisms of paying it down? Did the destruction of Axis countries industrial base create a captive market for the US? How was lend Lease and the Marshall plan paid off? Any insights would be appreciated, thanks.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - World War II pilot Bernerd Harding feels he has finally completed his mission—65 years after his B-24, nicknamed Georgette, was shot down over Germany. Harding, now 90, flew Friday from Laconia to Manchester aboard the Witchcraft—the last B-24 still flying.

Polish Resolution Names Soviet Invasion as Tyrannical Sets record straight in the face of Russian denials By Tom Ozimek Epoch Times Staff Sep 23, 2009 Poland's parliament passed a resolution on Wednesday intended to officially set the record straight on events surrounding the outbreak of the Second World War. "On 17th September, 1939, the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) commenced hostilities within the territory of the Republic of Poland, without formal declaration of war, violating Poland's sovereignty and breaking international law. The basis for the Red Army's invasion was the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, signed on 23rd August,...

REVIEW BY CARL SAVICH EIGHT BAILED OUT By Major James M. Inks, U.S.A.F. Edited by Lawrence Klingman. Illustrations by S/Sgt. Morton D. Rosenfeld and M/Sgt. John H Schuffert. NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 1954. Reprint: NY: Popular Library, 1963. On July 28, 1944, eight members of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber bailed out over German-occupied Yugoslavia after the plane sustained damaged following a bombing mission on the Ploesti oil installations in Romania. The American crew landed by parachute behind enemy lines in German-occupied Montenegro where they were rescued by Serbian Chetnik guerrillas, who hid the downed airmen from German troops....

The Sand Painting of Kseniya Simonova Posted by Moe Lane Sunday, September 20th To describe it is to do it a disservice: it must be watched to be appreciated. Like Andrew Malcolm, I found it amazing, and I think that you will too. Check URL

Nearly eight million euros. Or more than eleven million dollars at the current exchange rate. That is the total amount of subsidies that Quentin Tarantino received from German public sources for his Inglourious Basterds. The exact breakdown is as follows: €6.8 million from the German Film Fund, plus €600,000 and €300,000 respectively from the Media-Board of Berlin-Brandenburg and the so-called Middle German Film Fund. The German Film Fund (DFFF) is directly attached to the German government’s Ministry of Culture (or, more fully, Ministry of Culture and Media). Tarantino’s haul is even greater than the €4.8 million in subsidies that the...

Tolkien, one of his generation's most respected linguists, was ''earmarked'' to crack Nazi codes in the event that Germany declared war. Intelligence chiefs singled him and a 'cadre' of other intellectuals to work at Bletchley Park, the codebreaking centre in Buckinghamshire. Its staff - which included Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker - would later decipher the 'impenetrable' Enigma machines. This saved Britain from German conquest by allowing the Navy to intercept and destroy Hitler's U-Boats. According to previously unseen records, Tolkien trained with the top-secret Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS). He spent three days at their London HQ in...

A few weeks ago, a small air show came to the local airport. It consisted of a P-51 Mustang, a B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress. The show involved several flights up and down the cost over several days. I could hear the torque and grunt of the B-17’s four 1200 hp Wright Cyclone GR-1820-65 radial engines as it flew over my office. As I listened, I could not even imagine the sound when 115 of them filled the air on April 17, 1943 on the way for a raid on the Focke-Wulfe factory in Bremen, or on any other...

Like many veterans, Max Fuchs did not talk much about what he did in the war. His children knew he landed at Omaha Beach. Sometimes, they were allowed to feel the shrapnel still lodged in his chest. And once, he had told them, he sang as the cantor in a Jewish prayer service on the battlefield. On Oct. 29, 1944, at the edge of a fierce fight for control of the city of Aachen, Germany, a correspondent for NBC radio introduced the modest Sabbath service like this: “We bring you now a special broadcast of historic significance: The first Jewish...

The only colour photographs of the German surrender of World War Two have emerged 64 years after being taken by a lowly clerk who hid behind a tree. Crafty Ronald Playforth covertly captured one of the most historic events of the 20th century after sneaking into a clump of trees overlooking the scene of the surrender. With his camera, he snapped Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery greeting the highest ranking officers of the remains of Hitler's Third Reich outside his HQ tent. Although defeated and just days after the Fuhrer's suicide, the never-seen-before photos show the German officers looking immaculate yet...

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THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium -- Many war monuments grace the Belgian landscape. In cities and small villages, near border points and sleepy country crossroads, they mostly honor the successes and sacrifices of World War II. Another monument was unveiled the other day, and this one doesn't commemorate a great battle or an opportunistic unit. Instead, it pays tribute to what some people believe is an often overlooked war asset -- animals.