2nd book from these authors, the other one being about Zhukov. The amount of sources and connections made is astonishing.

Yo finally found something relatable on this site

Today I am thinking a lot about what it might have been like for someone in Germany that did not support Hitler or believe the lies he told. And what it must have been like for them to slowly watch as their neighbors and German society slowly took on these lies as truths. How frustrating and terrifying that must have been to watch as their own friends and family became convinced of things that were not real.

I'm also reflecting on my own education regarding the Holocaust and how I was taught "Never Again" - but I am realizing that I was never taught HOW to actually stop something like that from happening again.

I guess that the idea was that if you taught kids in school the history of the Holocaust that that itself would prevent it from happening again.

But with things like Holocaust denialism I'm thinking that that plan has some holes. And that perhaps effective propaganda could just tell people that whatever hypothetical rising genocide situation is nothing at all like the Holocaust - and people believe the propaganda - making what they learned in school about the Holocaust useless.

What I am looking for is this: is there anything we learned about the Holocaust - that we understand today - that could have been used to pull people out of their belief in the propaganda? Or was it just unstoppable - was there truly nothing that could have been done to stop what had been set in motion? How do you stop someone like Hitler from manipulating an entire population of people? Are there any examples of something like this being stopped successfully before it got too severe?

tldr: "Never Again"... But, How?

Hey, i found this letter at a local Antique store, im trying to find more information about the person it talks about in the letter Johanna Opryszko and or more info about this. I havent found anything online and google translate doesn't translate this well. From the sounds of what i understood its it was about them going to court for theft. Any help would be appreciated

https://preview.redd.it/rhqmkxh0wyzd1.jpg?width=678&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=190a7ded2ae4bdd21d6803f56a24859fcae34462

Translated to English

National socialist

r

German Workers' Party

Niesroe fon

ols On poil

1 6. 1943

Head of the Hirschbero District

APR 9, 1943

Hrschberg, 15.4.1943

Bankkto,1 Stadtsparkasse Hirscht

Postschedkkonto: Wroclaw 13898

call 3335 & 33 36

The district manager.

At the

Mr. Lord Mayor

as a local police authority

Our tent: 8018 B - B/M.-

hZeidhen11

Hi rs c h about g/Ragb.

Subject: Resettler Johanna O p r y s z k o, Hirsch

berg/Ragb., Gerichtsstr. 3 residents.

The Ethnic German resettler Johanna Opryszko,

building. on 1.6.1923, resident in Hirschberg/Rsgb.,

Gerichtsstr. 3 on the left, not as on the Anfra-

as stated, Herrenstr. 3 at Ullrich, there has been

during the period of your stay in Hirschberg

in political terms, generally affirmative behavior-

ten

She is a member of the German Labour Front. To

Time floats against the Johanna Opryszko a ge-

court proceedings for theft. From political

There are no grounds against the naturalization of the o. no

Raised concerns.

Heil Hitler!

(Ziesing)

District Chief of Staff,

as a representative of the Kreislei-

ters.

In German
Nationalsozialistische

r

Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

Niesroe fon

ols On poil

1 6. 1943

Kreisleitung Hirschbero

9. APR 1943

Hrschberg, den 15.4.1943

Bankkto,1 Stadtsparkasse Hirscht

Postschedkkonto: Breslau 13898

rnruf 3335 u. 33 36

Der Kreisleiter.

An den

Herrn Oberbürgermeister

als Ortspolizeibehörde

Unser Zelthen: 8018 B - B/M.-

hZeidhen11

Hi rs c h ber g/Ragb.

Betrifft: Umsiedlerin Johanna O p r y s z k o, Hirsch

berg/Ragb., Gerichtsstr. 3 wohnhaft.

Die volksdeutsche Umsiedlerin Johanna Opryszko,

geb. am 1.6.1923, wohnhaft in Hirschberg/Rsgb.,

Gerichtsstr. 3 bei Linke, nicht wie auf der Anfra-

ge angegeben, Herrenstr. 3 bei Ullrich, hat sich

während der Zeit ihres Aufenthaltes in Hirschberg

in politischer Hinsicht allgemein bejahend verhal-

ten

Sie ist Mitglied der Deutschen Arbeitsfront. Zur

Zeit schwebt gegen die Johanna Opryszko ein Ge-

richtsverfahren wegen Diebstahl. Aus politischen

Gründen wird gegen die Einbürgerung der O. kein

Bedenken erhoben.

Heil Hitler!

(Ziesing)

Kreisstabsamtsleiter,

als Vertreter des Kreislei-

ters.

For example, conquering France, they could have tried to annihilate the BEF in Dunkirk and settled at that, they could have pushed for Moscow instead of the oil fields in the caucus? I just find it it so crazy that they had so many strategic advantages and didn’t capitalise on them. Even the redirection of the luftwaffe to London instead of the RAF aerodromes. They were so close.

I was looking at the national archive records of my Papa getting wounded in France. Each man has a 3 digit number starting with a 7 next to them. Does anyone know what this number would mean?

I'm just over half way through this book, really interesting to read about exploits from the "other side".

Any other recommendations like this?

With Veterans Day approaching, I have been thinking about all of the men that went into battle and how difficult it must've been. I've been told many times by my grandmother that her father arrived in Normandy the day after D-Day, but, he never spoke of the war so I have no idea of his experiences other than what is documented on certificates. I have his Honorary Discharge which states the campaigns he served in: "Normandy GO 33 WD 45 Northern France GO 46 WD 45", as well as the awards he won: "EAME Service Ribbon with Two Bronze Service Stars and One Bronze Arrowhead and Good Conduct Medal". Our family doesn't have these so I have already requested replacement medals from NPRC. Anyways, I'm not sure if anyone can help me or not but I've found very little information about soldiers arriving the day after D-Day, or even what Normandy was like the day after; and I'd appreciate anything at all.

My Grandfather served in WWII and we know incredibly little about his service. I did recently find the following on an entry about his service from a government site, and was hoping someone could break down for me what it means?

"2DSEPTKCO, 22NDMARREINF, 5THAC, FMF, MARSHALL ISLANDS
World War II, 1941-1945"

He died tragically after he returned from the war and understandably did not like to talk about his service, but my dad and his brothers have always wished they could know more. All we know is that he was in the V Amphibious Corps, which we learned from researching a patch he was wearing in a photo he left my Grandmother before he shipped off, so any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

I hope I'm asking in the right place, let me know if not and I'll remove my post!

I personally have a terrible time remembering what even the basic map symbols are when reading about battles. I created a bookmark with the symbols on it, so that I've always got it at hand to refer to quickly. It's not perfect or comprehensive, but it helps me.

Just scale it to suit you, fold it in half, and laminate it.

Tables copied from www.history.army.mil

https://preview.redd.it/5lts830fjozd1.jpg?width=782&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42b4ef0f83a9bd65033a2e340d9dd98c42c6d6cd

Seemingly few people know about this, but if you're looking for anyone from WW2 the Arolsen Archives is your best bet.

They have all the documents from The Thrid Reich. For 50 years an army have translated, archived and digitalized all the documents the Nazi's had.

"The Arolsen Archives are the international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The collection has information on about 17.5 million people and belongs to UNESCO’s Memory of the World. It contains documents on the various victim groups targeted by the Nazi regime and is an important source of knowledge for society today." - Arolsen's website

To find whom ever you're looking for you can send in a form to: https://arolsen-archives.org/en/search-explore/inquiries/submit-inquiry/

It will take some time to get a respons, but if they have anything on the person you're looking for you will recive all their documents.

(This is how I found my mothers uncle who was imprisoned by the Nazis for stealing their military equipment, when they were occuping my country. Thanks to the Arolsen Archives I got pictures of him and all his documents of prison transfers and communication between investigators trying to find him - hope this helps someone).

Anyone have some good book recommendations covering North Africa? I'm reading An Army at Dawn which covers everything from Operation Torch onwards, but I'd like to brush up on the theater pre-Torch. Thanks!

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn616417

So disturbing, I recommend watching this with google translate or something if you don’t speak Russian

I'm looking for good history books about the resistance efforts in the various countries during WW2. Anyone have any suggestions?

https://preview.redd.it/btcqsbr99izd1.jpg?width=976&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b2e3e25a726632f862ebdba21e597057a56a55d

Found this pic on a BBC article on how the welsh language saved soldiers in WW2 and saw this photo but cant for the life of me figure out this officer division/brigade. Photo was taken in Normandy so either 1944/45

I am not the type of guy who complains, but this issue is really an exception because the narrative on the internet about Italians during WW2 is, honestly, grotesque (actually the topic of Italians at war is rarely treated seriously in general, but in WW2 it goes even beyond that). Essentially 90% of the talking points about Italians in WW2 go back to Nazi discourse (shifting the blame of every defeat on the Italians and taking the merit for every Axis victory) or to the Allied war propaganda meant to demoralize the opponent (legit, but we should not use it as a reference). Experts on the topic universally reject the notion that Italians lost because they fought bad or were cowards or just wanted to surrender; it's more correct to say that Italians fought well in WW2, but with WW1 equipment. It is also well-established that Italian special/specialized forces (X Mas frogmen, Guastatori, Alpini sciatori, Arditi, Folgore etc) were innovators and effective. Also, when the Italians fought against Germans and were given better equipment by the Allies, they could defeat the Germans on multiple occasions (Monte Lungo, Monte Marrone, operation Herring etc.). Yet, most of the times Italy is talked about, none of this is mentioned, it's always and solely "Italian tanks have all gears reverse" or "the shortes book in history is Italian war heroes" or "Italy was weak, incompetent, a joke" or some other variant.

It seems that most people completely forget that Italy, a semi-industrialized country and the "least of the great powers", fought WW2 with essentially a WW1 army for 5 years and in many many theatres: this was a big (and tragic) military effort by Italians and it's not really taken into account. I find it also weird that people mostly talk about Compass and Greece, so the two big failures of Italians, everything else (Russia, the rest of the Morth African campaign, East Africa, Mediterranean, Yugoslavia etc.) is barely looked at. So essentially every Italian victory or honorable defeat is taken out of the table. Literally the worst campaigns of Italy are taken to represent the average Italian military effort, which is a logical fallacy of massive proportions. On top of this, the Resistance and co-belligerance of Italians with the Allies after 8 September 1943 is rarely talked about. No one knows Italians fought with courage against Germans in Corsica, in Greece, Yugoslavia, and on Italian soil. Italian partisans did arguably the biggest urban attack on German soldiers (Via Rasella attack), another little-known topic outside of Italy; one of the Nazi officials said the two moments in which Hitler was exploding with rage were: the Liberation of France and that attack. I am not saying everyone should know about this stuff, but more people should.

If anyone knows about him or there parents did my grandfather was a WW 2 pilot named William brown. He flew the hump and to my knowledge he was shot down and survived. He later died in a car accident in 1961-1962 before my dad was born. I want to learn more about him as I want to also become a pilot for the air force and want to explore my family history. If anyone knows about him would really appreciate it if you could reach out

In the early 1970s my father was working at a hospital in downtown Milwaukee. A patient came in who my father will never forget. This patient had been a German POW in America. On the train ride out to the POW camp he saw a factory then a field, then a factory, then a farm, and on and on and on. The man then said it was then that the knew that Germany could not win this war.

In 1941 the Airport in Milwaukee was in the same place it is today however it was not using much of the land that it had acquired less than a decade earlier through eminent domain when they make a small town disappear in order to acquire it. They built a runway and a small terminal and the airport started serving commercial flights. In 1942 part of the airport land was seized by the war department in order to build a POW camp to house POWs from the African and European Theaters, mainly German POWs. This was strange putting a POW Camp for Germans in the most ethnically German areas of the country. Back in 1941 it wasn’t uncommon for a lot people to be speaking both German and English, or Polish and English. However when POWs started arriving at the camp they were surprised at how many camp guards could understand them when they were speaking German. A few POWs did escape and for the brief time they were free they were surprised at how many people could speak Polish and German. After the war the camp was torn down and nothing remains of it today. The airport is still there on the grounds of where the camp once stood are airport buildings.