Sebastian P. Breit's Blog, page 13

The Jews of France: A Long History Of Anti-Semitism

Tying in a bit with what I wrote last year about La Rafle the IBT has an article about France's long history of anti-semitism, a dark spot that's just recently been brought to the spotlight by the rise in Muslim anti-semitism and the murders of Tolouse.

Still, France's record of anti-Semitism long predates Le Pen and the National Front.

During World War II, the Vichy government of France collaborated with the Nazis and deported tens of thousands of French Jews to perish in the death camps. At least 75,000 French Jews died during the Nazi occupation of France.

Vicki Caron, Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at Cornell University said that about 75 percent of Jews in France survived the war, but the losses among the foreign-born Jewish population were the highest.

"Some two-thirds of all foreign born Jews were killed," she noted.

France's complicity in the Holocaust remains a black mark on the country's psyche – names like Klaus Barbie, Maurice Papon, Paul Touvier and many others haunt the Gallic consciousness.

After World War II, France recognized Israel and established a number of economic and cultural relationships between the two countries. During this period tens of thousands of Sephardic Jews from North Africa migrated to France.

Read the rest here.



Tied in thematically there's a new French movie coming out about Jews hiding in Paris mosques during WW2:

In "Free Men," Tahar Rahim plays Younes, an Algerian black marketeer who signs up as an informant when the Nazis catch him with stolen goods. He spies on the Paris Mosque, but switches allegiances when he discovers that an imam there (Michael Lonsdale) is hiding and protecting Jews.

The War Blog Weekly Update #4

I apologize for my absence. Posting will now resume.



1. WWII enterprise approach applicable in cyber warfare

The Battle of the Atlantic was World War II's longest military campaign and centered on U.S. merchant ships and German U-boats, but there are lessons from that battle that are applicable to the Defense Department's enterprise approach to cyber warfare, according to the Defense Information Systems Agency's second-in-command.

2. WWII hero, academics say Greece can claim reparations

Three academics and Second World War hero Manolis Glezos (photo) pleaded with the government on Tuesday to pursue with Germany the issue of war reparations and an unpaid 1942 loan the Bank of Greece was forced to provide to Berlin by Nazi occupiers. Estimates suggest that Germany would owe Greece tens of billions of euros if the loan were recognized.

[I just want them to try. The prerequisite for reparations would be a peace treaty - which Germany never offered, signed or ratified - meaning that for there to be reparations you'd first have to revert to a state of war, then work out a peace treaty, then have reparations...! Freezing and seizing all Greek assets, interning all Greek citizens on German soil, blocking all trade with Greece... oh, I wish]

3. 1956 Porsche 597 Jagdwagen

Par for the course, Porsche built a car that was too expensive...

4. Dad's heroic actions detailed in CCM worker's WWII book

Author Elizabeth Hogan.
Without the Internet and his daughter's deep desire and need to write, the remarkable story of Lt. Col. Henry Supchak of Newton as a World War II pilot might never have been told.Elizabeth Hoban of Sussex Borough is the author of "The Final Mission, a Boy, a Pilot, and a World at War." The book, to be released by Westholme Publishing this spring, tells the story of her father's courageous actions to save an Austrian village and a shepherd boy's decades-long search to thank him.

5. The author who uncovered a WW2 double agent

Madoc Roberts is out with a new book, co-written with Nigel West and entitled "SNOW: The Double Life of a World War II Spy," which tells the story of Arthur Owens, a man previously thought to be a Nazi spy. Roberts and West discovered that Owens, whose code name was "Snow," was in fact a British double agent and had been working for MI5 (the British security service) all along.

6. Japan, Russia Still Spar Over Kuriles, 67 Years After the End of WWII

The Western Pacific is a cauldron full of political disputes, from China's unilateral declaration of sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel island archipelagos to Japan and China mixing up over the title to the contested East China Sea's Senkaku/Daioyu island chains.

But looming over it all is Russia's and Japan's ongoing rival claims to the Kurile islands, a thousand-mile-long, 56-island archipelago fog enshrouded series of rocks extending from the southern tip of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula to the northern shore of Japan's Hokkaido.

7. WWII veteran recalls her service

During this month's Women's History Month, Winnie Breegle gave local Panama City Navy employees and students a glimpse into history.

Breegle served on active duty from 1944 to 1949 and 10 years in the inactive ready reserves.

On Syria

Please indulge my short rant here, will ya?



To the American Neo-Con

Dear Sir or Madam,unlike many of my fellow countrymen I try to take the time to actually listen to your arguments on Foreign Policy. I may not agree on many of them, but I pride myself for agreeing with you occasionally when you make a good point. I believe with some degree of justification that this puts me apart from the generally rabidly America-bashing Old European. And when you bemoan and belittle the military impotence and reluctance of us Old Europeans you'll find me in line with you, supporting at least the spirit of that argument lock, stock and barrel.

But whenever I think you've distinguished yourself from your rabidly liberal countrymen or the strain of people who back the idea of a Ron Paul isolationism while still believing you'll keep your standard of living, you end up throwing articles like this one onto my desk! Let me state this as simply as humanly possible: each time you've clamored for an intervention in a Muslim country or for the support of a Muslim "democracy" movement you've created the foundations for radicalization:Tunisia is contemplating the introduction of Shariah Law in earnest
Egypt is now ruled by a 76% islamist majority (and you've got to be seven kinds of deluded that the Muslim Brotherhood of all organizations isn't islamist) with that same majority leading the way for a repeal of the peace agreement with Israel; because that's what we need, another potential cause of war there...
Lybia's tearing itself apart (just recently the eastern part of the country pretty much stated roundabout that they see themselves as autonomous) after it tortured, impaled and executed the single man keeping it all together
And now you're trying to drum up support for an intervention in Syria. To support who, please? The "Free Syrian Army" who are totally not Muslim extremists even though they draw their support from the very same region and clans that led the 1982 Sunnii/Muslim Brotherhood revolt. What the fuck is wrong with you people? Everything you've done has been to enable a process of radicalization throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. And now your leading figures want to depose another largely secular regime - admittedly an Iranian toady but still a rational actor - in favor of what I GUARANTEE you will be a Sunni islamist regime. Because the region certainly needs that extra portion of instability now, with Israel and Iran already being at each other's throats...

So, dear Sir or Madam, unless it really is your goal to throw that volatile region a) into chaos and b) into the hands of radical muslims who spit on most, probably all values we as westerners hold dear, I suggest you get a grip of yourself. Or, if that is impossible, shut the fuck up once in a while.

Sincerely,

Your War Blogger

Thailand's "Hitler Chic" leaves me scratching my head

Cartoon pandas, Teletubbies, Ronald McDonald. At first glance they don't seem to have much in common beyond a certain childlike quality. But during a visit to Bangkok you may discover another trait these popular cultural icons now share: their resemblance to Adolf Hitler.

In the Thai capital's latest outbreak of Nazi chic, pandas, Teletubbies and Ronald have metamorphosed into cutesy alter egos of the Führer, who seems to exert a childlike fascination over some young Thais. With any luck you can spot trendy young souls strutting around in T-shirts bearing cartoonish images of the Nazi dictator.

In a particularly popular design, Hitler is transformed into a cartoonish Ronald McDonald, the fast-food chain's clown mascot, sporting a bouffant cherry-red hairdo and a stern look. On another T-shirt the Führer is shown in a lovely panda costume with a Nazi armband. On yet another he appears as a pink Teletubby with doe eyes, jug ears and a pink swastika for an antenna. He pouts petulantly like a spoiled brat while flashing the Nazi salute.

Shirts cost from 200 baht to 370 baht (US$7-12) apiece, and some come in matching outfits for couples. Adolf McDonald's partner is a transvestite with fuchsia hair, lipstick, long lashes and a timid Mona Lisa smile. Panda Adolf's manlier doppelganger sports a brown stormtrooper uniform. [Source]

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Gas all the... cheeseburgers?
I've got to assume the popularity and lack of awareness in part stem from the lack of 'cultural integration' of Hitler's legacy and that of Nazism into other cultures but the US-European ones. Personally, I just don't see the appeal, but then I never got the appeal of other fashion trends either. For example, I never understood why it was hip to wear Che Guevara shirts. After all, he was a butcher and a failure as an revolutionary, too. Or why people felt proud and hip if they wore shirts with Mao or the Red Star on them. The death toll you can lay at Hitler's feet is something in the ballpark of 40+ million people - in wartime. Stalin and Mao managed to kill twice as many people - their own people - peacetime. Making them and their insignias into cultural icons ought to be just as tasteless.

"It's a lack of exposure to history," notes Harry Soicher, a Romanian who teaches at a Bangkok high school. "If you don't live in Thailand, you may find it hard to believe they really mean no harm."

That may very well be the case. After all, why should the Nazis be a topic one which much emphasis is placed if it has zero significance for Thailand's history? Now, I do find the whole trend exceedingly tasteless, but I also understand why people with no relation to that part of history and WW2 simply wouldn't know or care.

"You don't want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialized in this manner," stresses [Israeli] Ambassador Itzhak Shoham, whose embassy is right behind Terminal 21. "It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person."

Maybe I'm not a civilized person then? Because if anything the whole chic mildly irritates me, and only barely more so then the whole equally repugnant communist chic does. If our paths cross and you're dressed in that kind of garb I won't believe you're a Stalinist or a Nazi sympathizer. But I will believe that you're a fucking moron.

The War Blog - Weekly Update #3

1. Paintings Hitler bought found in Czech Republic



Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/02/...

A five-year search by a Czech author has discovered that 16 paintings in the Czech Republic were once owned by Adolf Hitler.The art works, which Hitler bought in Germany during World War II, had been moved to Czechoslovakia after it was occupied by the Nazis to prevent them being damaged by Allied attacks.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/02/...

2. 'Ours to Fight For' tells stories of Jews who served in WWII

In all, 550,000 Jews - 11 percent of the total U.S. Jewish population - served. Nearly 40,000 were wounded, about 11,000 were killed and 52,000 were decorated for gallantry. But this exhibition, recognized by the American Association of Museums, is less a celebration of heroism and more about what was universal and unique about the experiences of Jewish veterans.

3. Happy Valley author takes on WWII in second novel

"The Bridge of Scarlet Leaves" is a love story set in Los Angeles in 1941, when violinist Maddie Kern secretly elopes with Lane Moritomo, her brother's best friend. Pearl Harbor is bombed the next day, and when Lane and his family are moved to an internment camp, Maddie soon follows.As the war progresses, both Maddie's brother, TJ, and Lane join the military; TJ becomes a B-17 tail gunner in the U. S. Army Air Force, while Lane enlists in the Military Intelligence Service, a secret branch of the U.S. Army responsible for interrogating and code breaking against Japan. When the war ends, the characters have experienced loss, love and understanding.

4. 'Band of Brothers' veteran Buck Compton dead at 90

Lynn D. "Buck" Compton, an Army paratrooper whose World War II service was portrayed in the book and HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" and who later as a prosecutor secured a conviction of Robert F. Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan, died Feb. 26 at his home in Burlington, Wash. He was 90. In the series he was played by Neal McDonough. Buck Compton also wrote a book about his exploits called "Call of Duty".

5. Readers share their memories about German POWs in Texas

Did you know there were some 50,000 German prisoners of war, staying in dozens of Texas camps, during the latter half of World War II?

6. Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors make contact with WWII medic Walter Gantz

As a combat medic with the 9th Army's 95th Medical Battalion, Walter "Babe" Gantz treated somewhere in the ballpark of 19,000 patients over the course of the Second World War.

Perhaps none made a more profound impression on the South Scranton resident than the emaciated, emotionally damaged souls from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The memory of them has haunted him for decades, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd come into contact with any of them.

Savages

All hail the wonderful "Arab Spring", that popular uprising of young democrats all around the Arab world. Or so your media outlets have been busy telling you. Regardless of the fact that Tunisia has been contemplating the introduction of Shariah law, that Egypt's elections have seen 75% of all votes go to radical islamist parties (and you've got to be a very special kind of deluded to think of the Muslim Brotherhood as anything other than radical) and that saw Muammar Ghadaffi tortured and impaled at the hands of the Lybian insurgency which has their center at the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Benghazi also is the center of islamic fundamentalism in Lybia, but I'm sure that has nothing, at all, to do with the way Lybia has moved since Ghadaffi's death, and it certainly has nothing to do with Lybian militia members of that same revolutionary movement desecrating the graves of Allied Christian and Jewish soldiers fallen during WW2 while chanting Allahu Akar ! 





You can put lipstick on a pig and it'll still be a pig.

The War Blog - Weekly Update #2

1. Hitler had planned to set up HQ in UK

German dictator Adolf Hitler had plans to set up his headquarters in the English Midlands if the Nazi invasion of Britain had been successful during World War II, say historians.Maybe I'm understanding this wrong, but Hitler's HQ's usually were set up relatively close to the frontlines, or at least in the vicinity of the relevant theater of operations. Why would Hitler set up shop in the UK if it had been successfully conquered? While he saw the British Empire as a great and important force in the world and had hoped to be on friendly terms with the British there is simply no reason for him to place his personal HQ where the article suggests.

Look at occupied France, for example. Hitler was a great admirer of Napoleon and yet all he did after his conquest of France was to visit Paris, once, and return home. There was no "Wolf's Lair" in France, not even when he contemplated operation Sealion. Then why should we assume there would've been one in the Midlands? To what end? To attack Ireland and fight leprechauns?

2. Japanese-American vets honored for WWII service

Receiving recognition at last, these second-generation Japanese-Americans were honored for their services in WWII. And to quote the sole comment on the article, not mentioned was the fact that many of these men served while their families and friends were locked up in internment camps. Not only are they heroes for their service but for their ability to serve their country in their pursuit of freedom even though many of their families were being denied the same.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/02/19/2...

3. Xeric Grant Winning Graphic Novel Finds FREEDOM

This one falls into the alternate history department of news stories. According to its creator Seamus Heffernan, Freedom is something of a "historical mythology". At its root it's an alternate history about the American Colonists losing the Revolution to the British. He's taken what might have been a likely path for history to follow in the event of the colonial defeat, and injected it with mythical and magical elements. It is a massive, irreverent epic with a huge cast of characters, both fictional and historical. You can check out a PDF excerpt here.

4. Call of Duty: Devil's Brigade

The Verge unveils an indepth look at Infinity Ward's cancelled third-person tactical shooter set in WWII. A nice perspective on a game that was not to be (related story: here).

5. What if Israel were in Germany? An AH.

Another article about Matt Ruff's "The Mirage", a novel I'm not really sure what to make of so far. I'd review it, but as of now I don't actually feel like buying it.

6. Scifi Author spoils his entire book series' finale for terminally ill fan

I may not be the greatest fan of Turtledove's "The War That Came Early" series, but you've got to give it to the man: in real life he seems to be a great guy. Nachu Bhatnagar is a huge fan of the series of alternate history novels. Sadly, Nachu also suffers from terminal cancer and may pass away this June. So his best friend approached Turtledove ("It is my duty as a friend to do whatever I can to fulfill Nachu's last wishes."), and Harry not only sent him an advance copy of the next book, but also spoilt the rest of the plot to him.

Review - Young Adolf

Review - Young Adolf. An Alternate History

Grade: B-



"Young Adolf as you have never seen him before…

Experience Adolf Hitler's childhood in striking detail. Witness his ordeals, from the rigors of his schooling to beatings by his father. Factual accounts are interspersed with fictional inventions, such as his relationship with a hypothetical girl named Helga. Can young Adolf conquer the personal barriers his difficult childhood presented and become close with her emotionally? How will that change him?

Learn more about Adolf the boy. Experience the molding of his dreams, his predjudices, and his desires in visceral detail. Come to understand the inner-workings of History's most infamous megalomaniac through the perspective of a child's eyes. Follow Adolf from birth to his late teenage years. Know the boy before he was the world's most feared man. Decide for yourself if Helga's influence might have altered the course of History."

This is how Frank P. Daversa and Joseph V. Franciosa, Jr. describe their collaborative effort, an alternate history biography of the youth and teenage years of Adolf Hitler. With roughly 120,000 words on 410 pages the authors describe in rich detail the family life and upbringing of the man who would later become the most infamous dictator of history. I'm no expert on Hitler and therefore can only with reservation judge which parts are fictional and which are factual, but to the best of my knowledge the book clings comparably close to the actual Hitler. Daversa and Franciosa dip into the hypothetical where blank spots remain to find reasonable explanations for attitudes and behaviors the real man would later show in his life, drawing a very real picture of how a teenage Hitler may have been: shy, yet forceful, passionate yet reserved, loving and caring yet full of loathing, physically weak yet able of staggering violence when pushed.



The point where the authors really divert from the historical Hitler is the invention of a love interest called Helga. First interested in her sister, their romance takes time to evolve, and is actually really well done in the book. Here, Hitler the dreamer, the soft-hearted, wins the upperhand over his inner demons, if ever so slightly. Still, in the end their love is doomed, but having fully experienced it leaves the young Hitler a different man.



"Young Adolf" leaves me with conflicted feelings. On the one hand, as the first part of my review should have suggested, it's a genuinely well-written and researched novel that offers the reader a window into Hitler's evolving mind and into the society and family that formed him. And for what it's worth, you get exactly what the book promises. And yet, after it put it aside I felt a somewhat uncouth question rise to foreground of my mind: so what?



It takes the book close to half its length to get to its POD. After that, it spends its time on courtship, on Adolf's family and friends, on his own desires and problems - but aside from the courtship angle, those others don't really seem be significantly affected. When all is said and done, his personality emerges (at least superficially, since we only get a sparse outlook after the climax) more reflective of his own shortcomings and vices.



I know that the novel took this line as its premise:

"Decide for yourself if Helga's influence might have altered the course of History."

As such, I can't really fault the authors for any lack of enthusiasm on my part. Nonetheless, as a reviewer I'm obliged to present my honest opinion of a book. In this case that would be as follows:



Young Adolf. An Alternate History is a well crafted and informative novel, but I suppose it just was not my cup of tea. I believe that as an alternate history novel it may have worked better for me if the authors had condensed the first 120 pages and offered a more definitive view on the changed Adolf's immediate future, maybe up till right after the Great War. All in all, I can still recommend Young Adolf. An Alternate History. It does offer insight into Hitler's personality and his formative years, and the Kindle edition is available for less than $5 at the moment. Give it a shot when you have the time.

40,000 - Thank you all!

Thanks to you all "The War Blog" has just crossed the threshold of 40,000 visitors since its inception. Visitor numbers have been on a steady upwards trend for the past year, with people from as far away as Nepal and South Africa checking what I do here. Your interest has been a great inspiration to me, and I hope I can keep up providing you with all news regarding WW2, fictional or real. Again, thanks alot. We'll meet again after the next milestone. :)

The War Blog - Weekly Update #1

I thought it woudn't be a bad idea to give you guys a new category in which I present links of interest in case I don't have material for a full post of my own. I hope you enjoy.



1. The Five Craziest War Stories (and all happening on the same ship!)

This is one of those stories nobody would believe if a movie - even a parody - was made about it. Check out the absolutely face-palm worthy service life of the USS William D. Porter, a ship whose crew was so incompetent it almost ended up the highest decorated vessel of the Regia Marina, Kriegsmarine and Kido Butai together. Even the name of the man who ended up rescuing them in the end is like something right out of a comic book: Dick McCool.

2.  The 6 Greatest War Heroes Who Got Screwed Out of History

This one is just as baffling, though here it's more because of the display of ideologic and bureaucratic pettiness than anything else. And because a guy who infiltrated the Auschwitz KZ as a member of the resistance was executed by his own government - after the war had ended!

3. Hitler could have been stopped in his tracks before WWII. Don't make the same mistake with Iran

It's the Daily Mail, it invokes Godwin's Law, and it's patently ridiculous. Enjoy.

4. Tuskegee Airmen Pilot dies at 91

One of the famed African-American fighter pilots has died at the ripe age of 91 and is to be buried with military honors. I just wish his memory could have been upheld with a better movie.

5. How Germany nearly won the war. Attorney's book challenges traditional view of WW II

"Attorney Steven Mercatante, who has a passion for history and World War II, explores a fascinating premise in his new book, "Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe."

According to Mercatante, Germany came far closer to winning the war than has previously been recognized - and Hitler, through his invasion of the Soviet Union, came within a whisker of cementing a European-based empire that would have allowed the Third Reich to challenge the Anglo-American alliance."



Unfortunately the article is wonderfully devoid of any solid information about the book itself except for the fact that it's marketed heavily with a launch accompanied by reenactors. Who ever wrote the article, he or she should go into politics. With the ability to use that many words without saying one damn thing they'd feel right at home...