Henry A. Wallace Quotes

The Nazis occupied the cities, but the partisans survived in the mountains. The resistance was ferocious and very effective. From a German Soldier’s point of view, the Yugoslav front was the most dangerous assignment where his odds of being killed was even greater than the Russian front.

Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in human history with over 2 million casualties, many produced by Hitler’s order. The Germans were bogged down, could not take Stalingrad, the Russian Winter was closing in on them, the Germans were not equipped or dressed for the winter, and the Luftwaffe had not been able to resupply the armies who were out of food and ammunition. Paulus requested permission to surrender the army and received this response. Shortly thereafter, he disobeyed orders and surrendered what remained of the German forces who by that time were in terrible shape. Professional military men have criticized the Field Marshall for not having surrendered much earlier and saved so many of his men.

War between England and Germany had just commenced.

The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, preceded him with the announcement of declaration of war against Germany, but it was left up to the Foreign Minister to explain the implications. This was the first time in history that a nation had used radio to communicate such momentous events to its population.

Eisenhower was then Supreme Allied Commander.

Prior to this order, some German submarines had assisted the survivors of torpedoed ships. None did after and some actually machine gunned survivors in the water. One aspect of the quotation that is particularly interesting was the Admiral’s justification example of the Allied bombing of German Cites. What he did not say was that this practice did not begin until Germany—at the insistence of Hitler—ignored the Geneva Conventions and bombed London, Coventry and other English cities. Hitler declared London an “Open City”. The Allies retaliated by bombing factories that were in German Cities. After the war Donitz was found guilty of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and using thousands of slave laborers in his shipyards. He was sentenced to 10 years, one of the lightest sentences if the German War Crimes Trials.

Some scholars look back at the allied bombing of German Cities in WWII with criticism that it was morally improper to bomb populated cities, and that the use of the adjective “exterminating” indicated that Churchill was more interested in killing Germans than strategic victory. This revisionist history has two failings. First, the Germans had already bombed Coventry, London and other civilian targets in England as well as cities in Holland, Poland and other countries killing many civilians. As a result, under the rules of war, Germany was no longer entitled to protection for their cities. Further, Hamburg and other targets were manufacturing sites of war material and as such lost the protection anyway. Even Dresden, which had very little war manufacturing was the main location for R&R of German Officers and by their military presence in the city converted it into a legitimate target. FDR agreed with Churchill, that the bombing was a good strategy to cause Hitler to fall as they thought the public would rebel. They were wrong however and his grip on the population through the Gestapo and the military was so strong that, it took a land invasion and occupation to put an end to Hitler. However, the devastating bombing all but crippled the German weapons development and deployment. For example. The Germans had developed the Jet Airplane Engine and actually put a few in the fight at the end if the war. Without the bombing, they would have had many more and countered the allied air supremacy. However, it is also true that Churchill and many Englishmen and some Americans believed that the English were morally entitled to retaliation for the innocent civilians killed with the German bombing of civilian targets.

He always appeared in a military uniform after that.

of the German tactics of Blitzkrieg Goering, Hitler and the other leading Nazis were quite open about their military aggression. Terrorism was admittedly used to persuade the next nation Germany would attack to capitulate rapidly.

This was the first day of WWII and Hitler’s armies seemed invincible. Kaplan was one of the few who at that time predicted allied victory. He was not even wrong about his own fate. He and the vast majority of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto never survived.

In the American democracy the tradeoff between military activity and respect for human rights has always been an issue.

Unlike many socialists who were pacifists and against WWI, Foster and the communists were supporters of the war against fascist Germany, This was one of the reasons that Nazi Germany was virulently anti-communist later.

She and most other German scientist fled from the Nazis—she to Sweden. Hahn, her former collaborator, remained in Germany and worked for the Nazis. The letter was written in the expectation that Moe Berg, an American OSS agent would have it delivered to Hahn in Germany. So far as anyone can tell, it was never delivered but was used by the OSS for analysis of German physics prowess.