The first Le Mans automobile race took place.
The French executed some Germans who were committing acts of sabotage and the like against their occupation of the Ruhr.
One of the terrorist was one Albert Leo Schlageter, a former German officer of the Great War and a Freikorps officer who had engaged in acts of sabotage against the French. He was not a "Red" and would go on to obtain mythic status in the German far right, including the early Nazis, who in fact murdered his betrayer. The killers of that individual were one Rudolf Höss and Martin Bormann, who would later go on to roles in the Third Reich. They were first captured and sentenced for their role in the murder.
Bormann is well known, but Höss less so. He was Auschwitz's longest commanding officer and was executed in 1947. Facing execution, he came to see his actions as gravely immoral and wrote this out to his wife prior to his execution:
My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done. I ask the Polish people for forgiveness. In Polish prisons I experienced for the first time what human kindness is. Despite all that has happened I have experienced humane treatment which I could never have expected, and which has deeply shamed me. May the facts which are now coming out about the horrible crimes against humanity make the repetition of such cruel acts impossible for all time.
On this same day, a Communist lead strike in the Ruhr expanded.
The British made the Emirate of Transjordan autonomous, but not independent of British oversight. It would achieve full independence in 1946.
Turkey waived reparations claims against Greece at Lausanne in exchange for the Thracian territory.
No comments:
Post a Comment