Monday, April 24, 1944. Violating Swiss Airspace.

L-R: Lt. Col. Earl Hormell, aide to Gen. Devers, and Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, Deputy Supreme Commander, Me. Theater, pose with Ghurka troops as the general visits the front that the Ghurka was fighting on. Orsogna Sector, Italy, April 24, 1944.  Lt. Gen. Devers is wearing a non-regulation set of pull on "engineer's boots".  Devers was an artilleryman who was an early advocated of mechanization and who had participated in the development of the Army's armored forces, including the design of the M4 Sherman and the M26 Pershing.  Upon his retirement in 1949 at age 62, he became a cattle farmer.

The Finisterre Range Campaign in New Guinea concluded in an Allied victory.  US forces reached Lake Sentani near Hollandia. Australian forces took Madang.

The RAF violated Swiss airspace in order to evade Munich's air warning system.  Earlier in the day, the U.S. Army Air Force had raided the heavily defended city, losing 55 aircraft, 14 of which crashed into Switzerland.

Italy started fielding a "Co Belligerent Air Force" in support of the Allies over the Adriatic.

The Special Boat Service raided Santorini in the Aegean.

A British blockade of mutinous Greek troops in Egypt ceased.

Double Indemnity was released in Brazil, a few months ahead of the American release.

Why Brazil?  I have no idea.

Funeral for German POW Richard Jasker, Camp Robinson Nebraska. 24 April, 1944.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, April 23, 1944. Hollandia taken, MacArthur lands, John C. Squire's posthumous MoH, Greek troubles, Pyrgoi Massacre, Tragic accident, Missing mobster.

1940s, 1944, Battle of Hollandia, Crime, Douglas MacArthur, Greek Civil War, Heroes, Italian Social Republic, Italy, Mafia, Music, New Guinea, Operation Persecution, Operation Reckless, World War Two

Thursday, November 8, 1923. The Beer Hall Putsch.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-1486 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5415949

The Beer Hall Putsch, a large scale Nazi Party attempt at overthrowing the Weimar government combined with far right German support, began when Adolf Hitler with 603 members of the Nazi Party surrounded ll, Der Bürgerbräukeller, where Bavaria's State Commissioner Gustav Ritter von Kahr was making a speech to 3,000 people.  Hitler declared his revolution was aimed at "the Berlin Jew government and the November criminals of 1918".  More Nazi revolutionaries waited in another beer hall, the Lowenbraukeller.

Hitler declared that General Erich Ludendorff would form a new government.  Ludendorff was descending into extreme anti Christianity, although he also held animosity towards Jews as well.

Following that, while the Nazi forces grew, they were disordered and without direction.  Some were arrested early on by German authorities, and a large Nazi force was turned back by a small Reichswehr and police detail. Both Hitler and Ludendorff would be arrested.

The revolution failed by midday the following day, but set the stage for Hitler's rise to power as an extreme right wing figure.

The Imperial Conference ended with an agreement that the British Dominions would be allowed to enter into their own treaties with foreign governments, a major concession.

Saturday, January 27, 1923. Nazis meet for the first time, San Marino temporarily ceases to exist, Rifian POWs released.

Samuel L. Rothafel, Director of Capitol Theatre, New York, using Western Electric microphone, January 27, 1923

 

The German National Socialist Party, the NASDP, commonly called the Nazi Party, held its first party congress.  It was held in Munich, where the party was centered at the time, and drew 6,000 members.

The tiny Republic of San Marino was forced by local fascists into union with Italy.  The micro state has since regained independence.

The Republic of the Rif released the remaining 326 prisoners of war it held to Spain, in exchange for 4,000,000 pesetas. 261 POWS had died in Rifian captivity.

The Country Gentleman had an age-old theme.

Of interest, that style of winter hat is still very popular with outdoorsmen and agriculturalist.  I have two of them.

The Saturday Evening Post had an extraordinarily boring cover.

Thursday, September 6, 1972. Tragedy in Munich

A German rescue plan, based on an ambush at the airport, went badly awry and was discovered by the Black September terrorists before it was put into action.  As a result, all eleven of the Israeli athletes taken hostage were killed.  One West German policeman and five Black September members also died in the gun battle.  Three of the terrorist survived.

The surviving terrorists, almost unimaginably, were held for only a little over a month before being exchanged for hostages held on board Lufthansa Flight 61 in an act designed purposely to secure their release. They were then flown to Libya.

Israel launched a retaliatory mission which is known by two names, Operation Wrath of God and Operation Bayonet, to hunt down and kill those associated with the massacre.  While there were various covert accounts carried out by Mossad as part of this effort, the fate of the surviving terrorists is not entirely clear.  Adnam Al-Gashey and Mohammed Safety are both thought to have been hunted down and killed by Mossad, in both cases due to their remaining in contact with relatives.  Jamal Al-Gashey is thought to be still living in Tunisia, and was actually interviewed for a documentary about the event in 1999.

As a side note, Black September had logistical support for their attack from German Neo-Nazis.

Wednesday, September 5, 1972. An Olympic Tragedy

On this day in 1972 the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September attacked the Israeli quarters at the Olympic village in Munich, killing two athletes and taking nine hostages.

Black September was named for the failed Palestinian attempt to overthrow the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in September 1970, an event which was a Palestinian disaster. This event itself led to the Palestinians being expelled from Jordan and going to Lebanon.  The organization's connection with the Palestinian Liberation Organization has never been clear, but it is clear that there was one.  In 1973 the PLO caused the shutting down of the organization, whose violent acts had not been successful in engendering any support for the Palestinian cause.

This is an event I can recall happening, and oddly enough I believe I learned about it after the family went swimming on a Wednesday afternoon, something that was pretty common for us to do.  Indeed, we swam a lot during the summer, and almost always did on Saturday afternoons and often on Sunday afternoons.  It wasn't a tradition I kept up with my own family, but I probably should have.  The day prior Mark Spitz had won his seventh gold medal at the Olympics, the first athlete to do so.

Mark Spitz at the 1972 Olympics.

Spitz, then only 22 years of age, retired from swimming after the 72 Olympics, but competed again in 199w after filmmaker Bud Greenberg offered  him $1,000,0000 if he made the team that year. He failed to do so by only two seconds.

Spitz had intended to become a dentist, but the Olympics interrupted that pursuit, and he did not resume it after 1992, other opportunities having developed.  He married the next year and the couple have two children.

Saturday, June 27, 1942 The White Rose.

Weiße Rose, or in English White Rose, began distributing its anti-Nazi pamphlets in Munich.

Comprised principally, but not exclusively of students, it was heavily inspired by Catholic thought, although not all of its members were Catholic.

Winston Churchill arrived back in the United Kingdom and a joint statement was issued on the results of the recent Washington Conference.

It was another day of much German submarine activity, but it also saw the USS Nautilus sink a Japanese minesweeper just 60 miles sought of Tokyo Bay.

USS Nautilus.

February 24, 1920. An ominous day in history.

If you read the text on the sidebar describing the purpose of this blog, it provides:

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

So these "today on" type threads that appear here now are on the edge of the time period we focus on here. . .which isn't to say that we don't post on other things.  What we don't intend for the blog to become is a daily "100 years ago" blog, and observant readers might have noticed that the posts here have in fact slowed down and there are less of that very type.

Having said that, we still catch the centennial of some things, and today we note something that was ominous indeed.  The German Workers Party, the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, changed its name and its platform.

The DAP was a right wing German party that was a little over one year old.  It was in the extreme right and was already Anti Semitic.  Adolph Hitler had been sent to spy on it as a spy for the German Army, and had ended up joining it.  Hitler proved to be by far the most dynamic person in the small organization.

On this day the infant party announced its platform at a festival at the Hofbrauhaus, the Royal Brewery, in Munich to an audience of 2,000 people.  It's platform wasn't novel but was a collection of ideas that were in current circulation in right wing circles in Germany with a selection of ones that were current in Socialist parties at the time.  Indeed, on the same day, reflecting its initial somewhat blended view of far right and far left, it changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party, which in acronym form was NSDAP, which Germans shortened to "Nazi" party, using the world Nationalsozialistische for the contraction.

The twenty five points were read by Adolph Hilter to the crowd, and were:

1. We demand the union of all Germans to form the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination enjoyed by the nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations; and abolition of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory for the sustenance of our people and colonization for our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the state. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed may be. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.
6. The right of voting on the state's government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the state alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, shall be granted to citizens of the state alone. We oppose the corrupting custom of parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party considerations, and without reference to character or capability.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to nourish the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) must be excluded from the Reich.
8. All immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be required immediately to leave the Reich.
9. All citizens of the state shall be equal as regards rights and obligations.
10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to productively work mentally or physically. The activity of individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must proceed within the framework of the whole for the benefit for the general good. We demand therefore:
11. Abolition of unearned incomes. Breaking of debt-slavery.
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice of life and property that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. Therefore, we demand ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand nationalization of all businesses which have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).
14. We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.
15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order.
20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the state must be striven for by the school as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the state of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
21. The state is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.
23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that:

    a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race;

    b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the state to be published. They may not be printed in the German language;

    c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications or any influence on them and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.

24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: "The good of the community before the good of the individual".
25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.

On the same day the party adopted new symbols.

In later years some Germans would claim that they were unaware of Nazi goals to expand German territories or that the party would be homicidal towards the Jews, but all the basic information was there right from the onset.