Showing posts with label World War II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World War II. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Living under Pétain: The Divided Memory of Vichy - Gestapo - History Documentary - AT

Oct 30, 2024 | When the people of Vichy recount the memory of the ephemeral capital of the "French State" from 1940 to 1944, the unsuspected force of the Pétain myth is revealed.

The new "French State" was born on July 10, 1940, in Vichy, in the Grand Casino theater. In a few days, the Hôtel du Parc, the Majestic, the Portugal, luxury establishments typical of pre-war Vichy, became the headquarters of a regime to which the small spa town would give its name. The terms of collaboration with the Nazi regime had been established as early as June. The hotels became ministries and parliamentary residences, before the Gestapo and its auxiliary, the Milice, set up their dungeons in Portugal and the Petit Casino.

On site, the filmmakers met men and women who, in their youth, were able to watch this sticky little world of the "National Revolution" live. Two of these witnesses, because they were Jewish, lived there as outlaws; one joined the resistance, another was among Laval's lawyers at his trial, a fifth was the daughter of a parliamentarian of the regime. Through their words, it is the history of collaboration and resistance that is written, with its ambiguities and its commitments.

Walks, greetings, hugs from chubby children… Pétain remains in the memory of many Vichy residents as a father and this documentary reveals the unsuspected strength of his myth in French memories. Remembering Vichy is mixing dreams, nightmares and reality, in the same way that Last Year at Marienbad, by Alain Resnais, makes us lose our footing in the troubled waters of memory. With this past that seems to await us in the peaceful alleys of the city, Bertrand de Solliers brings out the palpable unease caused by the era.

Last year in Vichy
Directors: Bertrand de Solliers, Paule Muxel
Producers: JULIANTO, ARTE FRANCE
All rights reserved ARTE


Wednesday, November 16, 2022

The Liberation of Paris | August 1944

May 16, 2022 | The liberation of Paris took place from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by the German Wehrmacht since June 1940.

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The Paranoia That Cost Hitler World War II | Warlords: Hitler vs Stalin | Timeline

Oct 12, 2017 | The personalities and spectres of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin loom large in the events of the twentieth Century. They were similar in some respects and yet very different in others.

The first in a series that examines the interaction of the leading protagonists of WW2, this program looks in some depth at the nature of the relationship and interaction of these two ‘warlords’.

The use of primary materials and memoirs as sources gives the psycho-historical analysis some substance. You can sign up to History Hit, a history documentary service, at a huge discount using the code 'TIMELINE' here.


Wednesday, November 09, 2022

Smoking Unopened Original WW2 Cigarettes from the Third Reich | Reupload


Hier befindet sich eine Dokumentation über die Herstellung von Zigaretten in Dresden. – Mark

As I have said before, I have given up smoking; in fact, tomorrow, November 10, it will be seven months since I smoked my last cigarette. But I must say those cigarettes look very tempting! They were surely of excellent quality.

Even when I started smoking, back in the day, cigarettes were of a much higher quality than the inferior cigarettes they sell today. These days, the only thing about cigarettes that is high is the price of them! That, of course, is because of governments practising extortion on smokers by taxing them so highly in the vain hope of making people healthier.

I should add that I am rather surprised that those cigarettes are still smokeable after all this time! When I smoked, I found that the best place to store cigarette to keep them fresh for as long as possible was in the freezer. That's a trick I learnt many years ago whilst working in the Middle East, where, due to the hot dry weather, tobacco dries out very quickly if left in the open air. If stored in the freezer, however, they last forever; and are smokeable directly when taken out of the freezer (because they contain no moisture). – Mark

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

World War II and the Holocaust

May 7, 2020 • The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered. Roma (Gypsies), physically and mentally disabled people and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

Thursday, November 12, 2020

The Invasion - The Outbreak of World War II

This extra-long episode reconstructs how Hitler's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 triggered a chain of events sparking a global conflagration. Hitler’s Poland Campaign unleashed a “Blitzkrieg” lasting six weeks only. However, it was a war of unprecedented brutality resulting in a tremendous suffering of the Polish people in the long run. Sheds light on some of their lives telling almost forgotten stories.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

How Europe Prepared for WW2 | Impossible Peace | Timeline

When WW2 became inevitable. While all of Czechoslovakia is annexed, the curtain goes up on what will become the world's first truly global and total war.

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Unlikely Romance of a Black Nurse and a German POW in World War II


In this edition of Maryville Talks Books, author Alexis Clark and host Paul Schankman have a conversation about her remarkable new "stranger than fiction" book, Enemies in Love, which tells the true story of a black nurse and a German Prisoner of War, who fell in love during World War Two, and eventually married. Though their story began more than 70 years ago, it feels very relevant today as America continues to wrestle with issues of racism and hate.


Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance »

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Projections of Life: Jewish Life before World War II


Rare, intimate home movies—depicting family life, birthday parties, vacations, and more—provide a glimpse into the lives of Jewish individuals who were soon swept into the destruction of the Holocaust.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

The Secret Jews of Berlin | World War 2 Documentary | Timeline


It is commonly assumed that most Jews in Germany during the Second World War were exterminated, worked to death or saved ‘Schindler style’ by Gentiles.

A surprisingly high number from one city defied the odds and saved themselves. The Jews who survived in Berlin were vibrant, devious, clever and very, very lucky. Five of them tell their stories and reveal their survival techniques. Cantankerous, egotistical and irresistible, the outstanding spirit that helped them survive is still undimmed. This programme is more than just a wartime human interest story. It seeks to show that not all wartime Jews were passive, obedient victims. They were real people who knew how to fight back.


Sunday, October 09, 2016

Tora, Tora, Tora: The True Story of Pearl Harbor: Documentary


It was the most daring naval and army manoeuvres of all time. In less than two hours without warning a swarm of Japanese fighter planes, each bearing a red sun soared over pearl harbour, Hawaii. At 7.53am a Japanese commander radioed to his pilots, "Tora, Tora, Tora!" In a matter of minutes, bombs and torpedoes fell from the sky paralysing U.S pacific naval forces. The day of infamy began with an intricate well-planned attack and a thunderous roar. The shock and anger over the surprise raid rallied a divided nation together more than any other event known to modern man.

Monday, November 09, 2015

Andrew Marr Presents the 1939 Register on Findmypast: Eve of War


Andrew Marr reveals what life was like in Britain on the eve of war, and what you can discover in the pages of the 1939 Register. As war broke out in September 1939, a National Register was taken - The 1939 Register contains the names and details of 41 million civilians in England and Wales. For the very first time, the National Register taken on the eve of war in 1939 is available to search online, only at Findmypast. Find out more at www.findmypast.co.uk

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Nazi Sympathiser and Former King the Duke of Windsor 'Wanted England to Be Bombed', International Archives Reveal

The Duke of Windsor was forced to abdicate in 1936
THE INDEPENDENT: The Duke of Windsor, who is widely regarded as a Nazi sympathiser, once argued that bombing England could bring peace by ending WWII, it has emerged.

Correspondence kept in the Royal Archives between the British royal family and their German relatives in the run up to WWII remains confidential.

However, information pieced together from open archives across 30 countries, including Germany, Spain and Russia, has revealed the close relationship some members of the European aristocracy had with the Nazis.

Dr Karina Urbach, senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research at the School of Advance Study at the University of London, has uncovered how the Duke of Windsor told Don Javier Bermejillo, his old friend and Spanish diplomat, that the British royal blamed “the Jews, the Reds and the Foreign Office for the war”. » | Kashmira Gander | Monday, June 08, 2015

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Six German Women Investigated over Auschwitz Crimes

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Six women who were guards at the Auschwitz death camp are being investigated on suspicion of complicity in mass murder, German authorities confirmed on Friday.

The women are among 50 former Auschwitz guards still living in Germany whose cases are being examined by the country's Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.

Thomas Will, an investigator at the Central Office, confirmed that the women were under investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting murder. The women are now in their 90s, Mr Will said. The female guards were assigned to women's barracks.

Earlier this year, German authorities launched a fresh attempt to bring surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice, which has so far resulted in the arrest of alleged Auschwitz guard Hans Lipschis, 93.

Lipschis, who was arrested in Aalen, southern Germany, claims he was only a cook.

The renewed push follows the conviction in 2011 of John Demjanjuk, a guard at Sobibor death camp. » | Jeevan Vasagar, Berlin | Friday, August 09, 2013