burnedshoes:

© Heinrich Hoffmann, late 1920s, Hitler posing to a recording of one of his speeches

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), strikes a pose for photographer Heinrich Hoffmann whilst listening to a recording of his own speeches. These photographs taken reveal how Adolf Hitler rehearsed his hand gestures for his public speeches. He used to ask Hoffmann to take pictures of these so he could see what he would look like to the German people, as one of Hitler’s greatest and most well-known skills was his public speaking, which he used to his advantage to emphasise his notion of a “great national revival” of Germany.

Once he saw them, he would vet the pictures and decide whether to incorporate the various animated movements in his engagements. Hitler later banned them from being published for being “beneath one’s dignity”. But the photos, which were never intended to be seen, survived the war. The vetoed photos were stored in Hoffmann’s studio until his arrest at the end of the war, whereupon they disappeared into various archives.

They were later published in his little-known memoir, “Hitler Was My Friend”, in the 1950s and have now been released in English to be seen by the general public. They capture the meticulous training Hitler undertook to perfect his famous speeches, and give a rare insight into his vanity and controlling personality. (more photos and info here: +, +, +)

demons:

On this day, 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide while held up in his Berlin bunker with the Soviets on his door step. Soon after his death, the last surviving piece of the Axis in Europe surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. The Third Reich, which was meant to last a thousand years, had only lasted twelve, but cost millions of lives.

Despite this event, the Second World War was not over. There was still a bloody and on going war in the Pacific against the Japanese for the Allies to finish.

ucsdspecialcollections:

Insure your home against Hitler!, published by PM Magazine on July 28, 1942, Dr. Seuss Collection, MSS 230

positive-press-daily:

Rare first editions saved from Nazi book burnings returned to Austria after 75 years

George Newman (formerly Hans Neumann, pictured above,) was 14 when he fled Vienna, fearing Nazi persecution, for England in 1938. Now, 75 years later, he has returned to Austria for a ceremony at the National Library, where he has donated hundreds of books and documents back to the Austrian nation which would otherwise have been burned by the Nazi regime.

Newman, now 89, was guest of honour at the celebrations which marked the 75th anniversary of the Anschluss, when Austria looked to cede itself to Germany – and Nazi rule. Hitler’s speech on 11 March 1938, made on a balcony above the modern entrance to the Austrian National Library, resulted in the Nazi occupation of Austria and the persecution of Austrian Jews.

Newman remembers the events of that evening as an “eerie stillness that was so tangible you could feel it”, saying a “monumental page of history had only just been turned”. In the next three days his family would be separated and he left for England on 14 March.

However, when Newman left Vienna, he took more than 50 first editions to England from authors including Franz Werfel, Arthur Schnitzler and Felix Salten, who created Bambi. He also rescued a privately printed edition of Sigmund Freud’s early letters, and theatrical scripts by Schnitzler and Nobel prize-winner Gerhard Hauptmann, all of which would have been burned had they stayed in Austria.

Newman had access to the books as his father and grandfather were part of the Paul Zsolnay Verlag publishing house. He continued to archive hundreds of letters and documents from the company, including poems on scraps of tissue paper smuggled from a Viennese prison cell from his father, Paul, who was detained for three months after his family had fled the country.

The Zsolnay publishing firm archive is now stored by the Austrian National Library, in what they say is a “symbolic return”. Newman’s son, Patrick, who travelled with him to Vienna, said the event was “a performance of all performances” and that he was very happy that the archive has returned to Austria.

After leaving Vienna, Newman boarded at Magdalen College School, Oxford. He joined the RAF and saw active service in Germany before returning to Oxford to read history after the war. He married his wife Patricia, a concert pianist at the RCA, with whom he still lives in Wimbledon.

greatestgeneration:

During the 1942 wartime election cycle, a popular comic book called The Flag ran an edition where the hero saves his metropolis from Nazi henchmen looking to tamper with voting stations by trapping all of the city’s voters in subway stations.

The comic book taught readers about the importance of voting, the dangers of voter fraud, and the importance of standing up against tyranny. One of the better soft propaganda messages I’ve seen!

unhistorical:

September 8, 1941: The Siege of Leningrad begins.

The battle over the city that is today called St. Petersburg was a long-drawn-out, seemingly interminable struggle that ultimately ended nearly 900 days after it began; casualty-wise, it is the most deadly siege in history. By January 1944, over a million Red Army troops had been killed, plus several hundred thousand civilians and an unknown (but certainly equally devastating) number of German soldiers. The siege officially began when German forces surrounded Leningrad and cut off all supply routes in and out of the city. It is likely that Hitler’s goal to take the city was largely a symbolic one - it was named after Lenin, it had been Russia’s capital for two centuries, and much of the action of the 1917 Russian Revolution had taken place in Leningrad (then called Petrograd). 

For two and a half years, the Germans lay siege to Leningrad and forced a blockade on the Russians, cutting off all supplies as to starve them out until they were too weak to fight back. They held onto the city for these two and a half years, however, though only just. Temperatures dropped to −30 °C in the winter. Food was also scarce (bread that was rationed out was often made of sawdust), and starving civilians were soon forced to eat rats, pets, and reportedly, other people. Some lucky civilians were evacuated across Lake Ladoga, on the frozen transport route that came to be called the “Road of Life”, because it was also used to transport supplies (or attempt to) into the besieged city.

The siege was not lifted until 1944, and even as German forces retreated, they were ordered (perhaps simply out of spite) by their Führer to loot and destroy what historically and culturally significant sites they could. 

todaysdocument:

Surrender of Japan

General Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay. Behind General MacArthur are Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and Lieutenant General A. E. Percival., 09/02/1945

pbsthisdayinhistory:

Sept. 1, 1939: Germany Invades Poland; World War II Begins

On this day in 1939, without declaring war, Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War II. The coordinated air-and-land attack was conducted with such brutal efficiency that “blitzkrieg” became a feared offensive tactic. Two days later, Great Britain and France declared Germany.
 
Explore Ken Burns’s timeline for an extensive study of the events of World War II.

Photo: German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland, September 1939. (National Archives)

Hitler’s chalet of stolen art seized, 1945