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Metgethen Massacre
The Metgethen massacre (german: Massaker von Metgethen) was a massacre of German civilians by the Red Army in the Königsberg, East Prussia, suburb Metgethen, which is now Imeni Alexandra Kosmodemyanskogo in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, circa January–February 1945. Timeline During the Battle of Königsberg in 1945, Soviet forces attacking from the north of the Samland peninsula, reached the Vistula Lagoon to the west of Königsberg on January 30, taking Metgethen in the process, a village with a railway station. After dark, they further advanced westward to Groß-Heydekrug. German forces recaptured Metgethen on 19 February in a successful bid to reopen the vital road and railway line between Königsberg and the Baltic Sea harbour of Pillau. According to German reports, mutilated corpses of civilians were discovered. German findings There are several contemporary reports by German military personnel stating that, among other things, women had been raped, mutilated, and killed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltic states, Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It was known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union – and still is in some of its successor states, while almost everywhere else it has been called the ''Eastern Front''. In present-day German and Ukrainian historiography the name German-Soviet War is typically used. The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, expos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. A marginal sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two water bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk. The "Baltic Proper" is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula. The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II Massacres By The Soviet Union
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts. In ''scientific cosmology'' the world or universe is commonly defined as " e totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". '' Theories of modality'', on the other hand, talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. ''Phenomenology'', starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In ''philosophy of mind'', the world is commonly contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1945 In Germany
Events in the year 1945 in Germany. Many events took place in 1945, including the change of the geographical map of Germany. Incumbents Pre-surrender Head of State: * Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Karl Dönitz (President) (Nazi Party) to 23 May, then none Chancellor * Adolf Hitler (Nazi Party) until 30 April, then Joseph Goebbels (Nazi Party) until 1 May, then from 2 May Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk ''(leading minister)'' (non-partisan conservative) to 23 May, then none Post-surrender * Marshal Georgy Zhukov (Red Army), General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States Army), Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (British Army), and Army General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (French Army), commanders of the Allied Control Council Events January * January — American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Belgium. * 6 January — More than 80,000 Jews held captive by the Nazis are freed in Budapest, Hungary, by Russian soldiers. * 12 January � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focus (German Magazine)
''Focus'' (styled as ''FOCUS'') is a German-language news magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. Established in 1993 as an alternative to the ''Der Spiegel'' weekly news magazine, since 2015 the editorial staff has been headquartered in Germany's capital of Berlin. Alongside Spiegel and Stern, Focus is one of the three most widely circulated German weeklies. The concept originated from Hubert Burda and Helmut Markwort, who went from being Editor-in-chief to become publisher in 2009 and since 2017 has been listed in the publication's masthead as founding editor-in-chief. As of March 2016 the editor-in-chief of ''Focus'' was Robert Schneider. History Under the code name "Zugmieze", work commenced on Focus in the summer of 1991. In October 1992, Hubert Burda Media announced plans for a new weekly news magazine. Observers initially gave the project only little chance for success. Several attempts of other publishers to establish a competitor to Spiegel and Stern magazines had p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred-Maurice De Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 31 May 1947) is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law. From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, he served as the first UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Early life De Zayas was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up in Chicago, Illinois (US). He earned his ''juris doctor'' degree from Harvard Law School, then a doctorate of philosophy in modern history from the University of Göttingen (Germany). He holds both US and Swiss citizenships. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tübingen in Germany and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. He worked with the United Nations from 1981 to 2003 as a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chief of Petitions. Since 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Wieck
Michael Wieck (19 July 1928 – 27 February 2021) was a German violinist and author. Wieck's memoir, ''Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs'' (Witness to the fall of Königsberg), was published in 1989. In it he relates his and his partly Jewish family's sufferings under the Nazis and, after the German defeat, under the Soviets. This moving story was translated into English in 2003 under the title ''A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew"'', and in 2004 into Russian as ''Закат Кёнигсберга'' (Sunset of Königsberg). A revised Russian edition was published in 2015. Biography Wieck was born in Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He was the son of two Königsberg musicians who were widely known before the Nazi era, Kurt Wieck and Hedwig Wieck-Hulisch. They were founders of the popular Königsberger Streichquartett (Königsberg String Quartet). Wieck was a grand-nephew of Clara Schumann (née Wieck). After consu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jürgen Thorwald
Jürgen Thorwald (born Heinz Bongartz, October 28, 1915; died April 4, 2006) was a German writer, journalist and historian known for his works describing the history of forensic medicine and of World War II. Thorwald was a native of Solingen, Rhenish Prussia, and attended the University of Cologne. He started his career in 1933 in Nazi Germany, writing for publications such as ''Die Braune Post'' ("''The Brown Mail''"), the SS journal ''Das Schwarze Korps'' ("''The Black Corps''") and the NSDAP paper ''National-Zeitung''. During the war he worked as a propaganda writer, focusing on the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and the general German war effort. After the war he used the pseudonym ''Jürgen Thorwald'' in order to be able to work under allied occupation. In 1947 he legally adopted the new name. Thorwald’s book ''The Century of the Detective'' was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1966 in Best Fact Crime category but he lost to Truman Capote's ''In Cold Blood''. In 1984 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army Atrocities
The war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated by the Soviet Union and its armed forces from 1919 to 1991 include acts which were committed by the Red Army (later called the Soviet Army) as well as acts which were committed by the NKVD, including acts which were committed by the NKVD's Internal Troops. In some cases, these acts were committed upon the orders of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in pursuance of the early Soviet Government's policy of ''Red Terror''. In other instances they were committed without orders by Soviet troops against prisoners of war or civilians of countries that had been in armed conflict with the USSR, or they were committed during partisan warfare. A significant number of these incidents occurred in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe recently before, and during, the aftermath of World War II, involving summary executions and the mass murder of prisoners of war, such as in the Katyn massacre and mass rape by troops of the Red A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemmersdorf Massacre
The Nemmersdorf massacre was a civilian massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II. Nemmersdorf (present-day Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first prewar ethnic German settlements to fall to the advancing Red Army during the war. On 21 October 1944, Soviet soldiers killed many German civilians as well as French and Belgian POWs. Incident The 2nd Battalion, 25th Guards Tank Brigade, belonging to the 2nd Guards Tank Corps of the 11th Guards Army, crossed the Angerapp bridge and established a bridgehead on the western bank of the Rominte river on 21 October 1944. The German forces tried to retake the bridge, but several attacks were repelled by the Soviet tanks and the supporting infantry. During an air attack, a number of Soviet soldiers took shelter in an improvised bunker that was already occupied by 14 local men and women. According to the testimony of a seriously injured woman, Gerda Meczulat, when a Soviet officer arr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicherheitspolizei
The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo (secret state police) and the '' Kriminalpolizei'' (criminal police; Kripo) between 1936 and 1939. As a formal agency, the SiPo was incorporated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in 1939, but the term continued to be used informally until the end of World War II in Europe. Origins The term originated in August 1919 when the '' Reichswehr'' set up the ''Sicherheitswehr'' as a militarised police force to take action during times of riots or strikes. Owing to limitations in army numbers, it was renamed the ''Sicherheitspolizei'' to avoid attention. They wore a green uniform, and were sometimes called the "Green Police". It was a military body, recruiting largely from the ''Freikorps'', with NCOs and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
