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Operation Carnival
Franz Oppenhoff (18 August 1902 – 25 March 1945) was a German lawyer who was appointed mayor of the city of Aachen after its capture by Allied forces in World War II. He was subsequently assassinated on the order of Heinrich Himmler. Biography Born in 1902, Franz Oppenhoff received a law degree from Cologne University, and worked as a lawyer until World War II. Oppenhoff was an expert on Nazi law, had been legal representative for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen, Bishop of Aachen, Johannes Joseph van der Velden, and had defended some cases for Jewish companies. Knowing that the Gestapo was interested in him, he had taken refuge in Eupen, across the border in Belgium, in September 1944, taking his wife and three daughters with him. Following the occupation of Aachen after the Battle of Aachen, in October 1944, Allied officials wanted to appoint a non-Nazi to take over administration of the city. Assisted by the Bishop of Aachen, officials managed to make contact with a group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is located at the northern foothills of the High Fens and the Eifel Mountains. It sits on the Wurm (Rur), Wurm River, a tributary of the Rur (river), Rur, and together with Mönchengladbach, it is the only larger German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. It is the westernmost larger city in Germany, lying approximately west of Cologne and Bonn, directly bordering Belgium in the southwest, and the Netherlands in the northwest. The city lies in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion and is the seat of the Aachen (district), district of Aachen ''(Städteregion Aachen)''. The once Celts, Celtic settlement was equipped with several in the course of colonization by Roman people, Roman pioneers settling at the warm Aachen thermal springs around the 1st cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychological Warfare Division
The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (PWD/SHAEF or SHAEF/PWD) was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological warfare against German troops and recently liberated countries in Northwest Europe, during and after D-Day. It was headed by US Brigadier-General Robert A. McClure (who had previously commanded the Psychological Warfare Branch (PWB/AFHQ) of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff for Operation Torch). The Division was formed from staff of the US Office of War Information (OWI) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE). The Division used radio and leaflet propaganda to undermine German soldiers' morale; with the bulk of the aerial propaganda leaflets being printed in the United Kingdom and a dedicated ''Special Leaflet Squadron'' of the US 8th Air Force disseminating the leaflets from its bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
League Of German Girls
The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens (, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany. At first, the League consisted of two sections: the '' Jungmädelbund'' ("Young Girls' League") for girls aged 10 to 14, and the League proper for girls aged 14 to 18. In 1938, a third section was introduced, the ''BDM-Werk Glaube und Schönheit'' ("Faith and Beauty Society"), which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages of 17 and 21. Due to the compulsory membership of all young women, except for those excluded for racial reasons, the League became the largest female youth organization at the time with over 4.5 million members. With the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organization ''de facto'' ceased to exist. On 10 October 1945, it was outlawed by the Allied Control Council along with other Nazi Party organizations. Under Section 86 of the Ger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haupttruppführer
Haupttruppführer (, "chief troop leader") was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1930 and 1945. ''Haupttruppführer'' was mainly used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA), but was also used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in the early days of that group's existence. As an SA rank, ''Haupttruppführer'' was created from the much older ''Freikorps'' title of ''Truppführer''. ''Haupttruppführer'' was considered a senior most paramilitary enlisted rank, below the first officer position of '' Sturmführer''. A ''Haupttruppführer'' typically served as the senior non-commissioned officer of SA regiments, known as ''Standarten'', and the rank was the approximate equivalent to sergeant major. ''Haupttruppführer'' translated as "head troop leader" and was considered senior to the rank of ''Obertruppführer Obertruppführer (, "senior troop leader") was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party that was used between the years of 1932 and 1945. The rank is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilse Hirsch
Ilse Hirsch (1922–2000) was a German Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) ''Hauptgruppenführerin'' (captain) famous as part of the six-person team that participated in Operation Carnival in 1945. Early life Hirsch was born in Hamm. She joined the BDM at age sixteen and became one of its principal organizers in the town of Monschau. In the late stages of World War II, she was part of ''Werwolf'' (German for "werewolf"), a German partisan group that operated behind enemy lines. Unternehmen Karneval Unternehmen Karneval was a Werwolf mission authorized by Heinrich Himmler to assassinate Franz Oppenhoff, who, in October 1944, was appointed mayor of Aachen by the Americans after they took control of the city. Hitler took a personal interest in this appointment and ordered Oppenhoff's elimination. Team The team assembled by Generalinspekteur für Spezialabwehr Hans-Adolf Prützmann, who was given the task by Himmler, was: * Untersturmführer-SS (Lt.) Herbert Wenzel * Austrian Unters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unterscharführer
''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation of new ranks to separate the SS from the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA). The insignia was a button pip centred on a collar patch opposite an SS unit insignia collar badge. The field grey SS uniform displayed the rank with silver collar piping and the shoulder boards of an ''Unteroffizier''. Rank comparisons list the rank of ''Unterscharführer'' as equivalent to a corporal in other services, but the rank held responsibilities of a sergeant in some other armies. Creation The rank of ''Unterscharführer'' was created from the SA rank of '' Scharführer''. After 1934, an SS-''Unterscharführer'' and SA-''Scharführer'' were considered equivalent positions; the rank of SS-''Unterscharführer'' was junior to SS-''Scharführer'' and senior to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erkelenz
Erkelenz (, ) is a town in the Rhineland in western Germany that lies southwest of Mönchengladbach on the northern edge of the Cologne Lowland, halfway between the Lower Rhine region and the Lower Meuse. It is a medium-sized town (over 44,000) and the largest in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia. Despite the town having more than 1,000 years of history and tradition, in 2006 the eastern part of the borough was cleared to make way for the Garzweiler II brown coal pit operated by RWE Power. This is planned to be in operation until 2045. Over five thousand people from ten villages have had to be resettled as a result. Since 2010, the inhabitants of the easternmost village of Pesch have left and most have moved to the new villages of Immerath and Borschemich in the areas of Kückhoven and Erkelenz-Nord. Geography Landscape The area is characterised by the gently rolling to almost level countryside of the Jülich-Zülpich Börde, whose fertile loess soi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werwolf
''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in front of the lines. There is some argument that the plan, and subsequent reports of guerrilla activities, were created by Joseph Goebbels through propaganda disseminated in the waning weeks of the war through his "Radio Werwolf", something that was not connected in any way with the military unit. Nomenclature How and by whom the name was chosen is unknown, but it may have alluded to the title of Hermann Löns's novel, '' Der Wehrwolf'', first published in 1910. Set in the Celle region (Lower Saxony) during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the novel concerns a peasant named Harm Wulf. After marauding soldiers kill his family, Wulf organizes his neighbors into a militia who pursue the soldiers and mercilessly execute any they capture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Wenzel
Herbert may refer to: People * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, Northern Territory, a rural locality * Herbert, South Australia. former government town * Division of Herbert, an electoral district in Queensland * Herbert River, a river in Queensland * County of Herbert, a cadastral unit in South Australia Canada * Herbert, Saskatchewan, Canada, a town * Herbert Road, St. Albert, Canada New Zealand * Herbert, New Zealand, a town * Mount Herbert (New Zealand) United States * Herbert, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Herbert, Michigan, a former settlement * Herbert Creek, a stream in South Dakota * Herbert Island, Alaska Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Herbert (Disney character) * Herbert Pocket, a character in the Charles Dickens novel ''Great Expectations'' * Herbert West, title ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Untersturmführer
(, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of '' Sturmführer'', which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. The rank of ''Untersturmführer'' was senior to '' Hauptscharführer'' (or '' Sturmscharführer'' in the Waffen-SS) and junior to the rank of ''Obersturmführer''. Overview ''Untersturmführer'' was the first commissioned SS officer rank, equivalent to a second lieutenant in other military organizations. The insignia consisted of a three silver pip collar patch with the shoulder boards of an army lieutenant. Because of the emphasis the SS placed on the leadership of their organization, obtaining the rank of ''Untersturmführer'' required a screening and training process different from the standard promotion system in the enlisted ranks. In the early days of the SS, promotion to ''Untersturmführer'' was simply a matter of course as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was the sole official boys' youth organisation in Germany (although the League of German Girls was a wing of it) and it was partially a paramilitary organisation. It was composed of the Hitler Youth proper for male youths aged 14 to 18, and the Deutsches Jungvolk, German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth ( or "DJ", also "DJV") for younger boys aged 10 to 14. With the German Instrument of Surrender, surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organisation ''de facto'' ceased to exist. On 10 October 1945, the Hitler Youth and its subordinate units were outlawed by the Allied Control Council along with other Nazi Party organisations. Under Strafgesetzbuch section 86a, Section 86 of the Strafgesetzbuch, Criminal Code of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans-Adolf Prützmann
Hans-Adolf Prützmann (31 August 1901 – 16 May 1945) was among the highest-ranking German SS officials during the Nazi era. From June 1941 to September 1944, he served as a Higher SS and Police Leader in the occupied Soviet Union, and from November 1943 was the Supreme SS and Police Leader in Ukraine. He oversaw the activities of the ''Einsatzgruppen'' detachments that perpetrated the Holocaust in the Baltic States and Ukraine. After being captured at the end of the Second World War, he committed suicide. Early life Prützmann was born in the East Prussian town of Tolkemit, the son of a businessman. After completing his secondary education at the gymnasium, Prützmann became a member of the ''Freikorps'' "Aulock" between 1918 and 1921, seeing active service in the Upper Silesian uprisings in the summer of 1921. Afterwards, he studied agriculture at the University of Göttingen from 1921 to 1923 and then worked for seven years as an agricultural official in the Prussian provi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
