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South-east Wall
The South-east wall (German: ''Südostwall'') (also known as Reichsschutzstellung) was a system of fortifications planned by Nazi Germany in the late stages of World War II to extend along the Little Carpathians and Lake Neusiedl southwards to the River Drau. Not a wall in the true sense of the word, the South-east wall was rather a series of German batteries and anti-tank ditches built at strategic locations alongside the southeastern border of the German Reich in 1944/45 with the intention of stopping the Red Army. Thousands of enslaved Hungarian Jews were forced to work on the project. In March 1945, Heinrich Himmler desired hostages for potential peace negotiations with the Western Allies. Himmler issued a directive that Jews were to be marched from the South-east wall to Mauthausen concentration camp. Thousands died on the marches.Oliver Rathkolb and John Heath (trans.) "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth", 2022. The defensive line was only partly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies of World War II, Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, End of World War II in Europe, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole ''Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Carpathians
The Little Carpathians (also: ''Lesser Carpathians'', ; ; ) are a low mountain range, about 100 km long, and part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains are situated in Western Slovakia, covering the area from Bratislava to Nové Mesto nad Váhom, and northeastern Austria, where a very small part called Hundsheimer Berge (or Hainburger Berge) is located south of the Devín Gate. The Little Carpathians are bordered by the Záhorie, Záhorie Lowland in the west and the Danubian Lowland in the east. In 1976, the Little Carpathians were declared a protected area under the name Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area, covering . The area is rich in floral and faunal diversity and contains numerous castles, most notably the Bratislava Castle, and natural caves. Driny is the only cave open to the public. The three highest mountains are Záruby at , Vysoká (Little Carpathians), Vysoká at , and Vápenná at . Description Geomorphologically, the Little Carpathians belong t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Neusiedl
Lake Neusiedl (, ; or ; ; ; ), or Fertő (), is the largest endorheic lake in Central Europe, straddling the Austrian– Hungarian border. The lake covers , of which is on the Austrian side and on the Hungarian side. The lake's drainage basin has an area of about . From north to south, the lake is about long, and it is between and wide from east to west. On average, the lake's surface is above the Adriatic Sea and the lake is no more than deep. The landscape surrounding the lake has been occupied since about 6000 BC, and the towns and villages around the lake have been significant trading centers and meeting points for different cultures for centuries. Because of its cultural importance and the rural architecture of the villages around it, Lake Neusiedl and the surrounding area was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. Water level fluctuations In the past, rainfall and aridity caused significant floods (which in 1768 enlarged the lake to its maximum do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Drau
The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.''Utrata Fachwörterbuch: Geographie - Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch'' by Jürgen Utrata (2014). Retrieved 10 Apr 2014. With a length of ,Joint Drava River Corridor Analysis Report , 27 November 2014 or , if the length of its Sextner Bach source is added, it is the fifth or sixth longest tributary of the |
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army (which embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces alongside the Soviet Navy) was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army. The Red Army provided the largest land warfare, ground force in the Allies of World War II, Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its Soviet invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria assisted the un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being one of the main architects of the Holocaust. After serving in a reserve battalion during World War I without seeing combat, Himmler went on to join the Nazi Party in 1923. In 1925, he joined the SS, a small paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party that served as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, Himmler rose steadily through the SS's ranks to become by 1929. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS grew from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful institutions within Nazi Germany. Over the course of his career, Himmler acquired a reputation for good organisational skills as well as for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich. From 1943 onwards, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Allies
Western Allies was a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It primarily refers to the leading Anglo-American Allied powers, namely the United States and the United Kingdom, although the term has also been used more broadly to encompass lesser Allied powers from the British Commonwealth (in particular, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) as well as France and some other Western European countries. The concept of Western Allies is usually used to denote the major differences between the Western, democratic Allies and the communist, totalitarian Soviet Union. The cooperation between individual Western Allies powers (such as exchange of military intelligence) was much more intensive than that between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. That cooperation became more significant in later stages of the war (e.g. the Teheran Conference). Nonetheless, the tensions remained high, with Western Allies and Soviet Union considering one another a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauthausen Concentration Camp
Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further Subcamp (SS), subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The three Gusen concentration camps in and around the village of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, St. Georgen/Gusen, just a few kilometres from Mauthausen, held a significant proportion of prisoners within the camp complex, at times exceeding the number of prisoners at the Mauthausen main camp. The Mauthausen main camp operated from 8 August 1938, several months after the Anschluss, German annexation of Austria, to 5 May 1945, when it was liberated by the United States Army. Starting with the camp at Mauthausen, the number of subcamps expanded over time. In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates. As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Rathkolb
Oliver Rathkolb (born 3 November 1955 in Vienna) is an Austrian historian and professor for contemporary history at the University of Vienna. Career Rathkolb studied history and law at the University of Vienna and achieved his doctorate in 1982 at the same university. He was chief scientist of the Bruno-Kreisky-Archives Foundation from 1985 to 2003 and has been scientific coordinator of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue since 1992. Rathkolb had been scientific employee of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for history and society from 1983 until 2005 and its co-director since 1994. He had also taken over the office of director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute's European history and public department. Rathkolb received his authorization to teach as a lecturer of contemporary history at the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna in 1993 and became a university professor and director of the Department of Contem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vienna Offensive
The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street fighting, the Soviet troops captured the city on 13 April 1945. Background Vienna had been bombarded continuously for the year before the arrival of Soviet troops, and many buildings and facilities had been damaged or destroyed. Joseph Stalin reached an agreement with the Western Allies prior to April 1945 concerning the relative postwar political influence of each party in much of Eastern and Central Europe; however, these agreements said virtually nothing about the fate of Austria, then officially considered to be merely the Ostmark area of Greater Germany after the Anschluss. As a result, the success of a Soviet offensive against Austria and subsequent occupation by the Red Army of a large part of the country would have been very benefi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
