Comments on: Palestine Judenrein!

By: VJ

VJ — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 05:34:53 +0000

The what ifs just pile up. If Monty had been a bit more aggressive in his pursuit of the Afrika Korps the Nazi’s would have perhaps been unable to commit the havoc they did all over the Mediterranean for the next few years. If the Mufti (and other Arab leaders) had played footsie with the Brits then and in ‘48, there would have been two states created in British Mandate Palestine. But Hitler’s Russian Front Army Group South never made it much beyond the Caucasus or Yougoslavia in their thrust south from the USSR. Tito made certain that it was a bloody business too.

I still run into Jews who’ve got no earthly idea of the Einsatzgruppe, nor the whole gradual industrial development and refinement of the death camps.

Cheery thoughts perhaps. Lest we forget, the specter genocide ever haunts us in every generation. Thanks for the post. ‘VJ’

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:19:16 +0000

Ian Kershaw has a really good account of this in Vol. II of his Hitler bio.

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:16:36 +0000

Blame it on Stauffenberg’s bum arm, I guess.

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:06:10 +0000

That’s the bathroom part, Ephraim. S was scheduled to participate in a briefing at a prearranged time, and shortly beforehand left for the bathroom with a co-conspirator. The plan was to assemble and pack two bombs in briefcases. S and his colleague took longer than expected, and S’s superiors shouted into the bathroom stalls to tell him to get back to the briefing. One bomb was uncompleted and abandoned; had both been used, the whole HQ complex would have blown up.

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 21:59:19 +0000

Right, right, Alec Guiness! That’s it!

Why did I think Peter Sellers?

OK, Tom, point taken. Didn’t realize I was talking to a WWII buff. I guess it was more of a general comment: why didn’t somebody (not just Stauffenberg) do it sooner? I guess I can’t fault Stauffenberg. Pity he didn’t use a bigger bomb, or put it somewhere else instead of behind that massive table leg. Bad luck.

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 21:53:00 +0000

Poor Stauffenberg. He just wasn’t efficient enough in the bathroom.

And Ephraim’s off-base in criticizing S as tardy. He began plotting as soon as he obtained security clearance to participate in briefings at Hitler’s HQ. That occurred on July 1, 1944 (the day S was promoted to colonel).

By: yaaziel

yaaziel — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:44:04 +0000

Ephraim, I was thinking the muffti looked more like Alec Guiness circa “Lavender Hill Mob.”

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:27:47 +0000

Oh, yeah, is or is not that pic of the actual Grand Mufti a dead ringer for Peter Sellers?

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:26:27 +0000

“Kind of makes you wonder”?

What’s to wonder, ck?

And some people bitch when I call these people Nazis.

I had a friend in high school who insisted he was the reincarnation of Claus von Stauffenberg. Went around at SF conventions in a uniform pretending his arm was paralyzed from when von Stauffenberg’s car was strafed.

Strange as it may seem, he was not a bad fellow.

Pity von Stauffenberg’s plan didn’t work and that it took him so long to do it.

A Kosher and Freyliche Pesach, Jewlicious.

By: Tom Morrissey

Tom Morrissey — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:22:33 +0000

. . . Speaking of the German resistance, btw: Claus von Stauffenberg’s widow died a week ago last Sunday– having survived her husband by some 61 years after his death on the night of 20 July 1944. “May perpetual light shine upon her . . .”