Quote of the Day: Harry Truman on VJ Day

In Memory of the 65th Anniversary of the Victory in Japan
On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan aboard the battleship USS Missouri.  In Japan, the day is usually referred to as the "Memorial Day for the End of the War".  The official name for the day, however, is "The Day for Mourning of War Dead and Praying For Peace".  I have always found the timing interesting, in that the official surrender by Japan was signed 6 years and 1 day after the official start of WWII with the Blitzkrieg on Poland.

"Our first thoughts, of course--thoughts of gratefulness and deep obligation--go out to those of our loved ones who have been killed or maimed in this terrible war. On land and sea and in the air, American men and women have given their lives so that this day of ultimate victory might come and assure the survival of a civilized world. No victory can make good their loss."

"We think of those whom death in this war has hurt, taking from them fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, and sisters whom they loved. No victory can bring back the faces they longed to see."

"Only the knowledge that the victory, which these sacrifices have made possible, will be wisely used, can give them any comfort. It is our responsibility--ours, the living--to see to it that this victory shall be a monument worthy of the dead who died to win it."- President Truman- Excerpt from his radio address at 10pm, September 1, 1945, after the signing of the terms of unconditional surrender by Japan

Book Review: "The Oster Conspiracy of 1938" by Terry M Parssinen

The Oster Conspiracy of 1938: The Unknown Story of the Military Plot to Kill Hitler Avert World War II by Terry M. Parssinen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

September 1938. In power more than five years, Hitler unilaterally dismantled the Treaty of Versailles, provision by provision, daring Britain and France to stand up to him. Earlier that year, he forced Austria into his Third Reich without firing a single shot. Now his sights were set on Czechoslovakia. 

It was in this dangerous climate that the first anti-Nazi coup was born. The plot was spearheaded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hans Oster, and its members included top German military leaders, the Berlin police, local troop commanders, civil authorities, religious leaders, and a group of resisters whose names have been wiped from the pages of history. Their mission was to kill Hitler and to overthrow the Nazi regime. 

Using British and German sources and previously unknown documents in the Military History Institute of the U.S. Army War College, historian Terry Parssinen has documented this conspiracy. Illustrated with photographs and maps, this highly provocative work is narrative history at its best.

A well-researched and documented look at the Oster Conspiracy that began to formulate in 1938, prior to Hitler's declaration of war on Poland. Much is known about the July 20th failed plot to kill Hitler, but this is the story of a large group of German military men that saw the invasion of Czechoslovakia as a foreshadowing of disaster for Germany and the German people. The group of conspirators were counting on Chamberlain sticking by Czechoslovakia and not giving into another one of Hitler's demands. Chamberlain's appeasement during that time was what kept the assassination plot from launching. An interesting and thought-provoking book that begs the question of how many lives may have been saved if Hitler had been killed before WWII had a chance to begin. Interestingly, the idea for the book came from a student he had as a Professor at the University of Tampa who asked him when the last moment could have been that would have stopped Hitler from attacking Poland.

Quote of the Day- Neville Chamberlain's Words As WWII Began

"It is evil things we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution." - 1939 by Neville Chamberlain

World War II History- "Mother and Children," designed by Third Reich artist Werner von Axster-Heudtlass (1898-1949), engraved by Ferdinand Lorber in Vienna, Austria, and issued by Germany on September 1, 1943.

World War II History- Declaration that the fourth anniversary of the tragic invasion of Poland will be observed as Polish Day.

World War II History- September 1, 1941: German government orders Jews to wear yellow stars.

Anti-Jewish laws were also enforced in Italy, under the dictatorship of Mussolini. This photograph pictures a young Jewish child with a Star of David badge from Rhodes, where Anti-Jewish laws were in effect.

World War II History- September 1, 1939 unnamed experts predicted how WWII would be fought in a published newspaper article. None of the predictions turned out to be accurate.

World War II History- Britain bans television on 1 September 1939 for the duration of the coming conflict. The ban will not be lifted until 7 years have passed.

Note: At this time there are only a mere 2,000 TV sets in Great Britain.

World War II History- Poland was the only country to fight in the European theatre of war from the first to the last day of the greatest armed conflict in the history of mankind.

The war began with invading Poland: first, on September 1, 1939, by the Nazi Germany, soon after, on September 17, by the Soviet Union. At the end of WWII Poland was left to the Russians.

Newsreels From the Past: "Invasion of Poland"

World War II History- This item is a penciled notation written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt while in bed on September 1, 1939 at 3:05 a.m., and records how he received news that Germany had invaded Poland and was bombing Polish cities, thus beginning World War II.

The note documents that Roosevelt received word of the invasion from Ambassador Anthony Biddle, through Ambassador William Bullitt. The note also documents the President’s order that all Navy ships and Army commands be notified by radio of the news.

World War II History- Hitler authorizes Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler and Dr. Karl Brandt to empower certain doctors to euthanize the incurably ill.

This document, dated September 1, 1939, is the only murder-order Hitler is known to have signed.

World War II History- On the night of 31 August 1939 a group of German operatives, dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Naujocks, seized Gleiwitz station and broadcast an anti-German message in Polish.

The Germans' goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs. Franciszek Honiok, a German known for sympathizing with the Poles, was dressed as a saboteur; killed by lethal injection, shot, and left at the scene, so he appeared to have been killed attacking the station

World War II History: "Battlefield: The Battle of Stalingrad"

World War II History: "The Battle of Stalingrad"

World War II History- August 21, 1942: "Bathing Installations for Special Action". Describes two ovens installed in Auschwitz gassing bunkers.

World War II History- "On the morning of the 21 August [1941] a member of the German Army was assassinated in Paris..." In consequence, the Germans would begin to execute French prisoners as "hostages."

World War II HIstory: "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" - Audio speech made by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on 20 August 1940.

Battle of Britain Memorial

World War II History- The Riegner Telegram was a message sent on 10 August 1942 by Gerhart Riegner, then Secretary of World Jewish Congress, Geneva, informing the Allies about the "Final Solution of the Jewish question", the German plan to exterminate the European Jews, for the first time.

World War II History- August 8, 1942: Six German saboteurs executed in Washington.