Just so it doesn't go completely unnoticed... today is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

[rockymountaindem]

I don't have time to make a big post about it, but since tomorrow (April 20th) is a rather inauspicious day I thought I might make mention of it so we can have something hopeful to think about.

[Lex1775]

1. Today is also...

The Anniversary of the Battle of Concord. Happy American Revolution Day! :patriot:

[newyawker99]

10. Hi Lex1775!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Kat45]

2. It's also Hitler's birthday, which sometimes incites certain

kinds of whackos into acting up.

[rockymountaindem]

3. Hitler's birthday is the 20th n/t

[rasputin1952]

4. What is Hitlers deathday, I know it's in April, but I can't recall

the date...:shrug:

[rockymountaindem]

6. April 30th

I always drink a toast to victory on that day, even back in the day when I could only toast with juice or milk. I know the end of the war in Europe came at 2 A.M. on the 8th, but April 30th just makes me smile as the anniversary of the day planet Earth was rid of that awful presence.

An interesting side-note. I had the absolute *worst* US history teacher in high school (obviously a fundamentalist FoF-er and a huge Republican), and one day she distributed a self-made timeline of WWII events. "Hitler commits suicide" was under 1944, the end of the timeline. I raised my hand and said, "I don't think that's right, I mean the war continued until 1945, so I don't think Hitler commited suicide in 1944". She again went into reactionary mode, I guess she was tired of me calling proving her wrong all year. As usual she defied me to find sources confirming my assertion. I did and the next day she had to admit her error, remarking "It seems Rocky was right and Hitler committed suicide on May 1, 1945". She seemed so pissed, I didn't point out that she was one day off :)

Edit: check out the movie "Downfall" if you want what I think is a good accounting of the story of Hitler's demise. Be warned though, somebody or other shoots themselves in the head about every two minutes, so if you're averse to that maybe you shouldn't watch it.

[rasputin1952]

7. LOL...sounds like we'd get along well, I always question things...

when I know I'm right...:D

I was brought up in NYC, and I met quite a few Holocaust survivors. Naturally, they didn't speak much about it, but I did get soeminfo from a few that I knew their kids. Extremely dark time, evil roamed freely.

I also found out from my dad many years ago, that the nazi party was pretty big in some major American cities during the 30's-41. On Decenber 7th of 41, by early afternoon you could not find an American nazi anywhere. I kow they're stioll out there, they just went underground.

[rockymountaindem]

8. Google Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund

Those guys had a huge rally in Madison Square Garden during the later 30s which featured Kuhn dressed up like an SA storm trooper standing in front of a giant poster of George Washington festooned with Nazi flags and swastikas.

The rally attracted 20k people. It was followed the next night by a counter-demonstration which attracted 25k on short notice. The most ironic thing was that Hitler wanted the US nazis to lay low and be an agitating presence instead of an overt political force. After he had painstakingly built Kuhn up, Hitler wanted him to disappear because Kuhn's grandstanding put off everybody who wasn't already a fascist. Thank God for that, I guess.

[rasputin1952]

9. I follow history pretty closely, and Kuhn was a typically insane

nazi that really believed the tripe being tossed out there.

I think my 7/8 grade teacher was a nazi at one time, although I can't prove it. He had some VERY strange ideas. This was in the early 60's, and the school was a Lutheran grade school...he was one mean s.o.b....:grr:

[rasputin1952]

5. There was great courage in the ghetto. People fought back

against incredible odds.

I can only hope all of those souls lost can find peace; and that this never happens again.