Mostly WWII (short documentaries)

Voyageur

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A: We have told you before: the Nazi experience was a "trial run," and by now you see the similarities, do you not?

Stumbled on this fellow's documentaries, historian Dr. Mark Felton (via @Benjamin and @bjorb's earlier mentions in different posts). Insofar as Felton's work, one might guess he is popular as he is mentioned in places like the History Channel, Netfix and more, and he has written books.

Before exploring a little, another aspect of these short documentaries is in the subjects themselves, with many photos or video where one may, or many not, have seen them before. Thus, will offer up a few of these relatively short mini-doc's which have some twists and turns; inaccuracies are likely.

That said, what caught my attention was the first mini-doc called The Fates of Top Nazis' Wives and Mistresses. Here, from the show notes, he is speaking of the German high command and:

What happened to the wives and girlfriends of Hitler's inner circle when the war ended? Find out about Emmy Goering, Gretl Braun, Gerda Bormann, Margarete Himmler and several others

Generally, or as often as happens, our history books can be devoid of bigger circles, and it was the historian David Irving (yes, controversial), who had said that what most historians miss is gathering information that comes close to source, like a wife et cetera. In Irving's case, he may have been said that he had approached Emmy Göring (not sure) who had supplied him with her husband Herman's diaries, and that is rather close indeed as opposed to cut and paste history.

So, just in this case alone (Emmy), one might recall books such as the The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (Robert Waite, who wrote on psychohistorical work), and Psychology of Dictatorship (Gustave Mark Gilbert) discussing Hitler, and interviews with Göring at Nuremberg. In this respect, here is a little more that can be added, such as knowing the wife of Göring and others just a little more, who the former had also attended Nuremberg to be at her husbands side, and then lived on. Many and their offspring spoken of here were living up to late 20-teens, and some offspring may still be alive.

Anyway, as said, this is why it caught my eye.


In the next documentary, called Captured Soviet Female Soldiers - How Did the Germans Treat Them?, it looks to the revealed subject in the title.

The view here is of the policy opposition between the Soviet and German command. In the latter, the German high command forbid women from serving in regular combat forces, although later they were called up to serve in nursing, searchlight positions and such. In the former, Russian women (who were highly patriotic) fought at every level, from aircraft pilots to gun batteries, and here they were said to have excelled at being snipers.

For Russian women, patriotism aside, the Soviet Union had lost so many people in times of war (the numbers were staggering), that this may have played a role (not discussed in the film). Not something I've looked into.

On the German high command side, pathologically, specific orders were made to shoot dead any Russian women in uniform, which was later retracted. However, amongst soldiers and many commanders, the retractions were simply ignored. Some generals ensured it by field orders, that it was standing policy to shoot any Russian women in uniform, except for medics. Rape was standard. As is known, Soviet men and women POW's were counted in the hundreds of thousands, and then millions, many were placed in infamous named camps or worse.

This is a heavy subject on its own.


Lastly, with other mini-doc's that would likely be interesting to watch, this one concerned Japan. The title is Third Atomic Bomb Attack - Japan 1945.

In this case (most know the history), has the first two (Little Boy & Fat Boy) atomic attacks delivered upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the latter is explained to have been an alternate target, due to cloud cover at the time. Another Fat Boy had been sent for (the third), with possibly at least two more atomic bombs waiting in the wings (some Generals had said it may take five bombs to make Japan surrender). Did they have them, was it bluff?

What is not said here, is that there is information that the primary target was not Japan, but Soviet Russia, north of Japan (there are links somewhere on the forum that discuss this, so if found, please amend here).

The mini doc also discusses/shows the Japanese command and Emperor Hirohito in fierce disagreement, with a renegade coup launched against the Emperor in the final days before Tokyo Harbor. Participants in the coup were looking for the Emperors signed decree, also to be a radio address to the nation. The Emperor was hidden in his bunker below the palace during the coup. The Emperor remained in his residence until long after the war while the palace was rebuilt.

These were days of horror.

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Wow, thank you very much. The war subject is a fascinating one, for me anyway, I will look what you have posted. As you said, they were days of horror. Hell was on earth.

Thank you!
 
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