Hilmar Wäckerle
Hilmar Wäckerle (24 November 1899 – 2 July 1941) was a commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was the first commandant of Dachau concentration camp. War service The son of a Munich notary public, Wäckerle was sent to the Bavarian Army officer school at the age of 14 in order to pursue his chosen career. Having completed his three years as a cadet he was assigned to the Bavarian Infantry Battalion in August 1917 and by the following year was a Sergeant on the Western Front.Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', p. 65 Seriously wounded in September 1918 he was not able to return to the front before the armistice and as such his chance to matriculate and become an officer was lost. Political involvement Unable to continue in the army, Wäckerle enrolled in the Technical University Munich to study agriculture. Like his classmate Heinrich Himmler, he joined the anti-communist Freikorps Oberland and was an early member of the Nazi Party.Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Waffen-SS
The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the (Command Staff ''Reichsführer-SS'') directly under Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945. The grew from three regiments to over 38 division (military), divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (1935–1945), German Army (''Heer''), ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the (SS operational command office) beneath Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Initially, in keeping with the raci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Franz Josef Heinz
Franz Josef Heinz, known as Heinz-Orbis, (25 February 1884 - 9 January 1924) was a Palatine separatist who briefly led the government of the "Autonomous Palatinate" during the French occupation of the Rhineland. He was assassinated by German nationalists in 1924. Heinz came from the town of Orbis in Northern Palatinate, later using the town as part of his name. He was a farmer and became a leader of the free peasantry and the founder of the Palatine Corps. In the aftermath of World War I, France occupied the Rhineland. Along with some other members of the liberal German People's Party (DVP), Heinz saw this as an opportunity to reject the Prussian militarist state. In 1920 he became a member of the Palatine district council, arguing for greater autonomy in the area. By 1923 a separatist movement for a Rhenish Republic in the occupied Rhineland territory had developed, encouraged by the French. In August 1923 a republic was proclaimed under Josef Friedrich Matthes of the Rhenish ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1941 Deaths
The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, was the deadliest such year. Death toll estimates for both 1941 and 1942 range from 2.28 to 7.71 million each. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January– August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Aktion T4 program here. * January 1 – Thailand's Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only 9 months). * January 3 – A decree (''Normalschrifterlass'') promulgated in Germany by Martin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1899 Births
Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), pp. 153-157 ** In Samoa, followers of Mataafa, claimant to the rule of the island's subjects, burn the town of Upolu in an ambush of followers of other claimants, Malietoa Tanus and Tamasese, who are evacuated by the British warship HMS ''Porpoise''. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as Governor of New York at the age of 39. * January 3 – A treaty of alliance is signed between Russia and Afghanistan. * January 5 – **A fierce battle is fought between American troops and Filipino defenders at the town of Pililla on the island of Luzon. *The collision of a British steamer and a French steamer kills 12 people on the English Channel. * Jan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lviv
Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main Ukrainian culture, cultural centres of Ukraine. Lviv also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. It was named after Leo I of Galicia, the eldest son of Daniel of Galicia, Daniel, King of Ruthenia. Lviv (then Lwów) emerged as the centre of the historical regions of Red Ruthenia and Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in the 14th century, superseding Halych, Chełm, Belz, and Przemyśl. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, when it went to King Casimir III the Great of Kingdom of Poland, Poland in a Galicia–Volhynia Wars, war of succession. In 1356, Casimir the Great granted it town rights. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Standartenführer
__NOTOC__ ''Standartenführer'' (short: ''Staf'', , ) was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) paramilitary rank that was used in several NSDAP organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 it became one of the first commissioned NSDAP ranks and was bestowed upon those SA and SS officers who commanded a unit known as a '' Standarte'' (plural ''Standarten''), a unit equivalent to an army battalion and comprising 300–500 personnel. In 1929 the rank of ''Standartenführer'' was divided into two separate ranks known as ''Standartenführer'' (I) and ''Standartenführer'' (II). This concept was abandoned in 1930 when both the SA and SS expanded their rank systems to allow for more officer positions and thus the need for only a single ''Standartenführer'' rank. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to national power in Germany, the rank of ''Standartenführer'' had been established as the highest field officer rank, lower than that of ''Oberführer'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking () or SS Division Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. During World War II, the division served on the Eastern Front. It surrendered on 9 May 1945 to the American forces in Austria. The division contained contingents of foreign volunteers from Northern European countries including, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Although the role of foreign volunteers was played up by German wartime propaganda, the vast majority of the division’s personnel (over 90% at times) remained German, with the Nordic volunteers being from the “Westland” and “Nordland” SS regiments. Like other Waffen-SS divisions, Division Wiking participated in war crimes in Eastern Europe. Formation, training and demographics After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, sought to expand the Waffen-SS with forei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of The Grebbeberg
The Battle of the Grebbeberg () was a major engagement during the Battle of the Netherlands, which was a part of the World War II Operation '' Fall Gelb'' in 1940. Background In the 1930s, the Dutch government pursued a policy of strict neutrality. After World War I, the Dutch parliament supported a disarmament policy because it was generally thought that World War I had been "the war to end all wars". When the threat of Nazi Germany became more apparent the Dutch government decided to reinforce and retrain its Armed Forces. General defensive strategy In the 1930s the general defensive strategy was aimed at an attack by Germany. In that case the army should fall back on the Water Line, which formed part of Fortress Holland, the Dutch national redoubt. It was expected that assistance would then arrive from France and the United Kingdom. To defend the redoubt, it was necessary to slow the German advance in order to give as many Dutch forces as possible the chance of assembl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of Provinces of the Netherlands, twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares Maritime boundary, maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch language, Dutch, with West Frisian language, West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English_language, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean Netherlands, Caribbean territories. The people who are from the Netherlands is often referred to as Dutch people, Dutch Ethnicity, Ethnicity group, not to be confused by the language. ''Netherlands'' literally means "lower countries" i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Theodor Eicke
Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was both a senior SS functionary and a Waffen-SS divisional commander in Nazi Germany. He was a key figure in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the second commandant of the Dachau concentration camp from June 1933 to July 1934, and together with his adjutant Michael Lippert, was one of the executioners of SA Chief Ernst Röhm during the Night of the Long Knives purge of 1934. He continued to expand and develop the concentration camp system as the first Concentration Camps Inspector. In 1939, Eicke became commander of the SS Division Totenkopf of the Waffen-SS, leading the division during the Second World War on the Western and Eastern fronts. Eicke was killed on 26 February 1943, when his plane was shot down during the Third Battle of Kharkov. Early life and World War I Theodor Eicke was born on 17 October 1892, in Hampont (renamed ''Hudingen'' in 1915) near Château-Salins, then in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is called a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is ''condemned'' and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term ''capital'' (, derived via the Latin ' from ', "head") refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing. Crimes that are punishable by death are known as ''capital crimes'', ''capital offences'', or ''capital felonies'', and vary depending on the jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such as murder, assassination, mass murder, ch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |