The German 20th Infantry Division was an infantry division of Nazi Germany. It was established in 1934 under the cover name Reichswehrdienststelle Hamburg, and did not assume its bona-fide designation until the creation of the Wehrmacht was announced in October 1935. In the autumn of 1937 it was upgraded to a fully motorized division.
The 3rd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the German Army that fought in World War II. The division was established under the cover name Wehrgauleitung Frankfurt in 1934 by expanding the 3rd Division of the Reichswehr. It was redesignated Kommandant von Frankfurt shortly afterward, and took on its bona fide name when the formation of the Wehrmacht was announced in October 1935. In March 1939 the division took part in the invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Hans-Friedrich Blunck was a German jurist and a writer. In the time of the Third Reich, he occupied various positions in Nazi cultural institutions.
Wolf Albach-Retty was an Austrian actor. He was the father of Romy Schneider with the German actress Magda Schneider.
The Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life was a cross-church establishment by eleven German Protestant churches in Nazi Germany, founded at the instigation of the German Christian movement. It was set up in Eisenach under Siegfried Leffler and Walter Grundmann. Georg Bertram, professor of New Testament at the University of Giessen, who led the Institute from 1943 until the Institute's dissolution in May 1945, wrote about its goals in March 1944: "'This war is Jewry's war against Europe.' This sentence contains a truth which is again and again confirmed by the research of the Institute. This research work is not only adjusted to the frontal attack, but also to the strengthening of the inner front for attack and defence against all the covert Jewry and Jewish being, which has oozed into the Occidental Culture in the course of centuries, ... thus the Institute, in addition to the study and elimination of the Jewish influence, also has the positive task of understanding the own Christian German being and the organisation of a pious German life based on this knowledge."
The German 8th Infantry Division was formed in Oppeln on 1 October 1934 under the cover name Artillerieführer III which was used until 15 October 1935. It was mobilized in August 1939 and took part in the Invasion of Poland, the Battle of France and the Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. On 1 December 1941, it was reorganized and redesignated 8th Light Infantry Division. It was again redesignated on 30 June 1942 as the 8th Jäger Division. It surrendered to the Red Army in Moravia in May 1945.
The 30th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht was created on 1 October 1936 in Lübeck and mobilized on 26 August 1939 for the upcoming invasion of Poland. At that time, it consisted of the usual German infantry division elements: three infantry regiments of three battalions each, one three-battalion regiment of light artillery, one battalion of heavy artillery, a panzerjager (anti-tank) battalion, an aufklärungs (reconnaissance) battalion, a signals battalion, a pioneer (engineer) battalion, and divisional supply, medical, and administrative units.
The 7th Infantry Division was a formation of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was formed 1 October 1934 in Munich from the Artillerieführer VII staff and renamed 7. Infanterie-Division with the disclosure of German rearmament on 15 October 1935. In preparation of the Invasion of Poland, the division was transferred to Slovak Republik on 1 August 1939. The division surrendered to Soviet forces near Stutthof after the unconditional surrender of 8 May 1945.
The 9th Infantry Division was a formation of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht.
The 11th Infantry Division was a formation of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II. Formed 1 October 1934 as Infanterieführer I in Allenstein it was renamed 11. Infanterie-Division on 15. October 1935 with the disclosure of German rearmament.
Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden quarter of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. Both criminal and political prisoners were sent there, as well as people imprisoned for preventive detention or for interrogation and prisoners of war. Built with a capacity of 1,800, it sometimes held over 4,000 during the Nazi era.
On 1 May 1945, hundreds of people killed themselves in the town of Demmin, in the Province of Pomerania, Germany. The suicides occurred during a mass panic that was provoked by atrocities committed by soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, who had sacked the town the day before. Although death toll estimates vary, it is acknowledged to be the largest mass suicide ever recorded in Germany. The suicide was part of a mass suicide wave amongst the population of Nazi Germany.
Friedrich Siegfried Heinrich Ludwig von Gerdtell was a German theologian associated with the Disciples of Christ movement.
Albert Maier was the founder of the German Christadelphians.
The 2nd Infantry Division of Nazi Germany's Army was created from components of the Reichswehr's old 2nd Division in 1934, at first under the cover name Wehrgauleitung Stettin and later Artillerieführer II; it did not take its real name until October 1935. It was upgraded to 2nd Motorized Infantry Division in 1937, and fought under that name in Heinz Guderian's XIX Corps during the 1939 Invasion of Poland, first in the cut across the Polish Corridor to reach East Prussia and then as support for the push on Brest-Litovsk. It was then transferred to the west, where it took part in the 1940 Battle of France.
"Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein" is a Lutheran hymn, written in 1523 by Martin Luther. One of his early hymns, it was published as one of eight songs in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal, the Achtliederbuch, which contained four songs by Luther, three by Speratus, and one by Justus Jonas. It appeared also in 1524 in the Erfurt Enchiridion.
Johannes Stelling was a German political activist who became a leading SPD politician during the Weimar years. He served between 1921 and 1924 as First Minister (Ministerpräsident) of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Gerd R. Ueberschär is a German military historian who specialises in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. He is one of the leading contributors to the series Germany and the Second World War and, together with Rolf-Dieter Müller, is the author of Hitler's War in the East 1941−1945: A Critical Assessment. Both works have been published in English translations.
A war of annihilation or war of extermination is a type of war in which the goal is the complete annihilation of a state, a people or an ethnic minority through genocide or through the destruction of their livelihood. The goal can be outward-directed or inward, against elements of one's own population. The goal is not like other types of warfare, the recognition of limited political goals, such as recognition of a legal status, control of disputed territory, or the total military defeat of an enemy state.
Heinz Hubert Baumann was a German Roman-Catholic priest in Aachen.
