Clementine: The life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell 2015. 391pg

Without Clementine history of Churchill would have been a very different story. 17/11/22

She was one of the  tiny group privy to the secret preparations of the Normandy landing. Churchill delayed this for as long as possible to ensure the greatest chance of success. The worlds future had so depended on the courage of a single man.  She supported women's rights ,no matter how furiously she disagreed with Winston, she loved him, their union was exciting and famous, and he doted and depended on her.

Cherie Blair was probably the PM consort most involved in her husband's role since Clementine.  It was often visiting Americans who were most observant of the scale of her contribution during the war , especially US ambassador Gil Winant who accompanied her on tours of bombed out London during the war.

As a child in 1899 her mother lived in Dieppe and she was enrolled in a Convent where she learned French. The Nuns and other girls were against the Brits in the Boer war. They were poor aristocrats and very young she learned to budget, Her mother took her to meet the Bohemian foreign artist like Oscar Wilde, Max Beerbohm and Walter Sickert (impressionist artist) who took her to meet Camille Pizarro.

1895 His  father Randolf Churchill  died from syphilis and so Winston was not one for casual sex.

1900 Her sister Kitty died of typhoid and as a result they returned to England where she got some formal English schooling.

1903 Received her matric certificate and was sent to Wannsee to spend 3 months at the home of the von Siemens family of the engineering company. Later in England she gave private French lessons.

1904 Churchill defected to the Liberals over his opposition to tariff reform, he was committed to free trade to keep food prices low. Winston had no capacity for small talk and was dismissive of women's conversation and got on with her.  Wealthy American Ruth Lee and her British husband Arthur donated their country home Checkers to the nation.  

At 22 she was meeting society women but she was better educated and knew more about life than they did and was actually interested in politics. Winston was promoted by the cabinet to president the Board of Trade.

With out Clementine, Winston felt lonely and over the next 57 years 1700 letters would be sent between them. Telegrams and lots the idea of putting their thoughts on paper  even when they were under the same roof.. Clementine's accomplishments included 6 languages , music and brilliant conversation.

1907 Hozier her ostensible father died in Panama aged 69, a year before her marriage.

1908 their wedding at St. Margaret's in Parliament square with 1,300 guests including David Lloyd George and FE Smith and Sir Ian Hamilton.   Winston adorned his mother despite her faults.

Winston had spent much time at Blenheim Palace while Clementine knew cheap lodgings. Once married she insisted on her own bedroom.  She was up and active not involved in her children. She became immersed in social reform and threw herself into his world. 

Winston went into history and she began reading the books he gave her. Her time as a dress maker made her loath  sewing, but marriage clearly suited Winston's needs. If they had an argument they would make up before going to bed. The Churchills lived an upper class life with a middle class incomes. Winston was easily satisfied with the best. He gave short notice that he was bringing home important people including the King of Portugal.

1910 and 1912 he opposed bill giving women's rights and clashed with her over this "We already have enough ignorant people voting"

1910 This was the first of 15 elections campaigns that Winston and Clementine would fight together.

1918 he did vote for women of property aged over 30 to vote .As Chancellor of t he Exchequer under Lloyd George , labour exchanges and workers pensions were provided as well as pensions organized, and Clementine liked seeing that Winston was popular amongst the working classes.

1911 Act of Parliament would assert the supremacy of the House of Commons enabling financial measures through.

The Churchills were in debt but luckily they got help from Sir Ernest Cassel. Churchill took a fancy to flying which was in its infancy and many of the instructors got killed in this.  She was on holiday in Overstrand Norfolk when the war broke out and the eastern seaboard of Britain like Scarborough, Harlepool and Whitby began to suffer German  naval bombardment.

Clementina accompanied Winston inspected battleships and congratulated  Admirals on their victories and rewards them with invitations to lunch. The army accounted for only an eight of the allied forces but had an enormous navy. The war helped her rediscover her sense of purpose.

Gallipoli peninsula attack Jan 1915  was approved by the War Cabinet to get Turkey which was Germany's new ally out of the war. This army was ill equipped lacked doctors and drugs. Sir Ian Hamilton and old friend of Winston's was appointed overall commander a choice Clementine regretted. Winston was held liable for the bloodiest military failure and removed from the Admiralty. Clementine stood by him and kept him sane and he returned to action in the army , she kept him up to date with the politics and met Lord Curzon when the idea of an airforce was born.

Labor's Ramsey Mc Donald and Lloyd George liked her. Asquith blocked French' s offer to Churchill to take charge of a brigade. She got involved in organizing workers canteen as more than 7 million women worked in factories in WW1. She introduced a rule that women could smoke in the same canteen s like men

1916 Introduction of Conscription.

 This gives an idea of the forceful personality and how much Clementine was able to influence Winston. .

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World War II 13/12/22

1939 Sept1 Germany attacked Poland and WW2 started, Sept 3rd. Because Winston had the status of a visionary man of  action, Chamberlain was forced to give him a cabinet post of First Lord of the Admiralty. Merchant ships were immediately armed and naval ship fitted with radar. In October the HMS Royal Oak was sunk at Scapa Flow with the loss of  833 lives.

The phony war ended with in spring 1940 with the German invasion of Norway, and this was followed by the German blitzkrieg to capture Holland, Belgium and then France and only then did Churchill make it clear that appeasement was over. At this stage Clementine was checking his speeches and suggesting more simple words for what he would broadcast and later when he broadcast in French to occupied Europe , Clementine coached him before he spoke.

At this stage the Americans were not keen to support Britain in keeping up the empire. Winston had a tyrannical style so Clementine took it on herself to be corrective and invited his key staff one by one to take tea with her alone. She showed she was an enormous important component in the war. She was privy to all the discussions with military chiefs that took place during meals and what she did was for Winston's good. The role of the unelected spouse of t he PM had never been defined .

1940 Jan Rationing was introduced.

At Dunkirk the British troops escaped but lost and destroyed material that would take 9 months to replace.

The call females to arms was delivered by Winston but clearly bearing Clemintenes fingerprints and she also set an example by doing fire watching duties.

During the most important sortie of the Battle of Britain Air Vice Mashal Keith Park of New Zealand put every airplane into service. This was now won. Clemintien was the one who watched the domestic front and fed information into Winston's speeches, as he was oblivious to the mindset of the majority.

Clementine niece was Diana Mitford a personal friend of Hitler married to Sir Oswald Moseley. In 1943 Diane's mother came to plead against her daughter being incarcerated. Clementine said they were safer there otherwise they may be lynched.

Harry Hopkins was Roosevelt friend and speaking to him was like speaking to the  President. He had been an architect of the New Deal. Joe Kennedy had been US Ambassador to London and he was a defeatist, and advised Americans to leave the UK. Clementine  was the one who entertained Hopkins, convinced him of Churchill greatness as a leader and that England would fight, and not capitulate and aid to England was worthwhile. Bletchley park had already informed Churchill that the invasion of Britain was cancelled but he kept this quiet.

Clementine kept up friendly correspondence with Hopkin . Clementine would entertain Janet Murrow in Downing street and Winston seized the moment when Ed collected her to give him an interview. She was also friendly with Gil Winant the new US Ambassador.

Averell Harriman was the son of a US railroad tycoon and he was incharge of "Lend Lease " to see what supplies Britain needed. He was given an office in the Admiralty with access to the secret cables and was seduced by Winston daughter in law Pamela. Their son Randolph was upset about this but he was an unreliable gambler. Clemie entertained Henry Morgenthau , American treasury secretary and later Eisenhower and made sure they all got their favorite dish.

June 1941Germany's Operation Barbarossa attacked Russia up till that date Russia had been supplying Hitler with material assistance, and hoping to get spoils of the British defeat  The Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky dashed to Checkers, Stalin was  demanding that Churchill immediately send troops to northern France. Clementine saw Maisky with Hopkins and kept prowling till Maisky left.

1941 Oct. The German's torpedoing of the USS Reuben James failed to provoke an American Declaration of war.

1941 Dec  After Pearl Harbour, Churchill and Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter  with principles of self- determination and free trade. Eleonor had been her husband political  partner in the New Deal but was excluded from the war matters. She went on highly paid lecture tours and had a syndicated column called "My Day" and visited slums , mines factories. Clementine welcomes her on her visit to England to find out about Women in the army and in the War effort. Eleonor aired her opinions even if they were at odds with Franklin. She was the one who establish the prominent role of the First Lady.    Tons of clothing were collected in America  and the Empire as the Homefront in England had no new clothes during the war. 

1942 Feb Clement Attlee made Churchill deputy PM first time in British history.  Clementine as predident of the YWCA set up and appeal to set up canteen, hostils for  working women in war effort and servicewomen. She also set up the Red Cross aid to Russia Fund, and worked with Agnes Maisky to resolve conflict of interests with Russia. At this time Roosevelt was more suspicious of British Imperialism that Russian totalitarianism. Roosevelt refused to support an operation on the Greek island of Leros.

Clemie took a stand about segregated black US soldiers and about European Jews seeking asylum in the US. Churchill role was reduced now that the American's were in the war driving seat and Winston took her to Washington hoping to improve his position with Roosevelt where she won over the American people.

She had a homely relationship with Chief of Staff Alan Brooke and noticed how many high ranking officers were unmarried. She made sure Winston had a good relationship with his generals.

Winston had an acrimonious relationship with de Gaul and once when he arrived she diverted him from his aides and told him to take care not to hate his allies more than his enemies. The meeting then went well with Winston.

1943 Harriman was posted to Moscow and Pamela - Randolf Churchill ex wife missed him. 

1943 Sept the Battle of Salerno was raging while Churchill with Clemie were in Canada. Churchill wanted to fly back to visit the troops there and leave Clemie to return on the Battleship. She said she would not have it said that a Battleship was used especially for her and so she would travel on a merchant ship convey, Winston relented. In Canada she delivered an address in both English and French thanking the people for the war effort.

1944 The V-1 Doodlebugs' started being launched over England. When Henry Morgenthau wanted to go on a tour of the Bomb shelter Clementine was the one sent to chaperone him. 

D day cost the lives of 4000 soldiers which was considered a great success. There were later a million British troops in Europe while America had 3 million.

Churchill had neglected the Homefront and it was Clemie who managed to get him to arrange army lorries to distribute coal.

Once Paris was freed Winston became worried about Communisms while the American needed Stalin's help if the Atom bomb failed. Russia was already breaching the Yalta agreement. Clemie went on a Russian tour and was very popular and met Stalin, she was given the Order of the Red Banner for labour and met Tito there, but when she arrived home said the West should break diplomatic ties with Russia.

1945 Eleonor Roosevelt age 61 only just started her substantive career when Truman appointed her US delegate at the UN and drew up the international bill of rights. In 1952 she was touted as a possible Presidential candidate.

Clemie was involved in setting up New Hall , the third university collage for women and Churchill collage was one of the first all-male collages to admit women.

 1945 When Churchill lost the Conservative majority and Clement Attlee became PM.  Clemie helped Violet Attlee move into Downing Street. Winston was in debt and could not keep up Chartwell so a number of wealthy friends bought it for the National Trust but Churchill could live in it while he was alive.

----- On Winston death she moved out of Chartwell to a small house but had a say in how this PM home she be displayed to the public.

Under Harold Wilson she was made a life peer and had a seat in the House of Lord, where she voted against capital punishment. 

1977, she died at 92 She was a widow for 13 years and outlived 3 of her 5 offspring, there were many divorces amongs them. Mary was a perfect daughter to her and lived a full life till 2014. 

FD. Roosevelt's 6 children also had many divorces and remarriages.

General Pug Ismay, Winston Chief of Staff observed that without her history of Winston would have been a very different story.

Cyprus Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell 1957 271pg 7/8/22

This is written in a novel form of the writers life on the Island during a period of turmoil

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell  1957  271pg  7/8/22

Venice and Genoa fought over Cyprus when trade to India was done through the East, when the Western route was opened to India, Egypt, Syria, Cyprus (the Levant) were forgotten till the opening of the Suez canal.

He speaks Greek but says that any "educated" person speaks to him in English to show they are middle class and not peasants.

He lives with a teacher and looks for a home to buy,  not far from Nicosia and is told to go to a Turkish merchant for a house, he is offered a house in Bellapaux , Kyrenia made of straw and mud when they enter find a heifer in one room and another full of grain, they find out that a water pipe will reach there in a short while.  He buys the house for 200 pounds plus the 65 pound mortgage on it. Now they get a Greek builder to renovate. 

He meets the Muhtar of Bellapaux, whose home is part of the church. He also meets a whole lots of the people in the region and his nearest neighbor's. In renovation they cannot give him a quote as the cost of building materials depends on availability, especially imported products. Labour  is only available seasonally when workers are not picking olives or carobs, pressing olive oil operating the farms.  

Athens radio is broadcasting "Enosis"  that is that all Greek speaking places should be part of Greece. There is a danger that a few Greeks with bombs or outsiders like Cretans might start a crises. Greece wants to bring the UNO into the issue but it is not a moral matter. Officially Enosis does not exist for the British administration. At this stage Enosis was whipped up by a few fanatical  clergy but it had no public support.

33BC The Eastern Roman Empire was a misnomer, Constantine move the Roman capital to Byzantium and founded a spiritual Empire , with complete unification of church and state.

1260 the long persecution of the Orthodox church under the dictatorship of Venice culminated in the bulla Cypria and the Latin Archbishop and the clergy was forced to take a oath to the Holy Sea.

1575 The Ottoman Empire took over 

1670 The orthodox Church the Ethnark became leader of the Greek church and population.

1804 an uprising against the archbishop was quelled 

1821 The Ottomans executed the Cyprus Archbishop, Bishops and church leaders, as a result of the uprising in Greece. 

Durrell taught English as the Nicosia gymnasium, and could know the nationalist feeling of the older students. 

No fight against the British who they loved ' Enosis contains anti British barbs.'

1821Lord Byron died in the Greek Independence war England greatest poet was a symbol of liberty, and they recited Byron with tears in their eyes. How could Cypriots want Enosis with conscription to the Greek Army and crippling taxes, bankruptcy and  poor administration. Greeks in the Commonwealth enjoyed the best of both worlds.

He was appointed to head Public Information office. The Nationalist press and Athens radio say that Cyprus under Atilla the Hun with the British plucking out Hellenism and perpetual enslavement of the Greeks. A lot of fire and brimstone came from the pulpit but a lot came from politicians on the make even though they loved England. Like the mayor of Nicosia who was proud of his  OBE. There was now talk of a constitution an admission that not all was well.. At this stage the island was quiet despite strikes and demonstration the press was free and nobody was in jail for a political offence.

The press went on strike. The Lusigans were here for 300 years and the Venetians for 82. The Ottomans 300 and the British 72.

1920s Potterism about arrogance, snobbery and egotism. It was normal for a certain class of society to have the right to express their views for the benefit for the paying public.

Cyprus considered Greece so for advanced compared to their capital Athens was Europe. Nicosia did not compare to advanced cities nearby like Beirut and Alexandria.

The British had neglected enormously, like the Police Force had remained unchanged since 1878. The phone system was so out of date even hotels did not have phones and the police could not communicate.

1751 The victorious Turks entered the city after less than a 12 month siege, Famagusta has Othello's tower.

Turkish feelings both on the island and abroad had now been aroused and communal disorders with medieval religious hatred might easily be aroused. 

They Cypriot government were now marionettes jumping to the tune of London and Athens.  Antony Eden and in London  Alexandros Papagos the Greek PM raised the Cyprus question in the UN.  The headmaster of the Nicosia  gymnasium was beaten up by 6th grade students for not showing sufficient patriotism.

A caique (sail fishing boat) of ammunition had set off for Cyprus to land near Paphos.

Their was a camel trail loaded with grain. Carobs are an important crop in Cyprus.

Middle class Greeks realized that Enosis would do great economic harm.

The Youth Organization of EOKA, youths  took an oath to sacrifice them selves for Enosis. There was evidence Cypriots had received paramilitary training abroad - Greece. The population were sympathetic to the trouble makers.

Cyprus in geography and politics was part of the backbone of the British Empire to be defended at all costs. The Greek government accepted an invitation to London with out preconditions  the communists and Makarios, had preconditions. The Tripartite conference was rumored to be a trap and put Papagos on a white line. and it was destabilizing the Greek government. Any moderation was considered unpatriotic. Nicosia was wagging Athens and Greek, Turkish Alliance were under a thundercloud with things not linked to Cyprus, it also meant that Greece's relationship to the Moslem and Arab world, Middle Eastern affairs were now being challenged.

Detention Laws were  introduced in Cyprus and then Athens radio accused the British of "fascism or even genocide"

They Cyprus question. He was sent to see a prison camp at Kokkinotrimithia  sent to check the conditions where he found 2 of his students. One was a weak scholar inside for throwing a bomb but there were intellectuals amongst the prisoners. They were complaining that they could not sit for Matric exam.

"If we had been Russians or Germans the problem would have been solved in half an hour by a series of mass deportations or murders"

6000 civil servants now began to feel the squeeze, not obeying the terrorist demands might be death.  The failed conference cut a frail cord , Cyprus was a political orphan. To restore public order force was met by force, but with the arrival of soldier the spirit of resistance spread, igniting sleepy villages. There were lulls in violence on full moon nights. The new governor reopened talks with the Ethnark. 

Curfews with bloody incidences so that tourism flickered out, and Durrell decided to leave, he did not want to give the Greek press the chance to say he left because of policy decisions.

Cyprus had become a weak spot in the NATO Alliance, Britain was not fighting Greece but the Greek spirit.

Karaolis a young was going to be hanged for killing people, in a way Cyprus was not mourning Karaolis but England. This day was a general strike.

Nicosia government house stands on the site of Coeur de Lion's first camp was outside the unwalled  city.

Durrell's friend who he was worried that his son had  joined EOKA    instead his son had won a scholarship and was going to England. Durrell leaves Cyprus.  

 Time Line and other historical material on Cyprus

 526 BC conquered by Persians 

333BC conquered by Alexander the Great and became part of Ptolemaic Egypt.

58BC  under Rome 

4 th Century Under the Greek speaking Byzantine Empire

1191 Richard 1 Coeur de Lion conquered Cyprus

1571 Cyprus became a province of the Ottoman Empire, by defeating the Venetians.

1869 Suez Canal opened.

1878 Treaty of San Stefano

1878Congress of Berlin

1878 Russo Turkish war  Cyprus now under the British but by the Cyprus convention

1914 Britain annexed Cyprus unilaterally.

1925 Cyprus became a Crown Colony on the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1931 Greek Nationalist Movement formed EREK riots put down by British.

1950 Greek Orthodox Church organized referendum of enosis

1955 to 1959 George Grivas  EOKA liberation struggle 

1960 Republic of Cyprus given independence by the British.

1964 UNO peace keepers

1974  Turkish Invasion

1983 North Cyprus unilaterally declared independence.

2004 Joined the EU

The Cyprus Problem what everyone needs to know by James Ker -Lindsay 2011 (Free sample)11/67/22

This had the potential to ignite a confrontation between to NATO allies Turkey and Greece. 6 UN Secretaries Generals have devoted time to this and it has been called a  'diplomats graveyard'

TRNC Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is only recognized by Turkey. 18% of the population. A large number of Turkish settlers have arrived since 1974 from mainland Turkey.  30 to 40 thousand Turkish troops are based on the island.

Nicosia decides Athens follows

Under the Ottomans Christians were more heavily taxed.

Brief History of Cyprus: Story of a divided island. by Tommy Clark

Turkish north is about 35% of the land. Republic of Cyprus 60% and 5% is the UN controlled buffer.

Since 1984 the economy is based on Tourism and financial services and offshore tax havens for Russia  and Israel.

In the Roman period copper was mined here giving it the name Cyprus.

Britain maintains military bases and used them in campaigns against Syria, Afghanistan , Iraq. 1956 used as a base during the Suez Crises.

The Roman Western Empire was Latin speaking and became the Catholic Church the Roman Eastern Empire or Byzantine was a Greek speaking and had the Orthodox Church.  Richard ! conquered Cyprus but needed money for his crusades and send it to the Knights Templar.

Under the Ottomans Christians had more freedom than they had in Europe.

The British and Cyprus : An outpost of the Empire to sovereign bases 1878 -1974 by Mark Simmons 2015

1974 The author flew a RAF Nimrod from Luqu airbase Malta to Cyprus. The Kolossi Castle an original castle  built in 1210 possibly built by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, (Hospitaliers ) this order still has its headquarters in Valetta Malta.

Mainland Greek plot by the Military Junta in Athens to bring about 'Enosis 'the union of Cyprus and Greece. This resulted in the Turkish invasion thus the Greeks had scored a home goal.

There were atrocities' on both sides In the mixed village of Tokhi an EOKA -B gang murdered all the Turkish men over 16 about 300.  EOKA -B also killed more Greek opponents than Turks. About 2000 Greeks disappeared in Turkish hands

1953  EOKA formed by Archbishop Makarios and George Grivas with the sole aim of  a union with Greece by force.  

The whole f the Middle East was Christian before the Turks.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II ceded Cyprus to British control. Britain was prepared to support Turkey as a buffer against Russian designs on India

1189 Richard 1 crowned King of England

1878 Young Lieutenant of the Engineers Herbert Kitchener was sent to survey the island.

1879Major General Sir Robert Biddulph the High Commissioner  pushed for the survey to be completed. Publish in 1885.

1899 Sir Rider Haggard visited  He published a book A Winter Pilgrimage in Italy Palestine and Cyprus.

1898 Sir Ronald Ross identified malaria carrying mosquito as the cause of Camp fever. It would take til 1948 that the marshes were drained and Cyprus was declared malaria free.

1843 The British consular agent reported Famagusta  was a town of squalor with a population of 500 Turks, with in a few years of British arrival the harbor was dredged and it was restored to ocean going traffic. Famagusta is the setting of Othollo.

1914 When WW1 began there was no certainty what side Turkey would join. The young Turks played the powers off against each other and finally joined Germany when Britain withheld 2 battleship under construction in Britain , Germany replaced them.

The Greek Revolution :1821 and the making of modern Europe. by Mark Mazower 2021  

The port of Ermoupolis was born when the ottoman irregulars crushed a Greek uprising at Chios island. Survivors fled bringing mercantile skills..

  Mid 19C one third of Greece's shipping was based there. Cables laid by Submarine Telegraph Company linked  Ermoupolis

to Athens Chios and Constantinople. In this period you had the revolutions first the USA the France, South America and Haiti. Nationalism - nation would not be governed by foreigners.

1820 the population of the Ottoman Empire was about 24 million the Greeks were possibly 3 million. Many Greeks felt it was foolish fighting the might of the Turks. Guidebooks and maps of Greece were totally out of date.      

Ove the years  commerce and the Orthodox church had extended the Greek language far beyond Greece 'Citoyen Grec' stretched from the Danuban islands and Black Sea ie the Balkans. The uprising was not launched with specific territorial demands.

1797Rhingas Velestinlis called for all to fight for freedom under the sign of the cross against the Ottomans. The sultan represented the principles of tyranny and antichrist. It was thought that the Tsar or European powers would intervene.

 

 

Prisoners of the Castle : The epic story of survival and escape from Colditz Castle by Ben Macintyre 2022 ,312pg

The story of Colditz prison, there were more escape attempts from this than any other POW camp.  4/11/22

 Michael Sinclair an amateur actor had spent 4 months studying the gait posture accent and routine of the commander of Colditz, but the fake pass he had was grey when it was supposed to be yellow and the sentry was not conned.

Reinhart Eggers the deputy commander was a schoolteacher and anglophile who had been to Gloucestershire to learn English culture. He was not a Nazi supporter and thus not popular with the German establishment.

1929 Geneva convention on POWs signed by 37 nations including Germany.

1939 Some 420,000 Polish soldiers were captured by the Germans, there were 140 Polish officers at Colditz. The food they got from the prison kitchen was ersatz coffee thin soup and black bread.  

1940 1.8 million Frenchman were made captive by the fall of France.10% of the entire male population. 2000 British officers and 39000 other ranks were captured. After the adrenaline of battle the boredom of prison.

Pat Reid believed that escaping was the sworn duty of all officers, they were there as they had escaped from other POW camps, the punishment for escaping was a month in solitary. If they were caught by the SS or Gestapo they might be tortured or shot. Some officers had batmen or orderlies to look after them who were never part of the escapes or never wrote memoirs on prison.

Colditz town had 6000 citizens and was dominated by Nazis. Prisoners received Red Cross parcels and would have died without them. There were 200 French officers which included 60 Jewish ones but the French had swallowed Nazi propaganda and  refused to be with them. The British invited the Jews to dinner in their mess.  Some of the French supported Vichy and others supported de Gaul.  Many prisoner paired off to learn each others language. Robert Blum son of Leon Blum as well ass Elie de Rothschild were in Colditz. Anglo French relation were soured by the destruction of the French fleet at Mer- el Kebir.

The Frenchman made a "home run" and this encouraged other to try escape. Escape tunnels were kept secret as there were always stool pigeons. Peter Allen the smallest officer was packed into a mattress dressed as a Hitler Youth. He walked to the station with no papers. He got to Vienna and asked the neutral  US embassy for help but was told that " the consulate exists under diplomatic privilege of te German government, so Allen gave himself up starving after 23 days.

Amongst the British officers the class system still existed separating the aristocrats or different Public school groups.  15000 Dutch soldiers were captured and most signed a pledge to take no further part in the war and were released. 68 Dutch arrival refused to do this. Escapees tried to get 400 miles to the Swiss border.

The Dutch officer Hans Lerive was caught trying to get into Switzerland  on a train and the boasting SS officer told him about Ramsen salient that 300yards of Swiss territory jutted out into Germany and unguarded back door. This proved valuable knowledge to Colditz prisoners.

The Poles set up games and so they were given a  wire enclosed soccer field outside the castle .  

Birendranarth Mazundar and Indian doctor, was a Brahmin and spoke a refined English as well as Bengali , Hindu, Urdu and French and German. He was the only Indian officer in the corps and the only British officer, he had joined as a London resident. Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist and Nazi collaborator, he had been under house arrest in Calcutta and escaped to Afghanistan where the Germans sent a plane to fetch him. He formed the Tiger Legion and his soldiers swore allegiance to Hitler. 2.5 million Indian served in the allied army in WW2.  Several thousand Indians were captured in North Africa and the Germans tried to persuade them to switch sides.  Mazundar refused  to  join the German Indian enterprise, to get away went on a hunger strike, after 2 weeks her was transferred to an Indian POW camp in Chartres, France.  He escaped and found that poor French farmers were willing to help him, but to avoid the wealthy. He and a friend walked 900km through occupied France and into Switzerland. 1943 Hitler sent Bose in a submarine to Japanese occupied Singapore to head the provisional government of free Singapore.

Fascist William Joyce or "Lord Haw Haw" broadcast Nazi propaganda, a well spoken Indian could perform a similar role. Walter Purdey was an assistant of Joyce and was sent to Colditz to act as a stool pigeon but was found out, after the war he was jailed for 9 years.

Denholm Elliott (humour) , Clive Dunn,(Dad's Army) Donald Pleasence (actor) Talbot Rothwell (wrote the Carry On movies)

Prominente  were people the German though could swop for German officers. Giles Romilly was related to Clementine Churchill. Elie de Rothschild married Liliane Fould - Springer his childhood lover, by mail while at Colditz.  Douglas Bader with tin legs the pilot fighter later portrayed in Reach for the Sky was one of the best known in Colditz. Michael Alexander was caught in Libya on an SAS raid. He was supposed to be shot as a spy but he led Rommel to think that he was General Harold  Alexanders nephew and so sent to Colditz.   John Arundel as well as the son of the Viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, George Lascelles and John Elphinstone both nephews of King George VI, George Haig son of the late Field Marshal Haig, Max Hamel a distant cousin of Churchill.

John Winant J. the son of the US Ambassador to London.

1941 March. "Sparrow" was a group of 3 American sent to Hungary to encourage them not to join Germany, the Germans knew about this and immediately 16 German Divisions  marched into Hungary.

1941 June Soviet Union brought into the conflict 

1941 Dec Pearl Harbor brought the US to war. 

Some Poles people were skeptical of as felt they were Volksdeutshe. A Polish officer was accused of being a stool pigeon and was taken away the same day. Note Poland never formally surrendered. Later it was mostly British left at Colditz while the other nationalities were moved to other prisons, except for hardened escapers.

Letter were sent to England in a code and families that received them knew to take them to the war office and later send a letter back to the prisoners in the same code with observations of German troop movements in the area. M19 was set up to process this information. Getting the prisoners maps of enemy territory and compasses was priority. Red Cross parcels were never used to smuggle escape equipment. Hardback books were banned when one book was used to smuggle things. The Germans started x-raying parcels that were not Red Cross. The night before the parcels were x-rayed they was put into a cupboard , so the prisoner made a key to the cupboard and took out the contraband first. Till the prison cat was found locked inside.

Micky Burn was a journalist who had had a passionate affair with Guy Burgess the KGB spy. Earlier he had been a Nazi supporter and was introduced to Hitler by Unity Mitford, who became fascist Oswald Mosely's wife.  When war began Burns volunteered and was in Operation Chariot, the Germans now tried to recruit him as a stool pigeon. He was the one who transcribed the BBC news onto paper to be circulated.

Prisoners had a hidden radio and were up to date with BBC news. Colditz was a highly literate place. Unlike convicts the release date of POWs is unknown and depends of distance world events. Reihnhart  Eggers  was waiting for the war to end and was secretly listening to BBC.

76 British officers who had staged a breakout from the Eichstatt camp Bavaria were brought to Colditz.

1943 July Operation Gomorrah dropped 9000tons of bombs on Hamburg killing 37000 people, in December bombing killed 1800 Leipzig residents.

1943 Aug Allied landing on Sicily.

The dentist Captain Julius Green was taken to other POW camps to treat both inmates and guards gathered information on troop movements and train timetables which he sent back home by code, till he was sent to Colditz where he continued this.

1944 March, From near Sagan, lower Silesia, 76 allied soldiers escaped 73 were caught and 50 were executed  on Hitters orders by the SS. This was the story of "the Great Escape"

1944 June D day Normandy landings. Now only total capitulation of Germany would be acceptable to the allies.

Under Himmler the Gestapo and SS were starting to have a say in dealing with POW camps. A Czeck was no longer regarded as a POW but a German traitor in a RAF uniform, luckily Rudolf Denzler of the Red Cross was involved and he was returned to Colditz. At this stage best chance of getting home was to stay at Colditz till the allies arrived hoping the SS never came first. There started being a gentleness between guards and prisoners, while at the same time Germany was starting to starve .Personal packages  were reduced to a trickle and letters stopped arriving.

1944 July Plot led by Claus von Stauffenberg, when this failed 5000 suspects were executed on Hitler's orders.

Rudolf Denzler the Red Cross representative found that the SS was starting to get involved and it was becoming harder to protect the POWs.

M-19 smuggled smuggled 5000 Allied soldiers and airmen out of Occupied Europe. This was run by Airey Neave who had escaped Colditz.

In the town of Colditz anti Nazis were planning to set up an alternative local council.

Lee Carson an American on of very few women  war correspondents, persuaded an American pilot to hide her on a  spotter plane plane so she reported on Normady landings and the bombing or Cherbourg, she was the first jounalist into Paris and later arrived with US troops at Colditz.

1944 December Malmedy Massacre where the SS slaughtered 84 American POWs in Belgium. Dresden till now unscathed was bombed killing 25,000people.

A prison camp east of Leipzig had a thousand French officers who were now moved ahead of the Russian advance into Colditz. Just before Christmas they received  the last Rec Cross parcels. The Prominante were taken to Konigstein Castle.

The prisoners were given the keys to the ammunition depot as Prawitt the German in  charge of Colditz realized he had more to fear the SS than the Americans, so they were now protecting their jailers against both the SS and advancing Americans. The "rule of law" was dissolving in Germany. Nobody knew of the slave labour camp of Hungarian Jews on the outskirts of the town of Colditz owned by HASAG manufacturing munitions. The SS guards had systematically murdered the prisoners here.

Rudolf Eggers was a historian and the artifacts he collected to form the Colditz museum were packed in boxes in the cellar. The SS now had fled south and in the Colditz town white flags started going up, swastikas' and copies of Mein Kamf started disappearing  Guy Nun and David Walker were 2 of the "Sparrows " and both became novelists. Herr Schmidt who had set up the Anti Nazi spy network that supplied them with information prepared to become burgomaster of Colditz town.  At Colditz Castle the American arrived and freed

By now Munich the capital of the Nazi movement fell without a fight. Berger now delivered the Prominante to the allies hoping to save himself from the hangman once the war was over.

1945 April 16th the American liberated Colditz Castle by they had to wait till it would be safe to send them out. A month later the Red Army arrived there and it would be part of the Soviet Zone of East Germany.

A total of 32 escapees from Colditz had made home runs.

2006 the Castle was refurbished to make a small museum in it and now many of the artifacts of WW2 were found.

Kissinger: Adventures of a Super - Kraut by Charles R. Ashman 1972 272 pg.

 28/10/22

Note this book was published in 1972 and was more a current assessment than history of that period.

Like Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's movie. Kissinger is a nuclear expert with a German accent.  

While US politicians see George Washington, Lincoln or even Eisenhower as heroes, it is only the voice of the Teutonic Otto van Bismarck or Klemens von  Metternich that appealed to Kissinger.

Some of the founding fathers who wrote the constitution were slave owners and this is not a good example to black Americans. Many Jewish youngsters who fled Nazi Germany with their nightmares were determined to avoid violence at any cost. Kissinger was advisor, councilor companion, apologist , buddy and spokesman for Nixon. Kennedy after the missile crises increase the nuclear arsenal 3 fold.

1923 Henry Kissinger was born in Furth, German a town that in 1618 was wiped off the map in the 30 years war.

1932 Germany had 3 chancellors in a year.

1936 Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon  at  time that Cordell Hull was trying to convince the  world on peace. While Cordell Hull was Secretary of State it was Harry Hopkins that Roosevelt relied on in foreign affairs.

1938 over 17000 Germans arrived in the US.  There were more Nazi spies in the US than in any other country in Europe except France. Nazi spy Guenter Rumrich was arrested by the FBI. Kissinger arrived in the US and 5 years later was inducted into the army.  In post war period Kissinger took over the entire administration of the Bergstrasse district in Germany, his firsthand knowledge of power was watching the Nazi takeover German as a child. Ann Fletcher was a refugee also and after knowing each other 7 years the married in 1949.

1949 to 1963 der Alte  Konrad Ardenauer was the chancellor of West Germany.

1958 Kissinger's book Nuclear weapons and Foreign policy became a best seller

1959 under Eisenhower Kissinger was asked to serve as a foreign policy strategist.

1961 The Cold war was enough to reconcile the US to West Germany, while the Russians were blockading Berlin. Khrushchev felt that the US did not know her own interests and did not have the power to deal with a real threat. he saw the way the US dealt with the Suez crises and the US intervention  of Lebanon that replaced a government that supported the Eisenhower doctrine.

1961Bay of Pigs disaster.

        Berlin wall crises  The Russians misjudged Kennedy, who was his own foreign minister even though Dean Rusk held the official position.

1968 under Johnson Kissinger with Kenneth Klark made a trip to Vietnam where he discovered that the US was supporting a government with only 15% support of the S. Vietnam population. Kissinger had supported Nelson Rockefeller in the election against Nixon. The leading Democratic contender had been Robert Kennedy who was assassinator. When Nixon was nominated he offered a honorable solution to the Vietnam war. When Kissinger was offered the position by Nixon, Rockefeller was not displeased as he would still have a contact in the White House. Kissinger became director of the National Security council.  

Machiavelli - the first impression you get of a ruler is the men he surrounds himself with. Generally Nixon had no friends.

1969 Jan. till 1974 Aug. Nixon  President  and Kissinger started working for him a few months later. Nixon had promised to withdraw half a million troops from Vietnam, there was souring inflation and the economy was languishing, with urban crime, no money for decaying cities, racial desegregation in schools was still a dream and blacks poor and women were in revolt. Soviet Union was full steam forward in the arms race. Nixon turned to TV to deal with the anti war protestors looking for the "great silent majority."

1970 Bombing Laos and Cambodia where Vietcong were transferring troops and weapons to the south. This resulted in the Kent State University shooting of protestors, campus after campus protests started. Kissinger advised on easing up on the bombing and the protest quietened down. Later South Vietnamese troops were sent to invade Cambodia.

Beside Kissinger most of Nixon's appointees or advisors were useless and his attempt to add more southern judges to the supreme court failed. Kissinger never trusted the State Dept. and William Rogers became politically  impotent.

1971 A troop withdrawal plan designed by Kissinger and approved by the Pentagon to withdraw 184000 troops by December.  American sent a team to play ping pong in China. Currency restriction and  businessmen travelling to China ended after 25 years. John Holdridge was an important diplomat who worked with Kissinger. Kissinger went to Pakistan and from there disappeared an excuse was given that he was indisposed with stomach trouble and flew to Beijing where he had an eight hour discussion with Chou en Lai and arranged for Nixon to be invited to Beijing. The acceptance of China in the UN followed and this was fine with the puppet regime of South Vietnam and also the Democrats. Red China got in and Taiwan got out.

1971 October Kissinger went back to Beijing to plan Nixon's visit. For a while in China the news blackout on American ended.

 1971 Kissinger had 12 secret meeting with the North Vietnamese in the Paris summit. He also went to  Moscow. When Nixon revealed these secret meeting in Paris the US press was taken by surprise. The Americans offered a ceasefire, withdrawal timeline  of US forces and a prisoner swop. however the meeting were a flop.

J.Edgar Hoover was not consulted when a change of the China policy was brewing and he would have stopped this but he died in 1972 after being discredited and his days at the FBI were already numbered. 

1972 May Nixon visited China.  Kissinger had realized that without China there could not be an enduring peace.

1972 Kissinger  got the SALT treaty signed with the Russian.

1973 America withdrew from Vietnam.

1973 till 1977 Kissinger was the Secretary of State. Succeeded by Alexander Haig.

1974 till 1976  President Gerald Ford succeeded by Ronald Reagan.

1975 Chiang Kai-shek the President of Taiwan died .

Details of Kissinger relationships with women are discussed Jill St. John and Tza Tza Gibor and other Hollywood stars is a long saga that kept the press full.  Kissinger was known as Henry the K, Henry the kiss. The Professor , Herr Doctor and , Super Kraut. He also had powerful women secretaries under him.

 This book was published before the Yom Kippur War so the story of Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy to end the war had not yet happened. Nor the controversy of Kissinger delaying the shipments of armaments to Israel?

The Royal Family at war by Theo Aronson 1993 237pg.

 Book about the English Royal family during WW2    26/9/22

1865-1936 King George  V and 1867-1953 Queen Mary

1894-1972 Edward VIII   abdicated1937 and became Duke of Windsor     

1895-1952 George VI  King from 1937 and  1900- 2001 Queen Elizabeth                                                   1897 -1965 Mary Countess of Harewood                                                                                                    1900-1974 Henry Gloucester 

1902-1942 George of Kent  died in military airplane crash.

 1905-1919Prince John died of epileptic seizures.

 

The author grew up in South Africa and remembered the 3 month visit of the King George , Queen and 2 daughters.

Churchill - this war has drawn the Throne and people together.

1940-1946 Earl of Athlone was uncle to George VI  and Governor General of Canada, before that he was Governor General of South Africa1924-1930 With his wife Princess Alice acted as very capable vice-real couple. Canada had vast numbers of volunteers fighting including the French speakers. When Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands  fled her daughter the crown princess Juliana stayed in Canada where Alice was her aunt. A German POW in Canada Prince Fredrich of Prussia and grandson of the Kaiser was taken to visit his cousins the Athlone's who both spoke German.

George VI wife Queen Elisabeth established herself as the most popular woman in the world.

Duke of Windsor had visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden after he abdicated , he was also proud to show pictures with Hitler. He disapproved of Churchills government. He became a security risk by setting up a Peace Movement and only left England when threated by income tax if he remained. Wallis Simpson had had an affair with the German Ambassador to London Joachim von Ribbentrop. The Nazis planned to restore the Duke of Winsor to his throne. Churchill had championed Edward VIII during the abdication crises. With the fall of France the Duke and Duchess of Winsor fled to Spain and Lisbon , to get him out of Europe he was made Governor of the Bahamas where they till associated with the fascists.. He still broadcast his defeatist views on radio to America. Once Wallace had failed to become queen the royal family thought she would drop her 3rd  husband.

1940 9th April with the German invasion of Denmark and Norway Chamberlain resigned. He had been given the Kings full support for the shameful sacrifice of Czechoslovakia.

1940 May King Leopold of Belgium surrendered. He should have fled to England and was known as the Traitor King. 

Suggestion to send the 2 princesses to Canada, but this was rejected, but a contingency was drawn up if England was occupied as the Royal family must not fall into enemy hands. 

WW1 the King had fought in the naval Battle of Jutland. The King and Queen were everywhere visiting the bombed out London. Especially the London East end badly bombed as it was by the ports. They were able to mingle freely with the population and pictures of the royals amongst the debris appeared all over the world. Not only were the poor bombed but Buckingham Palace was bombed 9 times. The George Cross and George Medal were designed by the king and  awarded to brave civilians.

1934 The Duke of Kent.  He was bisexual and had been a Noel Coward lover, was a play boy and a drug taker, and perfume user.  He married Princess Marina of Greece and they established themselves as a highly fashionable couple. Went back into naval uniform to be seen contributing to the effort.  In 1940 headed a British delegation to the 800 anniversary of Portuguese independence and assured the dictator there Dr. Antonio Salazar that Britain was not a spent force. Duke of Winsor had agreed to Salazar request to remain in Madrid till Kent's visit was over.

Churchill's coalition had Conservative , Labour and Liberal members, but it was with Churchill that the King had a good relationship. Australia had adopted the slogan " One King, one flag , one cause"

1941 March Prince Paul was forced to sign a pact with the Axis by which German troops could cross Yugoslavia on their way to attack Greece.

1941 July 4th Kent on a  US visit asked Roosevelt to be his 3rd sons godfather and named the kid Franklin.

1941 Spring, Germany invaded Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia. The British evacuated Greece and Crete.

On the death of the British ambassador in Washington Lord Halifax replaced him and John G. Winant was appointed to London and the King went to meet him at the station the first time ever. Winant replaced Joseph Kennedy who had predicted that Britain would be occupied. The Queen broadcast to America thanking the population for the war bundles they sent.

1941 August Roosevelt an Churchill met Roosevelt in Newfoundland. This resulted in the Atlantic Charter.

1941  April Duke of Gloucester visited Belfast coinciding with the first bombing of he is city.

1942 August Duke of Kent at 39  killed in a plane crash on duty leaving a wife who made an effort to fulfil his role.  I942 was the worst  year for the British with fall of Singapore, Malaya , Burma and  Tobruk surrendered. By late July the Eighth Army  took up defensive positions in El Alamein was only 60 miles from Alexandria.

The Baedeker Raids the Luftwaffe attacked strategically unimportant tourist cities like Exeter, Bath Norwich and York.

The Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue had worked on shell shocked cases in WW1 and was around to help the king deal with his stutter. Certain words in kings speeches were changed to avoid difficult sounds. The king and queen were a partnership and she was the only person he really trusted.  The Queen read Mein Kampf and advised Halifax not to read it - that she had read it is surprising that Halifax did not is astonishing. The king was one of a few to know the wartime casualties.

Kenneth Clark was the Royal pictures Surveyor appointed by George V the queen knew him well and surprised him of her knowledge of art. He sent the painting for safe keeping to Wales.

Princess Mary the kings only sister had been a nurse for 2 years at the Great Ormond Street hospital for sick children.

1942 Oct Eleanor Roosevelt was a guest at Buckingham Palace. She had been invited by the queen to study the part played by British women in the war effort.

Windsor Castle estates were turned into cereal crops, Sandringham also.. The 2 princesses remained there for 5 years. 1940 during Children's hour 14 year old Elizabeth made her first public speech  of 5 minutes. The Queen broadcast several time to the women of Britain France and the US.

1942 Nov Montgomery defeated the German and Italian forces in El Alemein.

1943 Combined Anglo American N. African campaign. The king visited north Africa and Malta which survived the war only 60 miles from Sicily.

American planes were ferried across the Bering sea  to Russia by Russian pilots who came to fetch the planes.

1943  Quebec conferences launched the joint Anglo - American invasion of Western Europe , Operation Overlord. Smuts was a favorite of the Royal Family and wanted the Mediterranean front expanded to cut off Russia advances..

1943 Sir Alexander Harding was the Kings private secretary and had served George, Edward VII and George VI, He was against Chamberlains appeasement. He was replaced by Sir Alan Lascelles to modernize the monarchy. Retired Queen Mary gave soldiers rides in her Bentley and Americans were frank with her lacked reverence and did not know who she was.

Saint Paul's school secret conference with Chief of Staffs and 150 Commanders land, sea and air to plan D- Day landings, the king attended. The king landed at Normandy 10 days after the invasion.

1943 Sept Italy , Mussolini  was deposed and Italy capitulated, by mid 1944 Southern Italy was firmly in Allies hand and the king made formal inspections of British  and commonwealth  and US, French and Polish troops. 

London was full of crowned heads including Wilamina of Netherland , Harkon VII  of Norway George II of Hellenes, King Zog and Geraldine of Albania ,Queen Marie of Yugoslavia her son Peter II was studying in Cambridge

 1944 June, VI missiles began falling in England.

1945 March . Lord and Lady Athlone invited to a state visit at the Whitehouse. Lester Pearson was the Canadian ambassador to US.1945  April Roosevelt died.

1945 Spring  Princess Elizabeth went to ATS training for drivers at Camberley, Surrey and was taught to drive, strip and service engines and change wheels.  Viscount Lascelles and John Winant the US ambassador's son and some Polish Generals were prisoners in Colditz Castle kept for a hostage exchange they were taken to Austria where a German officer said the war is nearly over cross to the American lines (He was supposed to kill them)

1945 May7th General Jodi at Rheims signed the instrument of unconditional surrender. Two weeks later Churchill lost the election.

The king was never allowed to go to India as events there were moving too fast.  Peter Townsend was selected from the air force to be a temporary equerry in the Palace and stayed there 10 years and love affair with Princess Margaret.

1945 Duke of Gloucester  sent to be Governor General in Australia but PM John Curtin realized that Australia  had to turn to America for protection after the war.

The Duke of Windsor was never allowed to live in England, he liked the idea of American but would have to pay taxes.

1945 15th August VJ day 

The Seventh Nights by Ladislav Mnacko: A witness to the end of the Prague Spring. 1968 220pg

                                                                                                                                              1/10/22 

Book translated into English in 1969 . He was one of  the few Czechoslovak writers translated into English.(1919 -1994)

1968 August 30th he woke up and it was extremely quiet , no cars or trucks or trams making a noise, the Russians had arrived in Bratislava. General Kadoj speech in the  Czechoslovak general assembly had started this crises.  5 Warsaw Pact countries had invaded and all tanks had a white line down the middle so that the different countries, from different sides could identify each other across the 4114 km  Czechoslovak frontier. Poland, East Germany, Hungry and Bulgaria were all countries that hated Russia but part of the Pact that invaded her.

1938  Czechoslovakia was deserted by her democratic allies England and France. Czechoslovakia had spent a fortune to protect the country, which was hermetically surrounded and sealed by enemy states. Both Eduard Benes and Klement Gottwald didn't fight. Gottwald prepared to take the party underground and then fled to Moscow. Gottwald was head of the Communist Party and had they fought they would at least have had a seat at the victory  table.  All decisions were made behind their backs.

Yugoslavia under Tito owed Stalin nothing for liberation. The Slovak Clerical Fascist state had been Hitler's ally. The Slovak Popular party helped Hitler destroy the remnants of the Czech and Hitler occupied that.

When WW2 ended the Czech we waiting for the Russians to enter and drive out the Germans they entertained them and fed them as heroes and gave them  sex freely so they didn't have to rape. The Communist Party lost  28,000 fighting the Germans, killed and tortured fighting the Germans in Bohemia and Monrovia.

1968 600,000 troops arrived one for every  20 Czechoslovaks, 12 divisions. Tanks rolled in destroying fields paving. The Russians broadcast Czech in a German accent and Slovak with a Russian accent, they said they came to liberate with imbecile inventions.  Goebbels said a lie told 100 times becomes the truth . No Czech politician joined the occupation forces. 

Ladislav reported on Israel's  Six day war and in 1967 the Soviet Ambassador had approached Levi Eshkol and asked why Israel had 2 divisions of panzers on the Syrian border. Eshkol wanted to take them to see that this was a lie, but they refused to go.

1968 The army invading arrived without field kitchens believing as in 1945 that the Czech would provide this. Motorized  kitchens and water tanks had to quickly be sent as nobody would betray instructions sent over the free radio, very different from 1945.  The 6 months of freedom from Burocratic Dictatorship had done wonders for the society as the public regarded the occupation as something that had gone wrong.

Mobile broadcasting trucks or broadcasting from the edge of the forest, or the Danube islands. The  Czechoslovak army put its broadcasting equipment that was meant to be used against the west, was put to the Free Radio use. At times the radio announced when there would be a TV program. The broadcasts were by well known voices that the public knew , were calm and assured and were several times of the day and the public followed the instructions exactly.  Rumor's were that Dubcek Cemik and Smirkovsky were arrested and negotiating.  The Russians could find nobody to cooperate. Revolution demanded the return of Dubcek and Svabado from Moscow. There were careers to be made by working with the Russians, but for the first time no Quislings arrived.

Eventually the  Czechoslovaks will work with the Russians just to get bread.  

 In communist society because nothing works always have to find an individual to blame for failure and not the system.  In the show trails, put on witnesses were forced to say the opposite of what they knew to be the truth.

1948 when Israel became independent  Ladislav was there as a reporter on the war and wrote his first book in Czech. The US hoped to weaken Britain and the Soviets wanted to deal a blow to the feudal Arab leaders.

Jews trained in  Czechoslovakia as fighters and sent to Israel ceased to be communists, while Egyptians whose socialism was supported were a waste to time to the Soviets.

1952 The Slansky trial - The best weapon in abnormal society is a Political scandle and anti-Semitic worldwide Zionist conspiracy, this was state sponsored  antisemitism and innocent people were found guilty, at the same time there was the Doctors plot. 

1953 Beria was shot at a meeting just after Stalin died - 2 weeks later it was reported in Tass that he had been tried and executed for espionage.  "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist agent"

1956 Russian troops were in accordance with the treaty of the Soviet and Hungarian governments, not so with the  Czechoslovaks.. Dubcek without Russia's permission had had free elections , economic reforms had ended censorship. Democratic socialism horrified Ulbricht  ,Kosygin and Brezhnev. Gomulka deceived the Polish people.  Dubcek put democracy into practice. The Russian invasion had nothing to do with the fears of these leaders. The  Czechoslovaks produced 70% of the types of goods produced in the world, but the west would not buy them only the Third World wanted to buy these outdated tractors for cheap. To increase production they produced shoddy goods. There is a constitutional right to employment thus the anomaly of artificial employment.

In North Vietnam Haiphong harbour, US planes saw Soviet weapons arriving but were not allowed to bomb as it would create a war with Russia.

1962 An American news agency said they can't have a full time reporter in Prague as nothing happens there, by 1964 there were many reporters, as the situation seemed to be moving as the Czechs were getting ready for a resolution in western eyes.

In Moscow they agreed to remain in the Warsaw Pact and censorship will  reestablished even though in the constitution no censorship is allowed on a legal basis . Dubcek's crime - he was a servant and not a dictator of the people.  Novotny was not purged but realized that his position was untenable he had been editor of the press that was the mouth piece of the party loyalists .Under Dubcek the press telling  the truth and the circulation increased. The Czech press said there was not a single political prisoner and it was true. 

Ladislav was 14 when Hitler came to power. The USSR had saved Czechoslovakia from extinction but had then gone into power politics and expansion, but had deserted the principles of the revolution.   Dubcek, Carnik and Smarkorsky returned from Moscow with guarantees that were worthless before they were made.

Stalin had sent the Kirghiz and Chechens to Siberia on the grounds that they had collaborated with the Nazis.  Russia is a free giant power made up of nations that  are not free. Russian Public know nothing but what others allow them to know. They are not a self assured nation and know nothing of the bible and when they get to the west realized they have been deceived. After WW2 they had to rebuild the country work done mostly by women as there were no men left. Expansion is a sign of weakness to cover internal failure and cover the crises within. Antisemitism is the same. Brezhnev saw himself as a Red Napoleon. The Soviets knew to leave Tito as he would fight. Stalin was in the end thrown out of the mausoleum as he had had a personality cult. 

When the writer saw friends they were horrified that he was still around in the country and they were sure he would be a prime target of the KGB so he took a taxi to the Austrian border and had no problem getting through and lived in exile.

On the night of 20–21 August 137 Czechoslovaks died during the invasion.^[ It was not until the 2000s, following the publication of texts dating from 1968 other writers material on this period was published. 

1969 At the International Ice Hockey championship in Stockholm the score ended up Czechoslovakia 4 – Occupation forces 3! The whole Czechoslovakia population turned out onto the streets to celebrate causing riots that the loyalist police put  down and this was used as an excuse to depose Dubcek.

1989 Dubcek was with Vaclav Havel in the Velvet Revolution and received the Sakharov prize that year.

-------------------------------------------------------------

August 21st. The Rape of Czechoslovakia by Colin Chapman 124 pg. 1968  13/2/24

Warsaw Pact maneuvers had been a front for a possible invasion.

Dobryin the Soviet Ambassador in Washington from 1962 to 1986. He informed L.B.Johnson that what was happening was an internal affairs' of t he Soviet Union, Dean Rusk was secretary of State. The USSR was dealing with counter revolutionaries.

The invasion was considered necessary as Dubcek government was getting to friendly to West Germany, and this would have broken the balance of power. The Communists leaders of East Germany , Hungary and Poland felt threatened. The Red Army sent 3 armies into Bohemia and only 1 into Slovakia as Bohemia was more pro Western. The Hungarian invader asked for food as the expected to be provided by their fellow countryman.

The Red Army were well disciplined considering the provocation they were under.

The invasion was meant to end the 7 and a half month of freedom 

In 1948 proper democratic election were held and the Communists won 38% of the votes. Stalin forced they to accept a fully Soviet style government and to renounce participation in the Marshall plan.

1966 Professor Ota Sik drew up a plan that would improve the economy. 

Dubcek was arrested and Soviet Quisling were meant to take over but the protest were so strong that the Kremlin had to negotiate and agreed to leave Dubcek but he had to tow their line and Soviet "advisors" were sent to be present.

In 1921 the Kronstadt sailors rebelled against the Communist terror, they wanted proper elections and a free press. Later the Hungarians revolted in 1956. Now Czechoslovakia for the same reason, this occupation that followed was no where near as bloody as the ones in 1921 and 1956.

Alexander Dubcek 1921to 1992 died in a car crash, considered mysterious.

___________________________________________________________________________________

 Archivist on a bicycle edited by Helen Epstein and Wilma Igges 2015 138pg. 5/12/2023

In 2014 Jiri  (78)and Dagmar (74) Fiedler were found stabbed in their apartment by a thief who was caught.

Jiri was a linguist , writer , translator and editor by profession. He was born in 1935 in Olomouc. He was not Jewish even though his name Fiedler could be.

1945 After the war the family moved to Prague and he was at The King George school with Vaclav Havel and film-maker Milos Forman and Ivan Passer. This was a school for carefully selected students but the Communists closed it as it was class biased in 1953. You weren't allowed to talk about Jewish existence in Czech lands now and Jewish cemeteries and building were completely neglected. Perhaps by documenting these he found a sense of freedom under this repressive regime.

1963 Ralp Yablon a philanthropist paid to by 1564 scroll that remained in the State Controlled Jewish Museum. The Westminster Synagogue  set up a trust to distribute these to where they were needed Documented in Out of the Midst of the Fire by Phillippa Bernard.

 He also studied Servo Croatian. Starting in 1960 he toured Bohemia an Monrovia collecting information on extinct Jewish communities and build up an enormous achieve in his apartment that he sheared with his wife and children. His wife was supportive of him.

1991 After the Velvet Revolution he was able to publish Jewish Sights in Bohemia an Moravia. He was given money to help publish this but where he helped people in their genealogical search never asked for money. As soon as the Jewish Museum was returned to the Jewish community by the Czech government in October 1994 he worked there till 2012 He created an electronic encyclopedia of Jewish communities in Czech lands. He finally could dedicate himself fully to his old love.

He worked at the Albatros Publishing House in Prague dealing with the publication of children's books. The translated dozens of books into Polish and Serbo Croat.

Jihlava a village has the house where Gustav Mahler grew up.

Jiri was 10 when the Nazi occupation ended and he saw their retreat. He came across old Yiddish newspapers and deciphered the letters like hieroglyphics. and taught himself Yiddish. He chanced upon a bilingual journal in German and Yiddish and did not give up until he had penetrated the mysteries of East European Jews. He had studied linguistics at the Charles University, but his passion was taking photos of churches old synagogues and cemeteries. If it hadn't been for Jiri a lot of Czech modern Jewish history would have been lost. Sometime he had to flee the place he was documenting or explain what he was doing. Everything was controlled by the secret police and he had to explain to them that he was doing nothing illegal. The Jewish community representatives behaved like cowards and rudely rejected him. Even the Rabbi informed the Secret Police. Between 1948 and 2007 he kept detailed dairies of his riding around.

Visitors knew to get dropped off nearby and not reveal to the taxi the address they were going to.

After the Soviet Invasion of 1968 jobs at the Jewish museum were kept for loyal party members. Jiri never had much luck getting information from the Jewish achieve till after 1989..

Czechoslovakia had no friendly relation with Yugoslavia 

All  Jewish spoils of the holocaust were brought to Prague. You had 1400 torah yadim  and Kiddush cups inscribed with family names. 1982 The Precious Legacy of Judaic Treasures from the State Jewish Museums in Prague was created.. Jewish building had been converted to other uses, perhaps a warehouse. Less than 10% of the community survived the Nazis. 

1990 he was invited to the Jewish Council meeting in the USA to a conference of Jewish Monuments and designated the Czech research director. He went for a tour of synagogues in NY and was given a personal tour of the White House by Mark Talisman who had been appointed by Jimmy Carter to set up the US Holocaust museum.

1992 Ruth Gruber wrote Jewish Heritage Travel: A guide to Easter and Central Europe.  Jiri's help was invaluable to her. After 1995 synagogues were returned by the state to Jewish communities and some building have been restored or rented out.

1848 There was a plagues and  research was do on the victims, some were buried in mass graves. of it .Jiri was also in great demand in the Jewish Gen Society.

The synagogue in Kolyne was repaired and opened.to great fanfare.

The Jewish museum in Prague deals with 800 Czech communities that once existed.