Operation Walküre (Satis Shroff)

Operation Walküre (Satis Shroff)

Ceude de Gurs (c) Aquarelle by Max Linger ‘Operation Walküre’ was Hitler’s own Emergency Plan which was used by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg to put an end to the Fuehrer, take over his Nazi regime and remove the Third Reich’s military and political administrators and replace them with his own men. Stauffenberg and his men risked their own lives, and those of their own families, for the fate of millions of people. The old war heroes are slowing disappearing with Alzheimer, Parkinson’s and other diseases in gerontological homes, and many in their own four walls. I’m awfully glad and proud that our children are taught about the holocaust in their schools (Abitur classes), that there are memorials, museums and that school-kids have to write essays about Anne Frank, Schindler’s List, the Third Reich and that school classes and students go to see where, and how it happened in the concentration camps in Germany, Poland, France and elsewhere: lest we forget. Germany does have quite a few resistance heroes, and if more people had the desire to show civil courage like Stauffenberg, Sophie Scholl and a host of others, then such atrocities like World War II, Auschwitz and other concentration- camp genocides would not have happened. I think that the Germans, as a folk, have learned their lessons well. The Education Departments in the 16 Federal States of Germany are doing a good job by keeping the young people informed about the hoary past, in addition to Germany’s great history by organising memorials, seminars, exhibitions and multimedia events. Actually, the idea to undermine the Hitler regime with the help of Hitler’s own Walküre plans through the implementation of the Auxillary Army to mow down revolts, was General Olbricht’s brain-child. In ‘Operation Walküre,’ however, it is shown as Stauffenberg’s geistesblitz to assassinate Hitler and to put the blame on the SS and Nazi big shots, and to use the ‘Walküre’ plans to make the Nazis surrender their weapons. According to Norse mythology, Walküren were those who decided who ought to die in the battlefield. In Germanic mythology, the messengers of the highest God Wodan (Odin), ride over the killing-fields and give the slain eternal life by means of a kiss and take them to Asgard, whereby Asen is the mightiest dynasty of Gods with Odin (Wodan) at the top, seconded by Thor (Donar), Baldr, Zyr (Zin) and Frigg (also known as Frija , Frea). Odin was the sovereign God, whom the Germanic dynasties of England and Scandinavia, originally regarded as their divine founder. These Gods are perhaps a reflection of the tripartite division of the Indo-European society into: priest, warrior and cultivator. Some years back on Thomas Gottschalk’s ‘Wetten, dass’ TV show, Mittermeier, a popular tongue-in-cheek cabaretist said as a joke that instead of Hitler, Tom Cruise would have done well to have laid the leader of the Scientology church cold, which caused a big laugh. Mittermeier’s parody of Obama and Merkel brought the house down with more laughter. In Germany’s first channel ARD Oliver Pocher, a comedian moderated a show (Schmidt & Pcher) dressed as Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, complete with an eye-patch, and the blurb: “You can see better with the First (Channel). The chairman of the ARD Herr Volker Stich wasn’t amused and said, ‘Herr Pocher didn’t do the ARD any good.’ If this fun-making goes on in in good olde Germany, then a lot of Stauffenbergs-in-uniform will be appearing during the Carnival (Fasnet) next month. Who was Claus Stauffenberg really? He was a noble German, a count, who lived in the Castle of Jettingen, which lies in the vicinity of Günzburg. He was born in November 15, 1907 and shot by the Nazi execution squad in Berlin on July 20, 1944. Stauffenberg was an officer and resistance fighter. He did his military duty in Poland and France. Between 1940-43 he worked in the organisation department of the General Staff of the Army. He belonged to the German elite, was conservative, but was also open to new social changes, and was initially impressed by Hitler’s success. He developed a growing skepsis regarding the national socialist politics of conquest, critic on the military, Hitler’s mistakes and his disgust regarding the terror meted out to the people of the conquered countries culminated in his decision to be ready for the revolt in 1942. Claus Stauffenberg was severely wounded in April 1943 in North Africa. He was promoted to the rank of Stabschef in the Reich’s army department and became the force behind the diverging resistance groups. Since July 1, 1944 he had access to Hitler’s HQ as an Oberst. He personally carried out the plan to blow up the Führer on July 20, 1944 and flew to Berlin because he was a key figure in carrying out and coordinating the technical plans of the operation to take over the state. Even though there are still old and neo-nazis who raise their voices now and then in Germany even today, we believe in the norms and values of democracy: freedom of opinion, cultures, togetherness (Miteinander) and vive la difference. Yes we can, as you can see. Come to Germany and see it for yourself. Stauffenberg’s last words in the film are: ‘Long live holy Germany! Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!’ before he is riddled by a firing squad on the night of July 20, 1944. The attempt to assassinate the Führer backfired, but for many Germans it was a sign, a symbol for another Germany which has lasted even to this day. The men and women of July 20, 1944 were instrumental in shaping the goals (Leitbild) of the present-day Bundeswehr, which is battling against the Talibans in Afghanistan, keeping-off pirates in Somalia and elsewhere, and will be seeing action in Mali soon, is a Nato member and works closely with the USA and has a brigade together with the French army, not to speak of its many development projects in many poor countries. If you’d like to visit the Military Archive located at the Wiesentalstrasse 10 in Freiburg, just give them a call: 0761-47817-801 and ask for Herr Michael Steidel. Tom Cruise’s ‘Valkyrie’ crew were at the Archive two weeks long to do their research on German SS and Gestapo uniforms, documents and other historical paraphernalia. At the Military Archiv you’ll find five halls and 55km of files dating back from 1867 till today. On January 27, 2009 like in many other European cities, we Freiburger remember the ‘Persecution Children and Youth from 1933 till 1945’ as the day of liberation of the prisoners from the concentration camp in Ausschwitz in 1945, and we discuss about the families that were separated from the German mainstream in those days, persecuted and exterminated by the National Socialists (Nazis). Their only crime was that they were: Jews, Sintis, Romas, Jehova’s witnesses or disabled human beings, who were regarded as lesser beings in comparison to the so-called master Germanic race. The youth will have a chance to speak to witnesses and survivors of the holocaust who still live in Freiburg or have been invited to speak about their sad, moving, traumatic experiences. In the German language we call them Zeitzeugen, time-witnesses.

Love at the Time of Holocaust (Satis Shroff)

Mulhouse: A Young Love (Satis Shroff)

 ( Stolpersteine in Freiburg's cobbled streets as a reminder of the past)

Ach, what a life it has been,

Having to escape,

The state-run

Mass-slaughter,

Not of cows, pigs and chicken,

But of humans,

Who’s only fault was

To be born a Jew

In Germany.

My name was Hanna,

A short form of Johanna:

Hanna, the gifted.

My Dad was a Jewish merchant.

In the Schwarzwald town of Freiburg.

I had to give up my name,

For it was of Teutonic origin.

That was in 1938.

Do you remember harbour at Marseille?

There you were Roland,

My Alsatian love.

When I think that my dad,

Joined the war effort in 1914,

Swore to fight for the Kaiser

And Fatherland.

Where was the justice on earth?

We had to emigrate to Mulhouse,

To France in 1938.

My Dad’s business

Was confiscated by so-called Aryans

In brown-shirts and black boots.

The house at the Freiburger Poststrasse

Was sold.

The Emigration Tax swallowed the money,

We were left with nothing.

Ah, in Mulhouse I met you.

You a Catholic and I,

A Jew.

Mulhouse soon became unsafe,

When the Nazis declared War.

I bade you faewwell in Marseille,

On my way to Casablanca,

Then to Cuba.

Do you remember we pledged

To one another:

‘J’attendrai.’

I carried your picture in my wallet,

In all the years.

We arrived in New York in 1943,

I married in 1947,

Had two children.

Years later I discovered

That you’d survived the War,

Written letters to me,

Sent telegrams,

All withheld

By my self-righteous Dad.

It was my precious daughter Leslie,

Who contacted your sister.

She gave her the album,

I’d given to you,

As a parting present.

You were over 70 then, Roland:

A successful man in Montreal.

Do you remember how we met,

After all those calls

From NY to Montreal?

We were separated in 1942.

I knew this wasn’t Casablanca.

Somewhere deep in my heart,

I believed we’d see each other again.

And life a miracle we met in 1991.

49 years later.

Ah, we were a couple again,

Reliving our past happiness,

Revisiting the places

Where we grew up.

We forgot about the long separation,

Time healed our wounds.

We’re still so much in love.

A young love,

Ripened with age,

Like in a fairy tale,

Despite all the perils.

* * *

This poem is based on “Cross the Borders of Time” written by Leslie Maitland, and is about her Mom Hanna Günzburger, who was the daughter of a Jewish iron-merchant in Freiburg. The book is available on www.amazon.com. It was first printed by ‘Other Press.’ If you visit Freiburg, look for the stolpersteine, scattered in Freiburg’s cobbled streets. You read not only the names of Alice and Sigmar Günzburger near their former residence at the Poststrasse, but scores of other Jewish families also who were gassed by the Nazis during the Third Reich.