January 27 - Auschwitz Liberated (1945), Germany First Bombed by US (1943), First Nazi Rally (1923)

It was on this day, January 27, 1945, that the Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps were liberated by Soviet soldiers.

Exactly two years before, January 27, 1943, that Americans had bombed Germany for the first time since entering the war.

Exactly twenty years before that, January 27, 1923, in Munich, Germany’s National Socialist Movement (Nazi) party held its first rally.

If you visit Auschwitz today there is a process for getting the tickets to the tour. The website has information available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and International Sign Language. The first page of the training reads, in white letters on gray backing, “Auschwitz Did Not Fall Suddenly From the Sky: Preparation to a Visit to the Auschwitz Museum”.

The details on what was happening inside Germany were murky before the end of the war. In some ways, there was evidence of what was happening. In other ways, so much of the genocide of the concentration camps was hidden away.

Universal News Service, the Hearst Journalists, ran an article on March 25, 1933, with the lead line “Nazis Hold 10,000 Foes as Prisoners”, but in the report included “A statement that certain foreign newspapers are printing “irresponsible distortions” concerning the treatment of Jews in Germany was issued today by the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith. Reports of anti-Jewish atrocities are “pure inventions” the statement said.

Much of the transparency of the world had been winnowed down in the decade leading up to this point. The journalist Dorothy Thompson, the wife of author Sinclair Lewis, was part of the removal of transparency in the decade before. She was the first journalist to be expelled by the German Government for “damaging Germany in the world press”.

As she was packing her bags on August 25, 1934, she gave this statement to the press:

“Outsiders are warned that Germans have the right to any form of government they choose. I agree to that and personally I have consistently opposed all organized attempts such as a boycott which aim to reform the government from without. But National Socialism, on its own claims, is not only a system of German government but is a world outlook which is frankly directed against the liberal and democraticon conception under which a great part of the world still live and which, curiously enough, still cherish.”

Associated Press, August 27, 1934, posted “It is the sovereign right of any government to expel any foreigner it desires, however innocent of wrong doing that alien may be. So none can properly question the legal positions of the Hitlerites in such cases. But one can question, seriously, the intelligence of the Berlin Government, However much Hitler would like to make the world press goose-step with the terrorized German press, he ought to know that is impossible. And he ought to know that expulsion and intimidation of reputable foreign correspondents inevitably produces the belief among foreign readers that the nazis have something very terrible to hide.”

When the Soviet Troops arrived at Auschwitz there were 7000 prisoners still held there. 7,000 prisoners must have felt like a lot, to find malnourished and ill in a concentration camp, but the scale of the atrocity only became apparent when the materials at the camp were inspected.

Seven tons of human hair was stored in one building of the depot. There were also 12,000 Pots and Pans that had been brought to the camp by people who still believed, until their arrival, that they were being resettled.

In total over one million people had been executed at the camp over the previous five years since it had opened.

Full Transcript Plus Resources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LCsYvSBnIBk_AWIfi2IHDAhexDYorZQfUVD-fIULgn4/edit

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Видео January 27 - Auschwitz Liberated (1945), Germany First Bombed by US (1943), First Nazi Rally (1923) канала AJ Fox