Feldgrau :: Current News in Brief

Feldgrau.com - research on the German armed forces 1918-1945

Current News in Brief by Jason Pipes

Trenton, NJ - 2009-04-20 The Justice Department said that it will seek to revoke the citizenship of a man it says was an armed guard at Nazi slave labor camps during World War II. The government said Andrew Kuras, 80, was an SS Auxiliary at a Nazi training camp and an armed guard at three different labor camps in occupied Poland. (source: AP)

Berlin, Germany - 2009-04-20 Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has rebuked his predecessor and demanded Helmut Kohl apologize for allegedly having compared a top lawmaker to a key aide of Adolf Hitler in a comment September 2nd that has caused an uproar in Germany. The newsweekly Der Spiegel has reported that Kohl was overheard saying that Wolfgang Thierse, the president of parliament's lower house, was the worst person in the post since Hermann Goering, a top Hitler aide who presided over the Reichstag from 1932 to 1945 — a period including the duration of the Third Reich. Kohl issued a statement Tuesday that stopped short of a denial, saying he would not comment on the content of a private conversation. (source: Reuters)

London, England - 0000-00-00 Jewish groups expressed outrage Thursday that a British company was selling sport shoes with the same name as the Nazi nerve gas used to kill millions of Jews in the Holocaust. Umbro, the firm that outfits the English national soccer team, said it was an "unfortunate coincidence" that its Zyklon shoe, on sale since 1999, bore the name of the poison gas Zyklon B used in the Holocaust during WWII. Company representatives said the shoe would be renamed or withdrawn from sale, but they would not say whether shoes already shipped would be removed from store shelves. The name appears on the box but not on the shoes themselves, and therefore the company said it has no immediate plans to recall shoes already sold. (source: Reuters)

Rotterdam, Netherlands - 2009-05-20 A lifelike statue of Adolf Hitler kneeling in prayer has provoked criticism in the Netherlands a day before the Italian work called "Him," by Maurizio Cattelan goes on exhibit. Rotterdam's leading cultural official, alderman Stefan Hulman, complained to museum officials after hearing about plans to display the piece. The Hitler statute stands 3 feet high and is made of polyester, resin and finished with wax. The piece, crafted in 2000, was previously exhibited in Sweden and Italy. The Hitler statue is portrayed kneeling - hands clasped at his waist - looking up. The statue stands alone in a vast gallery hall of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum where it is to be on public view until November 3rd. "By confronting this loaded theme with irony, the historic and ethical importance of this extremely dark period of our existence becomes clearer," the museum said in a statement. "It is particularly important to display this type of work now in a time of fear." The museum also said the statue fits into the Italian Grotesque art genre and that Cattelan intended to bring the viewer face-to-face with "the personification of evil." (source: AP)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Leni Riefenstahl celebrates her 100th birthday with her first film in nearly half a century with a 45-minute documentary cut from footage shot during dives in the Indian Ocean between 1974 and 2000. Impressions Under Water will be broadcast on German television later this month in honour of her birthday. (source: AP)

Dresden, Germany - 0000-00-00 Mention has repeatedly been made that the tremendous flooding impacting Germany has caused the worst damage to historic cities and caused the most people to flee city centers since the times of WWII. (source: various)

Berlin, Germany - 2008-10-20 Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said that German forces are already overstretched in their international commitments and will not participate in any military action against Iraq. Currently Germany has 10,500 soldiers serving in foreign countries, a five-fold increase since Schroeder came to office. Most are peacekeepers, but there are about 100 German combat troops in Afghanistan. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Germany's new defence minister, Peter Struck has been sworn in a special session of the Bundestag. Following the ceremony Struck told parliamentarians that the Bundeswehr would continue their current peace-keeping missions abroad, which seem likely to increase in the next few years. Struck added that Germany's allies were demanding that it play a greater role international peace-keeping. Following his speech, the opposition Christian Democrats took the opportunity to criticise the new defence minister, in particular for the fact that he is not seeking an increase in funding for the Bundeswehr. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 The new German defence minister, Peter Struck, has left on his first official trip abroad since taking up the post. Struck is scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan on Friday, where he is to visit the more than 1,000 members of the Bundeswehr who are deployed there. (source: DW)

Brussels, Belgium - 0000-00-00 The European Court of Human Rights has ruled French courts denied Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon due process. The court ruled France wrongly denied the 91 year-old Papon his right to appeal his 1998 conviction and 10-year sentence for crimes against humanity. A French court had earlier ruled Papon forfeited his right to appeal by briefly fleeing to Switzerland shortly after his conviction. The 7-judge European chamber said that was a "particularly severe sanction". France still has the opportunity to challenge the ruling in the full 17-judge chamber of the European Court. (source: DW)

Parnu, Estonia - 0000-00-00

The authorities in the Estonian city of Parnu have removed a controversial monument honouring Estonian soldiers who sided with Germany during World War II. The monument had featured a man in an Estonian SS uniform and bore a dedication to Estonian servicemen who died in the effort to liberate their homeland during WWII. Much of the controversy centred on the monument's inscription for praising the soldiers who fought in the SS. It stated: "To all Estonian soldiers who died in the second war for the liberation of the fatherland and a free Europe in 1940-1945". The bronze relief of a soldier was also heavily criticised. Although an SS insignia had been removed from the soldier's helmet, it still had him dressed in an Estonian Waffen SS uniform and holding a sub-machine gun pointing east towards Russia. Of course Europeans will not understand us," said Leo Tammiksaar, a history enthusiast and private initiator of the monument. "We made this monument for our soldiers and not for Brussels." (source: BBC)

Zhovka, Ukraine - 0000-00-00 A Soviet-era atrocity has been unearthed in the Ukraine as the remains of 225 said to have been killed by the Soviet Secret Police have been found at a Monastery in the Ukraine. In all likelihood, according to people investigating the discovery, the bodies are those of Ukrainians executed by Soviet authorities in a campaign to pacify the region following the defeat of Nazi Germany. After the war, Ukrainian partisans who had battled the Germans refused to lay down their arms and fought the Soviets well into the 1950s. (source: Washington Post)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Newly appointed German Defence Minister Peter Struck has made his first public appearance since taking the job. Struck attended an annual ceremony in Berlin to commemorate an unsuccessful 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Later in the day Struck and Chancellor Gerhard Schroder took part in a ceremony to swear in 500 new recruits to Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr. Polish President Alexander Kvaznievski is also scheduled to take part in that ceremony, which would make him the first foreign political leader to take part in the swearing-in of Bundeswehr recruits. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has dismissed his Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping. The dismissal brings to eight the number of ministers Schroeder has lost since coming to power in 1998. (source: DW)

Arendal, Norway - 0000-00-00 For the first time in 13 years the Norwegian Army and Pollution Control Authority are inspecting wrecks sunk by the Allies between 1945 and 1947 consisting of about 40 warships loaded with German chemical weapons (bombs and grenades containing mustard gas, tabu, sarin, forgen, and lewisitt). The ships were sunk by the Allies outside of Arendal, Norway. It is estimated that approximately 170,000 metric tons of chemical ammo are found in the dumping sites in the Skagerrak (the sea between Norway and Denmark). Slowly but surely the ammo is rusting and some believe this will result in the inevitable release of the poisons. Nobody knows for sure the consequences this might have. (source: Dagbladet)

Hamburg, Germany - 0000-00-00 Citing orders from Adolf Hitler, a 93-year-old former SS major has defended the killing of Italian prisoners during World War II as a legitimate wartime act. Speaking outside the courtroom, Friedrich Engel, who is charged with 59 counts of murder, said that German forces were provoked by Italian partisans and said he believed at the time that the massacre was justified. The Hamburg state court upheld that argument Wednesday, saying rules of war in 1944 did not explicitly outlaw reprisal killings. But the murder case against the Hamburg retiree hinges on the prosecution's allegation that Engel ordered a massacre on May 19, 1944, that was especially cruel. The massacre was in retaliation for an attack on a movie theater that killed five German soldiers. Nearly 60 years later, a court led by a judge born in the year of the massacre is trying to establish the facts in one of Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials. Engel has told the court he was present and approved the list of prisoners from Genoa's Marassi jail to be shot. But he has denied the charges of murder, saying he shot no one and that the German navy ordered the reprisals. Anger flickered when he denounced the partisans who fought German occupying forces in Italy. "We Germans were provoked with treacherous, underhanded attacks," he said. "The partisans were not honest fighters." Engel said he was among officials who attended a meeting in Florence that laid out Germany's reprisal policy in Italy after a March 23, 1944, bombing killed 32 German policemen in Rome. The meeting discussed an order by Hitler that 10 Italians should die for every German killed, Engel said. "The Americans were advancing. An order was handed down to redouble efforts to fight attacks against Germans," he said. "It was up to me to carry out this order from Hitler and my superiors." When the Genoa shootings were planned a few weeks later, "I was in a position where I had to view it as legitimate," Engel said. But he said he soon came to doubt that the killings "were right," and he ignored orders a month later for another reprisal shooting. Prosecutors say the Genoa massacre was particularly gruesome, justifying murder charges. (source: AP)

Berlin, Germany - 2006-05-20 Germany has decided to keep German peacekeepers in Afghanistan for a further six months beyond the end of their current mandate which runs out on June 20th. About 1,200 German troops belong to the ISAF in Afghanistan. (source: DW)

Hamburg, Germany - 0000-00-00 After a tanker-truck loaded with liquid gas exploded near a synagogue on the island of Djerba which has killed 13 people, a German airforce plane equiped as an airborne clinic landed in Hamburg bringing home 8 seriously injured German tourists from the Tunisian island. Early Saturday two other flying hospitals transferred four people. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 This excellent article has appeared on DW's English language website. Sweeping reforms are necessary to prepare outdated German forces for a modern combat role. Stretched to the limit and ill-equipped, missions and lives are at the mercy of in-fighting politicians. The German military is increasingly in the headlines as a bloated, badly organised and outdated Cold War dinosaur. Germany's armed forces, which rely partially on conscripts, critics increasingly say, must be converted from a largely static defence force into a modern out-of-area army. The country has long relied on conscripts to counter the negative historical image of the Nazi war machine. But reforms are now imperative to modernise the Bundeswehr. Despite the recent closure of 40 military bases and a reduction in troop numbers, Germany's armed forces need to upgrade equipment. But Berlin, pinched for funds elsewhere in the federal budget, is either unwilling or unable to invest extra funds to bring its armed forces to a level recommended by experts and increasingly demanded by public opinion. The deaths of two German soldiers and three Danes in an accident in Afghanistan last week brought home to Germans the real risk that foreign deployments pose and threatened to turn defence spending into a major campaign issue, which the opposition would likely relish. The situation has lead to calls that German soldiers are put at excessive risk in out-of-area missions. Members of the armed forces filed 5,000 complaints in 2001, said parliamentary commissioner for the military Willfried Penner on Tuesday. Already in the first two months of 2002, complaints were up by 25 percent. Penner, a parliamentary deputy for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, released a report on the state of Germany’s armed forces a week after four German soldiers were killed in two separate accidents – the two in Kabul and two others in the Baltic Sea. Penner cited numerous complaints from Afghanistan, where Germans are frequently mistaken for Russian soldiers, who are very unpopular with Afghans. Because some Afghans cannot tell the uniforms apart, German soldiers face the risk of targeting on patrol. They have also expressed concern, reportedly, because some of their vehicles are not armoured. And apart from the outdated military hardware, the forces are being stretched to the limit. In addition to duties in Bosnia, Kosovo and Georgia, Germans last year took on the leadership of the peacekeeping mission in Macedonia and joined military operations in Afghanistan. It is the first time German troops have been in combat since the Second World War. This shows Germany’s increasing readiness to take on international responsibilities. But it also raises the question of how effective a Cold War dinosaur can be in modern battle. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has said German special forces have taken part in operations alongside American and British elite soldiers in Afghanistan. Confirming a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, Scharping said about 100 German soldiers from the elite Kommando Spezialkraefte unit had joined American and British troops in operations searching for al Qaeda forces. It was believed to be the first time German special forces had been involved in a mission with American and British elite troops. (source: DW)

Kuwait City, Kuwait - 0000-00-00 US military maneuvers have begun in Kuwait with 170 German ABC defense specialists taking part in the operation. The German experts for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare will remain in the region for about a month as part of the international war on terror. (source: DW)

Germany - 2002-08-20 German novelist Guenter Grass has called for the publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf in Germany and has raised the delicate subject of German wartime refugees fleeing from the Red Army in 1944 and 1945 in his recently published novel "Im Krebsgang" (Crab Walk in English). The novel has sparked a national debate on the suffering of German World War Two refugees. When speaking about Mein Kampf, Grass stated "...one should always be allowed to read this madness," saying that it should be published in an authorised edition with an accompanying commentary to help young people who may be fascinated with Nazism, but do not understand the reality behind it. He also criticised the German Government for trying to outlaw the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), saying that German democracy was strong enough to cope with challenges from the far right. (source: BBC, Reuters)

Potsdam, Germany - 2002-07-20 The UFA film and TV production group in Germany has announced that it will be making a feature film on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff set for release in 2003. According to UFA the film will be shot on location and will highlight the story of the 9,000+ lives lost when the ship was sunk on January 30th, 1945 by Soviet sub S13 in the Baltic Sea. (source: Yahoo Germany)

Salt Lake City, UT - 2002-07-20 Today is the first day of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Olympic torch and the relay so closely associated with the pomp and circumstance around the opening day of games was actually first introduced with the 1936 Games in Berlin. Runners carrying the torch left July 20, 1936, from Olympia in Greece and arrived in Berlin 11 days later, having covered a distance of 2,126 miles. International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Count von Hart was the man who came up with the idea after a visit to the site of the ancient games in 1934. The Krupp steel and munitions company was responsible for the construction of the small, 32-once torch. Krupp also manufactured the reflector which is still used to light the torches from the sun at Olympia every few years, as well as the 1972 Munich Games torch. Although the design of the torch has changed according to the location and time of the event since 1936, the concept of the relay and of the lighting of the flame remain largely unchanged. (source: Reuters)

Copenhagen, Denmark - 2002-06-20 World War II-era scientist Niels Bohr said he was shocked to learn from colleague Werner Heisenberg that Germany was "vigorously in a race to be the first with atomic weapons," according to a decades-old letter released Wednesday. The three-page letter by Bohr, the Danish scientist who later helped make the first A-bomb for the United States, confirmed that Heisenberg had revealed the existence of the nuclear program to Bohr and expressed no doubts about its success during a meeting in 1941. Many details in the letter, which was never delivered, were disclosed in news reports last month. But the full letter along with other documents were officially released on Wednesday, further adding to the debate among scientists and historians over why Heisenberg failed to make the bomb. Heisenberg was the scientific genius behind Hitler's secret bomb effort. (source: AP)

Germany - 2002-04-20 An article on dw-world.de, the website for Deutsche Welle, highlights the current deployment of the 3,900 man force being provided by the German Bundeswehr to Operation Enduring Freedom. Currently, the Bundeswehr deployment is as follows.

Afghanistan: 1,200 troops are stationed in Afghanistan with a heavy concentration in Kabul, and a possible further deployment of a nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) defense unit is possible later in February. The NBC forces could be as large as 800 additional soldiers.

Horn of Africa: Six German Bundesmarine ships set sail for the Horn of Africa in early January and arrived toward the end of the month, docking at Djibouti. The core of the force is three frigates carrying some 1,800 sailors, sent to patrol sea lanes in the region. The German navy contingent is the largest of the German deployment to support operation Enduring Freedom. The German navy may also have a covert role, monitoring Somalia and Yemen, two countries where US officials say al Qaeda forces may have set up base. Five fast patrol boats are following in the wake of the initial German deployemnt, sent as cargo on a transport ship sailing from Wilhelmshaven January 13th and set to arrive in February.

United States: 40-50 German military and civilian personnel have been stationed as part of a NATO reconnaissance mission. They are part of a 190-man force with five NATO E-3A AWACS aircraft based at Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City.

Kenya: The German Defence Ministry announced plans to station navy reconnaissance planes in Kenya, at the port of Mombasa. If the mission goes forward, 100 sailors and support forces will travel there to man three aircraft and monitor shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Turkey: 100 German military personnel were stationed at Incirlik, Turkey from November 26 to January 10 as a base for air transport supporting US forces in Afghanistan.

Germany: Most of the remaining troops assigned to this mission are stationed in Germany as support or awaiting further deployement.
(source: DW)

Gulf of Aden, Africa - 2002-02-20 German Bundesmarine naval ships have begun patroling off the west coast of Africa. Five German naval ships have been deployed to patrol the Gulf of Aden for three weeks as part of a 16-nation mission to intercept suspected terrorists and smuggled weapons off the Horn of Africa. The three frigates plus two supply ships, with 850 crew members were sent from Germany four weeks ago. A German government spokesman said the Bundeswehr was also seeking to establish a naval base in Africa, possibly the Kenyan port city of Mombassa, from which aircraft could also patrol Indian Ocean sea routes. (source: DW)

Bielefeld, Germany - 2002-02-20 About 1,700 supporters of the far-right German NPD party protested in the western city of Bielefeld against an exhibition that reports to show the breadth of involvement the regular German army had in war crimes during WWII. Police deployed 2,000 officers for the march organized by the National Democratic Party which was allowed to proceed on condition the demonstrators stay out of the city center and after two planned speakers were banned. Three people believed to have been among some 8,000 left-wing counter-demonstrators were arrested after throwing bottles and stones at police putting up barricades and damaging a police car, German police said. (source: DW)

New York, New York - 2002-01-20 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said Germany remains committed to peacekeeping in Afghanistan while addressing the World Economic Forum in New York. Schroeder also said that Germany would like to help to train Afghan police forces. A spokesman for Schroeder suggested before the World Economic Forum that Germany might consider taking a lead role in Afghanistan if it were relieved of its leadership of a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2002-01-20 Germany reportedly plans to station navy reconnaisance planes in Kenya as part of its contribution to the U.S.-led war on terror. Washington fears the lack of central authority in Somalia, Kenya's eastern neighbour, could make it an ideal haven for extremists and has launched a series of intelligence operations in the region to assess whether to target the country. A German Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed a report of Die Welt daily that Germany wanted to station navy planes in Mombasa, Kenya's chief port, to monitor shipping in the Indian Ocean. (source: DW)

Djibouti, Africa - 0000-00-00 Four more German warships have arrived in Djibouti, joining the frigate Bayern in the largest-ever operation in the history of the German Bundeswehr navy. Further vessels and helicopters are to follow. 1800 German marines are involved in the operation which is aimed at controlling and securing sea routes in the region as part of the US-led war on terrorism. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Afghanistan's interim government leader, Hamid Karzai, has called on Germany to take the helm of the international peace force in his country, if Britain decides not to extend its role in six months time. In an interview with the German news magazine "Der Spiegel", Karzai said Germany should take on the leadership role because it had always supported Afghanistan's anti-Taliban forces. (source: DW)

Prague, Czech Republic - 0000-00-00 Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman attacked Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider as a "populist pro-Nazi" on January 19th in a war of words over a controversial Czech nuclear power plant. (source: DW)

San Jose, CA - 0000-00-00 Online auction provider eBay.com has further cleared its German languange version of it's popular website of all "Nazi material". A report on national German television uncovered a supposed "thriving" trade in right-wing material, and eBay Germany was quick to react. A company spokesman said eBay would remove offending items for sale on its website and cooperate closer with Germany's domestic intelligence agency. Some of the offending items included racist music, literature and related skin head and neo-nazi objects, but the ban further impacts the sale of legitimate historical objects such as photos and photos albums and original German WWII era relics. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2001-11-20 An unexploded British World War II bomb has been found under Berlin's Olympic Stadium. It was defused on Wednesday by explosives experts. The bomb, which had a defective trigger, was detected under a lower ring of seats by construction workers restoring the stadium prior to the 2006 World Cup. The bomb, which weighed 250 kilograms, was filled with 125 kilos of explosives and could have gone off at any time. There are thought to still be thousands of unexploded bombs in and around Berlin. Wartime bombs are still found regularly all over Germany, more than half a century after the Second World War. The problem is expected to remain for a further 20 years. (source: DW)

Kabul, Afghanistan - 2001-11-20 After having been stranded in Turkey for three days due to bad weather, the first German troops, 70 German Fallschirmjaeger assigned to the International Security Assistance Force, have arrived in Kabul. The ISAF which eventually will total some 5,000 soldiers from 18 countries is also now operational in the Afghan capital. The German military will contribute 3,900 troops to Operation Enduring Freedom, both in Afghanistan and around the world. (source: DW)

Germany - 2001-08-20 The first contingent of 70 German soldiers has begun its journey to Afghanistan to join 18 other countries participating in the international peacekeeping operation ISAF. Two Luftwaffe planes took off from Germany today en route to the Netherlands where some 70 German Fallschirmjaeger were joined by 30 Dutch paratroopers. The contingent is expected to arrive in Kabul on January 9th. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2001-07-20 German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has highlighted the international responsibility of the German armed forces in their Afghanistan mission a day before an advance team of elite German troops leaves for Kabul. Scharping wrote that Bundeswehr troops came as "helpers" not as "occupiers". An advance force of 70 German and 30 Dutch paratroopers are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan on Tuesday, after heavy snow in Turkey delayed the military operation by 24 hours. (source: DW)

Wilhelmsaven, Germany - 2001-02-20 Six German navy ships have set sail for the Horn of Africa to protect shipping routes and prevent al-Qaeda fighters travelling to Africa to seek sanctuary and set up bases. Two frigates, a maintenance ship and three other support vessels with a total of 750 sailors were expected to take about three weeks to reach the coast of Somalia after leaving the northwestern port of Wilhelmshaven. They represent Germany's biggest contribution yet to the U.S. war on terrorism. Germany has committed itself to providing up to 3,900 troops to support the United States. Germany has authorised up to 1,800 naval forces to participate. The mission is due to last eight months to a year, with the sailors rotated after six months. (source: DW)

Kabul, Afghanistan - 2001-02-20 An advance team of the ISAF, the international U.N.-mandated force for Afghanistan, has flown to Kabul, comprising about 30 officers. Among the team are also a number of German Bundeswehr officers. The team's task is check out facilities ahead of the arrival of contingents from 17 nations. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Speaking in his Christmas address, German President Johannes Rau has said the imminent deployment of German troops to Afghanistan was necessary. He said the mission would not undermine Germany's search for peace. Rau also paid tribute to those soldiers and aid workers serving in the Balkans and around the world. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 Germany has agreed to contribute up to 1200 troops to the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said the cabinet had agreed to the planned deployment after the United Nations authorised such a force on Thursday. German parliament is due to debate the proposal on Saturday, but a majority in favor of deployment is expected. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2012-02-20 A dispute over the record of the German army in the Second World War set off violent clashes yesterday on the streets of Berlin. Police used water cannon, tear gas and batons to drive back extreme left-wing groups protesting against what was believed to be the city's biggest-ever neo-Nazi march. An estimated 3,500 extreme right-wing protesters were gathering nearby to oppose an exhibition that blames the Wehrmacht for wartime atrocities that has recently reopened after research showed the original exhibit contained vast amount of false or incorrect information. The violence began when the left-wing demonstrators threw stones at police trying to keep the two sides apart. Several people were injured, and the police said they made a number of arrests. Some left-wing groups reacted by smashing up police cars. One was overturned and another damaged. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 A controversial exhibition is reopening in Berlin, dealing with the supposed role of German servicemen in war crimes during World War II. The original Wehrmacht exhibition opened in Hamburg in March 1995. It shocked many visitors as it challenged the long-held belief in Germany that the army, unlike the SS, were not responsible for Nazi atrocities, particularly on the eastern front. It was closed after it was shown that much of the material presented in the exhibit was false, altered or incorrectly identified as German. The new exhibit is suggested to have corrected the errors of the previous show. The organizer, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, the tobacco magnate and head of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research behind the project, has said there was no change in the overall thesis, but that the new exhibition would rely less on photographs and more on documentation. The new multi-media exhibition is twice the size of the old. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2011-08-20 Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has urged parliament to back his plans to mobilize 3,900 German troops for the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign amid signs that a few SPD and Greens deputies will oppose deployment. Ahead of a Bundestag vote next week, Schroeder said Germany must fulfil alliance obligations but U.S. requests for German logistical troops and medics did not extend to ground forces in Afghanistan or bombing. Schroeder said solidarity was not a one way street. The opposition conservatives have said they'll back mobilization. Overnight, it was widely reported that Greens Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had warned his caucus during hefty internal debate that he could resign if the Greens did not back mobilization. Up to 15 of 47 Green deputies reportedly question the goals of current American bombing and raise fears for Afghan civilians. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2011-08-20 Germany's mobilisation of up to 3,900 troops for the Afghan campaign war has provoked fears that its army is dangerously ill-equipped for modern warfare after decades of underfunding. Opposition leaders attacked the government on Thursday for neglecting the army so badly that it is no longer able to meet its international commitments properly. One called for an end to conscription, saying Germany needed a professional army as it now faced one of its biggest challenges since World War Two. Germany spends just 1.48 percent of its gross domestic product on defence, compared with the European Union average of two percent. The Berlin government agreed on Wednesday to mobilise special forces, medical units, specialised Fuchs tanks, transport aircraft and a naval detachment to support the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2011-07-20 Germans today braced for what may be their largest military action since World War Two. The decision to mobilise up to 3,900 troops for the U.S.-led Afghanistan campaign, approved by the cabinet on Wednesday and called historic by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, could lead to the first deployment of German troops in a fighting role outside Europe since the 1939-1945 war. On average 1,000 German civilians and another 2,000 soldiers were killed each day during the six years of World War Two. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2011-06-20 Germany will mobilise up to 3,900 troops for the Afghanistan campaign in response to a U.S. request, but has not been asked to join air raids or commit long-term ground troops, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said today. The United States had asked Germany to make available special forces, Fuchs armoured vehicles equipped to check terrain for contamination, as well as medical staff, transport planes and a naval detachment. He told a news conference that he expected parliament to give its approval to make German troops available for one year to the U.S.-led campaign. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2010-11-20 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said that he wants to expand Germany's responsibility in securing world peace. Speaking to German parliament, Schroeder emphasized the need for Germany to play a larger international role in military affairs as well as other initiatives. Schroeder has pledged German military support in the U.S.-led military strikes against Afghanistan. (source: DW)

Berlin, Germany - 2010-11-20 The German Bundestag has voted in favour of sending Bundeswehr troops to join NATO's Operation Essential Harvest mission in Macedonia. A first contingent of between 400 and 500 troops is expected be join NATO's 4,500-strong force soon. (source: DW)

Washington DC - 0000-00-00 US District Judge Norman A. Mordue in Syracuse, NY has ordered that the naturalized citizenship of Mykola Wasylyk, 77, be revoked because "extensive and undisputed documentary evidence" that Wasylyk served in May 1943 as an armed perimeter guard at the SS Labor Camp Trawniki, a slave-labor camp for Jews during World War II. Wasylyk was born in 1923 in what is now Ukraine. According to the Justice Departement, he entered the United States in 1949 from Germany, did not disclose his SS camp guard service and falsely told US immigration officials that he had worked during the war in a paper firm in Dresden. He was naturalized in 1955. Wasylyk is the 65th person identified as a "Nazi" and stripped of US citizenship since the department's Office of Special Investigations began operations in 1979. Nearly 250 individuals are currently under investigation.

Bremen, Germany - 0000-00-00 A 500 pound bomb droped during the Allied air campaign against Germany during WWII has been uncovered in a section of the University of Bremen in the northeast of Germany. Police responded to recover and diffuse the bomb before it could potentially explode. Many cases of WWII era explosives being uncovered across Germany occur every year.

Jedwabne, Poland - 2007-10-20 The Polish president has dedicated a concrete and wood monument to the memory of 1,600 murdered Jews that were rounded up in Jedwabne, Poland in 1941. It is now claimed that they were murdered by Poles, not by Germans as had been suggested for years. This new monument replaces a smaller one built in the 1960s that blamed "Gestapo and Nazi soldiers" for the slaughter of the Jews. News of the Polish massacre was brought to light by author and emigre Jan Tomasz Gross. Gross alleged in his recently published book "Neighbors" that Polish villagers living in Jedwabne had been responsible for the murders. Gross stated that a mob butchered much of the local Jewish population before rounding up the rest in a large barn which was then set alight. There's furious debate in Poland over the claims, many Poles refuse to accept the story still suggesting that it was the Germans that were responsible for the crime. The monument was erected on July 7th.

Moscow, Russia - 2007-07-20 General Helmut von Pannwitz, wartime leader of the volunteer Cossack forces that fought against the Soviet Union under the control of the German Wehrmacht, was again denied rehabilitation by a Russian court. In recent years the relatives of Germans sentenced to death or to hard labor have successfully been able to persuade Russian military courts to overturn many. In the case of Pannwitz, the court held to the verdict. The sentences against other Russians tried with Pannwitz; Peter Nikolaevich Krasnov, former corps commander, A.G. Shkuro, commander of the Cossack reserves and Sultan Klych Girey, Cossack divisional commander, were also upheld.

Berlin, Germany - 2007-01-20 Germany has confirmed that it is prepared to send troops to Macedonia as part of a NATO mission. Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping stated "(with) a planned force of around 3,000 men, then our contribution would be two or three companies". In an interview in the Berliner Zeitung he added "No country in Europe is in a position to send the same sized force as went into Kosovo. But based on NATO plans up to now, Germany can make an appropriate contribution". Germany joined the NATO campaign in Kosovo in 1999 with the deployment of 5,200 soldiers, and has stationed another 1,800 elsewhere in the Balkans. They were the first German troops deployed abroad since World War Two. (source: DW)

Munich, Germany - 0000-00-00 Hitler's famed Alpine command center, otherwise known as the Eagle's Nest, is to be turned into a hotel and golf course. Construction work to transform the Eagle's Nest is due to start in July. The U.S. Interconti group, who will develop the site along with Bavarian state bank Bayerische Landesbank, have promised not to allow any "Nazi tourism" at the site. It is claimed that each year "hordes of neo-Nazis make a pilgrimage to the spot" to mark Hitler's birthday on April 20th, but Allied and German war veterans also visit Berchtesgaden.

Hamburg, Germany - 0000-00-00 60 years after the loss of the Bismark, manned submarines are diving on the wreck. According to the German magazine, Der Spiegel, the Russian minisubs, the Mir 1 and Mir 2 have made six trips to the Bismark which is 4775 meters under the ocean's surface. According to the article, seating is available at 80,000DM per person and several former crew members have traveled to the wreck. With the help of new photos and film, the veterans are hoping to determine if British shells defeated the vessel or if the crew purposely sunk their vessel. 2106 sailors lost their lives on the Bismark. Only 115 men survived.

Wick, Scotland - 0000-00-00 The British Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the Destroyer HMS Exmouth has been found off the coast of Wick in Scotland. It was found by members of the European Technical Dive Centre based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles in an operation backed by the MoD and relatives of those who died on the ship. The Exmouth was torpedoed by a German U-boat in January of 1940 with the loss of all its 189 crew.

London, England - 0000-00-00 An undersea expedition led by deep-sea explorer David Mearns as part of an expedition funded by British TV Channel 4 with the support of the Ministry of Defence, the Hood Association, the Royal Naval Association and the Royal British Legion, has discovered the wreck of the Royal Navy battle cruiser HMS Hood. The Hood was sunk 60 years ago by the Bismarck, killing all but three its 1416 crew. The Hood's remains, which include substantial portions of the ship's hull, were found at a depth of 3,000 metres in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.

Jedwabne, Poland - 2006-05-20 Experts have uncovered the remains of 200 dead in the small Polish town of Jedwabne where it's alleged that local Poles and not wartime Germans murdered Jewish neighbours in 1941. The figure of 200 is far less than the 1,600 that a Polish emigre author and survivor claimed were burned to death in a barn. There's furious debate in Poland over the claims, although it is still widely believed that 1,600 Jews were indeed killed. A prosecutor said diggings had exposed bones, ashes, personal belongings, and gun cartridges. The human remains had not been moved in accordance with Jewish custom. There were no immediate plans to search for other graves. A monument at the massacre site is to be unveiled on July the 10th, 2001.

Ceanu Mare, Rumania - 2005-09-20 It is now being reported that the grave of German Chancellor Schröder's father has been identified. Obergefreiter Fritz Schröder of 3./Fahrersatzabteilung 6 was attached to Alarmbataillon Witzel at the time he was killed in action in October 1944 in the Rumanian village of Ceanu Mare. According to one report in a German newspaper Schröder's father, along with 8 other Kameraden, were killed by Rumanian civilians. Additional sources mention only that Rumanian civilians buried the soldiers and tended to the grave after the war. The grave is situated in the courtyard of the local church. The Chancellor's sister Gunhild Schröder-Kamp was able to locate the grave with the assistance of the Deutsche Dienststelle in Berlin and the Rotes Kreuz in München. Fritz Schröder along with the remains of his Kameraden will be exhumed and relocated to a larger German military cemetery in Rumania. Though Gerhard Schröder, Germany's current Chancellor, was born on 7. April 1944, his father never had the opportunity see him. In a Feldpost letter from April of the same year, Schröder writes to his wife, "I am happy for you that it is boy. I will be home sometime in Autumn..." During the general retreat out of Rumania Schröder was killed in action on 4. October 1944.

Brussels, Belgium - 2005-09-20 Flemish Interior Minister Johan Sauwens has caused an uproar in Belgium. According to newly revealed information, he has been a member of the Sint-Maartensfonds for over 25 years. This information came to light after it was discovered that he had attended a meeting with the group on May 5th. The Sint-Maartensfonds was founded in 1953 to give financial and social assistance to Dutch-speaking Belgians who volunteered to join the German Wehrmacht, and the Waffen-SS specifically, to fight on the Russian front during World War II. As a result of this uproar, three of the four parties in the ruling coalition in Flanders are now calling for Sauwens resignation. Sauwens has said he would abide by the decision of his own party, the People's Union, which is the fourth coalition member in Flanders. "The party will alone make the decision. I will abide by that," Sauwens told reporters. People's Union leaders are to meet the night of May 9th to discuss the matter in detail. If the People's Union stands by Sauwens, the opposition parties will likely call for a no-confidence vote on May 10th which could bring down the regional government. Flanders is the most populous of three self-governing regions that make up Belgium. Flanders and is also home to most of the Dutch-speaking Belgians who make up 60 percent of the country's population. Sauwers has already appeared in the regional parliament and apologized, saying he had renounced his membership in the group, but he also refused to step down. Sauwens said he was misinformed about the true nature of the groups meeting of nearly 1,500 people, and that far-right sympathizers from abroad had attended. He said he was unaware of German songs that were sung, and that he had no memory of their wording. He admitted that he applauded "at certain times." He also claimed to have walked out after a speaker called for the re-creation of a greater Germany.

Berlin, Germany - 2005-05-20 German companies will supply submarine parts to South Africa with support from the Berlin government. German newspapers report that the government has given approval for material lots for 3 submarines to be built for South Africa in South Korea. The order is worth 1.6 billion marks - or about 795 millions dollars - with a government insurance guarantee for 1.3 billion marks of that amount. The licence is held by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel.

San Jose, CA - 2005-03-20 Online auction provider eBay.com has expanded its policy regarding the sale of so called "items associated with hate groups" according to a major announcement on their website. Their new policy will effectively ban the sale of any and all items that show or display symbols associated with the National Socialist era. According to their site, the new ban will specifically cover "items that bear symbols of the Nazis and the Nazi SS, including authentic German WWII memorabilia". Earlier, eBay.com had imposed a ban on the sale of reproduction items that had Nazi related symbols, but this new ban is much wider and specifically includes items of purely historical interest. Collectors and researchers around the world are stunned by this latest move by the internets largest and most popular auction service. The new policy as outlined on eBay is not entirely clear and also includes a ban on items related to mass murderers, the KKK, and other racist organizations. The new policy states that items from WWII Germany without Nazi symbols may still be sold, but there are many questions regarding this statements exact meaning. Can items that contain banned symbols still be sold as long as the symbols are not shown in the photos describing them on eBay? Can one sell photograph collections if one of the photos shows a banned symbol? These are just a few of the unanswered questions around this new policy. Interestingly, the sale of coins and stamps is not impacted by this new change even if they do in fact show banned symbols. Collectors and researchers are likely to take their offerings to other internet sites that do not impose such restrictions on the sale of legitimate historical items as a result of this new policy.

Washington DC - 0000-00-00 The CIA has published 10,000 previously secret documents on the Nazi era, including files on figures like Adolf Hitler and Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller. Some of the documents show that American and Soviet secret service agencies recruited and protected Nazi war criminals after the end of WWII. The CIA still has millions of classified documents on Germany's past within its archives.

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 The German Bundeswehr has confirmed that it is examining the possibility of reducing it's contribution to S-FOR in Bosnia. According to the German MoD, the situation in Bosnia has stabilized and they are considering bringing home 200 of the 2,200 troops currently stationed in Bosnia.

Schwerin, Germany - 0000-00-00 An appeal court has reduced the punishment of a prominent German rightwing extremist who denied that there was any mass killing of Jews under the Nazis. The court in Schwerin, east Germany, reduced the sentence of 72-year-old Manfred Roeder from 2 years imprisonment to 1 year on probation, arguing that Roeder had shown remorse.

Hagen, Germany - 0000-00-00 About 2,000 people in several German cities marched on Easter against far-right violence. In the western German town of Hagen, a far-right rally took place relatively peacefully. Police in Hagen in the industrial Ruhr region detained 2 people of a total of 120 far-right protesters for displaying banned Nazi symbols. Another 800 people opposed to far-right groups held a rival demonstration. About 1,500 police were on hand to separate the opposing sides and prevent violence.

Vimy, France - 0000-00-00 Seven trucks carrying lethal phosgene and mustard gas shells from World War One have arrived at a French army base after being transferred from a depot that was in danger of exploding. Nearly 500 soldiers, police and ambulances accompanied the convoy on an overnight journey fom Vimy, near Lille in northern France, where 12,000 people had been evacuated as the army moved in at the weekend to make the depot safe. The Vimy Ridge was the site of a bloody Canadian assault on German trenches in Easter 1917. The area has served for more than 25 years as a depot for the many bombs and munitions still found frequently in the fields and beaches of northern France.

Ravensburg, Germany - 2004-03-20 A former SS officer was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in jail for murdering 7 Jewish prisoners more than half a century ago in what could be Germany's last Nazi war crimes trial. The state court in the southern town of Ravensburg found 83-year-old Julius Viel guilty of killing the seven prisoners as they dug trenches in early 1945 near the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. Public prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for the murders, while Viel's defense called for an acquittal, saying the witnesses to the crime had repeatedly lied. Viel, who was arrested at this southern German home in October 1999, denies any involvment in the killings.

Duesseldorf, Germany - 2003-07-20 Five months after arsonists tried to set fire to a synagogue in the German city of Duesseldorf, a Jordanian-born 19-year-old youth has confessed to the attack at the opening of a trial. The accused said he had not wanted set the building on fire or hurt people but only make a gesture of protest against the fatal shooting by Israeli police of a Palestinian boy on September the 29th - a killing that was widely televised. The arson attack in Duesseldorf took place a few days later - on the eve of commemorations marking German reunification. Initially it was thought that right-wing extremists were involved in the attack. At the hearing, judges agreed to a separate trial of a second youth, a Moroccan-born 20-year-old, who also faces charges stemming from a violent protest outside another synagogue in the Ruhr District city of Essen.

Berlin, Germany - 2003-07-20 German defence minister Rudolf Sharping has stated that the operational capability of the Bundeswehr was not at risk due to current budgetary restrictions. At a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder it was decided that there would be no extra defence spending, despite warnings from the military of a potential threat to its international commitments.

Narvik, Norway - 2002-09-20 News is just now being released that in June of 1999 Norwegian authorities raided the home of a local sport diver. He was found to have 180 relics stolen from the wrecks of numerous German ships sunk near Narvik in the far north of Norway during April of 1940. Included in these relics are 28 boxes of documents including large amounts of charts, maps and papers. Norwegian policeman Ulf Elstad has gone on record stating that the complete and untouched invasion plan for operation Weserübung (the invasion of Norway) is included in the materials taken from the divers home. Apparently the plan had been stored inside a safe aboard the sunken destroyer "Anton Schmitt" for more than 60 years. It is assumed that the documents hadn't been moved since the 6-7 April 1940 when they would likely have been locked away shortly before the German invasion fleet set sail for Norwegian waters. The director of the Norwegian Defense Museum states that it was never the intention to keep this finding a secret though some of the documents found apparently contained names of norwegian contacts which is likely the reason the story was not initially released to the public and was treated as sensitive. Until now the documents have been in the custody of the Defense Museum, but on notice from the police the 60 year old attack plan is to be shipped to the Norwegian National Archives for conservation and transcription.

Berlin, Germany - 2002-09-20 German defence minister Rudolf Scharping has defended his plans to reform the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, during a parliamentary debate in the Bundestag. In a government statement Scharping said the structual reforms, which include reducing the number of soldiers by 100,000, were designed to create a modern, efficient and flexible army. The state of Bavaria has condemned the government decision to close 59 Bundeswehr military bases, 20 of which are in located southern Germany. It claims the Social Democrat and Greens coalition government was motivated by party politics, with the intent on punishing Bavaria, which is governed by the state premier Edmund Stoiber's Christian Social Union.

Berlin, Germany - 2002-06-20 "Enemy at the Gates", a film set during the Battle of Stalingrad, opens the Berlin Film Festival today. Starring Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes, respectively a Soviet sniper and political officer, and Ed Harris as German sniper, Major Konig. The film is set to open in the US very shortly.

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has unveiled plans to shut down 59 military bases and reduce personnel at another 40 sites, resulting in about 55,000 job layoffs within five years. Overall, that represents seven percent of about 600 German bases, but in some regions closures run as high as 19 percent. It's part of a concept to reduce overall Bundeswehr personnel to 282,000. Opposition CDU spokesman Paul Breuer slammed the cuts, saying they were overly "massive". A defence spokesman from Scharping's SPD party, George Pfannestein, said the closures included mechanised divisions which would have a lesser role in a reformed Bundeswehr - the modern German military.

San Jose, CA - 0000-00-00 January, 2001. French representatives of Nazi concentration camp inmates have filed a suit against the head of Yahoo! claiming a symbolic 15 cents worth of damages as well as a demand that ads be placed in major French and U.S. newspapers and on the internet to publicize the judgment. The action is being launched because of allegations that Yahoo provides justification of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The French group claims "...if you organize a system like an auction where people bid for the best price, you excuse these crimes, and they become commonplace..." This legal action comes on the heals of a continued legal battle between France and the US based internet company over the display and sale of WWII German and Nazi related items.

Berlin, Germany - 2001-02-20 During street construction in the Tempelhof district of Berlin has revealed move weaponry from the Second World War. While not as dramatic as other weapon's finds a steel helmet, one pistol, 2 98ks, an officer's sword and a number of bayonets were found about 3 feet under the street surface. Archeologist Uwe Michas, spokesman for the Berlin's department of memorials said it was not as large as the weapon's find in Pankow, but these items also have historical value. According to Wilifried Postier, director of the Tempelhofer Heimatsmuseum the weapons will be destroyed by the police. "For us it is important that there were no munitions, remains or ID disks found. For us the case is closed."

Amsterdam, Netherlands - 2002-02-20 Noted historian and researcher Hans Wijers has announced the discovery of a mass grave of over 55 German soliders near modern day Volgograd. Volograd was formerly known as Stalingrad and was the scene of some of the most bloody and costly fighting in history. Tens of thousands of German soliders were lost during the fighting for Stalingrad and in the subsequent encirclement by Soviet troops. Today there are literally thousands of unidentified German mass graves in and around Volograd, and this morbid but very important find is but a small part of those known to still be hidden througout this region. Wijers has been in contact with collectors and researchers in Russia for many years and has helped prevent the plunder of sites such as this from grave diggers looking to capitalize on an ever increasing demand for relics from the Second World War, especially from German soliders. A black market exists in Eastern Europe in which grave sites are looted for anything that can be potentially sold to collectors. In this process the identity and any associated pieces of information that can help ID former soldiers missing in action is lost forever. After working with key individuals in Russia, Wijers was able to help in the discovery and pinpointing of this latest site. As soon as this discovery was made the WASt (German Information Office for War Losses and PoWs) and VDK (German War Veterans Organization) was contacted. The importance of this find was not lost on those involved in the black market either, as direct threats were made against those helping to secure the site from looters. In an effort to prevent anything from being stolen from the site, volunteers went about the grim task of gathering together the remains. They were transported to a secure location near the German cemetery at Rossoschka where they will be properly buried together in a new offically marked grave. Although identification of single soldiers is no longer possible, the names of those present will be searched out and identified by the WASt due to the finding of 65 German ID-Tags with the remains.

San Jose, CA - 2001-02-20 Internet giant Yahoo! has announced that starting January 10th, 2001, it will ban the sale of Nazi related items from sites it hosts and "...stamp out online auctions of Nazi artifacts..." Yahoo! is quoted as having said "...it did not want to profit from items that glorified or promoted hatred..." This announcement comes on the heels of a ruling in French courts in which a French judge ruled against the company in November and gave it three months to set up a filtering system to prevent Web surfers in France from accessing the auctions. As a result of the French rulings, Yahoo! would be fined $13,000 a day for every day it exceeded the deadline to ban French users. Yahoo! countered that the Web sites involved were aimed at the US and that the first amendment governing freedom of speech prevented it from banning them. Technical limitations are also a serious concern because it is nearly impossible to ban users from a particular country from accessing a site on the Internet. In regards to this latest announcement by Yahoo!, Marc Knoble stated "...I believe we have won the battle..." Knoble is a leading activist for the Paris-based International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), who led the legal charge against Yahoo! in the French courts. LICRA and the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) sued Yahoo! over its auction sites for selling items that they found offensive and racists, saying that they broke local laws that forbade the sale or promotion of racist material. The newly banned items will include medals, weapons, uniforms and other items that carry swastikas or other symbols associated with hate groups. It is not known how this ban will be interpreted vis-a-vis items that are purely historical in nature such as photographs, photo albums, documents, and period or post-WWII books and publications, but it is assumed that they too will be banned.

Gadebusch, Germany - 0000-00-00 In the Neddern Lake near Gaddebusch in northern Germany (near Denmark), local officials report having found what is believed to be a german tank in the the mud. According to infrared pictures the object in question under the surface of the lake is a "very huge piece of metal". It is believed that it is a Tiger I of a training unit that would have been on its way from Denmark to the front. Eyewitnesses that live at the lake say that they saw that three young soldiers "sink" the tank as they saw the enemy closing in at the end of the war. As for now, the vehicle itself has not yet been seen but other eyewitness accounts exist accounting for people having stood on the tank while bathing in the lake shortly after the war. Extensive literature research also indicates that there is likely a tank lying on the bottom of the lake, pointing to the following: In the spring of 1945, the men of the unit in question received marching orders to the East Front which had to be made on road via the city of Flensburg due to the lack of transportation facilities. The Tiger thought to be at the bottom of this lake broke down with motor damage at Lübeck and five other tanks with the unit continued on. After having repaired the engine, the three crew members continued their march via Schönburg in Mecklenburg. The lone tank bumped into an enemy armor column near the city of Rehna. Afraid of being caught by the enemy, the three young men sank their tank in lake Neddersee and dispersed. Further recovery of the vehicle is in process at this time.

Germany - 0000-00-00 Knights Cross holder Klaus Bargsten has died.

North Cape, Norway - 2010-03-20 The Wreck of Scharnhorst was found 66 nautical miles north-northeast of North Cape, Norway. It lies 290m deep, upside down and badly damaged. The position of the wreck had not been previously known. In 1997 it was found that the wreck was not in the position offically listed as it resting place. After interviews of survivors (of 36 survivors, 10 are still alive today), and a simulation of the battle made by the Norwegian Naval war academy in Bergen, Norway, they came up with 6 different search areas. At the 2nd search area the wreck was found by using sonar. A diving vessel for the Norwegian navy went down and inspected the wreck. The Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRK financed the search and they are planning a documentary about it.

Frankfurt, Germany - 0000-00-00 Mention has been made that a 10 tonne US bomb as big as a bath has been unearthed in a Frankfurt carpark and defused without incident. (source: Reuters)

Stuttgart, Germany - 0000-00-00 In a terrible turn of events, left-wing extremists have taken to smashing the windows and destroying the wares of a history book dealer in Stuttgart after a falsified report was reprinted by a local underground newspaper. The head of a local branch of a military history club in Blaubeuren, the 'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Heereskunde 1898 e.V.', who is also a bookseller of military history topics, had his shop attacked, the doors and window glasses smashed, and gray paint poured over a large portion of his books. Many priceless books and other items were destroyed and the floor and furnishings were heavily damaged. Some days before this event, the German federal agency for internal security had inspected the shop looking for prohibited right-wing propaganda. Nothing of any sort was found to warrant any suggestions of right-wing activity - as the store was simply a history bookseller, this is not surprising. Some days later a reporter for the local newspaper appeared and conducted an interview with the shopkeeper, only to publish a full page story about right-wing activities in which he identified the bookstore as a breeding ground for extremists, citing the federal agency for internal security as a frequent visitor. Two days later the article was reprinted in an underground publication distributed by various left-wing groups and it was thereafter that the store was attacked This follows a wave of recent attacks against the rights of German's to study, collect and purchase items with relation to the era of the National Socialist's. German's are no longer allowed to buy and sell historical items from the National Socialist era on eBay.com, for example.

Budapest, Hungary - 2008-11-20 The last known prisoner of World War II has arrived back in Hungary after spending five decades locked away in a Russian psychiatric hospital. Andras Tamas, 75, was taken prisoner during the Soviet offensive in Hungary in 1944 . Tamas was taken to the hospital in Kotelnich in 1947 and as not left the building since then. His native tongue was mistaken to be the mutterings of a mentally disturbed person. An encounter with a Hungarian-speaking Russian unlocked the mystery. A Hungarian psychiatrist visited him in the hospital and came away convinced that Tamas was an ethnic Hungarian. Hungarian authorities said they had still not uncovered enough about Tamas' background but decided to issue him a Hungarian passport and bring him home for humanitarian reasons. Once Tamas arrived back in Hungary he showed no visible emotion. He was greeted there by quite a few people including some who are convinced that he is a relative. No record of Tamas' birth or any living relative has been found, and his memories date to the ravaged Hungary of the war years. "I don't know where I will live, because everything has been bombed," he said recently in his hospital room. Tamas was among prisoners of war sent by train from western Russia to a prison camp in Siberia, records indicate. He seemed to be suffering from psychological problems, so guards took him off the train when it passed near Kotelnich and left him at the hospital. Other than his name, Soviet-era records said nothing about his background. Unable to speak Russian, Tamas could not communicate with hospital staff. Later, somebody thought Tamas was Romanian, and that was written in his records. For Tamas, time stopped in 1947. "He has lived here for a long time, but all his impressions, all his knowledge have remained at the level of 1940s," the chief doctor of the Kotelnich hospital, Yuri Petukhov, said last week. A diplomat at the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow, Ferenc Puskas, said 20 Hungarian families had already offered to adopt him.

Bonn, Germany - 0000-00-00 The new German Minister of Defense, Rudolf Scharping has forbidden German soldiers any contact with the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuzträger (OdR or Society of Knight's Cross Holders). This despite the fact that 674 Ritterkreuzträger along with thousands of other Wehrmacht veterans helped rebuild and served in the German Bundeswehr. There are many Bundeswehr men and officers that attend reunion in uniform while off duty or no longer in active service. The chairperson of the Military Counsel, Claire Marienfeld, has criticized the Bundeswehr by saying that it is not 'keeping a distance' from veterans of the Wehrmacht as has been ordered. ("Die gebotene Distanz zur deutschen Wehrmacht werde nicht immer und überall eingehalten"). In a few Kaserne there are still exhibits of uniforms, awards and tactical maps from the war can be found. At the same time a renewed discussion about the naming of German military barracks (Kaserne) is taking place. The Dietl Kaserne (Generaloberst d. Gebirgsjäger Eduard Dietl) in Füssen, Bavaria was renamed along with a number of other barracks graced with the names of Wehrmacht soldiers or European battlefields such as Cambrai. Soon all the names of Kasernen in Germany will be reviewed for eventual renaming. Scharping has suggested giving German military bases the names of foreign personalities such as Winston Churchill. A potential exists for the Deutsche Marine destroyers Mölders and Rommel and even the Luftwaffe's squadrons Richtofen, Immelmann and Bölke to also be renamed. Another Kaserne that was recently renamed is the Generaloberst Günther Rüdel Kaserne in Rendsburg. In a ceremony held on 8. May 2000, MoD Scharping renamed the facility Feldwebel Anton Schmid Kaserne. Fw. Schmid, born in Austria, was executed on 13. April 1942 for sheltering Jewish Latvians and providing them with falsified documents and weapons. Rüdel on the other hand was one of the architects of Germany's air defense and was never linked to any war crimes although he was made a honorary member of Germany's Volksgerichtshof (People's Court). According to Scharping, Rüdel was connected to the death sentences resulting from the 20. July 1944 attempt on Hitler's life. A former commander of the Kaserne, Freiherr Hans von Falkenhausen refused to attend the renaming ceremony. It may seem absurd but even the Kasernen named after Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel will at some time be renamed. Herr Scharping suggested that some German Kasernen be renamed Churchill or even Roosevelt.

Potsdam, Germany - 0000-00-00 The remains of 90 unknown German soldiers in a small cemetery in Koppart by Potsdam will finally be exhumed according to the Ministry of the Interior for the German state of Brandenburg. In the past the Ministry was against the exhumation

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 The Deutsche Technikmuseum in Berlin will soon receive a Bf 110 fully restored by DaimlerChrysler in Marienfelde, Germany. This particular 110 took of from the German airfield in Kemijärvi, Finland on 11. January 1943. While attacking a Russian locomotive, the 110 was hit by flak and crash-landed on the frozen lake in Pyavozero. The pilot and radio operator survived the crash. As the ice melted, the 110 sunk to the bottom of the lake where it lay until 1991. Jim Pearce of England and Tim Wallace of New Zealand managed to recover the aircraft. The company BST, an aircraft specialist in southern Germany is restoring the 110 which should be ready by September 2000. The wreckage of another Bf 110 which belongs to the Technikmuseum will be used for spare parts. DaimlerChrysler in Marienfelde has also recently fully restored the engine of a Me 109 that is currently being restored in Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest, Hungary - 2003-02-20 The Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet reported that the graves of 5 Gebirgsjäger of III./Geb.Jgr.Rgt. 98 have been found during construction work in the town of Nagybajom. This village ran along the defensive line "Margarethe" where German soldiers held the Soviets for over 6 months. In the 1980s the bodies of 8 other soldiers were found on the same spot.

Germany - 2002-01-20 SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Mattusch has died.

Aachen, Germany - 0000-00-00 Former SS Hauptsturmführer Hans Schwerte, alias Hans Ernst Schneider, has died. Schwerte had been accused of requisitioning medical equipment from universities in Holland for medical experiments in Dachau. Schwerte was attached the to the SS in department „Ahnenerbe" (genealogy and genetics). Schneider entered the SS in 1937 and worked for the "Ahnenerbe" till 1938. In 1940 he was transferred to Den Haag and worked under the commander of the Höheren SS und Polizeiführers. In 1942 Schneider was again transferred to the "Ahnenerbe" department and worked without exception on "questions of genealogy". After the war Schwerte changed his name, remarried and began a long academic career. He was last the dean of the Technische Hochschule Aachen, a doctor of Germanistik and well-known author. In 1995 there was talk of banning his collected work. In one book entitled "Faust und das Faustische" Schneider used a quotation from Josef Goebbels. In 1983, Schwerte was awarded the Bundesverdientskreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) and the Belgium Cross of Merit, both of which, once his past was revealed, he returned. An attempt to revoke his doctorate failed. Schwerte died in his retirement home in Marquartstein.

Europe - 0000-00-00 SS-Hauptsturmführer and KC holder Harry Phoenix has died.

Europe - 0000-00-00 Former SS-Hauptsturmführer Johannes Hellmers has died

Taipei, Taiwan - 0000-00-00 Adolf Hitler is one of this century's most monstrous figures, but that didn't discourage a Taiwanese company from using his image in an advertising campaign for German-made electric space heaters. "We decided to use Hitler because as soon as you see him, you think of Germany. It leaves a deep impression," Yu-shan Shen, of the K.E. and Kingstone trading firm in Taipei, said. The company's 6-foot-tall subway ads in Taipei feature a smiling caricature of the Nazi leader in a khaki uniform and black jackboots, his right arm raised high in a salute. Above him is a white space heater and the slogan "Declare war on the cold front!" There are no swastikas in the ad, but the Hitler figure wears a red band around his left arm with a white circle bearing the name of the heater's manufacturer, DBK, a company based in the southwest German city of Kandel. Shen said she didn't think the ad campaign, which began this month, would offend Taiwanese consumers, who "are not that sensitive about Hitler..."

Europe - 0000-00-00 Former SS-Untersturmführer Fritz Henke has died.

Rome, Italy - 0000-00-00 A number of items belonging to Benito Mussolini, including the jacket he was wearing when executed, have been found in the cellar of the Ministry of Finance in Rome. Among other items found were uniform jackets and a number of golden items reportedly taken from Trieste Jews during the war. Mussolini was captured and executed by communist partisans on 27. April 1945. It is currently unknown if the items will be put on public display or returned to the Mussolini family (Mussolini's granddaughter is a successful politician in the nationalist party).

Riga, Latvia - 0000-00-00 The remains of 53 Latvian SS soldiers have been returned to Latvia and buried with full military honours. This follows the return of the remains of 10 Latvian soldiers earlier in 1999. Some 1,000 people, including some members of the Latvian parliament attended the ceremony. The ceremony, along with a march of Latvian veterans (both SS and Latvian states forces) in March, has worried Russian and Jewish officials, including the European Union. According to the European Union any nations that honours the Waffen SS dishonors human rights and may be barred membership. Many Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians are still proud of the service of their fathers and grandfathers. Public parades are held like the veteran's parade of 16. March 2000 in Riga and receive much criticism worldwide for glorifying "Nazis". The association Lettischer Kriegsinvaliden-Verband looks after the affairs of these former soldiers, many of which are handicapped. The chairman is Herr Dieter Kroll and the address is: Lettischer Kriegsivaliden-Verband / Baharu jela 40-5 / LV-1006 Riga.

Europe - 0000-00-00 Former SS-Oberscharführer Johann Fiedler has died .

München, Germany - 0000-00-00 According to the Bosnian newspaper, "Vecernje List", while looking for mass graves of the war in Bosnia NATO soldiers are discovering many mass graves of Wehrmacht soldiers. The chairman of the Muslim Commission of Missing Persons, Amor Masovic, stated that along with many of the remains, ID disks were found indicating that these bodies were of German soldiers from the Second World War. The German authorities have been informed.

Kassel, Germany - 0000-00-00 The German Kriegsgräberfürsorge (War Graves Commission) is now allowing the public to access their records of over 2 million dead or missing German soldiers. Under the address http://www.volksbund.de, one can search under the soldier's last name along with date of birth (the more information provided the more accurate the search) and find the soldier's final resting place among the 150 military cemeteries listed. The rest of the site is dedicated to the work that the Kriegsgräberfürsorge conducts around the world including the reestablishment of German military cemeteries in Poland and Russia. On this site you will also find membership information. Members receive the magazine Stimme & Weg every month updating the work of the Kriegsgräbervorsorge.

Berlin, Germany - 0000-00-00 During construction work in the Berlin district of Gatow the remains of three German soldiers have been found. Found along with the remains were their rifles, grenades and personal equipment. ID disks and Soldbücher were found on two of the soldiers. One of the soldier was wearing Hauptmann's rank insignia on a leather overcoat. The Berlin police and coroner are researching the exact cause of death (although the uniform remains and helmets point to gunshot/shrapnel wounds). Should no living relatives be found, the three bodies will be buried at a soldier's cemetery.

Frankfurt, Germany - 0000-00-00 A German court has guaranteed the pensions of Latvian Waffen SS veterans. Many political groups are outraged and their protests have lead to a review of the pension regulations. Under pressure of a number of political and religious groups, the German parliament passed a law allowing the government to strip convicted war criminals of their pensions. This law led to the review of the pensions of all Waffen SS veterans.

Kansas City, OK - 0000-00-00 Accused war criminal Michael Kolnhofer died after lying unconscious in a hospital bed since a New Year's Eve shootout with Kansas City police. As reporters and TV cameras approached his home to question him Kolnhofer appeared with a pistol and ordered them to leave. The U.S. Justice Department had sought to revoke Kolnhofer's citizenship because he was suspected of concealing his wartime past in 1952 as he immigrated to the United States. According to the US Office of Special Investigations, Kolnhofer entered the Waffen-SS in September 1942 and served as a guard at the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald camps. He became a US citizen in 1957. Kolnhofer was injured in an exchange of gunfire that ensued after reporters gathered at his home Dec. 31, after federal authorities filed papers seeking to denaturalize the Croatian native.

Arnsberg, Germany - 0000-00-00 The government of Germany's most populous state, NRW (North Rhine Westphalia), has won an important battle in its attempt to enforce a ban on websites containing neo-Nazi material. NRW is the only state in Germany to impose such a ban and it has come up against plenty of opposition from ISPs in the process. But today a German regional court has backed the state, ordering an unnamed ISP to immediately block access to sites containing objectionable content. The ISP had previously filed a lawsuit challenging NRW's ban. This is not the first time the courts have been called upon to mediate between NRW and an ISP over the ban. Back in October another regional court ruled against the state when an ISP objected to following the state government's website ban. NRW is appealing against this decision, but it is not known when a decision can be expected. When NRW introduced the ban in February, it ordered 76 ISPs in the region to immediately stop access to offensive sites. Of these 17 rejected the ban, and 11 have gone to court to fight it. Ultimately the decision as to whether NRW can ban neo-Nazi sites lies with the high courts. "The higher courts have the ultimate say, and that means lawsuits involving the website ban could go all the way to the federal constitutional court," said Jürgen Schütte, an official with the NRW state government. The battle against neo-Nazi online services has been heating up ever since Germany's highest civil court ruled in late 2000 that the country's laws banning certain material can also be enforced against foreign-hosted sites. This all happens against the backdrop of arguments regarding a global ban on hate speech online, which is currently being proposed by the Council of Europe. But this has run into similar problems as the US argues that it undermines its citizen's right to free speech. (source: PC Advisor)

San Francisco, CA - 2012-03-20 Yahoo! Inc. asked an appeals court to uphold a lower court's ruling that said the second-biggest Internet auction service doesn't have to obey a French court order to remove Nazi symbols from its Web site. The lower court ruling last year was one of the first to tell U.S. Internet businesses whether they must answer to foreign courts when their content crosses international borders. Along with its main group of Web sites in the U.S., Yahoo operates 22 sites with localized content for users in foreign countries. Two French groups, La Ligue Contre Le Racisme Et L'Antisemitism and L'Union Des Etudiants Juifs De France, persuaded a French court that Nazi-related images on Yahoo's Web- auction site violate the country's Nazi Symbols Act. Yahoo abandoned an appeal in France and sued the groups for declaratory relief in federal court in San Jose, California. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel's ruled last year that the First Amendment barred the French court from regulating Yahoo's speech on the Internet. The French groups appealed Fogel's ruling to the 9th Circuit, saying Fogel had erred by putting First Amendment rights ahead of their right to due process. The groups seek time to investigate the possibility that Yahoo could install software to block users in France from accessing the auction Web site. "Don't they have a First Amendment right to maintain that Web site as is," Judge Melvin Brunetti asked the groups' lawyer, Richard Jones. "We're talking about a theoretical threat," Jones answered. Judge Warren Ferguson questioned why Yahoo abandoned its appeal in France. "You abandoned your appeal. Now you're coming to America and saying help us. What kind of equity is that," Ferguson asked. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, said it was advised by its attorneys in France that seeking a stay of the French order would be a lengthy process. Jones accused Yahoo of "forum shopping" to find a better location for its case. The company has banned the sale of hate paraphernalia such as Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia on its commerce sites, including Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Classifieds and Yahoo Shopping. Vanderet said the company is asking the appeals court to uphold the decision because "these issues are recurring for all American" Internet Service Providers. (source: Bloomberg News)