1945 – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

Auschwitz
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

This is an Auschwitz testimony from a larger work titled The Camp of Disappearing Men. It was printed in 1944 by an organization called the Polish Workers Party and the singular voice giving the account is unidentified. This eyewitness does not explain how he made good his escape but the testimony was published in the Spring of 1945 – when the existence of the death camp was first discovered and made known to the world.

N.B.: Auschwitz was first called Oświęcim, named for the nearest Polish city.

”German Labor as Reparation”
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“War and the Working Class, Moscow publication, asserts that German labor must be used to restore the destruction wrought by the German Army in Europe…In an article entitled Labor Reparations, it contends that Using German labor for this purpose will achieve effective military and economic disarmament of Germany.”

Doenitz Not to be Tried as War Criminal
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

For reasons unknown, the men who ran the Allied war effort chose to ignore the fact that it was German Admiral Karl Doenitz who issued the order that German U-boats were to machinegun all Allied lifeboats after sinking their vessels. The attached journalist was right in pointing out that Doenitz was whitewashed. But it didn’t stick – he was found guilty at Nuremburg and served 12 years.

Doenitz: Hitler’s Successor
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

When Hitler blew his brains out (April 30, 1945), what was left of the baton was passed to the Nazi fleet admiral, Karl Doenitz (1891 – 1980). This article points out that the admiral was a predictable choice for Hitler to make and no one at SHAEF was surprised.

Red Flag Over Berlin
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Berlin has fallen to all intents and purposes. Stalin in a May Day order announces that the victory flag of the red Army flies over the main part of the ruined Nazi capital.”

Do the Germans Know They’re Licked?
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“The German Army has been defeated, but the German murderers are still murderers, the Junkers are still Junkers and they are still Nazis – and all of them are looking ahead to the next war….Here is what the Germans, whose commanders begged for mercy at the signing of the surrender, did in the 24 hours just before and after the formal deadline for capitulation…”

Report on Buchenwald
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

This chronicle on the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald was written by the senior American officers of the Displaced Persons Division, U.S. Group Control Council for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces of the U.S. Department of War. It explains when and why the “camp” was created, who it was intended to incarcerate and how many.

Nazis Shrugged-Off Atrocities
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

At the invitation of General Eisenhower, the most prominent newspaper editors in the country crossed the Atlantic to witness the atrocities that transpired at Nazi concentration camps. They were shocked to find that the German people ‘feel absolutely no sense of guilt.‘”

Air Force One – the First One
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Two months after the death of President Roosevelt, and with W.W. II almost at an end, the censorship concerning FDR’s presidential aircraft was terminated. The reporters at Newsweek were not slow in reporting all that could be known about this comfy juggernaut that had spirited FDR to Malta, Yalta and Cairo. The plane was a Douglas C-54A, reconfigured to sleep five and was equipped with an inter-cabin telephone, radio, and a stateroom. The President had anticipated traveling hither and yon while planning the post-war world, but other plans got in the way.

1946: The Civilian Market Returns
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

During the Summer of 1945, with the Germans licked and the Japanese on the ropes, Ford announced that their first car for the post-war market would be produced the following year. It was called the Mercury and it came in hard top and convertible (don’t ask for seat belts).

The Terror of Buchenwald
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Here is an eyewitness account of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp as experienced by U.S. Representative Clare Boothe Luce (R, Connecticut, pictured above):

“It was policy, Nazi policy, to work them and starve them and then throw them in the into the furnaces when they could no longer struggle to their feet. Dead men tell no tales. Well, the 51,000 dead of Buchenwald are talking now, and they are telling the people of the Democracies that they will have died in vain, unless we know and believe what excruciating sufferings they endured.”

The Germans are Idiots
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

A PM reporter was present one day in Germany as a mixed mob of Third Army grunts and tank men had a tête-à-tête concerning their observations of the German people:

“Aren’t these Heinies the stupidest people you ever saw?”

VE- Day in Sight
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

This report was filed shortly after the Soviet – U.S. link-up on the River Elbe and one week from the official Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945. The Red Army was in Berlin and the British and Americans were

“pressing relentlessly from all points of the compass on the Nazi Alpine redoubt. A second a third meeting between the Western and Easter Allies may have already taken place… To the south, General George S. Patton’s tank columns, sweeping across the Austrian frontier, were in field radio contact with the Soviets.”

Click here to read about the Soviet – U.S. link-up on the Elbe.

Julius Streicher
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

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Eisenhower’s VE-Day Statement
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Though these words are feeble, they come from the bottom of a heart overflowing with pride in your loyal service and admiration as warriors. Your accomplishments at sea, in the air, on the ground and in the field of supply have astonished the world.”

”Terror in Japan”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

“On March 10, 1945, a group of Superforts crossed Japan’s coast line. Behind them came another group, and another in a line stretching far back toward Saipan. In a long, thin file they roared over Tokyo. They flew low and out of their open bellies spilled bombs of jellied gasoline. When they hit, they burst, spewing out billowing, all-consuming fire. The flames leaped across fire lanes, swallowed factories, destroyed skyscrapers.”

Click here to read about August 28, 1945 – the day the American occupation began.

A New Kind of Fanaticism
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

“American troops on Okinawa thought they knew all there was to know about Jap fanaticism. But last week the Japs served it up with a new twist. The evening of May 24 started out like any other on the battle-torn island. The enemy sent its usual flight of Kamikaze suicide planes to strafe American airfields and dive into shipping offshore… At the height of the earsplitting air battle, the Japs played their trump card” – from the fuselage of a twin-engine bomber that had belly-landed on an American airfield, emerged Japanese infantry.

They Protected FDR
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

Five months after the death of President Roosevelt, writer Michael Sayers (1911 – 2010) managed to get this FDR article to press while the public’s interest in the man was still hot. It addressed the tremendous lengths the Secret Service went to on a daily basis to protect President Roosevelt from Axis assassins and general kooks who wanted a shot at him:

“The White House detail, headed by six-foot Michael Reiley (1909 – 1973), stayed beside the President at all times. They became his shadows, unseen in the public glare, but always at hand… The President was not permitted to set foot in any place that had not been thoroughly investigated beforehand.”