A - Atlantic Wall Museum, Oostende, Belgium

Hitler's Atlantic Wall runs from Norway in the North all the way to the south of France. It was built by Adolph Hitler to keep the British, mostly, and eventually the Allies, from invading Western Europe. 

The wall did not serve its purpose, though it was not without deterrence.  On June 6, 1944, D-Day commenced.  The Allies landed and started the push to take back western Europe from the Germans, leading to the end of World War II.  The Allies lost 209,000 soldiers at Normandy.

Remnants of the wall in Oostende, Belgium (above)

Here are photos from my trip to see parts of the wall in Belgium at the Atlantic Wall Museum.

Where the Commandant lived or whomever he was.

These are examples of defences that were built to keep tanks and men from crossing the beaches on the Atlantic coast.

An entrance to the underground bunkers is seen in the lower right.

A German gun

An entrance to the bunkers

A bunker hallway

A mock-up of what one of the underground gun stations would have looked like.

Here is the link to a program on the Atlantic Wall.  Since the YouTube poster admits to not having the copyright, I am just posting a link and not the video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoiC_GpIvCk .  I watched this on PBS.  It is part of a series on Nazi mega weapons.

Have you visited this wall?  What are your thoughts?

Every year that I have participated in A to Z (five) I have had a bonus.  This year it is plants growing in my garden.
Bonus:  Daylily 'Arriba'

V-E Day, One Day Late

I meant to post something yesterday and got busy with 'stuff'.  Yesterday's news reports talked about the ceremonies in Red Square celebrating the end of the war in Europe with the signing of the surrender documents.  I am sure it was quite a sight to see.

As I promised to post more pictures of Russia, here are photos of the Memorial to the Historic Defenders of Leningrad in Saint Petersburg.

Yesterday also would have been my father's 92nd birthday.  He fought in the second World War in India, Burma and then Germany.  He died suddenly at the age of 57, never even seeing his youngest grandson who would be born one month later.  I cannot imagine how pleased he would be to have four grandsons and two great-grandsons.  He lived for his children.  I miss you, Dad.

Y, Y, Y, Y???

The question asked again and again at the Nuremberg trials.  Why?

The partition of Germany after the war with fences and guard towers as seen in Modlareuth.  Why?

The ongoing conflict in the world.  WHY???

NOTE:  Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  You can find more information here.

I have had an interest in Germany and German history ever since high school.  My world history teacher (1962-63) was German and, when it came to history, she spent a lot of time discussing Germany in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.  Since then I've had an interest in understanding how three first cousins could go to war (WWI) against each other:  Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George V of Great Britain, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. And then have their successors repeat the war just 25 years later.

World War I had no winner.  It ended out of sheer exhaustion of the participating countries.  Germany put Lenin on a train and sent him into Russia to put the latter's focus on the home front situation.  I previously reviewed the book  "To End All Wars" which deals with the war, mostly from a British perspective.

On a previous trip to Europe I viewed the palaces of the Hapsburg Dynasty that ended with the first World War.  When I planned this trip, I was particularly focused on seeing those areas of the country so pivotal in World War II - Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Dachau, Potsdam, Dresden...  Many of these I have already mentioned in this challenge.

The guides I had were all well-versed in German history.  Every time I turned on a TV in Germany there was some station showing a program about the World Wars (in German so I had no idea what they were saying, but the topic was clear).  The motto everywhere seemed to be 'Never Forget'.

I heard the question asked again and again about "Y" did people listen to Hitler?  But think about it.  We hear what we want to hear from whomever is delivering the message.  If a country is struggling, they look to blame someone for their problems.  Hitler gave them peoples to blame.  They look to a leader, any leader who will tell them what they want to hear.

It seems rather inconceivable that they would follow so willingly.  But ask yourself this:  Do I follow willingly what my political party leaders, religious leaders, social contacts, or even my boss says without any independent thinking?  How many people watch TV and follow whatever Dr. Oz has to say without verifying his sources of information???  (this is a pet peeve of mine, sorry folks)

On this trip I marveled at the German people's ability to rebuild their country after the war, even though it took many, many years.  (And no, I have no German blood lines on either side of my family.  As a matter of fact, my mother's family had their farm in northern Italy taken from them by the Germans in World War I.)  The Germans have an intense enthusiasm and national pride.  I was in Berlin during the Reunification Day ceremonies and the city was packed.  It was like America on the 4th of July.

In the following pictures I will cover some of the areas dealing with the war.  I'll let the photos do my talking for me.

In Berlin we visited the Bendler Block courtyard to see the outdoor memorial to the German Resistance:

The plaque with the names of the men who lost their lives after a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler.

The story was made into several movies, most recently 'Valkyrie'.
























There are many memorials to those who died in concentration camps including this Holocaust Memorial in Berlin:

And this sculpture in Frankfurt:

One could spend an entire day at the Topography of Terror Museum.  There are both indoor and outdoor exhibits.  This is part of the wall outside:

While I may do a future post about the City of Nuremberg, for now the place to see there is the Documentation Center on the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds.

This is what is left of the outdoor area:

The exhibits here and at the Topography of Terror are well worth the time it will take to adequately understand what was happening if you were not living at the time or have not studied this era in history.  Nuremberg is also the home to the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Trial verdicts were handed down:

And if what had happened in World War II wasn't enough, the Russians put barriers up around East Germany and in the case of Modlareuth, split the town right in half, separating families for 24 years (1966 - 1990).  Imagine seeing this in your backyard:

Truly war has no winners, only survivors.

On my Bucket List:  Yangtze River cruise

X is for eXtermination

Day 18 of the trip.  The morning was spent at the Eagle's Nest high in the Alps, and then the afternoon was spent in Dachau.


Dachau was the first of Hitler's concentration camps, opening soon after he became the Reich Chancellor.  If he didn't like you, he had a solution and this was it.  Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Sinti, Romas, political opponents, were the first to be targeted before the war even broke out in 1939.  It only got worse from there.


Call it extermination, ethnic cleansing, purification of blood lines, it has happened over and over again in the history of man.  Every powerful country on Earth has inflicted horrors on a population they deemed unworthy.  Americans have only to look at the treatment of native American Indians before casting aspersions on other countries.  There is a lot of blame to pass around.

World War II and the Nazi Party took it to a whole new level of being an unimaginable atrocity.

 Translation: "Work Makes You Free" - Arbeit Macht Frei

Below is the area where the barracks for prisoners stood.

The crematoriums:

A restored barrack:

Update:  I did not realize at the time I was posting this that today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On my Bucket List:  Xian, China

W is for Weimar Republic and World Wars

At the end of World War I in 1918, the Weimar Republic was established in Weimar, Germany.  The Treaty of Versailles imposed very oppressive requirements on Germany whose government pushed for the start of the war. War reparations were hefty to say the least. The government started printing money which led to hyperinflation. Money became essentially worthless. People became dissatisfied and felt oppressed. 

In a nutshell, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles set the stage for the rise of the Third Reich and the beginnings of World War II, just as hard feelings from the end of the Franco-Prussian War led to the start of WW I.

Ultimately, the Weimar Republic could no longer afford to pay the Allies its reparations. 

The government structure in Weimar came to an end after fourteen years with the establishment of the Third Reich and the Nazis.  And the road from 1933 onward led to the start of World War II in 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1.  

Weimar is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

On my Bucket List:  Wuhan, China