Hitler and the Slavs

Nov. 17, 2014

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Ukrainians and their relationships with their neighbors through the centuries. How did Ukraine become a Slavic nation? Just how much of a role did Hitler play in the sufferings of Ukrainians in 1941-44? 1h38m. 

• The Goths, the Huns and the Khazars all settled in the area at different times;
• The Varangians (Scandinavians) arrived around 880 and created the most powerful state in Europe: Kievan Rus;
• It was devastated by a 13th Century Mongol invasion and eventually succeeded by the state of Galicia-Volhynia;
• Lithuanians and Poles controlled vast estates in Ukraine, the Cossacks led an uprising and Russians moved into the Crimea;
• Hitler reunites Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with Ukraine;
• What led to the violent ethnic cleansing between Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia in 1943;
• Why the spirit of extreme nationalism contradicted the concept of the Slavic nations and National Socialist Germany fighting the Soviets together.

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Nov. 10, 2014

The tendency of the Czechs to invent a history for themselves that is far grander than what actually took place is similar to what we've already learned about Polish "history." The number of Czechs in Czecho-Slovakia was only 7 million, yet they wanted to be a great, ruling European nation-state. However, they still today claim the German city of Prague (pictured right). 1h54m. Included in this program: 

• The Paris Peace Treaties forcibly annexed German, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish territories to a Czech core, forming CzechoSlovakia;
• The majority Czechs took a criminal and genocidal attitude toward the minorities;
• It took 18 painful years for the situation to gain the serious attention of the European Powers who had created the mess in the first place;
• Adolf Hitler finally broke through the dilly-dallying with the Munich Agreement in 1938;
• Post-WW2 history gives a slanted picture of the end of this illegitimate state to make Hitler out to be an aggressor, rather than a savior and restorer.

Nov. 3, 2014

Carolyn Yeager continues with her study of Poland and how it became the country that we know today, that gave Adolf Hitler so much trouble. 1h37m 

• What modern demographics tell us about the Poles and how much they appreciate the big territory they have;
• The so-called Polish monarchs from 900 to 1300, and the legendary ones from the 6th-9th centuries;
• The Statute of Kalisz granted Jews unprecedented legal rights and preferential treatment over Christians;
• The rule of Jogaila (Polish=Jagiello), of the Lithuanian Gediminid dynasty, and the tale of Jadwiga (Hedwig);
• Wars between Jogaila and the Teutonic Knights Order - how Jogaila snatched defeat out of victory;
• The paucity of world-class Polish cultural figures and artists;
• Introduction to the Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansing in Volhynia in 1943.

Oct. 27, 2014

Poland – the Great Pretender. The truth about its origins and history tear away the pious mask of the victim and show a cruel-minded victimizer at work – still today. Carolyn Yeager explains why the treatment meted out to the Poles by National-Socialist Germany was justified. 2hr28min.

• Was the "1000 years" of Polish history invented in more recent times;
• The late appearance of Polish literature and written language, in the 18th and 19th centuries;
• One million of the original 2.5 million Germans left the provence of Poland before 1939 because of persecution;
• The most extreme brutality was directed against the Ukrainians because they were the largest minority group and voted to send their own representatives to the Sejm;
• Poles had never succeeded in forming a successful state on their own, for example in 1916 Germany gave them independence and made a pact with Pilsudski;
• Poles insisted most of all that all minorities speak Polish, send their children to Polish-only schools and become totally Polonized;
• Many examples given of horrible treatment of Ukrainians, Germans and White Russians mainly to discourage them from maintaining their own communities and language;
• Markus calls in and gives valuable input, plus helps me sum up at the end.

Oct. 20, 2014

Why Hitler and Himmler did not enlist nationalist Russians and other Slavs to help them fight the war on the Eastern Front.2hr04min.

• Adolf Hitler's opinion of Jews and Slavs originated with his experiences in Vienna in his late teens, early twenties;
• Hitler considered the Germanic peoples the leading race of Europe and once much of Europe was occupied by the German Reich, thought to include other Germanic nations/peoples into the Reich, but only after careful "Germanization";
• Himmler was desirous of preserving all "Germanic blood" - Hitler advised caution;
• Danzig Free State and "Falsifications of Polish History" give important background on the true long-term intentions of Poland against Germany;
• Himmler speaks at some length about "the Russian" whether Czarist or Stalinist, and about General Vlasov in his speech at Posen, Oct. 4, 1943;
• The N-S attitude is "we take care of our own first" and this is what the so-called anti-slavism is all about.

Oct. 13, 2014

Carolyn continues from last week, answering accusations that Hitler hated Slavs and his anti-Slav policies caused Germany to lose the war. 2hr12m.

• Polish car-stealing gangs operate in Frankfurt am der Oder in Brandenburg State by just crossing the river because of EU Schengen laws;
• Using quotes from Mein Kampf as representing Hitler's policies in 1939 is absurd, yet most Hitler detractors do it;
• Persecution of ethnic Germans trapped in Poland and Czechoslovakia is recorded in online reading at Wintersonnenwende archive;
• Hitler speaks of his invasions of both Poland and Soviet Union as due to forces beyond his control;
• Serbia's role in WWI revisited - assassinated Austrian Archduke and wife under orders from Russia, helped along and encouraged by France;
• Austrian Emperor was not unreasonable for wanting some punishment for and restraint in Serbia;
• Serbia's long history of failure and frustration of nationalist goals, and warring behavior with it's neighbors;
• EU member states should be classified into an order something like A, B and C groups, and any new European Order should too;
• Did Hitler have a hatred of Serbia because of 1914?