Tag: wwii

On July 4, 1945: The Man Who Tried To Halt the Atomic Bombings

On July 4, 1945, the great atomic scientist Leo Szilard finished a letter that would become the strongest (and one of the very few) real attempts at halting President Truman’s march to using the atomic bomb – which was two weeks from its first test at Trinity – against Japanese cities.

It’s well known that as the Truman White House made plans to use the first atomic bombs against Japan in the summer of 1945, a large group of atomic scientists, many of whom had worked on the bomb project, raised their voices, or at least their names, in protest. They were led by the Szilard. On July 3, he finished a petition to the president for his fellow scientists to consider, which called atomic bombs “a means for the ruthless annihilation of cities.” It asked the president “to rule that the United States shall not, in the present phase of the war, resort to the use of atomic bombs.”

The following day, July 4, he wrote this cover letter (below). The same day, Leslie Groves, military chief of the Manhattan Project, wrote Winston Churchill’s science advisor seeking advice on how to combat Szilard and his colleagues. The FBI was already following Szilard. The bomb would be dropped over Hiroshima on August 6.

July 4, 1945

Dear _______________

Enclosed is the text of a petition which will be submitted to the President of the United States. As you will see, this petition is based on purely moral considerations.

It may very well be that the decision of the President whether or not to use atomic bombs in the war against Japan will largely be based on considerations of expediency. On the basis of expediency, many arguments could be put forward both for and against our use of atomic bombs against Japan.

Such arguments could be considered only within the framework of a thorough analysis of the situation which will face the United States after this war and it was felt that no useful purpose would be served by considering arguments of expediency in a short petition.

However small the chance might be that our petition may influence the course of events, I personally feel that it would be a matter of importance if a large number of scientists who have worked in this field went clearly and unmistakably on record as to their opposition on moral grounds to the use of these bombs in the present phase of the war.

Many of us are inclined to say that individual Germans share the guilt for the acts which Germany committed during this war because they did not raise their voices in protest against these acts. Their defense that their protest would have been of no avail hardly seems acceptable even though these Germans could not have protests without running risks to life and liberty. We are in a position to raise our voices without incurring any such risks even though we might incur the displeasure of some of those who are at present in charge of controlling the work on “atomic power”.

The fact that the people of the people of the United States are unaware of the choice which faces us increases our responsibility in this matter since those who have worked on “atomic power” represent a sample of the population and they alone are in a position to form an opinion and declare their stand.

Anyone who might wish to go on record by signing the petition ought to have an opportunity to do so and, therefore, it would be appreciated if you could give every member of your group an opportunity for signing.

Leo Szilard

What happened next? Well, the petition gained from than 180 signatures—Oppenheimer obviously not one, and actively discouraged others – but was then delayed in getting to President Truman by Gen. Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, until the A-bombs were ready to use, in early August. Groves also commissioned a poll of atomic scientists, which found that over 80% favored a demonstration shot only – so he squelched that, too. Much more in my 2020 book: The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood – and America – Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Keep reading

Unspoken Inheritance: Nazi Family Ties of Europe’s Modern Elites

A scandal is brewing in the UK after it was revealed that new MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli had a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator grandfather. Apparently, SS volunteer grandpa Konstantin Dobrovolsky had such a vicious reputation for killing Jews and anti-Nazi partisans that he was dubbed “The Butcher.” But Metreweli is far from the first.

Commenting on the story, Russian Foreign Ministry spox Maria Zakharova suggested “someone” seems to be “deliberately and consciously placing descendants of Nazis in leadership positions in the countries of the ‘collective West’.”

Examples:

Friedrich Merz: Grandfather Josef Paul Sauvigny was a Nazi politician and mayor of Brilon, western Germany. Praised the Nazi “national revolution” in 1933 and renamed his town’s streets after party bigwigs. Applied for membership in the party as early as May 1933, months after Hitler seized power. Merz has described his granddad as “an admirable role model.”

Annalena Baerbock: Grandfather Waldemar Baerbock, a Wehrmacht officer superiors called a “dedicated soldier” “completely rooted in National Socialism,” was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords in 1944. In 2004, Annalena described the EU project as the “reunification of Europe,” saying she and her colleagues were “standing on the shoulders” of “our grandparents.”

Salome Zourabichvili: Georgia’s former EU puppet president. Uncle Mikhail Kedia was a Nazi collaborator, Abwehr recruiter and Gestapo agent with friends in high places, including Richard Heydrich, principle architect of the Holocaust. Another uncle, Georges Zourabichvili, also allegedly collaborated with the Nazis before disappearing in 1944.

Donald Tusk: Grandfather Jozef Tusk was conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1942, deserting in 1945. A debate continues to rage in Poland about the PM’s family’s past.

Chrystia Freeland: She’s not European, but the granddad of Canada’s chief establishment politician, Michael Chomiak, worked as a propagandist in Nazi-occupied Poland for a fascist Ukrainian newspaper.

Keep reading

Incoming MI6 boss’ grandfather was Ukrainian Nazi ‘Butcher’ – UK media

The grandfather of Blaise Metreweli, scheduled to take over leadership of the UK’s foreign intelligence service (MI6), was a Nazi collaborator who oversaw atrocities in occupied Ukraine, the Daily Mail has revealed. 

Metreweli’s father, Constantine, was naturalized in British-administered Hong Kong in 1966. The London Gazette identified him at the time as Dobrowolski, known as Constantine Metreweli, of uncertain nationality.

In a story published Thursday, the Mail confirmed that Constantine was the son of a German-Polish Ukrainian man – also named Constantine – who worked for the Nazis and was implicated in the mass killing of Jews and other atrocities during World War II.

The newspaper said it had reviewed “hundreds of pages of documents held in archives in Freiburg, Germany, detailing the extraordinary – and blood-soaked – life and times of Dobrowolski, which are themselves worthy of a spy thriller.”

According to the records, Dobrowolski Sr. was born into a family of noble landowners in what is now Ukraine’s Chernigov Region. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the estate was violently plundered, leading the younger Constantine to become a fierce enemy of the new authorities.

Keep reading

Trump Shares Private Text From Mike Huckabee That Compared Iran Situation To Truman in 1945

President Trump on Tuesday shared a private text message from US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee that compared the president’s decision related to Iran with President Truman’s situation in 1945, the year he dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan.

Huckabee, a Christian Zionist who believes God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel — a view that’s rejected by the majority of Christian denominations — told the president that he believes God “spared” him for this moment.

“God spared you in Butler, PA to be the most consequential President in a century—maybe ever. The decisions on your shoulders I would not want to be made by anyone else. You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice,” Huckabee wrote.

“I am your appointed servant in this land and am available for you but I do not try to get in your presence often because I trust your instincts. No President in my lifetime has been in a position like yours. Not since Truman in 1945. I don’t reach out to persuade you. Only to encourage you,” the US ambassador added.

Huckabee continued, “I believe you will hear from heaven and that voice is far more important than mine or ANYONE else’s. You sent me to Israel to be your eyes, ears and voice and to make sure our flag flies above our embassy. My job is to be the last one to leave. I will not abandon this post. Our flag will NOT come down! You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU!”

Since being appointed ambassador, Huckabee has approached the issue of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory through the lens of his radical religious views. He has said he believes the US is no longer pursuing a two-state solution and suggested a Palestinian state could be carved out of a “Muslim” country.

“Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?” Huckabee said in an interview with Bloomberg last week, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.

Keep reading

Treasure Hunter Claims to Have Found Legendary Lost Nazi Gold Train

An anonymous treasure hunter claims to have found the location of the legendary ‘Nazi gold train’ said to have been filled with riches from World War II and hidden in Poland. The subject of countless searches in the past, the apocryphal cache of pilfered priceless pieces is thought to have been buried in the Polish city of Wałbrzych. Talk of the treasure has been rekindled this week after a local media outlet revealed that community officials received a mysterious missive earlier this year wherein a man asserted that he found three WWI railroad cars hidden in a sizeable tunnel in a forested area of the city.

Sharing details on the letter, Wałbrzych spokeswoman Kamila Świerczyńska described the man’s claims as “substantive and concrete.” She also noted that the missive included several attachments with maps, geodetic data, and a witness account from a resident who lived in the area when the train was allegedly hidden. While the treasure hunter asked that his name be withheld from the public, Świerczyńska noted that city officials met with the man, who explained how he determined the location of the lost gold train by “analyzing various sources and documents.”

Keep reading

In the Documents That Javier Milei Has Just Released – Related to Nazi Criminals Who Fled to Argentina After WW2 – A Chance for the South American Nation To Come to Terms With Its Past

Argentine President Javier Milei fulfilled a symbolic promise by releasing documents detailing the activities of Nazi criminals who fled to the country after the collapse of National Socialist Germany in 1945.

The previously classified files open a window into Argentina’s turbulent past, and reveal the lives as fugitives of a number of notorious Nazis such as Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann.

The Daily Mail reported:

“The 1,850 declassified documents published by the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) also include records of banking operations, secret intelligence files and previously confidential Defense Ministry reports. The files are available for public viewing on a government website, following an order by President Javier Milei.

The decision to publish the documents follows a formal request from United States Senator Steve Daines (Republican-Montana) and representatives from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre during meetings in February.”

But more than just complying with the US request, the move is an integral part of Milei’s commitment to transparency about the country’s controversial history.

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is investigating the Credit Suisse bank’s links to Nazism, has received copies of the files.”

In the documents we see the different fates of ‘monster doctor’ Joseph Mengele and Adolf Eichmann, the ‘architect of the Holocaust’.

Keep reading

Putin announces 3-day ceasefire in May to mark 80 years since WW2 victory

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine next month to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of May 8 to the end of May 10.

“All military actions are suspended for this period. Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example,” it said in a statement.

“In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia’s armed forces will give an adequate and effective response.”

There was no immediate response from Kyiv to the unilateral truce announcement – the second by Putin in quick succession, following a 30-hour Easter ceasefire that each side accused the other of violating countless times.

Keep reading

Bombshell: Declassified CIA Files Claim Hitler Escaped to South America

Recently declassified CIA files have unveiled a long-standing and little-known chapter of post-WWII history: a covert operation to track down Adolf Hitler, 10 years after he was presumed dead. Contrary to the commonly accepted account of his suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945, intelligence agents in the United States and South America continued investigating the possibility that the infamous dictator had faked his death and fled across the Atlantic.

The records, originally classified but made public in 2020, reveal that American operatives believed Hitler may have escaped to Argentina, where he was hiding under an assumed name. In fact, as late as 1955—over a decade after the war—CIA informants were still gathering intelligence that suggested the former Nazi leader was alive and had relocated further north into Colombia.

The initial phase of the investigation centered on La Falda, Argentina, where a spa hotel was believed to be one of Hitler’s possible hideouts. According to a War Department file dated October 1945, the owners of the hotel had been ardent supporters of the Nazi regime. They were not only sympathetic to the ideology but had financially backed Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist. Their close ties to Hitler reportedly extended to shared vacations in Germany.

US officials were convinced that this secluded hotel would serve as a logical refuge if Hitler were to flee Nazi Germany. The information was relayed to the FBI with the implication that this location could be crucial to locating the fugitive leader.

Keep reading

Argentina to Declassify Nazi Archives—But Did Hitler Escape There Too?

In a move both hailed and questioned, Argentine President Javier Milei has ordered the full declassification of secret government files related to Nazis who fled to Argentina after World War II—along with archives from the country’s own military dictatorship.

The promise of disclosure follows a broader global trend toward transparency, including the U.S. government’s recent release of long-classified files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—documents that, for decades, were withheld from the public under claims of national security.

But with reports of 5,000 Nazis escaping to South America—including top convicted war criminals like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele—some are asking a more explosive question: did Hitler himself survive the war and escape to Argentina?

Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos confirmed that Milei’s order, made after a meeting with U.S. Senator Steve Daines, applies to all Nazi-related documents across state agencies, including Defense Ministry files and financial records long shrouded in secrecy.

“President Milei has ordered the publication and declassification of the archives,” Francos said. “These files concern Nazis who sought refuge in Argentina and were protected for many years. These are historical documents that should be accessible to the public.”

“There is no reason to continue safeguarding that information,” he added. “These are archives of a part of Argentine history and they have to be public.”

The move also revives a long-held claim—dismissed by mainstream historians but not by everyone—that Adolf Hitler didn’t die in Berlin in 1945, but instead fled via Spain and ended up living out his days under protection in South America.

Keep reading

CIA Analysis of HVCA 2592 Suggesting Hitler Survived World War II and Lived in Colombia

A previously released classified document from 1954 is making the rounds again on the internet after its release years ago. The document claims Adolf Hitler survived World War II and was living in South America.

The document was the CIA’s response to the allegations that Hitler was living in Colombia and had been for several years.

Here is the full document Analysis of Document HVCA 2592 Suggesting Hitler Survived World War II.

In this document, the CIA responds to this explosive claim: The Acting Chief of the Station, Caracas, released a document where he alleges that a trusted friend delivered information that a former SS trooper stated to him casually that Adolf Hitler was still alive and living in Colombia.

The CIA document goes over the details of the claim that Hitler was still alive. Allegedly, an SS Officer traveled from Caracas to Colombia to see Hitler once per month.

Keep reading