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The Postcard
A postcard published by Sunny South Photographers, D.&W.,B. They state on the back of the card: 'British Manufacture Throughout'.
The card was posted in Curry Rivel on Thursday the 6th. July 1933 to:
Mrs. Goozee,
152, Leighton Road,
Kentish Town,
London NW.
The message on the back of the card was as follows:
"Curry Rivel.
My Dear Blanche & All,
Thought you would like a
card from us.
We are having grand weather,
but it's soon getting to
Saturday now.
We have had two days at
Weymouth, and yesterday we
went to Burnham for the day.
Hope you are all well.
Love from us both,
Midge".
Dachau Concentration Camp
So what else happened on the day that Midge posted the card?
Well, on the 6th. July 1933, the German National People's Party was dissolved.
The coalition government of the German National People's Party and the the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) established the first concentration camp to be built by Nazi Germany - Dachau.
Dachau opened on the 22nd. March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents who consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents.
The camp was located in the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany.
After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and, eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded.
The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.
The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on the 29th. April 1945.
Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention, including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods in very cold weather.
There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that were never documented. Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 remaining prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.
General Overview
Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps. Newspapers continually reported:
"The removal of the enemies of
the Reich to concentration camps."
As early as 1935, a jingle went around:
"Lieber Herr Gott,
Mach mich stumm,
Das ich nicht nach Dachau komm".
This translates as:
"Dear God,
Make me dumb,
That I may not to Dachau come".
('Dumb' means 'Silent' in this context.)
The camp's layout and building plans were developed by Commandant Theodor Eicke, and were applied to all later camps. He devised a separate, secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration and army camps.
Eicke became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for organizing others according to his model.
The Dachau complex included the prisoners' camp which occupied approximately 5 acres, and the much larger area of SS training school including barracks, factories plus other facilities of around 20 acres.
The entrance gate used by prisoners carries the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" which translates as "Work shall set you free". This phrase was also used in several other concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.
Dachau was the concentration camp that was in operation the longest, from March 1933 to April 1945, nearly all twelve years of the Nazi regime. Dachau's close proximity to Munich, where Hitler came to power and where the Nazi Party had its official headquarters, made Dachau a convenient location.
From 1933 to 1938, the prisoners were mainly German nationals detained for political reasons. After Kristallnacht, 30,000 male Jewish citizens were deported to concentration camps. More than 10,000 of them were interned in Dachau.
As the German military occupied other European states, citizens from across Europe were sent to concentration camps. Subsequently, the camp was used for prisoners of all sorts, from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich.
In the postwar years, the camp continued in use. From 1945 through 1948, the camp was used by the Allies as a prison for SS officers awaiting trial.
After 1948, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans were expelled from eastern Europe, it held Germans from Czechoslovakia until they could be resettled.
It also served as a military base for the United States, which maintained forces in the country. The camp finally closed in 1960. At the insistence of survivors, various memorials have been constructed and installed there.
Statistics vary but they are in the same general range. It will never be known exactly how many people were interned or murdered there, due to periods of disruption.
One source gives a general estimate of over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries during Nazi rule, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one-third were Jews.
25,613 prisoners are believed to have been murdered in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide.
In late 1944, a typhus epidemic occurred in the camp caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding, and this caused more than 15,000 deaths. It was followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the prisoners died.
Toward the end of the war, death marches to and from the camp caused the deaths of numerous unrecorded prisoners.
After liberation, prisoners weakened beyond recovery by starvation continued to die. Two thousand cases of "the dread black typhus" had already been identified by the 3rd. May, and the U.S. Seventh Army was:
"Working day and night to alleviate
the appalling conditions at the camp".
Prisoners with typhus, a louse-borne disease with an incubation period from 12 to 18 days, were treated by the 116th. Evacuation Hospital, while the 127th. was the general hospital for the other illnesses.
Over the 12 years of use as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951.
Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. Visitors may now walk through the buildings and view the ovens used to cremate bodies, which hid the evidence of many deaths.
It is claimed that in 1942, more than 3,166 prisoners in weakened condition were transported to Hartheim Castle near Linz, and were executed by poison gas because they were deemed unfit.
The gas chamber at Dachau bore a "Brausebad" sign, meaning "Shower Bath".
Between January and April 1945 11,560 detainees died at Dachau according to a U.S. Army report of 1945, though the Dachau administration registered 12,596 deaths from typhus at the camp over the same period.
Dachau was the third concentration camp to be liberated by British or American Allied forces.
History of the Camp
After the takeover of Bavaria on the 9th. March 1933, Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police in Munich, began to speak with the managers of an unused gunpowder and munitions factory.
Himmler toured the site to see if it could be used for quartering protective-custody prisoners. The concentration camp at Dachau was opened on the 22nd. March 1933, with the arrival of about 200 prisoners from Stadelheim Prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress (where Hitler had written Mein Kampf during his own imprisonment).
Himmler announced that the camp could hold up to 5,000 people, and described it as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners" to be used to restore calm to Germany.
The press statement given at the opening stated:
"On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be
opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000
people. All Communists and—where necessary—
Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who
endanger state security are to be concentrated here,
as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual
functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening
these prisons, and on the other hand these people
cannot be released because attempts have shown that
they persist in their efforts to agitate and organize as
soon as they are released."
Whatever the publicly stated purpose of the camp, the SS men who arrived there on the 11th. May 1933 were left in no illusion as to its real purpose by the speech that was given on that day by Johann-Erasmus Freiherr von Malsen-Ponickau:
"Comrades of the SS!
You all know what the Fuehrer has called us to do.
We have not come here for human encounters with
those pigs in there. We do not consider them human
beings, as we are, but as second-class people.
For years they have been able to continue their criminal
existence. But now we are in power. If those pigs had
come to power, they would have cut off all our heads.
Therefore we have no room for sentimentalism.
If anyone here cannot bear to see the blood of
comrades, he does not belong and had better leave.
The more of these pig dogs we strike down, the fewer
we need to feed."
Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and emigrants were also sent to Dachau after the 1935 passage of the Nuremberg Laws which institutionalized racial discrimination.
In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated the construction of a large complex capable of holding 6,000 prisoners. The construction was completed in August 1938.
More political opponents, and over 11,000 German and Austrian Jews were sent to the camp after the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938.
Sinti and Roma in the hundreds were sent to the camp in 1939, and over 13,000 prisoners were sent to the camp from Poland in 1940.
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross inspected the camp in 1935 and in 1938, and documented the harsh conditions.
Investigation of the First Deaths in 1933
Shortly after the SS was commissioned to supplement the Bavarian police overseeing the Dachau camp, the first reports of prisoner deaths at Dachau began to emerge.
In April 1933, Josef Hartinger, an official from the Bavarian Justice Ministry, and physician Moritz Flamm, a part-time medical examiner, arrived at the camp to investigate the deaths in accordance with the Bavarian penal code.
The two men noted many inconsistencies between the injuries on the corpses and the camp guards' accounts of the deaths.
Over a number of months, Hartinger and Flamm uncovered clear evidence of murder, and compiled a dossier of charges against Hilmar Wäckerle, the SS commandant of Dachau, Werner Nürnbergk the camp doctor, and Josef Mutzbauer, the camp's chief administrator (Kanzleiobersekretär).
In June 1933, Hartinger presented the case to his superior, Bavarian State Prosecutor, Karl Wintersberger. Initially supportive of the investigation, Wintersberger became reluctant to submit the resulting indictment to the Justice Ministry, increasingly under the influence of the SS.
Hartinger accordingly reduced the scope of the dossier to the four clearest cases, and Wintersberger signed it, after first notifying Himmler as a courtesy.
The killings at Dachau suddenly stopped (temporarily); Wäckerle was transferred to Stuttgart and replaced by Theodor Eicke.
The indictment and related evidence reached the office of Hans Frank, the Bavarian Justice Minister, but was intercepted by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner and locked away in a desk, only to be discovered by the US Army.
In 1934, both Hartinger and Wintersberger were transferred to provincial positions. Dr. Flamm was no longer employed as a medical examiner, and was to survive two attempts on his life before his suspicious death in the same year.
Flamm's thoroughly gathered and documented evidence within Hartinger's indictment ensured that it achieved convictions of senior Nazis at the Nuremberg trials in 1947. Wintersberger's complicit behaviour is documented in his own evidence to the Pohl Trial.
Forced Labor
The prisoners of Dachau concentration camp originally were to serve as forced labor for a munition factory, and to expand the camp. It was used as a training center for the SS-Totenkopfverbände guards, and was a model for other concentration camps.
The camp was about 300 m × 600 m (1,000 ft × 2,000 ft) in rectangular shape. The prisoners' entrance was secured by an iron gate with the motto "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will make you free"). This reflected Nazi propaganda, which described concentration camps as labor and re-education camps.
This was their original purpose, but the focus was soon shifted to using forced labor as a method of torture and murder. The original slogan was left on the gates.
As of 1938, the procedure for new arrivals occurred at the Schubraum, where prisoners had to hand over their clothing and possessions. One former Luxembourgian prisoner, Albert Theis, reflected about the room:
"There we were stripped of all our clothes.
Everything had to be handed over: money,
rings, watches. One was now stark naked".
The camp included an administration building that contained offices for the Gestapo trial commissioner, SS authorities, the camp leader and his deputies. These administration offices consisted of large storage rooms for the personal belongings of prisoners, the bunker, roll-call square where guards would also inflict punishment on prisoners (especially those who tried to escape).
There was also a canteen where prisoners served SS men with cigarettes and food, a museum containing plaster images of prisoners who suffered from bodily defects, the camp office, the library, the barracks, and the infirmary, which was staffed by prisoners who had previously held occupations such as physicians or army surgeons.
Operation Barbarossa
Over 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war were murdered by the Dachau commandant's guard at the SS shooting range located at Hebertshausen, two kilometers from the main camp, in the years 1941/1943. These murders were in clear violation of the provisions laid down in the Geneva Convention for prisoners of war.
The SS used the euphemism Sonderbehandlung ("Special Treatment") for these criminal executions. The first of these executions took place on the 25th. November 1941.
After 1942, the number of prisoners being held at the camp continued to exceed 12,000. Dachau originally held communists, leading socialists and other "enemies of the state", but over time, the Nazis began to send German Jews to the camp.
In the early years of imprisonment, Jews were offered permission to emigrate overseas if they "voluntarily" gave their property to enhance Hitler's public treasury.
Once Austria was annexed and Czechoslovakia was dissolved, the citizens of both countries became the next prisoners at Dachau.
In 1940, Dachau became filled with Polish prisoners, who continued to be the majority of the prisoner population until Dachau was officially liberated.
The prisoner enclosure at the camp was heavily guarded to ensure that no prisoners escaped. A 3-metre-wide (10 ft) no-man's land was the first marker of confinement for prisoners; an area which, upon entry, would elicit lethal gunfire from guard towers.
Guards tossed inmates' caps into this area, resulting in the death of the prisoners when they attempted to retrieve the caps. Despondent prisoners committed suicide by entering the zone.
A four-foot-deep and eight-foot-broad (1.2 × 2.4 m) creek, connected with the river Amper, lay on the west side between the "neutral-zone" and the electrically charged, and barbed wire fence which surrounded the entire prisoner enclosure.
In August 1944 a women's camp opened inside Dachau. The first shipment of women came from Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the last months of the war, the conditions at Dachau deteriorated. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps near the front to more centrally located camps. They hoped to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners.
Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continually at Dachau. After days of travel with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem as a result of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners.
Owing to repeated transports from the front, the camp was constantly overcrowded, and the hygiene conditions were beneath human dignity. Starting from the end of 1944 up to the day of liberation, 15,000 people died, about half of all the prisoners held at Dachau.
Final Days of the Camp
As late as the 19th. April 1945, prisoners were sent to Dachau; on that date a freight train from Buchenwald with nearly 4,500 prisoners was diverted to Nammering.
SS troops and police confiscated food and water that local townspeople tried to give to the prisoners. Nearly three hundred dead bodies were ordered removed from the train, and carried to a ravine over 400 metres (1⁄4 mile) away.
The 524 prisoners who had been forced to carry the dead to this site were then shot by the guards, and buried along with those who had died on the train. Nearly 800 bodies went into this mass grave.
The train continued on to Dachau.
During April 1945, as U.S. troops drove deeper into Bavaria, the commander of Dachau suggested to Himmler that the camp be turned over to the Allies.
Himmler, in signed correspondence, prohibited such a move, adding that:
"No prisoners shall be allowed to
fall into the hands of the enemy
alive."
On the 24th. April 1945, just days before the U.S. troops arrived at the camp, the commandant and a strong guard forced between 6,000 and 7,000 surviving inmates on a death march from Dachau south to Eurasburg, then eastwards towards the Tegernsee. Any prisoners who could not keep up on the six-day march were shot. Many others died of exhaustion, hunger and exposure. Months later a mass grave containing 1,071 prisoners was found along the route.
Though at the time of liberation the death rate had peaked at 200 per day, after the liberation by U.S. forces the rate eventually fell to between 50 and 80 deaths per day.
In addition to the direct abuse of the SS and the harsh conditions, people died from typhus epidemics and starvation.
Between the years 1933 and 1945, more than 3.5 million Germans were imprisoned in such concentration camps or prison for political reasons.
Approximately 77,000 Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance by Special Courts, courts-martial, and the civil justice system. Many of these Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, and these roles were thought to allow them to engage in subversion and conspiracy against the Nazis.
Organization of the Camp
Dachau was divided into two sections: the camp area and the crematorium. The crematorium was next to, but not directly accessible from within the camp, and was erected in 1942.
The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime, and one reserved for medical experiments.
The Dachau complex included other SS facilities beside the concentration camp—a leader school of the economic and civil service, the medical school of the SS, etc. The camp was originally called a "Protective Custody Camp," and occupied less than half of the area of the entire complex.
The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. The camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers.
In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction of a large complex of buildings in the grounds of the original camp. The construction was completed in mid-August 1938, and the camp remained essentially unchanged and in operation until 1945. Dachau was therefore the longest running concentration camp of the Third Reich.
Medical Experimentation
Hundreds of prisoners suffered and died, or were executed in medical experiments conducted at Dachau, of which Sigmund Rascher was in charge.
Hypothermia experiments involved being immersed in vats of icy water, in some cases wearing Luftwaffe flying gear, or being strapped down naked outdoors in freezing temperatures.
Attempts at reviving the subjects included scalding baths, and forcing naked women to have sex with the unconscious victim.
There was extensive communication between the investigators and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, regarding the experiments, although the original records of the experiments were destroyed in an attempt to conceal the atrocities.
During 1942, "high altitude" experiments were conducted. Victims were subjected to rapid decompression to pressures found at 4,300 metres (14,100 ft), and experienced spasmodic convulsions, agonal breathing, and eventual death.
Agonal breathing is when someone who is not getting enough oxygen is gasping for air. It is not true breathing - it is a natural reflex that happens when your brain is not getting the oxygen it needs to survive. Agonal breathing is a sign that a person is near death.
A Camp of Many Colours
The camp was originally designed for holding German and Austrian political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it began to be used also for ordinary criminals. Inside the camp there was a sharp division between the two groups of prisoners; those who were there for political reasons, and the "professional" criminals, who has been sent there by the criminal courts.
The political prisoners who had been arrested by the Gestapo and were there because they disagreed with Nazi Party policies, or with Hitler, naturally did not consider themselves criminals.
Dachau was used as the chief camp for Christian (mainly Catholic) clergy who were imprisoned for not conforming with the Nazi Party line.
Poles constituted the largest ethnic group in the camp during the war, followed by Russians, French, Yugoslavs, Jews, and Czechs.
Many Poles met their deaths with the "invalid trains" sent out from the camp; others were liquidated in the camp and given bogus death certificates. Some died of cruel punishment for misdemeanors—beaten to death or run to exhaustion.
The average number of Germans in the camp during the war was 3,000. Just before the liberation many German prisoners were evacuated, but 2,000 of these Germans died during the evacuation transport.
Prisoners were divided into categories. At first, they were classified by the nature of the crime for which they were accused, but eventually were classified by the specific authority-type under whose command a person was sent to camp.
-- Those who were there for political reasons wore a red tag.
-- "Professional" criminals wore a green tag.
-- Cri-Po prisoners arrested by the criminal police wore a brown badge.
-- "Work-shy and asocial" people sent by the welfare authorities or the Gestapo wore a black badge.
-- Jehovah's Witnesses arrested by the Gestapo wore a violet badge.
-- Homosexuals sent by the criminal courts wore a pink badge.
-- Emigrants arrested by the Gestapo wore a blue badge.
-- "Race polluters" arrested by the criminal court or Gestapo wore badges with a black outline.
-- Second-termers arrested by the Gestapo wore a bar matching the color of their badge.
-- "Idiots" wore a white armband with the label Blöd (Stupid).
-- Romani wore a black triangle.
-- Jews, whose incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp dramatically increased after Kristallnacht, wore a yellow badge, combined with another color.
The Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp
In an effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi security services monitored clergy very closely.
Priests were frequently denounced, arrested and sent to concentration camps, often simply on the basis of being "Suspected of activities hostile to the State" or that there was "Reason to suppose that his dealings might harm society".
Despite SS hostility to religious observance, the Vatican and German bishops successfully lobbied the regime to concentrate clergy in one camp, and obtained permission to build a chapel for the priests to live communally and for time to be allotted to them for their religious and intellectual activity.
Priest Barracks at Dachau were established in Blocks 26, 28 and 30, though only temporarily. 26 became the international block, and 28 was reserved for Poles – the most numerous group.
Of a total of 2,720 clergy recorded as imprisoned at Dachau, the overwhelming majority, some 2,579 (or 95%) were Catholic. Among the other denominations, there were 109 Protestants, 22 Greek Orthodox, 8 Old Catholics and Mariavites and 2 Muslims.
R. Schnabel's 1966 investigation, 'Die Frommen in der Hölle' ("The Pious Ones in Hell") found an alternative total of 2,771, and included the fate all the clergy listed, with 692 noted as deceased and 336 sent out on "invalid trainloads" and therefore presumed dead.
Over 400 German priests were sent to Dachau. Total numbers incarcerated are difficult to ascertain, for some clergy were not recognised as such by the camp authorities, and some—particularly Poles—did not wish to be identified as such, fearing they would be mistreated.
Priest Friedrich Hoffman testified at the trial of former camp personnel. He stated that hundreds of priests died at the camp after being exposed to malaria during Nazi medical experiments.
The Nazis introduced a racial hierarchy—keeping Poles in harsh conditions, while favoring German priests. Poles arrived in December 1941, and a further 500 of mainly elderly clergy arrived in October the following year. Inadequately clothed for the bitter cold, of this group, only 82 survived.
A large number of Polish priests were chosen for Nazi medical experiments. In November 1942, 20 were given phlegmons. A phlegmon is an inflammation of soft tissue that spreads under the skin or inside the body. It is usually caused by an infection, and generally produces pus.
120 priests were used by Dr. Schilling for malaria experiments between July 1942 and May 1944.
Dachau Staff
The camp staff consisted mostly of male SS, although 19 female guards served at Dachau as well, most of them until liberation. Female guards were also assigned to the Augsburg Michelwerke, Bureau, Kaufering, Mühldorf, and Munich Agfa Camera Werke subcamps.
Several Norwegians worked as guards at the Dachau camp.
In the major Dachau war crimes case (United States of America v. Martin Gottfried Weiss et. al.), forty-two officials of Dachau were tried from November to December 1945.
All 42 were found guilty – thirty-six of the defendants were sentenced to death on the 13th. December 1945, of whom 23 were hanged on the 28th.–29th. May 1946, including the commandant, SS-Obersturmbannführer Martin Gottfried Weiss, SS-Obersturmführer Freidrich Wilhelm Ruppert and camp doctors Karl Schilling and Fritz Hintermeyer.
Camp commandant Weiss admitted in affidavit testimony that:
"Most of the deaths at Dachau during my administration
were due to typhus, TB, dysentery, pneumonia, pleurisy,
and body weakness brought about by lack of food."
His testimony also admitted to deaths by shootings, hangings and medical experiments.
Ruppert ordered and supervised the deaths of innumerable prisoners at Dachau main and subcamps, according to the War Crimes Commission official trial transcript. He testified about hangings, shootings and lethal injections, but did not admit to direct responsibility for any individual deaths.
An anonymous Dutch prisoner contended that British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Noor Inayat Khan was cruelly beaten by SS officer Wilhelm Ruppert before being shot from behind; the beating may have been the actual cause of her death.
Satellite Camps and Sub-Camps of Dachau
Satellite camps under the authority of Dachau were established in the summer and autumn of 1944 near armaments factories throughout southern Germany to increase war production.
Dachau alone had more than 30 large subcamps, and hundreds of smaller ones, in which over 30,000 prisoners worked almost exclusively on armaments.
Overall, the Dachau concentration camp system included 123 sub-camps and Kommandos which were set up in 1943 when factories were built near the main camp to make use of forced labor of the Dachau prisoners.
Of the 123 sub-camps, eleven of them were called Kaufering. All Kaufering sub-camps were set up to specifically build three underground factories (Allied bombing raids made it necessary for them to be underground) for a project called Ringeltaube (wood pigeon). This was planned to be the location in which the German jet fighter plane, Messerschmitt Me 262, was to be built.
In the last days of war, in April 1945, the Kaufering camps were evacuated and around 15,000 prisoners were sent up to the main Dachau camp. Typhus alone was estimated to have caused 15,000 deaths between December 1944 and April 1945:
"Within the first month after the arrival of the American
troops, 10,000 prisoners were treated for malnutrition
and kindred diseases. In spite of this, one hundred
prisoners died each day during the first month from
typhus, dysentery or general weakness".
As U.S. Army troops neared the Dachau sub-camp at Landsberg on the 27th. April 1945, the SS officer in charge ordered that 4,000 prisoners be murdered. The windows and doors of their huts were nailed shut. The buildings were then doused with gasoline and set afire. Prisoners who were naked or nearly so were burned to death, while some managed to crawl out of the buildings before dying.
Earlier that day, as Wehrmacht troops withdrew from Landsberg am Lech, townspeople hung white sheets from their windows. Infuriated SS troops dragged German civilians from their homes and hanged them from trees.
The Winding-Down of the Camps
As the Allies began to advance on Nazi Germany, the SS began to evacuate the first concentration camps in the summer of 1944. Thousands of prisoners were killed before the evacuation due to illness or being unable to walk. At the end of 1944, the overcrowding, the unhygienic conditions and the lack of food rations became disastrous. In November a typhus fever epidemic broke out that took thousands of lives.
In the second phase of the evacuation, in April 1945, Himmler gave direct evacuation routes for the remaining camps. Prisoners who were from the northern part of Germany were to be directed to the Baltic and North Sea coasts to be drowned.
The prisoners from the southern part were to be gathered in the Alps, which was the location in which the SS wanted to resist the Allies. On the 28th. April 1945, an armed revolt took place in the town of Dachau. Both former and escaped concentration camp prisoners, and a renegade Volkssturm (civilian militia) company took part. At about 8:30 am the rebels occupied the Town Hall. The SS gruesomely suppressed the revolt within a few hours.
Being fully aware that Germany was about to be defeated in World War II, the SS invested its time in removing evidence of the crimes it had committed in the concentration camps. They began destroying incriminating evidence in April 1945, and planned on murdering the prisoners using codenames "Wolke A-I" (Cloud A-1) and "Wolkenbrand" (Cloud fire).
However, these plans were not carried out. In mid-April, plans to evacuate the camp started by sending prisoners toward Tyrol. On the 26th. April, over 10,000 prisoners were forced to leave the Dachau concentration camp on foot, in trains, or in trucks. The largest group of some 7,000 prisoners was driven southward on a foot-march lasting several days. More than 1,000 prisoners did not survive this march. The evacuation transports cost many thousands of prisoners their lives.
The Liberation of Dachau
On the 26th. April 1945, prisoner Karl Riemer fled the Dachau concentration camp to get help from American troops, and on the 28th. April Victor Maurer, a representative of the International Red Cross, negotiated an agreement to surrender the camp to U.S. troops.
That night a secretly formed International Prisoners Committee took over the control of the camp. American units commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. Sparks were ordered to secure the camp. On the 29th. April Sparks led part of his battalion as they entered the camp over a side wall.
At about the same time, Brigadier General Henning Linden led the 222nd. Infantry Regiment including his aide, Lieutenant William Cowling, to accept the formal surrender of the camp from German Lieutenant Heinrich Wicker at an entrance between the camp and the compound for the SS garrison.
Linden was traveling with Marguerite Higgins and other reporters; as a result, Linden's detachment generated international headlines by accepting the surrender of the camp.
More than 30,000 Jews and political prisoners were freed, and ever since 1945, adherents of the 42nd. and 45th. Division have argued over which unit was the first to liberate Dachau.
Satellite Camps Liberation
The first Dachau sub-camp to be discovered by advancing Allied forces was Kaufering IV, by the 12th. Armored Division on the 27th. April 1945. Sub-camps subsequently liberated by the 12th. Armored Division included: Erpting, Schrobenhausen, Schwabing, Langerringen, Türkheim, Lauingen, Schwabach, and Germering.
During the liberation of the sub-camps surrounding Dachau, advance scouts of the U.S. Army's 522nd. Field Artillery Battalion liberated the 3,000 prisoners of the "Kaufering IV Hurlach" slave labor camp:
"They found the camp afire and a stack of some four
hundred bodies burning ... American soldiers then
went into Landsberg and rounded up all the male
civilians they could find and marched them out to
the camp.
The former commandant was forced to lie amidst a
pile of corpses. The male population of Landsberg
was then ordered to walk by, and ordered to spit on
the commandant as they passed.
The commandant was then turned over to a group
of liberated camp survivors".
The 522nd's personnel later discovered the survivors of a death march headed generally southwards from the Dachau main camp to Eurasburg, then eastwards towards the Austrian border on the 2nd. May, just west of the town of Waakirchen.
Weather at the time of liberation was unseasonably cool; on the 2nd. May, the area received a snowstorm with 10 centimetres (4 in) of snow at nearby Munich. Proper clothing was still scarce, and film footage from the time (as seen in The World at War) shows naked, gaunt people either wandering on snow or dead under it.
Due to the number of sub-camps over a large area that comprised the Dachau concentration camp complex, many Allied units have been officially recognized by the United States Army Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as liberating units of Dachau.
The Killing of Camp Guards at Dachau
A photograph taken by the U.S. Army on the 29th. April 1945 exists which appears to show an unauthorized execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation—part of the Dachau liberation reprisals.
American troops killed some of the camp guards after they had surrendered. The number is disputed, as some were killed in combat, some while attempting to surrender, and others after their surrender was accepted. In 1989, Brigadier General Felix L. Sparks, the Colonel in command of a battalion that was present, stated:
"The total number of German guards killed at Dachau
during that day most certainly does not exceed fifty,
with thirty probably being a more accurate figure.
The regimental records of the 157th. Field Artillery
Regiment for that date indicate that over a thousand
German prisoners were brought to the regimental
collecting point.
Since my task force was leading the regimental attack,
almost all the prisoners were taken by the task force,
including several hundred from Dachau."
An Inspector General report resulting from a US Army investigation conducted between the 3rd. and 8th. May 1945 found that 21 plus "a number" of presumed SS men were killed, with others being wounded after their surrender had been accepted.
In addition, 25 to 50 SS guards were estimated to have been killed by the liberated prisoners. Lee Miller visited the camp just after liberation, and photographed several guards who were killed by soldiers or prisoners.
According to Sparks, court-martial charges were drawn up against him and several other men under his command, but General George S. Patton, who had recently been appointed military governor of Bavaria, chose to dismiss the charges.
Colonel Charles L. Decker, an acting deputy judge advocate, concluded in late 1945 that:
"While war crimes had been committed at Dachau
by Germany, certainly, there was no such systematic criminality among United States forces as pervaded
the Nazi groups in Germany."
American troops also forced local citizens to the camp to see for themselves the conditions there and to help bury the dead. Many local residents were shocked about the experience, and claimed no knowledge of the activities at the camp.
The Post-Liberation Easter
The 6th. May 1945 was the day of Pascha, Orthodox Easter. In a cell block used by Catholic priests to say daily Mass, several Greek, Serbian and Russian priests and one Serbian deacon, wearing makeshift vestments made from towels of the SS guard, gathered with several hundred Greek, Serbian and Russian prisoners to celebrate the Paschal Vigil. A prisoner described the scene:
"In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there
has probably never been an Easter service like the
one at Dachau in 1945.
Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian
deacon adorned the makeshift 'vestments' over their
blue and gray-striped prisoners' uniforms.
Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to
Slavic, and then back again to Greek.
The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras—everything
was recited from memory.
The Gospel—In the beginning was the Word—also
from memory. And finally, the Homily of Saint John—
also from memory.
A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood
up in front of us and recited it with such infectious
enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as
we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to
speak through him to us and to the rest of the world
as well!"
There is a Russian Orthodox chapel at the camp today, and it is well known for its icon of Christ leading the prisoners out of the camp gates.
After Liberation
Authorities worked night and day to alleviate conditions at the camp immediately following the liberation as an epidemic of black typhus swept through the prisoner population. Two thousand cases had already been reported by the 3rd. May.
By October of the same year the camp was being used by the U.S. Army as a place of confinement for war criminals, the SS and important witnesses. It was also the site of the Dachau Trials for German war criminals, a site chosen for its symbolism.
In 1948, the Bavarian government established housing for refugees on the site, and this remained for many years.
The Kaserne quarters and other buildings used by the guards were converted and served as the Eastman Barracks, an American military post. Since the closure of the Eastman Barracks in 1974, these areas are now occupied by the Bavarian Bereitschaftspolizei (rapid response police unit).
Deportation of Soviet Nationals
By January 1946, 18,000 members of the SS were being confined at the camp along with an additional 12,000 persons, including deserters from the Russian army and a number who had been captured in German Army uniform.
The occupants of two barracks rioted as 271 of the Russian deserters were to be loaded onto trains that would return them to Russian-controlled lands, as agreed at the Yalta Conference.
Inmates barricaded themselves inside two barracks. While the first was able to be cleared without too much trouble, those in the second building, set fire to it, tore off their clothing in an effort to frustrate the guards, and linked arms to resist being removed from the building.
Tear gas was used by the American soldiers before rushing the barrack, only for them to find that many had committed suicide. The American services newspaper Stars and Stripes reported:
“The GIs quickly cut down most of those who had
hanged themselves from the rafters. Those still
conscious were screaming in Russian, pointing first
at the guns of the guards, then at themselves,
begging to us to shoot.”
Ten of the soldiers were successful in their bid to commit suicide during the riot, while another 21 attempted suicide, apparently with razor blades. Many had "cracked heads" inflicted by 500 American guards, in the attempt to bring the situation under control.
Dachau in the Media
-- In his 2013 autobiography, 'Moose: Chapters from My Life', in the chapter entitled, "Dachau", author Robert B. Sherman chronicles his experiences as an American Army serviceman during the initial hours of Dachau's liberation.
-- In Lewis Black's first book, 'Nothing's Sacred', he mentions visiting the camp as part of his tour of Europe, and how it looked all cleaned up and spiffy, "like some delightful holiday camp", and only the crematorium building showed any sign of the horror that went on there.
-- In Maus, Vladek describes his time interned at Dachau, as well as other concentration camps. He describes the journey to Dachau in over-crowded trains, trading rations for other goods and favors to stay alive, and contracting typhus.
-- Frontline: "Memory of the Camps" (7 May 1985) is a 56-minute television documentary that addresses Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps.
THE BIG PICTURE
MOON WATCHING
November's full moon is sometimes called "the beaver moon" - a name NASA suggests may allude to the practice of setting beaver traps at this time of year, when beavers are especially active. This year the annual event, November 19th, featured the longest partial lunar eclipse in centuries.
Published by O Globo, Brazil 1941
One of the rarest Timely Comics ever published in the world, and among the earliest Timely Publications Globally outside the US.
O Globo is among the earliest publishers of MLJ Comics, Smash Comics, National Comics and Timely Comics in our genres history.
Yes I took this a few min. Ago! The 48 year old me and the artwork I soon will publish here…
My teeth are bright yellow these days!!!
Peace and Noise!
MushroomBrain the face of an artist maniac
the book was just published in the winter of 2009, and it showcases an amazing and beautiful technique that uses needle felting but applies the process to fabric, so wool is applied to the cloth using a felting needle.
the effect is stunning, like embroidery or even sometimes similar to painting on fabric.
the colors and textures are very rich, and projects have a great variety that is sure to inspire. the contrast of bright wool felted onto natural linen is a repeating feeling that always looks great.
the projects and scenes created in the book included detailed diagrams that show to how to recreate them, including fine details about colors and shades of wool that are combined to create depth.
written directions are in japanese, but the diagrams, and very clear step by step instructions with photos show how to create this effect. it's probably easier is you have had a little experience needle felting, just so you understand how that tool works, but that being said, you will be able to pick this up quickly, especially if you have some experience with felt, or embroidery, or even sewing
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this page without written permission and consent.
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Il 6 aprile 2016 gli Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, la rivelazione swing americana già fenomeno di Youtube grazie alla cover di Miley Cyrus “We can’t stop”, saranno in concerto in Italia all’Alcatraz di Milano, per l’unica tappa italiana del tour.
Un fenomeno ormai mondiale, con 200 Milioni di visualizzazioni su Youtube e 1 Milione di iscritti al canale.
Un tour che parte nel 2015 dagli Stati Uniti passando per l’Asia ed approdando in Europa nel 2016 con oltre 80 date confermate. Immaginate canzoni di Beyoncé, Britney Spears or Taylor Swift riportate indietro di 70-80 anni…
Gli Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox (o PMJ, come ormai vengono chiamati in tutto il mondo) sono una mini-big band swing a tutti gli effetti, ma con qualcosa in più: uniscono il perfetto stile “d’epoca” ai brani moderni di Beyoncé, Britney Spears, White Stripes o Taylor Swift rielaborandoli come se fossero arrangiati per Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland o Nina Simone. I PMJ colmano il divario tra le generazioni, suonando melodie a tutti familiari con arrangiamenti che intrigano tutte le età.
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 23rd of September 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images and have any stories and information to add please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
All details about this QAL are on my blog here: jednoiglec.blogspot.com/2014/11/last-minute-christmas-sam....
And will be also published in the Flickr group: www.flickr.com/groups/2729932@N25/
The Daily Rag published every two weeks from October 1972 until June 1974. It was a left wing tabloid that reported on local, national and international issues from a radical perspective, but was less flamboyant than the Washington Free Press or Quicksilver Times.
Its first incarnation was as the Colonial Times that published at least eight issues beginning in October 1971 but folded thereafter. The Colonial Times billed itself as the alternative to the Quicksilver Times and the Washington Post.
The Colonia Times then began publishing the Rag in 1972 and claimed an initial circulation of 10,000 that grew to 36,000 in 1973 for the paper that was distributed free of charge.
Despite its attempt to appear more mainstream than Quicksilver, the Rag ran afoul of postal authorities for its cover in December 1972 showing a woman wearing a button that read, “Fuck the Food Tax.”
Postal authorities contacted at least half of the paper’s 200 subscribers attempting to find someone who would refuse the newspaper so that they could refer the case for criminal prosecution for “obscenity.” Postal authorities closed the case in March 1973 without referring any charges—apparently unable to find anyone who would refuse the newspaper.
We currently have three copies. If you have copies of the Daily Rag (or other D.C. area alternative periodicals) or know someone who does, please contact us at washington_area_spark@yahoo.com so that we can arrange to have them scanned for upload.
Vol. 1 No. 1 – Early October, 1972 - washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/1972-early-oc...
Vol. 1 No. 14 – April 20, 1973 - washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/1973-04-20-th...
Vol. 2 No. 7 – November 16, 1973 - washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/1973-11-16-th...
For other alternative periodicals, see washingtonareaspark.com/contributors/periodicals/
For activist documents, see washingtonareaspark.com/contributors/
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmGkArk4
Donated by Robert “Bob” Simpson
The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. Also known as the Millennium Wheel, its official name was originally published as the British Airways London Eye, then the Merlin Entertainments London Eye, then the EDF Energy London Eye. Since mid-January 2015, it has been known in branding as the Coca-Cola London Eye, following an agreement signed in September 2014.[8]
The entire structure is 135 metres (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394 ft). When erected in 1999 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel. Its height was surpassed by the 160 m (520 ft) Star of Nanchang in 2006, the 165 m (541 ft) Singapore Flyer in 2008, and the 167.6 m (550 ft) High Roller (Las Vegas) in 2014. Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike the taller Nanchang and Singapore wheels, the Eye is described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel".[9]
It is currently Europe's tallest Ferris wheel,[10] and offered the highest public viewing point in London[11] until it was superseded by the 245-metre (804 ft)[12] observation deck on the 72nd floor of The Shard, which opened to the public on 1 February 2013.[13] It is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3.75 million visitors annually,[14] and has made many appearances in popular culture.
The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Gardens (previously the site of the former Dome of Discovery), on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth.
A classic model from the 1960s - top speed of around 115 mph and fitted with automatic transmission.
The location of this photo appears to be outside the Crescent Theatre in Sheepcote St, Birmingham. The play - see poster - is 'The Imaginary Invalid' a comedy in three acts by Molière. Given the comedy of errors of British Leyland perhaps appropriate in hindsight!
From a 1968 promotional book published by the British Leyland Motor Corporation. Fascinating tour of what the UK lost when this company went bust. But also shows how the organisation contained the seeds of its own destruction - too many different brands, models, activities etc
The new best selling Richard Ford novel with my book cover photo, has finally hit bookstores & libraries.
Phila., PA
The Postcard
A view of Llandudno on a 'Carbo Colour' postcard which was published by Valentine & Sons Ltd. of Dundee and London.
The card was posted in Prestatyn to an address in Crawford Avenue Liverpool on the 22nd. June 1955, back in the days when car parking was free and plentiful.
Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside resort in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. The town's name is derived from its patron saint, Saint Tudno.
Llandudno is the largest seaside resort in Wales, and as early as 1861 was being called 'the Queen of the Welsh Watering Places' (a phrase later also used in connection with Tenby and Aberystwyth; the word 'resort' came a little later).
History of Llandudno
The town of Llandudno developed from Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements over many hundreds of years on the slopes of the limestone headland, known to seafarers as the Great Orme and to landsmen as the Creuddyn Peninsula.
The origins in recorded history are with the Manor of Gogarth conveyed by King Edward I to Annan, Bishop of Bangor in 1284.
The Great Orme
Mostly owned by Mostyn Estates, the Great Orme is home to several large herds of wild Kashmiri goats originally descended from a pair given by Queen Victoria to Lord Mostyn.
The summit of the Great Orme stands at 679 feet (207 m). The Summit Hotel, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of world middleweight champion boxer Randolph Turpin.
The limestone headland is a haven for flora and fauna, with some rare species such as peregrine falcons and a species of wild cotoneaster (cambricus) which can only be found on the Great Orme.
The sheer limestone cliffs provide ideal nesting conditions for a wide variety of sea birds, including cormorants, shags, guillemots, razorbills, puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars and numerous gulls.
There are several attractions including the Great Orme Tramway and the Llandudno Cable Car that takes tourists to the summit. The Great Orme also has the longest toboggan run in Britain at 750m.
The Development of Llandudno
By 1847 the town had grown to a thousand people, served by the new church of St. George, built in 1840. The great majority of the men worked in the copper mines, with others employed in fishing and subsistence agriculture.
In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool, presented Lord Mostyn with plans to develop the marshlands behind Llandudno Bay as a holiday resort. These were enthusiastically pursued by Lord Mostyn.
The influence of the Mostyn Estate and its agents over the years was paramount in the development of Llandudno, especially after the appointment of George Felton as surveyor and architect in 1857.
Between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno was developed under Felton's supervision. Felton also undertook architectural design work, including the design and execution of the Holy Trinity Church in Mostyn Street.
The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated an electric tramway service between Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907, this being extended to Colwyn Bay in 1908. The service closed in 1956.
Llandudno Attractions
The Beach and The Parade
A beach of sand, shingle and rock curves two miles between the headlands of the Great Orme and the Little Orme.
For most of the length of Llandudno's North Shore there is a wide curving Victorian promenade. The road, collectively known as The Parade, has a different name for each block, and it is on these parades and crescents that many of Llandudno's hotels are built.
Llandudno Pier
The pier is on the North Shore. Built in 1878, it is a Grade II listed building.
The pier was extended in 1884 in a landward direction along the side of what was the Baths Hotel (where the Grand Hotel now stands) to provide a new entrance with the Llandudno Pier Pavilion Theatre, thus increasing the pier's length to 2,295 feet (700 m); it is the longest pier in Wales.
Attractions on the pier include a bar, a cafe, amusement arcades, children's fairground rides and an assortment of shops & kiosks.
In the summer, Professor Codman's Punch and Judy show (established in 1860) can be found on the promenade near the entrance to the pier.
The Happy Valley
The Happy Valley, a former quarry, was the gift of Lord Mostyn to the town in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. The area was landscaped and developed as gardens, two miniature golf courses, a putting green, a popular open-air theatre and extensive lawns.
Ceremonies connected with the Welsh National Eisteddfod were held there in 1896, and again in 1963.
In June 1969, the Great Orme Cabin Lift, a modern alternative to the tramway, was opened with its base station adjacent to the open-air theatre. The distance to the summit is just over 1 mile (1.6 km), and the four-seater cabins travel at 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) on a continuous steel cable over 2 miles (3.2 km) long.
It is the longest single-stage cabin lift in Great Britain, and the longest span between pylons is over 1,000 feet (300 m).
The popularity of the 'Happy Valley Entertainers' open-air theatre having declined, the theatre closed in 1985. Likewise the two miniature golf courses closed, and were converted in 1987 to create a 280-metre (920 ft) artificial ski slope and toboggan run. The gardens were extensively restored as part of the resort's millennium celebrations, and remain a major attraction.
Marine Drive
The first route round the perimeter of the Great Orme was a footpath constructed in 1858 by Reginald Cust, a trustee of the Mostyn Estate. In 1872 the Great Orme's Head Marine Drive Co. Ltd. was formed to turn the path into a carriage road.
Following bankruptcy, a second company completed the road in 1878. The contractors for the scheme were Messrs Hughes, Morris, Davies, a consortium led by Richard Hughes of Madoc Street, Llandudno.
The road was bought by Llandudno Urban District Council in 1897. The 4 mile (6.4 km) one-way drive starts at the foot of the Happy Valley. After about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) a side road leads to St. Tudno's Church, the Great Orme Bronze Age Copper Mine and the summit of the Great Orme.
Continuing on the Marine Drive the Great Orme Lighthouse (now a small hotel) is passed, and, shortly afterwards on the right, the Rest and Be Thankful Cafe and information centre.
Below the Marine Drive at its western end is the site of the wartime Coast Artillery School (1940–1945), now a scheduled ancient monument.
The West Shore
The West Shore is a quiet beach on the estuary of the River Conwy. It was here at Pen Morfa that Alice Liddell (of Alice in Wonderland fame) spent the long summer holidays of her childhood from 1862 to 1871.
There are a few hotels and quiet residential streets. The West Shore is linked to the North Shore by Gloddaeth Avenue and Gloddaeth Street, a wide dual carriageway.
Mostyn Street
Running behind the promenade is Mostyn Street, leading to Mostyn Broadway and then Mostyn Avenue. These are the main shopping streets of Llandudno. Mostyn Street accommodates the high street shops, the major high street banks and building societies, two churches, amusement arcades and the town's public library.
The last is the starting point for the Town Trail, a planned walk that facilitates viewing Llandudno in a historical perspective.
Victorian Extravaganza
Every year in May bank holiday weekend, Llandudno has a three-day Victorian Carnival, and Mostyn Street becomes a funfair.
Madoc Street and Gloddaeth Street and the Promenade become part of the route each day for a mid-day carnival parade. Also the Bodafon Farm fields become the location of a Festival of Transport for the weekend.
Venue Cymru
The North Wales Theatre, Arena and Conference Centre, built in 1994, and extended in 2006 and renamed "Venue Cymru", is located near the centre of the promenade on Penrhyn Crescent.
It is noted for its productions of opera, orchestral concerts, ballet, musical theatre, drama, circus, ice shows and pantomimes.
The Llandudno Lifeboat
Until 2017, Llandudno was unique within the United Kingdom in that its lifeboat station was located inland, allowing it to launch with equal facility from either the West Shore or the North Shore as needed.
In 2017, a new lifeboat station was completed, and new, high-speed, offshore and inshore lifeboats, and a modern launching system, were acquired. This station is close to the paddling pool on North Shore.
Llandudno's active volunteer crews are called out more than ever with the rapidly increasing numbers of small pleasure craft sailing in coastal waters. The Llandudno Lifeboat is normally on display on the promenade every Sunday and bank holiday Monday from May until October.
The Ancient Parish Church
The ancient parish church dedicated to Saint Tudno stands in a hollow near the northern point of the Great Orme, and is two miles (3 km) from the present town.
It was established as an oratory by Tudno, a 6th.-century monk, but the present church dates from the 12th. century and it is still used on summer Sunday mornings.
Llandudno's Links with Mametz and Wormhout
-- Mametz
The 1st. (North Wales) Brigade was headquartered in Llandudno in December 1914, and included a battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, which had been raised and trained in Llandudno.
Skirting the Fricourt salient, the British 7th. Division took the village of Mametz in the afternoon of the 1st. July 1916. However Mametz Wood to the north-east of the village held great German resistance. This blocked all Allied progress in a northeasterly direction.
After eight days of fierce combat, with heavy losses, did the 38th. Welsh Division capture the wood on the 12th. July 1916.
A monument to the 38th. Welsh Division was inaugurated on the 11th. July 1987. The monument takes the form of a plinth surmounted by a red dragon, the emblem of Wales. With its wings held aloft, it carries in its claws pieces of barbed wire, attesting to the fierce nature of the fighting.
The hostilities brought about the total destruction of Mametz village by shelling. After the war, the people of Llandudno (including returning survivors) contributed generously to the fund for the reconstruction of the village of Mametz.
-- Wormhout
Llandudno is twinned with the Flemish town of Wormhout which is 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. It was near there that many members of the Llandudno-based 69th. Territorial Regiment were ambushed and taken prisoner.
The Site Mémoire de la Plaine au Bois near Wormhout commemorates the massacre of these prisoners on the 28th. May 1940. The men had been retreating towards Dunkirk ahead of the advancing Germans.
About 100 troops, having run out of ammunition, surrendered to the Germans, assuming that they would be taken prisoner according to the Geneva Convention.
However they were all imprisoned in a small barn, and the SS threw stick-grenades into the building, killing many POW's.
However the grenades failed to kill everyone, largely due to the bravery of two British NCO's, Stanley Moore and Augustus Jennings, who hurled themselves on top of the grenades, using their bodies to shield their comrades from the blast.
In order to finish off the remaining soldiers, the SS fired into the barn with rifles and automatic weapons. A few survived to tell the tale, but no-one was ever indicted for war crimes because of insufficient evidence.
A replica of the barn can be seen at the site of the massacre.
Llandudno's Cultural Connections
Matthew Arnold gives a vivid and lengthy description of 1860's Llandudno - and of the ancient tales of Taliesin and Maelgwn Gwynedd that are associated with the local landscape - in the first sections of the preface to 'On the Study of Celtic Literature' (1867).
Llandudno is also used as a location for dramatic scenes in the stage play and film 'Hindle Wakes' by Stanley Houghton, and the 1911 novel, 'The Card', by Arnold Bennett, and its subsequent film version.
Elisabeth of Wied, the Queen Consort of Romania and also known as writer Carmen Sylva, stayed in Llandudno for five weeks in 1890.
On leaving, she described Wales as "A beautiful haven of peace". Translated into Welsh as "Hardd, hafan, hedd", it became the town's official motto.
Other famous people with links to Llandudno include the Victorian statesman John Bright and multi-capped Welsh international footballers Neville Southall, Neil Eardley, Chris Maxwell and Joey Jones.
Australian ex-Prime Minister Billy Hughes attended school in Llandudno. Gordon Borrie QC (Baron Borrie), Director General of the Office of Fair Trading from 1976 to 1992, was educated at the town's John Bright Grammar School when he lived there as a wartime evacuee.
The international art gallery Oriel Mostyn is in Vaughan Street next to the post office. It was built in 1901 to house the art collection of Lady Augusta Mostyn. It was requisitioned in 1914 for use as an army drill hall, and later became a warehouse, before being returned to use as an art gallery in 1979. Following a major revamp the gallery was renamed simply 'Mostyn' in 2010.
Llandudno has its own mini arts festival 'LLAWN' (Llandudno Arts Weekend). It is a mini festival that rediscovers and celebrates Llandudno’s past in rather a unique way; via art, architecture, artefact, sound, performance, and participation.
The festival takes place over three days of a weekend in late September, originally conceived as a way to promote what those in the hospitality sector refer to as the ‘shoulder season’, which means a lull in the tourist calendar.
In January 1984 Brookside character Petra Taylor (Alexandra Pigg) committed suicide in Llandudno.
In 1997, the English cookery programme "Two Fat Ladies" with Jennifer Patterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright filmed an episode in Llandudno.
'Lady and the Tramp'
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Not a lot, but 6 days earlier, on Thursday the 16th. June 1955, 'Lady and the Tramp', which was Walt Disney Studios' 15th. animated film, premiered in Chicago, Illinois.
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this page without written permission and consent.
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Unica data italiana per il nuovo ricchissimo ANTI World Tour di Rihanna, partito all’inizio del 2016, allo Stadio San Siro di Milano il 13 luglio.
Un tour attesissimo, visto che l’ultimo di Rihanna è stato il Diamonds World Tour in scena tra marzo e novembre 2013. Dopo quelle performance record d’incassi Rihanna si è esibita dal vivo in diverse occasioni, ma è ormai da oltre due anni che il pubblico attende un nuovo album e il relativo show live.
Rihanna è ormai un’icona di musica, intrattenimento e moda. Come artista, ha venduto 54 milioni di album e 210 milioni di brani digitali in tutto il mondo, diventando l’artista con il maggiore numero di vendite digitali di sempre. Ha pubblicato 7 album in 7 anni, raggiunto la vetta delle classifiche con 13 singoli, e vinto 8 Grammy. È l’artista con il più alto numero di visualizzazioni su Vevo/YouTube, con oltre 7 miliardi di visualizzazioni e 23 video certificati su Vevo (più di ogni altro artista). Rihanna è anche una delle star più popolari su Facebook, con oltre 81 milioni di amici ed è, senza dubbio, una delle superstar più importanti al mondo degli ultimi anni.
Ora ha pubblicato il suo ottavo lavoro discografico, “Anti”, che è già stato definite dalla critica di tutto il mondo come uno dei migliori album (se non il migliore in assoluto) della sua brillante carriera.
First of all I am sorry for not uploading recently but my flickr was all messed but yahoo has fixed it know so I am back! Anyway I was published again this time with my toad shot this time in Digital SLR magazine!
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by Photochrom Co. Ltd.
On the back of the card they state that it is an all-British production.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd.
The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.
These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color.
They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.
In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process.
This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.
Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.
One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.
Photochrom postcard series include:
-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.
-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.
-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.
-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.