Whom Hitler Hated and Why: From Charlie Chaplin to Yuri Levitan

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It would seem that Adolf Hitler certainly had a lot of opportunities to get even with his enemies, especially since he could destroy entire nations, would it be a matter of one person? However, his bloody hands could not reach everyone, and he was sure that it was only a matter of time. With his usual pedantry, he kept lists of those with whom he still had to get even.

After the allies reached the bunker in which Hitler and his entourage committed suicide, many documents were found that made them look differently at the history of World War II and at the personality of the dictator himself. Among the papers was the "Search List of the USSR", there were names, personal data of those people who were hunted by the Fuhrer's associates.

However, this information was not closed or secret, the Fuhrer openly spoke about his intentions to get even with people whose actions and simple words had once touched his pride. He often spoke their names from the stands, talked about them during interviews and used this to intimidate and intimidate. One has only to guess what the people, the enemies of the Fuehrer, experienced after such threats.

Hitler's political enemies

Of course, the main enemies of the Fuhrer were people who were in political confrontation with him. It was they who were equal to him in strength and danger - Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill. However, Hitler considered them enemies not only because they were in opposition to each other, for this there were also personal reasons.

Initially, he saw them as allies, but Roosevelt not only did not support him in his endeavors and refused, but also insulted him, calling him a "stupid gangster" who cannot achieve anything without the manifestation of brute force and intimidation. After Hitler attacked Poland, Roosevelt announced (so that the Fuehrer knew about it) that he would catch him and the ban in the Tower.

If we abstract from history, then Stalin and Hitler were practically the same party, both led the socialist parties, violated the order that existed before them, tried to arrange everything in their own way and make those around them live and think as they please. However, they were not destined to become allies; rather, on the contrary, Hitler understood that if someone could destroy his plans, then someone was as decisive and courageous as himself. However, it turned out that way.

Churchill, despite the fact that he hated the land of the Soviets and communism, decided that he still hated the Nazis more. That is why he joined the allies, strengthening them to an invincible army. His phrase that if Hitler threatened hell, he would not be afraid to make a deal with the devil himself, became popular, describing his vision of the situation in the best possible way.

Enemies on the battlefield

To be included in Hitler's list of military enemies was a recognition of professionalism and an honor. Especially considering the names that are found among those that the Fuhrer considered it his duty to get even with. Of course, Georgy Zhukov, or as he was called in the USSR, the Marshal of Victory, is in the lead in this list. He made an invaluable contribution to the overthrow of fascism and Hitler's dislike for both the main cause of the marshal and for Zhukov himself was understandable and obvious.

Commander-in-Chief of the British Army Montgomery and the US Army - Eisenhower were also included in Hitler's list. After all, they were the organizers of the landing of the Allied troops in Normandy and opened a second front against the Nazis.

However, in addition to those who fought with him on an equal footing and had high powers on the battlefield, there were also those who did not have military ranks, but they still got on Hitler's list. For example, Marinescu, who received a hero of the Soviet Union for sinking a record number of enemy ships, according to the Fuhrer, was subject to destruction. Ilya Starinov was also a simple soldier, but he managed to become famous for being able to destroy seven Nazi tanks. Vasily Zaitsev was a talented sniper, and almost the entire German army was hunting for him. This list also includes Dayan Murzin, who was included in him for having managed to capture the German General Müller.

Mikhail Devyatayev was an ordinary pilot, moreover, after being captured, he was kept in a concentration camp. Hitler learned about its existence after he managed to escape from captivity along with other prisoners of war, and he did it very boldly - by hijacking a fascist bomber. Mikhail Koshkin was included in the list because he was the developer of the T-34, and he was included in the list despite the fact that he was no longer alive. This circumstance did not prevent the Nazis from settling scores with him - after the occupation of Kharkov, they destroyed the cemetery where the developer was buried.

Unarmed enemies

If you can still agree with those who were included in the list because they fought against Hitler's ideas and posed a threat to him, then the presence of people in him who are completely far from both politics and military affairs demonstrates the Fuhrer as an arrogant and notorious person. … So, the Fuhrer is planning to destroy Wolf Messing only because the seer told that if the Nazis go to the East, then their Fuhrer will die.

Even people of art managed to fall out of favor with the Fuhrer; Erich Maria Remarque, who wrote anti-fascist thoughts in his works, immediately did not like Hitler. This was enough to put him on the "execution list." Feuchtwanger turned out to be completely disagreeable, because even before the outbreak of World War II he had visited the Soviet Union and dedicated a whole book to this. Apparently she did not fit into the fascist ideas about the USSR. Ilya Ehrenburg worked in his homeland in Kiev, but his literature was also too anti-fascist, which Adolf did not like very much.

Boris Efimov and Vladimir Galba are cartoonists who ridiculed Hitler and his henchmen from the pages of Soviet newspapers. They did this very successfully, given that their work reached the Fuehrer and touched him so much that they were included in the same list with the generals and leaders of states. Charlie Chaplin also coexisted with Soviet comedians, after the film "The Great Dictator" was released, the artist became the enemy of the Fuhrer. Even Marlene Dietrich was included in the list of people to be exterminated simply because she dared to leave Germany after the fascist dictatorship was established there.

However, it was not at all necessary to personally annoy Hitler in order to become one of his enemies, whose death he would be glad. So, one of the athletes, and a black one, won the Olympic Games, and in 1936. This was reason enough to piss off the eccentric and far from athletic Hitler. In addition, the Fuhrer could not tolerate the fact that the athlete, by the mere fact of his existence, casts doubt on the theory of the highest Aryan race. After all, how a person who is not even close to being an Aryan could show such results ?!

Yes, and this will seem nonsense, because this list includes a whole football team of Kiev guys who won the match against the Germans. And as soon as they dared! Before the occupation, it was the Dynamo team, and after it was renamed to Start, and during the famous "death match" they literally crushed the German team. The guys knew very well what they were doing, but they showed that the Germans can and should be won. After that, they were all sent to concentration camps.

Among the journalists, he also found those with whom he should get even. Announcer Yuri Levitan, whose voice was something big for any Soviet person, was on the list of the Fuhrer. He probably understood that Levitan was not just an announcer, but a symbol, the loss of which could only be fighting spirit and would be a serious blow to the whole country. A large reward was promised for Levitan himself, and it was not necessary to take him alive. Rokossovsky was sure that Levitan's strength was so high that he alone was worth a whole division. It seems that Hitler agreed with him, since he planned to be the first to get even with him after the capture of Moscow.

In order to eliminate the announcer, a special team was created, the purpose of which was to destroy Levitan. He was allocated security, in addition, the Soviet services went to the trick, spreading the information that Levitan has a real heroic appearance to match his voice.

Enemies among the Germans

The Germans, for the most part, supported Hitler and his dictatorship, there were even those who idolized him. But there were also those who waged their war against fascism, being a German and being on German territory, perceiving Hitler as their personal enemy.

Who would have thought, but if Georg Elser had succeeded, then history could have avoided World War II and all its victims. Back in 1939, after the National Democrats came to power, the German carpenter, who had supported the Communists all his life, was very afraid of the outbreak of a new war. Despite the fact that he was a man far from politics, it is worth noting that Elser looked into the water, believing that the main source of danger was Hitler. It was he who planned to destroy it.

To do this, he independently built a bomb and attached it to the column, which was located next to the podium before Hitler's speech. It took him almost a year to do this, almost a month he was just preparing a niche for the bomb. And it worked, there were seven dead, more than 60 were injured. However, Hitler himself was not even scared, because literally a couple of minutes before the explosion, he unexpectedly cut his speech to a minimum and left the hall.

Elzer was already preparing to escape, but he was seized, he did not begin to deny and confessed to everything. However, the German special services did not believe that the man could plan the sabotage alone. And this also called into question their professional suitability, since an ordinary carpenter could circle them around the nose. For myself, it was decided that British intelligence was involved in this explosion. Elser himself was locked up in prison, where he was held until 1945, and he had the status of a special prisoner. Only when it became clear that the Allied victory was inevitable, in the spring of 1945 he was shot. The fascists could not leave the cult personality for history alive, because his life after the victory over fascism would be like a fairy tale.

But another enemy of Hitler had a very high status - he was a judge. And he was the only one of his colleagues who was not afraid to object to the party's policy, moreover, he even tried to punish the Nazis according to their own laws. Thanks to this, the name of Kreissig is immortalized in history. He opposed euthanasia and was not afraid to call a spade a spade. After that, he was quickly exiled to retirement, and he also became a church minister. However, during the war, he sheltered the Jews and fought the current regime as best he could.

Martin Niemöller, the author of the poem "When They Came", ended up in the camp precisely because of his creation, in which he openly expressed his contempt for fascism. Martin was a respected man, during the First World War he commanded a submarine, studied at the theological seminary. In his sermons, he spoke about the fact that it is impossible to deny people from the church because of their nationality, for this they tried in every possible way to bring to justice.

Later, he was nevertheless arrested and sent to forced labor, the Fuehrer ordered to make sure that the work for Martin did not have a deadline, that is, it never ended. He managed to survive, after the war he continues his active work.

The war was in full swing, and an underground organization with the lyrical name "White Rose" was created in Germany, which distributes anti-fascist leaflets, arranges sabotage and in every possible way fights against the current political regime. Its founders are students who are actively interested in art. Leaflets were distributed throughout Germany, and the number of adherents of the anti-fascist regime grew. One of the leaflets fell into the hands of the Allies, who multiplied it and scattered it from planes over Germany.

The leaflets contained calls for an uprising. It was for this that the founders of the "White Rose" were sentenced to the guillotine. Sophie Scholl - one of the founders of this movement at that time was only 20 years old and before her own execution she said that someone had to start this and a huge number of people share their views.

"Pirates of Edelweiss" is also a youth association, however, unlike the "White Rose", they existed until the end of the Second World War. The peculiarity of this organization was that they did not have a leader, which means that it would not have been possible to punish and "decapitate" the organization. Moreover, its members were not even young people, but teenagers. They entertained themselves by gathering, singing songs, starting fights with the Nazis. Sometimes they wrote leaflets, and more often they just wrote on the walls.

During the war, the guys preferred to lie low, because of their age they were suitable for military service and other occupations useful for fascism. By the end of the war, many of them were arrested and shot, but it was still not possible to completely cope with such a mass organization. Later they will be recognized as resistance fighters, and those who survived will be awarded with badges of honor.

There were many who tried to fight Hitler, despite the fact that he had a reputation as a bloody dictator. Even if it was possible to stop it only by joint efforts, the work of everyone who contributed to this could not but go unnoticed.