World War II Trivia - interesting items discovered during the research for Riebel-Roque's World War II book titles...

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THE SKULL COLLECTION

  Nazi racial experts collected the skulls of Jewish concentration camp victims with the intent of building a collection of skulls that could be used to identify future individuals as being Jewish.
Source: “The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust” by Heather Pringle


NO NEED FOR MONEY

  Hitler reached the point where he had little personal need for money.  Almost all of his expenses were paid for by the state.  He stopped collecting the royalties on his book “Mein Kampf” and  by 1944 it was recorded that the book's publishers owed him 5,525,811 marks in uncollected royalties.
Source: “The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin” by Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl


TEARS IN HIS EYES
  General Eisenhower personally watched the first planes take off carrying the US paratroops who were to land in Normandy on the eve of the invasion of Normandy.  It was reported that he had tears in his eyes.
Source: “Spies and Secrets: Behind the Scenes Stories of WW II” by the Readers Digest 1964

LONG
JOHNS IN THE SNOW
 
 Soon after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Spain sent a division of volunteers, the Spanish Blue Division, to fight alongside the Axis troops in Russia  When winter came, the Germans did not have enough white camouflage outfits to supply the Spaniards so the Spaniards wore white long john underwear on the outside of their uniforms so they could blend in with the snow.
Source: “Hitler's Spanish Legion: the Blue Division in Russia” by Gerald R. Kleinfeld and Lewis A Tambs.


B-17 PASSENGER LINERS

  On several occasions, American aircraft were forced down in neutral Sweden.  The American government would then donate the aircraft to the Swedes in return for the crews.  The Swedes would then remove the plane's armament and use them as airliners.
Source:  Indianapolis Star Newspaper, February 14, 1988


“I'M A 9 MONTH BABY”

  In the late 1920s, the Chinese Communist Party was divided between left-wing and right-wing factions.  Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Party, claimed to be a moderate.  He told an associate “A baby takes 9 months to form in its mother's body...If you try to force out the baby in 7 months you are a leftist trying to rush ahead too quickly.  But if you attempt to prevent the baby leaving the mother's womb after 9 months then you are a rightist taking too long over everything.”
Source: “Mao” by Clare Hollingsworth


PROFESSOR HIMMLER
 
In discussing the future education of the conquered people in the East, Himmler declared that 4 years of education would be enough.    He said “The primary education (for the people of the East) has the following objectives; doing simple arithmetic to 500, writing one's name, learning that it is God's command that the Germans must be obeyed and that one has to be honest, diligent and obedient.  I do not consider reading skills necessary.  Except for this school(ing), no other kind of school(ing) must be allowed in the East.”
Source: “World War II Almanac 1931-1945: A Political and Military Record” by Robert Goralski

KEEP CHARLIE HAPPY
 
At various times during the war, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that the defeated Germany would be divided into 3 occupation zones; one US, one British and one Soviet.  The Free French leader, Charles de Gaulle, complained bitterly about France being excluded.  So to keep Charlie happy, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed, in early 1945, to give the French an occupation zone carved out of their respective zones.
Source: “Visions of Victory: the Hopes of 8 WW II Leaders” by Gerhard L. Weinberg


“WE WERE JUST KEEPING ORDER”
 
 As the Japanese withdrew from China, many of the Chinese who had collaborated with the Japanese came forward to claim that they had been, in fact, agents of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalists government charged with keeping order during the Japanese occupation.  After the war, Chiang's government and the Chinese courts did not buy this argument.
Source: “In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia”
by Ronald H. Spector

LITTLE “TOKYO ROSES”
 
In the outskirts of Tokyo, the Japanese government established a radio monitoring station that monitored American commercial radio broadcast.  It consisted of about 50 people, many of them young American-born Japanese women.
Source: “Secrets & Spies: Behind the Scenes Stories of WW II” by the Readers digest 1964

 

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