NOVEMBER 16 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 16

1941

Gobbels published another screed against the Jews.  On November 16, in 1941, he published an article featured in the magazine, Das Reich, titled, " The Jews wanted the war, and now they have it."  Though Nazi Germany started the war, they sought to blame European Jewry, and make them the scapegoats. This gave the Nazis a way to rationalize the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews and their final extermination. The following is an excerpt from his article:  ".....Every Jew is our enemy in this historic struggle, regardless of whether he vegetates in a Polish ghetto or carries on his parasitic existence in Berlin or Hamburg or blows the trumpets of war in New York or Washington. All Jews, by virtue of their birth and their race, are part of an international conspiracy against National Socialist Germany. They want its defeat and annihilation, and do all in their power to bring it about......" (Editors note:  This is one example of the many Nazi German propaganda that still prevails today.  The Nazis knew that if a lie is repeated many times, people will begin to believe it as if it were true. Read about this and other topics in my posts regarding WW2 Propaganda: War of Words - in four parts)

1943

Hitler Assassination attempt failed.  Axel von dem Bussche (Baron Axel von dem Bussche was a German officer and member of the German underground resistance.  He  planned to assassinate Adolf Hitler in coordination with his colleague Claus von Stauffenberg on November 16, 1943 at the Wolfsschanze.   Hitler was scheduled to inspect new Army winter uniforms at his Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, near Rastenburg in Eastern Prussia (today the city is located in Poland). Bussche was the perfect model for the uniforms due to his "Aryan" good looks (he was very tall, blond and had blue eyes).  Bussche was equipped a landmine with a fast reacting hand grenade detonator, which he planned to hide in his uniform pockets, and detonate the bomb just as he was going to embrace Hitler, thereby killing himself and Hitler.  Unfortunately,  the new uniforms were destroyed the night before during an Allied raid on the railway truck transporting the uniforms, and the plan had to be called off.

1944

Operation Queen was an Allied failure:  On November 16, 1944, an Anglo-American operation was launched in an attempt to invade the heart of the Rhine into Germany.  The operation was conducted by the First and Ninth U.S. Armies, employing one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war.  However,  Allied advance was unexpectedly slow, against heavy German resistance, especially in the Hürtgen Forest through which the main thrust of the offensive was carried out. By mid-December the Allies were finally able to reach the Rur and tried to capture its important dams, but were faced by fierce German offensive.  The Battle of the Bulge ensued, but led to the cessation of Allied offensive efforts into Germany until February 1945.