The last days of the Battle of Berlin and Trump's followers....
At 01:00 hours, the Soviets picked up radio message from the German LVI Corps requesting a cease-fire and stating that emissaries would come under a white flag to Potsdamer bridge. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see Lieutenant-General Chuikov at 8:23 am. Chuikov, who had commanded the successful defence of Stalingrad, asked: "You are the commander of the Berlin garrison?" Weidling replied: "Yes, I am the commander of the LVI Panzer Corps." Chuikov then asked: "Where is Krebs? What did he say?" Weidling replied: "I saw him yesterday in the Reich Chancellery." Weidling then added: "I thought he would commit suicide."[46] In the discussions that followed, Weidling agreed to an unconditional surrender of the city of Berlin. He agreed to order the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets. Under the direction of Chuikov and Soviet General Vasily Sokolovsky (Chief of staff of the 1st Ukrainian Front), Weidling put his order to surrender in writing.[46][100]
The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower finally left the building. There was sporadic fighting in a few isolated buildings where some SS still refused to surrender. The Soviets simply blasted any such building to rubble. Most Germans, soldiers and civilians, were grateful to receive food issued at Red Army soup kitchens. The Soviets went house to house and rounded up anyone in a uniform including firemen and railwaymen, a total of 180,000 and marched them eastwards as prisoners of war.[101]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_in_Berlin
Many of Trump's supporters are like these Nazi troops/forcibly-enlisted old men and young boys and foreign fighters. They fought to the death in 1945 or got captured and later mostly died in Soviet camps.
I have no hope for most of them. It's really sad, for them, and for our country.
lapfog_1
(29,223 posts)The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin
Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down
And all that I ever was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening now it's the end of the dream
steve2470
(37,457 posts)I wonder what inspired him to write it.
Mister Ed
(5,943 posts)One of my lifetime favorites.
Al Stewart seemed to have a fascination with history, and with the concept of time, that revealed itself in many of his songs.
The lyrics paint pictures much more vivid than any that could accompany a video. Better, I think, for one to just close their eyes and listen...
rzemanfl
(29,568 posts)you need peanut butter to talk. I hope you have a plentiful supply in the New Year.
lastlib
(23,287 posts)Have seen him perform this one in concert twice. He once said it took him four YEARS to write it, and that he read through nine books about the war on the Eastern front in the process.
A magnificent song!
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)... Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn. It does fit in with his biography, along with that of thousands of others. But Mr Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned for criticizing "the man with the moustache," and not for the crime of being taken prisoner and surviving, so while he may have served as an inspiration, the song's protagonist is more likely Everyman, or possibly Ivan Denisovich.
-- Mal
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)... even when you win, you lose.
-- Mal
The Blue Flower
(5,444 posts)nt
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)... he was a General Staff officer in the battle. One of his musings is pretty interesting: after security at the Bunker got used to him (and other people who came and went daily), they allowed him to carry his sidearm even into the presence of the Fuhrer. He could have shot him at any time. Yet he did not. And not because Major Knappe was a fanatical believer.
-- Mal
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Knappe: If I had shot him it would not have changed anything because the fighting was all but over.
http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-world-war-ii-german-officer-siegfried-knappe.htm
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Knappe: Probably his statement to General Weidling when Weidling was asking him for permission to break out and for him to go with us. General Weidling told me that Hitler had said that he did not want to die in the street like a Landstreicher. Landstreicher does not have an exact translation into English, that is why my book uses the word dog, but a Landstreicher is someone like a hobo or panhandler. Both of us had seen hundreds of German soldiers die in the streets during the war, and now Hitler was saying that he did not want to die like they died. My brother died from his wounds that he received in Russia. So, both of us were very upset by Hitlers use of this word. It was just such an unbelievable comment, especially to make that type of comment to a soldier. It wasnt until this time that I finally began to realize what sort of man we had been fighting for.
WWII: So, it was that one statement?
Knappe: Yes. I just had this impulse to shoot him. I wasnt worried about being executed afterwards, for I thought that I was a dead man anyway. We had recaptured some places from the Russians during the war and whenever we did, we almost always found that the German officers had been executed. So, I thought that the Russians would execute me after I was captured. Unconsciously, I realized that I couldnt afford to make Hitler into a martyr. This would have created another Dolchstosslegende orstabbed-in-the-back legend. [Joseph] Goebbels [Hitlers propaganda chief] would have made the most out of it. Im sure that he probably would have said that if the Fuhrer had not been killed by a general staff officer he would have found some way to save the German people.
http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-world-war-ii-german-officer-siegfried-knappe.htm
It took SIX YEARS OF WAR, millions dead, and that ONE personally insulting statement FINALLY woke up this Nazi. This anecdote perfectly summarizes Trump supporters, and probably some of them would STILL support him even if he personally insulted them to their face. Sad sad sad.