Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #war_of_shadows
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#OnThisDay Nazis began using mobile gas chambers at Chelmno.
SS officer Walter Rauff was in charge of producing the gas trucks, in which half a million or more Jews were murdered...
SS officer Walter Rauff was in charge of producing the gas trucks, in which half a million or more Jews were murdered...
Walter Rauff, SS technical officer who produced the mobile gas chambers, was later put in command of the Einsatzkommando assigned to Erwin Rommel's army. Rauff was to carry out murder of Jews of Egypt & Middle East...
What prevented Rauff's Einsatzkommando from reaching Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus & Baghdad? British Eighth Army - incl soldiers from N. Zealand, Australia, India & more - drew line in the sand at El Alamein...
@crusaderproject @deborahlipstadt @DanielSeidemann @AnshelPfeffer
@crusaderproject @deborahlipstadt @DanielSeidemann @AnshelPfeffer
First review in for #War_of_Shadows!
“Vivid…fascinating…sure to be among the year’s best histories of World War II.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Vivid…fascinating…sure to be among the year’s best histories of World War II.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Starred review in Kirkus Reviews for #War_of_Shadows (with spoilers redacted for security reasons):
Pre-order here: publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/gershom…
#OnThisDay (yesterday, actually, but I don't tweet on Rosh Hashanah): Sept. 20, 1940: Genevieve Grotjan, mathematician in US Army's Signal Intelligence Service, makes crucial break in Japan's Purple diplomatic cipher:
#War_of_Shadows
@sheeraf @SpitfireFilly @ShiraOvide
#War_of_Shadows
@sheeraf @SpitfireFilly @ShiraOvide
Gene Grotjan was 26. She'd entered civil service b/c she hadn't been able to get a college teaching job, apparently b/c colleges wouldn't hire women.
The only law always followed in war is the Law of Unintended Consequences. Grotjan's rejection by universities led to her career in codebreaking - and to the discovery that allowed U.S. to read Japan's most secret diplomatic cipher.
@sarahposner @danephron
@sarahposner @danephron
#OnThisDay Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union invades Poland, in accordance with the secret provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact….
Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski, the man who broke the Nazis' "unbreakable" Enigma cipher, had fled Warsaw & found refuge in Eastern Poland. When the Soviets invade, he & 2 young colleages flee again, this time to Romania…
@OrenNahari @MilHistNow
#War_Of_Shadows
@OrenNahari @MilHistNow
#War_Of_Shadows
Exploiting the chaos at the border, master codebreaker Rejewski & his colleagues evade internment by the Romanians & reach Bucharest.
There they ask the British embassy for help…
@calder_walton @SarahAWildman
There they ask the British embassy for help…
@calder_walton @SarahAWildman
#OTD 15 September 1939: Charles Lindbergh, famous aviator & leading isolationist, gives national radio speech against American involvement in two-week-old war in Europe.
@AdamSerwer @AddieStan @KevinMKruse @MilHistNow @danephron @sarahposner @SarahAWildman
#War_of_Shadows
@AdamSerwer @AddieStan @KevinMKruse @MilHistNow @danephron @sarahposner @SarahAWildman
#War_of_Shadows
President Roosevelt is about to ask Congress to repeal Neutrality Act, which blocks U.S. from selling arms to Britain and France.
Lindbergh's speech is preemptive bid to prevent repeal.
Lindbergh's speech is preemptive bid to prevent repeal.
The only kind of war that America in which America should take sides, Charles Lindbergh says on 15 Sept 1939, would be one to preserve white supremacy.
#War_of_Shadows
#War_of_Shadows
Yesterday, Sept. 9, was the anniversary of the worst Italian bombing raid of WWII against British-ruled Palestine: attack on Tel Aviv in which 117 Jews, 7 Arabs & 1 Australian soldier were killed.
#War_of_Shadows
@OrenNahari @SpitfireFilly @Ibishblog
#War_of_Shadows
@OrenNahari @SpitfireFilly @Ibishblog
Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the ex-mufti of Jerusalem, sent congratulations from his exile in Baghdad to Mussolini for bombing the Jewish city.
But here the story gets more complicated.
But here the story gets more complicated.
As @ArielliNir writes, Jews & Arabs "in Palestine exhibited remarkable solidarity when the air raids began." Arab mayor of Jaffa attended funeral for Jewish victims. Arabic daily "Filastin" blasted "criminal Italian bombardment of Tel Aviv."
researchgate.net/publication/23…
researchgate.net/publication/23…
Before you see Dune or reread the book, I totally recommend reading explorer John Bagnold's 1935 book, "Libyan Sands: Travels in a Dead World." He was the true dune-whisperer.
There is piece of Mars named the Bagnold Dunes. Perhaps there one might find the fabled springs of Zerzura.
#War_of_Shadows
#War_of_Shadows
Bagnold: note how the dunes seem alive.
#OTD 9 Sept. 1940: Italian commander in Libya orders his army to invade Egypt. The "Western Front" of WWII becomes the Middle East.
@SherifaZuhur @MohamedSabry079 @Mustafa_salimb @ahm3dmadi @LibyaLiberty
#War_of_Shadows
@SherifaZuhur @MohamedSabry079 @Mustafa_salimb @ahm3dmadi @LibyaLiberty
#War_of_Shadows
Gen. Rudolfo Graziani didn't believe his army was ready to invade Egypt. Described invasion as"crime of historic proportions" - against his army, not Egypt. But said, "I, before God and my soldiers, am not not responsible" because he was only following orders from Mussolini.
Mussolini expected to conquer Egypt and Sudan, so that his "new Roman Empire" would rule from Libya to Ethiopia.
Particularly love the picture here of the Free French colonial soldiers at Bir Hakeim. They defended that spot in the Libyan desert against Rommel as if it was the last redoubt on earth.
#War_of_Shadows
#War_of_Shadows
When the Germans finally took Bir Hakeim, 44 nations were represented among the prisoners - incl. soldiers from Senegal & Cameroon, Tahiti & Madagascar, Czechs, Poles, Spanish Republicans who never gave up. The "French" force was an international legion.
Most of the FreeFrench escaped through gap at night in German line. Gen. Pierre Koenig's driver, Englishwoman Susan Travers, received Croix de Guerre for “bravery in the face of several barrages of intense artillery fire, numerous bullet strikes of her vehicle & pitch blackness.”
#OTD Sept. 7, 1939: SS officer Walther Rauff & 5 other SS division chiefs are at meeting in Berlin on subjugation of Poland. Plans include expulsion of Jews and Poles from western Poland, which Germany will annex.
@waitmanb @MilHistNow @OrenNahari @Sarahwildman
#War_of_Shadows
@waitmanb @MilHistNow @OrenNahari @Sarahwildman
#War_of_Shadows
Later CIA report would describe Rauff as having "blond hair, clear white skin, blue eyes" - but then, a purported "Aryan body" was a job requirement.
Sept. 7, 1939 meeting is turning point in Rauff's SS career: From here on, he is a leading figure in war crimes.
Sept. 7, 1939 meeting is turning point in Rauff's SS career: From here on, he is a leading figure in war crimes.
Nazi plan was to colonize Poland. The model: Italy's colonization of Libya and Ethiopia. To Italian blueprint, the Nazis added an innovation: eliminating the Jews.
(h/t Patrick Bernhard)
@LibyaLiberty
(h/t Patrick Bernhard)
@LibyaLiberty
#OTD September 6, 1939: The man who hacked Enigma - the Nazi's "unbreakable" cipher - escapes from Warsaw on train east. In 1932, Marian Rejewski had done the supposedly impossible…
@sheeraf @ShiraOvide @ShiraOvide @mmagierowski @calderwalton @GCHQ @MilHistNow
@sheeraf @ShiraOvide @ShiraOvide @mmagierowski @calderwalton @GCHQ @MilHistNow
To break Enigma, you had to figure out the wiring inside the machine's turning wheels. The number of possibilities came to 500,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Naturally, the Germans were sure no one could do this.
Rejewsk came up with the equations & did it in under 3 months at the end of 1932 for the Polish military's Cipher Office.
Rejewsk came up with the equations & did it in under 3 months at the end of 1932 for the Polish military's Cipher Office.
