Thread: Around 9:30am on 8th April 1989, this East German border guard officer was photographed firing at two East German men who had just jumped over the barrier at the East-West border crossing at Chausseestraße, Berlin.

He missed. Bert Greiser und Michael Bachmann, both 27, had been training for months to prepare them for the sprint to the West. Unbeknownst to them, the DDR had repealed the "Shooting Order" on 3 April, after the killing of Chris Gueffroy. Then on, troops could only shoot in self-defence.

This is SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Schäfer, once a member of 'Kommando 99', responsible for mass-executions in Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

In the 1950s, Schäfer was chairman of the Peasants Mutual Aid Association (VdgB) in East Germany. He would not escape justice.

Thread: Schäfer was born in Obhausen, Saxony-Anhalt, in 1911. A brick-layer and farmhand, he joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and the SS in 1933. It's believed his descent into Fascism began with the nationalist beliefs of his father and his father's employer, a large landowner.

Thread: In 1961, East German authorities began constructing the Berlin Wall. Bergstraße would be one of the 300 streets blocked off.

Since the fall of the wall in 1989, only one street in Berlin remains closed off: Bergstraße.

This thread will look into the history of the area The 3rd Shock Army of the Red Army fought bitterly with the remnants of the German armed forces through the Friedhof II der Sophiengemeindes (cemetery) in April 1945. The remnants can be seen today, below*

*It seems the additional names on the stone were carved around the holes.

Thread: On 8 May 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered. The violence, however, was not over.
German troops retreating from Czechoslovakia passed through the village of Trhová Kamenice. There they began an action to counter local partisan activity. They murdered at least 14 civilians. On 8 May, the Red Army crushed German forces at Ždírce & Křížová. In panic and disarray, elements of those forces retreated via Chrudim & towards the village of Trhová Kamenice. Local resistance & partisans believed the advance was to conduct a security action, so took up arms.

Thread: During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Viet Minh 312th Division was one of the first units to attack the French positions. Amongst their ranks was an unusual figure- a tall, blue-eyed man: Captain Stefan Kubiak, from Poland.

Here is his incredible story. Kubiak was born on the 28 Aug 1923 in Łódź to a family of weavers. In 1939, he was deported to Memel and forced to work on a farm. He later worked in a Westphalian factory, but upon news of the Soviet advance west he fled & travelled east. Captured, he was forced to dig trenches.

Thread: Today I visited the @Royal_Armouries’ new exhibit ‘Firefight’, a brief yet informative comparison of the British ‘Section’ and the German ‘Gruppe’ during the Second World War. Examples of the standard small arms, as well as equipment and ammunition used by both sides.

Behind were other examples of semi-automatic rifles and other weapons that helped evolve infantry tactics.

Thread: On this day, 7th May, in 1945, German Kriegsmarine troops opened fire on Dutch civilians, that had congregated to celebrate the arrival of Allied forces, in Dam Square, Amsterdam.

This thread will examine what occurred. Allied forces had briefly entered the city at noon, but were afraid of a siege situation. They stated that they would not enter the city again until Dutch Domestic Armed Forces had disarmed the German troops located there.

Thread: This is Hermann Dittscheid. He fell on the Ostfront in 1943, and this death card was one of several produced and distributed during a memorial mass for him.

This thread will offer an insight into Dittscheid’s service, as well as Catholic views on those in the Wehrmacht. This thread will contain quotes from the death card.