In 1957 a young dog, who was later named Kudryavka, was found wandering the streets of Moscow.  She was a breed of dog known as a Laika, which literary means “Barker/Howler” in the Russian language.  Kudryavka was found by animal control workers and sent to the local animal shelter.  It was there that she was given her name, which means “Little Curly-Haired One”.  Little could anyone have known that Kudryavka the stray would one day become the most famous dog in the world.

On October 4^th, 1957 the Soviet Union launched into space the first satellite.  The satellite was named Sputnik One and it was a breakthrough in science and engineering.  Sputnik shocked the American people and their government.  But, as bad as it made the Americans look, it made the Russians look good.  Shortly after Sputnik One was launched, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union’s leaders at the time, hosted a grand celebration for the leading rocket designers that launched Sputnik One into orbit.  The most hailed of all of the men was Sergei Korolev, the man who founded the Soviet Space Program.  During the celebration, Khrushchev shocked the scientists by announcing that a new satellite needed to be created in order to be sent into orbit on November 7^th of that year.  Khrushchev wanted to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, which had taken place on that date.  This was the revolution during which Vladimir Lenin seized power within Russia.

As one might suspect, the Russian scientists was horrified by the idea of preparing another satellite and getting sent into orbit with only one month to work with.  Luckily, Korolev had already been working on a research satellite that was much more advanced than Sputnik One.  Unfortunately for the Russians, Korolev’s satellite could not have possibly been ready by November 7^th.  This satellite went on to become Sputnik Three.  Korolev immediately assembly a team of his very best men.  They had less than four weeks to design and assembly a spacecraft.  All notions of safety were pushed aside and workers began constructing Sputnik Two before the final blueprints for it were even completed.  It was during this time that the Russians made the decision to one-up the United States again, by sending the first animal into orbit.

A member of Korolev’s team was sent to the local Moscow animal shelter.  It was there at the scientist spotted Kudryavka, the young and pretty Laika dog.  Kudryavka was adopted by the Soviet Space Program and she headed to her new home, an aircraft hanger run by the USSR.  Even though the world’s news outlets were not told this at the time, the decision had already been made that the dog would not return home and that she would die in space.  Not wanting the Soviet citizens to be too saddened by Kudryavka’s death, the Russian scientists decided to get rid of her name.  They instead simply called her Laika, the name of her breed.  Despite this, the Russians kept her well fed and healthy.  They wanted a perfect specimen to be sent into orbit.

Unfortunately, Laika’s welfare was of little importance to the Soviets.  They were more concerned with Cold War politics and propaganda.  Laika’s cabin was equipped with a television camera, which could be used to transmit images back to the research team on the ground.  She was also hooked up to numerous sensors that were able to measure the air pressure, her blood pressure, breathing frequency, and heartbeat.  The main point of sending Laika into space, other than to show the USA that the USSR could do it, was to see what effects space would have on a mammal. 

On November 7^th, right on schedule, Sputnik Two launched into orbit.  The Soviet Union’s government refused to release the information regarding what happened to the satellite or to Laika for many years, citing “National Security”.  It is now known that Sputnik Two launched successfully into space.  It was brought into the Earth’s orbit and Laika was doing just fine.  Unfortunately, after six days of orbit, Sputnik Two’s electrical batteries ran out of power and shut down.  Less than a year later the Satellite, carrying Laika, drifted within Earth’s atmosphere and burned to pieces. 

Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet Space Agency declared the mission to be yet another triumph of Communism over Capitalism.  But, many people wondered what exactly had happened to the happy go lucky dog now named Laika.  Two days after Sputnik Two launched, the Soviet Union told its people and the world that Laika would never come back to Earth.  Throughout the entire construction of the satellite it was known that the dog would die.  There was outrage by many after the announcement and many animal rights groups angrily protested what they believed to be the abuse of animals.

Controversy still exists about what exactly happened to poor Laika.  Many believed that Laika survived in orbit for over four days.  By this time she would have been severely hungry and near death due to a lack of water.  The rush to get Sputnik Two into orbit left no time for the Russians to create a life-support system for the dog, especially on such a long-duration flight.  There was also nothing to protect her aircraft from the reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.  It is said that the hungry and thirsty dog died due to the overheating of her cabin.  It is unknown if she suffered any pain.

New information gathered seems to indicate that the Soviet government misled the world’s people about Laika.  It is now believed by many that she quickly ran out of oxygen once entering space and that she died within two hours, providing the Russian scientists with almost no information to use regarding the ability of a human to exist in space. 

On April 11^th 2008 Laika was finally honored by the Russian government.  A small monument to Laika was unveiled near a military research facility in Moscow.  It shows a dog standing on top of a rocket.  Some of the men who sent her into space later regretted doing so to such a young, happy, and energetic dog.  Regardless of one’s opinion on the experiment, Laika (Kudryavka) will always remain the first animal in space and one of the most famous dogs in all of history.

Hanna Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Germany in the year 1912.  Her first true passion was in the field of medice.  Later in life she became obsessed with the idea of flying.  While she was still young, Hanna decided that she would combine her two passions and become a flying missionary doctor in the German African Colonies.  Her father was a doctor, but Hanna Reitsch’s mother raised her to have a deep faith in God.

During her flight training Hanna proved that she was a dedicated, hard working, and bright individual.  She began her practice of flying in a dramatic fashion, by leaping from the high balcony of her home at the age of four.  While reminiscing about her childhood, Hanna once wrote:

“The longing grew in me, grew with every bird I saw go flying across the azure summer sky, with every cloud that sailed past me on the wind, till it turned to a deep, insistent homesickness, a yearning that went with me everywhere and could never be stilled. “

Hanna’s first real attempt at flying came with gliders, which were popular substitutes for airplanes in Germany after their defeat in World War One.  Germany was not allowed to build potential “war planes” after the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of the Great War.  Hanna was such a skilled Glider Pilot that she was asked to train others, making her the first female instructor in German Aviation.

Once Hitler came to power in 1933, he immediately began to rebuild the German air force.  This was a bad time for peace, but a great time for German aviation.  Hanna Reitsch began flying airplanes and training future Luftwaffe pilots.  Hanna, like most people in Germany, became a loyal Nazi supporter, but was not interested in politics, only flying, at this time in her life.  She was selected to fly one of the world’s first Helicopter-like flying machines and was quick to set world records in altitude, speed, endurance, and range.  Hitler took note of Hanna and she quickly rose up the ranks within the Luftwaffe.  She flew the helicopter nightly inside an enclosed hanger for over three weeks, showing off the new German technology.  Her stunts were incredibly dangerous, but managed to greatly impress the onlookers who travelled from around the world to see the German helicopter and its amazing female pilot.  American aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was extremely impressed with the demonstration and Hanna went on to become the first woman to ever win the Military Flying Medal.

She became the first woman and only the 25^th pilot in history to earn the Silver Soaring Medal.  She also set records for a cross-country flight of fifty kilometres and setting the women’s world record for non-stop gliding in 1931, a record she more than doubled in 1933.

Hanna was known for her many daring records.  She became the first person to cross the Alps in a glider in 1937.  In 1938, she won the German long-distance gliding championships and set the Women’s World Record for distance and the Women’s World Altitude record for gliders. She flew in South America, Finland, Portugal, and  in the U.S. at the National Air races in Cleveland, Ohio in 1938.  By this time she had moved away from gliders and  towards powered flight.

In 1939 Germany started World War Two with its invasion of Poland.  At the time, Hanna was sick with scarlet fever.  However, she quickly recovered and by 1940 she was ready to contribute to the creation of what she believed would be the 1000 Year Reich.  Her initial role in the war was a test pilot for new Luftwaffe aircraft.  But, Hanna also flew combat missions.  Her greatest accomplishment was early in the war, when she managed to land German troops along the Maginot Line during the war against France.

 Hanna continued to distinguish herself throughout the war, becoming the first female German ace pilot.  Her bravery and innovations were so impressive, that Hitler awarded her the Iron Cross and a military gold medal for her services in 1941.  She became the first woman and only the 25^th pilot in history to earn the Silver Soaring Medal.  She also set records for a cross-country flight of fifty kilometres and setting the women’s world record for non-stop gliding in 1931, a record she more than doubled in 1933.

In Nazi Germany Hanna Reitsch was a role-model for German women and military pilots in general.  She saw the Luftwaffe as the “guardians of the portals of peace”.  Her skill and dedication to her nation made her a powerful propaganda symbol within the Third Reich.  Joseph Goebbels was quick to include Hanna’s exploits in his propaganda work.

In 1941 Hanna was given the “honor” of testing then then fastest and most dangerous plane in the world.  The was the new, top secret, German rocket plane.  Three male pilots had already died in their attempts to fly it, but Hanna was determined to get the new “miracle weapon” to successfully fly.  Within a minute and a half after takeoff Hanna had already climbed at a 65-degree angle to over 30,000 feet. She was travelling at over 500 mph — the fastest any human had ever gone at the time.  This time she was able to meet Hitler personally in order to receive her second Iron Cross.  During this meeting, Hitler boasted about the new miracle weapons, but Hanna knew that they were still in their early developmental stages.  She said to Hitler; “But my Führer, you are talking about the grandchildren of an embryo!”  This statement enraged Hitler and he stated that he would never meet with Reitsch again after the comment.

By 1942 the tide of the war had begun to turn against Germany.  It’s invasion of Russia had proven to be disastrous and the German armies had finally been turned back at Stalingrad.  When Hanna met Heinrich Himmler, she, still a believer in God, found that Himmler was not. Hearing rumors that the Nazis were exterminating Jews, she confronted Heinrich Himmler with that. He made her believe he was as outraged as she was that the Allies would spread such propaganda.

But, as the war became increasingly grim for Germany, Hanna’s attitudes began to shift.  Soon her faith began to chrange from that of a strong beliver in God to that of a worshiper of Nazi Germany.  Hanna decided that the best way that she could serve the Third Reich and her master was by creating a suicide squadron of Nazi pilots.  This idea was similar to that of the Japanese Kamikaze attacks.

Reitsch had been dreaming of a suicide force attack on the Allied invasion fleet, “piloted by healthy young men who believe that through their deaths, thousands of soldiers and civilians can be saved.” She was thinking in terms of one thousand volunteers.  Despite his initial desire to never meet with Hanna Reitsch again, Hitler’s desperation in 1944 allowed for him to grant her a personal audience.  Hitler did not like the idea of suicide pilots because he believed that this kind of fighting was “not within the German character”.  But, in the end, Hanna’s enthusiasm won over the Fuhrer and he agreed to the suicide squadron.  Reitsch was quoted as saying:

“I hereby…voluntarily apply to be enrolled in the suicide group as a pilot of a human glider-bomb. I fully understand that employment in this capacity will entail my own death.”

It is hard to say why Hanna Reitsch had such a dramatic swing from enthusiastic pilot to someone with a death wish.  But, by 1944 her plan for a German suicide squadron was in full motion.  However, Himmler wanted to use condemned criminals for the project.  Such an idea upset Hanna and she made sure that Himmler’s planes were not accepted by Hitler. An aviator doctor was brought in to investigate how close to a suicide a man could go and still function properly.  Goring was not a supporter of the suicide squadron, which by time was known as the Werewolf Squadron.  Goring worked hard to end the project while the “Werewolves” were still training.  In the end, Hitler insisted that the Werewolf squadron take flight against American and British bombers, but Hitler would not allow Hanna to take part in the suicide attacks, due to her fame in Germany and his desire to avoid weakening German morale.

Yesterday . . . our fighters conducted crash attacks on enemy bombers. Results are yet to be confirmed but it seems that the attack did not meet our expectation. However . . . we should not give up.

Göbbels, it seems, was adopting a wait-and-see attitude regarding the idea of suicide units. In his diary entry he notes with dismay the lack of success of Germany’s suicide volunteers in their contact with American heavy bombers and fighters and explains the failure, saying that the US planes did not fly in a tight formation, making the German pilots engage the enemy individually. Moreover, the resulting heavy counter-fire was so devastating to the German attackers that only in a few cases were they able to ram the US bombers.

Hanna ended up undertaking a dangerous flight to Hitler’s Bunker in Berlin. Since November 1943, Reitsch had been stationed along the Eastern front in Russia, with General Robert Ritter von Greim. On April 26, 1945 they flew to Berlin, where Greim was supposed to take command of the Luftwaffe. Their plane was hit by Soviet anti-aircraft fire. Greim was badly wounded and Hanna landed the plane. They stayed in Berlin for 3 days, as Hitler’s guests. 

Hanna was eventually released and not charged with any crimes by the Allies.  Was she a Nazi to the end, or just a proud woman? We don’t know. 

In later writings Reitsch sought to explain her activities as a loyal member of the Nazi regime.

Although she may ultimately have been disillusioned by Nazism, Reitsch never lost her love of the skies. She continued to fly and was generous in helping other women pilots from other countries. She set dozens of world records, and participated in a number of competitions. She was often the only woman competing.

At the age of 65, the year before she died, she set a new women’s distance record in a glider. Hanna died of a massive heart attack in 1979 at age 67. As she wished, she was buried near her family in Salzburg, Austria. So ends the sad story of a heroine of the Third Reich

The March of Dimes is one of the most significant charities in this country.  The money raised goes towards helping the most fragile members of our society – infants.  Please feel free to click on the link below and make a donation to help support this wonderful cause:

http://www.marchforbabies.org/jazzstudentvolunteer 

More than thirty years have passed since 1914 when I made my modest contribution as a volunteer in the First World War, which was forced upon the Reich.

In these three decades love and loyalty to my people have guided all my thoughts, actions and my life. They gave me the strength to make the most difficult decisions ever to confront mortal man. In these three decades I have spent my strength and my health.

It is untrue that I or anyone else in Germany wanted war in 1939. It was wanted and provoked solely by international statesmen either of Jewish origin or working for Jewish interests. I have made too many offers for the limitation and control of armaments, which posterity will not be cowardly enough always to disregard, for responsibility for the outbreak of this war to be placed on me. Nor have I ever wished that, after the appalling First World War, there would ever be a second against either England or America. Centuries will go by, but from the ruins of our towns and monuments the hatred of those ultimately responsible will always grow anew against the people whom we have to thank for all this: international Jewry and its henchmen.

Only three days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war I proposed a solution of the German-Polish problem to the British Ambassador in Berlin – international control as in the case of the Saar. This offer, too, cannot be lied away. It was only rejected because the ruling clique in England wanted war, partly for commercial reasons and partly because it was influenced by the propaganda put out by international Jewry.

I have left no one in doubt that if the people of Europe are once more treated as mere blocks of shares in the hands of these international money and finance conspirators, then the sole responsibility for the massacre must be borne by the true culprits: the Jews. Nor have I left anyone in doubt that this time millions of European children of Aryan descent will starve to death, millions of men will die in battle, and hundreds of thousands of women and children will be burned or bombed to death in our cities without the true culprits being held to account, albeit more humanely.

After six years of war which, despite all setbacks, will one day go down in history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of the struggle for existence of a nation, I cannot abandon the city which is the capital of this Reich. Since our forces are too meager to withstand the enemy’s attack and since our resistance is being debased by creatures who are as blind as they are lacking in character, I wish to share my fate with that which millions of others have also taken upon themselves by remaining in this city. Further, I shall not fall into the hands of the enemy who requires a new spectacle, presented by the Jews, for the diversion of the hysterical masses.

I have therefore decided to stay in Berlin and there to choose death voluntarily when I determine that the position of the Fuhrer and the Chancellery itself can no longer be maintained. I die with a joyful heart in the knowledge of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our peasants and workers and of a contribution unique in the history of our youth which bears my name.

That I am deeply grateful to them all is as self-evident as is my wish that they do not abandon the struggle but that, no matter where, they continue to fight the enemies of the Fatherland, faithful to the ideals of the great Clausewitz. Through the sacrifices of our soldiers and my own fellowship with them unto death, a seed has been sown in German history that will one day grow to usher in the glorious rebirth of the National Socialist movement in a truly united nation.

Many of our bravest men and women have sworn to bind their lives to mine to the end. I have begged, and finally ordered, them not to do so but to play their part in the further struggle of the nation. I ask the leaders of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to strengthen the National Socialist spirit of resistance of our soldiers by all possible means, with special emphasis on the fact that I myself, as the founder and creator of this movement, prefer death to cowardly resignation or even to capitulation.

May it become a point of honor of future German army officers, as it is already in our Navy, that the surrender of a district or town is out of the question and that, above everything else, the commanders must set a shining example of faithful devotion to duty unto death.

Before my death, I expel former Reichs-Marshal Hermann Goring from the party and withdraw from him all the rights that were conferred upon him by the decree of 29 June, 1941 and by my Reichstag statement of 1 September, 1939. In his place I appoint Admiral Donitz as President of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

Before my death, I expel the former Reichsfuhrer of the S.S. and the Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler from the party and from all his state officers. In his place I appoint Gauleiter Karl Hanke as Reichsfuhrer of the S.S. and Head of the German Police, and Gauleiter Paul Giesler as Minister of the Interior.

Apart altogether from their disloyalty to me, Goring and Himmler have brought irreparable shame on the whole nation by secretly negotiating with my enemy without my knowledge and against my will, and also by attempting illegally to seize control of the State.

In order to provide the German people with a government of honorable men who will fulfill the task of continuing the war will all the means at their disposal, I, as Fuhrer of the nation, appoint the following members of the new cabinet:

President of the Reich: Donitz
Chancellor of the Reich: Dr Goebbels
Party Minister: Bormann
Foreign Minister: Seyss-Inquart
Minister of the Interior: Gauleiter Giesler
Minister of War: Donitz
Supreme Commander of the Army: Schorner
Supreme Commander of the Navy: Donitz
Supreme Commander of the Air Force: Greim
Reichsfuhrer of the S.S. and Head of the German Police: Gauleiter Hanke
Trade: Funk
Agriculture: Backe
Justice: Thierack
Culture: Dr Scheel
Propaganda: Dr Naumann
Finance: Schwerin-Crossigk
Labor: Dr Hupfauer
Munitions: Saur
Leader of the German Labor Front and Minister without Portfolio: Dr Ley.

Although a number of these men, including Martin Bormann, Dr Goebbels and others together with their wives have joined me of their own free will, not wishing to leave the capital under any circumstances and prepared to die with me, I implore them to grant my request that they place the welfare of the nation above their own feelings. By their work and loyal companionship they will remain as close to me after my death as I hope my spirit will continue to dwell among them and accompany them always. Let them be severe but never unjust and let them never, above all, allow fear to preside over their actions, placing the honor of the nation above everything that exists on earth. May they, finally, always remember that our task, the consolidation of a National Socialist state, represents the work of centuries to come, so that every individual must subordinate his own interest to the common good. I ask of all Germans, of all National Socialists, men and women and all soldiers of the Wehrmacht, that they remain faithful and obedient unto death to the new government and its President.

Above all, I enjoin the government and the people to uphold the race laws to the limit and to resist mercilessly the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry.

Berlin, 29 April, 1945, 4 a.m.

                 Adolf Hitler

Witnesses:

Dr Joseph Goebbels        Wilhelm Burgdorf
Martin Bormann            Hans Krebs

Albert Speer was born in 1905, but did not die until September of 1981, long after the second World War had ended. Speer is often called ‘the first architect of the Third Reich’ and he was Hitler’s chief architect in Nazi Germany.  Speer’s father and grandfather were both architects and even though Albert’s first love was for mathematics, he ended up following in the footsteps of the relatives and trained to become an architect.  Speer attended the Institute of Technology in Berlin and studied under, and eventually became the assistant to, the famous architectHeinrich Tessenow.  In 1931, after completing his studies of architecture, Albert Speer fell in love with and married Margarete Weber.  Later that same year he was invited to listen to Adolf Hitler speak at a nearby NAZI rally.  Hitler’s words mesmerized the young and impressionable Speer and his was one of the earliest enlistments into the NAZI Party.  Speer would later deny that he was a NAZI supporter, but his early enrollment into the NAZI Party told against this claim.  Speer was always fascinated by the charisma of Hitler on the podium and became one of the few people in Germany who was able to spend lengthy amounts of time with his Fuhrer.

By 1933 the NAZIS were in power in Germany.  Speer was called upon by one of the most influential of all of Hitler’s followers, NAZI Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, to renovate the ageingPropaganda Ministry building.  Goebbels was so impressed with Speer’s work that he have him a glowing recommendation to Hitler.  At the time, Hitler’s top architect was a man named Paul Troost.  Troost, at the urging of Goebbels and Hitler allowed Speer to join with him in an supporting role.  Their first job together was to renovate the Chancellery in Berlin.  Speer’s contribution to the project was significant and he later was hailed for his additions to the famous Chancellery Balcony. 

Paul Troost died in 1934 and Speer inherited the role of Chief Architect of the Third Reich.  Speer was immediately assigned to design and build the Nuremburg Parade Grounds.  These grounds are most famously visible in the classic German propaganda film “Triumph of the Will”, which was directed by Hitler’s favorite director, a woman named Leni Riefenstahl.  Speer’s inspiration came from the classic period and especially the ancient Greek Doric architecture, most specifically the Pergamum Alter that resides in Turkey, but his site was to be far larger.  Incredibly, the Nuremburg Parade Grounds could hold a startling 250,000 spectators. During the massive 1934 NAZI rally, Speer decided to unveil his most stunning achievement yet.  This was an array of 150 anti-aircraft searchlights turned on together in order to create a “Cathedral of Light”.  The show impressed foreign visitors and the German public as well. 

Nurembergwas the location of many of Speer’s largest projects, most of which he never was able to build.  One of the most ambitious was “The German Stadium”, which could have seated over 400,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in the world by a huge margin.  The German Stadium, if it had been built, would have been the home of the Aryan Games.  These games were supposed to replace the Olympic Games.  Due to the huge expenses of World War Two, Speer never had to chance to build his massive stadium.

One of Speer’s most interesting ideas was the “Theory of Ruin Value”.  Under this plan, all buildings were to be built in such a way that they would leave beautiful ruins when they finally fell thousands of years in the future.  Hitler, who had a great interest in architecture, was a big supporter of this building style.  The German ruins were to meant to bring back memories of the ancient Greeks and Romans and were to be an everlasting symbol of the ”greatness” of the Third Reich and its contributions to world history. Amazingly, NAZI Germany was still invited to attend the World’s Fair in 1937, despite Hitler’s complete disregard of the Versailles Treaty and his rearmament of the Germany military.  Speer was put in charge of designing the German Pavilion for the World’s Fair, which was held in Paris, France that year. Ironically, the German Pavilion that year was directly across from the Soviet Union’s.  NAZI Fascism and Soviet Communism were seen as arch-enemies. Interestingly, Speer designed the German Pavilion to appear to be a defensive barrier to the Communism of the Soviet Pavilion. In the end, both the German and Soviet Pavilions won Gold Medals for their design.

Speer’s most ambitious assignment was to redesign the entire city of Berlin.  After the Germans won World War Two and dominated the continent of Europe, the huge German Empire would be known as Germania, with Berlin as the capital of the continent and the most important city in the world.  Some of these building for Germania were actually builtby Speer.  The first was the Olympic Stadium, which held the 1936 Summer Olympic Games.  Speer was also able to redesign the German Chancellery.  Within this massive building, Speer designed a hallway, which was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.  Hitler wanted Speer to build a third Chancellery for Germany, but WWII prevented these plans.  Speer’s Chancellery was destroyed by the Red Army of the Soviet Union in 1945.   

The City of Berlin was to be organized, like Paris, with a massive three-mile long avenue that connected the city’svital locations.  On one side of the avenue would be the “Volkshalle”, an absolutely enormous domed building that was based on, but would be much larger than, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The dome of the Volkshalle was to be seven hundred feet high and eight hundred feet wide, making it more than sixteen times larger than the huge dome of St. Peters and easily the largest dome everattempted.  Many have questioned whether or not the plans for the Volkshalle could have worked.  One problem was with the number of people inside such a high-roofed building.  The humidity produced by hundreds of thousands of people in the building breathing could, theoretically, have given the Volkshalle is own climate and caused light amounts of rain and fog to occur indoors!  Architects have also argued about the acoustics of such a large open building.  Some believe that someone speaking on the ground level would not be able to be heard by others in the building.  Others argue thattone’s voice would be so amplified that it could have burst the eardrums of the entire audience.  As the building was never completed, nobody will ever no for sure.  

On the other end of the great avenue was to be a gigantic arch, which was based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.  But this arch was to be much more massive, with the Arc de Triomphe being able to easily fit inside of the German arch’s opening.  The German Arch was designed to be nearly 400 feet high!  The outbreak of World War Two in 1939 prevented this huge arch and the Volkshalle from being build.

Hitler was reported to have been a huge supporter and advocate of the young Speer.  Hitler even considered Speer’s designs to be the true expression of his National Socialistprinciples.  In 1942 Speer was appointed Minister of Armaments and War Production, replacing Fritz Todt, who had been killed in a plane crash, and Hermann Goring.  Speer’s hard work and intellectual abilities allowed for war production in Germany to increase dramatically, even though large amounts of prisoner of war slave labor was being used. 

Speer was one of the few high ranking NAZIS that ever dared to stand up to Hitler.  In 1945 Hitler ordered that the cities of Germany be burned by the Germans, as part of a scorched earth policy, such as the Russians had done to the French during the Napoleonic Wars.  Speer ignored the orders and did not give the orders for Germany’s cities to be destroyed during the last days of World War Two.  Speer even worked on an assassination attempt on Hitler, even though he never had the chance to carry it out.

Albert Speer was arrested at the end of World War Two and put on trial at Nuremberg for war crimes.  Speer pleaded guilty, apologized for his crimes, and  was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in Spandau Prison in West Berlin.  He was found guilty of using slave labor.  His release from prison in 1966 was reported and covered by newspapers all around the world.  Speer died at his new home in London on, ironically, September 1st, exactly 42 years to the day that World War Two began. Speer’s books, most importantly “Inside the Third Reich” have proven to be very helpful to historians trying to understand the personalities and actions of the NAZI Era Leaders.  However, many researchers believe that Speer’s book painfully overlooks and understates his actual roles in the horrible atrocities committed by the NAZIS during World War Two.  Speer’s son is currently a successful architect and his most notable design is the Expo 2000 – the World Exposition that took place in Hanover in the year 2000.  He also designed the Shanghai International Automobile City in China.

The following link will take you to an interesting article that deals with The Grid.  The Grid will possibly replace the Internet within the next decade or so.  It was developed be Cern, the Switzerland based research center that developed the Internet.  Cern is also working on a massive collider that will be switched on this Autumn.  The collider may be able to help scientists better understand what gives Mass its Mass.  Will the Grid and Cern change the way we live our lives yet again?  Only time will tell.  Click on the link below for the main article:

Main Article:

http://www.zimbio.com/CERN+Hadron+Collider/articles/39/Next+gen+internet+Grid+Internet

The following is an article written by Joseph Grigg that discusses Joseph Stalin’s plan to create a human/animal hybrid that’s purpose would be to make the Soviet Union an invincible military force.  It is a very interesting article that should make one question which types of science should be acceptable and which types should not:

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin wanted to rebuild the Red Army, in the mid-1920s, with Planet-of-the-Apes-style troops by crossing humans with apes. This was according to a report in The Scotsman newspaper on 20 December 2005.¹

The report claimed that Stalin ordered Russia’s top animal-breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, to use his skills to produce a super warrior. Stalin is said to have told Ivanov, ‘I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat.’  In 1926, the Politburo in Moscow passed this request to build a ‘living war machine’ on to the Academy of Sciences, who engaged Ivanov and sent him to West Africa with many thousands of dollars to conduct experiments in impregnating chimpanzees by artificial insemination. In the USSR, a centre was set up in Georgia, Stalin’s birthplace, for the ‘apes’ to be raised.Ivanov’s experiments in Africa were a total failure. Further experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers also failed. Ivanov was now in disgrace. For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years’ jail, commuted to five years’ exile in Kazakhstan, where he died in 1932, aged 61.

The authors of the above report do not give any references other than unspecified ‘recently uncovered secret documents’, ‘Moscow archives’ and ‘Moscow newspapers’. So how much truth is there in it?

Some known facts

Doctor Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was born in Russia in 1870. He graduated from the Kharkov University in 1896 and became a full professor in 1907. A veterinary researcher, he perfected artificial insemination and its first use for horse breeding. This process allowed one stallion to fertilize up to 500 mares, far more than the 20–30 by natural means. These results were sensational for their time (c. 1901). He also pioneered the experimental use of artificial insemination to produce hybrids of domestic animals and their wild varieties. He was one of the first scientists to obtain a zeedonk by crossbreeding a zebra with a Przewalski’s horse.

In 1910, he gave a presentation at the World Congress of Zoologists in Graz, Austria, on the possibility of creating a human-ape hybrid. In 1924, he obtained permission from the Pasteur Institute in Paris to use its experimental primate station in Kindia, French Guinea, for such an experiment. He sought backing for this from the Soviet Government. Finally in 1925 he obtained US$10,000 from the Academy of Sciences for his experiments in Africa.It turned out that there were no sexually mature chimpanzees in Kindia, and so, in 1926, he obtained permission from French Guinea’s colonial governor to work at the botanical gardens in Conakry. Here Ivanov artificially inseminated three chimpanzees. All three failed to become pregnant. He returned to the Soviet Union, where further planned experiments also failed.

In 1930, Ivanov came under ‘political criticism’ during the ‘Great Purge’ and was arrested. He was sentenced to five years’ exile in Alma Ata, Kazakh S.S.R. (now Almaty, Kazakhstan), where he worked for the Kazakh Veterinary-Zoology Institute until his death from a stroke on March 20, 1932. The famous psychologist and dog researcher, Ivan Pavlov, wrote an obituary about him.

Motives

Stalin undoubtedly knew of his world-famous compatriot’s project. US$10,000 would have been an enormous sum in those days, and it would have been hugely prudent for anyone to have obtained ‘approval from the top’ before allocating so much on such a bizarre experiment. Dictator Stalin was a passionate atheist, a belief that was based upon his belief in evolution and his views on humanity.  Stalin was quite capable of envisaging the use of the technology, should it prove successful, to produce slave hybrid warriors that were part human and part ape. And, because of his atheist beliefs, Stalin felt that there were no moral reasons not to interbreed humans and apes.  Stalin believed that, if evolution was true, humans and apes would be closely related.  Therefore, they could be interbred and a hybrid species could be created.

Dr. Ivanov shared his master’s belief in evolution, but was less certain about the results of his experiement.  In Africa, Ivanov did not use his own DNA(or that of his son, who was with him), but that of local natives.  He was ashamed to think that any hybrid creature produced with his own DNA would be his ‘child’?

In the end, Stalin’s desire for a half human/half ape super warrior never materialized.  Dr. Ivanov paid with his life.  However, there are scientists today who are working on combining Human and Animal DNA.  It seems like only a matter of time before the first hybrid species walks the earth.

Jesse Owens shocked Hitler and the rest of the world during the 1936 Olympic Games with his four gold medal victories.  His name became famous worldwide and yet Owens never made a living as a celebrity or through paid endorsements.  The 1930s were a different era and Owens suffered many hardships.  Click on the link below to learn more about this remarkable man.

Main Article:

http://www.jesse-owens.org/about1.html

Much has been said and will continue to be said about the NAZI Party and its views on race.  One area that is constantly overlooked, however, is their views on women.  The link below will take you to the text of a speech given by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda.  The speech was given at a women’s convention to a crowd that was almost completely made up of women.  The views of Goebbels and the NAZIS speak for themselves…

Main Article:

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb55.htm

This week we spent a lot of time talking about economics and how the value of money can rise and fall.  Germany’s money became worthless during the 1920s and many fear that the same might happen to America’s currency in the future.  Lets now take a moment to examine who the richest people in the world are and see if there is a common bond between them.  Forbes Magazine keeps track of the richest people in the world and you will be examining the Top 25.  Click on the “Main Article” to view the website.  You will need to click on the names of several people in order to get all of your answers.  Viva Bill Gates!

Main Article:

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Rank_1.html