The city, one of the oldest in Germany, had survived seventeen sieges and had suffered a long and bloody history of violence. A Roman fortress, a bishopric since the eighth century, a way-station for Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land and a prosperous medieval port city, it had served as seat of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire until it was abolished by Napoleon. It was also the site of one of his victories during his advance on Vienna in 1809, and here too the French Emperor had been slightly wounded during the fight to breach its ancient walls. It had been home for the mediæval astronomer Johann Kepler, and much later for the industrialist Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust. When Patton's men entered the city they found it mostly intact, although allied bombers had flattened its railway stations, freight yards and Messerschmitt aircraft factory. Its twelfth-century bridge, the Steinerne Brücke, had been all but destroyed by ϟϟ troops trying to halt the American advance. And there was another example of Nazi disregard for cultural heritage. Hidden in the vaults of the city's Reichsbank, the Americans found a vast collection of art stolen from all over Europe: paintings, precious stones, bracelets and watches taken from extermination camp victims, silver bars formed from melted-down jewellery, and solid gold items removed from churches in Czechoslovakia, including a solid gold tabernacle from a Russian Orthodox church in Prague. Most valuable of all, however, were three billion dollars' worth of Austrian securities, as well as the major part of Bavaria's paper assets. Stafford (144) Endgame 1945
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The Salzstadl from the 1940 book Regensburg: Eine Stadt des Reiches published by Gauverlag Bayerische Ostmark in Bayreuth and looking at the Brückentor from the other side. It was here in Regensburg that former Chancellor Franz von Papen, who more than anyone else jobbed Hitler into office, was held after having been sentenced to eight years’ hard labour at the Nuremberg trials.
While he was in Regensburg he was set upon by an ϟϟ man in the washhouse who beat him bloody, fracturing his nose and cheekbone and splitting his lips and eyelids. He was sewn up by another prisoner, a surgeon. Papen says he was singled out for special treatment. Meanwhile he was convinced that the right way to get out was to appeal for a shorter sentence rather than a retrial, which might have taken years to bring about.
Giles MacDonogh (403) After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation
Regensburg was the home to both a Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft factory and an oil refinery, both of which were bombed by the Allies on August 17 1943 by the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, and on February 5, 1945, during the so-called Oil Campaign. Although both targets were badly damaged, Regensburg itself suffered little damage from the Allied strategic bombing campaign, and the nearly intact medieval city centre is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city's most important cultural loss was that of the Romanesque church of Obermünster, which was destroyed in a March 1945 air raid and was not rebuilt (the belfry survived). Also, Regensburg's slow economic recovery after the war ensured that historic buildings were not torn down to be replaced by newer ones. Between 1945 and 1949, Regensburg was the site of the largest Displaced persons (DP) camp in Germany. At its peak in 1946–1947, the workers' district of Ganghofersiedlung housed almost 5,000 Ukrainian and about a thousand non-Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons. With the approval of the American Military Government in the American Allied Occupation Zone, Regensburg and other DP camps organised their own camp postal service. In Regensburg, the camp postal service began operation on December 11, 1946.
The southern portal of one of the finest Gothic cathedrals in Europe which is still allowed to prominently have on its façade the judensau (Jews' Sow), an example of antisemitic propaganda used by the authorities to ostracise the Jewish minority. There is a plaque that reads euphemistically:
The sculpture should be regarded as a witness in stone to a bygone era and should be seen in connection to its time; It is repugnant for the viewer of today in its anti-Jewish expression.
This despite the fact that anyone else who uses such imagery or expressions to people today or expresses them publicly about them is liable to prosecution in Germany ( Section 185 of the Criminal Code ) and Austria ( Section 115 of the Austrian Criminal Code ) for insulting and in Switzerland under the racism criminal norm (Section 261 to StGB ). In particularly serious cases, a punishment for sedition ( Section 130 ) can also be considered in Germany.
My bike in front of the relief with historical examples of the judensau which was erected in front of the Jewish quarter.
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For us there was the hard choice: either-or! Either relinquishing claim to the remnants of a bad past, remnants that had become as ridiculous as they were harmful-or relinquishing claim to the future of Germany. We would rather relinquish claim to the past and fight for a future! You are standing here in an ancient German city in which a King once erected the Walhalla with the bequest to unite in it all great German men of our history and hence lend expression to the German Volk’s indissoluble bond of blood. We believe that today we have practically accomplished our primary task of creating one Volk; before us stands a goal, and this goal has hypnotised us. It is under the spell of this goal that we march on! Let he who stands in our way not complain if, sooner or later, the march of a nation sweeps over him. We have not practised a policy of using cheap popular phrases.In fact, the reception in the Old Town Hall was overshadowed by an incident that meant that Hitler never entered the city again after former Mayor Hans Schaidinger had exclaimed that Hitler hated the Free Imperial City because before 1933 the Nazis often had their worst election results in this city whilst the now-banned Bavarian People's Party performed very well. On top of this, within the Reichssaal a heavy chandelier broke loose from the wooden ceiling and crashed to the floor as Hitler entered the hall. He regarded this as a bad sign in the centre of power of what he considered the first German Reich, the Holy Roman Empire. Hitler turned on his heel and never came back to Regensburg.We have divested money of its phantom-like traits and assigned to it the role it deserves: neither gold nor foreign exchange funds, but work alone is the foundation for money! There is no such thing as an increase in wages if it does not go hand in hand with an increase in production. This economic insight has enabled us to decimate seven million unemployed to approximately 800,000 and to keep prices almost completely stable for all essential vital goods. Today there is work going on everywhere. The peasant is tilling his fields, the worker is supplying him with manufactured products, an entire nation is working. Things are looking up!
Adolf Hitler Brücke was inaugurated on December 21, 1935, by the Bavarian Minister for the Interior, Adolf Wagner, who dedicated it "to the glory of the state, the glory of the Bavarian Ostmark and the glory of National Socialist Germany". Work began with the north span, between the Lower Wöhrd and Weichs; work on the south span, between Weißenburgstraße and the Lower Wöhrd, began in summer 1936. In 1937 the north span opened to traffic and repairs immediately began on the Stone Bridge. On June 18, 1938, the south span and the Frankenbrücke both opened, and on July 16 Minister Wagner ceremonially christened the bridge. Several thousand people attended the festivities and the fireworks that evening. The bridge was designed by Roderich Fick, with engineering work by Gerhart & Zenns. Fick wanted the new concrete bridge to appear as slender and serene as possible to contrast with the Stone Bridge. On April 23 1945, the bridge was blown up to slow the Allied advance, and largely destroyed. It has since been replaced by the Nibelungenbrücke.
Albert Allmann's reichsadler that had graced the Nibelungenbrücke until it had been removed after the bridge's restoration. For the 1938 Adolf Hitler Bridge, Munich sculptor Allman was commissioned to carve a group of maidens and a monumental Nazi eagle. Allman had little experience as a monumental sculptor; he was known for art deco nudes. He requested porphyry, an extremely durable stone, for the eagle but was required to use granite. He began work over a year late; when the bridge was dedicated, the eagle was not yet ready and was ineptly added to the official photographs by retouching. When completed in 1939, the nine-metre eagle weighed twelve tonnes and had cost RM 18,000. In March 1940 it was installed at a semicircular lookout between the two parts of the bridge. The eagle was mounted on the 1950 Nibelungen Bridge as a federal eagle, facing east, with the swastika omitted from the oak garland in its talons. It was frequently defaced with graffiti and painted various colours. On July 11, 2001, as part of the preparations for moving the 1950 bridge before its demolition, the eagle and the maidens were moved into storage. It was announced at the time that the city would find an appropriate use for the eagle, but as of 2008 it was still in storage, despite a 2003 invitation for proposals from well known artists and an exhibit of the suggestions, which included wrapping it in the manner of Christo and permitting nature to reclaim it by letting grass grow over it. Other ideas have included smashing it and reassembling it randomly, and a local entrepreneur once offered to buy it and put it in his garden.History of the Brückenadler
Albert Allmann's reichsadler that had graced the Nibelungenbrücke until it had been removed after the bridge's restoration. For the 1938 Adolf Hitler Bridge, Munich sculptor Allman was commissioned to carve a group of maidens and a monumental Nazi eagle. Allman had little experience as a monumental sculptor; he was known for art deco nudes. He requested porphyry, an extremely durable stone, for the eagle but was required to use granite. He began work over a year late; when the bridge was dedicated, the eagle was not yet ready and was ineptly added to the official photographs by retouching. When completed in 1939, the nine-metre eagle weighed twelve tonnes and had cost RM 18,000. In March 1940 it was installed at a semicircular lookout between the two parts of the bridge. The eagle was mounted on the 1950 Nibelungen Bridge as a federal eagle, facing east, with the swastika omitted from the oak garland in its talons. It was frequently defaced with graffiti and painted various colours. On July 11, 2001, as part of the preparations for moving the 1950 bridge before its demolition, the eagle and the maidens were moved into storage. It was announced at the time that the city would find an appropriate use for the eagle, but as of 2008 it was still in storage, despite a 2003 invitation for proposals from well known artists and an exhibit of the suggestions, which included wrapping it in the manner of Christo and permitting nature to reclaim it by letting grass grow over it. Other ideas have included smashing it and reassembling it randomly, and a local entrepreneur once offered to buy it and put it in his garden.
The Goliathhaus on the left, built in 1260, in 1946 and today. The name is derived from the Goliards, a group of theology students whose guardian angel was Golias. It is believed that the present Goliath house was built on the location of the quarters in which these students would stay during the 12th century. The monumental mural itself was painted in 1573 by Melchior Bocksberger. It was here, off Goliathstrasse, that Oskar Schindler briefly lived after the war, all but penniless when, at the end of the war, he and his wife arrived from Constance and spent the next five years here until 1950. A tangible memento of Oskar Schindler can be found in the city archive in the form of an official registration form. As in many other cities in post-war Germany, there was a housing shortage in Regensburg as displaced Germans from Eastern Europe and the country's bombed out citizens needed accommodation. The Schindler couple were accommodated in the overcrowded house at Am Watmarkt 5. Before Emilie and Oskar Schindler emigrated to Argentina, they lived on Alte Nürnberger Straße, in the Steinweg district of Regensburg.
Just in front is a memorial created by Dani Karavan in 2005 that depicts the foundation of the Synagogue seen on the left with me in front.
The Jewish quarter was destroyed along with the synagogue and school, confiscated pledges, valuable parchment manuscripts misused as binding material for files and books.
The mediæval Jewish cemetery, located on the Emmeramer Breiten site outside the city limits in front of today's Peterstor, was completely destroyed and desecrated. The more than 4,000 tombstones mentioned by the archivist Carl Theodor Gemeiner in a report on the medieval "Jewish graveyard" were stolen and mostly repurposed as building material. In some cases, however, the gravestones were walled into house walls by the citizens of Regensburg with the approval of the council as visible macabre trophies of the "victory" over the Jews. Today there are still about sixty of these Judensteine still around. The street name "Am Judenstein" has been documented in Regensburg since the beginning of the 17th century. The name goes back to an oversized tombstone anchored in the ground, which was removed around 1928 when the nearby church was built. However, the well-known tombstone currently attached to the outer wall of the "Realschule am Judenstein ", is a smaller stone whose inscription was smeared over with mortar or defaced with pseudo-Hebrew characters.
Even before the Nazis took power, the first desecrations of the new Jewish cemetery took place in 1924 and 1927. SA thugs destroyed Jewish shops and threatened their customers, most spectacularly on March 29, 1933, when SA men armed with machine guns blocked access to the Jewish-owned Merkur department store. In the course of the Judenboykotts in April 1933, 107 Regensburg Jews were imprisoned. In 1934 Jews were no longer allowed to trade at the municipal market, and in 1936 they were no longer allowed to trade in the municipal slaughterhouse. A total of 233 people managed to emigrate.
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Maximilianstraße shown before the war and today with my bike parked in front. The inset photo shows the morning after Reichskristallnacht with Jewish citizens Jews being led down Maximilianstraße to the railway station.
In the course of the November pogroms of 1938, the synagogue on Schäffnerstrasse was burned down and destroyed as planned. Well over an hundred students from the National Socialist Motor Corps Training Centre (NSKK) were involved in the destruction starting on the night of November 9 when Sebastian Platzer, head of the NSKK driver training school in Regensburg, was ordered by his superior, Wilhelm Müller-Seyfferth, to set fire to the synagogue together with the NSKK men under his command. In characteristic fashion, the NSKK, the SA, and the ϟϟ fought over who would get to carry out the arson attack. Arrests of Jewish families began directly thereafter, and the next morning – under the supervision of Müller-Seyfferth – the SA and the NSKK forced the Jewish men to do degrading drills. At about 1:20 on November 10, the dome collapsed; around 2:30 the synagogue was burned out. The fire brigade that was summoned received strict instructions from the mayor, Otto Schottenheim , who was present in person, to only protect the surrounding buildings. Schottenheim thus prevented possible extinguishing work on the synagogue. The ϟϟ and SA devastated Jewish shops and kept the Jewish population in the police stations on Minoritenweg and am Jakobstor or harassed them in a variety of ways on the grounds of the motorsport school of the NSKK at the Irlerhöhe. At around 11.00 the Nazis drove Regensburg's Jews through Maximilianstrasse in a "disgraceful march", with passers-by beating, spitting on or throwing stones at them. All of the Jewish men in Regensburg were led to the train station on a “march of shame” [Schandmarsch] under a poster that read “Exodus of Jews” [Auszug der Juden]. After the column finished at noon, a bus took about 21 Jewish men to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were held for up to six weeks. Others were taken to the Regensburg prison. A total of 224 Jewish men from the entire administrative district of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate were sent to Dachau. In the end, only eleven survived the camps and could be released in May 1945 by the Allies. 
The Nazis’ use of the phrase “Exodus of Jews” was particularly cynical since it alluded to the exodus of Jews from Egypt, a central liberation theme in Jewish tradition. This phrase was used in later waves of persecution and killings. At the train station a reminder of Reichskristallnacht appears on a mural on the wall at the entrance shown on the left. On November 10, the Lord Mayor of Regensburg ordered the demolition of the burnt-out synagogue. The Jewish community had to bear the cost of the demolition. The Nazi newspaper "Bayerischer Anzeiger", which was forced to evolve from the originally catholic-liberal Regensburger Anzeiger, celebrated the demolition of the synagogue as the removal of a "shame(s) in the heart of the city". The Regensburg Jews were systematically expropriated.
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The Nazis’ use of the phrase “Exodus of Jews” was particularly cynical since it alluded to the exodus of Jews from Egypt, a central liberation theme in Jewish tradition. This phrase was used in later waves of persecution and killings. At the train station a reminder of Reichskristallnacht appears on a mural on the wall at the entrance shown on the left. On November 10, the Lord Mayor of Regensburg ordered the demolition of the burnt-out synagogue. The Jewish community had to bear the cost of the demolition. The Nazi newspaper "Bayerischer Anzeiger", which was forced to evolve from the originally catholic-liberal Regensburger Anzeiger, celebrated the demolition of the synagogue as the removal of a "shame(s) in the heart of the city". The Regensburg Jews were systematically expropriated. On November 25, 1940, the property of the synagogue was acquired by the city of Regensburg for 29,840 RM under the leadership of the second mayor, Hans Herrmann and soon after sold it to the Volksbank Regensburg at a profit. As early as October 1938, the building at Untere Bachgasse 5, which was used as a synagogue from 1841 to 1907, was demolished by state order - despite protests from the owner and the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. The last Jewish shops and residential buildings were 'aryanised'.
The current synagogue today, with a memorial plaque commemorating the events outlined above. From 1940, the Jewish population was obliged to wear the Jewish star and was only allowed to shop in two stores, and then only between 13.00- 14.00. Other forms of harassment included bans on radios and the purchase of pets. On April 2, 1942, 106 Regensburg Jews were deported from the site of the destroyed synagogue to the Piaski transit camp near Lublin and finally all murdered in the Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps. On July 15, another family was deported to Auschwitz.
On April 2, 1942, 106 Jews from Regensburg were transported from the square of the destroyed synagogue to Piaski and murdered at the Belzec extermination camp. Further transports, including those to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, followed until 1943. In the Stadtamhof district there was an external camp at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Another subcamp was located at the Regensburg-Obertraubling airfield. In total, 200-250 victims of the Holocaust fell victim; 233 Regensburgers had earlier managed to escape through emigration. After the retirement home at Weißenburgstraße 31 was cleared on September 23, 1942, another 39 Jewish citizens were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . On February 15, 1945, the last ten Regensburg Jews who were in a “ mixed marriage“ lived with Christian partners, deported to Theresienstadt. They alone survived. In total, around 250 of the Jews deported from Regensburg were murdered during the Nazi period.
The synagogue alight during Reichskristallnacht, November 8-9 1938.
The current synagogue today, with a memorial plaque commemorating the events outlined above. From 1940, the Jewish population was obliged to wear the Jewish star and was only allowed to shop in two stores, and then only between 13.00- 14.00. Other forms of harassment included bans on radios and the purchase of pets. On April 2, 1942, 106 Regensburg Jews were deported from the site of the destroyed synagogue to the Piaski transit camp near Lublin and finally all murdered in the Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps. On July 15, another family was deported to Auschwitz.On April 2, 1942, 106 Jews from Regensburg were transported from the square of the destroyed synagogue to Piaski and murdered at the Belzec extermination camp. Further transports, including those to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, followed until 1943. In the Stadtamhof district there was an external camp at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Another subcamp was located at the Regensburg-Obertraubling airfield. In total, 200-250 victims of the Holocaust fell victim; 233 Regensburgers had earlier managed to escape through emigration. After the retirement home at Weißenburgstraße 31 was cleared on September 23, 1942, another 39 Jewish citizens were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . On February 15, 1945, the last ten Regensburg Jews who were in a “ mixed marriage“ lived with Christian partners, deported to Theresienstadt. They alone survived. In total, around 250 of the Jews deported from Regensburg were murdered during the Nazi period.
In the autumn of 1942, the Gestapo smashed the so-called Neupfarrplatz-Gruppe, a resistance movement consisting of about fifty people; nine were poisoned with the remainder sentenced to imprisonment. Starting in 1940, a total of 638 women, men and young people were deported from the district hospital on Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse and sent to the Hartheim homicide facility through the so-called euthanasia programme; over 500 other people were sterilised against their will.
The early-Gothic church of St. Ulrich, built between 1220 and 1230 and on the right the Schottenportal during the Nazi era and today, protected within a glass structure. Founded in the 11th century by Irish missionaries and for most of its history in the hands of first Irish, followed by Scottish monks, in Middle Latin Scotti meant Gaels, not differentiating Ireland from Scotland.
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Regensburg in flames after allied bombing at Donaustaufer Straße.
The Americans were only a short distance away, and few people were prepared to go down in flames as the enemy took the town. Next morning some women started going round shops, spreading the word that there was to be another meeting that evening in Moltkeplatz, in the city centre, to demand that Regensburg be handed over to the Allies without a fight. Nearly a thousand people, many of them women with children, turned out. As the crowd started to become restless, it was addressed by a prominent member of the cathedral chapter, Domprediger Dr. Johann Maier, who, however, was able to say only a few words before he and several others were arrested.For a personal account of the American entry into Regensburg May 1, 1945:
When [Gauleiter] Rucksdeckel heard what had happened, he ordered that Maier and the other 'ringleaders' be hanged. A rapidly summoned drumhead court lost no time in pronouncing the death sentence on Maier and a seventy-year-old warehouse worker, Joseph Zirkl. They were hanged in the early hours of 24 April. The terror apparatus had still functioned. But with the Americans on the doorstep, the town's military commandant, its head of regional government, the Kreisleiter and the head of police suddenly vanished into the night. Gauleiter Rucksdeckel had also disappeared. The way was all at once clear for emissaries to hand over the city on 27 April, still largely undamaged by the war.Kershaw (342-3) The End
Chapter 22: Regensburg, Germany
Porta Praetoria- Germany’s most ancient stone building, a gateway once reaching twenty metres in height dating from 179 under Emperor Marcus Aurelius for the new Roman fort Castra Regina ("fortress by the river Regen"). It was the threat posed during the second Marcomanic war that led Rome to put a legion as an occupying force back into Raetia after almost two hundred years. The largest garrison town in Raetia was built over an area of 33 football pitches (24 hectares in total). This stone building with its approximately ten metre high wall, four gates and numerous towers can still be recognised today in the floor plan of the old town of Regensburg.
From its inauguration in 179, the stone inscription that was once located above the east gate is still preserved today and is considered the founding document of Regensburg. It was built
for Legio III Italica and was an important camp on the most northerly point of the Danube corresponding to what is today the core of Regensburg's old town east of Obere and Untere Bachgasse and west of Schwanenplatz. The Legio III Italica stationed with around 6000 soldiers. It was the main military base of the province of Raetia and was therefore an exception in the Roman administrative system, since the legion was not based in the provincial capital of Augsburg. Giant blocks of stone were used to construct this gate in the northern wall of the Roman military camp. It survives as a reminder of Castra Regina, the Roman settlement; another camp village was found at today's Bismarckplatz. On a walk through the old town one can still see the relics of the former castle wall built into the walls of a number of old buildings although in contrast to the remains of the protective wall, there is not much left of the interior of the “Reginum” fort given that the late-antiquity fortress town of Castra Regina developed from the fort at a time when the reduced military garrison retreated to a reinforced corner of the entire camp and opened the rest of the space within the enormous walls for civil settlement. During the turmoil of the peoples' migration , the fort was given a military role in the course of the 5th century, which from then on was a walled civil settlement.
The Römerturm (also called the "Heidenturm") at the former Moltkeplatz and today. During the war a two metre-thick reinforced concrete ceiling of the tower was reinforced.
From its inauguration in 179, the stone inscription that was once located above the east gate is still preserved today and is considered the founding document of Regensburg. It was built
for Legio III Italica and was an important camp on the most northerly point of the Danube corresponding to what is today the core of Regensburg's old town east of Obere and Untere Bachgasse and west of Schwanenplatz. The Legio III Italica stationed with around 6000 soldiers. It was the main military base of the province of Raetia and was therefore an exception in the Roman administrative system, since the legion was not based in the provincial capital of Augsburg. Giant blocks of stone were used to construct this gate in the northern wall of the Roman military camp. It survives as a reminder of Castra Regina, the Roman settlement; another camp village was found at today's Bismarckplatz. On a walk through the old town one can still see the relics of the former castle wall built into the walls of a number of old buildings although in contrast to the remains of the protective wall, there is not much left of the interior of the “Reginum” fort given that the late-antiquity fortress town of Castra Regina developed from the fort at a time when the reduced military garrison retreated to a reinforced corner of the entire camp and opened the rest of the space within the enormous walls for civil settlement. During the turmoil of the peoples' migration , the fort was given a military role in the course of the 5th century, which from then on was a walled civil settlement. In November 1922 the first meeting of the Nazi Party met for the first time in the Carmelite Hall. The local group was founded in early 1923 at which time it had 23 members. By the time Hitler visited Regensburg in 1930 on the occasion of his so-called freedom rallies, the Regensburg Nazis grew in number and claimed the "Brauner Häusl" at Bismarckplatz 5. In front of this building there were repeated marches and political events. The following night after Hitler's appointment as chancellor at around 20.30 the local Nazis at what was then Moltkeplatz, now Dachauplatz. The local paper Regensburger Anzeiger reported about 1,000 people involved in the rally, which led with torches over Maxstrasse, Domplatz and Neupfarrplatz, over Wahlenstrasse to Haidplatz, and from there to Arnulfsplatz and Bismarckplatz. The local newspapers reported extremely differently about the memorable event. The Nazi paper Bayerische Ostmark, printed in Bayreuth and provided with a daily special page about Regensburg, reported loud encouragement from the Regensburg residents who lined the roadside. The Regensburger Anzeiger, whose editor-in-chief was the son-in-law of BVP Prime Minister Held who was still in office at the beginning of 1933, wrote of serious faces that eyed the march with suspicion. The SPD-affiliated paper Volkswacht even reported that the Nazis struck the crowd with their burning torches to silence jeers.
Before the last free elections on March 5, there were numerous rallies by the parties. For the Nazis, von Epp spoke at Bismarckplatz. The SPD hosted a rally in what was then the town hall; their member of the state parliament Toni Pfülf spoke at the meeting which had been titled "Unmasking the NSDAP." In the end the turnout in Regensburg was 88 percent with the greatest share of the vote going to the BVP despite having lost six percent of the vote compared to the 1932 election. The Nazis doubled their vote with 14,611 people from Regensburg voting for them whilst the BVP received over 19,000 votes and the SPD over 8,500.
Haidplatz during the Nazi-era and today. It was here on March 20 1933 that a mob gathered in front of the town hall and the police headquarters, demanding the removal of the police captain and the mayor Dr. Otto Hipp. Overnight, acting police director Breitenbach initiated security measures so that the situation did not escalate further. The Nazi general practitioner Dr. Otto Schottenheim was named by the Nazis as temporary acting mayor. Schottenheim held his first extraordinary city council meeting on March 22, 1933 which lasted for three minutes and involved him declaring: As acting mayor confirmed by the government, I would like to inform you that I have legally taken over the business, in particular the legally effective subscription. The committees are asked to continue to be available with the express reference to the exclusively advisory character. I expect the city officials to continue their duties dutifully and responsibly in the interest of the common good. I'm postponing the city council indefinitely- that closes the session.
Schottenheim was to remain mayor for twelve years, always a staunch Nazi. After the war he was tried, mainly because he is said to have fuelled the crowd in front of the synagogue during Kristallnacht in November 1938. He acted according to the Nuremberg laws even before the official introduction as in the case with the marriage of businessman Helmut Seelig and his wife Maria Ernst, which took place on July 19, 1935. It had been annulled by Schottenheim, as this marriage of a Jew and a non-Jew, according to the city chief, was not compatible with the Nazis' racial ideology. The registrar who had performed the wedding was suspended despite acting legally correct, and the two spouses were placed in “protective custody” because of racial disgrace.
The Ostentor on the left from a Nazi-era postcard and today. Built in 1284 on the eastern edge of the old town, it was one of six gate towers of the former city fortifications and was built to protect the then so-called "Ostenvorstadt". The gate was built above the arterial road leading east to Vienna and was thus the city gate through which the emperor coming from Vienna entered the city. According to the found stonemason 's mark, the representative, five-storey Gothic building was built by members of the Regensburg cathedral builders' hut and is today one of the best-preserved Gothic city gates in Germany. On the right is the so-called Hellenenbrücke then and now. Despite the Nazis' pervasive control, some in Regensburg sought to resist their tyranny. Bishop Michael Buchberger, for instance, openly criticised Nazi policies. Records of correspondence between Buchberger and Berlin reveal his vocal opposition to the Nazi's euthanasia program, making him one of the few members of the clergy to openly challenge the regime. In a letter dated July 4, 1941, he criticised the Nazis' euthanasia program, T4, voicing his concern for the 'sanctity and value of human life'. 
That said, the fact is that already in 1931 when the social climate in Regensburg was already very poisonous, Buchberger made anti-Jewish statements about the local economic conditions, strengthening the widespread anti-Semitism in the population. In his book Gibt es noch eine Rettung Buchberger claimed that "the press, which continuously undermines the religious and moral life of the people" and "which in part literally lives from the fight against Christian faith and Christian custom" was for the most part in Jewish hands. Buchberger also defamed other social groups and minorities as enemies of the Church, who “are like pedlars and agents who wander the whole world year in and year out” and who were “always to be found in gatherings of communists, socialists, freethinkers, Adventists, serious Bible students, morticians and all possible sects.” The Regensburg theologian Andreas Angerstorfer criticises the fact that Buchberger's anti-Semitic text Gibt es noch eine Rettung was published again after the war in a second, unchanged edition. When the Regensburg cathedral preacher Johann Maier, who on April 23, 1945 had publicly demanded that the city of Regensburg be handed over to the Americans without a fight, was arrested by the police and on the same evening was sentenced by a court martial for undermining military strength and was immediately hanged, Buchberger remained silent and held his ground hiding in an air raid shelter.
That said, the fact is that already in 1931 when the social climate in Regensburg was already very poisonous, Buchberger made anti-Jewish statements about the local economic conditions, strengthening the widespread anti-Semitism in the population. In his book Gibt es noch eine Rettung Buchberger claimed that "the press, which continuously undermines the religious and moral life of the people" and "which in part literally lives from the fight against Christian faith and Christian custom" was for the most part in Jewish hands. Buchberger also defamed other social groups and minorities as enemies of the Church, who “are like pedlars and agents who wander the whole world year in and year out” and who were “always to be found in gatherings of communists, socialists, freethinkers, Adventists, serious Bible students, morticians and all possible sects.” The Regensburg theologian Andreas Angerstorfer criticises the fact that Buchberger's anti-Semitic text Gibt es noch eine Rettung was published again after the war in a second, unchanged edition. When the Regensburg cathedral preacher Johann Maier, who on April 23, 1945 had publicly demanded that the city of Regensburg be handed over to the Americans without a fight, was arrested by the police and on the same evening was sentenced by a court martial for undermining military strength and was immediately hanged, Buchberger remained silent and held his ground hiding in an air raid shelter.
The Historische Wurstküche zu Regensburg which claims to be the oldest continuously open public restaurant in the world. In 1135 a building was erected as the construction office for the Regensburg stone bridge which, when completed 1146, the building became a restaurant named "Garkueche auf dem Kranchen" ('cookshop near the crane') as it was sited alongside the river port. The present building dates from the 17th century although archaeological evidence has confirmed the existence of a previous building from the 12th century with about the same dimensions.
By the beginning of the war several camps were built in and around Regensburg for Soviet prisoners of war. About 700 of them were victims of Nazi forced labour, or fell victim to plagues and wretched living conditions. Under the Nazi regime, Regensburg’s industrial infrastructure was manipulated to support the German war effort through which most notably the city's Messerschmitt AG factory played a significant role. Factory records from 1944 reveal that the plant was producing nearly 34% of all Bf 109 fighters, a staple of the German Luftwaffe. This mass production was achieved largely through the use of forced labour. Historical documents, including testimonies from survivors, reveal that workers, many of whom were prisoners of war or concentration camp inmates, were forced to work long hours under harsh conditions. This practice, a gross violation of human rights, was a cornerstone of the Nazis' wartime industrial strategy. The strategic importance of Regensburg’s industry made it a prime target for Allied bombing. Detailed Allied bombing maps, now declassified, show how strategic bombing raids, such as Operation Hydra in August 1943, were carefully planned to disrupt the production of aircraft in Regensburg. The bombing resulted in substantial destruction of both the industrial areas and the historical city centre through a series of air raids, especially as the Messerschmitt aircraft works were located in the west of the city.
By the beginning of the war several camps were built in and around Regensburg for Soviet prisoners of war. About 700 of them were victims of Nazi forced labour, or fell victim to plagues and wretched living conditions. Under the Nazi regime, Regensburg’s industrial infrastructure was manipulated to support the German war effort through which most notably the city's Messerschmitt AG factory played a significant role. Factory records from 1944 reveal that the plant was producing nearly 34% of all Bf 109 fighters, a staple of the German Luftwaffe. This mass production was achieved largely through the use of forced labour. Historical documents, including testimonies from survivors, reveal that workers, many of whom were prisoners of war or concentration camp inmates, were forced to work long hours under harsh conditions. This practice, a gross violation of human rights, was a cornerstone of the Nazis' wartime industrial strategy. The strategic importance of Regensburg’s industry made it a prime target for Allied bombing. Detailed Allied bombing maps, now declassified, show how strategic bombing raids, such as Operation Hydra in August 1943, were carefully planned to disrupt the production of aircraft in Regensburg. The bombing resulted in substantial destruction of both the industrial areas and the historical city centre through a series of air raids, especially as the Messerschmitt aircraft works were located in the west of the city.
Compared to the destruction of other German inner cities however, the old town was less affected, although one of the most important architectural features of the town was completely lost with the Stiftskirche Obermünster and other historical buildings such as the Old Chapel or the Neue Waag am Haidplatz seriously damaged. The aircraft factory, the largest such factory in Europe, was attacked and hit. In a total of twenty bomb attacks by the Royal Air Force and the 8th American Air Force between 1943-1945 about 3,000 people died, including many prisoners of war. In 1945 a partial explosion of the Donaubruck took place. The city itself was, however, finally handed over without a fight, not least because of a demonstration by Regensburg women and the Domprediger Johann Maier on April 23, 1945, Maier demanding the surrender to ensure the city was not damaged. As already mentioned, the following day he was publicly deported for "sabotage" together with another Regensburger, Josef Zirkl and the retired gendarmerie officer Michael Lottner and executed. A memorial was erected on the site of their execution at the Dachauplatz, and Maier's bones were transferred to Regensburg Cathedral in 2005. 
Conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig for the purpose of supporting the drive for the unification of the German states, it was not until after his accession to the throne of Bavaria in 1825 that construction took place between 1830 and 1842 under the supervision of the architect Leo von Klenze, modelled after the Parthenon in Athens at a cost of £666,666. The southern pediment frieze features the 1815 creation of the German Confederation whilst the northern displays scenes from the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest of 9 CE. The memorial displays some 65 plaques and 130 busts covering 2,000 years of history, beginning with Arminius, victor at Teutoburg Forest. According to the guide booklet, it serves to honour "politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue." Beginning in 1933, the Kraft durch Freude and other Nazi organisations promoted trips to Walhalla, so visitor numbers increased exponentially. In 1937 when Hitler unveiled the Bruckner bust described below, 131,520 were counted. On September 26 that same year, Himmler gave a speech at Walhalla, invoking the "ancestral Germanic spirit", thus reinterpreting the monument through the lens of Nazi racial ideology. In April 1945, Patton would stand at the same spot as men of his 3rd Army were crossing the Danube River.
Among the busts of renowned speakers of Germanic languages today is this of Sophie Scholl which was inaugurated on February 22, 2003- the 60th anniversary of her execution- and is intended to represent the supposed German Resistance against the Nazis even though her own involvement was detrimental to the White Rose itself. After the speeches in front of the Walhalla, Hitler and the guests of honour climbed the stairs to the main entrance. Hitler entered the Hall of Fame to the "victory sounds" of Bruckner's 8th Symphony played by the Munich Philharmonic and then laid down a wagon wheel-sized laurel wreath in front of the Bruckner bust. The marble bust was the work of the Munich sculptor Adolf Rothenburger. Altogether the Bruckner celebration on the Walhalla cost about 50,000 Reichsmarks. Hitler was at that time - after the Olympic Games in Berlin and before the so-called "Anschluss" of Austria - at first peak of his power. After the ceremony Hitler returned to Regensburg, where Nazi Lord Mayor Otto Schottenheim escorted him to the Reichssaal in the Old Town Hall.
Why Hitler staged that event is not known. Speculation has ranged from the theory that it was intended as a cultural precursor of the annexation of Austria the following year, to the notion that it was out of nostalgia for his ‘beautiful time as a choirboy’ and Lembach Abbey - with its Bruckner associations.
On the night of January 13th-14th, 1942 after a hearing of Bruckner''s Seventh Symphony, Hitler remarked:
This work is based on popular airs of upper Austria. They're not textually reproduced, but repeatedly I recognise in passing Tyrolean dances of my youth. It's wonderful what he managed to get out of that folklore. As it happened, it's a priest to whom we must give the credit for having protected this great master. The Bishop of Linz used to sit in his cathedral for hours at a time, listening to Bruckner play the organ. He was the greatest organist of his day.Hitler's Table Talk (205)
In fact, during most of his life, Bruckner held little appeal. Hoffmann did not so much as mention the composer’s name when once identifying Hitler’s favourites. Even after becoming chancellor, Speer noted, his interest ‘never seemed very marked’. However, he had symbolic importance to him both as an ‘home town boy’ and rival to Brahms, so beloved in Vienna. It was a fixed part of the Nuremberg rallies for the cultural session to open with a movement of one of his symphonies. Undoubtedly the Hitler felt a personal kinship. Both had come from small Austrian towns, grew up in modest circumstances, had fathers who died at an early age, were autodidacts, and made their way in life despite great obstacles. On a number of occasions he contrasted the Austrian Catholic Bruckner, whom the Viennese shunned, to the north German Protestant Brahms, whom they idolised. Then, suddenly in 1940 he developed a passion for Bruckner’s symphonies. He even began mentioning him in the same breath with Wagner. ‘He told me,’ Goebbels noted in his diary, ‘... that it was only now during the war, that he had learned to like him at all.’ By 1942 he placed Bruckner on a level with Beethoven, and categorised the former’s Seventh Symphony as ‘one of the most splendid manifestations of German musical creativity, the equivalent of Beethoven’s Ninth’. His feelings about Bruckner, man and composer, are best conveyed by remarks he made after listening to a recording of the first movement of the Seventh at his military headquarters in January 1942:'Those are pure popular melodies from Upper Austria, nothing taken over literally but ländler and so on that I know from my youth. What the man made out of this primitive material! In this case it was a priest who deserves well for having supported a great master.' 'The bishop of Linz sat for hours alone in the cathedral when Bruckner, the greatest organist of his time, played the organ. One can imagine how difficult it was for a small peasant lad when he went to Vienna, that urbanised, debauched society. A remark by him about Brahms, which a newspaper recently carried, brought him closer to me: Brahms’s music is quite lovely, but he preferred his own. That is the healthy self-confidence of a peasant who is modest but when it came down to it knew how to promote a cause when it was his own. That critic Hanslick made his life in Vienna hell. But when he could no longer be ignored, he was given honours and awards. But what could he do with those? It was his creative activity that should have been made easier.
Brahms was praised to the heavens by Jewry, a creature of salons, a theatrical figure with his flowing beard and hair and his hands raised above the keyboard. Bruckner on the other hand, a shrunken little man, would perhaps have been too shy even to play in such society.'Spotts (230-233) Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics
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Flossenbürg
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The Flossenbürg concentration camp was in operation from 1938 to April 23, 1945, in the municipality of Flossenbürg near Weiden, about halfway between Nuremberg and Prague, near the border with what was then the Sudetenland. At the entrance, the original gate posts were emblazoned with the standard legend 'Arbeit Macht Frei;' the original posts are behind above the site overlooking the so-called 'Square of Nations.' The prisoners were used to mine the Flossenbürger granite in the quarry and later to produce the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter plane for Messerschmitt GmbHused in Regensburg. At least 30,000 of the approximately 100,000 prisoners perished. Almost ninety satellite concentration camps were also assigned to the main camp. The camp was planned from the beginning as a concentration camp for the exploitation of forced labourers for the economic interests of the ϟϟ. Terror was no longer directed only against the political opponents of the Nazis, but also against social outsiders. Quarries next to Flossenbürg Mauthausen and Natzweiler or brickyards with clay pits such as at Neuengamme were chosen as suitable locations. By mid-1937 at the latest, the ϟϟ began looking for suitable quarries after Himmler reached an agreement with Hitler and Speer that prisoners could be used to produce building materials for Nazi construction projects. 
This is repeatedly referred to as an "order by the Führer on the occasion of a meeting with the Führer with the Reichsführer-ϟϟ and architect Speer". Here the regime increased terror to an absolute and perfected, hitherto unknown level of power, which planned and later organised the extermination of people with inhuman forced labour, hunger, arbitrariness and harassment. Recognising that terror works through maximum intimidation, the construction of the concentration camp was not kept secret from the population. From the start, public administrations and private companies were involved in creating the necessary infrastructure and setting up the warehouse. The Berliner Kämper & Seeberg AG delivered all the barracks whilst the emergency lighting was supplied by the Munich Gebr. Schwaiger GmbH, which had also supplied the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps, the ϟϟ-Totenkopfstandarte “Ostmark” and the Sturmbann administration II/SS3 in Tobelbad near Graz. he Hans Krapf company from nearby Raft applied for the electrical installation. The company Hans Kraus from Weiden applied for plumbing, installation and sanitary work. The supply of food for the prisoners and the ϟϟ-Totenkopfverband was often taken over by the private sector. Even the construction of the camp, which was originally planned for 3,000 prisoners and 400 ϟϟ guards, was marked by the aforementioned terror regime, insufficient food and accommodation, and daily harassment through to the murder of individuals by the ϟϟ and their accomplices.
This is repeatedly referred to as an "order by the Führer on the occasion of a meeting with the Führer with the Reichsführer-ϟϟ and architect Speer". Here the regime increased terror to an absolute and perfected, hitherto unknown level of power, which planned and later organised the extermination of people with inhuman forced labour, hunger, arbitrariness and harassment. Recognising that terror works through maximum intimidation, the construction of the concentration camp was not kept secret from the population. From the start, public administrations and private companies were involved in creating the necessary infrastructure and setting up the warehouse. The Berliner Kämper & Seeberg AG delivered all the barracks whilst the emergency lighting was supplied by the Munich Gebr. Schwaiger GmbH, which had also supplied the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps, the ϟϟ-Totenkopfstandarte “Ostmark” and the Sturmbann administration II/SS3 in Tobelbad near Graz. he Hans Krapf company from nearby Raft applied for the electrical installation. The company Hans Kraus from Weiden applied for plumbing, installation and sanitary work. The supply of food for the prisoners and the ϟϟ-Totenkopfverband was often taken over by the private sector. Even the construction of the camp, which was originally planned for 3,000 prisoners and 400 ϟϟ guards, was marked by the aforementioned terror regime, insufficient food and accommodation, and daily harassment through to the murder of individuals by the ϟϟ and their accomplices. 
The former ϟϟ casino/ mess hall on the slope above the concentration camp forecourt seen behind me on the left was leased by the Free State of Bavaria from 1949 as "Café-Restauration Plattenberg". It's surrounded by private housing. From 1958, on the site of the former prisoner barracks they were built. Previously, the prisoner quarters were located here. The characteristic arrangement of the buildings can still be seen in the settlement today. The terrain is a slope, which was not typical for a concentration camp. Other parts of the camp were temporarily used for commercial purposes after the war, for example as warehouses. The “ke-autoelektric” cable factory, a supplier to Bosch, used the parade ground and former laundry until 1997 for its production. It wasn't until June 2006 that the surviving former concentration camp buildings were declared architectural monuments and the entire former concentration camp site was declared an archaeological monument. In the spring of 1940, the strength of the ϟϟ guards was around 300 men, with an additional ninety members working in the headquarters. In 1945 the number of ϟϟ members was about 3,000 men and women. Cities like Berlin, Munich and others were to be transformed into 'Führer cities' whilst the infrastructure for the planned war (military production facilities etc.) were to be promoted. Himmler and the ϟϟ offered to deliver natural stones and bricks quickly and cheaply. Thus in February 1943, production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft by Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg began in Flossenbürg in the converted Steinmetzhallen. At the beginning of 1944, 2,000 prisoners worked in aircraft production, and in October of the same year more than 5,200. For the forced labour in the quarry, prisoners were forced to slave for a twelve-hour day, which was changed to the three-shift system with eight hours per shift in the production for Messerschmitt. The constantly increasing number of admissions between 1938 and 1945 also clearly shows a change in the composition. In 1938 and 1939, German-speaking prisoners predominated, most of whom were marked with a green triangle as a sign of so-called professional criminals in preventive detention by the criminal police, the ratio changed from 1940. The number of foreign prisoners rose continuously with the occupation of other neighbouring countries. As a rule, the foreign prisoners received a red triangle as a symbol for political prisoners , with their nationality being designated by a corresponding letter in the triangle.
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November 1941 Construction plans for the ϟϟ-Kommandantur and the building today. All inmates had to pass through the central portal of the Kommandantur and where lead to the prisoner camp lying behind the building.
Seen on the left April 23, 1945 upon the American liberation of the camp. The commandant's office was the seat of the highest ϟϟ officer in Flossenbürg, the camp commander. He was responsible for the overall management of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The granite commander's office that has survived to this day wasn't built in 1938 when the concentration camp was set up but initially, the senior ϟϟ officers had offices in other buildings, mostly barracks of a similar type to those of the prisoners who were in the so-called headquarters or ϟϟ area outside the prisoner area secured with barbed wire and watchtowers. Not until 1943, five years after the camp was founded became a new representative was this headquarters building made of granite completed. The camp administration had commissioned it, and prisoners had to use forced labour to build it. An existing administrative building made of wood had to be partially demolished for the construction of the headquarters. As in other concentration camps, the gateway in the middle of the headquarters building served as the central entrance intended for the prisoner camp. At that time it was planned to convert the ϟϟ accommodation barracks into prisoner barracks in order to accommodate more prisoners in the camp. However, these plans were never implemented, which is why the prisoner area was only fifty metres behind. In addition to the commandant's office, the new headquarters also housed the office of the detention camp commander and the prisoner registry. The employees of the ϟϟ who worked in the administration also played a decisive part in the crimes in the camp. They were responsible for the planned shortage of food and medicines for the prisoners. The imposition of the most brutal camp sentences, the murder of prisoners and the administration of deaths were part of their everyday work. The headquarters building was also the place in the camp where the ϟϟ interrogated prisoners and often tortured them. 
The execution site in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, seen here after liberation of the camp by American armed forces and today, now a memorial to the resistance. The rate of executions increased during the final months of the camp as the ϟϟ liquidated prisoners whom they suspected might try to escape or organise resistance. Some were high-profile prisoners who had been kept alive previously for interrogation. For example, during the last days of the camp's existence the ϟϟ executed thirteen Allied secret agents and seven prominent German anti-Nazis, including former Abwehr head Wilhelm Canaris and the Confessing Church theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The latter had been transferred on April 8, 1945 as one of the last of over 100,000 prisoners to the camp together with Admiral Canaris, Generalmajor Oster, Heeresrichter Dr. Sack and Hauptmann Gehre on the day of their arrival by Lagerkommandant Kögel in a setup show trial due to “Hoch- und Landesverrat”. Each was murdered one after the other after having to completely undress in front of these detention barracks.
After escape attempts or alleged acts of sabotage, inmates were hanged to serve as examples on the roll-call square which was visible from almost everywhere in the camp. In all, the ϟϟ had executed at least 2,500 people at Flossenbürg.
The 90th American Infantry Division at the entrance to the tunnel that goes to the crematory. Bodies from this upper level of the camp were chuted to the crematorium below through this ramp below one of the guard towers shown behind me on the other side of the tower seen below which went on to the crematorium. The crematorium was commissioned in 1940 with the Kori company from Berlin, which specialised in waste and waste incineration plants, awarded the contract. The corpses had previously been cremated in the crematorium in Selb, but the capacities there were no longer sufficient. At the end of 1940, the Flossenbürg concentration camp crematorium took up the operation. From the end of 1944 the capacity of the oven was no longer sufficient, so the dead were cremated in the open air.In the end about 100,000 prisoners were in the camp altogether. Of these, at least 30,000 died. Despite the constant expansion of the camp, the number of inmates always far exceeded the capacity and the conditions in the camp were unimaginably harsh. The hard work in the quarries and the inadequate care for the prisoners as well as the cruelty of the guards cost many prisoners their lives. .gif)
After 1943, the Flossenbürg concentration camp became an extensive network with 94 subcamps in Bavaria, Saxony (especially in Dresden ) and Bohemia. From 1943 the concentration camp prisoners were exploited for production in armaments factories such as the Universelle-Werke JC Müller & Co. and for the production of Messerschmitt aircraft. In April 1944 Toni Siegert (472) writes how the "most catastrophic phase of medical activity, medical failure and medical practice of killing" began for the prisoners. The doctor Heinrich Schmitz performed numerous unnecessary operations, from which, according to the records of a prisoner doctor, about 250 prisoners died. In 1945 prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary and France formed the largest national groups. In Flossenbürg, however, the internal “prisoner self-government” remained mostly in the hands of the “Green Angles” almost without exception . The post-war classification of the concentration camps at Reich level, which classifies Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen as “political” camps, instead describes Flossenbürg as a camp for “criminals” and “asocial people.”
A French survivor showing the sole crematorium to a photographer and me at the site today.The sole crematorium oven examined by an American Army officer on April 30, 1945 and today. Many Flossenbürg inmates died of starvation, exhaustion or random violence. Certain ethnic groups, especially Jews, became target of planned mass killings by the ϟϟ starting 1941.
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After 1943, the Flossenbürg concentration camp became an extensive network with 94 subcamps in Bavaria, Saxony (especially in Dresden ) and Bohemia. From 1943 the concentration camp prisoners were exploited for production in armaments factories such as the Universelle-Werke JC Müller & Co. and for the production of Messerschmitt aircraft. In April 1944 Toni Siegert (472) writes how the "most catastrophic phase of medical activity, medical failure and medical practice of killing" began for the prisoners. The doctor Heinrich Schmitz performed numerous unnecessary operations, from which, according to the records of a prisoner doctor, about 250 prisoners died. In 1945 prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary and France formed the largest national groups. In Flossenbürg, however, the internal “prisoner self-government” remained mostly in the hands of the “Green Angles” almost without exception . The post-war classification of the concentration camps at Reich level, which classifies Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen as “political” camps, instead describes Flossenbürg as a camp for “criminals” and “asocial people.”
A French survivor showing the sole crematorium to a photographer and me at the site today.The sole crematorium oven examined by an American Army officer on April 30, 1945 and today. Many Flossenbürg inmates died of starvation, exhaustion or random violence. Certain ethnic groups, especially Jews, became target of planned mass killings by the ϟϟ starting 1941.The victims were led out of sight of the other prisoners but always watched by the watchtowers to a closed section of the camp,dubbed the Valley of Death, where they were killed and their bodies burned. It's hard to imagine this today given the beauty of the area, maintained as if a park in the centre of which is a mound referred to as a "pyramid of ashes" surrounded by symbolic graves and memorial stones. Climbing the stairs at the opposite end I'm seen facing below leads to a memorial chapel originally constructed from demolished camp watchtowers. Within are stained glass and plaques commemorating groups of victims and number of victims. Such numbers are now considered wrong given estimates were higher at the start than could be properly established.
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The 'Square of Nations' memorial to the nationalities of the prisoners that were interned and died in Flossenbürg.
In Flossenbürg, members of the punishment company were compelled to load heavy stones on their backs at the foot of the slag heap and run around with them in the morass until they finally collapsed. There was also the “moor hole,” a swamp one hundred metres long and forty metres wide in a small hollow; at its deepest point, a grown man could stand with his head barely protruding above the surface. Granite blocks were loaded on the backs of prisoners, and they were then forced to run at double time down the slope. Those who collapsed under the heavy load while still on dry ground were beaten and forced to rush further down into the moor hole. They were supposed to “rest” down there for a while, with the stone slabs supported on their shoulders. If they still had some strength, they survived; if they were too weak, the stones pressed them down into the swampy morass.
In mid-April 1945, the members of the ϟϟ realised that the war would soon be over and that Germany would be defeated. It was feared that American soldiers would march into Flossenbürg, so the ϟϟ tried to hide the worst traces of their criminal activities in the concentration camp: among other things, they destroyed large numbers of files from the commandant's office. A few days before the American troops arrived, the ϟϟ sent the majority of the prisoners on various marches south. These so-called “death marches” were forced marches during which many prisoners died from poor care and exhaustion or were killed by ϟϟ escorts. The ϟϟ men left the camp and later the columns of prisoners on the death marches to get to safety. After the liberation of the camp on April 23, 1945, the American soldiers secured the remaining files from the headquarters and further evidence of the ϟϟ reign of terror in the camp. From then on, the Americans also used the headquarters as an administration building. Presumably, former concentration camp prisoners were temporarily housed there.
When I visited I noted a local living directly behind allowing his dog to relieve itself at the site. GrafenwöhrStanding some 10 to 12 metres high and made from local granite, it consists of six block-like "stories" of decreasing size stacked atop each other, the uppermost bearing a cross and crowned by a symbolic urn. Criticised in September 1946 by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the local county governor as "bordering on the unbearable" and "not satisfying the appropriate cultural and aesthetic standards," this memorial indicates that even right after the war, traditional memorial forms were already considered inadequate to commemorate the Holocaust. In Flossenbürg camp and village, with human and material remains lending them legitimacy and a remote location away from national and international attention, these traditional memorial forms have persisted unchanged until today.Marcuse (70-71) Holocaust Memorials: The Emergence of a Genre
On June 25 1938, Hitler attended manoeuvres on the training grounds at Grafenwöhr, close to the Czechoslovakian border, and when American paratroopers assigned to Destined Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) took part in a military exercise on February 1, 2014. The military training centre had been founded in 1908 during a time of economic upsurge. From 1914 to 1918 the Grafenwöhr prisoner of war camp was located on the grounds of the military training area. In 1944 the new Italian division "San Marco" also trained in Grafenwöhr where it was visited by Mussolini on July 18, 1944. In addition, there was a Belarussian officers' school in Grafenwöhr under the command of Barys Rahulja, serving with the Biełaruskaja Krajovaja Abarona (BKA) which was the military arm of the pro-Nazi Belarusian Central Rada. 
After the war he studied medicine and became a Canadian doctor; after the Chernobyl disaster Rahula organised fund raising to support victims of the catastrophe before dying in 2005.
After the war he studied medicine and became a Canadian doctor; after the Chernobyl disaster Rahula organised fund raising to support victims of the catastrophe before dying in 2005.The town hall in both period photos here bears the sign "Grafenwöhr grüßt die siegreichen Truppen"- Grafenwöhr greets its greatly-honoured troops.
Grafenwöhr and the practice ground area were heavily bombed on April 5, 1945 at around eleven in the morning. The bombardment lasted about fifteen minutes, and the army catering office and the military station were completely destroyed; 74 people lost their lives. As early as April 8, 1945 at 11.30, Grafenwoehr was again bombed much more heavily by 203 American B17 bombers. The Ostlager Grafenwöhr was completely destroyed. The bombardment lasted two hours, during which 427.5 tonnes of high-explosive bombs and 178.5 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped. 210 buildings were destroyed with over 3,000 people made homeless. On April 19, 1945, the 11th American Armoured Division advanced into Grafenwoehr. A day later, the Americans discovered three million chemical artillery shells in the Mark forest near Grafenwöhr – the Wehrmacht’s largest poison gas depot. 
The camp was only just missed during an Allied bombing raid on April 5, 1945. According to Peter Engelbrecht in Ende und Neubeginn (78), the amount of poison gas would have been sufficient to wipe out life in the entire north-eastern Upper Palatinate in the event of a hit. Two day later the 11th Panzer Division at the military training centre discovered whole carloads of ammunition and other war equipment.
The camp was only just missed during an Allied bombing raid on April 5, 1945. According to Peter Engelbrecht in Ende und Neubeginn (78), the amount of poison gas would have been sufficient to wipe out life in the entire north-eastern Upper Palatinate in the event of a hit. Two day later the 11th Panzer Division at the military training centre discovered whole carloads of ammunition and other war equipment. Today the American Army and the Bundeswehr are currently using the military training centre. Every year at the beginning of August, a German-American folk festival takes place at the Grafenwöhr military training area which is a magnet for visitors for the entire region and counts well over 100,000 people in three days. However, it was cancelled by the Americans in 2013 due to a lack of budget, and from 2020-2023 due to the corona pandemic hysteria, and later the Russian war of fascist aggression in Ukraine.
Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
A Nazi memorial to Dietrich Eckart, one of the important early members of the Nazi Party and a participant of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, still taking a prominent place in the town park. His birthplace in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz was officially renamed with the added suffix "Dietrich-Eckart-Stadt". He had returned to his hometown of Neumarkt for eight years after a stay in a mental hospital as a freelance writer and journalist. It was to him that Hitler had dedicated the second volume of Mein Kampf in which he is described as a martyr and is referred to specifically in the last sentence of the book:
And among them I could also reckon that man who as no one else has devoted his life to the awakening of his, of our nation in writing, poetry, thought and finally in the deed. Here at the end of this second volume let me again bring those men to the memory of the adherents and champions of our ideals, as heroes who, in the full consciousness of what they were doing, sacrificed their lives for us all. We must never fail to recall those names in order to encourage the weak and wavering among us when duty calls, that duty which they fulfilled with absolute faith, even to its extreme consequences. Together with those, and as one of the best of all, I should like to mention the name of a man who devoted his life to reawakening his and our people, through his writing and his ideas and finally through positive action. I mean: Dietrich Eckart.
Hitler visiting the town
quarries near Treuchtlingen and Solnhofen as donors looked to find the 10,000 Reichsmarks required. By the second half of July local brownshirts began the foundation in the city park. From Weiherstraße, nearly 500 railway sleepers moved the heavy stone blocks. The area in front of the monument was levelled and a memorial stone of the Masonic Lodge was removed. The last stones arrived in September, as well as the two reliefs and the three gargoyles of the Munich Erzgießerei Brandstetter. The inauguration on October 29 with Hitler as the chief speaker, shown on the left, was only the first of a series of parades at the shrine in the city park. Eleven and an half years later, the American occupiers dismantled much of the memorial and by the end of the 1980s, a new stone with a new plaque was erected behind the fountain basin in honour of the Count Palatine Christoph, who was King of Sweden, Norway and Denmark from 1441 - 1448. 
Nazi propaganda over Untere Marktstraße and today. On the right is a march by the Reichsarbeitsdienst, looking from the same spot the other way on Obere Marktstraße.
The Sparkasse then, adorned with Nazi paraphernalia, and now at the same location. On the right is the Unteres Tor during the war with its Nazi fresco and as it appears today
The railway station during the Third Reich and now
Shortly before the war finally ended, Neumarkt was largely destroyed by two air raids on February 23, 1945 (Operation Clarion) and on April 11, 1945. In the first attack, 400 mostly Hungarian refugees were killed by a direct hit on the station bunker. Shortly after 11.00 that morning, the air raid alarm was sounded as many who watched the bomber formation standing at the window suspected an attack on Nuremberg. But suddenly the planes swung in from the south and dropped their high-explosive bombs on Neumarkt. The target of the twelve-minute attack by the American air force was the train station and the neighbouring industrial area leaving the city centre largely spared. .gif)
On the left the Gasthaus Zum Hechten at Untere Marktstraße 3 shown covered in Nazi flags and today; the building appears to have been completed replaced. A few bombs fell on Ingolstädterstrasse and Hallstrasse. 22 Neumarkters lost their lives in this attack. A collapsing bunker buried ninety Russian forced labourers in the industrial area as a German guard too was killed. Even the cover ditch built at the station to protect against bomb and grenade splinters could not withstand the detonations. The inmates of a fully occupied train of refugees from Hungary had also taken shelter there. However, the ditch, closed by a thick layer of concrete, became an inescapable death trap, because despite the rapid deployment of a rescue team, it wasn't possible to rescue any survivors. After the horror of the attack, the people of Neumarkt tried to repair the damage as quickly as possible. On April 11, bombs fell again on Neumarkt. As on February 23, this attack by the 8th American Air Force was primarily aimed at the repaired train station. The 71 planes approaching from the north dropped far fewer bombs than in the first attack, but most contained twice the explosive charge. However, many bombs missed their actual target and instead hit the city centre, where severe damage was caused to the upper and lower market and especially in the Johannisviertel. The civilian population withdrew to the surrounding suburbs of Woffenbach, Pölling and Berg. The last few who remained in the city tried several times to hand over the city without a fight to the American troops who had advanced to Postbauer-Heng and Berg, but two ϟϟ divisions resisted until the end, reinforced by an Hungarian ϟϟ division. Meanwhile, On April 17, about twenty to 30 men of the 17th ϟϟ Panzergrenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" had entrenched themselves in the city with the task of taking part in the defence of Nuremberg with one regiment. .gif)
Above all, however, they were to set up a defensive line with two regiments south of Nuremberg. On Wednesday, April 18, at around 14.30, American artillery opened fire from the north and north-west. The ϟϟ responded with gunfire, supported by artillery on the Jura heights forcing the American tanks approaching from the town of Berg to immediately withdraw to await reinforcements. The advancing American artillery began targeting Neumarkt with their guns. Airplanes with explosive and incendiary bombs and phosphorus canisters on board were deployed in support. On the morning of April 19, three American Sherman tanks attempted to advance into the town via Badstrasse. However, when they got to the tax office, they were shot at by the ϟϟ with an anti-tank gun. Two American tanks were hit and burned out. After this costly advance, the Americans intensified their artillery fire on Neumarkt on April 19 and again used aircraft with bombs until the entire city centre was engulfed in flames. There were fierce battles between American and German soldiers throughout the city. Among other things, an American was pushed back into the Hofkirche, where the scars of the battle are still in the base of the main altar. After the resistance of the ϟϟ was broken on April 22, the city resembled a desolate stone desert. Fires broke out here and there leaving burned-out houses with ghostly facades; only two houses along Marktstrasse were spared which is unsurprising given the damage the town received during the war as shown on the right showing Obere Marktstraße-Klostergasse with the church still in the background. The
reconstruction following the war led to a loss of the traditional
architecture in the cityscape. However, it managed to preserve much of
the historical character of the old town.In the historic town centre of Neumarkt, 92 percent of the building fabric lay in ruins. Today's Voggenthal district was occupied by the Americans, so the Voggenthalers waited in vain at first and finally asked the troops in the neighbouring Höhenberg to be liberated as well.
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On the left the Gasthaus Zum Hechten at Untere Marktstraße 3 shown covered in Nazi flags and today; the building appears to have been completed replaced. A few bombs fell on Ingolstädterstrasse and Hallstrasse. 22 Neumarkters lost their lives in this attack. A collapsing bunker buried ninety Russian forced labourers in the industrial area as a German guard too was killed. Even the cover ditch built at the station to protect against bomb and grenade splinters could not withstand the detonations. The inmates of a fully occupied train of refugees from Hungary had also taken shelter there. However, the ditch, closed by a thick layer of concrete, became an inescapable death trap, because despite the rapid deployment of a rescue team, it wasn't possible to rescue any survivors. After the horror of the attack, the people of Neumarkt tried to repair the damage as quickly as possible. On April 11, bombs fell again on Neumarkt. As on February 23, this attack by the 8th American Air Force was primarily aimed at the repaired train station. The 71 planes approaching from the north dropped far fewer bombs than in the first attack, but most contained twice the explosive charge. However, many bombs missed their actual target and instead hit the city centre, where severe damage was caused to the upper and lower market and especially in the Johannisviertel. The civilian population withdrew to the surrounding suburbs of Woffenbach, Pölling and Berg. The last few who remained in the city tried several times to hand over the city without a fight to the American troops who had advanced to Postbauer-Heng and Berg, but two ϟϟ divisions resisted until the end, reinforced by an Hungarian ϟϟ division. Meanwhile, On April 17, about twenty to 30 men of the 17th ϟϟ Panzergrenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" had entrenched themselves in the city with the task of taking part in the defence of Nuremberg with one regiment. .gif)
Above all, however, they were to set up a defensive line with two regiments south of Nuremberg. On Wednesday, April 18, at around 14.30, American artillery opened fire from the north and north-west. The ϟϟ responded with gunfire, supported by artillery on the Jura heights forcing the American tanks approaching from the town of Berg to immediately withdraw to await reinforcements. The advancing American artillery began targeting Neumarkt with their guns. Airplanes with explosive and incendiary bombs and phosphorus canisters on board were deployed in support. On the morning of April 19, three American Sherman tanks attempted to advance into the town via Badstrasse. However, when they got to the tax office, they were shot at by the ϟϟ with an anti-tank gun. Two American tanks were hit and burned out. After this costly advance, the Americans intensified their artillery fire on Neumarkt on April 19 and again used aircraft with bombs until the entire city centre was engulfed in flames. There were fierce battles between American and German soldiers throughout the city. Among other things, an American was pushed back into the Hofkirche, where the scars of the battle are still in the base of the main altar. After the resistance of the ϟϟ was broken on April 22, the city resembled a desolate stone desert. Fires broke out here and there leaving burned-out houses with ghostly facades; only two houses along Marktstrasse were spared which is unsurprising given the damage the town received during the war as shown on the right showing Obere Marktstraße-Klostergasse with the church still in the background. The
reconstruction following the war led to a loss of the traditional
architecture in the cityscape. However, it managed to preserve much of
the historical character of the old town.In the historic town centre of Neumarkt, 92 percent of the building fabric lay in ruins. Today's Voggenthal district was occupied by the Americans, so the Voggenthalers waited in vain at first and finally asked the troops in the neighbouring Höhenberg to be liberated as well. Waldmünchen
Adolf-Hitler-Platz then and now. In 1940, the district was enlarged by eleven Czechoslovakian municipalities (partly Sudeten-German, partly Czech-speaking).
When the Americans approached the Gau capital of the Bavarian Ostmark in Bayreuth in April 1945, Gauleiter Fritz Wächtler fled to the Grenzlandhotel Herzogau near Waldmünchen on April 13, 1945, where he had been living luxuriously. Wachtler was then shot there six days later at the instigation of his deputy, Ludwig Ruckdeschel, and on the orders of Hitler. Under the auspices of ϟϟ city commander Siegfried Stöhr and mayor and district leader Max Seidel, intensive preparations for defence were made involving the Waldmünchner Volkssturm. After several hours of fire, 30% of the city was destroyed. Units of the 90th American Infantry Division ("Tough Ombres") on April 26 succeeded against violent opposition of the "30th. Waffen-Grenadier Division of the ϟϟ (White Ruthenian No. 1) as well as units of the 11th Panzerdivision (Gespensterdivision, or"Ghost Division "). In the surrounding area, in particular on the other side of the border with today's Czech Republic in the vicinity of today's partner town Waldmünchen Klenčí pod Čerchovem (Klentsch), heavy fighting was carried out against the 11th Panzerdivision with several dozen deaths until May 1. First elections under American supervision took place in 1946. The former Waldmünchener "Hinterland" in the area of the municipalities of Haselbach, Watersuppen (Nemanice) and Grafenried was completely cut off for 45 years by the Iron Curtain; by 1946 almost all inhabitants of German nationality were expelled from the villages of the former Sudetenland on the basis of the Beneš decrees; the villages Haselbach, Mauthaus, Anger, Seeg, Haselberg and Grafenried (where the parish church of St. Georg was demolished completely.
Weiden
.gif "Witt Weiden, hakenkreuz 1938")
.gif "Hans-Schemm-Schule, Weiden")
