Only this year....six years after my father’s death, when the historian from the 3rd Army 455th Battalion contacted me, did I learn about the hero he truly was. I knew all my life that he fought demons from WWII, but I never knew exactly how big they were until this year. I also learned that he had recieved 5 bronze stars.....he told me of only one. I think because the circumstances surrounding them were too horrific to mention. So my trip to Germany and Nuremberg has been somewhat of a pilgrimage to see what he had faced.
It is hard to believe upon entering Nurembuerg that it had been 80% destroyed in WWII. Buildings have been restored to their original grandeur and only on close scrutiny, can you see that they are indeed modern buildings.
The city is very beautiful. As we drove toward Alstadt (old town) we passed the train station and the opera house. Hitler loved Wagner Operas because Wagner too, had been an anti-semite. I was somewhat shocked to discover that to this day a Wagner Opera is always being performed. Across the street from the Opera house is an abandoned Hotel where Hitler always stayed.
This is not that great a picture, I snapped it as we sat at the light. The building on the left is the Opera house. The playbills are posted on the wall as you go by. The building across the street is where Hitler stayed. His favorite Opera, name now excapes me, was 7 hours long. He made his men go with him only to have them sleep through it snoring. Afrer several attempts at making them “enjoy” the opera he gave up.
Or next stop was at the GermanischsNationalmuseum. This is the most important general museum of German culture in the country. ( It is outside the wall encircling the Aldstadt. There are a wealth of museums inside Aldstadt as well. ) The Allies deliberately chose this as the site for the NaziWar Criminal trials because of its importance to the German people.
For the Trial the chandeliers were removed and replaced with spot lights so the faces of the defendants could be clearly seen.
The courtroom as it was during the Trials. The wall was removed to make the room larger. The judges backs were to the heavily draped windows. Directly across was a door where the prisoners could be brought via a tunnel directly from the prison behind the building.
Courtroom as it is today. It is a working courtroom, had a case been scheduled we woud not have been able to see it.
This is a crucifix inside the courtroom. The state of Bavaria has separation of church and state but this is in the courtroom. If anyone objects it is covered with a sheet but still remains. I do not know when it was placed in the courtroom. It does not appear to have been there when the war trial were there....will have to look that up.
Hitler’s plans included making Nuremberg into the City of Party Rallies. His plans were so vast it was almost hard for me to wrap my brain around them. The structures he planned were to impress, intimidate, demand discipline and give all Germans a feeling of community. He immersed himself in the building of every phase. The party Rally grounds was to be 11 square kilometres. They included the Luitpold area, marching field for up to 150,000 people, Congress Hall similar to the coliseum in Rome, Zeppelin Field, the only part of the plan that was completed, Muncipal Stadium to to hold between 50,000 and 60,000 Hitler Youth for rallies, the Great Street to link with Nuremburg’s Imperial Castle, the German Stadium to hold 400,000 spectators for the Oympic games but by then they would only include Germans, this never got past the excavation stage, the marching field for staged battle scenes ro prepare Germans for war, the camp area to accommodate all Nazi organizations,and the Strength Through Joy Town, which would have consisted of beer halls, open air theaters and bowling alleys. Only Zeppelin field was finished.....
It is used today as soccer fields and for concerts. The first concert held here was in the 1960s..a Jewish man by the name of Bob Dylan performed......
From here we went to the unfinished Congress Hall. Its design was loosely based on that of hte Roman coliseum. Hitler wanted it to be grander than practical. He placed it on the bank of Dutzendteich Lake. The building was so heavy, that had it been finished, it would have sunk into the lake. It would have been used for the Party Congress meetings once a year and would have seated 50,000 people.
Driving up to the Congress Hall it looks like a huge abandoned construction site. Weeds and bushes are overgrown. For years they could not figure out what to do with it. The city considered making it a shopping mall and numerous other things but no one could agree. Then the Jewish league suggested that it be a museum telling about the war and the holocaust. It was agreed to. The only change in the building that was made was that a huge dagger
be built dividing the building.
This is how far the construction of congress Hall had gotten by 1943. It was still not to its planned height.
The building in the lower part of the picture is how Congress Hall had been planned to look. It would have had a glass top so that when Hitler spoke he would have had a beam of light shining around him as he spoke.
Outside of Congress Hall
The inside and outside of the building was to be covered with marble...each piece chosen by Hitler himself.
I mentioned my father before. The historian told me that 85 men of the 455 anti-aircraft battalion were pulled from their unit to protect General Eisenhauer when he went in to liberate the first concentration camp. Fifty five of the men were ambushed. My father was one of the remianing 30. They marched the population of the town through the camp for them to see what they had condoned........ Dad tried many times to tell me about “picking up a few prisoners" from a concentration camp, but his voice always broke....he never finished telling me the story.
