HORRIBLE Crimes of Erhard Milch - The ONLY JEWISH Field MARSHAL in NAZI Germany - German Luftwaffe
HORRIBLE Crimes of Erhard Milch - The ONLY JEWISH Field MARSHAL in NAZI Germany - German Luftwaffe
HORRIBLE Crimes of Erhard Milch - The Only Jewish Field Marshal in Nazi Germany - German Luftwaffe. Erhard Milch was born on the 30th of March 1892 in Wilhelmshaven then part of the German Empire. On the 15th of September 1935 the Nazi regime announced two new laws : “The Reich Citizenship Law” which declared that only Aryans could be citizens of the Reich; and “The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor” which forbade marriages and extramarital sexual relations between Germans and Jews, the employment of German maids under the age of 45 in Jewish homes and the raising of the German flag by Jews. These laws informally became known as the Nuremberg Laws or Nuremberg Race Laws because they were first announced at a Nazi Party rally held in the German city of Nuremberg.
The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which became the legal basis for the racist anti-Jewish policy in Germany, because they wanted to put their ideas about race into law. They believed in the false theory that the world is divided into distinct races that are not equally strong and valuable. The Nazis considered Germans to be members of the supposedly superior “Aryan” race. They saw the so-called Aryan German race as the strongest, and most valuable race of all.
World War 2 started on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The campaign in Poland ended on the 6th of October the same year with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of the country.
During the invasion of Denmark and Norway which was codenamed Operation Weserübung, Milch commanded Luftflotte 5, which was one of the primary divisions of the German Luftwaffe in World War II formed in April 1940 for the invasion of Norway.
Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway on the 9th of April 1940. Strategically, Denmark’s importance to Germany was as a staging area for operations in Norway.
In Norway, Germany sought to secure naval bases for use against the British fleet in the North Sea and to guarantee vital iron-ore shipments from neutral Sweden on which Nazi Germany was dependent.
While the invasion of Denmark lasted less than six hours and was the shortest military campaign conducted by the Germans during the war, Norway surrendered to Germany only after 2 months on the 10th of June 1940.
Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent on foot marches to prisoner camps and later to labor camps all over the Soviet Union. Some 35,000 were eventually sent on transports, of which 17,000 did not survive. Most died of wounds, disease - particularly typhus, cold, overwork, mistreatment and malnutrition. Some were kept in the city to help rebuild it.
Only 5,000 to 6,000 would return to Germany after the war.
From March 1944, Milch, together with Speer, established a Fighter Staff committee - a task force to increase the production of fighter aircraft, in part by moving the production facilities underground. In cooperation with the SS, the task force played a key role in the exploitation of slave labour for the benefit of the German aircraft industry and the Luftwaffe.
Production of German fighter aircraft more than doubled between 1943 and 1944. The growth, however, consisted in large part of models that were becoming obsolescent and proved easy prey for Allied aircraft.
The SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects for various concentration camps including Mittelbau-Dora. Prisoners worked for Junkers, Messerschmitt, Henschel and BMW, among others. By 1944, 140,000 people were working in Speer’s underground factories which were death-traps. Discipline was brutal, with regular executions. Such was a case of the Mittelbau-Dora underground factory - there were so many corpses that the crematorium was overwhelmed. Speer’s own staff described the conditions there as “hell”.
In 1944 Milch sided with Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, in attempting to convince Adolf Hitler to remove Göring from command of the Luftwaffe. However, Hitler refused and Göring retaliated by forcing Milch out of his positions as State Secretary and Chief of Procurement and Supply on the 20th of June 1944.
In August of the same year Milch was appointed as Speer’s deputy, but was sidelined and achieved little.
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Content
0.42 -> The 1st of September 1939. Nazi Germany invades
Poland triggering World War 2. The German
8.34 -> Luftwaffe - one of the most technologically
advanced air forces in the world, proves
12.84 -> instrumental in the German victories across
Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940.
19.32 -> However, as the war drags on, the Luftwaffe
is eroded in strength and German defeats
25.2 -> at the Battle of Stalingrad and in the
Battle of Kursk in 1943 ensure the gradual
30.06 -> decline of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
The failure to maximize production immediately
35.28 -> after the failures in the Soviet Union and North
Africa ensures the Luftwaffe's effective defeat
41.22 -> in the period of September 1943 and February 1944.
As a result, in 1943 and 1944, aircraft production
50.76 -> is moved to concentration camps in order
to alleviate labor shortages and to protect
55.5 -> production from Allied air raids. The two
largest aircraft factories in Germany are
61.14 -> located at Mauthausen-Gusen and Mittelbau-Dora
concentration camps. Aircraft parts are also
67.14 -> manufactured at Flossenbürg, Buchenwald, Dachau,
Ravensbrück and other concentration camps.
73.44 -> In 1944 and 1945, as many as 90,000 concentration
prisoners work in the aviation industry,
81.18 -> and equate to about one tenth of the concentration
camp population over the winter of 1944–1945.
88.5 -> One man who is behind Luftwaffe aircraft
production, armament and supply as well
93.9 -> as use of the slave labour of civilians
and prisoners of war for German aircraft
98.28 -> production is a Nazi Field Marshal
with Jewish origins Erhard Milch.
105.047 -> Erhard Milch was born on the 30th of March 1892 in
Wilhelmshaven then part of the German Empire.
111.78 -> Erhard was a son of son of Anton Milch,
114.06 -> a Jewish pharmacist who served in the Imperial
German Navy, and his non-Jewish wife Clara.
118.86 -> In 1910 Milch enlisted in the German Army
where one year later he rose to the rank of
124.38 -> lieutenant of the Foot Artillery Regiment.
At the beginning of the First World War
128.58 -> which started on the 28th of July 1914, Milch
commanded an artillery unit in East Prussia.
134.76 -> In July 1915, he was trained and deployed as
an aircraft observer on the Western front,
140.76 -> seeing action on the Somme in 1916
and later in Flanders during 1917.
146.94 -> He was also awarded the Iron Cross First
Class and shortly before the end of the war
151.86 -> he was promoted to captain and appointed
to command a fighter wing - Jagdgruppe
156.12 -> 6 - even though he had never trained
as a pilot and could not fly himself.
159.72 -> The First World War ended on the
11th of November 1918 when the
165.24 -> German leaders signed the armistice
in the Compiègne Forest in France.
169.2 -> 2 years later in 1920, Milch resigned from the
military to pursue a career in civil aviation.
175.74 -> With squadron colleague Gotthard Sachsenberg,
Milch formed a small airline in Danzig,
180.9 -> today’s Gdańsk, which linked
the city to the Baltic States.
183.78 -> In 1926, Milch was named a technical director
and board member of the newly-formed airline
189.9 -> Deutsche Luft Hansa, the forerunner
of modern German airline Lufthansa,
194.1 -> which served as German flag carrier.
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came
199.5 -> into power in Germany in January 1933. On the
27th of April of the same year the Nazis created
206.4 -> the Ministry of Aviation which was in charge
of development and production of all aircraft
211.14 -> developed, designed and built in Germany
during the existence of the Third Reich,
215.28 -> overseeing all matters concerning
both military and civilian designs.
219.72 -> In the newly formed ministry, Erhard Milch
took up a position as State Secretary answering
225 -> directly to Hermann Göring - the minister.
In this capacity, Milch was instrumental in
230.28 -> establishing the Luftwaffe, the air force of Nazi
Germany and oversaw the planning and development
235.2 -> of some of the best aircraft of the world like
the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter-plane that was,
240.54 -> alongside with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the
backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force.
245.28 -> On the 15th of September 1935 the Nazi
regime announced two new laws : “The
251.88 -> Reich Citizenship Law” which declared that
only Aryans could be citizens of the Reich;
256.2 -> and “The Law for the Protection of German
Blood and Honor” which forbade marriages
260.16 -> and extramarital sexual relations between
Germans and Jews, the employment of German
264.72 -> maids under the age of 45 in Jewish homes
and the raising of the German flag by Jews.
270 -> These laws informally became known as the
Nuremberg Laws or Nuremberg Race Laws because
275.46 -> they were first announced at a Nazi Party
rally held in the German city of Nuremberg.
279.42 -> The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which became
the legal basis for the racist anti-Jewish policy
285.66 -> in Germany, because they wanted to put their
ideas about race into law. They believed in the
290.82 -> false theory that the world is divided into
distinct races that are not equally strong
295.32 -> and valuable. The Nazis considered Germans to be
members of the supposedly superior “Aryan” race.
301.68 -> They saw the so-called Aryan German race as
the strongest, and most valuable race of all.
307.38 -> According to the Nazis, Jews were not Aryans.
They thought Jews belonged to a separate race
313.02 -> that was inferior to all other races. The
Nazis believed that the presence of Jews
317.88 -> in Germany threatened the German people and
that they had to separate Jews from other
321.96 -> Germans to protect and strengthen Germany.
Thirteen additional decrees were added to
327.36 -> the Nuremberg Laws over the next 8 years. These
included the first official definition of who
332.52 -> was to be considered a Jew and who an Aryan.
Jews with three or four Jewish grandparents
337.68 -> were considered full- blooded Jews.
According to the Nuremberg Laws,
341.64 -> Erhard Milch was a “Mischling of the first
grade”. Mischling was a pejorative legal
346.5 -> term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons
of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan ancestry.
351.54 -> In 1935 doubts about the ethnic origin of
Erhard Milch began when rumors circulated
357.36 -> that his father Anton Milch was Jewish. The
Gestapo began an investigation but it was
362.82 -> stopped by Hermann Göring, who forced Erhard's
mother to sign a document that Anton Milch was
367.92 -> not the true father of Erhard and his 4 siblings
but that it was her uncle Karl Brauer. That would
373.86 -> mean that Milch's mother, Clara, committed not
only adultery but also incest. Clara’s uncle as
380.22 -> well as husband were deceased at the time when
this documentation was put together. When this
384.84 -> “evidence” was presented to Hitler, he accepted
it and declared Milch a “100 percent” Aryan.
391.26 -> Those events and the later extension
of the "Certificate of German Blood"
394.98 -> were the background to Göring's statement,
"I decide who is a Jew in the airforce".
400.44 -> Milch’s case shows that the
Nazis did not object to incest,
403.98 -> but Jewish ancestry was indeed a problem.
406.56 -> On the 1st of February 1939, Milch, now
with the rank of Generaloberst which was
413.28 -> equivalent to Colonel General, was given
the additional job of Inspector-General of
417.06 -> the Luftwaffe frequently attending
conferences on behalf of Göring.
420.84 -> World War 2 started on the 1st of
September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.
427.68 -> The campaign in Poland ended on the 6th
of October the same year with Germany
432.12 -> and the Soviet Union dividing and
annexing the whole of the country.
435.24 -> During the invasion of Denmark and Norway
which was codenamed Operation Weserübung,
440.28 -> Milch commanded Luftflotte 5, which
was one of the primary divisions of
444.12 -> the German Luftwaffe in World War II formed
in April 1940 for the invasion of Norway.
449.82 -> Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway
on the 9th of April 1940. Strategically,
455.46 -> Denmark's importance to Germany was as
a staging area for operations in Norway.
459.96 -> In Norway, Germany sought to secure naval
bases for use against the British fleet
465 -> in the North Sea and to guarantee vital
iron-ore shipments from neutral Sweden
469.26 -> on which Nazi Germany was dependent.
While the invasion of Denmark lasted
473.46 -> less than six hours and was the shortest military
campaign conducted by the Germans during the war,
477.78 -> Norway surrendered to Germany only
after 2 months on the 10th of June 1940.
482.88 -> In the great wave of promotions that followed
the “Fall of France” in June the same year,
487.56 -> Milch was promoted to Field Marshal
during Field Marshal Ceremony held
491.82 -> in Berlin in which Adolf Hitler
promoted twelve generals to the
495.24 -> rank of “field marshal" on the 19th of
July 1940. It was the first occasion in
500.7 -> World War II that Hitler appointed field
marshals due to military achievements.
505.26 -> Following the suicide of Colonel
General Ernst Udet in November 1941,
509.7 -> Milch succeeded him as Chief of Procurement and
Supply and became responsible for all - Luftwaffe
515.28 -> aircraft production, armament and supply.
This was a massive organization supervising
520.38 -> over 26 departments and requiring organizational
qualities, for which Udet was had not been best
525.78 -> equipped. Udet had neglected the technical
development of the Luftwaffe and shortened
530.52 -> the production cycles of new types by releasing
them for production before they were ready for
534.72 -> series production. Milch cancelled production
of the ineffective and dangerous Heinkel 177
540.54 -> and heavy fighter Messerschmitt Me 210 and put
them back in development. The failure of the Me
546.735 -> 210's development program meant the Luftwaffe was
forced to continue operating the Bf 110 after it
552.42 -> had become outdated, despite mounting losses.
In April 1942 Milch was named to the Central
558.66 -> Planning Board along with Albert Speer - Reich
Minister of Armaments and War Production,
563.16 -> and Paul Körner - State Secretary of the
Four Year Plan, in an effort to coordinate
567.84 -> control over all industrial war production. The
same year he received an endowment of 250,000
575.1 -> Reichsmarks from Adolf Hitler with
which he could buy himself an estate.
578.7 -> In January 1943, Hitler, who valued Milch's talent
for his organizational skill, gave him the task of
585.42 -> providing air supplies to the surrounded units
of the 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad,
589.86 -> which had previously been Göring's task.
When the Sixth Army was surrounded by
594 -> the end of November in Operation Uranus,
Göring promised that the Luftwaffe would
598.32 -> be able to deliver a minimum of 300 tons
of supplies to the trapped men every day.
603 -> On the basis of these assurances, Hitler
demanded that there be no retreat; they were
608.4 -> to fight to the last man. Though some airlifts
were able to get through, the amount of supplies
613.56 -> delivered never exceeded 120 tons per day.
To save the situation, Milch traveled directly
619.74 -> to the front with close associates from the
Reich Air Ministry. However, it was too late.
624.72 -> The task turned out to be unattainable: there were
too few flying personnel, too few aircraft and,
630.6 -> in particular, no suitable airfields and
landing sites within reach of Stalingrad.
635.58 -> Soon after, the German 6th Army, regarded
as the best field army in the Wehrmacht,
640.38 -> surrendered between the 31st of
January and the 2nd of February 1943.
645.78 -> German casualties were 147,200 killed and
wounded and over 91,000 captured including
653.4 -> 24 generals and 2,500 officers of lesser rank.
At the time of surrender, the Red Army soldiers
660.3 -> were well nourished, full of vigor and dressed
in fine winter uniforms. The German soldiers -
666.18 -> ragged, in thin greatcoats over threadbare
uniforms, as thin as skeletons - presented
671.46 -> emaciated figures exhausted half to death, with
sunken features. Unwashed, with unkempt beards,
678.24 -> they wore comical-looking makeshift snow boots and
were wrapped in towels and women’s headscarves.
683.76 -> Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of
medical care during the encirclement, they
688.98 -> were sent on foot marches to prisoner camps and
later to labor camps all over the Soviet Union.
694.44 -> Some 35,000 were eventually
sent on transports, of which
698.88 -> 17,000 did not survive. Most died of
wounds, disease - particularly typhus,
703.92 -> cold, overwork, mistreatment and malnutrition.
Some were kept in the city to help rebuild it.
710.94 -> Only 5,000 to 6,000 would
return to Germany after the war.
714.78 -> By this time, Milch had passed the zenith
of his career. The ever-increasing Allied
720 -> air raids on Reich territory from the summer of
1943 and the associated loss of air sovereignty
725.64 -> ultimately led to a loss of confidence on the
part of both Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler.
731.28 -> This loss of power continued
when at the beginning of 1944,
734.88 -> after devastating Allied attacks on
German cities and armaments targets
739.08 -> during the Allied Big Week from the 20th to 25th
of February 1944, Milch had to hand over fighter
745.5 -> production to the Ministry of Armament
and War production led by Albert Speer.
750.12 -> From March 1944, Milch, together with Speer,
established a Fighter Staff committee - a task
756.48 -> force to increase the production of fighter
aircraft, in part by moving the production
760.2 -> facilities underground. In cooperation with
the SS, the task force played a key role in
766.44 -> the exploitation of slave labour for the benefit
of the German aircraft industry and the Luftwaffe.
771.18 -> Production of German fighter aircraft
more than doubled between 1943 and 1944.
777.84 -> The growth, however, consisted
in large part of models that were
781.32 -> becoming obsolescent and proved
easy prey for Allied aircraft.
785.52 -> The SS provided 64,000 prisoners
for 20 separate projects for various
790.14 -> concentration camps including Mittelbau-Dora.
Prisoners worked for Junkers, Messerschmitt,
795.12 -> Henschel and BMW, among others. By 1944,
140,000 people were working in Speer's
802.26 -> underground factories which were death-traps.
Discipline was brutal, with regular executions.
808.62 -> Such was a case of the Mittelbau-Dora underground
factory - there were so many corpses that the
813.96 -> crematorium was overwhelmed. Speer's own staff
described the conditions there as "hell".
819.3 -> In 1944 Milch sided with Joseph Goebbels, the
propaganda minister and Heinrich Himmler, the head
825.78 -> of the SS, in attempting to convince Adolf Hitler
to remove Göring from command of the Luftwaffe.
831.6 -> However, Hitler refused and Göring retaliated
by forcing Milch out of his positions as State
837.06 -> Secretary and Chief of Procurement
and Supply on the 20th of June 1944.
842.16 -> In August of the same year Milch
was appointed as Speer's deputy,
846.24 -> but was sidelined and achieved little.
848.4 -> In the fall of 1944 he was injured in a car
accident and hospitalized for several weeks.
854.88 -> In March 1945, Milch was placed into the
“Führer reserve” which was a pool of temporarily
860.4 -> unoccupied high-ranking military officers awaiting
new assignments. However, he was never reassigned.
866.28 -> Following Hitler's suicide, Erhard
Milch attempted to flee Germany,
870.72 -> but was apprehended by Allied forces on
the Baltic coast on the 4th of May 1945.
876.84 -> Upon surrendering, he presented his
field-marshals' baton to British Brigadier
881.16 -> Derek Mills-Roberts, who was so disgusted
and angered by the atrocities he had seen
885.48 -> when liberating the Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp that he demanded to know Milch's thoughts
889.74 -> on the terrible sights witnessed. Milch's reply in
English was supposedly along the lines of - "these
895.98 -> people are not human beings in the same way as
you and me". This so infuriated Mills-Roberts
902.34 -> that he seized the Field Marshal's baton from
under Milch's arm and proceeded to brutally beat
906.54 -> Milch over the head with it until it broke,
afterwards switching to a champagne bottle.
912.36 -> The following day, Mills-Roberts went to Field
Marshal Bernard Montgomery to apologize for
917.64 -> losing his temper with a senior German prisoner
of war, only for Montgomery to cover his head
922.62 -> with his hands in mock self-protection and joke
"I hear you've got a thing about Field Marshals",
928.02 -> with nothing more said regarding Mills-Roberts'
indiscretion. The incident left Milch,
933.84 -> Nazi field marshal with Jewish origins, with
several contusions and a fractured skull.
938.88 -> In the end, justice finally caught
up with Milch when he was tried at
943.32 -> the Milch Trial which began
on the 2nd of January 1947.
947.1 -> His indictment listed three counts:
1) participation in the planning and
952.38 -> execution of war crimes, namely the subjection
of prisoners of war and foreign nationals
957.24 -> to murder, cruel treatment, and forced labor
2) participation in the planning and execution
962.4 -> of war crimes, specifically participation
in two medical experiments dealing with the
966.96 -> effects of high-altitude and freezing
3) and crimes against humanity
970.68 -> Milch pleaded "not guilty" on all
charges and denied everything.
976.32 -> When he was asked if he had knowledge that there
had been mass deportations of Jews to the Eastern
980.76 -> territories and when he first heard about it,
he replied “ I cannot give the exact date. Once,
986.46 -> in some way or another, I can no longer remember
how, the information did reach me that Jews had
992.22 -> been settled in special ghetto towns in the East.
I think it must have been in 1944 or thereabout,
997.74 -> but I cannot guarantee that this date is exact.”
When he was asked if he knew that these
1003.32 -> mass deportations were, in effect, a
preliminary step to mass extermination,
1007.46 -> he replied “ No, we were never told that.”
When questioned if he had any idea about the
1013.82 -> existence of the Auschwitz extermination
camp, he replied: “ No. I first heard of
1018.8 -> the name much later. I read it in
the press after I was captured.”
1023 -> Considering his position in the Third Reich, this
was clearly a lie. And it was not the only one.
1028.82 -> In relation to Einsatzkommandos that were
employed in the East to carry out large-scale
1033.26 -> exterminations of Jews he claimed “ The first
I heard of these Einsatzkommandos was here in
1038.72 -> prison in Nuremberg. I know nothing at all
about the extermination of Jewish citizens”.
1044.66 -> One year earlier during the Nuremberg trials in
1946, Milch, then a witness for the prosecution,
1050.84 -> had also been also questioned about his Jewish
father and Göring's role in the matter by Chief
1055.58 -> United States Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson. When
Jackson asked Erhard Milch: “Göring made you what
1062.18 -> you call a full Aryan; was that it?” Milch replied
“I do not think he made me one. I was one.”
1069.14 -> Even in the end Milch could not acknowledge that
his father was a Jew and he himself was a key
1074.36 -> figure in the Nazi Regime which was responsible
for the mass murder of six million Jews.
1079.76 -> However, his lies did not help him escape justice.
1083.66 -> After 39 trial days, with 34 witnesses
and 212 written exhibits introduced,
1089.66 -> the trial concluded on the 25th of March 1947.
On the 17th of April American military tribunal
1097.16 -> found Erhard Milch guilty of counts
one and three – war crimes and crimes
1101.84 -> against humanity and sentenced him to life
imprisonment at Rebdorf Prison, near Munich.
1107.54 -> However, in 1951, the sentence was commuted to
15 years and in June 1954, Milch was paroled.
1114.92 -> He lived out the remainder of his
life as a free man in Düsseldorf.
1118.52 -> Milch, the last living Luftwaffe field marshal,
1121.94 -> was 79 years old when he died
on the 25th of January 1972.
1128.06 -> There were no tears shed for Erhard Milch.
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