Nazis Couldn’t Sleep Because of the Searchlights…

Doesn’t this article just break your heart? I shed so many tears I filled a bucket. The poor Nazis couldn’t get to sleep because there was too much light. Isn’t that shocking? It’s a human right to sleep in the dark without intrusive lights interrupting their sleep.

Someone should have given me a gun and I would have sent them to sleep very easily. The searchlights would not have bothered them although the fires of hell are far more brutal and difficult to get to sleep than a little searchlight. The following Nazi sob story was in the Guardian Newspaper

Letter released to National Archives reveals how chancellor of West Germany complained about conditions for inmates including Albert Speer

Nazi war criminals in Spandau prison ‘could not sleep due to searchlights’
Letter released to National Archives reveals how chancellor of West Germany complained about conditions for inmates including Albert Speer

Nazi war criminals held in the infamous Spandau prison after the second world were treated “exceedingly harshly”, and could not sleep because of constant security searchlights, according to Konrad Adenauer, West Germany’s first postwar chancellor, in a letter released by the National Archives.

Inmates at the Berlin jail – the running of which was shared on monthly rotation between the Allied powers of UK, US, France and Soviet Union – were also prohibited from conversing or reading, Adenauer complained to Allied officials in the letter, dated 21 June 1950.

Food, which “had always been bad during the Russian months”, had become “very bad and deficient” again, he said.

Adenauer’s intervention on behalf of the prisoners, which at that time included Albert Speer and Rudolf Hess, is among a cache of documents from the Allied administration of Berlin that have been declassified.

The West German chancellor also complained that clergymen were not permitted to visit inmates. “The pope some time ago had his blessings transmitted to one of the prisoners,” he wrote. “The prisoner was never informed of this but heard it only when his daughter visited him.

“For humanitarian reasons,” Adenauer added, “I feel moved to ask [that] the governments [the Allied occupying powers] to cause conditions in the military prison at Spandau to be investigated and to take steps to ensure that penal practice be adapted to the principles prevailing in civilised countries.”

British, French and US authorities who met the following day to assess the complaints partially blamed the Soviets for the conditions. The three western powers agreed to reduce the frequency with which the lights were turned on at night.

In July 1950, the secretariat of the Allied High Commission for Germany wrote back to Adenauer. “Contrary to the information which appears to have been given to you, it is neither prohibited for prisoners … to talk or read,” he said. “Their food is quite adequate during the months of management by the western powers and even during the Soviet month the regular amount of calories is provided.”

However, the chancellor was informed, lampshades would in future be provided for lights in the men’s cells and the frequency of night security searches would be “reduced to a minimum”.

The post Nazis Couldn’t Sleep Because of the Searchlights… appeared first on Zoe Lambros Journal.

Finding Time to Laugh Article I wrote for Women & Words

I’ve written an article for the site Women & Words and I talk about how writers / authors need to give readers a respite from the dark and gritty world with our stories. I also discuss how two of my stories are made into radio plays and how relevant they are today (sexual harassment/ misogyny and the other deals with refugees) even though they cover topics that were just as important in 1948/1950.

Guest Blog: Introducing Historical Fiction Author Roberta Kagan

Guest Blog: Introducing Historical Fiction Author Roberta Kagan

02 April 2017

I’m thrilled to introduce to you one of my dearest friends and historical fiction author Roberta Kagan. Roberta writes historical fiction based around the time of the holocaust and the aftermath. Get to know Roberta a little, subscribe to her mailing list / Facebook group and get acquainted with her All My Love, Detrick series of novels. You can see a link to my review of the first book in the series in the links section below.

INTRODUCING ROBERTA KAGAN

Let me introduce myself, name is Roberta Kagan. I am an author of Historical Fiction most of which is set during the Holocaust.

First off, I would like to thank MaryD for featuring me on her blog. I am truly honored. I’ve read several of Mary’s books and she is a truly talented writer. Her novels are historically rich with tender believable characters that wrap themselves around the readers heart and don’t let go until the last page is turned.   But, what I didn’t know about Mary is that she is also an incredible artist. She has a natural eye for color and design that is a striking as it is symbolic. As I said, she is a true artist.  In fact, if you have a moment you can see her artwork on the cover of my novel “You Are My Sunshine.” It’s on Amazon. Her work is magnificent, isn’t it?

Now, a little about my books and why I write what I write. My mother was Jewish and my father was Romany, they both lost family during Hitler’s terrible reign, and I grew up with the dark cloud of their memories always hovering over us. I couldn’t understand how something as horrific as the systematic murder of eleven million people could actually be carried out by a society as civilized as Germany was before Hitler. So, I studied, I read everything I could find, and I met with survivors. I talked to children of SS officers and to many Holocaust deniers. And you know what…I still have no answers as to how people can be so cruel. But, I do know how Hitler got in to power, I know how it all started and then how it slowly grew into the monster if finally became. But, I also know, and I want the world to know, that not all German’s were Nazi’s and not all Jews were perfect. I have learned that there were unsung heroes who risked their own lives to save strangers and there were unexpected villains in the most unlikely of places. And these things I know for certain and so they are reflected in my books.

Two more themes run through all of my work:

The first is that the years are passing quickly and soon all of the Holocaust survivors will be gone. If we are ever to learn the lessons of the Holocaust, then their memories must not be lost when they leave us on this earth. And, so I write their stories to keep their legacies alive. Of course, I don’t delude myself into believing that the struggles of hatred and prejudice have ended.   I know that today, there are still so many places on this earth where people suffer from the hatred of a government that discriminates against them, and unfortunately, torture and murder by one group against another had not been obliterated.   And because of this, keeping the flame of the Holocaust lit is so essential to promote understanding and hopefully someday to bring about change for the better.

The second theme that runs through every book I’ve ever written is the very important message of hope. I’ve met with and interviewed many survivors and the main artery that I could say ran through each of their stories, was that they never lost hope. And so in each of my books you will find a mention of the following words “a flicker of light.” In fact it is even a title of one of my novels. When you see this reference this is what it means: Even in the darkest hour, there is always a flicker of light.   That flicker is always the same.. it is hope, and love.

I believe that each of us has a purpose. For me, I believe that writing these books is mine. If in some small way, I can make difference through my work than the world will be a better place for my having been here .

Links

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