NETFLIX UK DARK TOURIST ATTRACTION HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL, FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE GL14 3NL… FEATURING …. BRITISH WW2 FEMALE SOE (SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE ) SECRET AGENT AND HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO, GEORGE CROSS,M.B.E, CROIX de GUERRE, MEDAILLE DE LA RESISTANCE – 1921-1945

HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL WE FEATURE THE  BRITISH SECRET AGENT – VIOLETTE SZABO, ALONG WITH OTHER SOE HERO’S AND HEROINES, SAS (SPECIAL AIR SERVICE) AND  OTHER  UK SPECIAL FORCES.  NOT FORGETTING OF COURSE OUR WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION FOR WHICH WE FEATURE AND INCLUDE MANY OF THE ABOVE WHO HAD BEEN  CAPTURED, TORTURED AND SUBSEQUENTLY EXECUTED BY THE NAZI’S DURING THIS HORRIFIC PERIOD. WE ALSO HAVE A NUMBER OF PERSONALLY SIGNED EXHIBIT ITEMS KINDLY DONATED TO THE MUSEUM AND ON DISPLAY FROM VIOLETTE SZABO’S DAUGHTER – TANIA WHO HAS CARRIED ON THE LEGACY OF HER MOTHER SINCE HER DEATH IN 1945 . ABOVE & BELOW ….  Original oil paintings by our in-house Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman here on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail . SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO VIOLETTE’S DAUGHTER TANIA ORIGINAL FILM POSTER FROM THE EPIC FILM BASED ON VIOLETTE SZABO TANIA SZABO PROUDLY SHOWING HER MOTHER’S MEDALS SHE RECEIVED POSTHUMOUSLY TO ANDY JONES OF THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL BELOW ARE A FEW  PICTURES TAKEN AT  A RECENT GET-TOGETHER AND CATCH-UP WITH TANIA  , DAUGHTER OF  WW2 S.O.E. ( SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE )  HEROINE – VIOLETTE SZABO … PARTICULARLY SPECIAL WHEREBY SHE KINDLY BROUGHT ALONG AS A SURPRISE , HER MOTHERS GEORGE MEDAL , CROIX DE GUERRE AND THE MEDAILLE DE LA RESISTANCE  FOR WHICH TANIA HAD RECEIVED POSTHUMOUSLY AS A YOUNG CHILD. A GREAT PRIVILEGE TO HAVE SEEN AND HELD SUCH A HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT PIECE OF HISTORY .      BELOW: ANDY JONES  OF LITTLEDEAN JAIL WITH ACTRESS VIRGINIA McKENNA STAR OF THE FILM ”  CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE” AT A RECENT GARDEN PARTY FUNDRAISING EVENT AT THE LITTLE STONE SHED ‘VIOLETTE SZABO MUSEUM ‘ IN WORMELOW, HEREFORDSHIRE. BELOW: ANDY JONES  OF LITTLEDEAN JAIL WITH VIOLETTE SZABO’S DAUGHTER TANIA  AT A RECENT GARDEN PARTY FUNDRAISING EVENT AT THE LITTLE STONE SHED ‘VIOLETTE SZABO MUSEUM ‘ IN WORMELOW, HEREFORDSHIRE.   Below is a signed image of Tania Szabo wearing the medals she received posthumously for and behalf of her mother Violette now on display at the Crime Through Time Collection      VIOLETTE WITH DAUGHTER TANIA TANIA SZABO WEARING HER MOTHERS MEDALS SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO TANIA SZABO TANIA SZABO TANIA SZABO WEARING HER MOTHERS MEDALS SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO VIRGINIA McKENNA SIGNED FILM STILL ACTRESS VIRGINIA McKENNA WITH TANIA SZABO SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO VIRGINIA McKENNA SIGNED FILM STILL SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE FILM POSTER TANIA SZABO VISITS LITTLEDEAN JAIL SOE HEROINE VIOLETTE SZABO CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE FILM POSTER VIRGINIA McKENNA SIGNED FILM STILL CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE FILM POSTER 1ST DAY COVER SIGNED BY WW2 SOE HEROINE NANCY WAKE VIRGINIA McKENNA SIGNED FILM STILLS ANDY JONES WITH TANIA SZABO AT A RECENT VIOLETTE SZABO MEMORIAL EVENT AT THE VIOLETTE SZABO MUSEUM , WORMELOW IN 2014 ANDY JONES WITH VIRGINIA McKENNA AT A RECENT VIOLETTE SZABO MEMORIAL EVENT AT THE VIOLETTE SZABO MUSEUM , WORMELOW IN 2014 TANIA SZABO AT THE UNVEILING OF THE PLAQUE COMMEMORATING HER MOTHER AND OTHER SOE MEMBERS IN 2013 TANIA SZABO’S BOOK ON HER MOTHER 1ST DAY COVER SIGNED BY WW2 SOE HEROINE ODETTE HALLOWES ALONG WITH TANIA SZABO HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL, FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK ….. WE FEATURE MANY OF THE UK’S SPECIAL FORCES INCLUDING PERSONAL TESTAMENTS TO MANY OF OUR HEROINES INCLUDING SOE VIOLETTE SZABO WHO WAS CAPTURED , TORTURED AND  MURDERED BY THE NAZI’S AT RAVENSBRUCK CONCENTRATION CAMP IN 1945 (AGED 23)

Violette Szabo

NicknameLouise (also: La P’tite Anglaise)Born26 June 1921
Paris, FranceDied5 February 1945 (aged 23)
Ravensbrück, Nazi GermanyAllegianceUnited Kingdom, FranceService/branchSpecial Operations Executive,
First Aid Nursing YeomanryYears of service1941-1945 (FANY) /
1942/43-1945 (SOE)RankEnsignUnitF SectionAwards  George Cross  
   Croix de Guerre
    Medaille de la Resistance

Violette Szabo was born Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell in Paris, on 26 June 1921, the second child of a French mother and an English taxi-driver father, who had met during World War I. The family moved to London, and she attended school in Brixton until the age of 14. At the start of World War II, she was working at the perfume counter of Le Bon Marché, a department store in Brixton.

Violette met Étienne Szabo, a French officer of Hungarian descent, at the Bastille Day parade in London in 1940. They married on 21 August 1940 after a whirlwind 42-day romance. Violette was 19, Étienne was 31. Shortly after the birth of their only child, Tania, Étienne died from chest wounds at the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. He had never seen his daughter. It was Étienne’s death that made Violette, having already joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941, decide to offer her services to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Below shows Violette with her husband Etienne

After an assessment for fluency in French and a series of interviews, she was inducted into SOE. She received intensive training in night and daylight navigation; escape and evasion, both Allied and German weapons, unarmed combat, demolitions, explosives, communications and cryptography. In his book “Das Reich” Max Hastings comments that Szabo was adored by the men and women of SOE both for her courage and endless infectious cockney laughter. An ankle injury during parachute training delayed her deployment until 5 April 1944, when she parachuted into German-occupied France, near Cherbourg.

Under the code name “Louise”, which also happened to be her nickname, she and SOE colleague Philippe Liewer reorganised a Resistance network that had been broken up by the Germans. She led the new group in sabotaging road and railway bridges. Her wireless reports to SOE headquarters on the local factories producing war materials for the Germans were important in establishing Allied bombing targets. She returned to England by Lysander on 30 April 1944, landing at RAF Tempsford, after an intense but successful first mission.

Second mission

She flew to the outskirts of Limoges, France on 7 June 1944 (immediately following D-Day) from RAF Tempsford. Immediately on arrival, she coordinated the activities of the local Maquis (led by Jacques Dufour) in sabotaging communication lines during German attempts to stem the Normandy landings.

She was a passenger in a car that raised the suspicions of German troops at an unexpected roadblock that had been set up to find Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe of the Das Reich Division, who had been captured by the local resistance.

A brief gun battle ensued. Her Maquis minders escaped unscathed in the confusion. However, Szabo was captured when she ran out of ammunition, around midday on 10 June 1944, near Salon-la-Tour. Her captors were most likely from the 1st Battalion of 3rd SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Deutschland (Das Reich Division). In R.J. Minney’s biography she is described as putting up fierce resistance with her Sten gun, although German documents of the incident record no German injuries or casualties. A recent biography of Vera Atkins, the intelligence officer for the French section of SOE, notes that that there was a great deal of confusion about what happened to Szabo—the story was revised four times—and states that the Sten gun incident “was probably a fabrication.”

Interrogation, torture and execution

She was transferred to the custody of the Sicherheitsdienst(SD) (SS Security Service) in Limoges, where she was interrogated for four days. From there, she was moved to Fresnes Prison in Paris and brought to Gestapo headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch for interrogation and torture. In August 1944, she was moved to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where over 92,000 women died. Although she endured hard labour and malnutrition, she managed to help save the life of Belgian resistance courier Hortense Clews.

Violette Szabo was executed, aged 23, by SS firing squad on or about 5 February 1945. Her body was cremated in the camp’s crematorium.

Three other women members of the SOE were also executed at Ravensbrück: Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort, and Lilian Rolfe. Of the SOE’s 55 female agents, thirteen were killed in action or died in Nazi concentration camps

BELOW ARE SOME BRIEF IMAGES OF AN ORIGINAL WW2 “F.A.N.Y” (FIRST AID NURSING YEOMANRY ) – WTS (WOMENS TRANSPORT SERVICES ) UNIFORM COMPLETE WITH ITS ORIGINAL WW2 ISSUE GAS MASK … AS WOULD HAVE ALSO BEEN WORN BY VIOLETTE SZABO DURING HER DUTIES PRIOR TO HAVING BEEN SECONDED TO THE SOE  (SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE ) AS A BRITISH SECRET AGENT .

A VERY SCARCE AND HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER HISTORIC ITEM IN ITS OWN RIGHT  DISPLAYED HERE TOO IN AND AMONGST OTHER WW2 F.A.N.Y , ATS, WTS ETC ETC WOMEN IN WARTIME MOVEMENTS

BELOW AND ABOVE

World War 2 FANY ( First Aid Nursing Yeomany) uniform on mannequin displayed along with an original WW2 anti aircraft binocular gunsight on tripod now on display to the public here at the Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean jail, Gloucestershire

below… Film poster advertising “CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE” based on the heroine -Violette Szabo… starring Virginia McKenna and Paul Scofield

ORIGINAL 1958 CINEMA RELEASE POSTER

George Cross posthumously awarded to Violette Szabo’s daughter Tania

Croix de Guerre posthumously awarded to Violette Szabo’s daughter Tania 

Tania Szabó is Violette’s daughter, although, as she says, she is of an age to be her mother’s grandmother by now. On her ninth birthday, in June 1951, she sailed forAustralia with her grandparents, Charles and Reine Bushell, on the £10 ticket. After college in Armidale, NSW and a stint as a psychiatric nurse in Sydney, she returned to England in the New Year of 1963. It was so very cold.

     After working as a secretary, croupier, office administrator in various companies, completing a course in computing in the late 60s (cards with holes and no electronics) and spending a year in Beverley Hills studying Spanish while continuing her studies in the humanities, she returned to England and finally moved to Jersey in April 1976 where she opened her Language Studio with the help of Paul Emile Francis Holley, a friend of Violette’s. He also trained her in the recognition of German armaments and uniforms as he was a British Intelligence Officer during WWII.

Tania is an author as well as a professional multilingual translator and private tutor. The author, Avv. Mario Zacchi of Florence and author of Il Mastino Napoletano – the Italian Mastiff, the Standard and History of this amazing dog commissioned Tania to translate it. It is now lodged with the British Library. Zacchi’s writing in his native Italian immediately draws you into the mystery, fierce loyalty and funny antics of this Cerebus of dogs and it was a sheer delight for Tania to translate into English bringing his love and erudition of this remarkable breed to an anglophone readership.

On 29 April 2009, Paul Holley, the Intelligence officer,  who had trained Violette in German armaments and uniforms, and was Tania’s friend and mentor, died one month into his 90th year. She continues to miss his friendship and invaluable support. She has closed her Language Studio and now retired could no longer afford to live in Jersey and now lives in a lovely 17th century cottage just outside Builth Wells in Wales. She is still sorting out all the books and archives before completing her paperback version of Young Brave and Beautiful and getting back down to writing Etienne’s amazing life’s story.

Violette’s only daughter Tania Szabo pictured at her home in Jersey i 2007

Violette’s only daughter Tania Szabo pictured as a young child shortly after the death of her mother  Various publications relating to the life of Violette Szabo 

Below is a historical insight into the Ravensbruck Nazi Death Camp where upon she was imprisoned and executed

DARK TOURISM HERE IN THE UK THE EVIL HORRORS AND ATROCITIES OF THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS AND BEYOND. IT’S ALL HERE & SO MUCH MORE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL, UK. ” LEST WE FORGET “

Here below is a very brief look and insight into our Nazi Holocaust Years Exhibition here at The Crime Through Time  Collection , Littledean Jail, UK

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman of Adolf Hitler here on display at The Crime Through Time Collection , Littledean Jail , UK .

ABOVE : Original handwritten, inscribed and signed Adolf Hitler photo dated 9 November 1943 here on display at the Jail .

HERE IS A PICTURE OF SOME OF THE EMPTY  ZYKLON B CANISTERS USED AT VARIOUS NAZI DEATH CAMP GAS CHAMBERS , AS CAN BE SEEN HERE ON DISPLAY . ( LEST WE FORGET )

POLITE WARNING …  THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL (WHERE UPON THIS EXHIBITION IS HOUSED )  IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE EASILY OFFENDED , DISTURBED OR OF A SENSITIVE NATURE

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail ,UK.

THE CONTENT HERE ON DISPLAY BOTH ONLINE AND WITHIN THE JAIL IS IN THE MAIN HARD HITTING , GRAPHIC, EXPLICIT , IN YOUR FACE , TONGUE IN CHEEK , CONTROVERSIAL AND TO MANY … VERY DISTURBING .

WITH THIS IN MIND AND FOR YOUR BENEFIT AND COMFORT … PLEASE DO TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF OUR FACEBOOK POSTS , READ OUR TOURISM LEAFLETS AND DO TAKE NOTICE OF ALL OUR WARNING SIGNAGE PRIOR TO ENTERING THE JAIL .

 

Above : Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman on display here at Littledean Jail, of the sadistic Irma Grese …. deemed to be “The Angel of Death ” , who was subsequently arrested and later hanged by British Hangman Albert Pierrepoint

Irma Ida Ilse Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was a female SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women’s section of Bergen-Belsen.

Grese was convicted for crimes against humanity committed at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and sentenced to death at the Belsen trial. Executed at 22 years of age, Grese was the youngest woman to die judicially under British law in the 20th century. She was nicknamed by the camps’ inmates “the Hyena of Auschwitz Above : Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman  on display here at Littledean Jail,  of the sadistic Irma Grese ….

Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was the Commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dubbed The Beast of Belsen by camp inmates, he was a notorious German Nazi war criminal, directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. He was detained by the British army after the Second World War, convicted of war crimes and hanged on the gallows in Hamelin prison by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint.

Above : Original oil painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman of Josef Kramer , The Beast of Belsen , on display here at Littledean Jail,

Below: Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman  on display here at Littledean Jail,  of the evil and sadistic Josef Kramer …. better known as “The Beast of Belsen “

Used original Zyklon B 100gram sized canisters from one of the first Nazi gas chambers situated at Grafeneck Euthanasia Center, housed in Grafeneck Castle, Germany . It had officially opened in January 1940 and was closed on the orders of Nazi warlord Himmler in December 1940 . This facility was mainly used to exterminate mentally Handicapped and retarded victims as part of the Nazi euthanasia program. These canisters are exceptionally rare find from what was one of the earliest gas chambers and crematorium facilities . There is evidence that exists to the effect that a minimum 10, 654 were gassed there, though inevitably many more victims were murdered there before its closure . these canisters are now on public display at the Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail

Here is some more interactive, historical and hopefully educational background footage and insight into the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust years. The photo gallery below the first video also provides a brief pictorial glimpse into our own disturbing Nazi Holocaust exhibition here at the jail .

We also feature a great many interactive pieces in relation to UK World War 2 Special Forces, including the SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the SAS (Special Air Service) …. whom were both actively involved in a great many operations against the Nazi’s during this period .

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail , UK

BELOW IS A BRIEF PICTORIAL GLIMPSE INTO SOME OF THE EXHIBIT ITEMS HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAILS  NAZI HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION .

 

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

Witness drawing of the sboskek wrist knife used to quickly dispatch prisoners at Jasenovac

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferiority”: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

WHAT WAS THE HOLOCAUST?

In 1933, the Jewish population of Europestood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and theircollaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Although Jews, whom the Nazis deemed a priority danger to Germany, were the primary victims of Nazi racism, other victims included some 200,000 Roma (Gypsies). At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly Germans, living in institutional settings, were murdered in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people. Between two and three million Soviet prisoners of warwere murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment. The Germans targeted the non-Jewish Polish intelligentsia for killing, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians for forced labor in Germany or in occupiedPoland, where these individuals worked and often died under deplorable conditions. From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and others whose behavior did not match prescribed social norms. German police officials targeted thousands of political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of incarceration and maltreatment.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE “FINAL SOLUTION” 

In the early years of the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established concentration camps to detain real and imagined political and ideological opponents. Increasingly in the years before the outbreak of war, SS and police officials incarcerated Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps. To concentrate and monitor the Jewish population as well as to facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the Germans and their collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps for Jews during the war years. The German authorities also established numerous forced-labor camps, both in the so-called Greater German Reich and in German-occupied territory, for non-Jews whose labor the Germans sought to exploit.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941,Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) and, later, militarized battalions of Order Police officials, moved behind German lines to carry out mass-murder operations against Jews, Roma, and Soviet state and Communist Party officials. German SS and police units, supported by units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than a million Jewish men, women, and children, and hundreds of thousands of others. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of many of its Axis allies to ghettos and to killing centers, often called extermination camps, where they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities.

THE END OF THE HOLOCAUST

In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter andliberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp closed in 1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely

THE HORRORS AND EVIL ATROCITIES OF RELIGIOUS WARFARE DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS WITH THE BLOODTHIRSTY CROATIAN PRO-NAZI, “USTASHA BLACK LEGION MILITIA” ,

JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP …. ONE OF THE CRUELEST AND MOST EVIL OF THEM ALL … AS FEATURED HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , UK … “LEST WE FORGET”

BELOW ARE TWO INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY INSIGHT FOOTAGE VIDEOS OF THE HORRORS WITHIN THE CAMP . NO WORDS THOUGH WE ARE SURE YOU WILL AGREE, THESE IMAGES TELL A THOUSAND OR MORE UNTOLD STORIES .

The Ustaše (pronounced [ûstaʃe]), also known as “Ustashe”, “Ustashas”, and “Ustashi”, were members of the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement (Croatian: Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret), a Croatian fascist and terrorist organization active, in its original form, between 1929 until 1945. Its members murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma during World War II in Yugoslavia

 

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

Witness drawing of the sboskek wrist knife used to quickly dispatch prisoners at Jasenovac

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

Heavy long handled wooden-mallet/club-used-to-crush-the-skulls-of-prisoners-at-jasenovac

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT AND UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA CAP BADGE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA CAP BADGE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

During the Holocaust, one group of killers stood out as more vicious, murderous, and bloodthirsty than all others. The Ustasha of Yugoslavia was a Muslim-Catholic alliance of Nazi killers so beastly that even Nazi officials in Berlin were horrified. The Ustasha and three related crack divisions of Arab-Nazi Waffen SS comprised of tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers and terrorized people of all faiths in Yugoslavia. In large measure, these murder machines emerged through the efforts of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. The grand mufti was on a mission to accelerate the extermination of all Jews everywhere. His partner was Adolf Hitler. The epic story of this alliance is one that began in Jerusalem, traveled to Baghdad, culminated in the Balkans, and ultimately spread across all Europe. In many ways, the scene was set centuries ago by the Medina Extermination of 627. Medina was a largely Jewish city. When its 600 or so Jews refused to convert to the new Muslim religion, the Prophet Muhammad murdered them in a protracted ceremony, beheading the Jewish faithful one by one. This massacre became a glorious iconic event in Islamic history. After Medina, the Islamic Conquest swept across the Middle East and North Africa. In about 700, the Pact of Umar declared that Jews and Christians under Muslim control could continue as non-Muslims, but only as dhimmis – that is, second-class citizens reviled for their existence and denied many ordinary rights. Throughout the ages while dwelling in the various realms of the Muslim world, Jews and Christians were either allowed to excel and thrive or were brutally repressed and persecuted, depending on the decade and territory. But the context of their existence – whether successful or subjugated – was always as second-class citizens. Islam’s many anti-Jewish mandates were not just ancient textual relics but were often quoted by Islamic leaders throughout the centuries. When the League of Nations, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, and finally Turkey endorsed a Jewish homeland, each with a formal resolution resembling that of the Balfour Declaration, it ignited a seismic outrage among Arabs. The very thought of Jews living as equals was anathema to Palestinian Arabs. From 1920, their regular rallying call was Itbach al Yahood! – Slaughter the Jews. With knives and rifles, in small spontaneous groups and organized mobs, Arabs murdered Palestinian Jews, burned their Torahs and laid waste to their synagogues as Jews tried to rebuild a homeland. Indeed, in 1929, when Jews sat down while they prayed at the Western Wall, violating Islamic prohibitions against Jews sitting there – a mob of Arabs swarmed over Hebron sadistically killing dozens. The Jewish baker was baked in his own oven. A Jewish scholar’s brain was extricated and used as a ball. In 1937, the Peel Report concluded that two states should be created, one Arab and one Jewish, living side by side. But the Muslim world would not tolerate the notion of coexistence with Jews as equals. “Our hatred for the Jews dates from God’s condemnation of them for their persecution and rejection of Isa [Jesus], and their subsequent rejection later of His chosen Prophet [Muhammad] . Verily the word of God teaches us, and we implicitly believe this for a Muslim to kill a Jew ensures him an immediate entry into Heaven and into the august presence of God Almighty. What more then can a Muslim want in this hard world?” These were the words of the king of Saudi Arabia during a lecture to the British Foreign Ministry in 1937. The grand mufti of Jerusalem was the leader of the Palestinians. The Nazi-Arab alliance had been aggressively sought by the Arabs of Palestine since the Third Reich’s first moments in 1933. After the Peel Report, the mufti and his loyal followers launched a murderous, non-stop insurrection known as the Arab Revolt. When the British tried to arrest him, the mufti fled to Iraq where he helped foment a coup. In Iraq, the mufti found a virulent and widely embraced Arab-Nazi movement. Mein Kampf had been serialized in Arabic. Hitler Youth-style Arab regiments were well organized. On June 1-2, 1941 – after a failed Nazi-Arab attempt to exterminate the Jews of Iraq – Baghdad Nazis, the police and national military units went on a two-day murder spree. Once the British finally restored order, the mufti fled again, this time to Iran where another failed Nazi takeover was thwarted. From Iran, the mufti and his cohorts escaped to Berlin to meet Hitler personally. In Berlin, a pact was sealed to provide Arab oil and battlefield military assistance sufficient to help the Nazi push into Russia in exchange for recognizing an Arab national state and exterminating the Jews. Arab military units formed from Paris to Palestine. Arabs and Muslims worldwide, on the radio and in newspapers, incessantly and openly called for the extermination of the Jews. The rallying cry was: “In Heaven, Allah is your master; on Earth, Adolf Hitler.” When Heinrich Himmler needed to fight the partisans of Yugoslavia to protect German supply lines, the mufti visited the region and helped organize tens of thousands of Muslims and Arabs into three Waffen SSdivisions. Those three divisions – the Handschar, the Skandebeg, and the Kama – formed artillery brigades, transport battalions, infantry companies, and fought a bloody trench and mountain warfare against the partisans in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, and the other Balkan territories. * * * * * Concomitantly, a Nazi murder militia known as Ustasha was created from a legion of Catholic and Muslim killers. The history is complex. In the Croatian maelstrom of ethnic and religious hatred, steered by Nazi mentors and puppet masters, Catholic Croats ironically decreed that all Muslims were Croats. This enabled the Catholic Croats to establish a majority in their enlarged territorial domain. That enlarged Independent State of Croatia was known in the dialect as Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or the NDH. The Independent State of Croatia was in fact a bi-ethnic murder regime sworn to exterminate the millions of Yugoslavians who were neither Catholic nor Muslim through the Ustasha. Although Muslims were a minority in the NDH, the Bosniak Muslim faction and the Croatian Catholics jointly ruled and jointly murdered. The NDH’s fascist extremist president was a staunch Hitler ally and former Jesuit seminarian, Ante Pavelić. His official title was poglavnik, a Croatian word that approximates der Führer.The vice president was Muslim Džafer-beg Kulenović, previously president of the Yugoslav Moslem Organization, a Bosniak nationalist organization. The Croatian minister of culture and education was Mile Budak, a rabid Catholic-Nazi who propagated the axiom of killing one-third, converting one-third and expelling one-third of all Serbs. Budak and other Catholic Croats believed Muslims were actually descendants of the ancient Bogomil people who had inhabited the Croatian lands centuries earlier. As a leader in forging the Muslim-Catholic alliance, Budak enthusiastically proclaimed in 1941, “We Croats are happy and proud of our [Christian] faith, but we must be conscious of the fact that our Muslim brothers are the purest ofCroats.” He elaborated in a speech that the NDH was “Christian. [But] it is also a Muslim state where our people are of the Muslim religion.” In July 1941, Budak openly declared that the new state must exterminate “foreign elements,” that is, Jews and Gypsies as well as the larger enemy, Orthodox Serbs. Budak hid nothing about his plans. “The basis for the Ustasha movement is religion,” announced Budak. “For minorities such as Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, we have 3 million bullets.” To cement the Muslim and Catholic killing coalition, NDH president Pavelić converted a local Zagreb museum to a huge and impressive mosque, adding surrounding minarets to its modern architecture, and naming the mosque after himself. Numerous NDH ministries were controlled or headed by Muslims. Pavelić even donned a Muslim fez to show his solidarity. Muslims were invited to join the barbaric Croatian Peasant Party and did so in significant numbers. When Muslims served in the Ustasha First Regiment, known as Black Legion, their black uniforms were the same as their Catholic co-killers. Senior officers were dressed in identical garb. Ibrahim Pirić-Pjanić and Memesaga Dzubur led their own local Ustasha-affiliated contingents. Muslim Ustasha Muhamed Hadžiefendić led his own militia in Tuzla. Hadžiefendić’s militia became so strong that Bosniaks wanted it to operate autonomously in Muslim areas of Bosnia. The Diet legislature, which passed a sequence of genocidal decrees, included 11 Muslims specifically appointed for that purpose. These decrees included outlawing Serbian and Jewish existence in Croatia, the looting of Serbian and Jewish property, and the systematic transfer to Serbian and Jewish citizens into death camps and merciless killing fields. Catholic priests commonly operated the concentration camps, enforcing the most degrading of slaughter rituals. In Sarajevo, most of the looted and confiscated property of victims went to Muslims, who raced to grab Jewish and Serbian assets before their Catholic partners. Under Croatian decrees, Jews were compelled to wear yellow Star-of-David armbands and back patches marked with a “Z” for Zidov, the Croatian word for Jew. Muslims plundered and decimated the Great Sephardic Synagogue in Sarajevo and the centuries-old synagogue in Dubrovnik. When Muslim families were moved out of their villages near the battle lines, the Ustasha evicted Jews from their homes so the Croatian Muslims could take their place. When Jews fled the November 1941 mass roundups in Sarajevo, preparatory to planned extermination, a number of them escaped only by disguising themselves under Muslim veils. At the same time, many of the Jews who did survive the Jew-hunts did so by appealing to merciful neighbors in the Muslim quarter that took them in and hid them until they could escape safely. Many Muslims in Sarajevo rejected the Bosniak Ustasha horror and tried – in vain – to protest to their co-religionists. Serbs suffered enormously. As Serbs were being forcibly converted to Catholicism, some 450 Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished and their religious icons defiled. Orthodox priests were gruesomely tortured and their families shipped to concentration camps where they were subjected to every inhumanity. * * * * * Pavelić declared early on, “This is now the Ustasha and Independent State of Croatia. It must be cleansed of all Serbs and Jews. There is no room for any of them here. Not a stone upon a stone will remain of what once belonged to them.” He later said, “The Jews will be liquidated within a very short time.” To this end, more than 20 Ustasha concentration camps were established for the killing process, manned by combined Catholic and Muslim forces. The most notorious of these camps was the hellish complex known as Jasenovac, considered by many to be more sadistic than Auschwitz. The Ustasha’s barbaric methods for exterminating Jews and Serbs included sadistic group killing by cracking heads open with hammers until the cranial cavity was exposed. That was for adults. Children were commonly marched into the forest where their heads were crushed with long mallets. Sometimes children were thrown live into flaming furnaces. Decapitation or dismemberment with giant lumber saws was frequent. All too often, these Ustasha atrocities were not committed in fits of mad rage, but for sport, with the gleeful perpetrators smiling for the camera over the helpless victim waiting to be brutalized. Mass throat-slittings at great velocity were achieved with a small hand blade wrapped tight to the wrist and dubbed the Serbcutter. One night, guards at Jasenovac wagered among themselves to see who could cut the most throats with their Serbcutters. Guard Petar Brzica, a Franciscan priest, was determined to prove his skill, which he did by slicing the throats of an estimated 1,360 inmates. Guard Mile Friganović was close behind the winner, murdering about 1,100 Serbs that night. But Friganović was also known for an unspeakable incident in which an old man was asked to shout a salute to Croat president Ante Pavelić. When the old man hesitated, Friganović systematically and gleefully cut off his ears first, then his nose and tongue, after which he gouged out his eyes and then extracted the victim’s heart – and only after all that did Friganović end it all by slitting the prisoner’s throat. Friganović called the experience one of “ecstasy.” Groups of shivering Jewish children were brought into a camp one day. For sport, one guard began spinning a child above his head as the other guards slashed at him with their bayonets. Eventually, the guard was left with nothing but the child’s hand as a trophy. Other Ustasha trophies included eyeball collections, stored in wicker baskets for show and sometimes worn strung up in necklaces. NDH president Pavelić himself once showed a journalist a wicker basket filled with some 40 pounds of eyeballs. Pavelić joked that he could make an oyster stew with them. “A good Ustasha,” Pavelić told his troops, “is he who can use his knife to cut a child from the womb of its mother.” Cruel and inhumane as the Nazis were, they retreated in wide-eyed astonishment when they learned of the joint Catholic-Muslim Ustasha atrocities. German General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, commanding officer of the region headquartered in Zagreb, reported back to Berlin, “According to reliable reports from countless German military and civil observers during the last few weeks, the Ustasha have gone raging mad.” He added: “The most wicked [concentration camp] of all must be Jasenovac, where no ordinary mortal is allowed to peer in.” Hermann Naubacher, Hitler’s personal assistant for the Balkans, called the Ustasha exterminations “a crusade that belongs among the most brutal mass-murder undertakings in the entire history of the world.” Naubacher somberly added, “According to the reports that have reached me, my estimate is that the number of those defenseless slaughtered is some three-quarters of a million.” Eventually, the Nazis fell. Their allies in the Ustasha and the three Waffen SS divisions faced postwar justice in many cases. But too many melted into the turbulent history of the Cold War. The mufti escaped and became a revered icon of the Palestinian people. The legacy of Islamic and Arab hate that spurred the Farhud burned broad enough to help Hitler get ever closer to his goal of exterminating all Jews. But the Third Reich fell. And those in the Arab-Nazi movement went on to form the post-war geopolitical Middle East that prevails in the current century. Edwin Black is the author of “IBM and the Holocaust.” This article is adapted from his just-released book “The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance During the Holocaust” (Dialog, 2010). He will lecture on the topic on January 31 for the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

THE REAL JAMES BOND 007 … CAPTAIN PETER MASON (Winston Churchhill’s post-war secret SAS Baker Team)

THE REAL JAMES BOND “007” – CAPTAIN PETER MASON 

HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL, FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK …….. WE TOUCH UPON THE MANY INEXTRICABLE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE REAL JAMES BOND 007 , THE UK SPECIAL FORCES AND THE SOE ( SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE ) AMONGST OTHERS

YOU WILL HOPEFULLY ENJOY OUR COLLECTIONS AND DISPLAYS WHICH INCLUDES SIGNED PHOTOGRAPHS OF A GREAT MANY JAMES BOND 007 MOVIE STARS , THE BOND GIRLS , ACTION MAN FIGURES ETC ETC , WHICH ARE ALL ON DISPLAY TOO IN AMONGST ALL THE HISTORICAL EXHIBITS AND EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS INTO THE UK’S SPECIAL FORCES . 

POLITE WARNING 

PLEASE DO BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF GRAPHIC AND EXPLICIT ILLUSTRATIVE EXHIBITS AND FEATURES TOO IN AMONGST THESE DISPLAYS 

Captain Peter Mason is a former member of the post-war SAS Baker Team who were issued a licence to kill by the British government.

Mason was involved in the mission to seek out and ‘remove’ Nazi Special Forces who had followed out orders to execute captured British forces during the Second World War.^[1]

His experiences and knowledge of the spy world was influential in the creation of the fictitious spy James Bond. Creator Ian Fleming was a friend of Mason and would consult him on the gadgets and methods used during the period. Gadgets used by Mason are part of a display at the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex. The items on show were all used by spies of all sides during the Cold War period of the 1950s and ’60s.

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This excellent documentary  footage posted below does advance the realization that what Royal Navy Commander Ian Fleming wrote about in his James Bond, secret agent 007 novels was indeed, REAL.

However, to do this, it advances the false premise that Fleming had to look at other men for his inspiration when the truth is that HE WAS A SPY, A COMMANDO as well as an intelligence operative. Fleming worked for MI6 BEFORE WW2 when working for Reuters (owned by MI6) and after WW2 as head of Kelmsley Newspaper’s Foreign Department under the cover as a journalist. During WW2, Fleming went on several missions as either a spy or as a Commando while the 2IC of Naval Intelligence. He participated in the Royal Navy Reserves until at least 1951. Who does that sound like?

James Bond.

Ian Fleming was James Bond.

James Bond is REAL.

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as reported in the Sunday Times

The Sunday Times, London, Dec. 28, 1997

British Hit Squad ‘executed’ Nazis

by Nicholas Hellen, Media Correspondent

BRITISH SOLDIERS WERE secretly assigned to hunt and kill Nazi criminals after the second world war, according to a member of a special unit who claims he personally executed 16 Germans.

Peter Mason, 73, has described how he was recruited in May 1945 to avenge the deaths of Special Operations Executive (SOE) spies murdered in concentration camps and SAS men shot by the SS as saboteurs. The mission was intended to punish war criminals not prominent enough to face justice at Nuremberg and other trials conducted by the allies at the end of the war.

In the euphoria after VE day, the British Government was reluctant to rake over some of the war’s goriest episodes publicly. Disclosure of the Hunter-killer units would have undermined the legitimacy ensured by the war trials. The capture of German military records in Strasbourg, however made secret revenge possible on men who might otherwise have vanished. Mason, who led the unit killing Nazis until 1948, initially mounted his covert sorties from a converted stable block in the Black Forest village of Wildbad near Stuttgart, under Major Eric Barkworth, of 2 SAS, who sent him regular instructions by dispatch rider.

Independent historical research has already shown that Barkworth oversaw a separate less sensitive mission to arrest German war criminals from a base at Gaggenau, near Wildbad. Mason claims his activities were funded secretly by the War Office and were approved by Churchill. There was a hiatus of several months after the election of the Labour government before the unit’s activities resumed.

Mason said last week, that the unit’s preferred method was to collect the Nazis from prison camps, on the pretext that they were required to give evidence at Nuremberg. He and his fellow soldiers would check their identities and confront them with a file listing their atrocities before executing them. He said: “All the SS were tattooed with their number.Some used battery acid to try and burn it off and conceal themselves. If you saw a big scar, you knew who they were. They would fold up when they were shown the evidence.”

Mason and his comrades, Nobby Clark and Josef Galinsky, killed their targets using German guns, including the Walther P381 pistol and the Luger P08, to make it appear that they had committed suicide. Alternatively Mason would claim that they had been shot attempting to escape.

The Germans’ bodies were bundled into a hidden compartment in a Czech-built vehicle and dumped at a British camp. The unit was armed with Colt 45 pistols, M1 carbines and Thompson sub machineguns. Mason, a firearms expert, met Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, in 1959 and inspired him to equip the fictional spy with silenced weapons. Fleming later sent Mason a minature dagger as a token of appreciation.

The most notorious victim of the SAS unit was Otto Ortegies, a Hitler Youth leader, who was suspected of killing two British secret agents: He is said have castrated them and left them to bleed to death from telegraph poles. Mason and his fellow soldiers traced Ortgies to a Munich hotel room and led him out to be shot.

The story of the revenge mission is to be told in Master Spies, to be screened on Discovery Channel on January 11.

Mason, who once escorted Anthony Blunt, the traitor to Germany to retrieve letters by the Duke of Windsor will disclose further exploits in a book to be published this summer by Phillips Publicationstions, of New Jersey. Jim Phillips, owner of the publishing company, claims he has documents that authenicate Mason’s story. One water damaged sheet of paper is dated May 8,1945, and starnped with the marks 2 SAS and the initials AG3 V W.

Mason, who wishes to keep secret his address in North America, maintains he has no regrets about his role as assassin. “I am proud of what I did,” he said.

Sunday Times 28 December 1997

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WHEN REALITY BECOMES A TIMELESS FICTION – IAN FLEMMING AUTHOR OF THE GREAT MANY JAMES BOND 007 BOOKS WHICH HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY BECOME ICONIC FILMS

THE ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED JAMES BOND

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SOME OF THE GORGEOUS LADIES WHO HAVE PLAYED BOND GIRLS

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SOME OF THE MANY ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED BOND VILLAINS

ORIGINAL 100 GRAM SIZED…. ZYKLON B CANISTERS FROM THE NAZI HOLOCAUST ERA USED AT GRAFENECK EUTHANASIA CENTRE HOUSED AT GRAFENECK CASTLE , GERMANY NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

POLITE WARNING …  THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL (WHERE UPON THIS EXHIBITION IS HOUSED )  IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE EASILY OFFENDED , DISTURBED OR OF A SENSITIVE NATURE

THE CONTENT HERE ON DISPLAY BOTH ONLINE AND WITHIN THE JAIL IS IN THE MAIN HARD HITTING , GRAPHIC, EXPLICIT , IN YOUR FACE , TONGUE IN CHEEK , CONTROVERSIAL AND TO MANY … VERY DISTURBING

 Used original Zyklon B 100gram sized canisters from one of the first Nazi gas chambers situated at Grafeneck Euthanasia Center, housed in Grafeneck Castle, Germany . It had officially opened in January 1940 and was closed on the orders of Nazi warlord Himmler in December 1940 . This facility was mainly used to exterminate mentally Handicapped and retarded victims as part of the Nazi euthanasia program. These canisters are exceptionally rare find from what was one of the earliest gas chambers and crematorium facilities . There is evidence that exists to the effect that a minimum 10, 654 were gassed there, though inevitably many more victims were murdered there before its closure . these canisters are now on public display at the Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail

GRAFENECK GAS CHAMBER AT GRAFENECK CASTLE

Grafeneck Castle

The former medieval castle Grafeneck was built on a hill near Marbach.
On 24 May 1939, members of Aktion T4 visited the buildings in order to find out if it could be used for their killing programme. On 14 OctoberGrafeneck Castle was duly confiscated. Between 10 and 15 manual labourers from nearby villages started to convert the castle into a killing centre.

300 m away from the castle several barracks were built, fenced in with a hoarding up to 4 m high. On the first floor of the castle the following facilities were installed: accomodations and offices for the doctors, a registry office, a police office, the office for the comfort letters and others. On the second floor, small living- and sleeping rooms for the personnel were installed. The main building of the killing facility was a barrack (68 m long and 7 m wide), which included several rooms. In one of them 100 beds were placed, covered with straw-bags. Three big buses for transportation of the victims and an ambulance car stood in a wooden garage. Two mobile cremation ovens were located in another wooden barrack. Because of the immense heat, generated by the round-the-clock cremation, the roof of the barrack was removed and after a short time the surrounding trees even blackened. The gas chamber, resembling a shower bath, could hold 75 persons.
A former horse stable (round, and 15 m in diameter) probably served as storage room for the corpses. At the bottom of the hill, at the access road, a high hoarding and a guardhouse were built. Fences with barbed wire surrounded the whole castle whilst armed guards with dogs patrolled these perimeters.

Map

In mid-November 1939, SS men, typists and other personnel arrived and were supplemented during early January 1940 by approximately 25 nurses, some being male. In mid-January the cremation ovens were delivered. On 18 January 1940 the first transport of 25 handicapped men arrived fromEglfing-Haar near Munich, managed by the Grafeneck chief Dr Horst Schumann. He joined T4 since early October 1939, after a meeting with Viktor Brack in Hitler‘s chancellery. In early summer of 1940 he was ordered to the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Successors in Grafeneck: Dr Ernst Baumhardt and finally Dr Günther Hennecke.
Chief of administration became Christian Wirth, a detective superintendent and SS-Obersturmführer. He supervised the first gassings. Later he became inspector of all Aktion Reinhard extermination camps.

The killing continued until 13 December 1940. Then Grafeneck was no longer part of the euthanasia programme because, according to the plan, all handicapped persons from the Grafeneck operational area had been killed. Some of the personnel went on holiday while some were ordered to theHadamar euthanasia centre. A few remained at the castle to cover up all tracks of the actions that happened there.
10,824 victims were gassed and cremated at this facility.

WHAT IS ZYKLON B?

Zyklon B (German pronunciation: [tsykloːn ˈbeː]; also spelled Cyclon B or Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticideinvented in the early 1920s, and manufactured by German chemical conglomerate IG Farben. Zyklon B consisted of hydrogen cyanide(prussic acid), a stabilizer, a warning odorant (ethyl bromoacetate), and one of several adsorbents. Zyklon A was a previously produced liquid pesticide, which released hydrogen cyanide in a chemical reaction with water. After the invention of Zyklon B, Zyklon A production ceased.

The product is infamous for its use by Nazi Germany to murder an estimated 1.2 million people, including approximately 960,000 Jews, ingas chambers installed in several extermination camps during the Holocaust. One of the co-inventors of Zyklon B, chemist and businessman Bruno Tesch, was executed by the British in 1946 for his role in this operation.

The containers above hold Zyklon-B pellets (hydrocyanic acid) that vaporize when exposed to air. Originally intended for commercial use as a disinfectant and an insecticide, the Nazis discovered through experimentation the gas could be used to kill humans.

The brand of Zyklon-B used by the Nazis contained substances which gave the pellets a blue appearance and left blue stains inside gas chambers which can still be seen today in chambers that were left intact.

During the killing process, prisoners at Auschwitz and other killing centers were forced into the air-tight chambers that had been disguised by the Nazis to look like shower rooms. The Zyklon pellets were then dumped into the chambers via special air shafts or openings in the ceiling.

The pellets would then vaporize, giving off a noticeable bitter almond odor. Upon being breathed in, the vapors combined with red blood cells, depriving the human body of vital oxygen, causing unconsciousness, and then death through oxygen starvation.