Why does having a white mother exclude him from being an African American? Most black americans have some white ancestors, so splitting hairs like that is just a matter of degree.
The German logistic system messed up Dunkirk, the Panzers were far ahead of the infantry, one of the main reasons they stopped, Battle of Britain, Goering actually was against the whole war against the UK thing, and in Stalingrad, the Lufftwaffe actually managed to get supplies in until most of the land bases were lost.
Wasn’t there another higher up (don’t have time to Google right now, curse my memory while you’re at it) who really was tall, athletic and blonde? He was assassinated in Eastern Europe, name sounded like Heinrich, something like that.
Reinhard Heydrich.
At Dunkirk, the tanks stopped because, first, the army was afraid they wouldn’t work well in the beaches, and secondly, because von Runstedt and Goering were convinced that the infantry and Luftwaffe could win by themselves.
Regarding the Battle of Britain, however Goering felt about war with Britain, the Luftwaffe made some important mistakes during the battle. not going after Chain Home, not going after the airbases, and wasting all those resources on terror bombing. Regarding Stalingrad, check out “Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Defeat in the East”.
I remember being told by my college history professor, many years ago, that the race laws of Nazi Germany defined two people as specifically Aryan: Hitler and Jesus. However, I can’t seem to find a cite for that, so he may have been putting us on.
Jon Stewart had a wonderful line: “I don’t want someone I can have a beer with! I want someone embarrassingly smarter than me!”
In a similar vein, it’s hard to imagine football players taking criticism from a coach unable to run the length of a football field. (Note: I am fat myself…but I do not have a job yelling at fit young men that they’re not working hard enough.)
This is something that I have read a few times on this board, but it is a legend IMO. (I have scanned the Nuremberg Laws and main accompanying ordinances just now to be sure - no mention of specific persons. There is some administrative discretion provided on some details, but it would not have been necessary in those two cases.) It also did not come up when we ‘did’ Nazi politics at school.
Regarding Jesus and Hitler:
- Jesus was not alive at the time and had no known descendants, i.e. his being Jewish or not would have been irrelevant to all aspects of discrimination provided by Nazi legislation.
- as for legislating the case of Hitler - that would have convinced everyone of the opposite…
BTW I think this legend shows that we in modern liberal democracies don’t fully appreciate what a totalitarian government needs and needs not address. In thinking of an ideological stance we speculate on what spin a government might concoct on a possible contradiction - only, if you fully control the media and all venues of public debate (e.g. the universities, membership organizations, etc.), you don’t need to provide spin for a given topic - you can just choose not to put it on the agenda.
We need a few dummies among the world’s leaders, because if they were ALL embarrassingly smarter than the average-Joe and Josie, then they would become an elite, and there could be a temptation to look on the hoi polloi as expendable.
Just a thought.
Sounds like a worthwhile subject for Great Debates: “Would a genuine elite look upon the hoi polloi as expendable?”
My personal experience with people genuinely smarter than myself is that they tend to have highly developed ethical systems. For example, the most talented computer programmers I know, the real genius ones, tend to give their work away. As I tell clients: The “C” students write spyware.The “B” students go to work for mainstream software companies. The “A” students write open source software and give it away for free.
There are a lot of mediocre people who think they are members of the elite, and those people tend to be the ones who are a danger to the world when they get into positions of power.
For that matter, “Would a genuine saber-tooth look upon The La Brea Tar Pits as redundant across languages?”
This may generally be true, and Charlie Weis’s track record does little to contradict it, but how about a liver-spotted, houndstooth clad, frail Bear Bryant up in his fire tower at the age of 103 or whatever? I never heard that the players had trouble taking him seriously, so I guess “leadership qualities,” however nebulous those are, can account for a lot of more obvious cosmetic shortcomings.
You are partly wrong. It was not part of the Nuremburg laws, and it didn’t specifically state he was Aryan. Rather, questioning his racial background was a serious matter and would get people into a lot of trouble.
Well, that’s one of those statements so obvious as to be unneccesary. 
Here, if anyone is interested, are copies of the Nurenburg Laws, in English:
The Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health
The Reich Citizenship Law
and The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor
As an Englishman I would be interested in any site that states that Goering opposed war against England. It has been stated about Hitler also along the lines of ‘If we gave Germany a free hand in Europe, he would leave our empire alone.’
As regards Goering ( or Herr Meyer as he became known when we bombed Germany ) …
"During the Battle of Britain Goering’s Luftwaffe was starting to gain the upperhand when Goering stepped in and lost it. Originally the Luftwaffe was bombing British coastal radar stations and airfields. The bombing of airfields was taking a terrible toll on the pilots and aircraft. At a critical point of the battle Goering abruptly switched tactics and began bombing British cities. While it did take an emotional toll on the British people, it allowed time for British industry to manufacture new aircraft, and for the RAF to train new pilots. Eventually this led to a second chance lost to force the British into an armistace. " (sic)
G. was also forced to constantly put back his so called ‘Adler Tag’ Eagle Day for the day when The Luftwaffe finally decalared supremacy over Britain, and crucially the English Channel prior to Op. Sealion ie their invasion. Initially Aug 10 was cited, but was repeatedly deferred. Sep 15th is celebrated here in UK as Battle of Britain Day ie when the threat was finally averted.
The one interesting question over the Battle of Britain concerns the limitations imposed of luftwaffe fighters over England as a result of fuel constraints … specifically why they never used drop tanks - since photographic evidence reportedly exists of them being used beforehand. Certainly the USAAF P51 Mustang was of much greater use with them, later in WW2.
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As regards Stalingrad, I believe that the Wehrmacht stated that they needed something like 700 tons a day, G. boasted that would be no problem despite his deputies questioning what they saw as his bravado. Sure enough as aircraft losses mounted, and drops were scrubbed owing to bad weather, something like 300 tons a day was the average.
Another ardent nazi, who visually at least conformed to the aryan ideal, was Reinhard Heydrich - blonde haired, blue eyed, accomplished swordsman and rider, even fairly successful as a fighter pilot … yet whether true or not, it appears he may have at least partially motivated by guilt over the possible existence of jewish ancestry …
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007406
"As a boy, he lived in an elegant home with his family enjoying elevated social status. But young Heydrich also suffered as the target of schoolyard bullies, teased about his very high pitched voice and his devout Catholicism in the mostly Protestant town. He was also beaten up by bigger boys and tormented with anti-Jewish slurs amid rumors of Jewish ancestry in his family. "
“Once again, however, he was teased. Heydrich was by now over six feet tall, a gangly, awkward young man who still had the high, almost falsetto voice. Naval cadets took delight in calling him “Billy Goat” because of his bleating laugh and taunted with “Moses Handel” because of rumored Jewish ancestry and his unusual passion for classical music.”
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/biographies/heydrich.htm
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I don’t have a cite for it, but I recall reading an anecdote in a book on the nazis concerning an incident when he returned one night to Hradcany Castle where he was installed as nominal leader of Czechoslovakia. The individual stated that Heydrich routinely covered up mirrors as he loathed to see himself. On this particular night he caught his reflection in an uncovered mirror, and hurled his pistol at the mirror in a rage, smashing it.