Simo Hayha: A Finnish Sniper

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During World War II, Germany was not the only country on an invasive path. The Soviet Red Army was pushing west. On November 30, 1939, the Red Army invaded Finland. What ensued became known as the Winter War. The Red Army met with some serious opposition, which they likely did not expect. It is estimated that Finnish soldiers killed more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers. This number was exponentially higher than Finnish losses during the Winter War. One of the Finnish soldiers responsible for the amazing defense Finland put up was a small (little more than 5' tall) man by the name of Simo Hayha.

Simo Hayha was born in 1905 or 1906 in Rautajarvi, Finland. His was a simple life of farming and hunting with his family. He joined the Finnish Army in 1925 and completed his mandatory year in the service. By the time the year was over, Hayha was a corporal. When the Red Army invaded in 1939, Hayha was called up to serve with the 6^th Company of JR34.  He served on the Kollaa River during what became known as the "miracle of Kollaa." The Finnish Army was grossly outnumbered and yet the area was held for the duration of the conflict.

During the winter of 1939-1940, Simo Hayha served primarily as a sniper. He has said that his weapon of choice was a Mosin-Nagant Model 28. However, he has been photographed with a Mosin-Nagant Model 28/30. Either way, his sniper rifle was iron-sighted. This means that he did not use a scope, but essentially a couple of prongs of metal lined up on the top of the barrel. With this, he reportedly killed many Soviet soldiers, possibly hundreds, at a distance of more than 400 yards.

Another weapon that Simo Hayha was talented with was a Suomik 31 SMG (sub-machine gun). He is credited with killing roughly 200 men with this weapon. Nonetheless, Simo was a much more accomplished sniper. His skill and technique are still amazing us 70 years later.

Simo Hayha had hunting Soviets in Finland down to a science. He knew it was cold and that the bright sun will glint off glass, so he opted out of using a scope. The cold could have broken or fogged up the glass in his scope and the glint would have given away his position. In fact, this is how he spotted many of his targets. He would also pack his mouth with snow to keep his hot breath from giving him away in the freezing cold Finland winter. Simo Hayha was working in temperatures that were consistently below zero, after all. Another technique Simo had was to shoot from a sitting position. This is odd for a sniper, but he says it helped because he was so small.

Simo Hayha was so good at his job that he became known as the "White Death." His white camouflage (suitable for snowy battlefields) and insane kill count led to this arguably intimidating moniker. What kill count can be considered insane, you ask? Well, Simo Hayha is credited with killing at least 705 Soviet soldiers with his sniper rifle (remember, he killed roughly 200 with his SMG). This makes him the most successful sniper in history. Moreover, he was only fighting for close to 100 days. That means he killed an average of seven men per day with his sniper rifle alone.

The killing streak ended for Simo Hayha on March 6, 1940, when a Red Army sniper shot him in the face with an exploding bullet. Teams of snipers had been sent to kill Hayha before then and the Red Army had even resorted to using artillery against him. They had not so much as injured him. However, the exploding bullet that hit him in March tore off part of his face. He was carried away by his fellow soldiers, but not before killing the man who shot him, according to Hayha. He then drifted into a coma for a week. The day he woke up, March 13, 1940, was the day the Winter War came to an end.

Simo Hayha spent his later years breeding dogs and hunting moose. He died on April 1, 2002. He was 96-years-old.

Sources

Tuco, Simo Hayha, retrieved 8/4/10

Subhas Chandra Bose: Vanished Indian Activist

Portrait of Subhas Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian nationalist who spent years as an activist and rebel leader while Britain was still in control of India. During World War II, he was first put on house arrest by the British and then escaped to seek help from the Nazis. His years of trying to make India an independent country and running from its foreign rulers eventually led to his mysterious disappearance.

Subhas Chandra Bose was born on January 23, 1897. He was one of 14 children. Despite this, he got a decent education from an early age and went on to study at Presidency College. However, he did not complete his studies. He attacked a professor who reportedly spoke out against India. Bose was expelled for the incident. He then studied philosophy at Scottish Church College and managed to secure a B.A. with assaulting anyone.

After graduating, Subhas Chandra Bose moved to Britain and attended Fitzwilliam College. He came home rather quickly because he did not want to work for Great Britain. His early sentiments foretold his future. He became involved in nationalist activities and found himself in tumbles with British authorities. While in jail in 1925, he came down with tuberculosis. This did not stop him from continuing his rebellious activities.

In 1927, Subhas Chandra Bose began working with the Indian National Congress as their general secretary. This led to even more trouble with the law, but did nothing to curb his success. He became mayor of Calcutta in 1930. He was even briefly president of the Indian National Congress. However, opposition from Mohandas Gandhi led to his resignation. It was not this, but rather his frequent protesting, that saw him put under house arrest by the British. Once he escaped, his strategy was to turn to Britain's enemies–the Axis powers.

Subhas Chandra Bose went to the Nazis for help, which only deepens the mystery surrounding his final years. With the help of many connections, he made it out of India through Afghanistan, Russia and Rome before he finally arrived in Germany in April of 1941. There, he had a great deal of support, or so it seemed. He was allowed to start the Special Bureau for India and raise an army of 4,500 Indian prisoners of war.

The soldiers of Subhas' army answered to Hitler. Their allegiance was to him, but they recognized Subhas Chandra Bose as the ruler of India. Though he had very little real power, he did manage to make many connections. He met with men like Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler himself. Bose discovered through these meetings that his German support was for appearances. They were very unlikely to help him invade India and win it back from the British. Those of us who can see this in hindsight may find it surprising that it took him nearly three years to realize that. With Axis powers stretched to the brink and India being a much lesser target than the Soviet Union, it would have been foolish for the Nazis to invade there. Furthermore, it is surprising that a nationalist who loved his country would want the Nazis to invade it. They were not exactly known for quick withdrawals.

In response to his discovery that his work in Germany was in vain, Subhas Chandra Bose snuck away to Japan, leaving his small army behind. By a stroke of luck or genius, he was able to take control of the Indian National Army, which had already been formed in Japan. Unfortunately for him, that army's fate was tied to that of Japan. As Japan suffered defeat and surrendered, so did the Indian National Army. Then, suddently, Bose disappeared.

Subhas Chandra Bose's alleged disappearance only lasted five days before there was an explanation, but it was a shoddy one. It is said that his plane crashed in Taiwan. He survived the crash, but did not survive his injuries. Once he passed away, he was cremated, and the Japanese took him to the Renkoji Temple. Skepticism was immediate, though his death was confirmed by a British spy whose name has not been revealed. Is that really evidence?

Those who believe Subhas Chandra Bose lived fall mainly into two camps. Some believe he went into hiding in Russia and faked his own death. Others believe he was imprisoned in Russia. Bose certainly had a lot of friends and enemies in a lot of places. Either scenario is possible. Nonetheless, he is certainly dead by now.

Source

67 years on, govt can't continue sitting on secret Bose files, retrieved 8/18/12, http://www.rediff.com/news/special/govt-cannot-keep-netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-files-secret/20120818.htm

Virginia Hall: World War II Spy

Hall receives the Distinguished
Service Cross

Virginia Hall was a spy for the U.S. and England during World War II. She conducted undercover operations that assisted the resistance in France and she aided in sabotage missions near the end of the war. She is known for being brave, resilient and intelligent. Despite her gender and a significant disability, she never walked away from her chosen profession.

Virginia Hall was born on April 6, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the youngest daughter of theater owner Edwin Lee Hall and his wife, Barbara. Virginia’s early life was rather typical of a child of relatively wealthy parents. She attended Roland Park Country School and then decided that she wanted to study language in college. She first attended Radcliffe College. She went on to enroll in Bernard College and took classes there from 1924 to 1926. She became fluent in German, French and Italian.

Virginia Hall got her first government job in 1931. She went to Warsaw, Poland to work as a clerk at the American Embassy. While working in this capacity, she traveled to Tallin, Estonia, Vienna, Austria and Izmir, Turkey. Virginia was hunting in Turkey when she accidentally dropped her shotgun, which discharged into her foot. By the time medical help arrived, the wound was gangrenous. Her leg was amputated, and she was fitted with a wooden one.

Virginia Hall did not want to give up her work with the government, but the State Department had a policy that did not allow them to employ people with amputated limbs. She resigned in May of 1939. She went to work in France with the French Ambulance Service Unit. She had to leave the country when the Nazis invaded in May of 1940. She went from France to England, where she began working as a clerk at the embassy there.

While Virginia Hall was working in England, she was recruited for the Special Operations Executive. The SOE was a British group designed to infiltrate countries that were under the control of the Nazis and conduct spy operations, among other things, from the inside. The SOE sent her back to France. There she pretended to be a reporter for the New York Post while staying in Vichy. What she was really doing was aiding the organization of French resistance movements. She later went to Lyons and stayed there until 1942 when the Nazis began searching for her.

From France, Virginia Hall traveled to Madrid, an arduous journey done largely on foot. This must have been quite a trying task for a woman with one leg. Once she got set up in Madrid, she resumed her work as a spy. This time, she posed as a Chicago Times reporter. She disliked being there and asked her superiors if she might return to France. They sent to her back to England instead where she received further training. At the close of her training, she was moved to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.

The OSS sent Virginia Hall back to France. This time she operated out of Haute-Loire. The Nazis had not forgotten the “woman with a limp,” however, which perhaps the OSS should have anticipated. Hall had to outsmart the Gestapo to avoid getting caught. Nonetheless, she managed to assist the resistance in the area and be the first person to report the change in location of the German General Staff Headquarters from Lyons to Le Puy to the Allies. In August of 1944, she became part of a team controlling three battalions of French forces. They were charged with sabotaging enemy communications. Virginia Hall and her comrades were successful.

Following her brave efforts in France, the OSS' European Theater Commander, Colonel James R. Forgan, nominated Virginia Hall for the Distinguished Service Cross. She was awarded the medal in 1945. Six years later, at the age of 45, Virginia Hall enlisted in the CIA. She worked for the CIA until her retirement in 1966. She passed away in 1982 at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Washington, D.C. She was buried in the Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, Maryland.

Irena Sendler: Hero of the Holocaust

Newspaper story about Sendler's death.

Irena Sendler was a humble hero during one of the darkest times in the history of humanity. During the Holocaust, this woman saved more than two thousand children and infants from certain death in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. She did this at great personal risk, a risk that came very close to being made a reality. She is among the bravest and most selfless individuals in the pages of history, throughout the world. It took a rare person to boldly stand up to the Nazis. It took an exceptionally rare person to do so knowing that if they did not, they would have nothing to fear from them. Irena Sendler was the latter sort of person.

Irena Sendler was born into a Roman Catholic family just fifteen miles away from Warsaw, Poland in 1910. Her father was a physician who had poor Jewish people among his patients. Therefore, Irena Sendler was taught to be kind to the less fortunate from a very early age. Her father died when she was still young, but Irena never forgot the lessons he taught her.

Irena Sendler was about 29 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. At the time that the invasion occurred, Irena was employed as a social worker and was in charge of running some canteens in her area. Canteens were programs that delivered food, money and more to the needy. Irena arranged so that Jews could also get assistance from this public program. She would have them register with assumed Christian names. She would also ensure that the Jewish families who were obtaining these services were reported as having communicable diseases so that the Nazis would not inspect their homes and find them out.

The moving of nearly 500,000 Jews into what would become known as the Warsaw Ghetto began in 1942. Irena Sendler was a naturally sympathetic person and wanted to help as much as she could. She became a member of the Zegota, an underground resistance movement. Her focus was rescuing Jewish children from the ghetto and removing them to safe havens. She managed to obtain a pass to enter the ghetto from the Epidemic Control Department. She went every day, using the name Jolanta, with goods such as food and medicine to deliver to the ‘residents’ there.

With the help of like-minded people in the Social Welfare Department, Irena Sendler was able to begin smuggling children out of the ghetto. She was able to obtain forged documents, giving the freed children new Christian identities so that they could be kept elsewhere. As far as getting the children out of the ghetto, she did this in any way possible. Children were taken out in body bags, coffins, in trucks filled with goods, gunnysacks and more. She was even able to get others to help her, such as an ambulance driver and a mechanic.

Many of the children that were removed from the Warsaw Ghetto were taken into convents and orphanages.  Others were taken in by Christian families. Irena sometimes found it difficult to convince parents that their children would be safer without them, outside of the ghetto. She sympathized with these parents’ feeling of loss and so she kept meticulous records of each child she removed and was sure to include their real and assumed identities. She planned on reuniting the children with their families after World War II had ended.

On October 20, 1943, Irena Sendler’s deception was uncovered by the Gestapo. They arrested her and broke both of her legs and feet while torturing her for information. Though the wounds they inflicted were enough to cripple Irena for life, she never betrayed the name of a single one of her associates or any of the children that she had rescued. She was sentenced to die, but was rescued by the Zegota. One of their agents bribed a guard, who then released her. Unbelievably, Irena went right back to helping Jewish children, under a new identity, even though she was pursued by the Gestapo. 

When the war was finally over, Irena Sendler retrieved all of the records that she had kept of the children’s names. She had kept them hidden in jars that were buried beneath a tree in her neighbor’s yard. In all, there were roughly 2,500 names on her lists. She did the best she could to reunite each and every child with their family, but unfortunately many of their families had been wiped out during the Holocaust.

Irena Sendler died on May 12, 2008. She was ninety-eight years old. Before her death, she was given a number of distinctions and awards. In 1965 she was given the title “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem organization. In 1991 she was made an honorary citizen of Israel. In 2003, she was awarded the “Order of White Eagle” in Poland. Again in 2003, she won Jankarski’s award for Valor and Courage. In 2007, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Surprisingly, the award was given to Al Gore for his global warming message rather than Sendler.

Sources

Irena Sendler, retrieved 1/5/10, auschwitz.dk/Sendler.htm

In her safe arms, the innocents survived, retrieved 1/4/10, smh.com.au/news/world/in-her-safe-arms-the-innocents-survived/2008/05/13/121044435389.html

Claus von Stauffenberg: The Man Who Tried to Kill Hitler

Claus von Stauffenberg

Claus von Stauffenberg was a colonel in the German army during Hitler’s reign. He was a dedicated patriot and, by all accounts, a very intelligent man. He was a born aristocrat and able soldier. In spite of all of these accomplishments, and for good reason, he is better known as the man who almost killed Adolph Hitler.

Claus von Stauffenberg was born on November 15, 1907. He was the third son of Alfred Schenck Graf von Stauffenberg and Caroline Grafin von Uxkul-Gyllenband. He had a twin named Konrad Maria, who died the day after they were born. He had two older brothers, who were also twins. Their names were Alexander and Berthold.

During his childhood it was clear that Claus von Stauffenberg was a lover of the arts. He was a talented musician and once thought that he may follow this as a career. He was also a lover of poetry and a follower of the famous German poet George Stefan. Claus also dreamed of one day becoming an architect. In the end, he put aside his dreams of being an artist and instead became a military man.

Claus von Stauffenberg began his officer’s training in 1926, at the age of nineteen. Seven years later, he married Elisabeth Magdalena Vera Lydia Hertha Freiin Von Lerchenfeld or Nina for short. The couple had five children together, Berthold, Heimaran, Valerie, Franz Ludwig and Konstanze. Konstanze was born after Claus von Stauffenberg’s death.

In 1936 Claus von Stauffenberg began studying at the War Academy in Berlin. He graduated in 1938 and was given the post of quartermaster in what was to become the 6th Panzer Division. He went on to gain extensive experience while serving in several major campaigns during WWII. He began to doubt the tactics of the German military under Hitler’s command, though his patriotism never faltered.

It was during Operation Barbarossa (an attack on Russia) in 1941 that Claus von Stauffenberg began to express his disgust at the German military’s treatment of POWs and the Jews. He began voicing his opinion in an attempt to find like-minded men. Rumor has it that, at this time, he told people that Hitler would have to die and that the government would have to be overthrown. It is also said that Claus mentioned that he didn’t care if he had to be the man to kill the fuhrer.

In 1943, Claus von Stauffenberg joined the 10th Panzer Division in Africa. In April of that year, he was shot and severely wounded by Allied aircraft at Sebkhet en Noual in North Africa. He lost his left eye, two fingers of his left hand and his entire right hand during the shooting and subsequent surgeries. He recovered from his injuries quickly and was promoted to Colonel. He was also appointed Chief of Staff to the Reserve Army command under Friedrich Fromm.

In this new capacity, Claus von Stauffenberg was able to attend Hitler’s briefings. This came in handy, as he had joined a group of men that were planning a coup that would overthrow Hitler’s government. The plan was to kill Hitler, the head of the S.S., Heinrich Himmler and the Commander and Chief of the German Air Force, Hermann Goering. After the assassinations, the conspirators would then cut off communications from Hitler’s men and assume control of the army. It was decided that Claus von Stauffenberg would be the man to carry out the assassinations.

Claus von Stauffenberg made the first attempt to place a bomb at one of Hitler’s briefings on July 11, 1943. The plan was aborted because of unexpected complications. This happened a second time on July 15. Stauffenberg finally succeeded in detonating a bomb at a briefing at Hitler’s hideout, Wolf’s Lair, on July 20. Believing the fuhrer was dead, Claus left the hideout and attempted to follow through with the plan. Unfortunately, his co-conspirators failed to mobilize within the first few hours while Stauffenberg was traveling.

Claus von Stauffenberg tried desperately to follow through with the plan, despite the failure of some of the men involved in the coup. However, it was soon announced on the radio that Hitler had not died in the blast. Claus was not only surprised to hear this, but he now knew that all had been lost. With Hitler still alive, there was no way his followers were going to follow new leadership.

Claus von Stauffenberg was arrested that night and executed in the courtyard of the War Ministry in Berlin. His brother, Berthold, who was another conspirator, was also arrested. He was later hanged. Claus’ wife was also arrested and his children were placed in the care of the Nazis. Nina’s uncle “Nux” was also arrested as a conspirator and he was later executed. Luckily, Nina was spared; she gave birth to the couple’s last child while imprisoned by the Nazis.

Nine months after the attempted coup d’etat, Hitler committed suicide. Nina was released from a women’s concentration camp, where she had been held. She was reunited with her elder children one year after her husband’s death.

Sources

Claus von Stauffenberg, retrieved 7/26/09, jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Stauffenberg.html

Berthold von Stauffenberg, retrieved 7/16/09, economicexpert.com/a/Berthold:von:Stauffenberg.html

Claus Schenck Graf von Stauffenburg, retrieved 7/16/09, imbd.com/name/nm1533515/bio

Dr. Eugene Lazowski: Hero of the Holocaust

Dr. Eugene Lazowski
Photo via Wikipedia

Dr. Eugene Lazowski was a Polish doctor and soldier during World War II. He was also a member of the Polish Underground Army and the Red Cross. He was one of the many heroes of the Holocaust whose humane deeds were conducted in secret and at great risk to themselves. He worked in a number of different ways to help the people in his neighborhood who were persecuted by the Nazis, all of which he could’ve been executed for.

Dr. Eugene Lazowski was born in Poland in 1913. He was in his twenties when he first came to Rozwadow, Poland. He was placed in a POW camp there. He bravely escaped the camp, narrowly avoiding a German guard.

Eugene had a home next to the ghetto in Rozwadow. In fact, his fence bordered the ghetto, which was filled with his fellow countrymen, many of them Jews. The ‘residents’ of the ghetto were sadly undernourished and some of them were very ill. Despite the fact that the Germans had declared it a crime to help these people, a crime that was punishable by death, Dr. Eugene Lazowski came up with a way to treat the sick in the Rozwadow ghetto. He would have them come to his fence, under cover of night, and tie a white cloth to it. When he saw the cloth, he would come out to the fence and treat whoever was there. He was able to supply his covert medical operation by cleverly falsifying his inventory.

Dr. Eugene Lazowski was given the opportunity to assist these people more, when his colleague, Dr. Stanislaw Matulewicz, made an amazing discovery. If he injected healthy patients with the same dead bacteria that was used to test for typhus, their tests would come back positive for the disease, with no harm done to them. The Germans were terrified of contracting the disease, so if a patient was found to have it, that would make them exempt from transfer to labor and concentration camps. There was one problem, however.

During the time of the Nazi occupation of Poland, Jews who were discovered to have deadly communicable diseases were killed and their homes burnt to the ground. If Dr. Eugene Lazowski and Dr. Matulewicz were going to help, they would only be able to use the bacteria on non-Jewish patients. They first tested it on a man who was home on leave from a labor camp. It worked. The test came back positive and the man did not have to return.

The doctors began slowly ‘spreading’ the disease throughout Rozwadow and the surrounding villages. They were very careful not to ‘infect’ Jews and they made sure that some of the ‘infected’ were referred to other doctors, who did not know of the deception, for testing. This way, all of the tests were not coming from them. That would have been too obvious.

Once there were enough cases of the disease, which is transmitted through the bite of infected lice, the Germans quarantined the area. No more people were taken out of the area and placed in camps. Dr. Eugene Lazowski was allowed to continue ‘treating’ the ‘epidemic’ and so, he was able to perpetuate it for nearly three years. During that time, the Germans only came to inspect the area once. Their fear of the disease prevented them from doing a thorough job of it and so the deception was not discovered.

Close to the end of World War II, a soldier whom he had secretly treated for a venereal disease warned Eugene Lazowski that the Gestapo was after him. The soldier told him that they were aware of him treating members of the resistance and had known for some time. Eugene later speculated that they had known about him, but had allowed him to live so that he may contain the ‘epidemic.’ So, in a way, Eugene had not only saved an estimated 8,000 people with the ‘epidemic,’ but he had also saved himself from execution.

When the doctor heard that the Gestapo was seeking him, he grabbed his wife and daughter and fled the city. He moved to the United States in 1958 and became a professor at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Dr. Eugene Lazowski passed away in Oregon in December of 2006.

Sources

Fake Epidemic Saves a Village from Nazis, retrieved 1/19/10, holocaustforgotten.com/eugene.htm

He Duped Nazis, saved thousands, retrieved 1/19/10, st.joen.net/lazowski/lazowski.html