today’s birthday: Jean Moulin (1899)

Jean Moulin (1899)

Jean Moulin was a high-profile member of the French resistance during World War II. At Charles de Gaulle‘s

Logo Résistance française (Jean Moulin et Croix de Lorraine) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

bidding, he formed the National Council of the Resistance, which coordinated the actions of the different groups that made up the Resistance. A day after his birthday in 1943, he was captured and tortured by the Gestapo and died soon after. He is remembered as a symbol of civic virtues, moral rectitude, and patriotism. Why is Moulin often depicted wearing a scarf around his neck? More… Discuss

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TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: MIEP GIES (1909)

Miep Gies (1909)

Gies was one of five heroic Dutch citizens who helped hide Otto Frank, his wife and daughters, and four other Jews from the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands. After the hidden Jews were betrayed to the Gestapo in 1944, Gies took Otto’s daughter Anne‘s diary, and kept it—unread—in hopes of someday returning it to her. After the war, Gies gave the now-famous diary to the only surviving member of the family, Otto. Why did she later say that had she read it, she would have destroyed it? More… Discuss

 

From ProPublica: Why NSA Snooping Is Bigger Deal in Germany (“Germany lacks the long tradition of strong individual freedoms the state has guaranteed in the U.S. for more than 200 years. Precisely because of that, these values, imported from the Western allies after 1945, are not taken for granted.”)

From ProPublica-_-Why NSA Snooping Is Bigger Deal in Germany (click to access the website)

EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT: 

Now there is a James-Bond vibe to pre-election season: Newspapers publishextensive guides on how to encrypt emails. People question whether they should still use U.S.-based social networks. The German government seems to be under more pressure over the revelations than the American one.

“What makes Germans so sensitive about their data? Many have pointed to Germany’s history: Both the Nazi secret police Gestapo and the East German Stasi spied extensively on citizens, encouraging snitching among neighbors and acquiring private communication.

But that’s not the whole story. Politics and the media in Germany today are dominated by (male) citizens raised in the democratic West who have no personal recollection of either of the Stasi or Gestapo.

Germany lacks the long tradition of strong individual freedoms the state has guaranteed in the U.S. for more than 200 years. Precisely because of that, these values, imported from the Western allies after 1945, are not taken for granted.”

Related articles

• Why Germany is so outraged over NSA snooping (rawstory.com)
• Why NSA Snooping Is Bigger Deal in Germany (propublica.org)
• The NSA’s Global Surveillance Dragnet is Generating More Outrage in Germany Than America (alternet.org)
• What NSA Transparency Looks Like – ProPublica (euzicasa.wordpress.com)
• Germany’s Merkel rejects NSA-Stasi comparison (thestate.com)
• NSA Admits Agents Purposefully Violated Spy Rules (theblaze.com)
• It Has Come to This: German Gov’t Official Accuses U.S. of Stasi Tactics Ahead of Obama Visit (theblaze.com)
• German government: Windows 8 contains U.S. NSA snooping back doors; too dangerous to use (macdailynews.com)
• US looks even more like Stasi at news of Berlin cooperating with NSA (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• Germans Hail Snowden as NSA Evokes Stasi Seizing Lives of Others – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)

Today’s Birthday: Nancy Wake (1912)

Nancy Wake (1912)

Wake, who passed away weeks ago at the age of 98, was one of WWII‘s most decorated servicewomen. A New Zealand native, she left home at 16 and eventually settled in Paris. When the Germans occupied France, Wake joined the resistance. Pursued by the Gestapo, she fled to Britain, where she joined the Special Operations Executive. In 1944, she parachuted back into France to help establish communications between the British military and French Resistance. What nickname did the Gestapo have for her? More… Discuss

Maximilian Kolbe

Kolbe was a Polish priest who in 1941 was starved and killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz after volunteering to take the place of a condemned stranger. Ordained in 1918, he founded the City of Mary Immaculate religious center and was the director of Poland‘s chief Catholic publishing complex. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1939 and again in 1941 on charges of aiding Jews and the Polish underground. He was canonized in 1982 and declared a martyr of charity. Who was the man whose life Kolbe saved? More… Discuss