2. 1
Born Marie Magdalene, she held the record for the largest number
of US war bonds sold during WW2 to raise money for the war effort.
She recorded messages and songs for the OSS to both support the
Allied troops and to demoralize the Germans. However, a large
number of these songs ended up being bootlegged and passed
around by Germans who were starving for some entertainment.
After the war, she was awarded both the US Medal of Freedom and
the French Legion d’Honneur for her help.
Who is this woman?
4. 2
Connect the following people who share a distinction:
British Admiral
Thomas Phillips
German Admiral
Gunther Lutjens
Japanese General
Mitsuru Ushijima
US Lieut. General
Leslie McNair
Soviet General
Mikhail Kirponos
5. 2
Highest ranking Officers of respective countries to die in combat
during World War II
Admiral Philips drowned on the HMS Prince of Wales in Malaya in
1941
General McNair died in friendly fire in the Battle of Normandy in 1944
General Ushijima died in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945
Admiral Lutjens sank with the Bismarck in 1941
General Kirponos was killed in action defending Kiev in 1941
6. 3
Listen to both audio clips (NPR obituary of Captain Nadezdha
Popova – Soviet war hero)
Tell me what evocative name these pilots were known by to the
Germans.
7. 3
The Germans called these Soviet women pilots “Nachthexen” or
“Night Witches”
They named them from the flapping sound made by the
ramshackle wooden and canvas biplane bombers these women
flew a few metres above roof height which they likened to
broomsticks.
The pilots dropped over 27,000 tonnes of bombs over East Prussia in
1944/45 and there was a special German Iron Cross category for
killing or capturing one of these “witches”
Only 10 out of the original 40 survived the war.
8. 4
On October 28, 1940, Benito Mussolini issued an ultimatum to the
Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas to hand over strategic coastal areas
of Greece and airfields to the Italians in 2 hours.
The Greek dictator replied in French “Alors, c’est la guerre” (Allright
then, it is war).
However, it was said that he replied with a laconic “Ochi!” leading
thousands of Athenians to take to the street the next day and every
year since then shouting out “Ochi!”
Ochi! Day has been celebrated ever since on October 28.
What does Ochi! mean?
10. 5
Watch the mashup video (ignore the fantastic Goth music though!)
and name the scene in Star Wars which is “inspired” from the similar
scene in the B&W movie. Also name the B&W movie.
11. 5
The attack on the Death Star scene in Star Wars was inspired by the
1954 movie “The Dambusters” starring Michael Redgrave and
Richard Todd.
12. 6
To honor the Canadian sheltering of the heirs to the Dutch throne
during WW2 and the birth of Princess Magriet of the Netherlands in
Ottawa, every year since 1945, the Dutch Royal Family send over
10,000 of a particular item to Canada.
Due to this, Ottawa in May is able to host the world’s largest festival
dedicated to this item.
This festival is where a young Alanis Morisette got her first break at
age 12 in 1987.
What is this item?
13. 6
Tulip bulbs
In May, Ottawa’s tulip festival sees over 500,000 visitors and over 10
million tulips in flower.
14. 7
Plot E in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial (shown in
the next slide) contains the remains of 94 American servicemen.
No US flag is permitted to fly over the section, and the numbered
graves literally lie with their backs turned to the ground of the main
cemetery on the other side of the road.
The 95th grave here was that of Eddie Slovik who’s remains were
exhumed and sent back to the US in 1987 after President Reagan
gave his permission.
Who are these 94 servicemen? And why was Eddie Slovik unique in
this list (which is why he was removed from this plot)?
16. 7
Plot E contains the graves of American Servicemen executed by the
US Army for rape and murder of French civilians after D-Day.
Eddie Slovik was unique in that he was the only US soldier shot for
desertion.
17. 8
The organization Nokmim was found in 1945 in Bucharest. From the
time of it’s foundation to 1948 (when most of the members were
encouraged to move to the new Jewish state of Israel to help
defend it), it did a fantastic job of achieving it’s targets.
It took as it’s premise and inspiration the words of Psalm 94 from the
Hebrew Bible in which God talks about how he will deal with foes of
Israel.
Using common objects like loaves of bread, cars, ropes and IV
kits, and taking their operations from Lithuania to Canada, they are
rumored to be still active today.
What was their mission?
18. 8
To assassinate any person accused of being a participant in the
Holocaust.
Psalm 94 reads “He (God) will repay them for their iniquity and wipe
them out for their wickedness.”
Jewish bakers poisoned bread being sold to former Nazis, motorists
killed them in hit-and-run car accidents, nurses filled their IV bags
with kerosene and doctors “counselled” them to commit suicide by
hanging themselves.
Estimates say over 5,000 Nazi perpetrators were assassinated this
way in just 3 years.
19. 9
The largest single loss of civilian life during WW2 occurred in Bethnal
Green, London on 3rd March 1943.
173 people - mostly women and children - were killed.
Indians may scoff at this, but how did they die?
20. 9
They died in a stampede to get down the escalator stairs into
Bethnal Green Underground Station during an air-raid warning.
It is also the worst ever disaster on the London Underground.
21. 10
Shown below is the 1943 NFL Steagles lineup.
What was the need was for the Steagles football team to be
created and what two firsts in the history of American football did
the creation of this team result in?
22. 10
So many players had been drafted into the war as soldiers from the
Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers that the remaining 16
Eagles and the 6 Steelers were combined into one “Steagles” team
based in Philly but playing games in Pittsburgh.
Two firsts happened due to this:
The first time any team from Philadelphia had a winning season.
The first time the Pittsburg Steelers wore any other colors other than
Black and Gold – they wore the Philly White and green colors.
23. 11
The beautiful town of Konstanz in Baden-Wurrtemberg (shown on
the map of Germany on the next slide) was the only sizable German
town to never have any Allied bombing and thus retain every bit of
it’s pre-war architecture and plan.
The town-fathers achieved this by tricking the Allies into not
bombing them.
What did they do?
24.
25. 11
The town council asked all the inhabitants of Konstanz to ignore
blackout regulations and to leave their lights on all night.
The Allied bombers were fooled into thinking this town was part of
neutral Switzerland (it’s on the border) and so left it alone.
26. 12
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin (pictured on
the next slide) was in the news in 2003 when the Swiss Company
Degussa sold the anti-graffiti substance Protectosil to the museum to
coat the steles.
This was done to prevent anti-Semitic graffiti from adhering to the
memorial.
However, a series of Swiss news articles criticized the move and the
resulting controversy led German Jewish organizations from
opposing the measure strongly. In the words of one of them "the
Jews don't need this memorial, and they are not prepared to
declare a pig sty kosher.”
What was the controversy about?
27.
28. 12
A subsidiary of the Swiss company Degussa called Degesch was the
manufacturer of the Zyklon B gas used to murder the Jews in
Extermination Camps.
An ironic choice for the monument indeed!
29. 13
Max Heiliger was probably the richest man in Nazi-occupied Europe
during the war and is still probably one of the richest men in the
world today.
By 1945 he was worth over 100 billion Reichsmarks – about 600 billion
US Dollars today. His wealth was primarily in gold, diamonds, cash
and art.
Where does he live?
30. 13
Nowhere. Max Heiliger was a fictitious name created by the
Reichsbank to launder and store valuables looted from murdered
Jews by the SS.
Swiss banks are rumored to have vaults bulging with looted
gold, diamonds and art which can only be signed out by “Max
Heiliger (aged 105 in 2013)” which is why repatriation of the cash is
proving so difficult.
31. 14
Connect the following:
Kublai Khan’s invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281
An idea proposed by Captain Motaharu Okamura on 15th June
1944
Equal parts of vodka, triple sec and lime juice.
33. 15
The Baker Street Irregulars were a British spy ring with orders to infiltrate anti-
war Washington DC and convince and charm the Americans into joining the
British war effort.
The members (Ian Fleming, Noel Coward etc.) were chosen as they were
well-known and loved in the USA.
X was ordered to seduce the wife of Henry Luce, the owner of Time, Life and
Fortune magazines, because he was considered to be an anti-British
isolationist. He was so successful at it that he telegrammed his superiors in
London “I am all fucked out! That goddamn woman has absolutely screwed
me from one end of the room to the other.”
Which unlikely author X was this – he was embarrassed when the Roosevelts
invited him to read to their grandchildren and told him “they were aware of
what he wanted and how he got it”.
