At The Bar

  

John Parker sat at the bar, because it was fun. He wasn't supposed to be at the bar, he was on duty protecting a VIP. He took another drink, this was more like it, it was boring back there, they had put his VIP in a private room to watch a play, and he was expected to guard the door to that room for that entire play? No thanks, why, he couldn't even say the play from the door, and even if he could have, drinking was more fun. He looked around the room and saw other people at the bar. Were they off duty to? He didn't know, one of the people he recognized, this man was a famous actor, he seemed a little nervous somehow, not sure why. The actor got up and left. John Parker settled back down, ordered another drink, and mused on how strange and jumpy actors can be sometimes. 

  The actor had a plan, he believed in a cause, but it was beneath him to live and die in obscurity fighting for this cause. He had another idea. If carried out, this would shock the world, and possibly, hopefully make things happen again. Because, as things stood, his cause was lost. The actor was nervous, he fumbled into his pocket and felt something, still there, good. He ordered another drink, must have something to calm his nerves, he shakily sipped a little, looked at the clock, and felt in his pocket again, still there, good, he needed his derringer tonight, he saw someone at the bar who might have got in his way, he was relieved, this just got easier. He decides not to finish his drink, so he got up and left. His name was John Wilkes Booth. 

  Abraham Lincoln had a security detail. No one could get to him except by the door of his booth at the theater. The detail was working round the clock, and the play would happen during John Parker's shift. John wasn't regarded as the world's greatest cop, but, how hard could it be to just guard a door for a few hours anyway?

Source Material: Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln with some speculation thrown in for "texture." ;) 

-Loren

The Dark Past (Part 2)

   Elfriede (Huth) Rinkel, was a sweet old lady according to people who met her, she had immigrated to the United States and married a Jewish man. They were both of German descent, and seemed to have a happy marriage until his death in 2004. They kept to themselves in a little apartment, and did not have any children. Elfriede struggles with depression after the death of her beloved husband, but she gets by on United States social security, and has started receiving widow benefits. One day, there is a knock on the door, she opens the door and there stands Eli Rosenbaum the director of the US Office of Special Investigations. Why did he come to visit this poor old widow?  

  Ravensbruck was a horrible place that existed from 1939-1945. A place for women who were deemed enemies to to the Nazis to be abused, terribly mistreated in ways I don't want to speak about here. The place is run by female guards, who take delight in watching the women prisoners suffer. They have ferocious dogs, if they don't like a women prisoner, they unleash the dogs. One of the dog handlers was a young girl named Elfriede Huth. Her husband had never learned of his wife's dark past. He like so many others only saw a sweet old lady from Germany. 

  Source Material: Killing the SS by Bill O'Reilly.

 

  

  

  

The Dark Past (Part 1)

  He was a man in his mid 50s, working a factory job. He was liked, considered fairly polite, but he was private and kept to himself. He had a wife and 2 sons, and they all lived together in Argentina. 

  His dad was a soldier in world war 1, he fought for Germany, but, his government didn't like him, because although he was German, and probably a war hero, he was also a Jew. His dad died from cancer and maybe a broken heart. His widow moved, with her son to the region of Mandatory Palestine. (Today called Israel) Within a year, Germany started sending Jews to concentration camps. Thankfully the boy and his mom were safe, he took on a Jewish name and grew up in Palestine. His name was Zvi Aharoni. 

  In Argentina, it is 1962, the man in his 50s leaves his factory job and heads towards home on the bus. At his stop he gets off and begins to walk home, there is a man with what looks to be car trouble, he speaks to our main character in Spanish. Suddenly he and 2 other men jump our main character and capture him, they load him into and they and a few other men take him to a safe house and hide him away. Later they smuggle him out of the country and take him to Israel. One of the men is Zvi Aharoni, but why? 

  Back to the 1940s, there is an important bureaucrat responsible for overseeing the efforts of rounding up Jews and taking them to concentration camps, this guy is bad news, and has completely given himself over to evil. He follows orders, a pastor who confronts him with the limited knowledge he has gets no satisfaction and later gets arrested himself. This man, given over to evil completely disappeared after the war, but the Jews didn't forget. His name was Adolf Eichmann. The name of the man in Argentina? Adolf Eichmann. 

Source material: Killing the SS -Bill O'Reilly

Where are you Fighting From?

The French, so nearly lost world war 1. They fought back hard, they held the line with support from the British, it was an influx of fresh American troops that broke the stalemate. That was a relief, however the French were worried, Germany had only existed since around 1870, before that it was a collection of small nations made up of mostly German speaking peoples. When Bismarck had gotten the Germans united, they had defeated France in a matter of months, and signed the unification papers in Germany. When the aftermath of an assassination in the Balkans spiraled out of control, France and Germany found themselves supporting different sides of the conflict that was world war 1, and France would have lost without help.  So in the aftermath of world war 1 they were quite hard on Germany, and their allies agreed. They pushed for Germany to be held responsible for all financial loss acquired by France and her allies in the war and other things I don't feel like looking up and writing in here. This gave Germany a big opportunity to choose bitterness, rage etc. and with the help of gifted inspiring speaker named Adolf Hitler, they did. They aligned with such dastardly evil beliefs such as German racial superiority, a killing off of others, a manifest destiny type right for German living space, and a socialist utopia for Germans in that living space. Meanwhile, France worked on a line of defensive fortifications along their border, it has become known as the Maginot line. When Germany decided to invade though, they went through Belgium and the Netherlands, they had developed a coordinated and well crafted offensive strategy that caught the French off guard. During all this time, the British, as allies to the French, had come alongside and offered support to the defensive line along the low countries, (Belgium and  Netherlands) but the Maginot line was not really built up along a dense forested area known as the Ardennes because it was "impossible" to get through the Ardennes with any force, what few units made it through could easily be dispatched, but, the Germans, penetrated it in force and split the French defenses, the British found themselves pinned against the sea with the Germans closing in. Meanwhile the rest of the German forces, relentlessly marched on to Paris and France fell. Hitler had his picture taken by the Eiffel tower to celebrate. 

  The British recognized Germany as a real and present danger. They had preemptively decided to support France on the continent due to alliance commitments and more importantly for them, their own survival as an island nation just off the continent. They fully intended to back France, just like in world war 1. Now things have not gone to plan. So, they set in place an evacuation plan, masses of ships, military, private, and cargo, were deployed from the south of England to Dunkirk, France and they managed to evacuate 85% of the British forces. However this was a defeat, ground had been given to the enemy, soldiers running away were shot in the back. Paris was in the enemy's hands. The fight at Dunkirk was a fight from a place of defeat, it was only a victory in British eyes in the sense that 85% of the soldiers lived to tell about it. 

   Around 4 years later: Germany is holding France, the soviets have been attacked with tremendous losses in lives and territory. Events in the Pacific have brought the United States into the war, the USA agrees with the the British position that reclaiming Europe from the hold of Nazism is important for all of the world, not just Europe. So, fortified with American support, French soldiers that managed to escape, Canadian soldiers, and others. This group of soldiers, united by a common enemy, land on the beaches of Normandy, France, and face a hailstorm of German bullets, but they move forward, soldiers get shot in the face and chest, but still they march forward and secure a hold, they keep pushing further inland, they reclaim France, reclaim Belgium, reclaim the Netherlands, and then begin to fight the Germans in Germany. There are many casualties, but now, they are fighting from victory. The gains are tangible, in the form of land, in the form of abandoned German positions, in the form of hugs, cheers, and greetings from grateful French, Belgian, and Dutch men, women, and children. There is a taste of victory before the official German surrender. 

  So if we drop all the history for a bit and look at your spiritual life, as someone who is worshipping the only true God, a God of resurrections, a King of kings. Your taking shots to. Are you just trying to survive? Getting shot in the back? Or are you fighting from victory? If your going to get shot for the God of resurrection, take it to the face. Christ got the victory, He secured the hold. Just because our spiritual enemy hasn't surrendered yet, does not mean that we don't have victory. We do, if we decide to advance in the power of Christ no matter what, we can. 

P.S. Maybe my grasp of history is dodgy, it's a free country, read up on it yourself. ;) Also, I love Germany, and German people. The enemy is not Germany or Germans and never has been. It's the devil. Conflict comes when people agree with the actual enemy. Racism isn't a German thing, it's a thing from hell that many Germans and others, agreed with. 

-Loren