Latest news with #SS
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Bill O'Reilly's latest book explores the origins of history's most evil — from Putin to Hitler
Telling world's wicked tales Another Bill O'Reilly book is coming out. Such a big-time heavy-duty deep-down real surprise even to readers in the lowest tar pits. Title: 'Confronting Evil: Assessing the Worst of the Worst.' A St. Martin's advance proof says evil began in Genesis when Cain zonked Abel. O'Reilly then gives the shiv to Genghis Khan, Caligula, Henry VIII, Stalin, Hitler and Mao. Also the Ayatollah, Putin, drug cartels. Good v. evil. O'Reilly tells me young Vladimir Putin's violence was leading rat hunts. He relished the kill in exterminating house vermin. His father, prone to rage, beat him for 'lack of discipline.' The kid 'endured the attacks in silence.' Page 210: 'He slept on a rag heap, dirty clothes, handmade blankets.' By age 15 his crew of teenage thugs prowled the streets filled with 'garbage, vodka bottles, cigarette butts.' Six-year-olds using weapons. They'd smash into interlopers' eyes, noses. Blood everywhere. Rocks smashed faces, blood spattered onto pavement. Putin, laughing: 'celebrated victory with beer.' Advertisement O'Reilly: 'Perhaps today the world's richest, born in the slums of Leningrad, he's now worth minimum $250 billion.' How a vile regime rises 'The Worst of the Worst': Page 133. Adolf Hitler. Average looking, 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, gray-blue eyes. Never smiles. Advertisement 1920 the Nazi party is formed. Hitler tries for a coup 1923. Ten years later, is elected chancellor. Concentration camps begin. The 'sadistic killer is infamous for brutality toward Jews and homosexuals.' Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters He had no girlfriend, no chums, rumors of 'an incestuous relationship' with his teenage niece Angela Raubal, who shot herself dead at 23 on Sept. 18, 1931. Midnight. June 30, 1934. Germany's Bad Wiessee. Each lamppost hangs a 10-foot bloodred swastika banner. One hundred heavily armed men. Hats feature a skull emblem. The SS — Adolf Hitler's personal army. Execution squads. 'Night of the Long Knives.' Beginning of the end. Germany's economy in free fall. Seeing himself in politics, he already commands 2 million members. Each swears a blood oath to Adolph Hitler. Advertisement A global scourge More evil outlined in O'Reilly's Chapter 12: The Drug Cartels. Feb. 2, 2012. Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman — onetime head of the Sinaloa drug cartel — asks the church for blessings. He places a black wig atop the Mother Mary 6-foot church statue then walks half a block to his mansion where masked workers move narcotics with forklifts — heroin, cocaine, marijuana, crystal meth, etc. — and hidden into compartments of cars, SUVs, semitrucks — destination: USA. It's 10 bedrooms. Fireplace, pool, gardens, fountains, ocean. Page 225: 'El Chapo sips a Mexican 75, tequila mixed with Champagne, at his beachfront villa in Mazatlán. Modern mansion. Smokes a cigar. Views 25 girls between 11 and 15 years old. Selects a 12-year-old for his pleasure.' Advertisement On the run from Mexican federales and FBI for years, he was finally captured and brought to justice in Brooklyn. Locked up in Colorado now and an average fentanyl dose costs 10 bucks on the street. O'Reilly: 'I know there's active evil in the world. I have seen it up close and very personal. 'I've spoken to jihadist killers in Guantanamo, serial murderer Ted Bundy, watched Argentine soldiers shoot civilians in Buenos Aires, listened to a Vatican exorcist.' There exists in Siberia an amusement park. It's called Dissidentland. When they take you for a ride, they don't bring you back. A Moscow University prof explained that interplanetary junkets were soon in the cards. 'We will be able to travel to Mars, Pluto, Venus.' Asked one student: 'Yeah, but when can we travel to America?' Only in Russia, kids, only in Russia.
.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26auto%3Dwebp%26quality%3D75%26trim%3D0%2C196%2C0%2C304%26crop%3D&w=3840&q=100)
Scotsman
3 days ago
- General
- Scotsman
German consul 'moved and humbled' by visit to Cultybraggan Prisoner of War camp
Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The German Consul to Scotland said she was 'moved and humbled' by a visit to a prisoner of war camp in Perthshire that housed the most dangerous Nazis during the Second World War. General Consul Christiane Hullmann made the visit to Cultybraggan near Comrie, where more than 4,000 men were held. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cultybraggan Prisoner of War Camp near Comrie in Perthshire. More than 4,000 men were held here during World War Two, including 2,700 Germans and hardline Nazis. | Contributed They included around 2,700 Germans, with Cultybraggan the only surviving 'black list' camp at the time of the German surrender given it housed members of the SS and those fully immersed in Nazi ideology. READ MORE: VE Day: Silence among Nazi hardliners at Scotland's high security POW camp Ms Hullmann was invited to Cultybraggan by the Comrie Development Trust, which runs the camp as a heritage site that features original Nissen huts slept in by POWs, a museum and also an orchard, business units, a cafe and holiday accommodation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She said: "As a German, I found it very moving and humbling to receive such a warm welcome at Cultybraggan, a place which is such a stark reminder of the dark time when Germany brought such death and destruction across Britain and Europe. "I am personally very interested in history, but it is also an important part of our official policy to engage in keeping the memory of World War Two alive." A postcard of Cultybraggan near Comrie, dated 1955. The former POW Camp is now run by the community and is open as a heritage site. The 80th anniversary of VE Day will be marked there this weekend. PIC: Comrie Development Trust. | Comrie Development Trust Ms Hullmann added: "As a German, you know of the brutal and deadly conditions under which Soviet POWs were held by Nazi-Germany. They were essentially left to die. "It was therefore very moving to see that the German prisoners of war at Cultybraggan were very well treated and were getting the same rations of food as soldiers in the British army.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad READ MORE: The Scots fighters who paved the last roads to victory in Europe Cultybraggan was the scene of an infamous murder in 1944 when German officer Wolfgang Rosterg was beaten and kicked to death in Hut No 4. He was incorrectly believed to have been an informant of a planned escape of more than 7,000 German POWs from a barracks in Wiltshire. Six men were convicted of his murder and five were hanged at Pentonville Prison. Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess also spent a night at the camp after parachuting into Scotland in 1941. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Although Cultybraggan was a camp of the highest security, many prisoners who were trusted by authorities were allowed to work in surrounding farms or deliver goods on behalf of local businesses. At the end of the war, some POWs remained in Scotland and helped rebuild infrastructure by laying roads, building houses or logging trees. In 2016, former German POW Heinrich Steinmeyer left £384,000 in his will to Comrie given the kindness he was shown there. German Consul General Christiane Hullman (left) with members of the Comrie Development Trust during her recent visit to Cultybraggan. | Contributed Ms Hullmann said: "There were die-hard Nazis held there, but also very young Germans who were not so deeply committed who were allowed to work on farms. They also had a cultural life, with a theatre group and a music band at the camp, for example. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "Some of the prisoners decided to stay in Scotland after the end of the war, which is the strongest testimony that they were well treated. Many prisoners came back after the war to visit, and one former POW left his inheritance to Cultybraggan. "The place really is a treasure trove of stories and I would very much like to bring over some young German volunteers to help to preserve the camp. That would be fantastic."
Scotsman
4 days ago
- General
- Scotsman
German consul 'moved and humbled' by visit to Cultybraggan Prisoner of War camp where hardline Nazis held
Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The German Consul to Scotland said she was 'moved and humbled' by a visit to a prisoner of war camp in Perthshire that housed the most dangerous Nazis during the Second World War. General Consul Christiane Hullmann made the visit to Cultybraggan near Comrie, where more than 4,000 men were held. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cultybraggan Prisoner of War Camp near Comrie in Perthshire. More than 4,000 men were held here during World War Two, including 2,700 Germans and hardline Nazis. | Contributed They included around 2,700 Germans, with Cultybraggan the only surviving 'black list' camp at the time of the German surrender given it housed members of the SS and those fully immersed in Nazi ideology. READ MORE: VE Day: Silence among Nazi hardliners at Scotland's high security POW camp Ms Hullmann was invited to Cultybraggan by the Comrie Development Trust, which runs the camp as a heritage site that features original Nissen huts slept in by POWs, a museum and also an orchard, business units, a cafe and holiday accommodation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She said: "As a German, I found it very moving and humbling to receive such a warm welcome at Cultybraggan, a place which is such a stark reminder of the dark time when Germany brought such death and destruction across Britain and Europe. "I am personally very interested in history, but it is also an important part of our official policy to engage in keeping the memory of World War Two alive." A postcard of Cultybraggan near Comrie, dated 1955. The former POW Camp is now run by the community and is open as a heritage site. The 80th anniversary of VE Day will be marked there this weekend. PIC: Comrie Development Trust. | Comrie Development Trust Ms Hullmann added: "As a German, you know of the brutal and deadly conditions under which Soviet POWs were held by Nazi-Germany. They were essentially left to die. "It was therefore very moving to see that the German prisoners of war at Cultybraggan were very well treated and were getting the same rations of food as soldiers in the British army.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad READ MORE: The Scots fighters who paved the last roads to victory in Europe Cultybraggan was the scene of an infamous murder in 1944 when German officer Wolfgang Rosterg was beaten and kicked to death in Hut No 4. He was incorrectly believed to have been an informant of a planned escape of more than 7,000 German POWs from a barracks in Wiltshire. Six men were convicted of his murder and five were hanged at Pentonville Prison. Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess also spent a night at the camp after parachuting into Scotland in 1941. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Although Cultybraggan was a camp of the highest security, many prisoners who were trusted by authorities were allowed to work in surrounding farms or deliver goods on behalf of local businesses. At the end of the war, some POWs remained in Scotland and helped rebuild infrastructure by laying roads, building houses or logging trees. In 2016, former German POW Heinrich Steinmeyer left £384,000 in his will to Comrie given the kindness he was shown there. German Consul General Christiane Hullman (left) with members of the Comrie Development Trust during her recent visit to Cultybraggan. | Contributed Ms Hullmann said: "There were die-hard Nazis held there, but also very young Germans who were not so deeply committed who were allowed to work on farms. They also had a cultural life, with a theatre group and a music band at the camp, for example. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "Some of the prisoners decided to stay in Scotland after the end of the war, which is the strongest testimony that they were well treated. Many prisoners came back after the war to visit, and one former POW left his inheritance to Cultybraggan. "The place really is a treasure trove of stories and I would very much like to bring over some young German volunteers to help to preserve the camp. That would be fantastic."
Motor Trend
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS First Test: Is It Really Super Sporty?
Pros WHOA, it's quick SS good looks Solid range Cons Not the fastest charging We'd like some sound, please On the heavy side The button looks suspiciously like a bat signal. Press it, and a whooshing, pulsing, thrumming sound fills the cabin and lets you know you just did something substantial—something like unleashing the full potential of the 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS AWD. All 615 electrified horses are now at your command and stand at the ready to hurtle you and 5,729 pounds of SUV toward the horizon. Hammer the go pedal, and WOW, best to have your C1 to C7 vertebra pressed firmly against the seat, because they're in for some serious snap-back otherwise. The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS AWD impresses with 615 hp and a blistering 0-60-mph time. It offers a 303-mile range but slower charging. The interior is comfortable interior with a standout digital display. Price starts at $62,095. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next For the uninitiated, WOW stands for Wide Open Watts, the drive mode that, at the press of an onscreen button, uncorks the full power enchilada. It's a kitschy catchphrase, but there's nothing cheesy about the wow factor you feel when you're barreling off the line in the SS EV, a vehicle that Chevy claims is the quickest SS-badged car it's ever produced—quite a statement considering the lineage of Chevy's Super Sport subbrand. Just How Quick Is the Quickest SS Ever? The sheer power and performance of today's vehicles, especially huge and heavy EVs (this vehicle weighs only 700 or so pounds less than two '67 Camaro SS 350s) with dual motors, a huge 102.0-kWh battery pack, and 615 hp and 650 lb-of torque all in with WOW engaged like the Blazer SS, would no doubt blow the minds of the muscle car drivers of yesteryear and blow them away at the dragstrip. Our 0–60-mph test number of 3.4 seconds is spot on with Chevy's estimate for the vehicle, with the quarter mile requiring only 11.8 seconds, at which point it's traveling 117.5 mph. There aren't a ton of all-electric-powered performance SUVs on the market right now at or near the size class and price point of the midsize Blazer EV SS. The closest is arguably the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which is roughly 1,000 pounds lighter with a 3.7-inch-shorter wheelbase and is capable of a 641-hp burst off the line. Predictably, the 5 N was far quicker: 2.8 seconds to 60 mph and an 11.0-second quarter mile at 124.9 mph. Pirouetting It Around and Hauling It Down Chevy's SS cars weren't always about simply doing burnouts from a stoplight or dropping the hammer when the Christmas tree lights went green, they were also fitted with some gear to help them corner and stop better, too. The Blazer EV SS is in the same vein. We wouldn't call it a world-class handler, especially given its heft, but it doesn't embarrass itself, either. That said, once again, the Ioniq 5 N handily bests it in our topline dynamic tests, including our figure-eight lap, with a 24.1-second rip at 0.82 g (average) versus the Blazer's 25.1-second time at 0.80 g average. The story's much the same on the skidpad, where the Hyundai out-grips the Chevy 0.96 g to 0.85 g. Braking is an area where the Blazer SS receives a special merit badge, with a strong pedal that doesn't fade or overheat during hard track work like some other heavy General Motors EVs we've tested, and not a lot of brake dive. But you guessed it, the 5 N also crushes it stopping from 60 mph, needing only 102 feet as opposed to 114 for the Blazer SS. It bears repeating that the Chevy is much bigger and is hauling around far more poundage, so it's worth taking these results with a couple of grains' worth of electrons. In fact, it's the Blazer's plus size that many prospective buyers may indeed be looking for over the 5 N, regardless of how much better the smaller Hyundai performs. And given that both the underlying Ioniq 5 and the Blazer EV were former MotorTrend SUV of the Year winners, we continue to dig them both as overall propositions. Range and Road Test There is one area where the Blazer SS takes down the Ioniq 5 N, and that's in the range department. Thanks in part to its huge battery pack, the Blazer's 303-mile EPA range number dwarfs that of the 5 N's 221 miles. On our highway mile MotorTrend Road-Trip Range test that runs EVs down from 100 to 5 percent charge, the Blazer SS EV manages 276 miles, a solid number. It also outscores the 5 N in the EPA city/highway/combined numbers at 92/77/84 versus 84/72/78. As for juicing it up, however, the Blazer isn't exactly a top performer; it's another area where Hyundai EVs are far superior. Its 5-to-80 percent charge time of 54 minutes at a 350-kilowatt fast charger is average at best, and it took a whopping 97 minutes to reach 100 percent. That's the runtime of many movies, so you might want to have one cued up and ready to watch while you charge. If you do plan to spend a lot of time in the cabin of the Blazer SS EV, you'll find it a fine place, with comfortable seats (they could use some bolstering, however, for high-speed cornering) and more than enough room for all passengers. The large wraparound digital screen, which is oriented toward the driver, is one of the best in the business from a display and usability standpoint, and this business of not having CarPlay or Android Auto is maybe a smidge overblown. Its Google integration is well executed, and you can natively set up most of the features you normally use on your phone. The room is expansive inside, and the optional dual-pane panoramic power sunroof on this car is worth the $1,495 outlay. Outside, other than the Halloween-themed color scheme (Habanero Orange, if you were wondering), the Blazer SS looks the part of a sport-themed SUV without being garish, much like its SS forbearers. On the highways and byways, you'll notice that the ride over road imperfections is on the firm side. The shocks aren't adaptive, so the ride is the same in every drive mode. The good news is the long wheelbase helps filter out the worst ride impacts. It all comes with the territory; you want the SS sporty appeal and massive 22-inch rims, don't you? If you don't, there are always other Blazers from which to choose. One-pedal driving aficionados will love the two modes you can select, which to us are aggressive and neck-snappingly aggressive. We do wish, though, when you're silently whooshing away from a stoplight that you could dial in some cool sound modes. May we suggest a Chevy small-block LS V-8 or similar? Also, this isn't the type of vehicle that shrinks around you, more like drops on top of you. You feel its heft when maneuvering at speed. Yes, it has a few dents in its armor, but taken as a whole, the Blazer EV SS is an impressive modern interpretation of the Chevy SS ethos, done up in a future fancy package. We think the muscle car mad hordes of the '60s would be duly wowed by it.
Spectator
7 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
There was no escaping the Nazis
Soon after Hitler came to power in 1933, Charlotte Beradt, who as a Jewish journalist and a communist had been barred from publishing, found her sleep wracked by nightmares that unmistakably reenacted the terrors of the Nazi regime. Deprived of her regular employment, her own dream experiences prompted the subversive if dangerous idea of recording the dreams of her fellow citizens. 'I began to collect the dreams that the Nazi dictatorship had, as it were, dictated,' she wrote. Citing a dictum of a Nazi official that in Hitler's Germany no one has a private life except while asleep, the material she collected demonstrated how dreams 'as minutely as a seismograph' can record impinging external realities. For much of my working life I practised as a psychoanalyst and both in my private and professional experience I've encountered dreams which report not merely on the vicissitudes of the dreamer's personal unconscious conflicts but bear unmistakable marks of the incursion of prevailing objective events. While reading The Third Reich of Dreams, first published in the 1960s, I had a relevant experience. I dreamt that one of the long-dead members of the Jewish Brigade, with whom my father was interned as a POW during the second world war, had been banned from giving a lecture at Cambridge (my alma mater) and was asking for my help in gathering support to resist the ban. The book had brought to the forefront of my unconscious, via my family's history, the pernicious recurrence of anti-Semitism in our own day. Beradt was not a disciple of psychoanalysis, and the dreams she recorded were not opaque dramas requiring professional psychological decoding. On the contrary, they are remarkably easy to analyse. Her sample dreamers include 'a dressmaker, neighbour, aunt, milkman, friend'. She writes that she generally didn't reveal her purpose, 'for I wanted the most candid and unaffected responses possible'. One woman dreams that lists of verboten words, the first 'Lord' and the last 'I', had been posted all round her neighbourhood. Another finds herself surrounded by innocent seeming workmen, prompting no anxiety until she spots a chimney sweep (because of the association with black, her family's code for the SS). The men then all perform a Nazi salute, chorusing: 'Your guilt cannot be doubted.' Herr S, a factory owner, dreams of a factory inspection by Goebbels, to whom he finds himself incapable of making a Nazi salute. After a protracted struggle to raise his arm, his spine cracks and breaks – one of several dreams whose meaning requires no elucidation. Many others are about cunning methods of thought-policing, suggesting an intuitive recognition of this form of state terrorism long before Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-four. In one, a stormtrooper opens the door of the cosy stove that warms the dreamer's home and from it a shrill voice repeats all the jokes, criticisms and anti-establishment comments made by the household. In another, a lawyer, chatting to his brother on the phone, comments that he doesn't 'enjoy anything any more'. In the middle of the night the phone rings and a voice announces ominously,: 'This is the telephone Surveillance Office,' at which the terrified dreamer begins to grovel for forgiveness for the treasonable crime of non-enjoyment. A number of dreams indicate a distressing degree of self-identification with Nazi propaganda. A Jewish dreamer sits on a rubbish bin and hangs a notice around his neck declaring: 'I'll make way for the trash.' Perhaps most illuminating are the dreams that indicate the dreamer's recognition of the psychological toll that internal collaboration with the morality of the state will take. A young woman with a Christian father and a Jewish mother has a series of dreams in which she feels profound hatred for the mother to whom she had always been close. A doctor finds himself in a concentration camp where there were dinner parties and plays performed and, in the dream, thinks 'Well then, so it really is all exaggerated, the things you hear about the camps' until he observes himself in a mirror wearing polished jackboots and a Nazi uniform. Besides being brave, Beradt was shrewd: she protected herself and her fellow dreamers by concealing her findings in the bindings of her own books. She disguised the appearance of any political figures, turning Hitler, Göring and Goebbels into genial family members Uncles Hans, Gustav, and Gerhard. When the arm of state control grew more menacing, she posted her notes to friends overseas. Happily, she escaped Nazi Germany and turned her groundbreaking field research into this short but sharply insightful and disquieting book. Her acute observations on the insidious reach of totalitarian ideology are bolstered by telling quotations from Orwell, Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka and Hannah Arendt. Many of the dreams have the dislocating, quasi-rational quality of a Kafka short story and Beradt's considered conclusions make a worthy coda to Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism. As the world turns darker and the exercise of state power again becomes more habitual, this book is a timely reminder that the culture we allow ourselves to exist within is capable of making deep and damaging inroads into our collective psyche.
