Further Links:

In 1938 Halder replaced General Ludwig Beck as Chief of General Staff. Halder organized the offensive against Poland but warned Adolf Hitler against the Invasion of France. Halder also helped plan the eventually abandoned Operation Sealion and Operation Barbarossa.

After the resignation of Walter von Brauchitsch Halder took over as Commander in Chief of the German Army. He was replaced by General Kurt Zeitzler in September, 1942 after a disagreement with Adolf Hitler. Halder was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and accused of being involved in the July Plot. He was sent to Dachau Concentration Camp and was freed in 1945 by the USA Army.

In 1946 Halder gave evidence against leading members of the Nazi Party at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. His critics have pointed out that Halder's objections to Hitler were based on military differences rather than a rejection of Nazi philosophy. For example, he became involved in the July Plot because he believed that Hitler no longer had the ability to win the war. Franz Halder died in 1972.

Further links

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhalder.htm
http://www.joric.com/Conspiracy/Halder.htm
http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/military-halder-patriot-traitor.htm From the Third Reich factbook

About Halder's time in Wales http://www.specialcamp11.fsnet.co.uk/index.html and http://www.bridgend-powcamp.fsnet.co.uk/Generaloberst%20Franz%20Halder.htm and http://www.islandfarm.fsnet.co.uk

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t028/t02870.html The Simon Wiesenthal Center

When Hermann Goering became minister of the interior in Prussia in 1933 he recruited Diels as head of Dept 1A of the Prussian State Police. Goering was impressed by Diels and made him head of what became known as the Gestapo.

Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich became jealous of Diels's power and began to spread rumours about his loyalty to Adolf Hitler. One of these stories claimed that Diels had joined the conspiracy being organized by Ernst Roehm. Without the support of Hermann Goering Diels would have been killed during the Night of the Long Knives.

In April 1934, Goering, under pressure from Heinrich Himmler and Wilhelm Frick, agreed to hand over control of the Gestapo to the Schutzstaffel (SS). As a result Diels lost his position as head of the organization and now became security chief of the Cologne government.

At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial Diels gave evidence against the leaders of the Nazi Government. As he was considered to be innocent of war crimes he was allowed to serve as under secretary in the post-war German government. Diels published his memoirs, Lucifer Ante Portas, in 1950.

Rudolf Diels, who retired from the German government in 1953, was killed on 18th November, 1957, when he accidentally shot himself with a hunting gun.

In 1926 Lubbe joined the Dutch Communist Party (KPH) and worked hard trying to recruit young unemployed workers into the party. He also organized demonstrations and spoke at protest meetings.

Lubbe decided he wanted to live in the Soviet Union but is unable to raise enough money for his fare. However, in 1933 he moves to Germany where he immediately begins protesting against the new government headed by Adolf Hitler.

On 27th February the Reichstag caught fire. When they police arrived they found Lubbe on the premises. After being tortured by the Gestapo he confessed to starting the Reichstag Fire. However he denies that he was part of a Communist conspiracy. Hermann Goering refuses to believe him and he orders the arrest of several leaders of the German Communist Party (KPD).

As well as Lubbe the German police charged four communists with setting fire to the Reichstag. This included Ernst Torgler, the chairman of the KPD and Georgi Dimitrov of the Soviet Comintern.

Marinus van der Lubbe was found guilty of the Reichstag Fire and was executed on 10th January, 1934. Adolf Hitler was furious he rest of the defendants were acquitted and he decided that in future all treason cases were taken from the Supreme Court and given to a new People's Court where prisoners were judged by members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).

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Hitler admired Goebbels' abilities as a writer and speaker. They shared an interest in propaganda and together they planned how the NSDAP would win the support of the German people. 

In 1928 Goebbels, Hermann Goering and ten other members of the Nazi Party were elected to the Reichstag. Soon afterwards Goebbels became the party's Propaganda Leader.

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor in January, 1933, he appointed Goebbels as Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. 

During the Second World War Goebbels played an important role in building up hatred for the allies. He had little confidence in the abilities of other ministers in the government and made attempts to have Joachim von Ribbentrop dismissed from office.

When the Red Army made advances into Nazi Germany, Hitler invited Goebbels and his family to move into his Fuehrerbunker. On 1st May, 1945, Joseph Goebbels, his wife and six children, committed suicide.

Adapted from  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

Partridge was first invited to contribute to Punch in 1891. In these early drawings he concentrated on illustrated reviews of plays. The following year Bernard Partridgewas asked to become a staff cartoonist with the magazine. He initially refused as he still hoped to make it as a serious artist.

Partridge's work reflect his theatrical background and as one critic pointed out, his cartoons often had "a massive figure, coming down to the footlights". In 1901 Partridge replaced John Tenniel as the chief cartoonist at Punch. Bernard Partridge held conservative views and was especially harsh on the trade union movement and the Women's Social and Political Union. Partridge was knighted by Stanley Baldwin, the Conservative Prime Minister, in 1925 and the following year gave loyal support to the government during the General Strike.

Although many critics believe that Partridge was Punch's best ever artist he always doubted his ability. In a letter he wrote in 1897 he told a friend that he considered much of his work to be "second-rate" and that he was "little more than a hack draughtsman." Sir Bernard Partridge died in 1945.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jpartridge.htm
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp03462&role=art National Portrait Gallery

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Over the last twenty years he has written several school history books including Ghandi (1987), The Vietnam War (1988), Race Relations in the United States (1988), Slavery: An Illustrated History of Black Resistance (1988), Hitler (1988), Stalin (1987), The Roman Empire (1991), Making of the United Kingdom (1992), Expansion, Trade and Industry (1992), The Medieval Village (1996), The Norman Invasion (1996), etc.

In September, 1997 He established the Spartacus Educational website and over the last three years I have produced online material for the Electronic Telegraph, the European Virtual School and the Guardian's educational website, Learn.

Further Links

A video interview with Mr Simkin conducted on June 8th 2003 at the International School of Toulouse.

Adapted from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ 

His first work, The Destruction of Dresden, was published in 1963, when he was twenty-five years old. This was followed by many other books, including The Mare's Nest: The Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, published in 1964, The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe, The German Atomic Bomb, The War Between the Generals and The Trail of the Fox, a best-selling biography of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Several of his books have appeared in various languages, and several have been serialized in periodicals including the Sunday Express, the Sunday Telegraph and Der Spiegel.

Mr. Irving has a track record of uncovering startling new facts about supposedly well-known episodes of history. Much of his effectiveness is due to his extensive reliance on original source materials, such as diaries, original documents and so forth, from both official and private sources. 

In June of 1989, David Irving published a British edition of the Leuchter Report . He told the journalists there that the infamous extermination gas chambers at Auschwitz and Majdanek did not exist, except perhaps, as the brain-child invention of Britain's war-time propaganda bureau, the Psychological Warfare Executive. More than 100 members of the British House of Commons, signed a statement condemning the Irving edition of the Report as "evil." Irving has been famously quoted as saying:

"I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. It's baloney, it's a legend. Once we admit the fact that it was a brutal slave labour camp and large numbers of people did die, as large numbers of innocent people died elsewhere in the war, why believe the rest of the baloney?" Irving said. He added, "I say quite tastelessly, in fact, that more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz." He went on, "Oh, you think that's tasteless, how about this? There are so many Auschwitz survivors going around, in fact the number increases as the years go past, which is biologically very odd to say the least. Because I'm going to form an Association of Auschwitz survivors, survivors of the Holocaust and other liars, or the ASSHOLS."

Further links