Dark History Tours & Experiences

12/11/2024

The last film I made a review of was "Napoleon". I was, to put it mildly, less than impressed. Last month, before I went to Wales to see family, I saw Kate Winslet's film "Lee", based on the wartime experiences of Lee Miller. I was very impressed by this and I'll be reviewing this properly soon. The next film I hope to see is "The Return", starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche (Who last starred together in "The English Patient"). It is based on Homer's "Odyssey" - but there is no Athena to come to the rescue, no Sirens, no Polyphemus....

THE RETURN Trailer (2024) Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer© 2024 - Bleecker Street

16/10/2024

Every year:

16/10/2024

Spotted at Oktoberfest: which begs the question - any truth to that well known tune about "only having one"? :-)

04/10/2024

I need to do a *few* more tours before I can take the business to the next level.

Seriously, Munich is so small, so many guides do similar tours, it is hard to stand out. I ran my first 12 day tour this year; Munich - Nuremberg - Berlin - Prague. I've proved to myself that I can do it and I think it is time to build out the business a bit. One step at a time though. As the insanity that is Oktoberfest nears it end for 2024 (Last day is Sunday), I'm looking towards 2025...

Manor for Sale in Sainte-Mère-Eglise

01/10/2024

On this day in 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) passed their judgement in Nuremberg.

The trial dealt with surviving members of the upper echelons of the N**i hierarchy. Sentences were debated at length by the judges who were from the UK, France, USA and Soviet Union.

Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death - Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, and Bormann. The latter was tried and sentenced in absentia: he had not been seen since the breakout from the Führerbunker and was widely believed to be at large - whilst in reality, his co**se was moldering away near where Berlin Hauptbahnhof now stands.

On 16 October, ten were hanged, with Göring killing himself the day before with a cyanide pill. How did he get it, when he was searched everyday? That my friends is for another day....

28/09/2024

The SAS and Paras train by going up and down this mountain

Fearless professional jouster Emma Pearn to take on Pen y Fan, in the Brecon Beacons, wearing 32kg steel plating

21/09/2024

Arnhem 80 years on:

A commemorative parachute jump is to be held in the Netherlands to remember the 'bridge too far'.

16/09/2024

So a pal needed a rabbit pulling out of a hat for a school presentation. This was shot and edited in six hours. The kids are 11. The rifle is totally incorrect (Its an airsoft Russian Nagant but with original furniture, not a Ma**er G98) but apart from that - considering there was no time to write a script and that I'm just using bits and pieces I already had - it passes muster:

Short film I shot for a a Year 7 (11 years old) school class about a German soldier in WW1. "Dieter" is a composite character, drawn from several individuals...

11/09/2024

I was living in Berlin in 2001. My phone goes; it is my friend Margot. "Turn your TV on" she said. I do as she says. For a few seconds I was unsure just what I was looking at. Then I saw what was the second plane...

A turning point. The world has not been the same since - and the repercussions will be with us for a long time yet to come.

What were you doing that day?

11/09/2024

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jewelry-seized-by-the-nazis-from-polish-concentration-camp-prisoners-is-returned-to-families/ar-AA1qnBUS?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=f582465b469147dfa120c533913d3731&ei=16

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Stanislawa Wasilewska was 42 when she was captured by N**i German troops on Aug. 31, 1944 in Warsaw and sent to the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück. From there, she was sent to the Neuengamme forced labor camp, where she was given prisoner number 7257 and had her...

15/07/2024

July 15th in 1940, results of elections in the Soviet occupied Baltic states were announced. The people of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia *voted overwhelmingly* to join the Soviet Union.

The fortunes of war would see the Soviets pushed back, only for N**i Germany to occupy the Baltics; with everything that came with that package - about 75 percent of Estonian and 10 percent of Latvian and Lithuanian Jews survived the war.

1944-45 saw saw the Soviets reoccupying the Baltic states. They implemented a program of Sovietization, which was achieved through large-scale industrialisation. The Soviet security and surveillance agencies carried out massive deportations to eliminate any resistance to collectivisation or support of the anti-Soviet partisans.

The Soviets had previously carried out mass deportations in 1940–41, but the deportations between 1944 and 1952 were even greater. In March 1949 alone, the top Soviet authorities organised a mass deportation of 90,000 Baltic nationals.

Occupation ended in 1991 with the break-up of the Soviet Union.

No wonder then these same states look at the situation in Ukraine with some alarm; nor why NATO regularly sends troops there to train. Not that Russia has any designs there; just like they did not on Crimea or Ukraine...