Jake Holliday
@J_O_Holliday
Followers
5,229
Following
1,381
Media
3,838
Statuses
19,188
• Historian • PhD candidate @ Uni of Buckingham: Wehrmacht Security Soldiers on the Eastern Front • DDR/BRD Security • Pianist
York
Joined February 2020
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Davido
• 141270 Tweets
Lionel Messi
• 126988 Tweets
#ลาซาด้าศึกยูหล่อ2024
• 107483 Tweets
Wizkid
• 81366 Tweets
トレード
• 56352 Tweets
#RedVelvet10VEisCosmic
• 55931 Tweets
#레드벨벳의_어마어마한_코스믹
• 47935 Tweets
Lazada x Gemini Fourth
• 42609 Tweets
Yeri
• 35959 Tweets
seulgi
• 28419 Tweets
コロナ陽性
• 24437 Tweets
殺害予告
• 23266 Tweets
ひたちなか
• 22773 Tweets
ロッキン
• 20913 Tweets
不買運動
• 19203 Tweets
Happy New Week
• 19099 Tweets
Jada
• 18543 Tweets
MasaDEPAN LebihMAJU
• 18209 Tweets
Last Drop
• 14139 Tweets
コレクション缶バッジ
• 14115 Tweets
岩下の新生姜
• 11275 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
A thread of threads! So that they don't become lost deep within Twitter, here is easy access to threads on a range of topics.
7
6
42
Thread: A series of then and now photos of Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.
Then: Soon after the surrender of Berlin, 2 May 1945.
Now: My visit, May 2024.
A Soviet soldier stood over the body of an SS paratroop officer on the Friedrichstraße-Oranienburger Straße junction.
28
146
2K
These soldiers are some of the only survivors of the Gloucestershire Regiment that made it back to UN lines after the Battle of Imjin River, between 22 and 25 April 1951.
750 men of the Glosters withstood repeated attacks from c.10,000 Chinese troops for 4 days. Only 40 returned.
31
142
937
The new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II on the front of York Minster.
13
76
816
This is SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Schäfer, once a member of 'Kommando 99', responsible for mass-executions in Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
In the 1950s, Schäfer was chairman of the Peasants Mutual Aid Association (VdgB) in East Germany. He would not escape justice.
Thread:
15
127
785
Just in case you were curious, here are a range of toilet seats available in the DDR.
‘Curry’…
44
121
655
It took me seven trips to Berlin to realise that there are cannons set into the ground at the Brandenburg Gate!
34
32
645
Just accidentally bought myself a Soviet digital watch.
17
24
517
Wehrmacht soldiers ready to engage in heavy street fighting, Rostov on Don, Russia, July 1942.
29
50
495
Currently reading a document typed by a West German court in the 1960s and it's clear they were still using a wartime typewriter with an 'SS' key (usually Shift-3 or 4).
What's more, they misspelled 'dass/daß' so used the 'SS' key over the single 's' to correct their mistake...
18
52
510
On 12 April 1945, ordinary Germans murdered 30 concentration camp prisoners in Großlöbichau, a village near Jena in Germany.
This thread will look at the events which led to the massacre:
20
94
487
Thread: During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Viet Minh 312th Division was one of the first units to attack the French positions. Amongst their ranks was an unusual figure- a tall, blue-eyed man: Captain Stefan Kubiak, from Poland.
Here is his incredible story.
22
123
471
A paratrooper of the US 101st Airborne Division wearing an East German m56 helmet, Vietnam c.1960s.
The DDR provided arms and equipment to North Vietnam throughout the war- from one NVA to another NVA, I suppose.
17
117
365
Found these in a Nürnberg antique shop today. They belonged to a soldier who was deployed with a security formation in Rear Army Area Centre. The last thing I imagined to find! More to follow…
24
13
373
A T-34 tank stuck in a subway entrance during the Hungarian Uprising, Budapest, 1956.
21
42
364
After 1945, everyday memory of the Third Reich did not just disappear. This is not to say that every German was a Nazi, but that the 12 years of the Third Reich had a profound effect on the psyche. This is demonstrated by comedian Jonny Buchardt at Karneval Köln in 1973.
26
100
344
A Heer Oberleutnant surrendering his company of PzKpfw III tanks and crewmen to a British or Norwegian Army Officer, Oslo, Norway, June 1945.
23
22
342
Thread: In 1961, East German authorities began constructing the Berlin Wall. Bergstraße would be one of the 300 streets blocked off.
Since the fall of the wall in 1989, only one street in Berlin remains closed off: Bergstraße.
This thread will look into the history of the area
10
45
347
Men of the Waffen-SS readying to fire atop a Marder III, Eastern Front, c.1943.
(Source unknown)
10
41
329
Rest in peace Sir Ian Holm, who I’ll always remember as Corporal Himmelstoss (All Quiet on the Western Front)...and Bilbo Baggins.
14
38
333
In October 1945, British Army occupation forces in Germany contacted the Soviet Commission to ask for SS Standartenführer Wilhelm Mohnke to be handed over to them, so to be tried for the murder of Allied POWs. They replied that they didn't have him. They lied.
23
25
330
Last night I watched 'Wil' (2023). It follows a Belgian policemen in German-occupied Antwerp in 1942, as he swerves between collaboration and resistance. An important, yet difficult, film, it is a blunt confrontation of the Belgian police's complicity in the Holocaust.
25
24
329
Thread: On this day, 7th May, in 1945, German Kriegsmarine troops opened fire on Dutch civilians, that had congregated to celebrate the arrival of Allied forces, in Dam Square, Amsterdam.
This thread will examine what occurred.
13
104
321
A Second World War German shell, filled with propaganda leaflets, that was recently found by metal detectorists in the St Petersburg region!
10
45
302
The Supreme Court of the DDR found him guilty on charges of murder and crimes against humanity. Schäfer's defence appealed to Walter Ulbricht for him to be given a life prison sentence. Ulbricht did not answer.
Wilhelm Schäfer was guillotined in Leipzig Prison on 16 June 1961.
5
20
308
Wehrmacht soldiers on the advance, Crimean Peninsula, November 1941.
7
18
295
Wehrmacht soldiers preparing to advance, Eastern Front, c.1942.
One is armed with an MG08/15 machine gun, a Great War-era weapon.
Their helmets are covered with paper.
(BA)
12
26
294
A 93 year old German veteran has just received his Covid vaccinations and has had the record stamped on the vaccination page of his 1944 dated Wehrmacht Soldbuch [Soldiers’ record book].
13
45
290
Manpower issues in the Wehrmacht were worse than previously thought, it seems.
(A cat hanging out a viewing slit of the driving compartment of an SdKfz 222 armoured car. [source unknown])
18
49
278
Thread: German actor Eberhard ‘Hardy’ Krüger, well known for his role in ‘A Bridge Too Far’, has just passed away aged 93. “Raised to love Hitler”, from age 13 in 1941, he attended the elite Ordensburg Sonthofen Adolf Hitler School.
17
46
277
As it is World Book Day, here is the book that laid the foundations of my current studies and interests. I first read it aged 17 and now at 27, it is surreal to think that I am now writing my PhD thesis on German soldiers.
32
18
275
Today I ticked over 3000 followers! Thank you all very much for your comments and support on all my posts.
Here is a mischievous NVA soldier on a 1st May parade, c.1970.
19
10
263
A Wehrmacht Heer NCO posing with the Lion’s Mound on the site of the Battle of Waterloo, Belgium, 1940.
9
24
248
The Stadtmitte S-Bahn station in Stuttgart, Germany. Thousands of people use this every day, but few realise its second purpose.
In 1972, construction began on the new station. It would also serve as a huge bunker to shelter the people of Stuttgart from a potential nuclear blast
6
45
252
A ‘ghost’ eagle, likely a Nazi one, on Hannoversche Straße, Berlin.
9
18
252
Thread: This is Alfred Schwarzmann, Fallschirmjäger and Olympic athlete. He competed in both the 1936 and 1952 Summer Olympic Games.
Schwarzmann was born in Fürth, Germany, on the 23rd March 1912 and joined the ranks of the Reichswehr in 1929.
8
14
245
A BAR gunner of the US 25th Infantry Division in Korea, 1951. Notice that his ‘sidearm’ is an M3 sub-machine gun.
8
24
245
Lithuanian partisan Aleksandras Grybinas-Faustas with an StG44, c.1948. He joined the partisans in 1945 and later became a Captain with the Lithuanian Freedom Fighting Movement (LLKS). In 1949, he was severely wounded when ambushed by Communist forces & shot himself the next day.
4
31
233
A high school history teacher in Hagen, Germany, has discovered a cache of Third Reich era documents and items hidden in the wall of a building that was recently damaged by flood water.
(Photos by Dr Ralf Blank via Hagener Stadtgeschichte )
12
30
238
Why does the toilet in every German bar look like this? 😂
36
17
237
A German medical orderly captured by British troops in Ochtrup, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 3rd April 1945.
(IWM)
13
21
237
On this day, 20 July 1944, members of the Wehrmacht attempted to assassinate Hitler and seize control of the Reich. These rooms once served as the offices of Claus von Stauffenberg (L) and Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm (R). It was from here that Operation Valkyrie was directed.
5
34
233
Thread: Are you a German soldier fighting the Soviet 'Bagration' offensive in Belarus, in July 1944?
Hungry? Thirsty?
Well, have no fear. Here is the menu:
9
18
233
A Panzer IV Ausf H of the 1st SS Panzer Division in front of Milan Cathedral, Italy, September 1943.
(Bundesarchiv)
6
21
221
A Stabsfähnrich of the Nationale Volksarmee and a Hauptmann of the Bundeswehr on an exercise near the Infanterieschule der Bundeswehr in Hammelburg, Bavaria, 18th September 1990.
The NVA would be disbanded 14 days later.
(Imago-Images)
13
26
218
Thread: Members of the Wehrmacht Feldgendarmerie erecting a sign on a major road in Russia, July 1941. This was not just any highway, however. Later in 1942, what happened along and beyond this road would have a severe effect on the Army Group Centre Rear Area.
(Photo: BA)
10
28
212
A German machine-gun team on the banks of the Narva River, opposite the Ivangorod Fortress, Estonia, 1944.
(Bundesarchiv)
14
22
210
Commonwealth Universal Carriers and lorries in a scrapyard, Hamburg, West Germany, May 1958.
18
111
707
Two Luftwaffe soldiers of Leichte Flak Abteilung 76 on the Eastern Front, c.1944. A serious head wound, with entry and exit holes on his helmet.
12
17
213
An East German border guard speaking with a West Berlin police officer soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989.
This may have been taken on the Glienicke Bridge, although I'm not 100%.
13
23
216
Officers of the Deutsche Afrika Korps, March/April 1941.
(BA)
4
17
210
Former Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall and convicted war criminal Albert Kesselring addressing c.5000 members of the rightwing Stahlhelm veterans' organisation in Giessen, West Germany, c.1952.
He served as their honorary president.
30
35
213
This is former Dachau Concentration Camp in 1963: a residential housing estate with playing children.
Here is a thread 🧵 about difficult memory and the repurposing of KZ Dachau, 1945 to 1965.
(KZGD)
8
44
210
An excellent photo showing men of the Gloucestershire Regiment, survivors of the Battle of the Imjin River, digging new positions in Korea, 9th May 1951.
To me, the most interesting thing about this photo is that they are wearing their 1949 Battledress uniforms on the frontline.
12
18
205
Thread: A uniform with a curious past: this 1974 dated uniform jacket belonged to an Oberstleutnant of the Sanitätsdienst (Medical Service) in the Bundeswehr. What’s very interesting, however, is the medal ribbon...
21
25
202
New book day!
With recent thesis changes, I am very much looking forward to getting stuck in!
6
14
195
A soldier of the Wehrmacht Heer stands in a dugout amidst several destroyed Soviet tanks (incl. a Lend-Lease Valentine), Melitopol, Ukraine, September 1943.
(Unknown)
3
15
191
A Wehrmacht Leutnant of the 11th Army and his men interrogating a female Red Army soldier, Crimea, 1941.
7
16
177
A young soldier of the Luftwaffe, recently awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, talks with a Wehrmacht officer, c.1944/45.
He is armed with a captured Soviet PPS-43 and a Panzerfaust. He was likely a member of a LW training formation, which was thrown into combat towards the end.
8
14
186
The Nordhausen district had joined the 'full-cooperative' and so sent a representative to Arnstadt to convince them to join. So, in Spring 1960 a man arrived in Arnstadt to meet with Schäfer. This man just so happened to have survived Buchenwald and recognised Schäfer immediately
2
11
185
Belgian troops in a slit trench near Antwerp, Belgium, 1914.
(mauritius images / United Archives)
4
14
179
U.S. soldier wearing German Gebirgsjäger boots, outskirts of Rome, 1944.
7
20
179
Thread: On 26th September 1972, Grenzschutzgruppe 9, more commonly known as GSG 9, was created by the Bundesgrenzschutz. It was West Germany's first specialist unit for the fighting of serious, organised crime and terrorism.
This thread will explore how and why it was founded.
12
32
170
The last German officer at the Mont Lambert fortifications with Canadian soldiers in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, 17 September 1944.
(Project '44)
6
14
177
A Wehrmacht POW helps British Royal Marine Commandos with their wounded comrade, Westkapelle, Walcheren, The Netherlands, 1st November 1944.
(IWM)
4
17
171
A column of PzKpfw V Panthers and M3 half-tracks, France, c.1950. These vehicles belonged to the French Army’s 503rd RCC (Regiment de Char de Combat). Formed in Mourmelon soon after the war, they were issued approximately 50 Panther tanks.
()
7
23
174
Men and women of the StaSi (Ministry for State Security) receiving awards, East Germany, c.1960s.
(BStU)
22
30
169
The 100,000th prisoner of war captured by the US First Infantry Division- an Unteroffizier of Panzerjäger Abteilung 272, of Kampfgruppe Herian, captured in Hättenrode, Germany, on 23rd April 1945.
(US Signal Corps)
6
29
172
Soldiers of the Red Army leaving the British Sector of West Berlin, after a ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial, Berlin 1958.
A snowman in West Berlin police and customs uniform items salutes them.
(Getty)
3
35
171
A very interesting photo showing a Wehrmacht NCO and motorcyclist with a bucket of white paint and brush. It’s likely they were riding around altering road signs. The symbol may be that of the 35th Infantry Division, which was deployed in Belarus and Russia.
(Unknown)
9
22
168
The man reported Schäfer to the Stasi in Erfurt, who arrested him after an investigation. Schäfer was reported to have personally murdered 100-150 Soviet prisoners of war, and complicit in the murder of 800-1000 others; as well as 30 tree-hangings, and up to 400 floggings.
3
12
167
Men of the Waffen-SS gathered around an abandoned piano on a street in Kharkov, Ukraine, c.1942.
(BA)
6
16
161
Thread:
#OTD
7th October in 1989, the DDR celebrated its 40th anniversary. This was marked with the annual military parade along Karl Marx Allee in East Berlin. It was the last large military parade to occur in the DDR before its collapse.
14
27
160
A West German Customs officer lighting a cigarette for an East German Alert Policeman on the Inner German Border.
The photo was taken between 1958 and 1967 (1958, the Kalashnikov was introduced in the DDR; 1967, the ‘Modern Frontier’ border fortifications were constructed).
6
23
155
Went to Wuppertal and saw the Schwebebahn! Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time 😁
16
8
155
Hitler Youth boys captured in Berlin, 1945.
Volkssturm prisoners march behind them.
(BA)
9
18
151
In late 1941, Schäfer became involved with 'Kommando 99' and the mass-murder of Soviet prisoners of war. Not far from KZ Buchenwald, a stables was converted to look like a medical facility. Soviet POWs would then enter without suspicion, before being shot in the back of the neck.
1
12
154
Schäfer was born in Obhausen, Saxony-Anhalt, in 1911. A brick-layer and farmhand, he joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and the SS in 1933. It's believed his descent into Fascism began with the nationalist beliefs of his father and his father's employer, a large landowner.
1
9
150
Schäfer began his career in the SS in 1935, working at Lichtenburg Concentration Camp near Wittenberg in Saxony. He soon became a Blockführer and was in charge of the detention block.
In 1937, he transferred to Buchenwald and became deputy commandant of the camp laundry.
1
8
149
In Berlin, it was eerie to see that the building opposite ours was peppered with bullet holes. With my bed by this window, it was surreal trying to imagine soldiers fighting on the same spot…
10
8
151
Thread: Today I went to Art Deco heaven for a champagne afternoon tea, a belated present for my Mum’s big birthday. The Earl of Doncaster Hotel opened in 1938 and its decor is a dream. Here are the highlights:
@EarlofDoncaster
@ArtDecoSocUK
11
14
147
In the 1950s, Schäfer became a farmer and was later the chairman of the Peasants Mutual Aid Association (VdgB) in Arnstadt. At this time, the DDR wanted to collectivise all of its farms into 'full-cooperatives', but Schäfer would not surrender his district.
1
11
146
A Slovakian soldier, most likely of the Slovak Republic 1st Division (Slovak Expeditionary Army Group), taking a Soviet soldier prisoner, Rostov on Don, July 1942.
5
13
143
Thread: Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) was a German actress, who in 1945 had quite the experience during the Battle of Berlin.
Photo: DEFA-Stiftung, Eugen Klagemann, from the 1946 film 'Die Mörder sind unter uns'.
8
25
144
A Kar 98k modified and cut down to accommodate firing flares. I have no additional information, but it doesn’t look particularly safe...
16
12
137
We went to see some towers alongside the Rhine today… I’m sure people will be able to recognise them 👀👀👀
More to follow…
19
3
142