Summary of Stephen Harding's The Last Battle

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Castle that was to play such a large role in Jack Lee’s life was fourteen miles to the southwest of where he was. Schloss Itter, as it’s called in German, was a hilltop castle that commanded the entrance to Austria’s Brixental valley.
#2 Schloss Itter was a castle that was looted and partially destroyed during the 1515–1526 Tyrolean peasant uprising. It was rebuilt beginning in 1532, and was home to an ecclesiastical court charged with suppressing witchcraft in the region.
#3 The castle remained in disrepair even after Tyrol returned to Austrian rule following the 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna. But in 1878, a Munichbased entrepreneur named Paul Spiess bought the property and turned it into a large and exclusive inn. The hotel ultimately failed, and in 1884, the disappointed businessman sold the castle to one of Europe’s most acclaimed musicians, Sophie Menter.
#4 Following the Anschluss, Nazi Germany set about erasing all vestiges of independent Austria. The country was divided into seven administrative districts, the Reichsgaue, with Itter and the rest of Tyrol governed by a Nazi functionary based in Vorarlberg.

Sujets

• United States
• Military

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669373643
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Stephen Harding's The Last Battle
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Castle that was to play such a large role in Jack Lee’s life was fourteen miles to the southwest of where he was. Schloss Itter, as it’s called in German, was a hilltop castle that commanded the entrance to Austria’s Brixental valley.

#2

Schloss Itter was a castle that was looted and partially destroyed during the 1515–1526 Tyrolean peasant uprising. It was rebuilt beginning in 1532, and was home to an ecclesiastical court charged with suppressing witchcraft in the region.

#3

The castle remained in disrepair even after Tyrol returned to Austrian rule following the 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna. But in 1878, a Munich-based entrepreneur named Paul Spiess bought the property and turned it into a large and exclusive inn. The hotel ultimately failed, and in 1884, the disappointed businessman sold the castle to one of Europe’s most acclaimed musicians, Sophie Menter.

#4

Following the Anschluss, Nazi Germany set about erasing all vestiges of independent Austria. The country was divided into seven administrative districts, the Reichsgaue, with Itter and the rest of Tyrol governed by a Nazi functionary based in Vorarlberg.

#5

The annexation of Austria created an even larger pool of manpower for Germany. Between 1938 and 1945, 1. 3 million Austrian men were drafted into German military service. Many anti-Nazi Austrians served the Third Reich willingly, but others endured their military duty only because any attempt to avoid conscription or desert would have resulted in harsh punishment.

#6

The castle was used as an initial detention and interrogation site for high-value prisoners marked for deportation to Germany. In early 1942, it was designated as the Ostmark headquarters for the German Alliance for Combating the Dangers of Tobacco.

#7

The castle was eventually used to house honor prisoners, who were considered famous or powerful enough to be kept alive but in decent conditions. It was converted into a detention facility for them.

#8

The SS officer who was in charge of converting the castle, Petz, put the prisoners to work on the project. The ground floor was given over to the SS-TV soldiers who would eventually form the castle’s permanent guard force.

#9

The prisoner-workers were also tasked with converting the castle into a VIP detention facility. They added a small medical clinic, a storage area for gardening and landscaping equipment, and a garage.

#10

The guards at Schloss Itter were made up of members of the SS-TV unit, as well as one member of the organization’s female auxiliary. They were not allowed to relax, as SS officers were watching them closely for any signs of laxness.

#11

The SS officer in charge of Schloss Itter, Captain Sebastian Wastl Wimmer, was a nasty piece of work. He was good at his job, as he had risen to the rank of first lieutenant by September 1937.

#12

The 3rd SS Panzer Division, which was made up of the three original Totenkopfstandarten, was used to form the division in 1939. It took part in the German invasions of France and the Low Countries in 1940, and Russia in 1941.

#13

Wimmer was transferred to the 2nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, which was engaged in fierce combat with the Red Army as part of Field Marshal Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Center. He was personally responsible for Majdanek’s day-to-day operations.

#14

Wimmer was the commandant of Schloss Itter, a castle-hotel turned VIP prison, in Austria. He arrived there in April 1943. His wife, Thérèse, had spent most of the war years living with her parents in southern Germany.

#15

The first VIP prisoners arrived at Schloss Itter on Sunday, May 2, 1943. The castle was now officially open for business. Čučković watched the Germans’ preparations carefully, recording his observations in a small notebook that he had stolen from the SS guardroom.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1