WWII

News Stories

Spy stocks? Vineyards and Wine Cellars in World War II and Cold War Europe  – Editor’s Commentary for September

During the war years, an average wine cellar could easily become a spy stock.

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Down the Avenue News

Spy Artist Against the System: George Tomaziu’s Life in Communist Romania

George (Gheorghe) Tomaziu was a Romanian painter, illustrator, memoirist  and poet. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest. During World War II, he operated as an MI6 agent. As an agent of the British Intelligence Service, he organized a secret group of collaborators that included Alexandru Balaci, Romanian italianist, literary critic and historian. During 1944, Tomaziu was arrested, beaten and placed under investigation under suspicion of espionage. The same year he was released from Malmaison prison in Bucharest.

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Down the Avenue News

Two German Resistance Groups That Made Hitler Afraid

During WWII, resistance was something that posed a serious threat to the Nazi regime. Members of the resistance groups were of different socioeconomic backgrounds, but also had different political affiliations. They were from the extreme left to extreme right of the political spectrum. They also spanned a wide spectrum of age – from youth to elderly. Their fighting activities posed a serious threat to the Nazis, but only two groups strengthened their position. In other words, they developed a strategy that helped them to become a truly serious opponent to the regime. The first was the Beck- Goerdeler Group, named after Carl Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck. The second group was Kreisau Circle with Helmuth James von Moltke. This group was named after von Moltke’s estate in Silesia.

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