The Only U-Boat Commander Executed by the Nazis
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
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Oskar Heinz Kusch (6 April 1918 - 12 May 1944) was a German naval officer and U-boat commander in World War II who was executed for comments critical of the Nazi state.
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I was on the edge of my seat for this one. I can’t believe he made it as far as he did. Great ending to the story!
Thank you so much for telling Oskar Kusch's story! He was the only U-Boat commander who was executed, but he was not the only one who had been sentenced to death. Kapitänleutnant and U-Boat commander (U-572) Heinz Hirsacker committed suicide before he could be executed (one of his friends had managed to smuggle a gun into the prison where Hirsacker was incarcerated). Besides, at the shooting range where Oskar Kusch was shot, more than a hundred members of the Kriegsmarine (it has not even established yet how many men exactly) have been executed during the war, all sailors in their twenties. Just in this one place alone! They were mostly accused of subversion of the war effort (Wehrkraftzersetzung) or desertion. There was no mercy under the Nazis' reign of terror. For no-one.
Indeed! Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :) czcams.com/video/B62bn-UMRKQ/video.htmlsi=l0FcPWA-onLucLSQ
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It almost seems they patterned the commander of the U Boat in the movie Das Boot after this guy. Finally he gets the honor in death that was denied to him in life. Thanks for bringing this story to us.
Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
I'd always thought that Das Boot's Captain was based on Otto Kretschmer. Still it could have been an amalgam of the two of them.
Obviously the comander in Das Boot was based on Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock. You know, the actual commander of U-96.
@@markalexandervanderveen2799
Obvious to you, not necessarily obvious to anyone else. If you’re stating this as a fact then perhaps you can cite your sources.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-96_(1940)@@DragonZarr
obscure history that few of us had heard of..great research..and sad that such a light was extinguished way to early..am sure Kusch would have had a role in post war Germany..
Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
Ulrich Abel,
his main accuser,
was given command of U-193 which disappeared on its fourth patrol which commenced on
April 24,1944.
This was about 2 weeks before Oskar Kusch was executed.
Druschel died on board U-154 when it was sunk by depth charges near Madeira on July 3,1944.
This was about 6 weeks after Kusch was executed…
One of the ensigns aboard the U-154,
(Kirchammer) had testified:
"The Captain once told us ensigns that we should form our own opinions and not allow ourselves to be influenced by propaganda.
Captain Kusch spread a joke among the crew:
"What do the German people and a tapeworm have in common?
They are both surrounded by scheisse and are doomed."
What do you think?
Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
Kusch was certainly living dangerously making those sorts of comments and "jokes".
The Nazis had no sense of humour whatsoever. Kusch would have known that he had hard-core Nazis onboard his boat.
@@markfryer9880Agreed . I admire him for speaking his mind and opposing that criminal regime. On the other hand, he was writing ' his own death sentence ' by doing so. The Nazi's had zero tolerance for dissent. In the armed forces, all commanders were expected to support Hitler. I'm sure his words and viewpoints were communicated to the Nazi leadership since the beginning. He was a ' dead man 🧟♂️ walking '.
Abel was sh##!
With that style of the moustache and the semiprofile photograph, he quite literally looks like Errol Flynn?
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Abel died during is first war patrol as CO before Kusch has been executed
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One of the few who spoke out loudly. There are worse ways to die...or to die for.
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Quicker than sitting alive in a sunken uboat, waiting for oxygen to run out
Several years ago, I read an interesting book about Oskar Kusch titled "Execution for Duty" by Peter Hansen.
Was it good? I will have to check it out! Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
@HiddenHistoryYT I thought it was an excellent read. How tragic that when fate caught up with Kusch's principal accuser that he took his entire crew with him into eternity.
So he was a normal guy working in hostile office environment.... On the other hand, he should have had 2 of his crew "fall overboard" on patrol...
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Of the three branches of the German military during World War II, the most "Nazi" was the Luftwaffe, with the kriegsmarine, or German Navy as the least "Nazi.
The Waffen SS, am I a joke to you?
@@mikebrase5161 Ironically, towards the end of the war the Waffen SS was largely made up of conscripted and foreign soldiers.
@@davidhoward4715 the Amount of SS Divisions formed with full German cadres versus foreign born is about 2 foreign to 1 Germanic. Wiking being the best of the non German.
@@mikebrase5161the ss wasn’t part of the military. It was the armed wing of the party
@@goldenfiberwheat238 Nah dude, the Waffen SS was placed under Heer command for the duration after 1 September 1939.
This is so heart breaking. He was defending his country and they executed him because he had different views and hurt the ego of someone.
Yes ... couldn't happen now......errr.... wait a minute.....
Government is not your friend
He was defending his country? I mean.. come on. 2nd world war Germans didn't defend their countries. They tried to conquer europe. And Kusch was a part of the German war machine.
DOJ., FBI etc. Have seen fit to use political tactics against USA citizens and God knows what they are doing in the military. Ashli Babbitt murder is still at large, protected by the Capital Police.
Completely agree! Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
It was clear that the Nazis were losing the war at that point. The had to reach out harshly towards someone lest someone else look at them for their failures.
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Yes a 10 year jail sentence in 1944 wouldn't have lasted very long.
I am shocked that Döenitz did not intervene to prevent the execution. The Admiral was not a Nazi, only used the Naval salute, and had low regard for the Bavarian Corporal's martial skill. Perhaps he did not want to risk harming the success of surreptitious anti-Nazi efforts. Nonetheless, I am still disappointed.
Yep. Thanks for watching and have a great weekend :)
Oskar Heinz Kusch needs to have a film made about him.
Yes! He died just because he had a different viewpoint. And before that, he was sentenced a whole year for listening to the radio. They should also do a movie about Franz Hazel!
Great narrative! Thanks for bringing these hidden stories to light. I found Doenitz’s apathy a little surprising, but understandable in light of the mob/witch hunt mentality. Did he ever comment on the case post war?
Doenitz was a devoted NAZI,
And thought Hitler was a genius.
Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
Looks like he was a great artist too......how pathetic he faced all this corruption while a good captain of a U Boat.
Indeed. Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
I wonder if Oskar Kusch knew that his accuser, Ulrich Abel, had died, before he was executed? I doubt it,
but it would have been "poetic justice", if he did! R.I.P. Oskar!
Don’t believe so. Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
Of course did the immediate postwar German judicial system not prosecute Nazi war criminals, based on the fact that a lot of “former” Nazis got into powerful positions. One, Kiesinger, even became Chancellor ( other names to be mentioned are Hanns Martin Schleyer or Werner von Braun (in the US). As a German I am embarrassed how little German did to prosecute Nazis post war.
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Its not like the World went back to normal when the War stopped, Europe so was Decimated and took Decades to recover,(England was on Rations till 1959) there were so many immediate needs and the Soviet Union was exploiting this, the needs of the people of Europe were so overwhelming, just trying to organize was daunting and the Crimminals got lost in this. But I don't care if it took decades when Europe recovered more effort should have been expended catching them.
What amazes me is a ship that weighs around 1500 tons could sink up to 50,000 tons or more of shipping?
Yep! Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
Its called a torpedo, has absolutely nothing to do with the ship or sub it's self
Welcome to the military, both old and new as in todays military. As a 66yr old Australian military man, if you dare speak your mind, god help you.
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And that's just in the Australian Military, can you imagine how dangerous it would have been to not only say or do the wrong thing but to be surrounded by envious ambitious men within your crew?
Mark from Melbourne Australia
Ex Australian Army Reservist
Thank you for this piece of history I never knew about. Very interesting and poignant.
Even in today's military and Federal Civil "Service" if you don't play the game you'll go down in shame!
The more things change.. Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Some historical context to this. As I understand it the German Military already had bad memories from the rapid deterioration of morale in the German Navy / Army in 1918 at the end of WWI. Definitely doesn’t make it right but might help explain the ruthlessness of the Nazi’s towards their own in 1944 and 1945. As they say ‘only the Good die Young’
Spot on! There was a mutiny near the end of WW1
The leader of this "legal mutiny" was killed on his first patrol in the Bay of Biscay. It appears Kusch's appraisal of Dr Abel was correct. He died before Kusch so at least there's that.
Never knew about this
The stuffed shirt Poms did exactly the same thing to Admiral Byng in 1757 - political, regal and naval inflexibility and the protection of fragile little egos. But the case of Oskar Kusch exemplifies what amounted to a judicial lynching, a process alive and well today but with character rather than literal assassination.
'The stuffed shirt Poms did exactly the same thing to Admiral Byng in 1757 - political, regal and naval inflexibility and the protection of fragile little egos.'
Oh dear! Is your obsessive anti-Britishness natural, or did you go on a special training course?
The rerasons for Byng's (unjust) execution were totally different, and where did a 'stuffed shirt' come into anything at all?
Not exactly the same at all Aussie lad. Admiral Byng was executed because it was considered that he did not do his duty on an expedition. Whereas, Lieutenant Kusch was executed for disintegrating the armed forces and listening to foreign broadcasts.
@@Peter-lm3ic Byng might have been the victim to a degree, of what nowadays would be called a 'cover up,' but otherwise I agree.
I will have to check that out! Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
@@michaelcohen904 Do you know, until I read your posy I didn't even know that Morant had commanded a submarine!
You don't think that executing six Boer prisoners of war and three civilians might have been just a little excessive?
Probably not, if you believe the movie rather than the facts of the case.
Kusch ... DIDN'T !!! In German, "Kusch!" is a command given to a dog, usually a hunting or guard dog, to stop barking or straining at the leash: to lie down and shut up. It's pretty much the equivalent of "Heel ! " in English. It's frequently used in the context of dominance and subjugation, e.g. "Wenn der Direktor brüllt, KUSCHT das ganze Personal." (Eng.: When the director starts yelling, the staff shut up and take cover.) Kusch seems to have been a natural leader and independent thinker: dangerous qualities in 1944, when German defeat was becoming more and more certain, and blind obedience and loyalty was the order of the day. THANK YOU for keeping his story alive !!
And as an afterthought, if Kusch DIDN'T, it seems that Abel ... WASN'T.
Fortunately for Germany, they had no shortage of competent military commanders and so much surplus skilled labor they could afford to kill off millions of them for vague political or racial reasons. Oh, wait. That really didn't work out at all. So getting rid of capable people because they don't fit your politics or racial intersectional logic is a bad long term strategy for overall success. Lesson learned. Glad nothing like that could ever happen here.
Stalin purged a lot of high ranking Army Officers during the late 30's for political reasons and came to regret it when the Russian Army invaded Finland in Nov. 39 and due to incompetent leadership and logistics performed poorly despite a 10/1 manpower advantage over the Finnish defenders. The Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 really highlighted Stalin's error.
@@jamesdarcy3902 True that, but only after killing all the successful middle class farmers and causing a national famine. Mao Zedong and now Bill Gates following in those brilliant footsteps.
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Hitler also had a tendency to overrule his competent generals. Too much hands on by a guy not an expert in winning wars. He was in WWI but that was a loss, too. American actions in Vietnam were often dictated by JBJ, who loved very personal involvement along but had no real expertise, along with McNamara and his whiz kids from Ford Motors. Too bad the Vietnam war wasn't about selling cars.
@@WilliamMurphy-uv9pm Much of what you say is true, although many of Hitler's decisions worked out, at least at first, which made it harder to argue with him later. For example General von Bock didn't believe Germany was prepared for war and considered a military coup if Hitler invaded Czechoslavakia. Hitler correctly believed the West would cave, and they did. Hitler picked Guderian's plan for a combined arms blitz on France. Many generals on both sides were shocked that it worked so well so fast. Hitler denied permission to retreat on the Eastern Front a number of times (Stalin did, too) leading to massive casualties, but some argue a general retreat in the winter conditions would have just been a slaughter on ice. At least in entrenched positions cut off units could hold out in "hedgehogs" and limit the Soviet advance until they could be rescued. LBJ had a political problem. He had won the 1964 election saying Barry Goldwater would start a nuclear war by sending half a million men to Vietnam and threatening the North. So LBJ sent 90,000, and then 150,000 and then 300,000 and then 543,000 troops. LBJ lied, a lot and that eroded support for the war and ruined LBJ, but he tied his own hands strategically. It's the same reason Biden won't keep Trump policies even if they worked well.
Sounds like a good movie . It would be interesting to know what happened to the other officers who condemned him.
Ulrich Abel,
his main accuser,
was given command of U-193 which disappeared on its fourth patrol which commenced on
April 24,1944.
This was about 2 weeks before Oskar Kusch was executed.
Druschel died on board U-154 when it was sunk by depth charges near Madeira on July 3,1944.
This was about 6 weeks after Kusch was executed…
One of the ensigns aboard the U-154,
(Kirchammer) had testified:
"The Captain once told us ensigns that we should form our own opinions and not allow ourselves to be influenced by propaganda.
Captain Kusch spread a joke among the crew:
"What do the German people and a tapeworm have in common?
They are both surrounded by scheisse and are doomed."
What do you think?
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
I would like to see a movie made of Otto Kretchmer commander of U99 and top ace of the U boats.
The US Navy isn’t much better look at how they crucified the commander of the aircraft carrier who had the temerity to question the readiness of his ship with a full blown pandemic raging aboard during peace times.
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Unless they actually crucified him, with nails and a cross, would that be true.
The Navy crucified Charles Butler McVay of the USS Indianapolis. His case was ridiculously unfair.
How about Admiral Kimmel , who was scapegoated for the attack on Pearl Harbor ... In Kimmels case .....he resigned from the Navy in 1942 , and spent the rest of his life looking to regain his reputation .
There were no tears shed, for Olrich Abel.....
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As a Jew I respect this man and his anti nazi views!
Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :)
@@HiddenHistoryYT u2
A Great and Necessary Story from a Global Conflict that engrossed the Entire Planet for Six Long Year's. Please tell or expose Other Stories that Can then Honor Some of those that were Lost So Tragically even though they may of Fought for the Wrong Side, or the Considered Enemy at that Time. Again I Say Thank You from a History Buff 💪😅💪. May God Bless US All ❤️🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️🤔🤔✌️✌️👍.
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It sounds like what we did to Charles McVeigh the Caption of the USS Indianapolis.
That was an absolute travesty. Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Caption? Don't you mean captain?
Oskar Kusch was one of only two U-boat commanders to be sentenced to death by court martial, the other being Heinz Hirsacker of U-572, who was convicted of cowardice and committed suicide on 24 April 1943, shortly before his scheduled execution.
Unfortunately, it sounds as though Kush was guilty as charged.
Think of Lindberg, who was denied being an officer in the Army Air Force because of his public opposition to war with Germany.
Imagine what would have happened to an officer in the American military who was stridently opposed to Franklin Roosevelt, and who removed a picture of Roosevelt from a prominent position. Posting such pictures of Roosevelt was very common.
Of course, such people would not have been shot. But they would not have been accepted as officers, either.
Being a competent technician in the military of any nation is probably not enough ---especially for officers. You have to toe the line politically as well. This is illustrated by many officers who were kicked out of the American military over the issue of women in prominent military positions.
Of course, shooting the guy was brutal. But that's a consequence of being in the Nazi military.
Well yes, I agree with not following protocol as potentially denying an officer membership in the military... US or otherwise, but the firing squad is an obscenely far cry from that punishment. And please don't bring up Lindberg, his pre-war Nazi sympathies are well know. Likely why he was only allowed to help P-38 pilots in the Pacific and not European theater.
Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer even meeting with Hitler.
@@gregorydahlen2103 Well said.
I don't really think not liking Roosevelt would have landed you in hot water. 44% of the nation voted for Willkie in 1940. There were lots of Republicans in the military who didn't like him and were vocal about it. While he may have been Commander in Chief of the US armed forces you certainly weren't required to pay homage to his likeness outside of ceremonies. If there is evidence proving otherwise that people were punished for such thing I would be pretty surprised.
Yes. My grandfather basically ruined any chance at promotion in the USAF when he trusted his superiors when they requested the opinions of officers about whether the USAF should be racially integrated. The USAF promised not to penalize any regardless of their opinion. He gave his opinion, right or wrong, and it was not what they wanted to hear.
This reminds me of a doc. about a "flying courtmartial" in which a civilian German only said,"Oh, yeah," to a Lieutenant of sorts in the Nazi military about a bridge blown up and how he and other Volksturm were to be the "frontline" against the Soviets in their village of farmers.
The Lieutenant had to trump up charges of sabotage and hang the man(a hothead 60+ farmer) on lies and orders from his overseers, although the Lt thought at the time it was just. They hung the farmer below his apartment window on a tree . His wife of 40 plus years said, "What did he ever do to you?" and was told to get away from the window.
You couldnt even make a small remark w/o being executed, particularly a man..
But then Sophie Skoll and brother were executed for putting messages around BERLIN against Nazism. Very brutally ideological!
I also didn't know Admiral Doenitz was such a Nazi.
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WOW WHAT A MAN!!!!!!!!!. Thanks for posting this doco!
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
My father heard about this case when he was thinking of joining the navy and after listening to this story it was one of the reasons why he didn't join the German navy the other reason was because he was english
Haha. Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
hahahahahahah
This is an example of how dictators stay in power - terror. Think this regime, Stalin's Russian, NK and China today. It's how these regimes survive.
Also Putin!
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The Kreigsmarine was much less Nazi than this video implies. One need only remember what service Canaris came from.
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The ordinary Wermact soldier and Lutwaffe airman were not Nazi but it didn't stop them helping the Einsatzgruppen to shoot thousands of innocent men women and children.
Able was unable.
😂 Greatly appreciate you watching and have a fantastic week :)
Interesting story.
Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
There are far better and more accurate narrations in existence.
R.I.P 😰😥😢
This was a Version of the "Cream Rising" to the Top! in these days and times! This WHY "They LOST!" An Un Just Cause, An Un Just WAR! in the DARK! Light is Light!
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wow, sad
Keep in mind, that the nazis did not, in fact, "seize power". It was given to them, freely, voluntarily, legally, by democratic process.
Something to keep in mind overseas, these days.
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Looks like Cary Elwes
Someone else said that as well! I’ll have to look him up haha
My grandfather is Felix Sinclair
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Karma always Win's.
Likely true or so I hope. That does little to help the already dead and thrown on the ash-heap of history.
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Looks like a young Ryan O'Neill
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Not all germans were Nazis, or supported Nazi ideologies.
A harbinger of what would come 6 months later
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@@HiddenHistoryYT np
Yeah you got yours Abel!
Indeed! Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
“Kriegsmarin”?
NO, Es heißt die Kriegsmarine - with a sounding “e” at the end.
And we all what Donitz sentence was....
What a travesty.
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This is how govt. Treat there solders regardless of country....
What happened to the guy who denounced him?
He died while on patrol.
sadly,this tells me nothing of the accusations.... against Kusch...nothing of the trial or testimony for or against the accused,
He wasn't executed he was murdered.
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Same thing
What happened to Abel?
Died near the end of the war in his Uboat
He fought for the Nazis as they murdered millions. Maybe he was a little less evil than the rest.
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Two of the swine who denounced him died in fear.
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Yes may God forgive me for feeling like this but these two mutts died in fear before exploded in pieces with them inside and sank forever in the ocean ,that s real Divine Justice in action I'm sorry for the poor men who share their fate ,they had nothing to do with es hat these two evil men did to an innocent man and their souls are probably in a very dark place you can be sure of it
Kusch was one of the few sane people in Germany during WWll.
Immer wieder werden wir verraten von den Alten! Seid Jahrhunderten!
Ihr schützt die wahren Verbrecher! Die seid Jahrhunderten abkassieren und das Volk ausplündern! Das ist die Wahrheit!
Kush was surrounded by cowards.
Pure mulder, shame on nazisme, carlos de Backer belgium😮😮
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PRAYERS 🙏 AND THOUGHTS 2 FAMILY. RESPECTS 🙏. MAY THE LORD BLESS THEM WHO SPOKE OUT AND TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NAZI GOVERNMENT . LEST WE FORGET.
even the nazis had standards
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Just like now....watch your com?ents.
Some vindication, albeit late.
This should be a graphic demonstration to all those who say “the Germans should have stood up to the Nazis”.
These people have no concept or understanding of the power which a totalitarian state can wield against its own people. Or, how members within that society can, for whatever their reasons, denounce others to the authorities.
My German grandmother told me that during this time even if you didn’t hang a Swastika flag from your apartment window on Hitler’s birthday, you could expect a visit from the Gestapo in the next days to ask you “why you didn’t?”
how can they violate his civil rights and freedom of speech
Civil rights and freedom of speech are being squash right now around the world .
Uhh they didn’t have it haha
Them mother effers
Kusch Push.😂
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How many times do you need to say " although he was much loved by his men , but not so much of his fellow officers" to make your point.
Ok
Please just tell the story without the propaganda!
Amazing , sounds like the American judicial system and the dnc !
Lol
Sounds like he was asking for it. Imagine being some little 15 year old loudmouth trash talking the regime that brought your country back into greatness.
Quiet, nazi
He was against a evil regime.. but saw hisself as a german sub captian...it was plenty like him..... ...sound like he was asking for it.... I guess your ok with the evil regime... 🤡
That's not greatness wanna take over other countries....and kill innocent people are you ,,,mad???
How did the German people get that way
Different times! Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Because there was none left?