Read the diary entry on June 6, 1944 by a brave German justice inspector who hated Hitler and resisted the misinformation and antisemitism of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, And then see what he wrote in 1941 about the German people and the Jews.
In a series of surprise attacks and quick victories, starting with Poland in 1939 and ending in June 1940 with the fall of France, the German dictator Adolf Hitler wrote a new chapter on terrorism as he made himself lord of Western Europe.
Four years later, on June 6, 1944, in a campaign fittingly called “Operation Overlord,” General Dwight Eisenhower led the largest amphibious assault in history across the English Channel and onto a 50-mile stretch of Normandy’s coastline, divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches.
Protecting the coast was Hitler’s formidable Atlantic Wall. Each beach presented unique challenges, from steep cliffs to heavily fortified bunkers bristling with machine guns, artillery, and mines.
In a letter to General George C. Marshall in early 1944, Eisenhower expressed confidence in the coming operation but noted the potential for high casualties: “We are not counting on a walkover,” he wrote.
The assault succeeded, but witnesses said the “very water turned red” and Allied troops suffered thousands of casualties breaking through Germany’s defenses; moreover, there were several months of intense and deadly fighting ahead before they could cross the Rhine and enter Germany and fully liberate Europe.
Impatiently awaiting their own liberation by the Allies was a small percentage of Germans in the Third Reich who had resisted their Führer’s hypnotic speeches and turned a deaf ear to the misinformation and antisemitism by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
Justice inspector and diarist Friedrich Kellner was one of those resisters:
“Hitler has ordered Field Marshal Rommel to inspect our fortifications on the French coast,” wrote Kellner in December 1943. “Despite Rommel, who was forced to retreat in North Africa, the fabled Atlantic Wall will not withstand the coming American and English attacks,” Kellner predicted. “Germany’s ‘invincible power’ will succumb to the Allies’ superior strength. The well-deserved defeat–and the end of terror–moves closer!”
During the brief time of the Weimar Republic, Friedrich Kellner had campaigned as a Social Democrat against Hitler and his Nazi Party. When Hitler came to power, Kellner began a diary to record Nazi crimes and the German people’s approval of the murderous agenda. He was marked by the Gestapo as a “bad influence” and placed under surveillance.
