Heinz Stahlschmidt

I cannot access that page but I'm pretty sure you're talking about the German demining and demolition officer (Spervaffen Kommando) from Dortmund, Wesphalia, who decided to save Bordeaux's harbour installations and all seaside houses from destruction by sabotaging the 4000 detonator arrays which were connected in a blockhaus near Raze street.
He left at the last moment and kept this for himself for the rest of the war. He was saved and hidden from the Gestapo by the Moga family who had a delicatessen store in Bordeaux. That store also was the central headquarter for the local resistance forces of Bordeaux region.
After the war he was given French nationality and in 1947 took the name of Henri Salmide.
He was recognized as the person who saved Bordeaux and was awarded the statute of Bordeaux' Honor resident in May 19th 1995 by Jacques Chaban-Delmas, at that time Bordeaux' mayor.
He was later decorated of the Légion d'Honneur on 19th of December 2000 after being recommended by the French Anciens Combattants associations.
PP.
 
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Depends on one's point of view. If a present soldier disobeyed a simular critical order in Iraq or Afganistan, he would end up in a cement cell in Cuba.
However France was on the winning side so his treason paid off.
 
In this New York times obituary, mentions that Heinz knew that the germans had lost the war, as well as his Christian religion was against the orders he recieved.

That happen a lots in wars. Remember the unofficial "Christmas ceasefire" between the german and british soldiers of WW1 ? Not to forget the 200 Irish Americans who, due to their religion, changes side during the Mexican-American war of 1846-48 ? And resently, an high ranking american officer killed 12 american soldiers, due to differences in religion...

The driving force of the Taliban warfare is religon. The sectarian strife in Northern Ireland was based upon different interpretation of the same religion. The resent genocides in the Balkans were based upon the differences in religion, Cypres, Armenia and so on, and so on....

Makes me wonder how we all get along so well in Canada :)
 
QM 86 said:
Depends on one's point of view. If a present soldier disobeyed a simular critical order in Iraq or Afganistan, he would end up in a cement cell in Cuba.
However France was on the winning side so his treason paid off.
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The people who saved him knew him from long ago before the war.
There ios another reason: occupation troops spent a long time in Bordeaux and many soldiers became friends with people of the place.
When the troops left to avoid being cut off from the main german army battling up north, they had orders to blow up all the ancient piers and the harbour.
Bordeaux is a very old town and the ancient piers are the town's waterfront, squarely in the middle of the residential area. An explosion of that magnitude would have killed many, many civilians and there was no time to evacuate them.
So he took a crucial decision, about the same Von Choltitz did with Paris.
Had he been captured by the Gestapo or the French Vichy police, he would have been executed on the spot for failing.
PP.
 
Four german officers were executed at Hitlers orders, when the they failed, due to sabotage, to blow up the bridge at Remagen...
 
And then we have the Paris Gendarmes who built a ghetto, stocked it with jews, and then loaded them on boxcars for the germans to transport them to Auschwitz.
 
John Sukey said:
And then we have the Paris Gendarmes who built a ghetto, stocked it with jews, and then loaded them on boxcars for the germans to transport them to Auschwitz.
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Yes, the infamous Pierre de Laval and his "Croix de Feu" militias did much of the dirty jobs.
Although some government employees preferred to act from inside and try to slow down the machine by alerting the jewish citizens and issuing false papers, many choose the Vichy collaboration ways.
My mother knew several people who disappeared, never to return.
Her family saved many by sending them in Spain through a mostly Basque and republican spaniards' resistance network, down south in the Pyrenees mountains.
I'll never forget one of my friend's grandmother who, one day, showed me her tattoed wrist.
PP.
 
QM 86 said:
Depends on one's point of view. If a present soldier disobeyed a simular critical order in Iraq or Afganistan, he would end up in a cement cell in Cuba.
However France was on the winning side so his treason paid off.
Click to expand...

Yes, it depends who wins. We teach our soldiers that they must obey all lawful orders, and that obedience to orders is no excuse if we afterwards judge their orders to have been unlawful or morally wrong. We hanged some of our enemies for obeying orders which were lawful according to the laws of their country at the time, but which we judged to have been morally wrong and no excuse.
 
In my opinion, a man, regardless of proffession, is judged by his own soul. If you truly believe it is right to participate in the genocide of millions, then it's your choice. My grandfather was in the Panzercorps at Stalingrad and was captured, but was not killed because just days previously he had been seen by partisans to give his rashions to a starving family and went hungry. A single act of kindness saved his life. He later escaped from a prisoner transport and made it home to Berlin where he lived until about 12 years ago.
 
Knew my comment would cause a minor stir. Of course in the overall scheme of that war he did the right thing, from our side's point of view.
 
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