A small memorial for a German fighter pilot - in Bulgaria

[Theodor]

Removing Nowotny's memorial????? What a BS!!!!

I hope we never reach such a point of "civilization". So far that small stone plate was all that could be done, but in the future that German fighter will get a bigger memorial, someday.

And further more, in the country at leats 2 memorials were built last year for the memory of KIA USAAF bomber crews /sorry, no pictures, this was not in my town and I could not go to visit so far/. No matter that they were coming to seed death and destruction with their bombs, these boys are in a way victims of the war.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Theodor, thanks for posting this thread. Very interesting to read.


Cheers, Ade.

[Ostmark]

Nowotnys grave will not be removed, the status of a honour grave is not given any more, because of the veto from the socialist partys in austria.

So the local authoritys of vienna will not service the grave anymore. But guess what ... now its the nicest grave, because the service is now taken by veterans .... everyday fresh flowers candles and so on

Before the discussion starts in Vienna, nobody knows the grave of Walter Nowotny, but now its public. That has a good and a bad side. The good one, the grave is now taken in service by veterans, the bad one, the grave has been destroyed once by communistic pendant.

[Jan B]

Something like this in Belgium is unthinkable.

Well done Bulgarians

That is correct, overhere something like that is out of the question

Thanks for sharing this report, Theo

Cheers

Jan

[Si1964]

Theo,

Thanks for sharing this story with us and congratulations to your friend Ivano for his sterling efforts in seeing this through.

I also agree with the comments a face of Field Marshall

[nellyp51]

That is pretty cool.

[TWP]

WeLL DONE Theo! For you and your Bulgarian friend I have much resepct. Thank you for sharing this with us. It is indeed a noble gesture.
For those who descerated Novotny's grave. I hope they burn in hell. What posseses a man who never knew the deceased to go and damage his grave?! These people should take a short walk to Dr. Freud's clinic and lay on his couch for a while and cry about the abuse they suffered as children. What is the reason for such illogical and mentally imbalanced hatred towards someone who did nothing to you?!

I wonder if we should raise a fund as members to stop such nonsense and also to raise monuments for such soldiers as Theo and his friend nobly did. I will be the first to do so if anyone come up with a plan. I live in the US and dont have access to such sites. But I would and I would also argue with those who desecrate the graves as such men as Novotny. It reminds me of cowardly jackals who not having been able to fight the lion in his life, act like a bunch of craven terrorists over his prone body!

[Matt Starr]

Heres a good link to Nowotny and his grave. it appears that he has a memorial and a grave.
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.com/pi...W_Nowotny.html
Matt

[MJC]

Nowotny's Grave

To those of you who read my comment about Nowotny's grave, please read the following Reuters article, and perhaps send Mr. Ellensohn your thoughts. He appears to think only in black and white, he belonging to the "white".

I haven't been to Vienna in about a year, and I think the grave remains as it was, but the honor status has been removed, as confirmed in an earlier post. I'll be in Vienna again this w/e and I hope to have the time to see for myself.

Cheers again to Theo and his Bulgarian friends!

Mike


Vienna council shifts Luftwaffe hero from plot of honour to pauper's grave
By Clare Chapman in Vienna
(Filed: 13/07/2003)

The ashes of a daredevil Luftwaffe pilot who shot down more than 250 Allied planes in the Second World War are to be exhumed from a grave of honour in Vienna after the council stripped him of his status as a war hero.


The campaign to remove Major Walter Nowotny's remains from the city's Central Cemetery and move them to a pauper's plot has been led by the grandson of a British RAF pilot who was shot down over Belgium in 1940 and died of his injuries.

David Ellensohn, a Vienna city councillor whose maternal grandfather was RAF acting pilot officer James Gillespie, successfully argued that Major Nowotny - the first fighter pilot in history to bring down 250 enemy aircraft - had been serving the Third Reich and did not deserve his heroic status.

"He was not fighting for this country, for Austria, he was fighting for the Third Reich," said Mr Ellensohn, a Green Party councillor. "If they had won the war, there would be no Austria as such. Therefore, we should not be forced to give special credit to this man."

Major Nowotny, who had shot down 258 enemy aircraft by the time of his death, aged 24, had been awarded the Third Reich's highest military honour, the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, by Hitler himself.

When the major died in 1944 when his fighter crashed in flames, his ashes were buried with his medals in his home town, Vienna, alongside Austrian resistance fighters and Beethoven, Schubert, Johann Strauss and Brahms.

Mr Ellensohn asked: "What did he do that earned him a place alongside those who really earned their places in the cemetery, such as resistance fighters Rosa Jochmann and Paul Speiser?

"He was placed in that section of the graveyard by the Nazis, not by the city of Vienna, and although it has taken 59 years for the city to recognise that he does not deserve to be there, we are pleased that action is finally being taken."

The council's decision has been denounced as "cultural barbarianism" by Johann Herzog, a councillor for the opposition Freedom Party (FP), which has launched an appeal.

Opposition councillors argue that relocating the major's ashes would contravene the war graves welfare law, from 1948, that says war graves - regardless of the nationality of their occupant - must remain undisturbed.

Mr Herzog said: "The necessity to dishonour Nowotny's grave, and therefore his person, almost 60 years after his death, is evidence of a distorted understanding of history and moreover a lack of deference for a fallen soldier. And that's all he was - a soldier.

"He was not a member of the National Socialist Party and he certainly was not a war criminal. If he were, I could understand the removal of his status. In fact, he was respected not just by his own side but by RAF pilots as well."

Sascha Gasthuber, of the far-Right Germania group, said protesters carrying flaming torches to show their contempt for the vote would march against the council's decision. "Nowotny gave his life to make sure the future was worth living in for us and our children. We cannot sit back and let them dishonour his memory like this."

Mr Ellensohn, however, insisted that the plan to move the grave away from the cemetery's section for heroes was perfectly justified. "As far as I am aware, there is no rule in Catholicism that says a grave cannot be moved, not like in Judaism," he said.

Major Nowotny, who joined up when he was 19 following the invasion of Poland, was renowned even among Allied pilots and during the summer of 1943 became a virtual one-man air force in the skies over the Eastern Front. In June 1943 he shot down 41 aircraft, 10 in one day. He crashed on November 8 1944 and was buried with his medals a few days later. It is truly sad when "political correctness" defames the honor of a man who served his country and gave his all.

[MJC]

For TWP

TWP,

It is always a good idea to honor the fallen. For myself, I have donated funds to the Volksbund for a number of years and I have recently become involved in some other veteran's organizations. Memorials are nice, but they can be built at any time. It is the veterans who need help in the very near future.

PM me if you'd like some contact information, or if you are serious about fundraising.

Mike

[R_Hessian]

Thanks

Thank you for the picures from Bulgaria, a class act thats for sure! Whats up with that "thing" above the German "Officers" lip... man that looks like sh**. And that fellow is from the German Embassy!!!!

The issue in Vienna... God thats just a mild example of how Germany and Austria has become when it comes to the "People" who ended up fighting the war, condem the politics if you must or the NSDAP, Hitler etc. but how can you turn your back against people who often were only 18-19 years old... PATHETIC! ( I get to say that as I was born a German! )

When I talk to my family in Germany about the war I feel like Im talking to people from Mars...

Anyway good for the nice people in Bulgaria and too bad for the Vienna.

Robert

[TWP]

How do I get in contact with this Elleshonn? I would like to give him a piece of my mind.

Mike, yes I am serious. I will PM you now. I didnt realize what I can do.
TW

[R_Hessian]

Me too

How do I get in contact with this Elleshonn? I would like to give him a piece of my mind.

Mike, yes I am serious. I will PM you now. I didnt realize what I can do.
TW

Hello,
Please also send his email address to me, I have at times a way with words.

Regards,
Robert

[TWP]

Sometimes I wonder if we as members of this community have much potential to become a voice of conscience with such things. If we were able to organize ourselves into a cohesive unit, we could
1) Contribute funds to vets and their families
2)Protest against the demoplishing of graves of fallen soldiers etc.
We already police eban and other faker strongholds, why cant we do other more beneficial things.
I cannot say that I know the best way, but if we all have good suggestions, maybe the more well connected and wiser amongst us can pool all our resources and ideas?
So how about it?
TW

[Theodor]

See what I have at home



Someone has knocked it off the big stone. A stupid kid or a commie, but helped by the bad work of the company that made and installed the piece - found out, the company workers have inserted small plastic pieces in the big stone and screwed in them far too tiny screws. So, those could not hold well the plate and some @-hole easily knocked the plate out of its place

But now I will take care of this Got big and strong metal pieces to insert in the base stone. And in them will be screwed big and strong screws, to hold securely the plate. And all will be sealed with superstrong building glue. So the plate will be not easy to knock this time. Of course, the bad guys can damage it, if they really want to, but even if they break it next time, we'll make a new one!