The 2012 Miss Thailand World And 2012 Miss Thailand Universe Were Both Half Germanic

In this video, I discuss the VERY SHOCKING circumstance of BOTH 2012's Miss Thailand World and Miss Thailand Universe being half Germanic. The 2012 Miss Thailand World was half-Thai and half-German. Her name is Vanessa Herrmann and the 2012 Miss Thailand Universe was half-Thai and half-Austrian. Her name is Farida Waller. I also point out how mixed women do win in majority Non-White nations and how Non-Whites make just as big a stink over mixed women winning as White People do.

Princess Mary Brass Gift Box From World War I And The 99th Anniversary Of The Christmas Truce

Hello everyone. Merry Christmas. Today is December 25, 2013 and this is the final episode of the Historic Soldiers Christmas Series for this year. This episode's focus is on World War I and the British Army. 99 years ago, there was a Truce that took place on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day and beyond. British Troops and German Troops left the trenches and met in No Man's Land. There they engaged in conversation, carol singing, gift giving and a football game. Next year will be the Centennial of this very extraordinary event. There are a number of tour groups organizing visits to the actual premises in Belgium where the Christmas Truce took place. I would like to attend this Centennial Event. There will also be an opportunity for the tourists to participate in the football game.

As I had mentioned, gifts were given. In the following video, I will show you an example of what could very well have been traded in No Man's Land during the Truce ... a Brass Gift Box. Princess Mary thought to present a Christmas gift to the Soldiers and Nurses. This video will give you more information about this gift ... a Relic of a very horrible War which included a very incredible Truce.


Url for the above video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQTMDcWYNFc

I will be reporting much more on the Centennial of the Christmas Truce as well as the overall Centennial of World War I that will begin next year.

Footage of last year's Christmas Truce Reenactment held in Philadelphia as well as further information on the Princess Mary Brass Gift Box/Christmas Tin can be found at this blog entry: http://michaeltheresearcher.blogspot.com/2012/12/world-war-i-christmas-truce-of-1914.html

I look forward to continuing the Historic Soldiers Christmas Series next year.

Germany's World War II Winterhilfswerk Campaign

Today is December 24, 2013 and I am continuing the Historic Soldiers Christmas Series. This episode's focus is on World War II ... specifically the German Army. The items that I have on display in this video and blog entry are collectively known as WHW or Winterhilfswerk (Winter Help Work). It was a charity drive run by the Nazi Third Reich. This was in many ways a forced or coerced charity. People who were part of the campaign became known as "Can Rattlers" because they would take collection cans and literally rattled them in the faces of the German people and the souvenirs that were issued to those who donated to this campaign were released on an extremely limited basis. This was done so the organizers of the campaign could see who had donated recently.

In this video, you will see WHW items (with descriptions), a collection can and some authentic one pfennig coins (with the Eagle and the Hakenkreuz aka the Swastika) from the early 1940s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCT_nmeBSfA

Photographs ...





Descriptions for the immediate photo above ...

1. A collection can. It is missing the paper label. The Third Reich organized other charities as well such as the DJH [which was the merger of the Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk (German Youth Hostel Association) into the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth Paramilitary Organization)] and the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross) so this can could have been used for those campaigns in addition to the WHW.
2. One pfennig coins from the early 1940s. Some of these very pfennigs may have been in the collection can to the left in the 1940s. It is certainly possible.
3. A postcard with WHW along with the Eagle and the Hakenkreuz. The slogan is "Kämpfen Arbeiten Opfern" ("Fight, Work, Sacrifice"). The postcard features a German soldier and a German laborer with an example of can similar to the one that I have on display. My can has a mug handle while the can depicted in the postcard has a pail handle. To the right is a postmark with München (Munich) and "Tag der Briefmarke" ("International Stamp Day") with the 12th of January 1941 as the date.
4. Two mini poster stickers with "Des Deutschen Volkes" meaning "The German People" from the 1938/1939 season. In the first, a man is holding blankets and in the second, a woman is painting souvenir pins ... examples of these painted souvenirs will be shown below.
5. A mini poster sticker with children gathering around a Christmas Tree (Tannenbaum) with the phrase "Freude durch das WHW" meaning "Joy through the WHW". This is from the 1937/1938 season.
6. Four wood puppets made to be used as ornaments. You can see the strings on a couple of them. These were sold on December 16 and 17 of 1939. The four are a snowman, a chimney sweeper, a hunter and a shoemaker (the shoemaker has the green hat variation ... there is another variation with a blue hat).
7. Three items from the Weapons And Munitions Stickpins Series that were sold on November 2 and 3, 1940. The three are a naval mine, an artillery shell and a mortar shell.
8. A 1942 Polizei (Police) Donation Badge.
9. Three items (two duplicates) from the Heroic Emblem Series sold on March 28 and 29, 1942. You can see the dagger, the Hakenkreuz and the German Iron Cross.
10. Two pins that represent the German character Struwwelpeter. They were issued between January 31 to February 5, 1942. If you recall the postcard above where the woman was paitning souvenirs, these are the kind of items that would have been painted. This is the same pin with two different paint variations.
11. One example from the Porcelain Fairy Tale Figures Series. It is Snow White (with the blue dress variation ... there is a white dress variation as well). This series was originally scheduled to be sold on March 6 and 7 of 1943. The date wa spostponed due to the Battle Of Stalingrad. As many of you know, Stalingrad was a disaster for the German Army.
12. One example from the Wood German Fairy Tale Series that was sold on the 17th, 18th and 19th of December of 1937. This is spcifically the Pied Piper Of Hamelin (color variations exist for this example also). The his head is leaning to down to the play the gold pipe musical instrument.
13. From the Wooden German Farmhouses Series, a wooden pendant-type item representing a farmhouse in Südbayern (meaning Southern Bavaria). These were issued on November 21 and 22 in 1942.

Note: You can see some oxidation on the coins, the police pin and the emblem pins. This is common in items made with zinc.

A book sold at http://www.winterhilfswerk.com can give you more in-depth descriptions of WHW items. The website is also worth looking at for making purchases of original authentic WHW souvenirs as well.

Fröhliche Weihnachten und Auf Wiedersehen!

A 1902 Print Depicting Christmastime During The Second Anglo-Boer War

Seasons Greetings to you. This is Michael and I am here to bring you the latest episode in the Historic Soldiers Christmas Series. Today is December 22, 2013 and this episode's focus is on the Second Anglo-Boer War and the British Army. This conflict took place from October 1899 to May 1902. It is very apropos that I am filming a video pertaining to the Christmas experience during the Second Anglo-Boer War because it was unseasonably warm on the East Coast and we know that Christmastime in South Africa takes place during that nation's summer season.

I have for you a page featuring a print from a book. The title of the book is After Pretoria: The Guerrilla War Volume 2. It was published in the year 1902. The title of the print is "Christmas On The Veldt". The print shows British Soldiers partaking in some Christmas Plum Pudding! I will also give you two Christmas Pudding stories in this video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h1uumhyj9M

A photo of the matted page/print:


Note: The page was fragmentary (the bottom portion was ripped off).

A Holiday Greeting From Harry S Truman ... 45 Years Ago!

Oops, this was supposed to be uploaded last night. I dozed off and before I knew it, it was December 18!! This is what I typed for the December 17 treatment ...

45 years ago today, a Holiday Greeting was sent by ... former U.S. President Harry S Truman! The letter featured in this blog entry is dated December 17, 1968 and is signed by the former President. Some trivia for you - this is the very first Presidential Autograph that I ever acquired. I purchased it in December of 2006.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOCWqlFYx8

These photos were taken 45 years after this letter was mailed! December 17, 1968 to December 17, 2013! I simply could not wait for the 50th Anniversary!

The letter looks quite nice in this frame:


As you can see, "Holiday" was used in place of "Christmas" even back then:

The Third Annual Krampuslauf Krampus Parade Was Held In Philadelphia, PA On December 14, 2013

For the third year, Liberty Lands Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hosted the Krampuslauf. It took place yesterday, December 14, 2013. Everyone in attendance roughed it out there in the snow and then in the snow/rain mix. My gloves, hat and jacket were soaked (oddly, my shirt, tie and most of my jeans were not soaked). I made sure to go to the fire pit as often as I could.

Here is some video footage of the third annual Krampuslauf before, during and after the specific Krampus Parade. The video footage includes the introduction, some Krampus and Nikolaus memorabilia, the Parade itself, the fire pit and the fire dancers. Note: There is no sound from 10:44 to the end of this video.


Url for the above video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6aGQJJhkc8

Photographs  (as you will see, some people really turned it up a notch with the creativity that went into some of the costumes) ...








This fire pit was a lifesaver for me (steam was actually coming out of my gloves when I got near the flames) ...











 
 See you next year ...

Soldiers Used Ice Creepers During The American Revolutionary War

Seasons Greetings everyone. In the very early morning hours of this day, I filmed a video as part of the Historic Soldiers Christmas Series that I began on December 8 of this year. In this second episode in the series, I am focusing on the American Revolutionary War. As all of you know, George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River Christmas evening into the morning of the 26th in complete darkness ... much like the darkness that I was surrounded by when I filmed the video.

Many of us associate Christmas Time with snow and ice. How did Soldiers navigate through snow and ice during the Revolutionary Period? They used ice creepers. I have an example of an ice creeper to show you. The individual whom I purchased the hand-forged iron ice creeper from discovered a similar ice creeper at a Revolutionary War Campsite that was in use from 1779 to 1783.

Although this blog entry pertains to the American Revolutionary War, it is likely that these ice creepers were in use during the Seven Years War and perhaps even King George's War. The following video and photographs will reveal this particular ice creeper from various angles.


The url for the above video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onAZgUkEk5Y

Here is a screenshot from one of the test videos:


Here I am still outside in 30-degree weather for this photo with the ice creeper:


Some close-up views ...

 

You will note the oval shapes. Straps were used with these ice creepers and the straps were laced inside of these holes.




 

You can also see the points on the bottom. These were necessary for treading on the ice.





The ice creepers were placed just beyond the heel and one ice creeper was used per shoe so someone walking through the snow or someone walking on the ice would use two ice creepers.

Christmas was not widely celebrated in the Colonies. The celebration of Christmas was largely frowned upon and stores were kept open on December 25. This is why I thought to present an object that was in use during the winter seasons throughout the Revolutionary War as opposed to a specific Christmas-related item.

I thank all of you for reading and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.

December 9, 2013 Marks The Two Year Anniversary Of The Disputed Presidential Election Results In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo. I Still Have Not Forgotten.

It is December 9, 2013 and today marks the two year anniversary of the announcement of the results of the disputed presidential election in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo. I still think about the crisis in the Congo quite often. I would like to see a resolution as soon as possible. I wanted to tell all of you out there that I have still not forgotten. I will continue to follow the story on the situation in the Congo and I hope to attend another Demonstration soon.



I attended the Mega March Demonstration in January of last year. Here is my blog entry for that event: http://michaeltheresearcher.blogspot.com/2012/01/mega-march-rally-for-congo-and.html

My statement on the one year anniversary of the election can be heard at this link: http://michaeltheresearcher.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-9-2012-marks-one-year.html

A Union Army Camp And The First Appearance Of Thomas Nast's Santa Claus In Harper's Weekly

Seasons Greetings to you! Today is December 8, 2013 and I am representing a Union Army Soldier. This is my first video and blog entry in a new series titled Historic Soldiers Christmas.

In this episode, I am showcasing an issue of Harper's Weekly postdated January 3, 1863 so it was on the shelves in late 1862. The cover of this issue features a Union Army Camp with what is believed to be the very first appearance of Thomas Nast's Santa Claus.

Today there happened to be some heavy snow coming down and it gave me an excellent idea. I was planning on beginning my Historic Soldiers Christmas series with this video last week and I am glad that I waited because this day's scenario was perfect. As a matter of fact, I wanted to make a video and blog entry for this specific issue last year since it was the 150th Anniversary of its publication and I never got around to doing it. Once again, I am glad that I waited.

This also ties in with the American Civil War Sesquicentennial Observance.

Video:

Url for the above video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GeCZG9dHuo

Here is a screenshot from the video (no need for concern - the issue is in a protective sleeve):


Photographs of this enormously historic issue ...

 

You will note that Santa is in Patriotic Attire here:




I posted two of this area of the issue due to the lighting differences ...





The back page featuring advertisements, two of which are fitting for this blog entry:


As previously stated, this is the first video and blog entry in my series titled Historic Soldiers Christmas. I hope to post a few more videos and blog entries this year and many more in subsequent years.

Battle For Schmidt World War II Reenactment Held In Philadelphia On December 7, 2013

Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania once again held its annual early December World War II Reenactment today. It fell on the exact day as the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Attack. The Battle For Schmidt was specifically reenacted.

Video of the Battle:

Url for the above video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63SG3Z8fdfE

Photographs ...

























 

I conducted an interview with some Reenactors/Living Historians after the "Battle For Schmidt World War II Reenactment" held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 2013. This segment includes a Weapons Demonstration and even I got involved. As you will see, I certainly was not wearing my Saturday best in this video, hahahaha.

Url for the above video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yorlfko3P4