SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES - MA | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z MAYR, KARL (18??-1945) Bavarian General Staff officer and Hitler's immediate superior in an Army Intelligence Division, 1919-1920. He later became Hitler's opponent, and wrote in his memoirs that it was General Ludendorff who had personally ordered him to have Hitler join the Nazi party and build it up. He was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. MENGELE, DR. JOSEF (1911-1979) Born in Bavaria, he earned a doctorate in physical anthropology at Munich in 1935, and a doctorate in medicine at Frankfurt in 1938. Mengele was an SA member from 1933 to 1934 and joined the Nazi party and SS in 1938. He was promoted to SS captain in 1943. He served in the Waffen-SS medical corps; was wounded and transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. Mengele was the senior SS physician at Auschwitz- Birkenau from 1943 to 1944. The corpse of a man known as Wolfgang Gerhard, who died in a swimming accident in 1979, was discovered in Brazil in 1985 and later identified as Mengele by forensic pathologists. MILCH, ERHARD (1892-1972) General Field Marshal, Armaments Chief of the Luftwaffe, and Goering's senior deputy who was half-Jewish (Mischlinge). After serving in an air force fighter group in WWI, Milch joined the Freikorps in 1919, and in 1920 commanded a Police Air Squadron in East Prussia. In 1926 joined Lufthansa and became a member of its Board of Directors and for the next seven years played a major role in the company's development. Joined the NSDAP in 1933 and that same year was appointed by Goering as State Secretary of the Reich Air Ministry, a position he would hold until the end of the Third Reich. The fact that his mother was a Jewess did not prevent his rapid promotion, since Goering persuaded his mother to sign a legal document stating he was not her child. In July 1940 he was promoted to General Field Marshal and in 1942 became the virtual dictator of transportation in Nazi Germany, along with his close personal friend and political ally, Albert Speer. Sentenced in April 1947 to life imprisonment as a war criminal by a Nuremberg Military Tribunal. In 1951 the American High Commissioner commuted his sentence to fifteen years. He was released and amnestied in 1954 and worked as an industrial consultant in Düsseldorf. Died at Wuppertal-Barmen on January 25, 1972. MITFORD, ALGERNON BERTRAM (LORD REDESDALE) (1837-1916) Grandfather of Unity Mitford and close friend of the Wagner family. He wrote the introduction to Houston Stewart Chamberlain's famous book, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. MITFORD, DAVID (LORD REDESDALE) (1878-1958) Father of Unity Mitford. MITFORD, UNITY VALKYRIE (1914-1948) Intimate, personal friend of Adolf Hitler, and the daughter of Lord Redesdale. A British subject, she shot herself in the English Garden outside the Bavarian Interior Ministry on the day England declared war on Germany. Before shooting herself in the right temple with a small automatic pistol, she left a large envelope containing a Nazi Party badge, a signed photo of Hitler with a personal dedication, and a letter to Hitler with Adolf Wagner the Gauleiter of Munich. Although critically injured she lived for almost ten years as a brain- damaged invalid before dying from her wounds. (Guiness) MOLOTOV, VYACHESLAV (SCRIABIN) (1890-19??) Soviet Foreign Minister under both Stalin (1939-1949) and Khrushchev (1953-1956). Molotov served as Premier of Russia from 1930-1941, and is said to have been largely responsible for arranging the Soviet-German Non- Agression Pact (1939) that almost guaranteed the invasion of Poland; and started world War II. After the war he helped create the Russian policy of hostility to the West, particularly the United States. Molotov was demoted and expelled from the Communist party's Presidium and Central Committee in 1957. He was then sent into virtual exile as ambassador to Outer Mongolia. (World Book) MONNET, JEAN (18??-1988) Deputy Secretary of the League of Nations in 1919. After WWII, Monnet became known as the "Father of Europe." MORELL, DR. THEODOR GILBERT Hitler's personal physician from 1937- 1945. Morell is said to have prescribed a variety of dubious drugs and used leeches to treat Hitler's high blood pressure. MORGENTHAU, HENRY, SR. (18??-19??) . MORGENTHAU, HENRY, JR. (1891-19??) U.S. Secretary of the Treasury 1934-1945. Morgenthau lived near Roosevelt's Hyde Park (N.Y.) estate and the two were close friends. Morgenthau took a leading part in the 1944 Bretton Woods (N.H.) Conference which arranged an international monetary agreement. After WWII, he proposed the Morgenthau Plan for Germany, but it was never adopted. It would have eliminated most of Germany's heavy industry and ended German military power forever. MOSLEY, SIR OSWALD (1896-1970) British fascist leader married to Unity Mitford's sister,. Mosley founded the "New Party" in 1930 and changed its name to "British Union of Fascists and National Socialists" in 1936. Interned during WWII and disappeared into obscurity after 1945. MÜLLER (MUELLER), HEINRICH (1896-19??) SS Lieutenant-General and Senior Chief of the Gestapo (1939-45) said by many historians to have been directly responsible for carrying out the "Final Solution." Mueller began his career in the Bavarian state police, specializing in the surveillance of Communists and making a special study of Soviet police methods. In 1935, even though not a party member, Mueller was selected by Reinhard Heydrich to become second in command of the Gestapo. Even though highly regarded by both Heydrich and Himmler, he did not join the party until 1939, and was suspected of being an opportunist by many long-time party members. After 1941, Mueller was more directly involved in signing the orders sending Jews to the East than any of his superiors, including Himmler and Kaltenbrunner. He was last seen in Hitler's bunker on April 28, 1945 and disappeared shortly thereafter. His whereabouts and fate after the war remain unknown. MÜLLER (MUELLER), LUDWIG (1883-1946) Head of the so-called German Faith Movement and Reich Bishop. After Hitler came to power, Mueller became plenipotentiary for all problems concerning the Evangelical Church, acting as the leading figure in the Association of German Christians. In late summer 1933, he began actively organizing opposition to Pastor Martin Niemöller's (Niemoeller) Confessional Church, but due to Hitler's lack of support, Mueller's influence gradually declined after 1935. He committed suicide in Berlin in March 1946. MUSSOLINI, BENITO (18??-1945) Prime Minister and virtual dictator of Fascist Italy known as "IL DUCE" (the leader). Like Hitler, Mussolini served in the First World War and returned to find his country in political and economic chaos. Mussolini's rise to power; however, was more rapid. His Fascist Party Blackshirts marched into Rome in 1922, a year before Hitler's failed first attempt to seize power during the Munich Putsch. By the time Hitler became the Fuehrer of Germany, Mussolini had been the leader of Italy for more than ten years, and had been successful in improving the Italian economy and bringing stability (at the expense of civil liberties). It was said, "He made the trains run on time" (by shooting someone if they didn't). His ambition was to regain for Italy the prestige and power, if not the borders, of the Roman Empire, but this led him to a program of militarization and conquest that strained the industrial limits of his nation and alarmed neighbors.His 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, which was carried out with ruthless disregard for world opinion, including the use of poison gas, alienated the British and French and he looked elsewhere for allies. He found Germany and Japan, and in 1936, he joined Hitler in supporting the Fascist "Nationalist" side in the Spanish Civil War. His biggest mistake, however, was the decision to enter the Second World War. On 10 JUNE 1940, Germany had been at war with Britain and France since the previous September, but Italy was still at peace, and had little reason to fear that any of the other powers would attack it. Germany it seemed was on the verge of winning the Battle of France, and France was likely to surrender very soon, and it seemed to many observers that Britain would then make peace. Perhaps Mussolini thought that Italy would be the next target for Nazi aggression, if he did not help Hitler win; or he may have just been moved to grab a piece of France before it was too late. In any case, he did declare war on France, an act of which President Roosevelt said - "...the Hand, that held the Dagger, has struck it, into the back, of its Neighbor. The war did not end, however, and as it continued, the true weaknesses of the Italian Army and Navy were revealed. By July 1943, Italy had lost all of it colonies in Africa, and most of its army, and was being invaded. Mussolini was deposed by a revolt within his own Fascist Grand Council, and Victor Emmanuael III, the King of Italy, who had been reduced to a figurehead by Mussolini, appointed Marshal Badoglio to be the new Prime Minister. Mussolini was arrested, while Italy attempted to change sides. In the southern part of Italy, occupied by the Allies, this succeeded, and the new Italian government helped create the Italian Co-Belligerent Forces. Hitler sent German paratroops to rescue Mussolini from the mountaintop resort where he was imprisoned. He then set up the Italian Social Republic in German-held northern Italy, with Mussolini as its leader. When the Germans surrendered in northern Italy, in April 1945, Mussolini was arrested again. He and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were removed from the jail and lynched by local Communist partisans. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |