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Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Armistice And The Treaty of Versailles:

The reference to the armistice and the “...11th hour of the 11th month...” should not be confused with the Treaty of Versailles. The armistice was the agreement to end hostility while peace treaties could be negotiated.

The Treaty of Versailles was just one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties.

Although the armistice signed on November 11, 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty.

The armistice date was the most significant date for the fighting men and the victor nations involved as the late date signing of the Versailles and multiple other treaties were anticlimactic, at least until they were actually signed.

The reference to Rethondes may be a little confusing: Rethondes is a little village deep in the forest of Compiègne. The original source material used referenced Rethondes as the site the treaty was signed at, but the signing occurred next to the village not in it which explains why other sources refer to Rethondes or Compiegne or both. The French commander-in-chief Marshal Foch convened the armistice talks beside the tiny village with an eye towards secrecy because he wanted to shield the meeting from intrusive journalists, as well as spare the German delegation any hostile demonstrations by French locals.

Historically the Treaty of Versailles is sighted as a point of contention that led to a climate of frustration and resentment among the German people for decades after the treaty. The terms of the treaty were harsh upon the German people and was one of the circumstances that helped form a social and economic climate that accommodated the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party. But, just like the armistice date took on a more significant role to the victors than the treaty date so did the armistice site take on a more significant role to the defeated than the treaty location of Versailles. As important as the the treaty was to the German mindset the actual armistice site was held as a major embarrassment to the people as well:

When Adolf Hitler received word from the French government that they wished to negotiate an armistice, Hitler selected Compiègne Forest near Compiègne as the site for the negotiations. As Compiègne was the site of the 1918 Armistice ending the Great War with a humiliating defeat for Germany, Hitler decided to sign the armistice in the same rail carriage where the Germans had signed the 1918 armistice.... a supreme moment of revenge for Germany.

...In the very same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice was signed (removed from a museum building and placed on the precise spot where it was located in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch had sat when he faced the representatives of the defeated German Empire. After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler – in a calculated gesture of disdain to the French delegates – left the carriage, as Foch had done in 1918, leaving the negotiations to his High Command of the Armed Forces Chief, General Wilhelm Keitel.

Even in the per-amble of the 1940 Armistice was the reference to the 1918 Armistice: “...which was felt by the German peoples as the deepest humiliation of all time.”

Three days later, on Hitler's orders, the Armistice site was demolished by the Germans. The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, along with pieces of a large stone tablet which bore the inscription (in French):

HERE ON THE ELEVENTH OF NOVEMBER 1918 SUCCUMBED THE CRIMINAL PRIDE OF THE GERMAN REICH. VANQUISHED BY THE FREE PEOPLES WHICH IT TRIED TO ENSLAVE.”

The Alsace-Lorraine Monument (depicting a German eagle impaled by a sword) was destroyed and all evidence of the site was obliterated, with the notable exception of the statue of Marshal Foch: Hitler intentionally ordered it to be left intact so that it would be honoring only a wasteland. The railway carriage itself was taken to Crawinkel in Thuringia in 1945, where it was destroyed by SS troops and the remained buried *footnote.

After the second world war, German POW labor was used to restore the armistice site to its former state. The stone tablet's pieces were recovered and reassembled, and a replica of the railway carriage placed at the restored site and the Alsace-Lorraine monument was rebuilt.

After the reunification of Germany in 1989, those who witnessed the event came forth with earlier relics. Various components were returned to the French General Gamache in Compiègne in 1992. In 1994 a small oak commemorating the "hope for peace" was dug up from the destruction site in Crawinkel and transplanted to Compiègne.

by Glenn Littrell

159 

*footnote: other sources say it was destroyed in a British air raid.

Südthüringer Zeitung (South Thuringia Newspaper) on 11 May 1991, "Hitler's Salon Wagon Found in the village of Crawinkel".

Commager, Henry Steele (1945). The Story of the Second World War. Boston: Little, Brown.

Friedrich, Otto (4 September 1989). "Desperate Years". Time.

Elaine, Sciolino (2 November 2008). "North of Paris, a Forest of History and Fantasy". New York Times.

http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2991

http://stevenlehrer.com/compiegne.htm

Monday, September 27, 2010

Erica Update:

From FaceBook:
”…Visit www.miraclebaby.org to join Santa's mailing list and order your personalized letter from Santa….”

 

From the NICUPS website: “The NICUPs™™ (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Parents) are a group of dedicated volunteers who work hard to make the NICU experience an easier one for families. Each of the parent volunteers were once in the St. John's Mercy Medical Center NICU with children of their own. Their personal experience enables them to offer vital emotional support to current NICU families. Support begins as early as mid-pregnancy for mothers on bed rest, continues through their time in the NICU, and is on-going until the family feels support is no longer needed.”

see more of Red’s family

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Indy Littrell’s:

I’m not sure when Rubin moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, but Dad moved us there after he got out of the service and had tried to find a job in St. Louis. We had been there probably no more than a year when he gave up and joined Rubin in Indy, where Rubin ran a service Station [Wake-Up I believe]. This was probably 1965/66. Rubin eventually moved to Florida where Troy and Rick would eventually move to also. Rubin’s surviving kids Richard and Rochelle moved to Houston and after I was discharged from the Army I returned to Indianapolis.

 

L2R
back: Pam Davis, Sis Littrell Johnston, Rick.
middle: Gertrud Bach Littrell, LethaMae Littrell Davis, Noble Littrell, Onene Littrell Curtis, Azelee ? Littrell, JD Littrell
front: Rubin Littrell, Bertha Littrell, Thurman, Glenn Littrell

Correction: The Picture is James ‘Bud’ Simbeck, not Vone, then Rick Littrell and then Malcome ‘Mike’ Littrell. Picture was in 1967, Bud had just gotten out of the Navy. Thanks Gary.

Dad [JD]

Rick, Glenn & Troy Littrell

Dad [JD]

Dad [JD] & Rick

L Family 600

Glenn, Jodi (Jo), and Kelly

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Missouri Migration: John & Kizzie Littrell

JOHN DANIEL LITTRELL, SR. & KIZZIE ZORE COMER

......... When Uncle Jim and Dad returned to Tennessee after checking out Missouri, Dad didn't return with Uncle Jim and his family to Missouri until a few years later. Dad ran a store in Tennessee, but because he tended to extend too much credit - he eventually lost the store and decided to take his family and join Uncle Jim in Missouri.

View 1930 Tennessee Census for John Littrell’s family

A few days before the family moved, Viola married Lawrence Johnston, and they stayed in Tennessee as did Jesse.

So in January 1932, Dad loaded the remainder of the family into the back of Lee Flemmings flatbed truck ( Flemming made a living hauling families to Missouri ). The truck had only a partial tarp on it - so wrapped in quilts and toting "chicken in a lard can" we headed for Missouri.

John & Kizzie [East Prairie, MO.]

John_and_Kizzie_Littrell__26

We worked for Bob Grear, sharecropping near LaForge for a while, and then moved into a two room shack on Uncle Jim's place. After that we lived on Joe Thomason's place and then East Prairie on property we purchased from Mom's brother Leslie Crutcher who lived next door. Mom and Dad lived the remainder of their lives in East Prairie.

In 1937 John and Kizzie lived near Walnut Grove and East Prairie, during that winter there was severe flooding on the Tennessee and Kentucky side of the Mississippi. As the flooding got worse it was decided that the 3rd dike would be blown to save east Prairie and relieve flooding on the other side of the river. At the time the family lived in a "stilt" house on the River Plain, so Kizzie and most of the family loaded up and headed for Tennessee.

Even as they left the water was floor board high on the truck they were riding in. Bertha and Red remained with Dad an moved everything they could up into the loft.

Most of the families in the flood plain temporarily moved into east Prairie - but Dad, Bertha and Red loaded up the Model T, and along with Alf Ball and his 2 wagons and 8 mules moved into a two-story house with _____(?) for 3-4 weeks during the flooding. The water was so high that it almost reached the second story. Local whiskey makers stayed in business by moving there stills into their lofts. Whiskey was obtained by floating up to the lofts.

After the water had receded the family returned to the house which had floated over a mile away. What wasn't moved out of the house or placed in the loft was lost. Unfortunately, the Family bible was in some boxes or a trunk that were lost in the flood. Evidently, at a later date, Mom tried to record all the family information into a new Bible, but much of that information has proven unreliable.....

As told by: Onine Littrell-Curtis, Bertha Littrell-Thurman, Red Littrell, & JD Littrell 1994

Links to related articles will be added here as they are posted.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

1930 Census entry for John Littrell & R. Benjamin Smith: Lawrence County, TN.

image

This Census record is the last peice of evidence that John & Kizzie we’re in Lawrence County, Tennessee. In 1929 John’s brother James had migrated to Missouri and in 1932 John and most of his family would Join James and other kinfolk from Lawrence County, Tennessee there.

1930 Census Littrell J n Ben SmithJohn & Kizzie, Ben & Suzie 


see also: The Tennessee to Missouri Migration:

Friday, January 1, 2010

WHO SAYS WE’RE NOT RICH?

old

Silver in the Hair

Gold in the Teeth.

Stones in the Kidneys
Sugar in the Blood.
Lead in the Ass.
Iron in the Arteries.
And an inexhaustible supply of Natural Gas.

I never thought I’d accumulate such wealth...

LittrellFamily.net on Facebook:

This is the portal to the FaceBook site for the Littrell Family. Primarily descendants of John & Kizzie (Comer) Littrell. Non-members can view the site and membership list but only members can post or view post. Feel free to post messages, videos and links. they will appear to group members only and not to the rest of your 'list'. Its a good way to keep your family discussions and post separate from your normal FaceBook activities. Non-members can request to join and members should be able to invite people to join, if not then provide the admin with the request via email.

LFn

Why its important to invite your family members to join this group page:
This family has a strong and colorful history, a history that belongs to every family unit whether it is just a single parent and a single child (Uncle Noble and Rex after the death of Corine) or a family as big as Grandpa John & Grandma Kizzie's (with 12 children), whether it is a family with step children (as when Uncle Jesse married the widow Simbeck (Aunt Viola)) or a family with half siblings (as when Uncle OJ remarried and had children by his second wife as well as his first). This family has a wide collection of diversity whether its nature is religious, political, racial, or national. This family has its closet skeletons and its righteous few. All in all there is a lot this family has that should be shared and passed on for many generations.
This group page and the non-facebook page (
www.littrellfamily.net ) are two of many tools we have to share and spread information about our heritage, past and present, but we all have to be sure to share that information with our family members to foster that heritage.
We now have 110 members in LittrellFamily.net on Facebook bridging 4 generations and spread out from New York to San Diego, from Florida to Colorado, but their is always room for more. Is everyone in your family that is on Facebook in the group? If not why not and what can anyone do about it? ANYONE can't! Only you can do something about it.
Non-members of this group page can see who's in the group, but they can't see what's posted on the group pages. They can see some photo's, but not all. They can't see the conversations. And most importantly, they can only receive invitations to join the group from someone on their 'Friends' List. If I know about them I can send them a link to the group, but if they're not on my friends list I can't send them an invitation to join, because I'm not on their friends list any facebook message I send them may not make it through their privacy settings.
Now I could send them a friend request and if they accept I could then send them an invitation to join the group, but what if they don't accept? Not every distant cousin is going to accept a friend request from a 61 year old cousin they never met. Even sounds a little creepy doesn't it? Besides I like to keep my friends list kind of small and the whole idea behind the family group page is to have a place for sharing with family without sharing EVERYTHING we post on Facebook.

click to visit LittrellFamily.net on Facebook

END OF PAGE

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