Included in the dragnet were the great bulk of the senior military staff and all the senior members of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Moscow “show trials” were held for the political VIP arrestees, who apparently ‘confessed’ after prolonged torture and deprivation.

It was dangerous to be a hero in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

The denuded military high command would face Hitler’s blitzkrieg advance in June 1941.

1936 CE:  CONDUCTOR ARTURO TOSCANINI

Dec 26: Tel Aviv

– conducts  the first concert of the Palestine Orchestra, which later became known as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

(b. 1867,  Parma, Emilia-Romagna; d. 1957,  Riverdale, Bronx, NY)

1937 CE:   RACIST LOUIS DARQUIER DE PELLEPOIX

France: Founded and headed the Rassemblement anti-Juif de France. His program included promoting the “Protocols” and his own magazine, La France Enchaines, as well as calling for the expulsion or extermination of the Jews. During the war he became Commissioner General for Jewish affairs and helped deport nine thousand foreign Jews to German camps.

1937 CE:  MIT BRENNENDER SORGE

March 1937: Mit brennender Sorge (German for “With burning anxiety”) was a Roman Catholic Church