SS Essential Philosophy in regards to the enemy :
" Anyone who shows even the slightest vestige of sympathy towards them ( prisoners ) must immediately vanish from our ranks. I need only hard, totally committed SS men. There is no place amongst us for soft people." German SS Leader Theodore Eicke ( Auschwitz , Rees p. 8 )
Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees
Also see TV series narrated by Linda Hunt Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution at PBS.Org
And see BBC TWO, January 2005
There are those who wish to forget about the Nazi Holocaust altogether. They believe that there is no purpose served by dredging up the past . What's done is done, they say. Some argue that the Holocaust was all the result of a few madmen and they paid the price for their deeds. This a convenient belief for many people. But it ignores the historical facts.
The historical facts are that large numbers of Western and Eastern Europeans took part willingly in the killing of some six million Jews along with the murder of , at least , another six million non-Jewish people. Homosexuals, communists, socialists, liberals , intellectuals , Gypsies etc. and others were also regarded as fit only for extermination.
The Christian Churches, Catholic and Protestant on the whole, the governments and other institutions and the people of Europe again and again failed to stop the killing or even to speak up or protest against the killings. Other countries like Britain, Canada and the United States and others refused to take in the refugees whose lives were in jeopardy.
When World War II ended only a small fraction of those who took part directly or aided and abetted in these War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity were brought to justice. Various governments and institutions for their own political reasons or to foster their own agendas were uninterested in bringing those who were guilty to justice. It is believed that somewhere around 20,000 war criminals were allowed to escape by way of what was referred to as the " Rat Line ". This was the legacy left to the later generations of Western Civilization. The lesson being not what crimes one has committed but whether or not one can get away it.
And the lesson is that expediency and Realpolitik and furthering some nationalist' agenda whether it is that of Great Britain or France or Austria or Canada or the United States or Poland or the Soviet Union that is more important than keeping one's word( that is to punish all of the perpetrators ) and taking the moral high ground and bringing all who were guilty to justice.
For instance Charles De Gaulle of France decided it would be better for his country to give each other a big hug arrest a few of the usual suspects and move on . This was shameful and an insult to those French citizens who did try to stand up to the Nazi Germans and those who fought in the resistance , it was an insult to any individual who refused to follow orders who tried to save a fellow citizen who just happened to be Jewish . Instead it was kept as a dirty unmentionable secret which couldn't be mentioned over dinner. Then one day those same voices of hate begin to rise again .
So here is the example of the role played by Slovakia in the Nazi's " Final Solution " . Slovakia as such is not alone in forgetting or burying its past in regard to its active role in the Holocaust. Other countries such as Croatia which played an active role in the Holocaust have done everything they could to downplay or try to erase the horrifying part they played in the Shoah. We will take a look at Croatia's part in the destruction of the Jews at another time.
The Hidden History of Slovakia part 1 of 3
This is an example of how nations occupied or friendly to Nazi Germany also took part in the rounding up of Jews and transporting them to an unknown fate. In the case of Slovakia the people were indifferent to the ultimate fate of those transported and were willing to pay the Nazis to take away their Jewish population.
This also illustrates how the Nazis as part of their mission to make the Genocide of the Jews profitable for individual members of the elite SS or for the Reich or at least break even as it were. This was Capitalism and corruption at its worst.If German corporation could make vast amounts of money off of the forced labor of Jews and other prisoners why shouldn't members of the SS skim a little off the top for themselves.
Also note that other countries such as France , Austria, Poland etc. were in fact eager to turn their Jewish citizens over to the Nazis for " Special Treatment ".
So here's the rest of this documentary about the Nazis and Slovakia
also see : 1942-Hidden History of Slovakia II at YouTube
1942-Hidden History of Slovakia III
" There was no God in Auschwitz "
and so it goes,
GORD.
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