Nuremberg Trials
NOTE: Read only at your own discretion, this is graphic and disturbing. Though surely important in its own right and certainly sheds an insight into the evil of man.
As I have posted recently, in an effort to strengthen myself and my sensitive soul against my upcoming visit to a Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, I have been taking numerous trips to the local library and reading much about the Nazis, about World War 2, and about Poland and the concentation camps, the Holocaust and the attempt to commit genocide against all Jews.
I have read so much about these subjects that I felt it might benefit me to read about the Nuremberg trials, to see justice served. Unfortunately, in reading the graphic details of the Nazi atrocities and their utter evil and belief in themselves as a "master race" I am profoundly disturbed.
Simply, I will add this which came directly from the evidence and testimony of the Nazi war criminals, I was very much disturbed by this reading and am now left to think about this in addition to the other horrible things I have recently studied. Truly, when I think about my own life and the decisions and efforts I make to live I am left so sad to think that at one time there were people who were routinely killed and in fact hurt in such unimaginable and tortuous ways merely it seems for being born. So this is worth reading, if you have the capacity and stomach for it:
Description of a mass execution from the Nuremberg trials:
"We went directly to the pit. Nobody bothered us. Now I heard rifle shots in quick succession, from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had got off the truck - men, women and children of all ages - had to undress upon the order of an SS man, who carried a riding or dog whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, top clothing, and underclothing. I saw a heap of shoes of about eight hundred to one thousand pairs, great piles of underlinen and clothing. Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewell, and waited for a sign from another SS man, who stood near the pit. An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old child in her arms and singing to it, and tickling it. the child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about ten years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. the father pointed towards the sky, stroked his head, and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the SS man at the pit shouted something to his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound. I walked around the mound, and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave.
People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. I looked for the man who did the shootings. He was as SS man, who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette. The people, completely naked, went down some steps which were cut in the clay wall of the pit and clambered over the heads of the people lying there, to the place to which the SS man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or injured people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or the heads lying already motionless on top of the bodies that lay before them."
Note- this was the type of account that, no matter how often repeated, never failed to stir the tribunal.
As I have posted recently, in an effort to strengthen myself and my sensitive soul against my upcoming visit to a Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, I have been taking numerous trips to the local library and reading much about the Nazis, about World War 2, and about Poland and the concentation camps, the Holocaust and the attempt to commit genocide against all Jews.
I have read so much about these subjects that I felt it might benefit me to read about the Nuremberg trials, to see justice served. Unfortunately, in reading the graphic details of the Nazi atrocities and their utter evil and belief in themselves as a "master race" I am profoundly disturbed.
Simply, I will add this which came directly from the evidence and testimony of the Nazi war criminals, I was very much disturbed by this reading and am now left to think about this in addition to the other horrible things I have recently studied. Truly, when I think about my own life and the decisions and efforts I make to live I am left so sad to think that at one time there were people who were routinely killed and in fact hurt in such unimaginable and tortuous ways merely it seems for being born. So this is worth reading, if you have the capacity and stomach for it:
Description of a mass execution from the Nuremberg trials:
"We went directly to the pit. Nobody bothered us. Now I heard rifle shots in quick succession, from behind one of the earth mounds. The people who had got off the truck - men, women and children of all ages - had to undress upon the order of an SS man, who carried a riding or dog whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted according to shoes, top clothing, and underclothing. I saw a heap of shoes of about eight hundred to one thousand pairs, great piles of underlinen and clothing. Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewell, and waited for a sign from another SS man, who stood near the pit. An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old child in her arms and singing to it, and tickling it. the child was cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about ten years old and speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. the father pointed towards the sky, stroked his head, and seemed to explain something to him. At that moment the SS man at the pit shouted something to his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed them to go behind the earth mound. I walked around the mound, and found myself confronted by a tremendous grave.
People were closely wedged together and lying on top of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had blood running over their shoulders from their heads. I looked for the man who did the shootings. He was as SS man, who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a cigarette. The people, completely naked, went down some steps which were cut in the clay wall of the pit and clambered over the heads of the people lying there, to the place to which the SS man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead or injured people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or the heads lying already motionless on top of the bodies that lay before them."
Note- this was the type of account that, no matter how often repeated, never failed to stir the tribunal.
posted by CW at 3:44 PM
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