- 24 Mar 2010 20:47
#13352825
"The Good Old Days" - The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders is a book everyone should read. It is not really a book in the regular sense, but a collection of primary sources - documents, photographs, interviews, and letters from members of the non-command ranks of the Nazi regime - from commanders in the the Einsatzgruppen or Wehrmacht to low-ranking members of the Sonderkommando, police, or militia, and even journalists and truck drivers; from the death squads in newly conquered Eastern Europe to Auschwitz and Treblinka. And that's all it is. Other than the introduction and the preface, there is no commentary at all. None is required.
I think everybody with the chance should pick it up and read it through. I cannot really say why, beyond that I feel that everyone should.
Here are some excerpts. Compose yourself and adjust your attitude before reading them.
"I still recall today today the complete terror of the Jews when they first caught sight of the bodies as they reached the top edge of the ravine. Many Jews cried out in terror. It's almost impossible to imagine what nerves of steel it took to carry out that dirty work down there. It was horrible . . . I had to spend the whole morning down in the ravine. For some of the time I had to shoot continuously. Then I was given the job of loading sub-machine-gun magazines with ammunition. While I was doing that, other comrades were assigned to shooting duty. Towards midday we were called away from the ravine and in the afternoon I, with some of the others up at the top, had to lead the Jews to the ravine and from there they walked down the slope on their own. the shooting that day must have lasted until . . . 17.00 or 18.00 hours. Afterwards we were taken back to our quarters. That evening we were given schnapps again." Kurt Werner, Sonderkommando 4a, pg. 66
"In the morning the workers I had ordered failed to appear. Just as I was about to go to the Jewish committee one of my colleagues from the council and asked for my support as the Jews were refusing to work here. I went over. When those arse-holes saw me they ran in all directions. Pity I did not have a pistol on me or else I would have shot some of them down. I then went to the Council of Jews and informed them that if 100 Jews did not report for work within an hour I would select 100 of them not for work but for the firing squad. Barely half an hour later 100 Jews arrived together with a further seventeen for those who had run away. I reported the incident and at the same time gave orders for the fugitives to be shot for refusing to work, which happened precisely twelve hours later. Twenty Jews were finished off. . . . Tomorrow I am going to make a converted effort to ask about my [girlfriend] Trudchen coming here. As a final resort, if I get a refusal I am going to sort out the Radom trip. Then tomorrow I'll write a long letter to Trudchen. Good night my dear little rascal, please still love me, think of me and stay true to me. Now I am going to bed, to look your picture and read your book. When my eyes begin to get tired I shall put the book aside and look at your picture again, give you a big kiss, switch off the light and go to sleep." - Felix Landau, Einsatzcommando, personal diary, 22 July 1941, pg. 101
"I saw SD personnel weeping because they could not cope mentally with what was going on. Then again I encountered others who kept a score-sheet of how many people they had sent to their death. During the course of long conversations I learned that they had been ordered to join this firing-squad and that there was nothing left for them but suicide, and that some indeed had already committed suicide. They said that if they had refused they themselves would have been shot or sent to the Sonderkommandos, where their days would be numbered. Death was certain for them, they said, and they would not survive the war since such afflicted people would never be permitted to the homeland . . . Who today can determine which were those who wept as they carried their duties and which the ones who kept a score-sheet?" - German war correspondent interviewing Latvian auxiliary police, Latvia, 1941; pg. 129
"Then Blobel ordered me to have the children executed. I asked, 'By whom should the shooting be carried out?' he answered, 'By the Waffen-SS.' I raised an objection and said, 'They are all young men. How are we going to answer to them if we make them shoot small children?' To this he said, 'Then use your men.' I then said, 'How can they do that? They have small children as well.' Thsi tug-of-war lasted about ten minutes . . . I suggested that the Ukrainian militia of the Feldkommandant should shoot the children. There were no objections from either side to this suggestion . . . I went out to the woods alone. The Wehrmacht had already brought a grave . . . [The children] were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable. I shall never forget the scene throughout my life. I find it very hard to bear. I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand. She too was shot later." - SS-Obsersturmfuhrer August Hafner, pg. 153-154
"Although I am aware that it is the duty of the police to protect the innocent I was however at that time convinced that the Jewish people were not innocent but guilty. I believed all the propaganda that Jews were criminals and subhuman and that they were the cause of Germany's decline after the First World War. The thought that one should oppose or evade the order to take part in the extermination of the Jews never entered my head either. I followed these orders because they came from the highest leaders of the state and not because I was in any way afraid." Kurt Mobius, pg. 220
"I couldn't bring myself to look closely, even once. I didn't look inside the entire time. I couldn't no, I couldn't take any more. The screaming, and, and, I was too upset, and so on. I also said that to [SS-Obergruppenfuhere] Muller when I submitted my report. He did not get very much from my report. I then followed the van - I must have been with some of the people from there who knew the way. Then I saw the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The van drove up to a long trench, the doors were opened and bodies thrown out. They still seemed alive, their limbs were so supple. They were thrown in, I can still remember a civilian pulling out teeth with some pliers and then I just got the hell out of there. I got into the car, went off and did not say anything else . . . I'd had more than I could take. I only know that a doctor there in a white coat to me that I should look through a peep-hole at them in the lorry. I refused to do that. I could not, I could not say anything, I had to get away. I went to Berlin, reported to Gruppenfuhrer Muller. I told him exactly what I've just said, there wasn't any more I could tell him. . . . Terrible . . . I'm telling you . . . the inferno, can't, that is, I can't take this, I said to him." - Taped audio interview, Adolf Eichmann, pg. 221
I think everybody with the chance should pick it up and read it through. I cannot really say why, beyond that I feel that everyone should.
Here are some excerpts. Compose yourself and adjust your attitude before reading them.
"I still recall today today the complete terror of the Jews when they first caught sight of the bodies as they reached the top edge of the ravine. Many Jews cried out in terror. It's almost impossible to imagine what nerves of steel it took to carry out that dirty work down there. It was horrible . . . I had to spend the whole morning down in the ravine. For some of the time I had to shoot continuously. Then I was given the job of loading sub-machine-gun magazines with ammunition. While I was doing that, other comrades were assigned to shooting duty. Towards midday we were called away from the ravine and in the afternoon I, with some of the others up at the top, had to lead the Jews to the ravine and from there they walked down the slope on their own. the shooting that day must have lasted until . . . 17.00 or 18.00 hours. Afterwards we were taken back to our quarters. That evening we were given schnapps again." Kurt Werner, Sonderkommando 4a, pg. 66
"In the morning the workers I had ordered failed to appear. Just as I was about to go to the Jewish committee one of my colleagues from the council and asked for my support as the Jews were refusing to work here. I went over. When those arse-holes saw me they ran in all directions. Pity I did not have a pistol on me or else I would have shot some of them down. I then went to the Council of Jews and informed them that if 100 Jews did not report for work within an hour I would select 100 of them not for work but for the firing squad. Barely half an hour later 100 Jews arrived together with a further seventeen for those who had run away. I reported the incident and at the same time gave orders for the fugitives to be shot for refusing to work, which happened precisely twelve hours later. Twenty Jews were finished off. . . . Tomorrow I am going to make a converted effort to ask about my [girlfriend] Trudchen coming here. As a final resort, if I get a refusal I am going to sort out the Radom trip. Then tomorrow I'll write a long letter to Trudchen. Good night my dear little rascal, please still love me, think of me and stay true to me. Now I am going to bed, to look your picture and read your book. When my eyes begin to get tired I shall put the book aside and look at your picture again, give you a big kiss, switch off the light and go to sleep." - Felix Landau, Einsatzcommando, personal diary, 22 July 1941, pg. 101
"I saw SD personnel weeping because they could not cope mentally with what was going on. Then again I encountered others who kept a score-sheet of how many people they had sent to their death. During the course of long conversations I learned that they had been ordered to join this firing-squad and that there was nothing left for them but suicide, and that some indeed had already committed suicide. They said that if they had refused they themselves would have been shot or sent to the Sonderkommandos, where their days would be numbered. Death was certain for them, they said, and they would not survive the war since such afflicted people would never be permitted to the homeland . . . Who today can determine which were those who wept as they carried their duties and which the ones who kept a score-sheet?" - German war correspondent interviewing Latvian auxiliary police, Latvia, 1941; pg. 129
"Then Blobel ordered me to have the children executed. I asked, 'By whom should the shooting be carried out?' he answered, 'By the Waffen-SS.' I raised an objection and said, 'They are all young men. How are we going to answer to them if we make them shoot small children?' To this he said, 'Then use your men.' I then said, 'How can they do that? They have small children as well.' Thsi tug-of-war lasted about ten minutes . . . I suggested that the Ukrainian militia of the Feldkommandant should shoot the children. There were no objections from either side to this suggestion . . . I went out to the woods alone. The Wehrmacht had already brought a grave . . . [The children] were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable. I shall never forget the scene throughout my life. I find it very hard to bear. I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand. She too was shot later." - SS-Obsersturmfuhrer August Hafner, pg. 153-154
"Although I am aware that it is the duty of the police to protect the innocent I was however at that time convinced that the Jewish people were not innocent but guilty. I believed all the propaganda that Jews were criminals and subhuman and that they were the cause of Germany's decline after the First World War. The thought that one should oppose or evade the order to take part in the extermination of the Jews never entered my head either. I followed these orders because they came from the highest leaders of the state and not because I was in any way afraid." Kurt Mobius, pg. 220
"I couldn't bring myself to look closely, even once. I didn't look inside the entire time. I couldn't no, I couldn't take any more. The screaming, and, and, I was too upset, and so on. I also said that to [SS-Obergruppenfuhere] Muller when I submitted my report. He did not get very much from my report. I then followed the van - I must have been with some of the people from there who knew the way. Then I saw the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The van drove up to a long trench, the doors were opened and bodies thrown out. They still seemed alive, their limbs were so supple. They were thrown in, I can still remember a civilian pulling out teeth with some pliers and then I just got the hell out of there. I got into the car, went off and did not say anything else . . . I'd had more than I could take. I only know that a doctor there in a white coat to me that I should look through a peep-hole at them in the lorry. I refused to do that. I could not, I could not say anything, I had to get away. I went to Berlin, reported to Gruppenfuhrer Muller. I told him exactly what I've just said, there wasn't any more I could tell him. . . . Terrible . . . I'm telling you . . . the inferno, can't, that is, I can't take this, I said to him." - Taped audio interview, Adolf Eichmann, pg. 221
Dave, Potemkin, Ombrageux: the three pillars of Western civilization. - Donald