Today, CARL posted on its website the pdf of the 7th Army pamphlet on Dachau. "This report presents some of the facts and photographs of Dachau in order to emphasize the type of crime the SS committed thousands of times a day. A history, composition, the organization, and groupings of prisoners are given for the concentration camp. Another segment addresses the camp and town/townspeople. There is a diary, statements, special case reports, and some information is given at the time of the liberation." Some of the photos are very graphic. http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cgi-...OT=/p4013coll8&CISOPTR=2858&filename=2847.pdf Dave
Very interesting Dave. Did you know that about a mile outside of Dachau there used to be a firing range for the SS. They had 4 long ranges and two short ones. Russian prisoners would be brought to this firing range in bunches of 70, undressed and then lined up to be executed. This was a SS firing practise. Cruel isn't it? About 7000 Russians POW where shot here. This firing range can still be visited. In the barracks (houses) on that firing range, where SS used to live, their are still people living there today. Thierry
Very interesting. I wonder if it was carried over from the Einsatzgruppen? The method is very familiar.
Triple C, These SS were camp guards or students of the SS school. Actually Dachau was were you went to SS school. So brutality was learned and expected. If you were not brutal enough you were kicked out of the SS and send to the simple Wehrmacht. I'm sure that members of the Einsatzgruppen were originally formed at the Dachau SS training facility. Hope zthis answers your question. Thierry
I am aware that Einsatzkommando were selected from camp guards, but not the fact that they aclimated their troopers by making them participate in killing POWs. Can you give a rough date on the duration of this form of "practice" so to speak?
Yes I can. The Dachau camp opened its doors in 1933, as a part of a huge SS industrial complex. This complex had factories, living quarters, training school, farms. Everything you can imagine to sustain a very good life for the SS. They were making lots of money expanding the SS bank balance. The construction of the camp itself was finished in 1936. By then Himmler had full control of the SS. Men were recrueted into the SS. These killings of Russian POW stopped at the end of 1941, primerely because they needed labor. Doctors needed to decide who was fit for work. Also for propaganda reasons. This is also the time when the Russians were gaining terrain against on the Germans. This practise basically went on till the end of the war in other degrees and places.
What a sad part of human history where people are murdered for no reason. Even after studying about the concentration camps I still do not understand how people can exterminate people and have no problems with doing so. I don't think I ever will understand why.
It's the culture of hate sox--it's terrifyingly easy to make a people accept such things when you control all the media, all the schools and indeed life and death of your citizenry. Many Germans unfortunately saw Jews as a corrupting influence on their society, and too many powerful people, educators of the youth and politicians, suscribed to it and made it their lives' effort to convince the rest of the society to condone it or look the other way. You can teach a people that black is white, when you can say this in every book and every radio broadcast, and execute those who disagreed with you.
I know one factor is that people who born in Germany where raised from childhood not to question a order or a person in authority. So when hitler came to power he had entire nation willing to accept any orders he wanted. So when the nazi government says it is permissible to deny the Jews their rights and then says it is imperative to exterminate the Jews they comply even if they where friends and neighbors for years. What a horrible terrible chapter in history where people allowed their own hatreds consume them. I really believe without Josef Goebbels being such a good propaganda minister I don't think the message of destroying the Jews as a whole would have gotten to the masses as quickly as it did. He roused everyone's hatred to the max.
sorry sox but your terminology is a bit warped, the German volk were permitted to contest authority, it never was concealed. Ask any German veteran, what did happen was those that questioned publically usually and conveniently disappeared. JG was just one of many in the viscous cog the Third Reich life, warped and unashamed, no-conscience ....... fools !
I have to agree to some extend with Erich and Sox. Don't forget when Hitler came to power the popularity of the Nazi power was going down, because the economy was doing better. The minister of economy at that time was really doing a good job until he died. Hitler only had 37 % of the votes in the '32 elections. Meaning that 63% didn't see him as the saviour. His trick was that (with luck and smart people around him) he could get a grip on the right persons. In the 30ies he managed to get into the high society, he became friends with the most powerful persons in the Munich society. Protecting there benefits they used Hitler as a tool. Except it backfired on them when he came to power. Of course, all those who opposed him, dissapeared or were sent to the Dachau camp. Including these rich industrialists. But alot of Germans still opposed him. One of the most famous movements was maybe the White Rose movement in Munich. We can also not forget that alot of the SS were volunteers, believe it or not. young men with no futur in sight, no job, no money. They were promised all these things. And they really believed in Hitler. The jews were the scapegoats. Abusing power in a cruel way has always been a part of the human's nature. It still is.
I have been reading The Politics of Cultural Despair and it is interesting to note that it was the German intellectuals, army officers, bureaucrats and other parts of the German educated elite who fell for Hitler... Also of note was the utter incompetence of Weimar Republic's leading politicians, who failed to perceive the threat in the National Socialist Party to all and crush it when they could, when they still had the power.
Yes, it was the 3rd Bn, 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division: Dachau massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dave
