Testimony of one member of Reserve Police Battalion 101.
Because let’s face it: A gun ain’t dangerous if there is nobody pulling its trigger.
Another quote from “Ordinary Men”: The ultimate Weapons’ Confiscation technique.
ByMiguel.GFZ
Aug 9, 2021
By Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack. Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA. I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed. I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
Looks like I have another book I need to read.
While I thank you for posting the info, I know that this is a book that I cannot read.
My Dad was in the Army Air Force and thus received Yank Magazine. Photos of the death camp liberations were published–not a surprise. Those images didn’t hit me until I saw “Schindler’s List”. That movie transformed the photos into real people.
Since then, I purposely avoid taking in additional material dealing with mass murder anywhere. My imagination is too active to take in such information on an intellectual level.
I had a similar problem with the concept of stoning. My only “exposure” was from “The Life of Brian”. Then I saw a video clip of how it’s really done. All set, thank you.
What I can’t grasp is how a human can initiate such barbaric activity against another human. I understand that, in the desert, stoning was a practical means of applying the death penalty, but I can’t picture myself in the group.
/end rant
I have been reading this book for 3 weeks now: only a few pages at the time before my brain says “enough.”
It is not the gore because it does not have it, but the callousness of the people involved gets to you.
In my opinion, this book and the “Gulag Archipelago” should be required reading for every high school student. Every step along the path to the death camp is done with a large number of people that are “just following orders”, a very few people that take sadistic joy in the suffering they are inflicting on others, and a still fewer number that were actively involved in ordering the murder and performing those murders.
This is why “Come and Take It!” echos so strongly from so many. It is the American cry to match the Israeli “Never again!”
@Miguel.FGZ: “…but the callousness of the people involved gets to you.”
For sure!
I’m doing it on Audible and I can take about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Then I have to switch to some classical strings or other relaxing music and let my stomach settle. I can’t imagine the emotional effort of writing the book.
“What I can’t grasp is how a human can initiate such barbaric activity against another human.”
Your general human cannot.
However, when you dehumanize/demonize a person based on religion, political stance, color, height, weight, whatever, it becomes easier. Your average person will stop thinking of them as human.
Today we have insurrectionists, white supremacists, and the unvaccinated heading toward subhuman status. How long before there is enough disdain for those maligned in the news media, political circles, and on social media to result in mass murder?
@CBMTTek: Good points. Thanks.
@rick, that is what the book is about, how a human can initiate such barbaric activity against another human.
In the book the author points out how these were not NAZI party members (for the most part). Of those that were party members, most joined because they felt it would help them advance (get promoted). It does not seem that very many of the men were motivated by anything.
They were converted from ordinary men into one of the most prolific killers of jews. And they did it a step at a time.
One of the most amazing piece of information that came out of the book for me, was the psychology used in the very first, “if you don’t want to do this, then you can sit out.” Giving the men that option seemed to have done something to them mentally.
The command structure also took note of the need to separate out the “killing squads” from the men that were doing the rounding up. From the testimony of the men, it was clear that most had issues with the mass killing. Therefore they just delivered the victims to the trains, they just delivered the victims to the forest clearing where some other group would do the killing, they just shot those trying to escape, they just shot those that were hiding, they didn’t kill the infant as orders demanded, they just made the mother carry the child to the town square, where everybody was killed or somebody else killed the infant.
It is absolutely revolting how small the separation from the actual killing needed to be for these men to have the ability to deny to themselves what they were doing.
This is why Antfi is so scary to me. They are only steps away from throwing the infant in the oven while still screaming, because they didn’t kill the child, it was the oven that did it.
(note, this is my opinion, not the books authors statement) I believe that this happened, even in the camps. There were so few that did the actual killing that most of the others could justify what they were doing as “just guarding the animals”.
@Therefore: Good points as well. Thanks.