Abraham
11-02-05, 02:22 AM
This posting is a sidebranch from my thread: "The SS (separated from the Holocaust thread)". Since there are some on this forum who glorify the loyalty of the SS, I found it worthwhile to bring this discussion to the attention of those, who might have missed that thread (or got sick of it).
Story 1.
(Southwestern France, summer 1944).
The 2. (Waffen-)SS Panzerdivision "Das Reich", 15.000 man and more than 200 tanks and SP guns had a difficult time moving from its Toulouse area to the D-Day invasion beaches. All along the road it was delayed by small but time consuming attacks and acts of sabotage by the French 'Résistance'. (The division would finally reach its area of operation in 2 weeks instead of the three days British intelligence expected.)
After a few hundred kilometers, near Limoges, "Das Reich" was fed up. They received in Limoges (false) information that a 'Maquis' (Resistance) headquarter was hidden in the nearby small town of Oradour-sur-Glane. They gathered all inhabitants (about 650) on the town square, separated men from women and children, whom they locked up in the church. They then shot all men, set fire to the church and machine-gunned whi tried to escape. Then they burned the village. No 'Maquis' headquarter was found, not weapons or munition. One woman escaped from the church, two or three men from the shooting.
A few Jews were hiding in Oradour, with fake papers, at the hotel 'Avril' (April). One Jewish couple hid their two daughters (22 and 18) and their son (9) under the staircase of the hotel. When the hotel was set alight they fled through the backyard, right into the arms of an SS trooper. The oldest girl looked at the SS-er and asked him: "What are we to do?" Ignoring his orders to kill all citizens he waved them away, into the fields. They survived.
Story 2.
(Southwestern France, summer 1944).
Continuation:
Everybody who approached Oradour that afternoon was without exception shot by the Waffen-SS. Most of them were peasants, trying to solve the mistery why their children did not come back from school. These incidental shootings continued the whole afternoon.
At the end of the day an inter-local streetcar-tram came back to Oradour with shoppers from the city of Limoges. It was stopped at the entrance. The SS ordered all residents of Oradour to dismount and sent the tram back to Limoges. A total of twenty-two people dismounted, terrified, and were surrounded by the Waffen-SS. Men and women were separated. Then followed a discussion amongst some SS officers(!). After some minutes one officer shouted to the civilians; "Disappear in the country, not into Oradour!" A French speaking SS-trooper shouted: "You're being let off! Believe me, you're lucky".
The next day at 11 in the morning, the SS left the town after thoroughly looting it...
Story 3.
(Eastern Poland, Autumn 1944)
An SS unit was sent to collect a small community of several dozen Jews in a rural Polish village that had escaped the Holocaust till then. The Nazi's were just in time; artillery fire of the advancing Red Army could already be heard in the far distance.
The local Rabbi went to the SS-Obersturmführer to plead for his people. He asked what use it was to send people to their death just before they would be liberated and the defeat of Germany was so certain. He even made a personal offer to the SS commander, saying that if he would leave his people alone the Jews would know how to reward him after the war.
The SS officer responded that the offer was very tempting, but that he was bound by his outh of loyalty to refuse it and execute his orders. The Jews were consequently sent to a comcentration camp...
I want to show with these stories that there is higher honor than loyalty to a Painter, or orders or whatever. The honor to human values.
The SS men from the first two stories failed as SS men but acted like human beings.
The SS man from the last story acted like a good SS man but failed as a human being.
What is better for one's soul? What is better to reflect upon in the last moments of one's live? To be able to say: "In this hell called war I at least once acted humane and saved innocent lives" or to say: "In a lost cause, I killed innocents due to my oath of loyalty to a Führer who turned out to be a Fraud"...?
(Main sources: Max Hasting: "Das Reich", Lucy Davodowitz: "The War against the Jews.")
Story 1.
(Southwestern France, summer 1944).
The 2. (Waffen-)SS Panzerdivision "Das Reich", 15.000 man and more than 200 tanks and SP guns had a difficult time moving from its Toulouse area to the D-Day invasion beaches. All along the road it was delayed by small but time consuming attacks and acts of sabotage by the French 'Résistance'. (The division would finally reach its area of operation in 2 weeks instead of the three days British intelligence expected.)
After a few hundred kilometers, near Limoges, "Das Reich" was fed up. They received in Limoges (false) information that a 'Maquis' (Resistance) headquarter was hidden in the nearby small town of Oradour-sur-Glane. They gathered all inhabitants (about 650) on the town square, separated men from women and children, whom they locked up in the church. They then shot all men, set fire to the church and machine-gunned whi tried to escape. Then they burned the village. No 'Maquis' headquarter was found, not weapons or munition. One woman escaped from the church, two or three men from the shooting.
A few Jews were hiding in Oradour, with fake papers, at the hotel 'Avril' (April). One Jewish couple hid their two daughters (22 and 18) and their son (9) under the staircase of the hotel. When the hotel was set alight they fled through the backyard, right into the arms of an SS trooper. The oldest girl looked at the SS-er and asked him: "What are we to do?" Ignoring his orders to kill all citizens he waved them away, into the fields. They survived.
Story 2.
(Southwestern France, summer 1944).
Continuation:
Everybody who approached Oradour that afternoon was without exception shot by the Waffen-SS. Most of them were peasants, trying to solve the mistery why their children did not come back from school. These incidental shootings continued the whole afternoon.
At the end of the day an inter-local streetcar-tram came back to Oradour with shoppers from the city of Limoges. It was stopped at the entrance. The SS ordered all residents of Oradour to dismount and sent the tram back to Limoges. A total of twenty-two people dismounted, terrified, and were surrounded by the Waffen-SS. Men and women were separated. Then followed a discussion amongst some SS officers(!). After some minutes one officer shouted to the civilians; "Disappear in the country, not into Oradour!" A French speaking SS-trooper shouted: "You're being let off! Believe me, you're lucky".
The next day at 11 in the morning, the SS left the town after thoroughly looting it...
Story 3.
(Eastern Poland, Autumn 1944)
An SS unit was sent to collect a small community of several dozen Jews in a rural Polish village that had escaped the Holocaust till then. The Nazi's were just in time; artillery fire of the advancing Red Army could already be heard in the far distance.
The local Rabbi went to the SS-Obersturmführer to plead for his people. He asked what use it was to send people to their death just before they would be liberated and the defeat of Germany was so certain. He even made a personal offer to the SS commander, saying that if he would leave his people alone the Jews would know how to reward him after the war.
The SS officer responded that the offer was very tempting, but that he was bound by his outh of loyalty to refuse it and execute his orders. The Jews were consequently sent to a comcentration camp...
I want to show with these stories that there is higher honor than loyalty to a Painter, or orders or whatever. The honor to human values.
The SS men from the first two stories failed as SS men but acted like human beings.
The SS man from the last story acted like a good SS man but failed as a human being.
What is better for one's soul? What is better to reflect upon in the last moments of one's live? To be able to say: "In this hell called war I at least once acted humane and saved innocent lives" or to say: "In a lost cause, I killed innocents due to my oath of loyalty to a Führer who turned out to be a Fraud"...?
(Main sources: Max Hasting: "Das Reich", Lucy Davodowitz: "The War against the Jews.")