Thanks for sharing. I've seen dozens of documentaries about WWII and it still amazes me. I think I can imagine that a few people are like that, but so many, I still can't understand. How schizophrenic it was, playing good husband and wife, love your children and love your work, which was murdering millions of people who had the same appearance as themselves and spoke the same language, only had another religion.. Not having empathy is one thing, but not having a conscious is another.
I think that the greatest evil is done not by people getting out of bed and thinking "Heh. I think I'll be EEEEEEEVIL today!" but rather by those who think they are doing good.
I am sure most of them had consciences, but the rules of conscience are slippery.
If people are told "You are guarding a group of people condemned to death for their crimes against our country", most would not question that, and it is most likely the mentality of the guards. These were prisoners, criminals, the scum of the earth. Not-us. Why worry about what was happening to them?
You can see this even now. Ask anyone about prisoner "rights" and it's likely than not you're going to hear some kind of rant about "the criminals have more rights than the victims."
How about sex offenders? They have to wear a star to identify them to the community, right? (or a tracking anklet in this day and age). There are strict rules about where they can live and who they can associate with and where they can go.
"But sex offenders are the scum of the earth! They don't DESERVE any rights!"
Substitute the word "Jews" for "sex offenders" and it probably gives a pretty good picture of what those SS personnel thought of the people interned in the camps.
We here in Belgium have had our share of child murderes, (1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux), 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Fourniret), 3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Nathalie_Mahy_and_Stacy_Lemmens)) but almost no one is crying out for the death penalty, only for a better working police and justice (because police searched a house where two children where locked up in a basement but didn't find them and because different departments didn't exchanged valuable information)
Anyway, children have to be protected of course, but that doesn't mean abusers have to end up in a gas chamber, only kept away from children.
Yes, I don't think anyone would argue that the children need to be protected.
In the US, though, similar cases resulted in even more draconian penalties and surveillance for convicted abusers even if there was little risk they would re-offend, to the point that some law enforcement are speaking out and saying "hey, all these laws are making it HARDER for us to keep track of these people and making it MORE likely they will re-offend", which, in the current political climate that all abusers should be shot and burned, is really taking a risk.
It was just a good, here-and-now illustration of the mentality that would literally strip away the humanity from a specific group of people and how it gets justified.
As long as it's considered okay to strip away someone's humanity and right to exist for any reason, I think, we run the risk of another Holocaust because the real necessary ingredient is the mentality that some people don't deserve to live and the mental arrogance that lets us think we can decide that.
In the end, here in Belgium things are changing too, there is no cry for the death penalty, but because in the last ten years it happened often that convicted murderers or abusers got free and committed another crime.
It was usual practice that most people got released from prison when 1 third of the time was reached, which meant that for a life sentence, it meant 14 years in prison. It changed last year, the one third time isn't automatically given anymore and victims (or family) have to give "advice".
It does affect my emotions too. Today there was such a story, a young child dies in traffic and the parents go at night to the place, because at daytime there were too many people, laying flowers, and they wanted time alone with their daughter.
They are at the place of the accident in the middle of the night and a car passes at high speed. The father is upset and shouts, the car stops, the man steps out goes to the father and slit his throat. The father barely survived.
The attacker was a convicted murder, got life sentence for torturing and murdering someone but was released a few years ago, after having being in prison for 14 years.
I'm not emotionless about that - it made me angry - but I'm glad I am not the one who has to judge.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 10:36 pm (UTC)I am sure most of them had consciences, but the rules of conscience are slippery.
If people are told "You are guarding a group of people condemned to death for their crimes against our country", most would not question that, and it is most likely the mentality of the guards. These were prisoners, criminals, the scum of the earth. Not-us. Why worry about what was happening to them?
You can see this even now. Ask anyone about prisoner "rights" and it's likely than not you're going to hear some kind of rant about "the criminals have more rights than the victims."
How about sex offenders? They have to wear a star to identify them to the community, right? (or a tracking anklet in this day and age). There are strict rules about where they can live and who they can associate with and where they can go.
"But sex offenders are the scum of the earth! They don't DESERVE any rights!"
Substitute the word "Jews" for "sex offenders" and it probably gives a pretty good picture of what those SS personnel thought of the people interned in the camps.
Sobering to think about.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 01:20 am (UTC)Anyway, children have to be protected of course, but that doesn't mean abusers have to end up in a gas chamber, only kept away from children.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-20 07:51 pm (UTC)In the US, though, similar cases resulted in even more draconian penalties and surveillance for convicted abusers even if there was little risk they would re-offend, to the point that some law enforcement are speaking out and saying "hey, all these laws are making it HARDER for us to keep track of these people and making it MORE likely they will re-offend", which, in the current political climate that all abusers should be shot and burned, is really taking a risk.
It was just a good, here-and-now illustration of the mentality that would literally strip away the humanity from a specific group of people and how it gets justified.
As long as it's considered okay to strip away someone's humanity and right to exist for any reason, I think, we run the risk of another Holocaust because the real necessary ingredient is the mentality that some people don't deserve to live and the mental arrogance that lets us think we can decide that.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 09:37 pm (UTC)It was usual practice that most people got released from prison when 1 third of the time was reached, which meant that for a life sentence, it meant 14 years in prison. It changed last year, the one third time isn't automatically given anymore and victims (or family) have to give "advice".
It does affect my emotions too. Today there was such a story, a young child dies in traffic and the parents go at night to the place, because at daytime there were too many people, laying flowers, and they wanted time alone with their daughter.
They are at the place of the accident in the middle of the night and a car passes at high speed. The father is upset and shouts, the car stops, the man steps out goes to the father and slit his throat. The father barely survived.
The attacker was a convicted murder, got life sentence for torturing and murdering someone but was released a few years ago, after having being in prison for 14 years.
I'm not emotionless about that - it made me angry - but I'm glad I am not the one who has to judge.