70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

[Questions]

I read somewhere that the Aushwitz camps were generating more electricity than Berlin at the height of their operations , IG farben the manufacturers of death
regards
DR

Schmitz their CEO got 3 to 4 years and then came out and was immediately taken on as a top bod at the Deuche bank.
So the Germans (or us) certainly forgave him quick enough.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Schmitz their CEO got 3 to 4 years and then came out and was immediately taken on as a top bod at the Deuche bank.
So the Germans (or us) certainly forgave him quick enough.

a lot of them came out smelling of roses even after 10/15 years of imprisonment
regards
DR

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Treblinka far more ruthless than Aushwitz in it's killing procedure, often over looked in the over all picture of the final solution/Holocaust
regards
DR

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I'll be going to Dachau in March. The horrors that went on in these places must never be allowed to happen again.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/holocaust-night-will-fall/on-demand

Thanks.

 

[clapham_gull]

I went years ago (about 18 I think) and it affected me profoundly for years.

I don't want to underplay (and wouldn't) the murder of millions of innocent Jewish People, but unfortunately that was "just" Stage One. What I didn't know at that age (we didn't do Second World War History at School) was how far the Nazis were going to produce a super race. The experimentation and the scooping up of all sorts of other "undesirables".

Not so much what they were trying to get rid of - what they were trying to create.

Once all the Jewish people had been wiped out - where did they go next ? Frightening.

Most profound thing in there are the large glass cages of "normal" things stolen form the inmates. When you see a huge box just filled with spectacles you get a sense of how many mostly Jewish people never left. Not even masses of marked graves can give such you a sense of scale when you are presented with real personal articles.

 

[W.C.]

Actually it was a mixture of the largely untrue German atrocity stories by the UK press during WW1 and a general disbelief over what was being reported. Both UK government and press were more muted during WW2 uncertain if stories like the destruction of the Jews would actually be believed - hence both played it safe. There is a story from Jan Karski, a Pole who smuggled himself into Auschwitz to gather information, got himself out then travelled across occupied Europe to the Allies and later met both UK and US leaders. In a meeting with the later he hold his story and was approached by a member of the government that he frankly could not believe it.

It really wasn't until camps were liberated particularly by the West that the full scale of the horror was revealed.

bloody hell!

 

[Camicus]

Blah blah blah
regards
DR

For someone who still signs themselves off as DR for Das Reich I would have thought you would stay well away from Nazi atrocity threads.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

For someone who still signs themselves off as DR for Das Reich I would have thought you would stay well away from Nazi atrocity threads.

thanks for your opinion but I can have my say on the subject.
regards
DR

 

[Goldstone1976]

bloody hell!

I thought that too, so did a little research. It's not true. However, he was a remarkable man who was among the first to tell Western Governments about the Holocaust, and was largely ignored.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

I thought that too, so did a little research. It's not true. However, he was a remarkable man who was among the first to tell Western Governments about the Holocaust, and was largely ignored.

Correct about Auschwitz, but he did smuggle himself in and out of Warsaw Ghetto twice as well as a Transportation camp at Ignitz. Other Polish underground agents did get in and out of Auschwitz though.

Karski is remarkable when he travelled across Germany they injected his mouth so it would swell up to hide the fact he couldn't speak German.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Correct about Auschwitz, but he did smuggle himself in and out of Warsaw Ghetto twice as well as a Transportation camp at Ignitz. Other Polish underground agents did get in and out of Auschwitz though.

Karski is remarkable when he travelled across Germany they injected his mouth so it would swell up to hide the fact he couldn't speak German.

Yep - a truly remarkable man.

 

[daveinprague]

Seemed to be a lot of events going on yesterday in Prague regarding Auschwitz. I think maybe due to todays politics rather than back then. Then there was also a service at Terezin aka Theresienstadt. Terezin was transit holding space for kids on their way to Auschwitz. Its also where the Nazis filmed their prop of the camp to show how safe, and normal it was...music lessons, sewing etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp

African friend of mine is working as press photographer at the Auschwitz events. He was quite emotional afterwards.

 

[simmo]

Actually it was a mixture of the largely untrue German atrocity stories by the UK press during WW1 and a general disbelief over what was being reported. Both UK government and press were more muted during WW2 uncertain if stories like the destruction of the Jews would actually be believed - hence both played it safe. There is a story from Jan Karski, a Pole who smuggled himself into Auschwitz to gather information, got himself out then travelled across occupied Europe to the Allies and later met both UK and US leaders. In a meeting with the later he hold his story and was approached by a member of the government that he frankly could not believe it.

It really wasn't until camps were liberated particularly by the West that the full scale of the horror was revealed.

I think this is it. Many a times in retrospect you think why didn't the allies bomb and destroy the crematoria, showers, railway lines etc. in and around Auschwitz (and all the other extermination camps) and yet they didn't, these actions would have massively slowed down the Nazi's abhorent plans and possibly saved millions of lives.

I do think that the British and Americans didn't really believe the stories that they were being told by Jewish sources and that they did not want to divert resource away from the main goal which was the defeat of Germany. I think also that we thought that Germans were decent people and wouldn't do what was being claimed. The Germans treated British POW's far differently than the Russians as an example.

However Nazi propaganda had turned some Germans to do things that were pure evil and the unbelievable stories were true, but it is to our forefathers greatest credit that we as a country fought against the Nazis from the beginning to the end and eventually help put a stop to this. It is the greatest thing we as a country have EVER done.

 

[daveinprague]

My mother, who is from a jewish background, was working as an RAF ambulance driver in London during the Battle of Britain, and the blitz. She always says, that she met a nurse, who was a jewish refugee from somewhere, who told her of the death camps, and she thought the woman was a lunatic, and couldnt believe that such things were actually happening.

 

[Camicus]

thanks for your opinion but I can have my say on the subject.
regards
DR

Shame the 27000 political dissidents killed in the holocaust didn't have that option. Its not about ability but appropriatness

 

[W.C.]

I thought that too, so did a little research. It's not true. However, he was a remarkable man who was among the first to tell Western Governments about the Holocaust, and was largely ignored.

Oh, it did seem pretty incredible.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Shame the 27000 political dissidents killed in the holocaust didn't have that option. Its not about ability but appropriatness

yeah ,well i wasn't born then
regards
DR

 

[Camicus]

yeah ,well i wasn't born then
regards
DR

Your a bit thick arnt you.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I think this is it. Many a times in retrospect you think why didn't the allies bomb and destroy the crematoria, showers, railway lines etc. in and around Auschwitz (and all the other extermination camps) and yet they didn't, these actions would have massively slowed down the Nazi's abhorent plans and possibly saved millions of lives.

I do think that the British and Americans didn't really believe the stories that they were being told by Jewish sources and that they did not want to divert resource away from the main goal which was the defeat of Germany. I think also that we thought that Germans were decent people and wouldn't do what was being claimed. The Germans treated British POW's far differently than the Russians as an example.

However Nazi propaganda had turned some Germans to do things that were pure evil and the unbelievable stories were true, but it is to our forefathers greatest credit that we as a country fought against the Nazis from the beginning to the end and eventually help put a stop to this. It is the greatest thing we as a country have EVER done.

Our bombers didn't have the range to fly to Poland and back. The Lancaster had a range of 1750 miles and the Halifax 1650. Most of the flying would have been over Germany so they wouldn't have made it without being shot down.