Sunday 30 September 2007

Ah Those Were The Days


The Nazis liked Christmas, you go and think about that.

Karl Hoecker, an adjutant to the camp commander of Auschwitz death camp collected 116 photos of his happy army days during the war. They were found in 1946 by a US intelligence officer who kept them to himself for 6 decades before giving them to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
US intelligence being an oxymoron of course.
Many of the photographs were taken at Solahuette, a SS resort near Auschwitz where the camp officers and guards would go to for a good time away from the stresses of a hard days work.

Always ready to belt out a drinking song, Nazis like Dr Mengele, Rudolf Hoess, gas chamber supervisor Otto Moll and Birkenau Kommandant Josef Kramer would stay there and relax , a regular Butlins holiday camp it was.

Hans and his amazing organ was always around to play a nice cheerful polka. Hoecker is seen here enjoying blueberries with a group of female SS auxiliaries, on the day this picture was taken (22 July 1944) 150 prisoners, arrived at Auschwitz. The SS selected 21 men and 12 women for work and killed the rest in the gas chambers, fucking cheery huh?
It wasn't proven that Hoecker committed any war crimes but I think his closeness to the big wigs and what he is serving as is a crime enough, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and released on parole in 1970. He worked at a banking job and eventually died in Germany in 2000, aged 88. Maybe if these pics were shown instead of pocketed he might have gotten a more fitting sentence. Ah the things that were plundered by the liberating Yanks.


Nice doggy, of course it is probably trained to rip a Jew a part, lets hope it got Hans.

Disgusting pictures , what kind of people can degrade and murder thousands and then get on like they're at a holiday camp? When we the allies had our greatest generation then the Germans must of had their worse, what were they part demon?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of them were absolutely normal people.

Old Knudsen said...

Their actions don't really match up to what I would call normal.I shall be posting about Le Paradis massacre sometime too.

Anonymous said...

Le paradis was another action of the Totenkopf-Division. This division was recruited from people serving as death-camp guards. Even members of other Waffen-SS-divisions did not like them, forget the army.
It was a classic war-crime, shooting wounded unarmed soldiers after they had capitulated. No army members involved.

The pictures of Hoecker illustrate what Hanna Arendt called the "Banalität des Bösen". Most of them were normal people - in an absolutly unnormal setting. They could live out nearly any fantasy of omnipotence - within the given set of rules. Rule number one is: Prisoners are "unwertes Leben". Jews, homosexuals, mentally ill people - you name it.

The uniform. People that were working as for a film that was made some years ago remarked the effect of the uniform, how it made them different. It still works.

Old Knudsen said...

I know that some german soldiers were nothing but patriots, mis-guided and locked into place and maybe thought they had justifcation for invading the rest of Europe, liberating them maybe HA! they took the chance and helped Hitler their leader and lost. Losing and winning is the difference in criminal and hero. George Washington was a traitor to England but he won and became a hero.
Germany sure found plenty of willing people to join the deaths head division even replacements from the SS Waffen.
Why not kill the mentally ill its not like they would recover, cutting out parts of their brains was thought to be a valid treatment, yer gonna call me a fascist now aren't you?

You aren't gonna blame the uniform on killing 6 millions Jews are you? maybe it was then the Devil that made them do it.
I've been several uniforms and have had power over others and it will only corrupt you if you let it.

It depends a lot on if you are a free thinker and buy into the herd mentality, just following orders will only excuse you so much.

Anonymous said...

In fact "the new order of Europe" was an important part of the NS-propaganda.

There were enough people who joined the ranks of the SS freely. In the course of the war the SS did not get enough replacements. They tried to snatch people from the Wehrmacht / army ("Heldenklau"). People of german origin on the balkans and other parts of the east were from some time on automatically recruited as members of the Waffen-SS. In fact the SS in the 40s became a kind of pan-european unit. Remember that the last fighters in Berlin were french.

"Why not kill the mentally ill its not like they would recover, cutting out parts of their brains was thought to be a valid treatment, yer gonna call me a fascist now aren't you?"

Nobody has a "right" to kill. No person, no society, no institution, no state. Killing mentally ill people is plainly wrong. It is a part of the fascist "social policy" of the 30s - years before the war. Who comes up with that shit must know in which tradition he stands.

I do not blame the black uniform on killing jews or somebody else. I was referring to the fascination it still has.

"just following orders will only excuse you so much".
That is bullshit. Just "following orders" excuses the single one in no way - it is no excuse for committing crimes and killing people. That is the standard-excuse of every uniformed murderer in any army.

Old Knudsen said...

Its bad when you rely on the French to protect you, hey the British Free Corps don't get enough attention anymore.

Come back with yer shield or on it, when the greeks stopped talking like that the Greek civilisation stopped.

People such as murdering pedos give up their rights to live and be treated as people in society , whats the point of keeping them alive rehabilitation? not only do they rape and kill children they get to drain society rescoures that can be used better else where. Are you a fan of Sally Fields?

Of course theres a fascination with the uniform just as tourists go to Northern Ireland to see where the terrorists gunned doon innocent civilians, maybe wish they had the freedom to do what they want to others in some dark part of their hearts.

Just following orders works sometimes doesn't it? blaming others for yer actions, SS death head guards killed people by just following orders even if they didn't directly put a gun to their heads but still they got off.

What happens to the hundreds of old nazis when they get deported back to Germany?

Anonymous said...

The BFC? How many men did join it? 20?

Nobody can give up his right to live. A society can deprive someone a right, even the right to live. But that is no society I would like to live in. Your argumentation is exactly the same as from the Nazis 70 years earlier: One inmate in the institution costs so much, for that we could have children fed. So kill the parasite and do society a favor. It doesn't get any better by repeating it.
I do not know Sally Fields.

Yes, most of them got off the hook.

What hundreds of old deported Nazis are you delirious about? Who deports old men to us? I strongly doubt that you could bring together one thousand former SS-members worldwide. They should be 80 upwards. I know some, but they are literally the last of their units. Since the HIAG is no longer existing it is difficult to have exact data.
Surviving victims are even rarer, only 10 or 12 are left to go to schools and tell.

If really one bloke is sent to Germany the General Attorney will check the case and if it has a chance of a sentence he will prosecute.

Old Knudsen said...

Not many joined thats for sure.

So you support murderers and pedos then?
If something is rotten or broken it should be cut out, what use is it?
I think those who insist on keeping murderers and rapists in prison for life or 20 years should pay for them directly, then we'd see how many of these ideals hold up.
Nazi ideas aren't exactly original, calling someone an ancient Roman just doesn't have the same sting though.

In my research for the Hartmann post I saw that in 1997 60 nazis had been stripped of US citizenship and deported to germany to date and over 200 were under investigation, and thats just from one country.
Putting a 88 year-old ex nazis in prison is a death sentence, but a civilised one yes?

Old Knudsen said...

So the commander at Le Paradis massacre shouldn't have been hung? nor Mussolini or Saddam?

If Hitler had been captured you'd want that living symbol of hate and power to be put in prison to still get his word out and still strike fear?

theoretical question time

If you had the chance to kill one man, one Hitler to save millions would you?

Anonymous said...

"So you support murderers and pedos then? " :)
That's a pretty shortening kind of argumentation, isn't it? You must be american ... mixing moral with history and law: Crusade anybody?

This idea with the direct-payment is nice. But in the western judícial system no citizen is allowed private prisoners. Sorry mate, these times are over ...

I would like to know where you got this interesting numbers from? Seems to be some kind of clean-up. Maybe in the wake of the end of the eastern part of Germany.

Putting an old Nazi in prison is no death penalty: We do not kill the man. Murder does not "Verjähren" - can not translate the word: There must be atonement. And it is of no interest whether the murderer is a former SS-member or not.

Knoechlein was sentenced by a british military tribunal I think. If you do see the death-sentence as immoral it is of no interest who is the accused: The sentence is and stays to be wrong.

If Adolf would have been captured and not hung - what obviously is a pure fantasy - he would have been in jail until death. With no chance to get his word out. The seed can be inspected in eastern Germany: Speak non-german and get hit in the face.
They are so terribly dumb.

To answer your theoretical question: I doubt that I could, even if I tried. I know myself good enough to realize that I am no killer. And no hangman.

'night for now.

Old Knudsen said...

I am not a septic tank (yank)in no shape or form. I haven't had a good crusade since the 13th century.
The feeding of prisoners by family members used to be the norn in 18th century Britain, bring it back.
Monsters will no atone, change or see the error of their ways, they will get out and do it again, go to my justice blog for several examples, pedos get out early for good behaviour, what? so they haven't abused a child in 7 years well done, there aren't any in prison. That's just stupid, if someone harmed yer kid you would most certainly want to kill them.
So an 88 year old will serve his 5 years and get out? not likely he'll die in prison hence the death sentence.

Only the small petty dictators and their minions end up in prison, just look at the prisons and see how many Hitlers are behind bars, Pinochet even dodged jail.
Getting caught is death of some kind it seems.

You could live with millions dead than one dead? wow you are way too civilised or a coward. I suppose like those who said nothing as they put the Jews into the ovens.You just helped the theoretical murderer kill millions, yer an accomplish to murder...... theoretically of course.

Its amazing that Germany (including Franconia of course) has gone from Nazis to touchy feely liberals, both are just as dangerous as each other, bad things happen when good men allow them to happen.

Goodnight, interesting talk, tomorrow I'll be discussing abortion, always a good one.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, following your way of argumenting I'd say that you want us Germans to return to "the spirit 1939". Brave! This time no Heinkels for you ...

Old Knudsen said...

Its the 21st century, I haven't killed nearly enough Krauts so far.

Anonymous said...

"I suppose like those who said nothing as they put the Jews into the ovens."

Do not throw stones. What would you have done? Join the comrades in Bergen_Belsen?
Naaa, Knudsen, komm' von deinem hohen Ross 'runter! Descent the high horse!

You are a goddam moralist!

Old Knudsen said...

moralist

One who follows a system of moral principles, thankyou, its better to have them than not.

I know myself pretty well too and believe I would have been a resistance fighter, I have always been ready to die so its not like that has any fear for me, I'm a great believer in not being taken alive.

Having been in the army I known the the whole following orders thing but throwing people, men, weemen, children into ovens is beyond that so I'd obey up to a point and then the officers would be shot in the back one day.

I've served and lived during a war also, maybe because I lived in a country at war and was raised with it serving in it was more easy for me, others became nervous wrecks, me it was no big deal except the losing of friends.