June 10, 2007

Jews have always felt a sense of shame and chagrin over the fact that their brethren in Europe went to their death, “like lambs to slaughter” during the Holocaust.

Jewish shame however, can only be justified if other national groups, in similar circumstances during World War 2, resisted being herded to their death, where Jews did not.

“In fact non-Jews in similar circumstances also went to their deaths like lambs to slaughter ”“ only in vastly smaller numbers.”

Among the non-Jews were –

Ӣ hundreds of thousands of gypsies who were rounded up and transported to German concentration camps

Ӣ thousands of homosexuals

Ӣ thousands of politicians and other civilians who were regarded as enemies of Germany

Ӣ thousands of adults and children with disabilities who were to have no place in the thousand year Reich.

Soldiers, Civilians and Partisans

Large numbers of captured allied soldiers, partisans and civilians were executed by the German army in one atrocity after another. They came from the conquered nations in Europe such as Poland, France, Belgium and Holland.

The citizens of these conquered nations found themselves at the mercy of the merciless Germans who deliberately exacted a vengeful toll when one or more of theirs were killed in many a rebellious episode.

Executed by the Germans for whatever reason, these non-Jews went to their death the same way as our forebears did, like lambs.

Allied Personnel Summarily Executed

On D Day 1944 the allied soldiers of the US, Britain, Canada and Australia invaded Normandy. Though victorious less than a year later, scores of thousands of soldiers were meanwhile captured and rendered defenseless by the Germans. Many of these were summarily executed. None resisted their executioners as far as is known, though there were some lucky escapes.

Soviet Russia in particular lost enormous numbers of troops to the German army, taken captive when its territory was initially overrun. German SS units killed thousands in summary criminal executions. Aside from a handful of escapees all went to their death – like lambs to slaughter.

There are innumerable instances of non-Jewish soldiers and high ranking officers lining up alongside a ditch as commanded, passively and wordlessly awaiting an SS bullet in the back of their heads. Or death by machine gun fire as they just stood there, paralyzed.

Germans did this to non-Jewish captured allied soldiers, airmen, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled adults and children. They massacred Jews, Russians, French, Poles, Dutch, Belgians, Canadians and Americans.

Japanese did it to Chinese, Britons, Australians and Americans. Japanese also used their swords to behead their captives who bowed their heads when instructed.

Their hands may have been shackled, their feet seldom were – why didn`t they kick? Or even spit?

ALL went to their deaths like lambs to slaughter. Very few escaped ”“ by running away or jumping out of a window. The overwhelming majority died like lambs.

Jews no different

Were they in shock? Did they fear pain more than death? Did they feel it was better to die a quick death rather than suffer wounds and probable torture if they tried to escape? We can never know the true reasons why captives did not resist because we cannot second guess the dead. Perhaps the educated guesses or opinions of psychiatrists or psychologists will eventually help us understand.

No professional student of the mind however, will suggest that Jews or non-Jews would have acted differently in the same death-facing circumstances. That idiotic philosophy was based on the so called science of Germany`s master scientist, Adolph Hitler, aided by fellow scientists Goering, Goebbels, Mengele, Streicher, Rosenberg, Himmler and countless other conscienceless criminals.

To accept the Hitlerian diktat as good science would mean accepting that Jews and non-Jews were different species of humans. This mindless nonsense was the basis of Germany`s Aryan belief system. It led to Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, gypsies and others being regarded as “untermenschen” (sub-humans) and became a prime motivation for killing them.

What Accounted For Passivity?

I have been forced to the conclusion that when faced with the cruel and merciless might of their well armed captors, defenseless victims will go to their deaths without a fight. And more often without a murmur. They will undress, line up, kneel and await their turn to be killed. Or enter a gas chamber if so commanded.

This condition applies to any defenseless group of any race or nationality ”“ as the evidence below will make abundantly clear.

We Must Stop The Flagellating

Jews must therefore stop agonizing over the fact that our brethren went to their death like lambs. They were in a no win situation, compelled to obey the orders of their merciless killers. Being slaughtered like lambs was in no way a Jewish condition. Non-Jews who found themselves in a similar plight were similarly massacred by armed men so instructed.

We need to internalize the fact that non-Jews reacted exactly the same way in similar circumstances.

What follows are brief reports of atrocities carried out by various armies on non-Jewish citizenry or captured soldiers during World War 2. Russian and Japanese atrocities are also covered.

Aside from a handful of escapees, captured soldiers were equally passive when cruelly executed in revenge episodes. (At times for no apparent reason.) As were enormous numbers of civilians and partisans in the countries over-run by the victorious Germans bent on mass murder.

The Evidence

A plethora of information is available on the Internet about World War 2 mass murders and executions of non-Jews. For brevity, clarity and organized presentation however, I have preferred to rely on George Duncan`s website of Massacres and Atrocities of World War 2.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html

If hyperlink is inactive please cut and paste into your browser.

George Duncans information is the consequence of his meticulous research. His presentation of the facts is comprehensive yet admirably brief. I earnestly recommend Mr. Duncans website. It covers every massacre and atrocity committed in continental Europe, Russia, and the Pacific region during WW2. Note that only a few incidents of the available evidence have been extracted, and these have necessarily been abbreviated:

France

134 Canadians, 3 British and 1 American Executed

NORMANDY, June, 1944 June 8. SS Panzer Division ”˜Hitler Jugendtook 37 Canadian prisoners. Ordered to sit down in a field with their wounded in the center SS soldiers opened fire killing 35. Near the villages of Authie and Buron, about 40 Canadians were taken prisoner and individually killed. 8 Were ordered to remove their helmets and then shot with automatic rifles. On the 7th and 8th, Panzer Grenadiers killed 20 Canadian prisoners. Locked in a stable, each was called by name and shot in the back of the head. Another 26 Canadians were shot at the Chateau dAudrie. After the war, investigations established that 31 different incidents involving 134 Canadians, 3 British and 1 American had been killed.

85 British Soldiers Murdered

WORMHOUDT ATROCITY (Pas-de-Calais, May 1940)
Around 100 men of the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment were taken prisoner by the the SS Leibstandarte and confined in a barn near Wormhoudt. Only 15 survived German killing spree.

451 French Civilians Slaughtered

ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE (Central France June 10, 1944) Germans ordered all inhabitants of the village to assemble in the market place. All the men were taken away and shot. 452 Women and children were herded into the church. They were killed by grenades and machine gun fire. Finally the church was set on fire. One old woman escaped.

Greece

$60,000 Greeks Massacred KALAVRYTA, So. Greece ( December 13, 1943 ) ‘Kampfgruppe Ebersberger’ Division surrounded the town and killed 696 men by machine gun fire. 1,300 men and boys from Kalavryta and 24 nearby villages were murdered that day. Around 460 villages were completely destroyed and approximately 60,000 men, women and children were massacred during the occupation of Greece.

4750 Italian Prisoners

CEFALONIA Island MASSACRE (September, 1943) The Germans began shooting their Italian prisoners in groups of four to ten. By the time the shooting ended 4,750 Italian soldiers lay dead all over the island.

Holland

714 Dutch Civilians

KOMMENO (August 16, 1943) An eight hour massacre by the First Alpenjäger Division killed 680 villagers. Later these German soldiers killed another 34.

476 Georgian Soldiers, 117 Villagers

TEXEL MASSACRE (April 1945) German battalions took revenge on mutinous Georgian soldiers. Four or five were tied together and grenades placed between them. 476 Georgians were killed. The Germans also killed 117 from the village of Texel.

116 Civilians, 263 Prisoners

DE WOESTE HOEVE (March 6, 1945) 116 Men were rounded up and shot dead. In Gestapo prisons all over Holland that day, 263 prisoners were taken out and shot in a reprisal action.

Belgium

137 Civilians

MALMÉDY, BELGIUM December16, 1944 SS brutally executed Belgian civilians; 67 men, 47 women and 23 children.

60 German Prisoners

CHENOGNE, Belgium January 1, 1945. US 11th Armoured Division machine-gunned and killed 60 captured and defenceless German soldiers.

34 Villagers

BANDE, Belgium Christmas Eve, 1944. German SD soldiers killed 34 villagers, one by one. One escaped.

520 Camp Guards by US Troops

DACHAU April,1945 Dachau Concentration Camp was liberated by US forces on 29th. of April. Prior to entering the camp, the troops had come upon a train of 39 cattle trucks parked outside the camp. The train had come from Auschwitz after a journey of thirty days. They were filled with corpses of 2,310 Hungarian and Polish Jews who had died from hunger and thirst. Enraged Americans rounded up most of the 560 SS guards. After three bursts of raking fire, a total of 122 SS men lay dead or dying. Camp inmates killed the rest. At another site hundreds of German guards were machine gunned to death by US troops. 520 camp and tower guards were killed on that day.

Over 1000 Germans by Czechs

THE POSTBERG ATROCITIES Around the Bavarian village of Postberg on the Bavarian-Czech border, hundreds of German men, women and children were shot during the Czech ‘ethnic cleansing’. In all 763 Germans were murdered. In the town of Aussig, after an explosion the Czechs initiated a blood-bath. Women and children were thrown from the bridge into the river. Germans were shot on the streets. Between 1,000 and 2,500 people were killed in this act of revenge.

Hungarians Massacre 4009 Jews, Serbs, Magyars

YUGOSLAVIA Local partisans killed 17 Hungarian soldiers near Novi Sad on January 23, 1942. The commander of the Hungarian troops, General Ferenc Teketehalmi-Czeydner and his Arrow Cross militia rounded up 550 Jews and 292 Serbians and forced marched them across the frozen river Danube until their weight broke the ice plunging them into the icy waters where they all drowned or shot by Hungarian fascists. Another 2,467 Serbs, 700 Jews and anti-fascist Magyars were massacred.

10,000 Serbs, Jews, Gypsies

The Ustashi commander, General Dragutin Rumler, filed a report stating that so far, around 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Gyspies had been killed. Unspeakable acts of brutality were committed before killing. The worst crime was the murder of children from the Mount Kozara region. In 1941 and 1942 they took the lives of 11,176 children (6,302 boys and 4,874 girls). The average age of these children was 6.5 years. ITALY

Germans Kill 335 Italians

VIA RASELLA (Rome, March 23, 1944) 335 Italians were loaded onto lorries and driven to a network of caves on the Via Ardeatina. The executions then started. Each victim ordered to kneel and was shot in the back of the head a German soldier. By 8pm it was all over. SOVIET UNION

14,500 Polish Officers

KATYN FOREST (Smolensk, 1939-40) In 1939 some 14,500 Polish officers were captured. The next time the world heard of these prisoners was in a news broadcast on April 13, 1943, from Radio Berlin. It stated that the German Army had discovered mass graves at Katyn containing the bodies of Polish officers. Eight graves were opened and 4,253 bodies exhumed. All were dressed in Polish uniforms, with badges of rank and medals intact. Two other camps, at Starobielsk (3,910 men) and at Ostashkov (6,500 men) were wound up and closed in the first days of April, 1940. The officers were never seen alive again. In 1990 the USSR for the first time admitted responsibility.

716 German Soldiers and Others

GRISCHINO MASSACRE (February 18, 1943) 406 German soldiers, (POWs) 58 of the Todt Organization, 89 Italian soldiers, 9 Romanian soldiers, 4 Hungarian soldiers and some civilian workers, Ukrainian volunteers and German nurses totalling 596 souls were killed. 120 Germans were herded into a large storage room and then mowed down with machine guns. The Russians had killed every single German they had found.

10,000 Jailed Prisoners (June 22-29, 1941)

In the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons, the majority by a shot in the neck. (For which the victim is required to stand still.)

9,439 Corpses

THE VINNITSA HORROR By the time the Soviets entered the town, a total of 9,439 corpses had already been counted. All had been individually killed by a German bullet in the neck.

2892 Killed

THE UKRAINIAN MASSACRE (September 2, 1942) Due to partisan activity around the village Kortelisy in the Ukraine, its entire population of 2,892 men, women and children were put to death by SS and SD execution squads helped by local pro-German Ukrainian police. All over Ukraine around 459 villages were destroyed with all or part of their population massacred.

5,000 Shot

DUBNO MASSACRE (October 5, 1942) The town of Dubno in western Ukraine was the scene of a horrifying massacre of Jews. Near the town’s airstrip, the SS and Ukrainian troops herded scores of Jewish men, women and children into three previously dug deep pits, then shooting them to death. For days the grizzly work of the SS continued, killing 1,500 persons daily until over 5,000 helpless victims had been shot. In the pits, the bodies were piled up row upon row and then covered with layers of earth.

Ukrainians Kill 35,000-60,000 Poles

Poles Kill 20,000 Ukrainians

MASSACRES IN VOLHYNIA (February, 1943) The Ukrainian Uprising Army (UPA) started a war of ethnic cleansing. The massacres continued for a year in the rural areas until all Polish residents were either killed or expelled from their homes. The number of Poles murdered is estimated to be 35 to 60 thousand. Some 20,000 Ukrainians were killed by Poles.

THE PACIFIC REGION

Japans war in the Pacific was fought by a people bent on becoming the dominant power over all the inhabitants of the many islands scattered across the sea. George Duncan lists 32 episodes of massacres involving hundreds of thousands islanders and including scores of thousands of British, Australian, American, Chinese, Manchurian, Mongolian, Russian, Korean, Dutch and Philippino troops and civilians. Civilians had no choice ”“ they were simply scooped up in Japans frenzy of murder and mayhem.

The Japanese practiced cruelty for cruelty`s sake. They force marched and starved their enemies. Their soldiers found satisfaction in bayoneting and beheading. They cut and hacked captives with swords and left many to suffer and die as the blood drained out. They drowned people in shark infested waters. They bred fleas in vast quantities to spread plague and disease. They raped every captured female.

I`m pleased Pres. Truman taught them a lesson in nuclear fission. They deserved it. I wish he was around to have done it to the Germans too. They deserved it a lot more.

Forgive me, I just dont have the fortitude to rework Duncans 32 Japanese atrocities. But I commend you to read as much as you care to, of the information he has so carefully documented.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres.html

If hyperlink is inactive please cut and paste into your browser.

Allow me to remind you that large numbers of allied soldiers went to their death like lambs to slaughter. By contrast, virtually all Jews killed by the nazis were civilians.

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