No, not Africa, but a somewhat sobering piece regarding not only Germany's but Europe's complicity in the holocaust: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824,00.html. No doubt Hitler's vision of a continent without Jews and other groups of "undesirables" drove the engine but other countries were all too happy to join in, mostly without having to be nudged along. Here's a delightful passage that kind of spells it all out:
Just for example, on June 27, 1941, a colonel in the staff of the German Northern Army Group in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas passed a petrol station surrounded by a crowd of people. There were shouts of bravo and clapping, mothers raised their children to give them a better view. The officer stepped closer and later wrote down what he had seen. "On the concrete courtyard there was a blond man aged around 25, of medium height, who was taking a rest and supporting himself on a wooden club which was as thick as an arm and went up to his chest. At his feet lay 15 or 20 people who were dead or dying. Water poured from a hose and washed the blood into a drain."
The officer continued: "Just a few paces behind the man stood around 20 men who--guarded by several armed civilians--awaited their gruesome execution in silent submission. Beckoned with a curt wave, the next one stepped up silently and was beaten to death with the wooden club, and every blow met with enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
When all lay dead on the ground, the blond murderer climbed on the heap of corpses and played the accordion. His audience sang the Lithuanian anthem as if the orgy of murder had been a national ceremony."
I eagerly await the next lecture from our Euro betters regarding the backwardness of certain segments of American society. Yes, eagerly.
2 comments:
An even more disturbing comment on man's inhumanity is the first sentence in the next paragraph after the one you quoted:
"When all lay dead on the ground, the blonde murderer climbed on the heap of corpses and played the accordion."
It's difficult for me to envision people doing this to each other. But, it's happened more than once in the history of man. Is this just another instance of mob revolt? Of common people drained of all hope who become brainwashed by the charisma of madmen?
I know that Shellback does not like "A Few Good Men." But, Col. Jessup is correct: I probably don't want to know exactly what the Marines are guarding me from.
Thanks--I mistakenly missed the last part and have corrected.
I, too identified with Jessup, which surely would horrify Rob Reiner and fans of heroic lawyers everywhere.
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