were the blackouts in Europe total?no lights at all showing at night? seems like you could commit a crime easily...
were the blackouts in Europe total?no lights at all showing at night? seems like you could commit a crime easily...
it depends on the country but usually they where a complete power shut off the only thing on was early war the flak postions usually out of a town or city where equiped with big search lights these where used to show the flak gunner where they were shooting !!
I think I am correct in saying the blackout did cause a crime increase in the UK.
Cheers, Ade.
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I've moved the thread here as I don't think it fits into the Third Reich research forum, if there is a better place, please feel free to move it again.
Looking for LDO marked EK2s and items relating to U-406.....
I recall reading SD Reports of increased crime (rape, assault, theft) in Germany during Blackouts as well...
cheers, Glenn
And an increase in traffic accidents as well. I have a text somewhere that details the general increase in public frustration with the inconveniences experienced during the blackouts. People getting lost in their own neigbourhoods, people getting run over by cars, horses, bicycles etc and people walking into lampposts, off sudden drops etc all due to the utter blackness of a European, overcast night.
In WW2 Germany, this phenomenon even led to the creation of a new term: "Verdunkelungsverbrecher" [= "blackout criminal"], describing perpetrators who took advantage of the blackout to commit crimes.
If caught, the hammer came down most severely on these individuals. Under the terms of § 2 of the "Verordnung gegen Volksschädlinge", those who had committed crimes against life, limb or property when measures against air raids were in place were to be punished by a penitentiary sentence of up to 15 years or life, or, in severe cases, by the death penalty.
Unsurprisingly, the Nazi courts made enthusiastic use of these possibilites, sentencing people to many years in jail for thefts of tiny amounts of petty cash or even applying the law to unlawful acts not actually punishable under its statutes.
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