Poison Bread

[SteveR]

I have also read about the 3000 number some years ago. Do not remember where. Another thing. Do is see people condone in killing POW's here, or is it just me? I do not give a d... which reasons one might have or not have, you cannot collectively punish soldiers like that.

Was it right for the Germans to starve hundereds of thousands of Soviet prisoners to death? A much more painful way to die than poison and a collective punishment.
Was it right for the German einsatzgruppen tp murder complete communities of Jews as they swept across eastern Europe and Russia. Kill complete villiages of people for being suspected of supporting partisan troops. Of course not. Was it right for Russian troops to rape as many German women as they could catch as they stromed across germany?
Grief and misery inflicted on one group by another is never right. With the occurance being discussed now you need to understand that just because these SS men that had surrendered did not mean that they were not still arrogant bigots among them.
Jews if they were, had every right to hate the SS with a deep passion. There was no reason to not believe that they would be turned loose and continue their political and racists beliefs.
If my family and friends were murdered by a group of individuals identified by being members of a particular military group I would do everything I possibly could to exact as terrible a revenge as possible on as many as I could. The ones poisoned paid a price for the sins of their fellow SS men.
Was it right?
Was it wrong?
It is not for me to judge.
It happened and I understand why it happened.
War just doesn't end with surrender of combatants. The more recent the memories the greater the hatred. If you have been immersed in the intensity of death and destruction for as many years as WWII was there isn't a magic button in your mind that can be pushed that stops the deep abiding desire to destroy those that you hold responsible for the gut wrenching loss of loved ones and friends. Were those particular prisoners killed responsible for all of the atrocities perpetuated by some of the SS criminals ? I doubt it. It is just another conundrum of the madness of war.
Who we are now are those that collect the refuse of conflict. Place values on left over junk and construct alters of artifacts. That in itself is a form of madness is it not?

[colt45]

my friend i worked with Willie Brech was on the U Boat & had to come back because there was a dead dog in the water tank,, many got sick

[SteveR]

my friend i worked with Willie Brech was on the U Boat & had to come back because there was a dead dog in the water tank,, many got sick

As I understand it boiled dog is a favorite in east Asia.

[Rudolf Karl]

I need to see this when I get my internet hooked up this coming week. At present I'm using a friends mobile internet and think I may be burning out his gigabit for the month as is. On a side note and not to take away from the original thread, as a rule it bothers me to no end when I see a blanket statement made such as "they deserved it" or "they got what was coming to them",etc.

Steve has laid it out pretty well regarding this particular and some similar incidents. These things do not stop when someone blows a whistle. I know a pretty good amount of OLD Germans that could have cared less if their neighbor was a Jew before the crap hit the fan but being simple people getting fed propaganda for years and then not fully understanding why these "things" were allowed to happen afterword they developed a hatred that continues today. I'm sure that worked the other way around also.
Well said Steve,

Rudy

[operaman]

The only thing that surprised me is that this event seem to happen with results that have been hidden or just not talked maybe through Allied embarrassment or fear from retaliation from Germans that were not in prison.I think if I were a Jewish survivor I would relish some sort of revenge.