The Dutch blog Totally Flabbergasted, which usually features somewhat racier and more humorous content, has a post today of some recently uncovered aerial reconnaissance photographs from World War II Europe, 1941-1944. Included are some unique shots of the D-Day invasion, as well as aerial photos of the concentration camps at Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau, while they were still in operation. My history lesson for the day.
Posted by dan at January 23, 2004 10:28 PMWhat an appalling photograph - the one of the Auswitz camp during the frenzied extermination of Hungarian Jews at the end of WW2. How can any German person live down that legacy.
How can the English and American people live down the legacy of knowing what happened in the KZ camps from early 1943 and being able to fly sorties to make these photo's, but refusing to at least bomb the railway system that transported the prisoners there. No US or UK official has ever given a satisfactory reason why they allowed this human catastrophy to continue to the very end. When a few bomb-loads dropped on the extensive railway system connecting the camps would have left tens of thousands of prisoners stuck in transit, thus saving them from the gaschambers. The only reason ever given was that they weren't military targets. Yet a bomberfleet of hunderds of bombers could bomb and kill over 20.000 unarmed elderly german refugees in the undefended city of Dresden at the command of Mr. Bomber Harris, when they knew the city had no military installations to speak of.
It's no use pointing fingers anymore, in war everybody makes mistakes and has bloody hands.
My fellow countrymen (Dutch) have both helped free europe and fought the germans but also helped gather up jews for deportation or served in the Waffen SS in thousands. British upperclass aristocrates openly supported the racial philosophy of the third reich before hostilities started. A lot of white americans weren't surprised or shocked when Hitler didn't want to shake hands when Owens won gold in '33 understanding Hitlers feelings about shaking a black man's hand. IBM automated the hollocaust with card-punching machines making it so horribly efficient.
Laying blame is not the way to learn from history.
When you know some german people, you will find they are quite nice people actually who regret this bloody past. And of all the nations involved they seem to be the only people to have actually learned not to start wars for oil and greed anymore, unlike some countries I could mention that have started and fought several senseless wars since 1945.
Thanks for the comment, Plasma. I was with you right up to the part about that certain country fighting "senseless" wars for oil and greed. Was that Vietnamese oil? Bosnian oil? Korean oil? Those wars made our country almost as rich as the current one in Iraq is making us.
The Germans are nice people, and repentant. The Americans are responsible for Holocaust deaths because they should have done more to prevent them. We should have bombed less of this civilian infrastructure and more of that civilian infrastructure.
It just goes to show that post-liberation nit-picking using 20/20 hindsight is not a new phenomenon.
Posted by: Dan Wismar at February 5, 2004 11:02 AM