TELL ME WHY ...

...we can't live together

 

 

I've just finished watching the TV series - The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

It's worth a watch and while it deals with the harrowing story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland in WW2 ...

It is estimated that the SS and police deported at least 1.3 million people to the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these deportees, approximately 1.1 million people were murdered.

The best estimates of the number of victims at the Auschwitz camp complex, including the killing center at Auschwitz-Birkenau, between 1940 and 1945 are: Jews (1,095,000 deported to Auschwitz, 960,000 died)
Non-Jewish Poles (140,000- 150,000 deported, 74,000 died)
Roma (Gypsies) (23,000 deported, 21,000 died)
Soviet prisoners of war (15,000 deported and died)
Other nationalities (25,000 deported, 10,000- 15,000 died)

During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, Auschwitz. Incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number which was sewn to their prison uniforms. Only those prisoners selected for work were issued serial numbers; those prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered and received no tattoos.

         - The Holocaust Encyclopaedia 

... it is also a story of relationships being a drama largely based on the true-life history of Lali and Gita Sokolov who were imprisoned in one of the Auschwitz camps. There of course has been some controversy over the book and now the Netflix series but it is said to be mostly true with only the conversations and the insertion of the characters into other events being fictionalised. No realistic person would deny the general truths behind this and pretend that it never happened. It was only a generation earlier than mine and I feel bewildered how people could have been so cruel.

The SS (Schutzstaffel) were mostly responsible for the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps controlling labour, health, security, accommodation, and administration sections and of course were responsible for the murders.

Seventy-five percent of the Auschwitz garrison performed guard duty. The SS guard battalion was made up of 8 to 10 guard companies, two staff companies, and a company of guard-dog handlers (Hundesstaffel). The SS men assigned to guard duty belonged to the SS-Totenkopfverbände. At a later date, Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe soldiers who were too old for frontline service were also assigned to guard duty at Auschwitz.

          - Wikipedia

 The Wehrmacht soldiers wore this insignia on their belt buckles:

"Gott Mit Uns" - God is with us.

The SS soldiers wore this belt buckle:

“Meine Ehre heiBt Treue” ('My honor is loyalty’)

I don't know which is more offensive. These people were psychopaths - conscienceless murderers, thugs, bullies and thieves and I hope that Richard, in his new 'Judgement Day' series reserves a special place in hell for them.

We've been told before that the SS murderers were put on trial after the war and punished but it seems that this was only the very senior people with many, many more going free for political reasons, economic considerations or sheer inefficiency. I noted in the postscript to the series that of the 9,800 SS guards at Auschwitz only 10% of them were prosecuted and punished. That leaves a whopping 90% or (9,000 psychopathic, racist, misogynistic, Jew hating killers who re-entered post war society. It makes me want to spit.

"What will I do now? I know, I'll become a priest."