Himmler' Surprising Reaction.

[Patsy33]

Just watched a few minutes on a history channel, of German soldiers shooting Jewish men, women and children, under the command of Heinrich Himmler.
It said he had never seen a dead body, and went to inspect some of the killings. Apparently, he nearly fainted..
He would have thought?!

[10ClarionSt]

He went weak and sick when blood and bone from one of the victims splashed him on the face when he had gone to inspect the operation. The main reason he was there was to offer sympathy and understanding to his men for them having to carry out such arduous work, not to offer sympathy to them for having to kill people.

[Patsy33]

That's what made me think, What?..
Knowing such men were cruel and heartless.
Thanks for that information Clarion.

[10ClarionSt]

Some of the camp guards carried on killing people even when the Allies had entered the camp, particularly Belsen. They had been conditioned to so much killing that they thought of the Jews as vermin, and couldn't understand what was horrific about it. the British were the first of the Allies into Belsen and the senior British officer threatened to shoot the guards on the spot unless stopped the killing. They stopped.

[Patsy33]

Awful..
So brainwashed.

[jourdain2]

Read Antony Beevor 'The Second World War'. I'm ploughing through it and learning a horrific (literally) amount - including incompetences, ignorance and vanities which caused massive deaths and suffering. Also details mentioned 'en passant' such as the Japanese impaling women on bamboo sticks. Many other examples of man's inhumanity to man.
I had read about WW1 - but this is something else. I'm not surprised by the Himmler reference.

[Patsy33]

Thanks Jordain. An interesting read I'm sure, if not shocking.