Post by kapitanprien on Mar 9, 2011 16:10:48 GMT -5
I am copying this from a post I put up in a vintage living forum:
I got a book about two months ago, entitled 'Doenitz's Crews' by French L. MacLean and I found evidence to support this (that not all Germans knew about the Holocaust). Below is the quotes from the book along with a link to a photo of the letter he mentions.
The Dedication from "Doenitz's Crews" by French L. MacLean
This book is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of sailors - both naval and merchant marine - of all nations who fought above, on and below the sea around the globe in World War II. More specifically, it is dedicated to the tens of thousands who perished during the conflict.
Quite clearly the book specifically memorializes the many German enlisted men who went to war in the U-boat force - a majority of which never returned to Germany. One might be tempted to say that these young men deserved the cold, painful fate that awaited them; for, in fact, the U-boat men like their brothers-in-arms in the Luftwaffe and Panzer forces were advancing an evil ideology that called for the deaths of tens of millions of innocents and the subjugation of much of the world in virtual slavery.
This author would submit that these sailors, airmen and soldiers were, in their own right, also victims of Nazism. Nazism took away their individual freedoms; it forced them to serve many years in harsh conditions away from their families; it also eliminated any possibility of a negotiated end to the war, which in turn led to massive levels of destruction of German livelihood, the flattening of German cities from aerial attack displacing of millions of Germans from their homes, and fragmented the nation that would last more than forty years after the war.
Perhaps equally as insidious, National Socialism caused the eternal damnation in history of levels of bravery and self-sacrifice that would have been extolled in any other place and time.
But that is only one opinion and that view can be argued between scholars and laymen alike, each with a valid point of view. Perhaps better to illustrate my point, we can refer to Seaman Ernst Heinz Wehner. Ernst was born on February 18, 1922 in Dresden to a twenty-two year old single mother Elsa Wehner. Ernst grew up, went to school, and joined the Kriegsmarine, entering the U-boat service at the beginning of the war. After completing his training, he appears to have served on the U-581 until early 1942 when his boat was sunk by Allied anti-submarine forces. He wound up in a prisoner of war camp in Canada, just shy of his twentieth birthday.
A year before this event Ernst's mother died; she was only fourty-one, but suffered from epilepsy, and appeared to have been in and out of hospitals during her young life. Ernst's grandfather (Elsa's father) Robert Wehner received a letter explaining her sudden death during a stay at one of these hospitals at Hartheim, Austria. The letter read:
February 13, 1941
Dear Mr. Wehner!
We regret that we have to inform you that your daughter Elsa Wehner has died unexpectedly on February 13 due to a severe epileptic attack. Her transfer to our institute represents a measure caused by the war and took place according to reasons in connection with the defense of our country.
Since our institute merely serves as a transit station for those sick persons who are to be transferred to another institute and the stay here merely serves for locating virus-bearers who again and again are among these sick people as is well-known, the respective local police in Hartheim, in agreement with the authorities concerned, have ordered comprehensive protection measures and according to Paragraph 22 of the Order for Fighting Communicable Diseases, the immediate incineration of the corpse and the disinfection of the personal belongings. An agreement by family members, etc. is not necessary in this case.
The remains, after having been disinfected, are retained for delivery to the heir, who must legitimize himself with a certificate issued by the respective authorities.
If you wish to have the urn placed in a particular cemetery - the transfer is being made at no cost - we request that you reply to us by adding the declaration of agreement by the respective cemetery administration. In case you do not send us t his information within 14 days, we will arrange for disposal otherwise, as we would assume that you will forego the remains, if we do not receive information about this within the same time.
We are enclosing two death certificates, which you may use for possible presentation to authorities.
Heil Hitler!
[Signature illegible]
Unfortunately for Ernst Heinz Wehner, Robert Wehner and most unfortunately for Elsa Wehner, Hartheim was not a hospital in the true sense of the word. It was not dedicated to curing patients or relieving suffering; its staff did not subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath.
Hartheim was a euthanasia center; medical, police and SS personnel killed physically and mentally disabled patients by carbon monoxide gassing and lethal injection. Known as "Action T4," the program killed at least 18,269 people at Hartheim and tens of thousands more at several other euthanasia centers across Germany during the late 1930s and early 1940s. These victims were neither nefarious enemies of the government nor convicted of any crimes; their long-term care simply cost the state too much - additionally, Nazi racial experts did not desire that their substandard genetic traits be passed on to future generations. So Elsa Wehner had to die.
We do not know if Ernst Heinz Wehner comprehended the actual circumstances surrounding his mother's death at the hands of the state. What we do know is that while the young sailor was trying his best to defend Germany far from home - while enemy forces were trying to blow Wehner and his boat-mates into oblivion - the political leaders of his country were murdering his helpless mother and lying to his family back in Germany. Was he a victim? I think so.
I got a book about two months ago, entitled 'Doenitz's Crews' by French L. MacLean and I found evidence to support this (that not all Germans knew about the Holocaust). Below is the quotes from the book along with a link to a photo of the letter he mentions.
The Dedication from "Doenitz's Crews" by French L. MacLean
This book is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of sailors - both naval and merchant marine - of all nations who fought above, on and below the sea around the globe in World War II. More specifically, it is dedicated to the tens of thousands who perished during the conflict.
Quite clearly the book specifically memorializes the many German enlisted men who went to war in the U-boat force - a majority of which never returned to Germany. One might be tempted to say that these young men deserved the cold, painful fate that awaited them; for, in fact, the U-boat men like their brothers-in-arms in the Luftwaffe and Panzer forces were advancing an evil ideology that called for the deaths of tens of millions of innocents and the subjugation of much of the world in virtual slavery.
This author would submit that these sailors, airmen and soldiers were, in their own right, also victims of Nazism. Nazism took away their individual freedoms; it forced them to serve many years in harsh conditions away from their families; it also eliminated any possibility of a negotiated end to the war, which in turn led to massive levels of destruction of German livelihood, the flattening of German cities from aerial attack displacing of millions of Germans from their homes, and fragmented the nation that would last more than forty years after the war.
Perhaps equally as insidious, National Socialism caused the eternal damnation in history of levels of bravery and self-sacrifice that would have been extolled in any other place and time.
But that is only one opinion and that view can be argued between scholars and laymen alike, each with a valid point of view. Perhaps better to illustrate my point, we can refer to Seaman Ernst Heinz Wehner. Ernst was born on February 18, 1922 in Dresden to a twenty-two year old single mother Elsa Wehner. Ernst grew up, went to school, and joined the Kriegsmarine, entering the U-boat service at the beginning of the war. After completing his training, he appears to have served on the U-581 until early 1942 when his boat was sunk by Allied anti-submarine forces. He wound up in a prisoner of war camp in Canada, just shy of his twentieth birthday.
A year before this event Ernst's mother died; she was only fourty-one, but suffered from epilepsy, and appeared to have been in and out of hospitals during her young life. Ernst's grandfather (Elsa's father) Robert Wehner received a letter explaining her sudden death during a stay at one of these hospitals at Hartheim, Austria. The letter read:
February 13, 1941
Dear Mr. Wehner!
We regret that we have to inform you that your daughter Elsa Wehner has died unexpectedly on February 13 due to a severe epileptic attack. Her transfer to our institute represents a measure caused by the war and took place according to reasons in connection with the defense of our country.
Since our institute merely serves as a transit station for those sick persons who are to be transferred to another institute and the stay here merely serves for locating virus-bearers who again and again are among these sick people as is well-known, the respective local police in Hartheim, in agreement with the authorities concerned, have ordered comprehensive protection measures and according to Paragraph 22 of the Order for Fighting Communicable Diseases, the immediate incineration of the corpse and the disinfection of the personal belongings. An agreement by family members, etc. is not necessary in this case.
The remains, after having been disinfected, are retained for delivery to the heir, who must legitimize himself with a certificate issued by the respective authorities.
If you wish to have the urn placed in a particular cemetery - the transfer is being made at no cost - we request that you reply to us by adding the declaration of agreement by the respective cemetery administration. In case you do not send us t his information within 14 days, we will arrange for disposal otherwise, as we would assume that you will forego the remains, if we do not receive information about this within the same time.
We are enclosing two death certificates, which you may use for possible presentation to authorities.
Heil Hitler!
[Signature illegible]
Unfortunately for Ernst Heinz Wehner, Robert Wehner and most unfortunately for Elsa Wehner, Hartheim was not a hospital in the true sense of the word. It was not dedicated to curing patients or relieving suffering; its staff did not subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath.
Hartheim was a euthanasia center; medical, police and SS personnel killed physically and mentally disabled patients by carbon monoxide gassing and lethal injection. Known as "Action T4," the program killed at least 18,269 people at Hartheim and tens of thousands more at several other euthanasia centers across Germany during the late 1930s and early 1940s. These victims were neither nefarious enemies of the government nor convicted of any crimes; their long-term care simply cost the state too much - additionally, Nazi racial experts did not desire that their substandard genetic traits be passed on to future generations. So Elsa Wehner had to die.
We do not know if Ernst Heinz Wehner comprehended the actual circumstances surrounding his mother's death at the hands of the state. What we do know is that while the young sailor was trying his best to defend Germany far from home - while enemy forces were trying to blow Wehner and his boat-mates into oblivion - the political leaders of his country were murdering his helpless mother and lying to his family back in Germany. Was he a victim? I think so.
