Auschwitz, the Nazis and the "Final Solution"

[Marina]

I know of a couple of cases - there was a violent Hamburg criminal sent to Auschwitz to be a guard after he was wounded on the Russian front - they showed him round the camp and then brought him back to the office. He told the officer they were all 'BLEEP mad' and walked out. No stomach? Or a principle at work? Or a human instinct? He was given some sort of guard duty in an army camp . Many doctors and such 'respectable persons' had the same experience of being shown round the camp - but as far as I recall, none of them refused the duties.

German officer sent to Vilna - got escort duty to a high ranking officer. As they drove back to their quarters after a meeting, he saw the ground seething in the moonlight. His companion was angry that 'they' hadn't buried the bodies deep enough along the side of the road. The young officer was sickened and happened to have good connections - he got himself a transfer out of there to Russia. Must ahve been a shock when he found out what was happening there?

It's a fascinating subject - what was the difference between those who cooperated and those few who found a way out of it? That book you mentioned earlier - Browning's on the Police Reserve Battalions - chilled me almost more than any other book I've read on the subject. I just didn't EXPECT (although I knew what happened before I read it all) that it would be so easy to involve so many 'ordinary' men is such awful events. That book left me feeling very bleak, I have to admit.

[Kiwiwriter]

Yes, I believe Christopher Browning points out how men tried to get out of the horrific duties. I think liquor, loot, and the profligacy of women kept the men manning their machine-guns.

I have not read the book, and need to get it.