Conflict Two:

NaziGermany

‘Words build bridges into unexplored regions.’

Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader delivered his Nuremberg speeches from the rostrum below:

‘I believe it is ‘peace for our time.’

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, speaking on the steps of Number 10 Downing Street, after his arrival home from the Munich Conference, September 30, 1938

Next slide: Oberer Kuhberg, a Napoleonic fortress near Ulm. When the Nazis took over Germany in 1933 they swiftly pressed such places into being as impromptu prisons, incarcerating their biggest political enemies of the day. But their sights soon widened…

Behind this aerial photograph displayed at KZ Dachau (Dachau concentration camp) are the concrete foundations of the barrack blocks where the prisoners were housed.

‘I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to… a total solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence.’

Marshal Hermann Goering to Chief of the German Security Forces SS Gruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, July 31, 1941 .

‘First they came for the Jews,And I did not speak out,Because I am not a Jew.Then they came for the Communists,And I did not speak out,Because I was not a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists,And I did not speak out,Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for me,And there was no one leftTo speak out for me.’

Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was imprisoned here

‘The depravity of their (Jewish) race is evident in their horrible faces.’

Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer, issue 22, 1938. Proprietor: Julius Streicher (1885-1946)

‘Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dream to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.’

Elie Wiesel, Night

Sleeping accommodation

‘…So does the mother explain the various mushrooms to her child. But then both pick up their baskets and slowly set off for home. Underway, the mother says: ‘Look, Franz, precisely as it is among the mushrooms in the forest, so is it among people on earth. There are good mushrooms and there are good people. There are poisonous, hence bad, mushrooms, and there are bad people. And one must watch out for these bad people just like one must watch out for poisonous mushrooms. Do you understand that?’ ‘Yes, mother, I understand that’, says Franz, ‘if one gets involved with bad people, that can result in misfortune, like if one eats a poisonous mushroom. One can perish from it!’ ‘And do you also know who these bad people,these poisonous mushrooms of mankind, are?’the mother asks as well. Franz proudly beats his chest. ‘Yes, mother! I know that. They are the Jews. Our teacher has already oftensaid that in school.’ Laughing, the mother pats her Franz on the shoulder…’

Der Giftpilz (The Poison Mushroom), 1938, now translated into English and produced by US Nazi leader Gary Lauck

‘… twelve goods wagons and an escort of soldiers stood waiting. The soldiers clubbed and struck these men, women and children who were going to be reduced to ashes in a few days time, adding a vein of pointless brutality to the martyrdom inflicted. Why such cruelty, since they were going to die?’

Myriam Anissimov, Primo Levi, Tragedy of an Optimist

(Writer Gitta Sereny interviews Franz Stangl, commander of extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka…)

‘Why… if they were going to kill them anyway,what was the point of all the humiliation, why the cruelty?’ ‘To condition those who actuallyhad to carry out the policies…To make it possible for themto do what they did.’

Gitta Sereny,Into that Darkness

Crematorium

‘Julius Streicher spoke simply and directly in the language of the people. Everyone (at his 1935 Berlin speech) understood him, for he used the simplest, crystal clear language.’

Der Angriff, August 16, 1935

‘The Hungarians waited patiently in line, not imagining that ashes might be all that remained of their families and friends. They thought that they were going for a shower and a medical check. There were so many of them that the gas chambers could not make room for them all. The crematoria were overloaded, and the SS had big pits dug, where people stunned by gas were burned. The giant flames lit up the night sky of Auschwitz, a dreadful smell of burnt flesh filled the air, and suddenly screams of horror, children’s screams, rose from the crowd.’

An account by Luciana Nissim,Ricordi della casa dei morti(Memories from theHouse of the Dead)

‘I find no solution to the riddle.’

Primo Levi (1919 - 1987)

‘Now I know why I am here.’Major Richard Winters (depicted in

Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers), former commanding officer of Easy Company,

506 Parachute Infantry Regiment,101st Airborne Division, US Army,

on the discovery of a Dachau sub-camp.

‘I said the world must be made safe for at least fifty years.

If it was only for fifteen to twenty yearsthen we should have betrayed our soldiers.’

Former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill(1874 - 1965),

Closing the Ring

‘The United Nations Organisation must immediately begin to be equipped with an international armed force… If we adhere faithfully to the Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate and sober strength seeking no one’s land or treasure, seeking to lay no arbitrary control on the thoughts of men; if all British moral and material forces and convictions are joined with your own (US) in fraternal association, the highroads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time but for a century to come.’

Winston Churchill, from his address Sinews of Peace delivered in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946. It was during this speech that the phrase Iron Curtain first came to prominence

‘All human beingsare born free andequal in dignityand rights.’

Article One,Universal Declarationof Human Rights(1948)

‘(c) CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated. Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.’

The Nuremberg Charter II. Jurisdiction and General PrinciplesArticle 6

‘WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINEDto save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which

twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm the faith in fundamental human rights,

in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and

small.’

Charter of the United Nations, introduction

We have betrayed our soldiers. And others.

Next section: Bosnia and the shame of the UN. This is an extract from Conflict, by photojournalist Neil Jackson. The entire work can be seen for free. Click on the image to navigate to Conflict

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