Remember....the Victors write the history books...

A WWII Soldier tells his tale of being a guard at an Allied POW camp

In 'Eisenhower's Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers Martin Brech In October 1944, at age eighteen, I was drafted into the U.S. army. Largely because of the "Battle of the Bulge," my training was cut short, my furlough was halved, and I was sent overseas immediately. Upon arrival in Le Havre, France, we were quickly loaded into box cars and shipped to the front. When we got there, I was suffering increasingly severe symptoms of mononucleosis, and was sent to a hospital in Belgium. Since mononucleosis was then known as the "kissing disease," I mailed a letter of thanks to my girlfriend.

By the time I left the hospital, the outfit I had trained with in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was deep inside Germany, so, despite my protests, I was placed in a "repo depot" (replacement depot). I lost interest in the units to which I was assigned, and don't recall all of them: non-combat units were ridiculed at that time. My separation qualification record states I was mostly with Company C, 14th Infantry Regiment, during my seventeen-month stay in Germany, but I remember being transferred to other outfits also.

I think that after reading this, if you still believe how absolutely "evil" the Nazi Regime was.... Well, I wonder how closed minded you might be.

The simple fact is, war is war. Just look at Abu-Ghraib. In America, we teach our soldiers that the "enemy" is somehow far, far less than we are. That they are not worthy of our respect.


And what enrages me the most, is the audacity of the ludicrous lie we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves how much better we are than others. How WE are THE nation. The chosen ones. The best society in the world.

But, America has it's short comings.


All I want, is people to finally acknowledge the truth. Stop waving the patriotic flag (which, btw, the sticks used in the small flags are now considered potential weapons and cannot be had...safety first, remember!), and THINK.

The nazis tried to exterminate a race. That not evil enough for you? No nations perfect but that one was particularly nasty.

Hoosierdaddy71
The nazis tried to exterminate a race. That not evil enough for you? No nations perfect but that one was particularly nasty.

Not to agree with the OP, but so did the Turks with the armenians earlier in the century and genocies are taking place in Africa as we speak. The Nazis didn't invent genocide. They nearly perfected facisism.

What the USA did to Dresden was horrific, what we did in Japan, the same. No one is blameless in war or genocide.

reply to post by FyreByrd


When you say what the us did to japan, do you mean the nukes? Because those nukes saved a million plus lives.

reply to post by zeroBelief


I have read some of these stories and what all the narrators leave out is the there was this little thing call the Second World War occurring the background. Agriculture was disrupted across the entire continent and refugees were pouring out of the East away from the Soviet advance. Were the food shortages across continental Europe, yes. Were there housing shortages, yes. Did these wind up killing many civilians and POW's, yes. Was this part of some master plan by Ike and Brits to exterminate the Germans, no.

reply to post by zeroBelief


My dad was a POW in WW11. He was injured before being caught. He was sent to a farm to work because of his living on a farm when he grew up. The farmer kept him in the barn hidden from the guards till he recovered from his wounds and then he went back to the camp after that. The guards either did not know he was missing, which I doubt, or they knew he needed care. He was fed well and he contacted the farmer that helped him in the late sixties. They remembered him.

The people in Germany were not bad people, they may have had a very power hungry leader, but most of the people were decent folk, just like many of the people in this country were. You cannot judge all the people in a country by their leadership. Most just do what they have to do to survive. Three quarters of the people are that way in America today, just wanting to enjoy their lives. The other quarter make that extremely hard to do.

Ive heard the phrase before as well.
"The victors write the history books...and the losers bury their dead"

Nothing more to say. Just that.

The victors in every war since the American Revolutionary War have been the same folks-- the "International Bankers"--"the Banksters"--"the Illuminati."

They've bought control of all major news media, most Universities, Hollywood, all central banks, all major corporations, and most Western governments. What they don't own, they tax.

To get any real idea of truthful history, one must read the historians and authors that the mainstream media denounce as liars, anti-semites, and racists---and then decide who is telling the truth.

Of course, there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. So perhaps ignorance is actually just as good or better.

People write this, but how many people actually dig into the Civil War while remembering this mantra. Remember, the South and all Southerners are horrible racist demons even to this day and the North and all it did and Lincoln are all pure as the wind-driven snow ...

Hoosierdaddy71

The nazis tried to exterminate a race. That not evil enough for you? No nations perfect but that one was particularly nasty.

Nazis exterminated anyone that resisted them. The "scapegoat" was the Jews. Every imperialist state needs "enemies of the state" to further their aims. Google terrorists, Taliban, Al Qaida.

Then Communists, Partisans, Guerrillas, etc.

By a thousand names, always the same. An excuse to wage aggressive war. In the Nazis case, due to film technology and their instance on documenting their activities, we have a more detailed record.

Ever see a movie called, "Come and See"?

Hoosierdaddy71
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

When you say what the us did to japan, do you mean the nukes? Because those nukes saved a million plus lives.

Firebombing cities in Japan (or Germany for that matter) resulted in some cases (like Tokyo) in more deaths than the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In Tokyo's case over a 100,000 people were immolated overnight, intentionally.

Murdering people wholesale from hi altitude with 1000 plane raids is no better than feeding them into ovens.

Hoosierdaddy71
The nazis tried to exterminate a race. That not evil enough for you? No nations perfect but that one was particularly nasty.

Nothing could be further from the truth. First Jews are not a race and if he was trying to exterminate them then why did he allow them to leave the country and head to Palestine? The only Jews that went to the camps were the poor ones that couldn't afford to make the pay off. Second if he hated the Jews so much then why did he have so many in his command staff and the poster boy for the Nazis was a Jew.

Hoosierdaddy71
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

When you say what the us did to japan, do you mean the nukes? Because those nukes saved a million plus lives.

No they did not save a million lives this BS that cannot be proven even before using the bomb the Japanese was beaten. If you do some research you will find out that the command staff was against using the bomb and spoke out against the president after they were used. We could have saved many more live not to mention two cities had we just accepted Japans offer of surrender that they made the whole summer before using the bomb.

reply to post by buster2010


Yeah right, hitler loved the Jews. As long as they left his country. If not,off to the camp you went. He also has a fine list of other atrocities to his name.

en.wikipedia.org...


You may disagree with my estimate on the lives the nukes saved but I do have some info to back up my opinion.

In a letter sent to Gen. Curtis LeMay from Gen. Lauris Norstad, when LeMay assumed command of the B-29 force on Guam, Norstad told LeMay that if an invasion took place, it would cost the US "half a million" dead.[45]
In a study done by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April, the figures of 7.45 casualties/1,000 man-days and 1.78 fatalities/1,000 man-days were developed. This implied that a 90-day Olympic campaign would cost 456,000 casualties, including 109,000 dead or missing. If Coronet took another 90 days, the combined cost would be 1,200,000 casualties, with 267,000 fatalities.[46]
A study done by Adm. Nimitz's staff in May estimated 49,000 U.S casualties in the first 30 days, including 5,000 at sea.[47] A study done by General MacArthur's staff in June estimated 23,000 US casualties in the first 30 days and 125,000 after 120 days.[48] When these figures were questioned by General Marshall, MacArthur submitted a revised estimate of 105,000, in part by deducting wounded men able to return to duty.[49]
In a conference with President Truman on June 18, Marshall, taking the Battle of Luzon as the best model for Olympic, thought the Americans would suffer 31,000 casualties in the first 30 days (and ultimately 20% of Japanese casualties, which implied a total of 70,000 casualties).[50] Adm. Leahy, more impressed by the Battle of Okinawa, thought the American forces would suffer a 35% casualty rate (implying an ultimate toll of 268,000).[51] Admiral King thought that casualties in the first 30 days would fall between Luzon and Okinawa, i.e., between 31,000 and 41,000.[51] Of these estimates, only Nimitz's included losses of the forces at sea, though kamikazes had inflicted 1.78 fatalities per kamikaze pilot in the Battle of Okinawa,[52] and troop transports off Kyūshū would have been much more exposed.
A study done for Secretary of War Henry Stimson's staff by William Shockley estimated that conquering Japan would cost 1.7–4 million American casualties, including 400,000–800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese fatalities. The key assumption was large-scale participation by civilians in the defense of Japan.[1]


That is allied casualties, that does not include the number of Japanese soldiers and civilians. Don't forget the Russians were in Manchuria at the time with plans to invade also. That would have had dire consequences.

All I know is that my paternal grandfather was in a troop ship massing to be in that first wave of ground invasion if the Japanese hadn't surrendered or they hadn't dropped the bomb.

I can't afford to second guess given the estimated casualty rates in that first wave.

My other grandfather flew a bomber in the Pacific theatre, and survived his 50 missions. I'm not sure what his chances of surviving that would have been, but he most likely would have been in on that campaign in some capacity, too.

reply to post by Hoosierdaddy71


Actually, I agree with your view. But there is truth to the sheer nastiness of war. We fire bombed the crap out of Tokyo.

Yet the Japanese killed more people in Nanking that all the people that died in that firebombing of Tokyo and Hiroshima AND Nagasaki combined.

War is insane. But comparing forcing an Iraqi to wear a leash while he's on his hands and knees being lead by a woman to death camps is bizarre and just plain nuts. One is genocide, the other a brilliant psychological method to gain co-operation from Iraqis whose reputation would be destroyed by publishing those photos amongst their tribes and families.

Sorry, I'm still waving the Flag.....

reply to post by zeroBelief


Do you have any more sources for this "death camp" theory?

This one is certainly compelling, but a few dozen more would make it more interesting.

reply to post by buster2010


Now THAT is B.S. the facts are the U.S. made 12-15 attempts to communicate the intentions to us the bomb to the Japanese via the Soviet Union. It was ignored.

No city in Japan TO THIS DAY would defy the Emperor. never mind in '45. Name the "general/s" that were against using the bomb...that saved the lives of the invasion force because Japan would not surrender.

reply to post by Hoosierdaddy71


sometimes i wonder why only jews get all the highlights in WW2
why not people in asia or other places who were persecuted by japs?
could it be that there was a grand plan to nominate 'the persecuted' as the 'hidden' winner of the war?

i have nothing against both sides (the persecutor or the persecuted).
in fact, i dun care about whoever wants to own the entire planet.

i just love the mystery behind the history

peace.

xuenchen
reply to post by zeroBelief

 

Do you have any more sources for this "death camp" theory?

This one is certainly compelling, but a few dozen more would make it more interesting.

I have a job, and a family. And that job is not to be an independent researcher of such things.

If you need a few dozen more of anything, I'd suggest you use Google.