Oradour-sur-Glane (1 Viewer)

[lancer]

I don't think Mitch is in any way trying to defend what happened at Oradour. Honestly, any discussion that includes the letters 'SS' becomes a red-flag and always seems to degenerate into a black and white argument with no room for reason. One either hates the SS without reservation or is an apologist. There seems to be no way to discuss facts without bad feelings. This is the nature of SS involved discussions, right or wrong. Just as it is a fact that the SS was condemmed as a criminal organization by the war crimes trials, it is also a fact that not all the Waffen SS members were willing members (many soldiers were drafted into the W-SS, with no say in the matter) and certainly did not buy into the political or racial theories of the SS. This is not an apology, just fact. Believe what you want, but accusing someone of defending the SS is quite a different thing than saying you disagree with their interprutation of events. -- Al

 

[Louis Badolato]

I think Louis has raised an interesting point here. Imagine you are in a unit of some sort in the Normandy countryside and you are ordered into a village, where,whether spontaneous or on direct orders, mass murder occurs. Imagine then that you yourself did not fire a shot, throw a grenda or set light to anything...are you equally guilty through association???

The Das Reich obviously had murdering filth among their number, to kill innocent civvies like that is just as sickening as the death camps and is despicable as it is repulsive, its a shadow over final allied victory that so many of these type of Nazi scum got away to South America and parts of Europe where no doubt to this day some live happy lives. As I said earlier, if these six are guilty and they won't hang them then let them spend their final days in prison and in solitary, they deserve no better. Whilst I'm sure acts of murder took place on both sides during WW2 we can be very proud of our Allied troops who did not in general, or with great frequency, or at the drop of a hat murder innocent people including many children, its what put our boys above some of the Dog mess that infested some parts of the German army/Luftwaffe.

Rob

Rob,

I would hope that if I was in a unit and my fellow soldiers started lining up and brutally killing north of two hundred children that I would have the guts to turn my weapon on the individuals ordering and participating in the slaughter, and send them to hell where they belonged. If I stood by and did nothing while this happened, as the members of the Das Reich division who were not actively involved obviously did, then I am just as guilty as if I had pulled the trigger. Period.

 

[Rob]

Rob,

I would hope that if I was in a unit and my fellow soldiers started lining up and brutally killing north of two hundred children that I would have the guts to turn my weapon on the individuals ordering and participating in the slaughter, and send them to hell where they belonged. If I stood by and did nothing while this happened, as the members of the Das Reich division who were not actively involved obviously did, then I am just as guilty as if I had pulled the trigger. Period.

I do agree Louis . What's that saying ' all it takes is for good men to do nothing' , even by Nazi standards Oradour hit new lows of humanity. And let's be honest Das Reich was probably not full of decent, well balanced individuals who wouldn't so much as park in a disabled parking spot. I don't know if there is a hell or not, but if there is let's hope the people responsible for this are enjoying its many amenities in perpetuity . I bet all of a sudden there are one or two elderly gentlemen who thought they'd got clean away with it and are now very worried indeed, lets hope justice taps them on the shoulder all these years later.
Rob