By way of Winston Churchill

[rivkat]

The Grand Alliance, v.3 of his history of the Second World War, quoting the Nuremberg documents on the German invasion of Russia:

Hitler's main theme was that this was the decisive battle between the two ideologies and that this fact made it impossible to use in this war [with Russia] methods, as we soldiers knew them, which were considered to be the only correct ones under international law.

This event, of course, also generates Churchill's famous line, "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." But for some reason this lesser-known quote seemed more worth reproducing.

Comments

[margueritem.livejournal.com]

What methods did Hitler use in the war against Russia? Which were not correct under international law? *doesn't know much about war*

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I still have no words, so thank you for finding and sharing Churchill's.

reposted at the proper place. Sorry, Rivka!

[zing_och.livejournal.com]

I hope Rivka doesn't mind me butting in...

Hmm... the English wikipedia article on "Operation Barbarossa" doesn't mention this stuff, so I took the German one as reference so that I don't make mistakes.

Basically, Hitler ordered murder and genocide. He ordered that Soviet officers ("Kommissare"; political officers) should be shot and not taken prisoner, four special groups were deployed with orders to kill the Russian jews and the intelligentsia, he claimed that the Wehrmacht didn't have to abide by international law and so on. Up to that point, soldiers had a list of "commandments" in their pay book; those stressed that no overly cruel behavior was allowed and that public international law should be upheld. With the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, this list disappeared from the pay books.

Re: reposted at the proper place. Sorry, Rivka!

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'd just add -- international law requires that civilians and uniformed soldiers should be treated in certain ways (combatants who aren't in uniform can be treated somewhat worse). The Nazis threw that out.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

He's actually quoting from Nuremberg documents -- it doesn't have that masterly Churchillian ring; it's just important.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Another interesting historical analogy here (http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/10/does-japan-offer-better-analogy.html).

Re: reposted at the proper place. Sorry, Rivka!

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I just posted this above in the thread: Another interesting historical analogy here (http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/10/does-japan-offer-better-analogy.html).

[margueritem.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Re: reposted at the proper place. Sorry, Rivka!

[margueritem.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the explanation.