Bad Pole Holocaust Survivor Testimony Unreliable Stangneth

Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer, by Bettina Stangneth, Ruth Martin. 2014

German “Repentance” Forced and Insincere. Holocaust Survivor Testimony Unreliable. Nazism Anti-Christian and Anti Sexual Morality

This work is about much more than Adolf Eichmann. The student of WWII may be astonished by the degree of boldness shown by postwar Nazis.

DUBIOUS GERMAN “REPENTANCE” OVER NAZISM

Nowadays, we see the Orwellian construct, in Holocaust-related politics, in which mere words of repentance are reckoned more important than the gravity of the crime. Thus, Germans are treated as occupying a higher moral ground than Poles because, according to the spin, the Germans repented over killing 6 million Jews, while the Poles “have not repented” (over comparatively trivial wrongs done to Jews). We live in an interesting world.

Ironic to this Holocaustspeak, the author does not think much of postwar Germany’s confrontation of her Nazi past. It was a matter of external compulsion, and of tactics. She comments, (quote) Pressure from the Western Allies on the issue of reparations had made it impossible to remain silent any longer. West Germany had to acknowledge the past; otherwise it would be impossible to rejoin the international community. (unquote). (p. 143).

Actions speak louder than words. The postwar West German trials of Nazis resulted in lenient sentences. This was so much so that Eichmann could believe that, were he to return to Germany and get caught, his prison term would be short. (p. 198, 213). What’s more, large numbers of Nazis were not even brought to trial. (p. 199). One of these was Ludolf von Alvensleben (d. 1970), who was responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Poles, notably Polish intellectuals (p. xx, pp. 287-on), as part of the Polokaust. Despite the efforts of Polish and German authorities, he evaded justice, and died a natural death. (p. 294). Why? Could it be, at least in part, because the murders of Poles are not treated with the same moral gravity as the murders of Jews? Just wondering.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR MEMORIES ARE UNRELIABLE

Nowadays, some anti-Polish Holocaust researchers (e. g, Jan T. Gross and Barbara Engelking) would have us believe that Holocaust survivors must automatically be believed because “these are the voices of victims”. This is nonsense.

Author Bettina Stangneth realizes that Holocaust survivors are subject to false memories. For instance, many survivors claim to have seen Adolf Eichmann in places to which he never went. (p. 33).

SS, EICHMANN ANTI-CHRISTIAN

Nowadays, Christianity is blamed for the Holocaust. Ironic to this, even though Hitler eventually sought the support of the German Church, Nazism was fundamentally anti-Christian. Author Stangneth touches on this fact: (Quote) He [Eichmann] agreed to go through with a church ceremony at the request of his deeply religious bride, even though the SS frowned upon it. (unquote). (p. 168). (quote) In National Socialist criticism of the church, the Bible itself is considered “Jewish”—a reason for Eichmann to tear apart his wife’s Bible. (unquote). (p. 506). (quote) In spite of the Bible incident, Eichmann was largely accepting of his wife’s religious nature, even though the SS regarded it with disdain. (unquote). (p. 254).

Eichmann’s relationship to religion was as follows, (quote). The Western world still didn’t understand; for Eichmann, Christianity was corrupted by Jews from the bottom up. (unquote). (p. 228). In addition, (quote) Eichmann became GOTTGLAUBIG, an adherent to the racially based religion based on National Socialism. However, he left the church for good only at the start of 1938, three years after his wedding. When Eichmann married Vera Liebl, he agreed to a church ceremony against the wishes of the SS and repeatedly defended his wife’s decision not to give up her faith. (unquote). (p. 255).

As for sexual morality, Eichmann was relatively traditional, while Heinrich Himmler espoused sexual libertinism, (quote) Himmler believed that his SS men were the very people who should overcome “the prevailing moral outlook,” because it was founded on “supposed moral laws built up by Christianity.” (unquote). (p. 171). [This counters those who equate the American religious right with the Nazis.]

“BANALITY OF EVIL”: EICHMANN’S SELF-REFUTING DISSEMBLING

Stangneth points out that Eichmann’s alibis were hopelessly contradictory. She comments, (quote) On the one hand, he [Eichmann] claims that the Fuhrer expressly ordered the complete extermination of the Jews in the German-occupied territories; on the other, he claims a very low murder rate. In order to do both at once, he has to explain how the head of a totalitarian state could give an order that had so little effect. Either the Fuhrer’s word was not as binding as Eichmann suggests (which weakens his “just obeying orders” argument as a justification for his own actions), or his figures are too low (meaning his own crime was greater than he was trying to claim). (unquote). (p. 210).

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING FACTS

Nazis generally blamed both Jews and Poles for the start of WWII. Interestingly, however, Eichmann blamed only the Jews, and thought of the 1939 War as one which neither Poland nor Germany wanted. (pp. 225-226).

Odessa was a myth. This myth existed for two reasons: It served the needs of the postwar Nazis in exaggerating their power and it served the needs of the Nazi hunters in dealing with their frustration in not being able to apprehend more Nazis. (p. 89).