American investigators at the U. S. Court in Dachau, Germany, used the following methods to obtain confessions: Beatings and brutal kickings. Knocking out teeth and breaking jaws. Mock trials. Solitary confinement. Posturing as priests. Very limited rations. Spiritual deprivation. Promises of acquittal.
The 139 doomed men who were still alive fell into three groups. They were accused of involvement in the Dachau concentration camp crimes, in the killing of American fliers, or in the Malmedy massacres. Let me say that I believe the crimes for which these Germans were tried actually took place, and that some Germans were guilty of them.
But we should not let the indiscriminate hate of all Germans that was generated during and after the war, blind us to the necessity of punishing the guilty ones only.
After this investigation, and after talking to all sides, I do not believe that the German people knew what the German Government was doing. I am convinced the German populace had no idea what diabolical crimes that arch-fiend, Himmler, was committing in the concentration camps. From the atrocities we learned about, he must have been the very prince of devils.
But as for the Germans at large, they fought the war as loyal citizens with a fatherland to support, and a fatherland to defend.
I had an opportunity to speak to a few old people who lived in east Poland. They said that said they were relieved when the Germans marched in instead of the Russians. The Germans were smart, disciplined and mostly polite, unlike the Russians.
Thanks for the link; a well balanced and sad article. The real monsters were taken to the US (Operation Papaperclip), given new identities and put to work. It was the innocent who were left to carry the blame.
I think Edward L. Van Roden position is more complex than "holocaust is a hoax". I only found his opinion about the so called "Malmedy Massacre".
A lot of people trying to use him to whitewash the Nazi will be particularly interested in Van Roden calling Himmler "the very prince of devils".
We can read what he wrote at: https://codoh.com/library/document/american-atrocities-in-germany/en/
Interesting points are:
I had an opportunity to speak to a few old people who lived in east Poland. They said that said they were relieved when the Germans marched in instead of the Russians. The Germans were smart, disciplined and mostly polite, unlike the Russians.
The Bolsheviks at the time.
Yes.
Thanks for the link; a well balanced and sad article. The real monsters were taken to the US (Operation Papaperclip), given new identities and put to work. It was the innocent who were left to carry the blame.
https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/the-forgotten-rocketeers-german-scientists-in-the-soviet-union-1945-1959/
The USSR got some of those Germans as well.