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To: Aussie Dasher
It seems that a lot of people did what they could in WWII.

I caught a part of a story on CSPAN a while back. It was about a German lawyer who worked for their Foreign Ministry. He was fired when the Nazis came to power, but when they conquered so much of Europe in 1939-40 they were is need of men with diplomatic experience to help with administration, so he was hired.

One job he was given was to investigate reports that the Dutch were dummying up papers to "prove" that Jews were not Jews. He looked into it, and found it was true. He then produced a report that admitted the process was going on, but justified it by using the Nazi's own propaganda. He claimed that Dutch Jewish women were very promiscuous, and had a generations long habit of seducing Aryan men and bearing their illegitimate children.

The Nazis classified you as Jew or non-Jew racially, so if it turned out that your father and both grandfathers were not the Jewish men on the birth certificate, but Aryans, you were entitled to be classified as 1/4 (or less) Jewish. Not a good category to be in for sure, but a lot safer than simply being a Jew.

The report was duly submitted, which put the Nazis in charge of Holland in a fix. Because the lawyer had used their propaganda against them, no one in the Nazi hierarchy could condemn the report as false, without casting himself as a champion of the chastity of Jewish women. They weren't prepared to do that, and that people who had their papers "fixed" lived.

It was not nearly enough, but it reminds me of the old story about a beach after a storm, that is covered with starfish. The water has receded leaving the starfish to die under the sun. An old man was seen walking along the beach, tossing starfish back into the water. Someone asked him "There are miles of beach and millions of starfish, why bother? What difference does it make if you put a few back into the water?" The old man said "It matters to the ones I do put back."

7 posted on 01/02/2007 6:45:42 AM PST by Pilsner
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To: Pilsner
What difference does it make if you put a few back into the water?" The old man said "It matters to the ones I do put back."

Anyone who saw the very ending of "Schindler's List" can attest to that.

17 posted on 01/02/2007 1:59:44 PM PST by dfwgator
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