Maybe it's time to forgive and let the rest of the Nazi regime just die away on their own.
I DON'T THINK SO.
http://www.11tharmoreddivision.com/history/mauthausen/mauthausen_camp.htm
The 11th Armored Division is pleased to post the following article written by 12 year old Kendra Dickinson, granddaughter of veteran Dale Dickinson, A575AAA. She prepared it as a 7th grade history class project. Our congratulations go to Miss Dickinson for her very thorough research, and for producing a work of exceptional (A+) quality.
Purpose:
I intend to describe the purpose of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp during World War II, the liberation of the camp by the American Army, and Mauthausen as it is today.
I. Mauthausen
A. What type of camp
B. What the prisoners did
C. How the prisoners were treated / killed
II. Liberation of Mauthausen
A. Who
B. When
C. How
D. What was found
III. Mauthausen today
A. What is like
A very dark time in the history of the world occurred during World War II. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany, had conquered much of Europe. Hitler built concentration camps to contain the people that he used as slave labor to work in mines, factories, farms, and other activities. One concentration camp was the Mauthausen Concentration Camp located twenty kilometers from Linz, Austria. I intend to describe the purpose of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp during World War II, the liberation of the camp by the American Army, and Mauthausen as it is today.
A concentration camp is a place where selected groups of people are confined, usually for political reasons and under inhumane conditions. During World War II, more than four million people died in the German concentration camps ("Concentration Camp," 1). The Mauthausen Concentration Camp was established on August 8, 1938, as a forced labor camp. In a forced labor camp the prisoners were worked to death. The highest number of prisoners in Mauthausen was 19,800 ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 4). Mauthausen, the only concentration camp classified as Stage III, became one of the most dreaded concentration camps. A Stage III camp was the fiercest category and for the prisoners it meant extermination by work ("Mauthausen-Gusen," 2). The prisoners were slave labor for the nearby Weiner Graben stone quarry ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 1).
Mauthausen was selected as the site for a concentration camp because of the granite quarries that were there. "The German SS-owned 'DEST' company was to purchase the quarries and to exploit them economically. The prisoners of the concentration camp were to be used as a cheap labor force in the quarries. In the initial stage of the camp, the prisoners were confronted with utterly inhuman conditions as they had to work in setting up the camp and in the quarries" ("The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938-1945," 1a). "Many people, most of whom were innocent of any crimes, were tortured to death in its rock quarry. The policy of death through work was instituted by the Chief of the SS. Prisoners were to be given only the most primitive tools, and also, whenever possible, they were to work with their bare hands" ("Mauthausen-Gusen," 1). The prisoners that worked in the Wiener Graben stone quarry were divided into two groups; one that hacked the granite into slabs and the other that carried the slabs up the 186 steps to the top of the quarry ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 2).
Prisoners that worked in the camp crematory were relieved and replaced every three weeks. The prisoners that were replaced were then killed by shots through the neck because they knew too much ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 5). My grandfather, Dale Dickinson, recounted that "when a prisoner died or was killed, the other prisoners would take his blanket and clothes to keep themselves warm" (Dickinson).
"Killing in Mauthausen took place in various ways: the SS beat prisoners to death, hanged them, shot them, administered heart injections, poisoned them with gas, or let sick prisoners or those unfit to work simply freeze to death or die of hunger" ("The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938-1945," 1a). "A total of 200,000 people of different nationalities were sent to Mauthausen because of their political activities, their criminal records, their religious beliefs, their homosexuality, their race, or because they were prisoners of war. About half of them were either murdered or died as a consequence of the inhuman conditions of their imprisonment" ("The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938-1945," 2a).
"Prisoners were forced to climb the 186 steps of the Wiener Graben quarry with large blocks of granite on their backs. Often the blocks would fall, crushing limbs and bodies of those following, sometimes killing. The SS guards invented competitions betting on which prisoner would make it to the top first. Those surviving the ordeal would then be forced to jump from the edge of the quarry to their death below. This particular spot at the edge of the quarry was known as 'The Parachute Jump"' ("Mauthausen-Gusen," 1). Prisoners were also taken to the top of the cliff at the quarry and told to fight. They were told that when two prisoners fell to the rocks below, the victors would go free. When two prisoners had been thrown over the cliff, the German soldiers immediately pushed the victors over the cliff to join the losers ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 2).
The death bath was another method for killing prisoners: "The inmates were selected for the 'bath' during the appeal: prisoners unable to work or ill. They were then sent to the 'bath room' and had to stay naked under the showers. Then icy water under high pressure fell from the showers. The temperature of the bodies fell down and caused a long and painful agony. Often, the prisoners died after a half-hour" ("Mauthausen-Gusen," 3). Another method of killing used by the SS was when "prisoners were driven into a fence made of charged high-tension wire. Others were literally torn to pieces by the dog named 'Lord' belonging to the camp commander who sicced it on the prisoners" ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 17a). The German SS guards were trained on the rifle range where prisoners were used as targets ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 18a). A gas chamber was also used at Mauthausen. All dead prisoners were then taken to the camp crematory ovens where the bodies were burned to ashes.
The Mauthausen Concentration Camp was liberated by the First Platoon of Troop D, 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized of the 11th Armored Division (Kosiek, 1). On May 5, 1945, the First Platoon was out on patrol when a motorcycle and a white touring car with a red cross on the hood drove up. The Germans in the vehicle said that the Mauthausen Concentration Camp was down the road and the Germans guarding the camp wanted to surrender. When the First Platoon got to the camp, the prisoners started cheering. They were so happy to see Americans. The First Platoon calmed the crowd, and the German guards came and surrendered to the Americans. The American soldiers told the Germans to give up their weapons, but the Germans said that if they did that, then the prisoners might not listen to them. The Germans were more afraid of the prisoners hurting them than they were of the Americans. There was a riot that started in the kitchen, and Sergeant Kosiek cleared up the situation by firing a few rounds from his pistol into the kitchen ceiling. He got the prisoners to go back to their quarters. The 23 men of the First Platoon returned to their base camp with 1,800 German soldiers that had surrendered (Kosiek, 1-3).
In addition to the liberation of Mauthausen, American soldiers had to go and round up the prisoners that had left the camp. A few that could walk left when the German guards surrendered or fled. My grandfather, Dale Dickinson, was a member of the 11th Armored Division during World War II. He was at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp a few days after it was liberated. The Americans had to bring the prisoners back to Mauthausen so the doctors could give them medicine and get them on a healthy diet again (Dickinson).
Some of the things found in the camp were very unpleasant. After the Mauthausen Concentration Camp was liberated: "fifteen thousand bodies were buried in mass graves. Due to diseases and starvation, three thousand prisoners died in the weeks that followed after the liberation" ("Mauthausen (Austria)," 3). Sergeant Kosiek described what he saw in the camp, In the back courtyard were bodies piled up in one mass. You would not think they were human beings if you did not recognize certain features. They were being chewed up by rats and no one seemed to care. Then we were shown where they gassed the people, and then cremated them in big ovens. We were told they shot Americans because they wanted them to be honored by shooting instead of gassing or other means of death. I never saw so many dead people lying around in all my life. I saw things that I would never have believed if I had not seen them with my own eyes. I never thought that human beings could treat other human beings in this manner. The people that were alive made me wonder what kept them alive" (Kosiek, 3).
In talking with my grandfather, Dale Dickinson, about what he experienced at Mauthausen shortly after the camp was liberated, he stated that the smell when you walked in the camp was horrible. There were a lot of dead bodies lying around that had to be put in a mass grave. He saw an American bulldozer making its fourth pass digging a mass grave the length of the camp soccer field. The prisoners that were still alive looked like walking skeletons. They were all skin and bones (Dickinson).
Today, the Austrian government has preserved some of the original Mauthausen Concentration Camp and has turned it into a Mauthausen Memorial. "On the area, there is the quarry, an important factor for choosing this location, and, at the same time, through its function as an instrument of exploitation and extermination, a symbol for Mauthausen; on the site, there are also numerous original buildings. Several cemeteries, as well as the 'ash dump', last resting place for victims hailing from almost all parts of Europe are situated on the site of the Memorial and form the core of this 'place of commemoration ("The Mauthausen Concentration Camp 1938-1945," 1).
This report describes the purpose of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp during World War II, how the concentration camp was liberated by the American Army, and the Mauthausen Memorial today. It is amazing how any of the prisoners could have lived through the conditions that they were put through. The words of Sergeant Kosiek, who led the First Platoon in the liberation of Mauthausen jumped out at me. He said, "I never thought that human beings could treat other human beings in this manner." We need to learn from history and do our best to keep anything like this from ever happening again.
I agree with most of what you said, but not this... in order to try to avoid confronting evil. I think it's in order to avoid admitting that a particular act is evil. If we all learn to accept it, as we've been told to, what's to stop it from happening again?