Posted on 12/31/2005 7:08:33 PM PST by 1066AD
Churchill wanted Hitler sent to the electric chair Chris Hastings, Arts Correspondent (Filed: 01/01/2006)
Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime Prime Minister, planned to execute Adolf Hitler in the electric chair if the Nazi leader fell into Allied hands.
Churchill referred to Adolf Hitler as ‘the mainspring of evil’ Declassified documents reveal that Churchill was opposed to Allied plans for war crimes trials and wanted summarily to execute leading Nazi figures including Hitler who he regarded as "the mainspring of evil" and a "gangster".
They also show that he was willing, against the advice of his Cabinet colleagues, to "wipe out" defenceless German villages in retaliation for Nazi atrocities in Czechoslovakia.
The disclosures are contained in notebooks kept by Sir Norman Brook, the former wartime deputy cabinet secretary, who kept an account of proceedings in a form of shorthand.
On July 6, 1942, according to his notes, the Prime Minister said: "Contemplate tht. if Hitler falls into our hands we shall certainly put him to death.
"Not a Sovereign who cd be said to be in hands of Ministers, like Kaiser. This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument - electric chair, for gangsters no doubt available on lend-lease."
Churchill's choice of the electric chair was despite the fact that it was never used in Britain before the final abolition of the death penalty in 1965.
Sir Norman's notebooks, which are being made public by the National Archives at Kew, reveal Churchill to be a ruthless commander who was prepared to override moral and legal considerations to defeat Germany.
On July 7, 1943, Churchill argued passionately that leading Nazis who fell into British hands should be treated as "outlaws" and shot rather than put on trial.
"I suggested that U.N. to draw up a list of 50 or so wd. be declared as outlaws by the 33 Nations. (Those not on the list might be induced to rat!) If any of these found by advancing troops, nearest offr. of brigade rank shd. call a military court to establish identity and shd. then execute w'out higher authority."
The papers also show that he was willing to "bump of" Himmler and shoot German prisoners of war should Germany begin doing the same to British prisoners.
Churchill's own six volume history of the conflict, The Second World War, makes no reference to this disagreement over war crimes trials and includes just a passing reference to "the unexpectedly ultra-respectable, 'no executions without trial' line being taken by Stalin".
Equally controversial will be the revelation in the notebooks, that Churchill wanted the RAF to wipe out German villages in retaliation for the massacre of civilians in Lidice, a Czech village, which was razed to the ground by the SS.
The Prime Minister abandoned his plan only in the face of opposition from Cabinet colleagues. On June 15, 1942, he said: "My instinct is strongly the other way... I submit (unwillingly) to the view of Cabinet against."
It may be that Churchill would have lived to regret the raids. Within weeks of authorising bombing raids on the German town of Dresden in 1945 he began to question the wisdom of the policy. He would later say that the deaths of up to 30,000 German civilians raised a "query against the conduct of Allied bombers".
The notebooks also reveal Churchill's preferred method for dealing with Gandhi, the Indian nationalist leader, who embarked on a hunger strike in 1942.
Churchill, almost alone among his Cabinet colleagues, did not see the need to cave into the Gandhi's demands even though many observers believed he only had days to live.
He finally agreed for a reprieve on condition that Gandhi's release did not cause Britain to lose face. On January 7, 1943 he asked colleagues: "Why give way to h-strike by Gandhi?
"Let him out as an act of State, rather than an act of submission to G' will. I wd. keep him there and let him do as he likes... But if you are going to let him out because he strikes, then let him out now... Tell Viceroy."
Churchill was equally dismissive of Gen Charles de Gaulle, one of Britain's closest allies, who he believed suffered from "an insensate ambition" and who was the "greatest living barrier to re-union and restoration of France".
The notebooks reveal that the plight of Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East was a frequent topic of discussion at Cabinet.
On December 14, 1942, Churchill asked Anthony Eden, his Foreign Secretary, whether reports about "the wholesale massacre of Jews" by "electrical methods" were true.
Eden tells him that "Jews are being withdrawn from Norway and sent to Poland, for some such purposes evidently". Eden, is, however, unable to "confirm the method" of killing.
Churchill, himself, seems to have been more concerned with the fate of "Poles, not Jews" as the war drew to a close. On March 28, 1945, he said: "Actually we have a very small Jewish population compared with other countries. I'm only concerned with Poles - and Poles who have really fought."
Sir Norman also records on June 11, 1945, that Churchill described Russia's advance into Central Europe as "one of the most terrible events in history".
Despite the USSR's advances Churchill still believed there was a place for British values. On July 12, 1943, he said: "Propagate our language all over world is best method. Harmonises with my ideas for future of world. This will be the English speaking century."
Churchhill understood that all of the civilized world was in danger and was willing to take any and all steps necessary to safeguard it.
W understands that all of the civilized world is in danger and is willing to take baby PC steps to hopefully slow down the long-term destruction of it.
Liberals would complain that Churchill was not nuanced enough and tended to see things in terms of black and white. He should have realized that the Nazis were just making a cry for help and that we needed to discover the root causes of their problems. Sarcasm, I hope obviously.
The liberals would defend hitler if he was alive today.
They'd say "This poor, misguided gentleman was lead into his life of crime by his poor unbringing, stress, and emotional problems. He needs therapy!"
Dumb leftists. Now, I'm off to clean my bayonet.
Any man who begins his day with a whisky and soda in bed is all right with me.
No, you are slightly mistaken. Today's liberals would be visiting Hitler and praising him, and Stalin more so.
Churchill got his way with Dresden, and that is a pity. His adrenalin got the better of him. But without his ample supply, history would have taken a turn for the worse, to an unimaginable degree.
The author seems to want us to believe that Churchill was some lunatic and went around doing things without thinking about the consequences. Nothing can be further from the truth! He was just about the only one in Europe at that time that fully understood what the Nazis (and also the Communists) were about and that negotiations were futile. I think too many people today would still believe the "Peace in our time" mantra of Neville Chamberlain rather than face the truth that some people (Hitler, Stalin, terrorists) are just plain bad.
Dresden was supposedly revenge for Coventry but what many never say is that it was also an important railway centre for supplies to & from the eastern front and Stalin was demanding it be zotted as well.
Happy '06 :)
"I'd have wanted Hitler sent to the woodchipper" YEAH FEET FIRST.
Here's another link I dug up:
https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/PopTopics/dresden.htm
See #35 re Dresden.
Probably not completely on topic, but it has been my observation that far too much emphasis regarding the nazi era is placed on a few high profile individuals like Hitler himself and his immediate cronies and not enough on the industrial complex that backed him up financially and logistically from the very beginning. We rarely hear about the bookish little men in spectacles doing their double-entry bookkeeping that kept the Reich financially in the black. Five deutchmarks per day for an able bodied slave laborer, three for women and children if not gassed. These individuals met little justice after the war and got generaly little more than slaps on the wrists. Many went on to become captains of industry elsewhere.
And, unfortunately, hasn't happened since. Vladimir Bukovskiy, on the puzzling lack of curiosity regarding Soviet crimes against humanity:
WHAT IS going on here? In the aftermath of World War II, the leading Nazis were tried at Nuremberg. The trials were not beyond criticism, but their accomplishment was immense. At a time of madness and terror, they reminded a shattered world of the basic principles of our civilization, affirming the simple truth that neither the opinion of the majority, nor an order from a superior, nor even a threat to our own life releases us from personal responsibility for our conduct. Today, in direct contrast to the example set at Nuremberg, we have refused even to investigate the greatest evil of our time.
There were a number of socialists who at first supported the Nazis. Not all, but some. There were an even greater number of leftists who idolized Stalin. Today these people get choked up over "McCarthyism" but they just shrug at Stalin's show trials.
I suppose the sadist who ran a death camp is in a way not as disturbing as the scheduler who made the trains to the death camp run on time. Relatively few people are like the sadist, even in troubled societies, but millions of normal people can be conditioned to not ask questions and dutifully make the trains run on time.
One thing that happens in all totalitarian countries is that people are isolated and conditioned by propaganda. So if one person has the normal thought that the government is monstrous, he quickly corrects himself because surely, he is the only person to have such forbidden thoughts and something must be wrong with him. He then has to prove to himself that he is "normal" by telling himself that he loves Big Brother all the more. Less principled people partake in or profit from the government's crimes so that if one compromises just a little bit, then one has bought into the system and once "invested," one becomes more and more corrupt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.