Myanmar's Schutzstaffel

969 - Making Buddhism Militant
(The Darkness Visible series)

(969 Monks in Myanmar - photo via Foreign Policy)

What began as the "Saal-Schutz" quickly grew out of control as Heinrich Himmler took the band of paramilitary fascist to the next level. True to the Nazi fashion, Himmler decided that it was vital for the socialist movement to have a military force of their own that could parallel that of Germany's standing army. This bold move on the part of a political party quickly brought strife to the organization as they attempted to take the place of the SA (Sturmabteilung). Through exploiting emotions, religion, and personal favors; Himmler killed those in the party he couldn't defeat with intellect. By the end of the 1920's the SS (Schutzstaffel) achieved everything that Himmler had imagined it would be. The SA were absorbed into the ranks and those who defied the command to fall in line were dead. The SS was a standing army in it's own right. 

For the nationalistic socialist in Myanmar there is a growing wing of religious zealots that are attempting to recreate the "glory" of the SS in Hitler's Germany. The radicalized organization calling itself Buddhist marches into areas just as the SA did in the 1920's. Like stormtroopers, these so called monks force their brand upon anyone who wants the protection of their saffron robes. This fascist approach to manipulating faith and patriotism brings these monks in line with the Nazi philosophies on governance and population control. All the group needed was a figure head... a vitriolic leader that could manipulate the message and make it palpable to the masses. 

Enter Myanmar's Himmler

  “If we are weak our land will become Muslim.”

Hitler fed the SS the hatred they needed to stay in the field and fight. Himmler gave them the directions on how to fight. In Burma the terrorist organization 969 is run from behind the scenes by cowards who dare not show their faces in the light of day. The man who feeds 969 with the hatred it needs to fuel the attacks (several occurring right now) that the group carries out is the less than honorable, Wirathu. This man willingly calls himself the "bin-Laden of Burma". And at no point has Wirathu backed away from the chance to spread this hate speech. 

From the moment that Wirathu was released from jail in 2010 (falsely labeled as a "political prisoner") he quickly reintegrated into the movement he helped give birth to. From that point on Wirathu's "sermons" became nonstop hate. With each rally (reminiscent of Nuremberg) Wirathu's hatred for Islam and the Rohingya has grown more pronounced. In his recent Time Magazine interview Wirathu didn't even bother to hide his hatred for Muslims even in the presence a foreign audience. 

This hate filled rhetoric was the fuel that created the Rohingya pogroms of 2012 and the current ones still taking place. It is through the constant stream of hatred from Wirathu's speeches that the 969 stormtroopers are capable of sustaining their campaigns across western Burma. Without the motivation the simplistic views of Wirathu would have died out long ago. For though an idea cannot be killed, every idea has a given lifespan based upon it's own merit. 

Meiktila

A Burmese Kristallnacht 

From the very beginning of Himmler's involvement in the SS the plan for a boycott against the Jewish population of Germany had took center stage. Himmler took the idea of a forced boycott to the next level. Encouraging violence against the Jews, Himmler organized SS units to join in the displays of antisemitism. And just as anyone could have guessed, the paramilitary organization brought all their hate and rage in one fiery night of total terror.

969 has been organizing boycotts of Muslim owned businesses and merchants all across western Myanmar. For the past three years these boycotts have been spreading as the hate group forces it's way into village after village. And just as anyone could have guessed, where ever Wirathu orders his paramilitary style fascist violence and total terror soon follows. 

November 9th, 1938 was the start of a nationwide pogrom. It was an attempt by the Nazis to internalize their hatred for the Jews and the Roma in the hearts of German people. The violence was immense and the hostile takeover of Jewish shops and Roma camps was almost absolute. Nearly all Himmler's intentions were carried out to completion. 

Wirathu's boycotts were planned to spread hatred. In villages where Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims had lived in peace for years the 969 extremists plant the seeds of hatred. Tearing apart the fabric of society in the Arakan, Wirathu creates a divide that cannot be passed as long as the 969 boycotts remain in place. For Meiktila this divide would be a fiery recreation of Himmler's intentions for the Jews of Germany. 

Targeting all Muslim minorities (not just Rohingya) the 969 boycott in Meiktila turned to violence as an argument in a gold shop spiraled out of control. By the time it was over the Muslim neighborhoods were torched and the number of Muslim IDPs increased. And yet Wirathu claimed immediately afterward that 969 is peaceful. 

The Final Solution

“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog."

~ Wirathu in Time Magazine

In many of Wirathu's sermons he has expressed a desire to create a religiously pure Myanmar. He has expressed the desire to push all Muslims out of Western Burma while also reducing the presence of other religious minorities (including Christians). The hate group has shown full compliance with his radical visions of Burma's future. And with the backing of politicians such as Thein Sein this vision of Burma has every opportunity for success. 

If 969's goals are to be achieved the violent expulsion of Rohingya and Kaman must be completed. This was expressed by the acting president Thein Sein last year and backed by Wirathu immediately. So one can only imagine what the government of Burma would have done had a "third country" had been willing to take Myanmar's "undesirables". 

Then when you look at the next targets on 969's laundry list of "undesirables" you only have to look at Thein Sein's record on dealing with them. Looking east into the Kachin region and the Karen state you can see how trustworthy the "civilian" government (Thein Sein being ex-military) is when dealing with the ethnic minorities. 

This version of national socialism is a replay of Germany's trip down the same road. With Thein Sein in charge one can only imagine what the future of Burma will be like. This is only more complicated by the relationship between government and hate groups like 969. If the incestuous relationship between hate mongers and politicians is not broken in Myanmar the Nazi final solution is not beyond the realm of reality.

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Source Documents

(not all sources listed)

Foreign Policy 

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/23/weren_t_buddhists_supposed_to_be_pacifists

New York Post

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/radical_killed_islamic_buddhist_uyZ3kWgomlxZz3g05KqbqJ

PBS News Hour

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june13/myanmar_06-18.html

What Does It Mean To Be Liquidated

Rohingya Face Burmese Version Of The "Final Solution"
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

In 1940 the German occupiers in Poland began to move the three million plus Polish Jews into overcrowded and unsanitary ghettos. One of which was the now infamous Warsaw ghetto. It was here that the Jews of Warsaw were first met with the face of the Nazi "final solution". Their very existence in Poland had spawned a perverse question amongst the racially motivated extremist both in Poland and Germany alike. For the Nazis this question was often refereed to as the "Jewish question". It quite simply could be summed up as "how to kill or expel all Jewish peoples within Europe". However Warsaw showed us that had Hitler been more successful in his attempts to slaughter the Jewish people in Europe that his ambitions may very well had spread much further than Polish or European borders.

By 1942 the Germans had arrived at the conclusion Hitler had been leading them toward all along. The "final solution" as Hitler saw it was the total extermination of the Jewish race both in Europe and the rest of the world. It was then, and only then, that Hitler believed his mythical Aryan race could flourish. So between July 23rd and September 21st the Nazi SS began carried out deportations from Warsaw sending hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in the Treblinka death camps. This was the first round of deportations. And it was the first hint the Jews of Warsaw had been given that they were not safe in their attempts to survive by cooperating with their oppressors.

During the time that passed after September of 1942 and April of 1943 the Jews of Warsaw experienced what it means to be "liquidated". What was left of their lives was being taken away as they watched the SS approach the camp and count the remaining living. They were like lambs in the eyes of their tormentors. And yet in that short period of time they found the strength to become like lions.

Today the Rohingya of Myanmar are in a very similar situation as the Jews of Warsaw were in the winter of 1942. They are trapped in ghetto like camps that are monitored and surrounded by Burmese military. Angy mobs of Rakhine Buddhists are the Rohingyas' version of the Nazi SS. And for the Rohingya still alive today, they are facing the very meaning of what it is to be liquidated.

In January of 1943 the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto arose like lions in the face of wolves. Outgunned, outnumbered, and barely able to organize themselves; the Jewish resistance fighters came out of the woodwork and attacked the SS as they attempted to restart deportations. Of the intended 8,000 Jews to be deported that day the Germans could only gather roughly 5,000. Yet the Jewish resistance didn't give up. They continued to fight back.

This is where the story for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Rohingya of Burma splits in parallels. The Rohingya of Burma have no way to fight back. There is no resistance movement in the Rakhine like their is in the Shan state. Unlike the Kachin people, the Rohingya have no paramilitary units to call upon. Life for the Rohingya is a life of facing death while the world watches. It is a story unlike that of past genocides in the fact that we are watching truly helpless people being butchered while we as a world community do nothing to stop it.

During the Armenian genocide the Armenian people were largely unable to stop the deportations and massacres they suffered under the Turks. Yet for the bravery of a small number of Armenian men and boys, the Armenians did offer up some form of resistance. They may have been badly beaten by Turkish military. Their families were all murdered or sent to die in the deserts of Arabia. But they were able to fight back.

In Rwanda the Tutsi who were mercilessly slaughtered in the streets and in their homes were unable to push back against Hutu militias who had prepared for the genocide. And yet again the Tutsi people found hope in the resistance of armed Tutsi militias that helped force the murderous regime to cease its campaign of ethnic cleansing. The wounds that were left may still be raw today. But for the fact that resistance was made there are still Tutsi people alive in Rwanda today.

The parallels that genocides of the past have with one another are unmistakable. This is a crime that follows patterns. It is a sin that repeats itself when the patterns it follows are not broken. And in cases like this of the Rohingya people, it is a crime that will reach completion if the chain of events is not altered.

Burma may be proceeding more cautiously now that the world is watching. The leaders that have given the green light to this campaign of genocide against the Rohingya may be trying to romance the West and China alike. But even with these hindrances in their plans to kill off or expel the Rohingya, the process is still happening. The stages of genocide are still occurring like clock work in Myanmar.

From the moment the first Rohingya community was burnt out of their homes and villages the process of creating ghettos began. From the establishment of the first IDP camp within Burma the process of creating ghettos was complete. This is the same path the Nazis used in Germany and the rest of occupied Europe. This is the same pattern that Hitler followed when pursuing his genocide of the Jewish people. So why is the world assuming that this will not lead to the same results that occurred in Poland?

Liquidation is a terrifying reality for those who are victims of genocide. It means that the world as you know it has ended. The people you lived amongst your entire life now want you gone... exterminated... killed off... however you put it, it is a permanent word. There is no place that is safe for you anymore. Anywhere you could even hope to flee to could never be home. Liquidation means to you what death means to others... finality.

For the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto life meant starvation, disease, and suffering. Yet liquidation was somehow worse. It was the end to the torment they had been living in. And yet it was the death of hope.

Can we not offer the Rohingya something other than the death of hope? Can we not offer the Rohingya some form of resistance to their seemingly final solution? Or will we stand idly by as the Rohingya become the next name on a long list of genocide victims?














Want to find out ways to fight back against the genocide of the Rohingya people? Follow the links and information below.

Partners Relief & Development
http://www.partnersworld.org/arakan-relief

Twitter Activist for the Rohingya
+Jamila Hanan @JamilaHanan
Nay San Lwin @nslwin
Aung Aung @Aungaungsittwe

Be Happy, Sad Mother...

The Holocaust in Croatia

 

 Like heroes, like Croats,

They poured blood for homeland!

~ Lijepa nasa domovino ~

Croatian National Anthem

In September of 1939 Yugoslavia declared itself neutral in the new war that was sweeping across Europe. However the dogs of war had already been howling for sometime in Yugoslavia. After the last "Great War" the Powers of Europe had carved up the territories once held by the Ottomans and Austrians. The failure to take note of the ethnic and religious differences that officially demarcated the region of the now Yugoslav kingdom was coming back to haunt the region. Croatia was just the first dog to bite.

In March of 1941 the Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact sealing its desire to be left out of the war. Yet no matter how often Yugoslavia assured the Axis, Germany especially, that they would adhere to the treaty the Axis didn't seem to believe them. This suspicion was fueled in part by Yugoslavia's leadership at the time. It was also fueled by Croatia's flirtation with the Nazis.

Upon Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia on April 6th of 1941 the Croatian political class began to maneuver for an independent state within the Third Reich. Only four days later, on April 10th, the Croatian politicians got exactly what they wanted as Germany allowed Croatia to declare itself independent of Yugoslavia. However Croatia would be expected to fall in line with Hitler's Europe. A catch in the agreement that Croatia's Ustase party was far too willing to take part in.

The Ustaše were Croatia's ultra fascist political party that had come to power by taking advantage of the economic depression which hit small economies like Croatia's disproportionately. They had realized that without implementing extreme policies like those of Hitler's Croatia would not be able to recover. Thus Croatians across Yugoslavia began to flock to the party. After all, this was the party that was promising the moon (for Croats only) and linking the Croatians to Aryans.

For the Jews, Roma, Homosexuals, Handicapped, or Mentally Handicapped this call to arms was the sound of the clock striking midnight. The darkness of the Holocaust was now spreading across Croatia and over all the rest of Yugoslavia. There was nowhere left for Yugoslavian Jews to run. Europe had been devoured by Hitler's army. Croatia was simply driving the final nail into the coffin.

(Ustaše Murders Resorting to Axes At Jasenovac Death Camp)

In Croatia the Holocaust came in a unique manner. The German SS weren't the main presence at death camps like Jasenovac. Instead the Croatians, almost as a whole, were the leaders of the operations to slaughter the Croatian Jews and Romani. With their ruthless Ustaše, the Croatians employed massacres using axes, hammers, and at times their own hands. Many Ustaše leaders were known to grab children up by their legs and bash their heads against walls as a means of instilling fear among new inmates. In Croatia the Holocaust was almost more personal than it was ever meant to be. 

All across Europe Jewish businesses were confiscated and handed out to loyal Nazi party members. The Legal Decree on the Nationalization of Jewish Properties and Jewish Companies of October 10th, 1941 made it far to easy for any Croatian to claim ownership of their neighbors home or their competitor's business. The government of Croatia also stated that it would not prevent or prosecute the blatant murder of Jews and Roma within Croatia. Thus allowing even noncombatants to engage in the Holocaust in as much a role as the Gestapo of Germany. 

Across the border in Bosnia the Croatians lend Ustaše commanders to the "Grand Mufti's" Bosnian SS units. These Croats were eager to work toward the goal of cleansing not only Croatia of Serbs, Jews, and Roma but also wanted their borders cleared of any future resistance. The compromise here was simple, work with Muslims and Arabs or allow Bosnia to fall to the Yugoslav partisans. 

In further support of Hitler's goals the Ustaše and Croat politicians ordered the construction of Koprivnica, Pag Island, Jadovno, and Kruščica death camps. These camps were raised in the spring of 1941 and each would continue their industry of death and murder till October of 1942 when Jasenovac is fully operational. However unlike in Germany and Poland, the local politicians did not wait for the German Nazis to order the construction of the said camps. In Croatia it seemed to be a status symbol for the politicians in the new regime to have a concentration camp operating in their region of the state.

From August of 1941through February of 1942 the Ustaše established the Jasenovac camps: Krapje, Bročica, Ciglana, Kozara, and Stara Gradiška. This group of satellite camps would rival the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau. And at its heart was the aim of killing all of Croatia's Romani community as well as importing Serbian and Bosnian Roma. The Jews of this area were often sent off to Auschwitz as the war came to a close so as to make room for Roma and Serbian prisoners. 

(Emaciated Child at Jasenovac Death Camp)

The Ustaše camp guards however did not readily send off their prisoners. Instead the Croatian SS were notorious for working for days on end as they carried out massive executions of prisoners to decrease the number of victims needed to be sent out to German concentration camps. Guards in Croatia were renowned for their lack of concern for the health of the inmates kept in their camps. Thus extraordinary cruelty, even by Nazi standards, was often overlooked by Ustaše SS units. 

It wasn't till September of 1941 that the Ustaše even began to admit that they could not kill all the Jews in Croatia without some form of help from Germany. Thus from September of 1941 through March of 1942 the Ustaše establishes the Ðakovo, Tenje, and Loborgrad camps. All three served as transit sites for Croat Jews whom Croatian authorities turned over to the Germans for deportation to Auschwitz. 

In many cases the Holocaust in Croatia was not stopped until Yugoslavian partisans under Tito were able to overrun the camps. In select cases the local Croatian authorities would dismantle the death camps and attempt to hide their crimes as the partisans approached. These cases were often induced by the sheer fear of reprisals that often marked the liberation of camps by Tito's militias. In most cases however the Croatian SS and Ustaše combatants would fight tooth and nail to keep hold of their villages and the camps they supported. 

(Tito's Army - Yugoslav Partisans)

The Yugoslav liberators were amongst the few groups of liberators that seemed to not be surprised by what they found upon entering Croat death camps. Tito's Army had been told what awaited them when pushing back the Mufti's SS and the Ustaše forces. In every village they entered the Croatian fascist had turned the basements and cellars into miniature death camps. Through the entire liberation of Croatia the Ustaše forces carried out a scorched earth campaign as they withdrew. And just as the Germans would do as the Russians approached Berlin, Croat forces would leave stragglers to "nip at the heels" of the "barbarians". 

Of the nearly 40,000 Jews that lived in Croatia at the outbreak of the Holocaust only around 9,000 would survive its rapid spread across the new state. For the Roma the Porajmos (the devouring) in Croatia was just as horrific. The land that many Croat Jews had loved and been loyal to had nearly erased three quarters of their community. And to make things worse, the Catholic Church (which remains a major part in Croatian politics) had played a major role in this horrific act of genocide. 

On May 5th, 1945 the Legal Decree of the Equalization of Members of the Independent State of Croatia Based on Racial Origin was passed and repealed the race laws imposed by the Ustaše. For many this was the sign that signified the end of the Holocaust in their homeland. It would, in a legal sense, insure at least some safety for the Jews still living in Yugoslavia. Yet the wounds inflicted upon the Yugoslavian community by the Ustaše would never truly heal. 

For forty years the Balkans remained the "powder keg" of Europe. The sins of the Ustaše remained like scars upon Croatia and its neighbors. And in 1995 the horrors carried out by the Mufti SS and Ustaše would come back to surface once more. Proving to the world once again that if we never learn from history we will always find a way to reenact our mistakes. Without addressing the sins of our fathers we will surely repeat their misdeeds.

Backs Against The Wall

Rohingya Ghettos Now Face Liquidation
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

Burmese Police Carrying Out The Liquidations

In Warsaw the ghettos were liquidated as concentrations camps large enough to hold the population of Warsaw's ghetto came online. These death camps were meant to be slaughter houses for the Jews trapped in the Polish city's worse slum. There was no sense of hope for the Jews in Warsaw's ghetto when the SS came that day.

In Myanmar there is no sense of hope as the Burmese police and military start the next stage of ethnic cleansing. This is the stage of genocide where the targeted minority is no longer allowed to die slowly in disease ridden slums. This is the stage of genocide where the target population is taken away and butchered like animals. The murders no longer view any of the targeted population as human.

Rohingya have been fleeing the ghettos ahead of the approach of military personnel. Their constant trickle across the border into Bangladesh has led to violent conflict with the Bengali military. And now the Bengali government has created a "crisis" in which to scapegoat the Rohingya.

A Bengali Buddhist shrine was recently attacked and burnt. Nobody has been able to confirm that the shrine was attacked by ethnic Rohingya. The fact that the Buddhist were shot seems to blatantly rule out the Rohingya due to the fact the Rohingya have no access to firearms. But the "crisis still stands. And the border with Myanmar is now being shutdown as the Bengali military attempts to plug the porous borderland.

In doing this the Bengali government has allowed its military forces to no longer exercise any sense of restraint in firing upon Rohingya attempting to cross over from Myanmar. It is expected that the Rohingya already in Bangladesh will soon be deported back over the border and forced back into the conflict in the Rakhine region of Myanmar. It is unknown as of now just how many Rohingya have been slaughtered by the Bengali police and military as the UN does not venture beyond the refugee camps.

The jungle is now the only friend to the Rohingya. Their lives will now become that of total exclusion. They will have no access to water or food. If they are to have any form of shelter then they will have to build it. And even in the jungle the Rohingya will have to fear attacks by the Rakhine Buddhist and the Myanmar military.

But before some can make it to the jungle they will first have to suffer through the hellish liquidations Myanmar's military are currently carrying out. This is what liquidation looks like...

There is nothing democratic about this. No Rohingya gets a say in where they will end up or what will happen to them along the way. They simply are left at the mercy of their attackers. All will have to pray and fight just to live another day. And all this just because of their ethnicity and religion.

In Krakow the liquidation of the ghetto came without warning. A concentration camp was already up and running on the edge of Krakow. It would become a processing station for the Jews in Krakow's ghetto as they moved on to Auschwitz. Liquidation of Krakow's ghetto was quick and very violent. The SS wanted the Jews of Krakow gone almost over night.

In Myanmar the liquidations are rather quick and very grotesquely violent. It appears that the Burmese want the Rohingya to be gone into this long dark night. The only problem for the Rohingya is that there seems to be nowhere left to go. The Rohingya now find themselves with their backs' against the wall.

Scream... lift you voice and scream for those who are dieing.

"Hell, No Better Word Can Describe It..."

The Liberation of Dachau.

"Lieber Gott, mach mich dumm, damit ich nicht nach Dachau kumm"

Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not to Dachau come. That was the short little song that many German children were taught. They seemed willing to forget that this camp was meant for the "enemies of the Reich... the Jews.

It is a known fact that common Germans, not of Jewish or Roma decent, were also sent to Dachau. They went their for reasons that the song above hints at. They knew too much, they talked too much, they didn't give the Hitler salute just right... for whatever reason they could end up in Dachau. They could die with the Jews.

The purpose for building Dachau is also a well known fact. To prepare the first true death camp. To make the model for all others that would follow. It was a prototype in many ways. In other ways it was its own unique corner of Hell itself.

The prisoners sent to Dachau could expect to be forced into hard labour, work designed to bring about a slow death, and then in the end be forced to push their predecessors' corpses into the camp's furnaces. By the time this camp was liberated by the United States Army on April 29Th of 1945 the permanent smell of death lingered in the air about it. The scent of burnt human hair and singed flesh seemed to permeate the very bricks that built the camp crematoriums.



In March of 1933 the Dachau furnaces were ignited and would not be extinguished till the camps liberation. In the beginning of the camp's existence it was mainly political opponents of the Nazi party that would be sacrificed to the fires of Dachau. This changed as the Nazis began their drive to exterminate the Jewish population of Germany and the newly occupied territories. By the end of the camp's existence there would be a larger number of Poles being fed to Dachau's fires than any other ethnic group.

Officially there were around 200 sub camps that reported to and supported the operations of Dachau. Most were camps where weapons and ammunition were constructed with the use of slave labour. Others were sites where the overflow of dead were burnt. All however were linked to the main camp through the use of trails or "Green Toms" (trucks used to gas prisoners on their way to the crematoriums).

As the war drew to an end more and more prisoners were being transported from outlying camps of the crumbling Third Reich. In late April of 1945 the last train from the soon to be liberated camp of Buchenwald arrived. Of the 4,800 prisoners on the train only 800 were received alive. The corpses of those who had died or been shot in transit were left on or around the train till the 5Th Army of the United States arrived.

On April 28Th the head of the camp, Camp Commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss abandoned his post and fled as the United States Army approached. History is kinder than I am to this cowardice Nazi. It is clear to me that Martin Gottfried Weiss did not simply fear capture but had left the SS Totenkopfverbande (Death's Head Unit) to destroy the camp and its prisoners as he and his loyal camp guards fled for Berlin. His orders were clear... kill them all.


(7Th Army Soldiers force Hitler Youth boys to examine the trains they helped to deliver to Dachau)

Late in the day the SS Commander Heinrich Wicker finally surrendered Dachau to the United States Army. From the report that was issued it is clear that Heinrich Wicker believed that the United States would pick up where the Nazis had left off. This is why he left his SS soldier with guns facing in on the remaining prisoners of Dachau.

"As we moved down along the west side of the concentration camp and approached the southwest corner, three people approached down the road under a flag of truce. We met these people about 75 yards north of the southwest entrance to the camp. These three people were a Swiss Red Cross representative and two SS troopers who said they were the camp commander and assistant camp commander and that they had come into the camp on the night of the 28Th to take over from the regular camp personnel for the purpose of turning the camp over to the advancing Americans. The Swiss Red Cross representative acted as interpreter and stated that there were about 100 SS guards in the camp who had their arms stacked except for the people in the tower. He said he had given instructions that there would be no shots fired and it would take about 50 men to relieve the guards, as there were 42,000 half-crazed prisoners of war in the camp, many of them typhus infected. He asked if I were an officer of the American army, to which I replied, "Yes, I am Assistant Division Commander of the 42ND Division and will accept the surrender of the camp in the name of the Rainbow Division for the American army."

Officially it is noted that the Seventh United States Army had liberated the death camp of Dachau. However it is commonly believed that units of the Fifth United States Army had been the first to enter Dachau and its outlying camps. In either case the camp's operations were put to an end and the Nazi SS soldiers were lined against the walls of Dachau and shot. No trial was needed for these dogs. No need for forgiveness for these worthless soulless monsters.


Army records report that only about fifty SS soldiers were shot that day. Other reports show that the number could have been 120 to 520 SS soldiers. These numbers are hard to accept since their was fewer than 300 SS soldiers manning Dachau and its surrounding camps when it was surrendered. In any case they should all have been shot as they knelt before their former prisoners. May their souls rot in Hell.

Trials of those who remained after the days that followed the surrender of the camp began in November of 1945. The coward SS Commander Martin Gottfried Weiss was hung as a result of these trials.

Today we should remember the heroic acts of our boys in arms. We should recall their bravery in coming face to face with the greatest evil our nation has faced in its history. And we should be proud of their reaction to it... the bloodying of evil men.

May we also keep in mind the fates of those who perished at Dachau and its supporting camps. We should never forget what was done as the world turned its eyes away from the suffering of innocent men and women. We should honestly and without exception finally be able to say "Never Again".