Book Club

There is a universal truth about authoritarians.  

They are incapable of succeeding independently. They do not take power; they are given it.  

Successful authoritarians always adopt a preexisting political party.  

And establishment parties are populated by political figures who may outwardly profess disdain for aspiring authoritarians yet will eventually bend to their will.  

In the beginning they will oppose him.

Then they accept him.

They share a belief that they can manage him.

They find themselves defending him. 

At the end they become his sycophants. 

If you are looking for an old, but good read get yourself a copy of Diary of a Man in Despair.

Written between 1936 and 1944 by a conservative German who struggles to do the right thing all the while living in a depraved world.  It is prophetic.

He died at Dachau in 1945.

Behind the Curtain

 

On our recent travels thru Eastern Europe I ticked-off a bucket list item.  A visit to a Nazi concentration camp.  Sachsenhausen to be exact. 

This was an emotionally exhausting visit; I needn't do this again.  Although I would recommend everyone make a similar pilgrimage in their lifetime.

Construction of the camp began in 1936 with its proximity to Berlin making it not only the administrative and training center for the Schutzstaffel (the SS) but a showcase camp for visiting members of the axis powers.  It was at this camp that the most efficient methods of execution were perfected before export to other Nazi death camps.  Himmler called Sachsenhausen a completely new concentration camp for the modern age.

Small scale trials were conducted here that would become larger in scale including the design of gas chambers and crematoria.  It was here that the first use of gas vans was launched.

crematoria ovens

The camp also contributed slave labor to the German war effort including a brick factory and aircraft manufacturer Heinkel for production of the He 177 bomber.  It was at this camp that Operation Bernhard was conducted.  Prison artisans designed and produced forged American and British currency in the largest currency counterfeiting endeavor to date.  Designed to undermine the economies of both countries these notes remained undiscovered as they were introduced into circulation in 1943 and are highly prized by collectors today.  

morgue in the medical experimentation facility

It is estimated that more than 50,00 inmates died at Sachsenhausen from causes that included malnutrition, disease, torture and abuse, medical experimentation and execution. Famously, high value prisoners such as captured allied special operations and commando units, resistance fighters, dissidents from both domestic and occupied territories.  Famous political prisoners included Stalin's oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, assassin Herschel Grynszpan, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero, the Bavarian Crown Prince's family and Ukrainian Nationalist Stepan Bandera.

At least 30,000 Russian POWs were executed at this camp. 

execution trench

With the advance of the Red Army in the spring of 1945 Himmler ordered the execution of all of the camp inmates and the camp began to evacuate prisoners by means of a forced march to other camp locations.  Most perished of exhaustion or execution at the hands of the SS.  The remaining 3400 inmates were liberated by Soviet and US Army forces on April 22, 1945. 

In 1947 fourteen of the camp's officials, including former commandant Anton Kaindl and camp doctor Heinz Baumkötter and a couple of Kapos were brought before a Soviet Military Tribunal in Berlin.  All sixteen were found guilty and sentenced to life at hard labor.  They served their time in the harsh conditions of a Siberian camp with six perishing (including Kaindl) within a few months.  In 1956, those who were still alive were repatriated to Germany.

In March 2009 Josias Kumpf, 83 was deported from Wisconsin to Austria after he was identified as an SS guard at Sachsenhausen.  In May of 2022 a trial commenced in Germany against another SS guard, Josef Schütz.  He died in April of this year at the age of 102.

As a consequence of being located in the Soviet occupation zone after the war the Russians used the camp to house upwards of 60,000 German officers, Nazi functionaries and their own political prisoners and dissidents.  With the founding of the German Democratic Republic in 1950 remaining inmates were transported to Russia or other Nazi concentration camps in East Germany.  It is estimated at least 12,000 inmates perished from malnutrition and abuse during this post-war period.

With the fall of communist East Germany it was possible to conduct excavations of Sachsenhausen.  In 1990 the bodies of 12,500 victims of the Soviet period were found in several mass graves.  Most were children, adolescents and elderly.

Today the SS barracks and headquarters buildings remain in use as a training facility for the German national police force and living reminder of the brutality that took place here.

Never again

Behind The Curtain

Prague is home to a Jewish enclave situated between the Old Town Square and the Vltava River.

What is called the Jewish Quarter traces its roots to the establishment of the Jewish Ghetto in the 13th century when Jews were forcibly settled in this particular area.  Over the centuries Jews were prohibited from living anywhere else in Prague and it became more crowded as additional people forced to flee Germany, Austria, Moravia and Spain joined them there.

Compounding their difficulties the inhabitants of the ghetto were subjected to the whims of whoever ruled at the moment.  The most recent occurring from 1893-1913 with the destruction of buildings and reordering of the streets. Fortunately, the most significant historical buildings were spared destruction and remain a testament to the history of Prague's Jewish community.  Today these buildings represent the best-preserved  collection of Jewish architecture in Europe.

The Jewish Quarter is home to six synagogues and the old Jewish Cemetery.  

The Spanish Synagogue and the Old-New Synagogue are the most famous ones..The Spanish one is named for its Moorish interior design elements.  Constructed in 1868 it is the newest.  The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in Europe.  Built in 1270 it is the first Gothic architecture in Prague.

Maisel Synagogue 1592

Pinkas Synagogue 1535 

Klausen Synagogue 1694

Spanish Synagogue 1868

The Old Jewish Cemetery is the most remarkable of its kind in Europe and was in use from the first half of the 15th century until the last half of the 18th century.  Designated a National Cultural Heritage in 1985 there are approximately 12,000 gravestones.  The number of burials is estimated to be 100,000.

Ironically, all of this survived the Nazi occupation as Hitler laid plans to preserve The Quarter as a Museum to an Extinct Race. Plundered Jewish artifacts from Nazi-occupied territories were relocated to Prague.  Because much of this property remained after the war - the original owners having perished in Nazi concentration camps - the Jewish museum became the second largest in the world.

Birthplace of the Bohemian Jewish author Franz Kafka