Book Reveiw

Most of those interred by the Nazi SS were identified not by name – but by a number tattooed on the arm. The principle characters in this story were tattooed 32407 and 34902. 

Heather Morris’s novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz, is the story told to her by a Slovakian Jew and holocaust survivor - Lali Sokolov - whose job it was to tattoo new arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration camp and extermination camp. 

It is a story about how he fell in love with a girl he tattooed upon her arrival. A best-selling novel the book has been shadowed by no small amount of criticism about the plot line clashing with the historical record. Fact-checking by the Auschwitz Memorial claims that - the book contains numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements.  According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum the novel is - an impression about Auschwitz inspired by authentic events, almost without any value as a document. 

The author makes it clear that even though story is based-upon the personal recollections and experiences of one man. It is not, and has never claimed to be, an official history.  As a consequence this book can truthfully stand by its claim to be a work of fiction. 

Setting-aside the historical inconsistencies and controversies it is a good read solely on the basis of a tale of love and survival in the midst of one of mankind’s greatest crimes against humanity.

The Butcher of Bosnia

Radovan Karadzic was a former Bosnian Serb politician and convicted war criminal who served as the President of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War.  Trained as a psychiatrist at Columbia University he co-founded the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Following his indictment for war crimes in 1996 he remained on the run for more than a dozen years before he was eventually arrested and indicted in 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia.  In 2016, he was convicted of war crimes and genocide for the Srebrenica massacre in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian-Serb forces in July 1995.

Just this past week a United Nations court increased his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.  Mr. Karadzic - 70 at the time of the original verdict - was unlikely to live long enough to serve out the original sentence of 40 years in prison.  Nevertheless – this symbolic move - reaffirmed having been found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.   

You’re probably thinking:  Geez, Swamp, why is any of this horrific old news  of any consequence today? 


It would be as a consequence of this. 

Correspondence I had with the Butcher of Bosnia dating from 1992.     

click on the images for a closer look

 

This was for crimes committed before those he was ultimately convicted-of.   How many of you can say you corresponded with a genuine war criminal.  

Hope you like the accommodations in hell you worthless scum.    

You can learn more about this here…..