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Guards Against Their Will

Discussion in 'Concentration, Death Camps and Crimes Against Huma' started by Rightis, May 10, 2016.

  1. Rightis

    Rightis New Member

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    My grandfather was Sargent in Von Palius's 6th Army. He was taken at Stalingrad and was one of the few the returned to Germany. He told me a story that I ask any of you have any information about it, I would be greatful. He had winter leave and was returning to Stalingrad with some new recruits, he column was stopped by the half moons as the demanded two men for guard duty. My grandfather went ape shit to protect his lads but in the end he could not stop them taking two boys of 18 years approx. They were going to be guards at Auschwitz, my grandfather suspected what it was. I have always thought of those two boys and what happened to them. How would you cope if you were in that position, You were doomed no matter the result of the war, what ever actions you took.
     
  2. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    I suppose the name is Paulus.
     
  3. wm.

    wm. Well-Known Member

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    It's totally believable that there was some emergency and those soldiers in transit were asked by the half moons to help them. Let's say partisans attacked and men were urgently needed to stop them, the lads were killed and that's was the end of the story.
    Or some local military unit badly needed soldiers so those recruits were re-assigned. Although I don't know it was possible or not.

    But they weren't sent to Auschwitz. The recruits and the half moon were the Wehrmacht, Auschwitz was the SS. It would be like sending a marine fighting in Afghanistan to the Coast Guard, and specifically to the USCG station Belle Isle. It didn't happen.

    It seems your grandfather believed in this story and that's ok, but he worried needlessly. I wouldn't mind to be sent to Auschwitz - extremely boring job, sitting all the time and watching others working - but you really didn't need the action and fun at Stalingrad for anything.

    If you were a decent person and wanted to help others you would have lots of opportunities to do it in Auschwitz. At Stalingrad you would just help the Nazis to win the war, and create more Auschwitzs.
     
  4. Brian Smith

    Brian Smith Active Member

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    Is this guy serious?
     
  5. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Please clarify what you mean by this.
     
  6. mac_bolan00

    mac_bolan00 Member

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    with only those two choices, he would opt for auschwitz since it's the "dead" end of the nazi regime and nothing worse could come after it. fighting at stalingrad is un-necessarily sporting, and might just give rise to more auschwitzes.

    i agree with his logic. just be sure to hang as an accessory to multiple murder.
     
  7. TiredOldSoldier

    TiredOldSoldier Ace

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    I assume the "half moons" are the feldgendarmerie ? ( from their gorget ). While being sent to Auschwitz by them is unlikely being enrolled by them as a guard for some prisoner column is not, and a lot of those turned into death marches, German treatment of Soviet POW was often atrocious, a "human" column guard could possibly make a difference there, while I have doubts he could do much at Auschwitz as he would be "fighting the system".

    I expect the Germans did some selection for attitude for the camp guards, getting a "conscience objector" there would be a waste of an otherwise useful recruit.
     
  8. wm.

    wm. Well-Known Member

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    The manpower shortage was so severe that even Ukrainian or other collaborators server as guards, or even former Soviet POWs who didn't even speak German.
    But the SS-men directly involved in gassing were carefully selected.


    I mean that a man drafted as a guard and helping the prisoners, even in a small way, is morally superior over a man drafted to fight at Stalingrad, doing his duty and nothing else.
     
  9. Brian Smith

    Brian Smith Active Member

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    Not sure I grasp the merit of the benefits as a soldier of being at the front line of genocide in preference to fighting other soldiers.
     
  10. KodiakBeer

    KodiakBeer Member

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    It's been a long time since I read any holocaust survivor accounts (I find them horrifying and depressing), but wm is correct. There were guards and functionaries in the camp that would get extra food to the sick or somehow 'overlook' them when work parties were organized. Some of the kinder Kapos (prisoners themselves) had arrangements with the better German and Ukrainian guards to ease things as best they could. Sometimes it was about money - a hidden piece of jewelry or something - but often it was just humanity. These low ranking guards, etc, did not have a clue what was going on in these camps until they got there and of course they didn't have a choice as to where they were assigned. I suspect many (of at least the German guards) might well have asked for reassignment to a fighting unit, but of course they already knew the secret and once there, they weren't going anywhere.

    That doesn't make these people heroes, but not all of them were monsters either. Some became true monsters and some did what little they could to ease the suffering. In the end, no matter the situation, most people are weak and just go along.
     
  11. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Ok, I'm good with it. Carry on.
     
  12. KJ Jr

    KJ Jr Well-Known Member

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    Sad but true.
     

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