Ynet and the Jerusalem Post reported on the recently found plans for Auschwitz.
Elder of Ziyon emphasizes what it implies about the Germans.
These are utterly ordinary architectural drawings, complete with cross-hatchings to symbolize where brickwork would be. People drew up these plans, consulted with their superiors about details, asked questions about the dimensions and uses of the buildings so they could be designed more efficiently and modified the blueprints accordingly. They were meticulously drawn with pride and a sense of accomplishment.
The draftsmen went home to their families after a day of drawing exacting representations of gas chambers and crematoria, they ate hearty meals and told jokes about their workday.
These are only a small number of the many who knew quite well what was happening during the Holocaust, and they all deserve a special place in hell.
Meryl notes that this shows the mendacity of “respectable” Holocaust denial.
This evidence contradicts directly Patrick Buchanan’s claims that it was the intervention of Britain that caused the Germans to start murdering the Jews.
Israel on Level Ground remembers Kristallnacht. The NYT mockup is priceless. Smooth Stone notes that German libraries still hold stolen books.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Hmmm.. I’m an engineer, and there’s no way I could be ignorant of the use of my product and still do my job.
“Hey John, draw me up some plans for a bank of 50 furnaces, oh, 6 feet long and 2 feet wide”.
“What the hell for? There’s no practical use for anything like that. This is expensive and there’s a war on”.
“Just do it”.
“Screw you, boss, I’ll take up potato farming.”
But then comes the kicker:
“Do it, or you’re in the Army tomorrow heading for the Russian front. I hope your kids can live on sawdust bread”
I don’t know if that’s how it happened, and I don’t excuse it. Maybe they could have just done a crappy job and gotten demoted, i.e. Oskar Schindler. But most people who weren’t meticulous in their jobs was probably singled out pretty quickly.
In all candor, the engineers probably rationalized it away long before it got to that point. They probably thought “this is just government policy, and what did the Jews ever do for me anyway? How many Jews do I even know? I have my own family to look after”.
Again, not excusing it, just thinking about how it might have happened. No question that antisemitism was the norm at that time.