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THE SHOOTING OF AMADOU DIALLO (FEBRUARY 4, 1999)


HAPPY 55TH BIRTHDAY! FATHER FRANK PAVONE! [PRO LIFE QUOTE OF THE WEEK ~ SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2, 2014 TO SATURDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2014]

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Father Frank Pavone
QUOTE:"Most who seek an abortion do not do so because of "freedom of choice," but because they feel they have no freedom and no choice."

AUTHOR:Father Frank A. Pavone (born February 4, 1959) is an American Roman Catholic priest and pro-life activist. He was the national director of Priests for Life and serves as the Chairman and Pastoral Director of Rachel's Vineyard. He also is the President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, an umbrella group of various Christian denominations working to end abortion, and serves as Pastoral Director of the Silent No More awareness campaign.

HAPPY 103RD BIRTHDAY! MR. PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN! (FEBRUARY 6, 1911 TO JUNE 5, 2004) [PRO LIFE QUOTE ~ FEBRUARY 6, 2014]

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QUOTE: We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life.[Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)]

AUTHOR: Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975), and prior to that, a radio, film and television actor. Reagan was born in Tampico in Whiteside County, Illinois, reared in Dixon in Lee County, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. Upon his graduation, Reagan first moved to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in 1937 to Los Angeles, California. He began a career as an actor, first in films and later television, appearing in over 50 movie productions and earning enough success to become a famous, publicly recognized figure. Some of his most notable roles are in Knute Rockne, All American and Kings Row. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later spokesman for General Electric; his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against labor unions, and ordered an invasion of Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984, proclaiming that it was "Morning in America". His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, such as the ending of the Cold War, the 1986 bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", he supported anti-communist movements worldwide and spent his first term forgoing the strategy of détente by ordering a massive military buildup in an arms race with the USSR. Reagan negotiated with General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, culminating in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals. Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year; he died ten years later at the age of 93. Although a polarizing figure to some on the American left, he often ranks highly in public opinion polls of U.S. Presidents. Moreover, as a popular conservative icon, he is credited for generating an ideological renaissance on the American political right.

THE ANGEL OF DEATH: DR. JOSEF MENGELE (16 MARCH 1911 TO 7 FEBRUARY 1979)

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The Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele died on this date, 7 February 1979. I will post information about this Mad Scientist from Wikipedia.


Josef Mengele sometime before 1945

Birth name
Josef Mengele
Nickname
Angel of Death (German: Todesengel)
Born
16 March 1911
Günzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died
7 February 1979 (aged 67)
Bertioga, São Paulo, Brazil
Allegiance
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch
Schutzstaffel
Years of service
1938—1945
Rank
SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain)
Service number
NSDAP #5,574,974
SS #3,177,885
Awards
Iron Cross First Class
Black Badge for the Wounded
Medal for the Care of the German People


Josef Mengele(; 16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He qualified for doctorates in Anthropology from Munich University and in Medicine from Frankfurt University. He became one of the more notorious characters to emerge from the Third Reich in World War II as an SS medical officer who supervised the selection of victims of the Holocaust, determining who was to be killed and who was to temporarily become a forced laborer, and for performing bizarre and murderous human experiments on prisoners.

Surviving the war, after a period of living incognito in Germany he fled to South America, where he evaded capture for the rest of his life, despite being hunted as a Nazi war criminal.

Early life and education

Mengele was born the eldest of three children on 16 March 1911 to Karl and Walburga (Hupfauer) Mengele in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany. His younger brothers were Karl Jr and Alois. Mengele's father was a founder of the Karl Mengele & Sons company, producers of farm machinery. Mengele did well in school and developed an interest in music, art, and skiing. He completed high school in April 1930 and left for the University of Munich, where he studied medicine and philosophy. Munich was headquarters of the Nazi Party, an antisemitic political party led by Adolf Hitler. In 1931 Mengele joined the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, a paramilitary organisation that was in 1934 absorbed into the Nazi Sturmabteilung (Storm Detachment; SA).

In 1935, Mengele earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Munich. In January 1937, at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt, he became the assistant to Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, who was a leading scientist known for his research in genetics, with a particular interest in twins. As an assistant to von Verschuer, Mengele's research focused on the genetic factors resulting in a cleft lip and palate or cleft chin. His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate in medicine in 1938. Had he continued his focus on academic matters, Mengele would likely have become a professor. In a letter of recommendation, von Verschuer praised Mengele's reliability and and his ability to verbally present complex material in a clear manner. Robert Jay Lifton notes that Mengele's published works did not deviate much from the scientific mainstream of the time, and would probably have been viewed as valid scientific efforts even outside the borders of Nazi Germany.

On 28 July 1939, Mengele married Irene Schönbein, whom he had met while working as a medical resident in Leipzig. Their only son, Rolf, was born in 1944.

Military service

The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum (living space) for the Germanic people. Nazi Germany attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race.

Mengele joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the Schutzstaffel (SS; protection squadron) in 1938. He received basic training in 1938 with the Gebirgsjäger(mountain infantry) and was called up for service in the Wehrmacht in June 1940, some months after the outbreak of World War II, as a kidney ailment had kept him out of active service until that time. He soon volunteered for medical service in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of the SS, where he served with the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) in a medical reserve battalion until November 1940. He was next assigned to the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (SS Race and Resettlement Main Office) in Posen, evaluating candidates for Germanisation.

In June 1941 Mengele was posted to Ukraine, where he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. In January 1942 he joined the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking as a battalion medical officer. He rescued two German soldiers from a burning tank and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, as well as the Wound Badge in Black and the Medal for the Care of the German People. He was seriously wounded in action near Rostov-on-Don in the summer of 1942 and was declared unfit for further active service. After recovery, he was transferred to the Race and Resettlement Office in Berlin. Whilst there, Mengele resumed his association with von Verschuer, who was at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics. Mengele was promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer(captain) in April 1943.


Selection ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau (2013)
Auschwitz

In early 1943, encouraged by von Verschauer, Mengele applied for transfer to the concentration camp service, where he foresaw the opportunity to undertake genetic research on human subjects. His application was accepted, and he was posted to Auschwitz concentration camp. He was appointed by SS-StandortarztEduard Wirths, chief medical officer at Auschwitz, as chief physician of the Zigeunerfamilienlager(Gypsy family camp), located in the sub-camp at Birkenau. One line of research was intended to prove the supremacy of heredity over environment, and thus bolster the Nazi premise of the superiority of the Aryan race.

By late 1941 Hitler had decided that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated, so Birkenau, originally intended to house slave labourers, was re-purposed as a combination labor camp / extermination camp. Prisoners were transported by rail to Auschwitz from all over German-occupied Europe, arriving in daily convoys. By July 1942, the SS were conducting "selections". Incoming Jews were segregated; those deemed able to work were admitted into the camp, and those deemed unfit for labour were immediately killed in the gas chambers. The group selected to die, about three-quarters of the total, included almost all children, women with small children, pregnant women, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be completely fit. Mengele, a member of the team of doctors assigned to do selections, undertook this work even when he was not assigned to do so in the hope of finding subjects for his experiments. He was particularly interested in locating sets of twins. In contrast to most of the doctors, who viewed undertaking selections as one of their most stressful and horrible duties, Mengele undertook the task with a flamboyant air, often smiling or whistling a tune.

Mengele and other SS doctors did not treat inmates, but supervised the activities of inmate doctors forced to work in the camp medical service. He made weekly visits the hospital barracks and sent to the gas chambers any prisoners who had not recovered after two weeks in bed. Mengele was also a member of the team of doctors responsible for supervising the administration of Zyklon B, the cyanide-based pesticide that was used to kill people in the gas chambers at Birkenau. He served in this capacity at the gas chambers located in crematoria IV and V.

When an outbreak of noma (a gangrenous bacterial disease of the mouth and face) broke out in the Gypsy camp in 1943, Mengele initiated a study to determine the cause of the disease and develop a treatment. He enlisted the aid of prisoner Dr. Berthold Epstein, a Jewish pediatrician and professor at Prague University. Mengele isolated the patients in a separate barrack and had several afflicted children killed so that their preserved heads and organs could be sent to the SS Medical Academy in Graz and other facilities for study. The research was still ongoing when the Gypsy camp was liquidated and its remaining occupants killed in 1944.

In response to a typhus epidemic in the women's camp, Mengele cleared one block of 600 Jewish women and sent them to the gas chamber. The building was then cleaned and disinfected, and the occupants of the neighbouring block were bathed, de-loused, and given new clothing before being moved into the clean block. The process was repeated until all the barracks were disinfected. Similar methods were used for later epidemics of scarlet fever and other diseases, but with all the ill prisoners being sent to the gas chambers. For his efforts, Mengele was awarded the War Merit Cross (Second Class with Swords) and was promoted in 1944 to First Physician of the Birkenau subcamp.


This 1944 photo provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) shows SS officers socializing on the grounds of the SS retreat, Solahutte outside of Auschwitz, Poland. From left, Dr. Josef Mengele, Rudolf Hoess, (former Commandant of Auschwitz), Josef Kramer (Commandant of Birkenau), and unidentified.
Human experimentation

Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his anthropological studies and research on heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. The experiments were unscientific and had no regard for the health or safety of the victims. He was particularly interested in identical twins, people with heterochromia iridum (eyes of two different colours), dwarfs, and people with physical abnormalities. A grant for was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, applied for by von Verschuer, who received regular reports and shipments of specimens from Mengele. The grant was used to build a pathology laboratory attached to Crematorium II at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jewish pathologist who arrived in Auschwitz on 29 May 1944, performed dissections and prepared specimens for shipment in this facility. Nyiszli and others report that Mengele's twin studies may also have been motivated by a desire to improve the reproduction rate of the German race by improving the chances of racially desirable people having twins.

Mengele's research subjects were better fed and housed than other prisoners and temporarily safe from the gas chambers. He established a kindergarten for children that were subjects of experiments, along with all Gypsy children under the age of six. The facility provided better food and living conditions than other areas of the camp, and even included a playground. When visiting his child subjects, he introduced himself as "Uncle Mengele" and offered them sweets. But he also was personally responsible for the deaths of an unknown number of victims that he killed via lethal injection, shootings, beatings, and through selections and deadly experiments. Lifton describes Mengele as sadistic, lacking empathy, and extremely antisemitic, believing the Jews should be eliminated entirely as an inferior and dangerous race.

A former Auschwitz prisoner doctor said:


He was capable of being so kind to the children, to have them become fond of him, to bring them sugar, to think of small details in their daily lives, and to do things we would genuinely admire ... And then, next to that, ... the crematoria smoke, and these children, tomorrow or in a half-hour, he is going to send them there. Well, that is where the anomaly lay.

Twins were subjected to weekly examinations and measurements of their physical attributes by Mengele or one of his assistants. Experiments performed by Mengele on twins included unnecessary amputation of limbs, intentionally infecting one twin with typhus or other diseases, and transfusing the blood of one twin into the other. Many of the victims died while undergoing these procedures. After an experiment was over, the twins were sometimes killed and their bodies dissected. Nyiszli recalled one occasion where Mengele had personally killed fourteen twins in one night via a chloroform injection to the heart. If one twin died of disease, Mengele killed the other so that comparative post-mortem reports could be prepared.

Mengele's experiments with eyes included attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into the eyes of living subjects and killing people with heterochromatic eyes so that the eyes could be removed and sent to Berlin for study. His experiments on dwarfs and other people with physical abnormalities included taking physical measurements, drawing blood, extracting healthy teeth, and treatment with unneccessary drugs and X-rays. Many of the victims were sent to the gas chambers after about two weeks, and their skeletons were sent to Berlin for further study. Mengele sought out pregnant women, on whom he would perform experiments before sending them to the gas chambers. He sewed two Gypsy twins together back to back in an attempt to create conjoined twins. The children died of gangrene after several days of suffering. In another experiment, he connected a 7-year-old girl's urinary tract to her colon.


Jewish twins kept alive to be used in Mengele's medical experiments. These children from Auschwitz were liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.

Still photograph from the Soviet Film of the liberation of Auschwitz, taken by the film unit of the First Ukrainian Front, shot over a period of several months beginning on January 27, 1945 by Alexander Voronzow and others in his group. Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence. Among those pictured are Tomasz Szwarz; Alicja Gruenbaum; Solomon Rozalin; Gita Sztrauss; Wiera Sadler; Marta Wiess; Boro Eksztein; Josef Rozenwaser; Rafael Szlezinger; Gabriel Nejman; Gugiel Appelbaum; Mark Berkowitz (a twin); Pesa Balter; Rut Muszkies (later Webber); Miriam Friedman; and twins Miriam Mozes and Eva Mozes wearing knitted hats.
After Auschwitz

The SS abandoned the Auschwitz camp on 27 January 1945, and Mengele transferred to Gross Rosen camp in Lower Silesia, again working as camp physician. Gross Rosen was dissolved at the end of February when the Red Army was close to taking it. Mengele worked in other camps for a short time and, on 2 May, joined a Wehrmachtmedical unit led by Hans Otto Kahler, his former colleague at the Institute of Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Bohemia. The unit hurried west to avoid being captured by the Soviets and were taken as prisoners of war by the Americans. Mengele, initially registered under his own name, was released in June 1945 with papers giving his name as "Fritz Hollmann". From July 1945 until May 1949, he worked as a farmhand in a small village near Rosenheim, Bavaria, staying in contact with his wife and his old friend Hans Sedlmeier, who arranged Mengele's escape to Argentina via Innsbruck, Sterzing, Meran, and Genoa. Mengele may have been assisted by the ODESSA network.


Josef Mengele in 1956. Photo taken by a police photographer in Buenos Aires for Mengele's Argentine identification document.
In South America

In Buenos Aires, Mengele first worked in construction, but soon came in contact with influential Germans, who allowed him to live an affluent lifestyle in subsequent years. He also got to know other Nazis in Buenos Aires, such as Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Adolf Eichmann. In 1955, he bought a 50 percent share of Fadro Farm, a pharmaceutical company; the same year, his wife, Irene, divorced him. She continued to live in Germany with their son. On 25 July 1958, in Nueva Helvecia, Uruguay, Mengele married Martha Mengele, widow of his deceased brother Karl. Martha had arrived in Buenos Aires in 1956 with her son, Karl-Heinz Mengele. Mengele lived with his family in a German-owned boarding house in the Buenos Aires suburb of Vicente Lopez from 1958 to 1960. While living in Buenos Aires Mengele practised medicine though he became known for carrying out abortions—illegal in much of the world at the time, including Argentina. When a woman died from an abortion in his clinic he was brought before a judge, but was only briefly detained.

Mengele was doing well in South America, yet he feared being captured, especially after news of Eichmann's capture and subsequent trial were revealed. Thus, he left Argentina in 1962 and moved to Paraguay after managing to get a Paraguayan passport in the name of "José Mengele".

Shortly after the capture of Eichmann in May 1960 by the Israeli Mossad, Mengele was spotted at his home. Agents of the Mossad debated whether or not they should kidnap him as well. However, they still had Eichmann in a safe house inside Argentina, and determined that it would not be possible to conduct another operation at the same time. By the time Eichmann had been brought out of the country, Mengele had escaped to Paraguay.

Isser Harel, Chief Executive of the Secret Services of Israel (1952–1963), personally presided over the successful effort to capture Eichmann in Buenos Aires. In his account of the operation, he reports no sightings of Mengele in 1960, but believes that they might have got him if they could have moved more quickly. When asked about the secondary target by the co-pilot who helped transport Eichmann at the time, he claims to have told him that "had it been possible to start the operation several weeks earlier, Mengele might also have been on the plane." They checked on the last known location for Mengele in Argentina, but he had apparently moved on just two weeks earlier.

Mengele hoped that Paraguay would be safer for him, because dictator Alfredo Stroessner was of German descent and even recruited former Nazis to help the country develop. Among other locations in Paraguay, he lived on the outskirts of Hohenau, a German colony north of Encarnación in the department of Itapúa.

According to a senior Mossad man, Israel had received reports that Mengele was in Brazil, but they kept this information to themselves. The Six-Day War in 1967 forced them to concentrate their resources on operations related to the war. But after the war, Israel decided to open an embassy in Asunción, Paraguay – perhaps an ideal base from which to pursue Mengele. But Benjamin Weiser Varon, Israeli ambassador from 1968 to 1972, was "not given any instructions by the foreign office on Mengele of any kind. It wasn't even mentioned."


"I must confess I was not so eager to find Mengele. He presented a dilemma. Israel had less of a claim for his extradition than Germany. He was, after all, a German citizen who had committed his crimes in the name of the Third Reich. None of his victims were Israeli—Israel came into existence only several years later."

The same year, Mengele moved to Nova Europa, about 200 km (120 mi) outside São Paulo in Brazil, where he lived with Hungarian refugees Geza and Gitta Stammer, working as manager of their farm. In the seclusion of his Brazilian hideaway Mengele was safe. In 1974, when his relationship with the Stammer family was coming to an end, Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Wolfgang Gerhard discussed relocating Mengele to Bolivia where he could spend time with Klaus Barbie, but Mengele rejected this proposal. Instead, he lived in a bungalow in a suburb of São Paulo for the last years of his life. In 1977, his only son Rolf, never having known his father before, visited him there and found an unrepentant Nazi who claimed that he "had never personally harmed anyone in his whole life".

Mengele's health had been deteriorating for years, and he developed a chronic sinus infection. Mengele died on 7 February 1979, in Bertioga, Brazil, where he accidentally drowned, or possibly suffered a stroke, while swimming in the Atlantic. He was buried in Embu das Artes under the name "Wolfgang Gerhard", whose ID card he had used since 1976.

Mengele showed little regret or remorse for his crimes, and expressed in a letter his astonishment and disgust over the remorseful position taken by Hitler's chief architect and Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer.

Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa speculated in his 2008 biography that Mengele, under the alias Rudolph Weiss, continued his human experimentation in South America, and as a result of these experiments, a municipality in Brazil, Cândido Godói, has a very high birthrate of twin children: one in five pregnancies, with a substantial amount of the population looking Nordic. His theory was rejected by Brazilian scientists who had studied twins living in the area; they suggested genetic factors within that community as a more likely explanation.

Manhunt

Mengele was listed on the Allies' list of war criminals as early as 1944. His name was mentioned in the Nuremberg trials several times, but Allied forces were convinced that Mengele was dead, which was also claimed by Irene and the family in Günzburg. In 1959, suspicions had grown that he was still alive, given his divorce from Irene in 1955 and his marriage to Martha in 1958. An arrest warrant was issued by the West German authorities. Subsequently, West German attorneys such as Fritz Bauer, Israel's Mossad, and private investigators such as Simon Wiesenthal and Beate Klarsfeld followed the trail of the "Angel of Death". The last confirmed sightings of Mengele placed him in Paraguay, and it was believed that he was still hiding there, allegedly protected by flying ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel and possibly even by the dictator President Alfredo Stroessner. Mengele sightings were reported all over the world, but they turned out to be false.

In 1985, the West German police raided Hans Sedlmeier's house in Günzburg and seized address books, letters, and papers hinting at the grave in Embu. The remains of "Wolfgang Gerhard" were exhumed on 6 June 1985 and identified as Mengele's with high probability by forensic experts from UNICAMP. Rolf Mengele issued a statement saying that he "had no doubt it was the remains of his father". Everything was kept quiet "to protect those who knew him in South America", Rolf said. In 1992, a DNA test confirmed Mengele's identity. He had evaded capture for 34 years.

After the exhumation, the São Paulo Institute for Forensic Medicine stored his remains and attempted to repatriate them to the remaining Mengele family members, but the family rejected them. The bones have been stored at the São Paulo Institute for Forensic Medicine ever since. According to the Find a Grave database, Mengele's body has been cremated. Since the family has not claimed the ashes, they remain in the custody of unnamed Brazilian officials.

In the 21st century

On 17 September 2007, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released photographs taken from a photo album of Auschwitz staff, which contained eight photographs of Mengele. According to museum officials, these eight photos of Mengele are the first authenticated pictures of him at Auschwitz.

In February 2010, Mengele's diary, kept from 1960 until his death in 1979, which included letters sent to Rolf and Wolfgang Gerhard, was sold at auction in Connecticut by Alexander Autographs for an estimated $200,000 (£130,000). According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), the buyer was an East Coast Jewish philanthropist who wished to remain anonymous. The auction triggered protests amongst some Holocaust survivors, who described it as "a cynical act of exploitation aimed at profiting from the writings of one of the most heinous Nazi criminals." The previous owner, who acquired the diary in Brazil, is said to be close to the Mengele family.

Pseudonyms
  • Wolfgang Gerhard
  • Fritz Hollmann
  • José Mengele
  • Helmut Gregor[i]
  • Rudolph Weiss
  • Dr. Fausto Rindón
  • S. Josi Alvers Aspiazu
Summary of SS career
  • SS number: 317,885
  • Nazi Party number: 5,574,974
  • Primary Positions: WVHA, Medical Physician (Auschwitz Concentration Camp)
  • Waffen-SS Service:
Dates of Rank
Awards
Writings
  • Racial-Morphological Examinations of the Anterior Portion of the Lower Jaw in Four Racial Groups. This dissertation, completed in 1935 and first published in 1937, earned him a PhD in anthropology from Munich University. In this work Mengele sought to demonstrate that there were structural differences in the lower jaws of individuals from different ethnic groups, and that racial distinctions could be made based on these differences.
  • Genealogical Studies in the Cases of Cleft Lip-Jaw-Palate (1938), his medical dissertation, earned him a doctorate in medicine from Frankfurt University. Studying the influence of genetics as a factor in the occurrence of this deformity, Mengele conducted research on families who exhibited these traits in multiple generations. The work also included notes on other abnormalities found in these family lines.
  • Hereditary Transmission of Fistulae Auris. This journal article, published in Der Erbarzt (The Genetic Physician), focuses on fistula auris (an abnormal fissure on the external ear) as a hereditary trait. Mengele noted that individuals who have this trait also tend to have a dimple on their chin.


Josefe Mengele's home in Hohenau, Itapua, Paraguay. Photo taken August 2007


Block 10 - Medical experimentation block in Auschwitz

Block 10 - Medical experimentation block in Auschwitz

Sourced

  • There can't be two smart peoples in the world. We're going to win the war, so only the Aryan race will stand.
    • As quoted in Defy the darkness: A Tale of Courage in the Shadow of Mengele (2000) by Joe Rosenblum and David Kohn, p. 192
  • Even the Russians are fighting us. They've brought in Jewish pilots, nurses, and doctors. Everybody's ganging up on us. We didn't think it would happen this way.
    • As quoted in Defy the darkness: A Tale of Courage in the Shadow of Mengele (2000) by Joe Rosenblum and David Kohn, p. 192
  • The Jewish people, no matter where they are, they become the best in the world.
    • As quoted in Defy the darkness: A Tale of Courage in the Shadow of Mengele (2000) by Joe Rosenblum and David Kohn, p. 192
  • The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.
    • As quoted in Surfing the Tao : A Revolution of Free Will (2004) by Angela V. Michaels
  • Away with this shit!
    • To people who were about to be sent to gas chambers, as quoted in People in Auschwitz (2004) by Hermann Langbein and Henry Friedlander, p. 119

Quotes about Mengele

  • Mengele was known as a manic collector of things human, including dwarf corpses, gallstones, and eyes. His fascination with eyes led to the infamous experiments in which he injected various substances into the eyes of brown-eyed Jewish children in an attempt to make them Nordic (blue).
    • Bettina Beech, as quoted in Race & Research : Perspectives on Minority Participation in Health Studies‎ (2004) by Bettina M. Beech and Maurine Goodman, p. 41
  • I have never accepted that Mengele believed he was doing serious medical work ... He was exercising power. Major surgery was performed without anaesthetic. Once I witnessed a stomach operation — Mengele was removing pieces from the stomach, but without any anaesthesia. It was horrifying.
    • Alex Dekel, a camp survivor, as quoted in Weimar and Nazi Germany (1996) by Fiona Reynoldson, Stephen J. Lee, David Taylor and Rosemary Rees
  • I was given five injections. That evening I developed extremely high fever. I was trembling. My arms and my legs were swollen, huge size. Mengele and Dr. Konig and three other doctors came in the next morning. They looked at my fever chart, and Dr. Mengele said, laughingly, "Too bad, she is so young. She has only two weeks to live..."

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THE 2001 INDIAN PARLIAMENT ATTACK TACTICIAN: AFZAL GURU (EXECUTED ON 9 FEBRUARY 2013)

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            On this date, 9 February 2013, a Terrorist, Afzal Guru was executed by hanging at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail. He was involved in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. He now belongs to The Legion of Doom: The 13 Dead Terrorists.

            I will post information about him from Wikipedia and other links.

Afzal Guru

Mohammed Afzal Guru
Born
1969
near Sopore, Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Died
February 9, 2013 (Age 43)
Tihar Jail, Delhi, India
Cause of death
Executed by hanging
Resting place
Tihar jail
Nationality
Indian
Known for
his conviction and execution in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and his appeal in his capital punishment case.
Criminal charge
2001 attack on the Parliament of India
Criminal penalty
Death sentence
Criminal status
Executed by hanging at 8:00 am (IST) on 9 February 2013
Spouse(s)
Tabasum Guru
Parents
Habibullah (father) and Ayesha Begum (mother)

Conviction(s)
Murder
Conspiracy
Waging war against India
Possession of explosives

Mohammad Afzal Guru (1969 - 9 February 2013), an Indian national, was convicted by Indian court for the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, and sentenced to death by a special Prevention of Terrorism Act Court in 2002. The Delhi High Court confirmed the judgment in 2003 and his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court of India in 2005. The Supreme Court did not find any evidence as to his membership to any terrorist organisation but stated that the circumstances clearly established that Guru was associated with the deceased terrorists in almost every act done by them in order to achieve the objective of attacking the Parliament and there was sufficient and satisfactory circumstantial evidence to establish that he was a partner in the conspiracy. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, but Guru was given a stay of execution after protests in Jammu and Kashmir and remained on death row. On 3 February 2013, his mercy petition was rejected by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. He was secretly hanged at Delhi's Tihar Jail around 08:00 am on 9 February 2013 and afterward buried inside jail grounds in Operation Three Star. His family was not informed prior to execution and his dead body was later denied to his family, while his execution resulted in violent protests across the Kashmir region.

Afzal Guru
Early life

Guru was born in Du Aabgah village near Sopore town in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir in 1969 to the family of Habibullah. He completed his schooling from Government School, Sopore. He passed the matriculation exam in 1986 and completed his higher secondary education in Sopore. He subsequently enrolled in medical college. He had completed the first year of his MBBS course and was preparing for competitive exams.

Training

His native place is Sopore and he was doing a commission agency business. It was during this business venture that he came into contact with Tariq of Anantnag, who motivated him to join Jihad for the liberation of Kashmir. He crossed the Line of Control and proceeded to Muzaffaraba Pakistani occupied kashmir. He became a member of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and then returned to Sopore shortly afterward to lead 300 rebels. On a visit to Kashmir in 1998, he married a Baramulla native Tabasum. He did odd jobs and completed his graduation from Delhi University in the year 1993–94. While studying, he met SAR Geelani, who was pursuing his post graduation course. In the summer of 1993–94 on the advice of his family, he surrendered to the Border Security Force and returned to Delhi where he worked till 1996. He took up a job with a pharmaceuticals firm and served as its area manager. Simultaneously, he worked as a commission agent for medical and surgical goods in the year 1996. During this period, he used to shuttle between Srinagar and Delhi.


Executed: Mohammed Afzal Guru, pictured here in 2002, was hanged this morning. Amnesty International questioned whether he had received a fail trial and his family had not been informed (PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/mostread/article-2276108/Mohammed-Afzal-Guru-India-hangs-Kashmiri-separatist-convicted-2001-attack-New-Delhi-parliament-building.html#axzz2KSk9hvyI)

The case

The 13 December 2001 attack was conducted by the Jaish-e-Mohammad(JEM), although the Indian government also accused the Lashkar-e-Toiba(LET) of involvement. Seven were killed by the attackers, including 6 Indian security and a gardener, and 15 others were injured. The five unidentified attackers were also killed. At the end of December, US President George W. Bush made a telephone call to Pakistan President President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to defuse tensions between the two countries and urge them to move away from escalating the Parliament attack into war.

On 15 December 2001, Guru was arrested by Delhi Police from Jammu and Kashmir, and from December 2001 to May 2002, Guru had no lawyer. SAR Geelani, an Indian educator, was picked up for questioning and was later arrested from Delhi. Two others – Afsan Guru and her husband Shaukat Hussain Guru—were picked up later. On 29 December 2001, Guru was sent to 10-day police remand. The court appointed Guru his first lawyer, Seema Gulati, three days after he was initially charged 14 May 2002. She was same lawyer who later represented SAR Geelani, but in a paid capacity, and she dropped Guru's case after 45 days because of her case load. In June 2002, charges were filed against all four of them.

Confession

The evidence against Guru included his confessional statement, which was recorded by the DCP, Special Cell. It was recorded in the preamble of the confession that DCP had asked the policemen present there to leave the room. The signature of Guru was found beneath that endorsement. The Supreme Court was angered by the act of police officials, who, in their over-zealousness, had arranged for a media interview. However, after seven months, Guru disowned this confession and the Supreme Court did not accept the earlier confession as an evidence against him.

Sushil Kumar, Guru's advocate later claimed that Guru had written a letter to him where Guru said that he had made the confessions under duress as his family was being threatened. Journalist Vinod K. Jose claimed that Guru had told him in an interview in 2006, Guru had said that he had been subjected to extreme torture which included electric shocks in private parts and being beaten up for hours along with threats regarding his family after his arrest. Between the time of his arrest and the time when initial charges were filed, Guru was told that his brother was held in detention. At the time of his confession, he had no legal representation.

Charges

Following were the charges against Guru:
  • Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India and Conspiracy to commit the same – Section 121 and 121A of the Indian Penal Code
  • Collecting arms, etc., with intention of waging war against the Government of India – Section 122 of the Indian Penal Code.
  • Criminal conspiracy to commit murder and attempt to commit murder – Section 120B read with Sections 302 & 307 of the Indian Penal Code
  • Conspiring to commit and knowingly facilitating the commission of a terrorist act or acts preparatory to terrorist act and also voluntarily harbouring and concealing the deceased terrorists knowing that such persons were terrorists and were the members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a banned terrorist organisation, which is involved in acts of terrorism; and hence committing an offence punishable under Section 3(3) (4) and (5) of Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002.
  • Possession of INR10 Lakhs given to him by the terrorists who were killed by the police when they attacked the Parliament of India.
Eighty witnesses were examined for the prosecution and ten were examined for defence.


Afzal Guru
Conviction

On 18 December 2002, a death sentence was given to Guru, S A R Geelani and Shaukat Hussain Guru, while Afsan Guru was let off. In August 2003, Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Ghazi Baba, who was a prime accused in the attack was killed in an encounter with the Border Security Force (BSF) in Kashmir Capital, Srinagar. Three other militants, along with him were also killed in the 10-hour encounter. In October 2003, on an appeal, Delhi High Court upheld the order.

The judgment mentions:

"The gravity of the crime conceived by the conspirators with the potential of causing enormous casualties and dislocating the functioning of the Government as well as disrupting normal life of the people of India is something which cannot be described in words. The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, has shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the offender."

On 19 December 2001 he made a confession of the offences, which was recorded and signed by him. He also confirmed having made the confessional statement without any threat or pressure. However in his 10 year long imprisonment he refuted the involvement in attack several times and claimed that the confession was made under pressure and threats to his family. In his letter to India, he mentioned that he was innocent and had no role in any attack. His letter mentioned that he is a pious Muslim and does not support killing of innocents. in his one letter to Indian media he request the journalist to publish his statement, however the statement came to light only after his execution. The letter talked about Delhi High Court bomb blast and claimed it to be the act against the principles of Islam. He also refuted that he had to play any role in it.

However, he was convicted for the offenses under Sections 121, 121A, 122, Section 120B read with Sections 302 & 307 read with Section 120B IPC, sub-Sections (2), (3) & (5) of Section 1, 3(4), 4(b)of POTA and Sections 3 & 4 of Explosive Substances Act. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment on as many as eight counts under the provisions of IPC, POTA and Explosive Substances Act in addition to varying amounts of fine.

An appeal was made to the Delhi High Court, but after going through the case and taking into consideration various authorities and precedents, the Court found that the conviction of Guru was correct and hence his appeal was dismissed. The co-accused in the case, SAR Geelani and Afsan Guru (wife of, were acquitted by the High Court 29 October 2003. On 4 August 2005, the Supreme Court, upheld the death sentence for Afzal Guru while it commuted Shaukat Hussain Guru's sentence from death to 10 years imprisonment. Of the three sentenced to death, SAR Geelani (who was presented as the mastermind behind the attack), Shaukat Hussain Guru and Afzal Guru, only Afzal Guru's penalty was upheld by the Supreme Court.

In October 2006, Guru's wife Tabasum Guru filed a mercy petition with then President of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. In June 2007, Supreme Court dismissed Guru's plea seeking review of his death sentence, saying "there is no merit" in it. In December 2010, Shaukat Hussain Guru was released from Delhi's Tihar Jail due to his good conduct.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court observed:

"As criminal acts took place pursuant to the conspiracy, the appellant, as a party to the conspiracy, shall be deemed to have abetted the offence. In fact, he took active part in a series of steps taken to pursue the objective of conspiracy."
Supreme Court of India, Judgement on Appeal by Guru on August 5, 2005.

The Supreme Court observed that mostly, the conspiracies are proved by the circumstantial evidence. It held that the circumstances detailed in the judgment clearly established that Guru was associated with the deceased militants in almost every act done by them in order to achieve the objective of attacking the Parliament House. It also observed that there was sufficient and satisfactory circumstantial evidence to establish that Guru was a partner in this conspired crime of enormous gravity. It has to be noted, that in its judgement of 5 August 2005, the supreme court admitted that the evidence against Guru was only circumstantial, and that there was no evidence that he belonged to any terrorist group or organisation. He was subsequently meted out three life sentences and a double death sentence.

Clemency pleas

There was an appeal to issue clemency to Guru from various human rights groups including political groups in Kashmir, who believe that Guru did not receive a fair trial and was framed by corrupt police and the victim of inefficient police work. Human rights activists in various parts of India and the world have demanded reprieve as they believe that the trial was flawed. Arundhati Roy and Praful Bidwai castigated the trial and argued that Guru has been denied natural justice. Accusations of human rights violations have been made by many.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and local political groups voiced their support of clemency for Guru . It was alleged many have done so to appease Muslim voters in India. However there were protests (with instances of stone pelting at Indian security forces) in Kashmir against the planned execution of Guru in 2006.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) was critical of both the Congress as well as of the BJP, and claimed it was delaying the legal procedure in the case accusing it of trying to whip up enmity between communities in the name of a crime done by a group of criminals. The party wants the law of the land to take its course without any interference.

Ram Jethmalani held that it is completely within the president's power to commute the Death sentence and is not a mercy plea. He said, "It’s a misnomer to call it a mercy petition. It leads to total misunderstanding of the constitutional power. The constitutional power is that the president has the power to disagree with the Supreme Court both with its findings of fact and law." The case became political and it was not carried out because of fear of revenge attacks. The Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party president and MP, Mehbooba Mufti commented that the Centre should pardon Afzal if Pakistan accepted the clemency appeal for Sarabjit Singh.

However, the All-India Anti-Terrorist FrontChairman Maninderjeet Singh Bitta urged the President of India not to accept any clemency pleas on Afzal's behalf. He warned that his organisation would launch agitations if Afzal was pardoned. He also criticised statements of various political leaders and blamed them for "encouraging activities of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir".

An India Today poll in late October showed that 78% of Indians supported the death penalty for Afzal.

On 12 November 2006, the former Deputy Prime Minister of India, Lal Krishna Advani criticised the delay in carrying out the death sentence on Guru for the Parliament terror attack, saying, "I fail to understand the delay. They have increased my security. But what needs to be done immediately is to carry out the court's orders".

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) severely criticised Arundhati Roy. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said:

"Those who are supporting Afzal by demanding that he should not be hanged are not only acting against public sentiment in the country but are giving a fillip to terrorist morale"

On 23 June 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs recommended the president's office to reject the mercy petition. On 7 January 2011, a whistle-blowing site indianleaks.in leaked a document which stated that the mercy petition file was not with President of India. This was rubbished by Kapil Sibal in an interview with NDTV. This was confirmed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi on 23 Feb 2011. With the death penalty handed to Ajmal Kasab, the speculation was that Guru was next in line.

On 10 August 2011, the home ministry of India rejected the mercy petition, and sent a letter to the President of India recommending the death penalty.

On 7 September 2011, a high intensity bomb blast outside Delhi high court killed 11 people and left 76 others injured. In an e-mail sent to a media house Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, an Islamic fundamentalist organisation, owned responsibility for the attack and claimed the blast was carried out in retaliation to Parliament attack convict Guru's death sentence.

"We own the responsibility for today's blasts at Delhi high court. Our demand is that Mohammed Afzal Guru's death sentence should be repealed immediately else we would target major high courts and the Supreme Court of India."

Later on Afzal Guru in his letter declared the attack on Delhi High Court that killed 11 Indians against the principles of Islam and refuted all allegations with the attack.


Execution

On 16 November 2012, the president had sent seven cases back to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), including Afzal Guru's. The president requested Sushil Kumar Shinde, home minister, review the opinion of his predecessor, P. Chidambaram. On 10 December, Shinde indicated he would look at the file after the winter session of the Parliament was finished on 20 December. Shinde made his final recommendation to execute Guru on 23 January 2012. On 3 February 2013, Guru's mercy petition was rejected by the President of India.

Afzal Guru was hanged six days later on 9 February 2013 at 8 am. Jail officials have said that when Guru was told about his execution, he was calm. He expressed his wish to write to his wife. The jail superintendent gave him a pen and paper. He wrote the letter in Urdu, which was posted to his family in Kashmir the same day. Very few officers were told about the decision. Three doctors and a maulvi, who performed his last rites, were informed secretly a night before. They were asked to come early Saturday morning. Guru performed his morning prayers and read a few pages of the Quran. Guru's letter was delivered to his family on 12 February. The execution of Mohammed Afzal Guru was named Operation Three Star.

Guru's family was informed of his execution two days after by a letter sent through Speed Post, a fast courier service, to their home in Sopore. Postal officials in Srinagar said the letter was received on Saturday evening of 9 February, but could be delivered only on Monday, or 11 February, because Sunday was a public holiday.

Aftermath of execution

The secret operation surrounding the execution of Afzal Guru was code named Operation Three Star. The prison took steps to execute Guru in secrecy. The execution was carried out without the family's knowledge or any form of public announcement. Guru's body was buried on prison grounds to prevent a public funeral. On a national level, security was prepared beforehand for public protests. After Guru's execution, a curfew was then imposed by the authorities when the news became public in Kashmir to prevent any kind of protests in support of Guru. State-run media Doordarshan announced the execution on the morning of 9 February, and Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, made a special appeal on television for public calm. Authorities also shut down cable TV and internet services to try to stop further news of the hanging and activists from organizing and spreading unrest. Mosques throughout the region were used for public announcements and curfew information. SAR Geelani, who was co-accused in the attacks on the Indian parliament and later acquitted by the Supreme Court, was taken into preventive custody by the Delhi Police. Several leaders from the separatist movement were also detained. However, protests flared up in parts of the Valley—Guru's hometown of Sopore, Baramulla in North Kashmir and Pulwama in South Kashmir—and groups of young men broke curfew and threw stones at security forces. Police fired at protesters, and 36 people were injured, including 23 policemen, said a police spokesperson, particularly around Guru's home district where most of the violence was concentrated.

Involved parties

In an interview in 2006 with Jose, Guru said, "If you want to hang me, go ahead with it, but remember it would be a black spot on the judicial and political system of India."

In the letter written before his death, Guru wrote, "I am about to be hanged. Now, near the gallows, I want to tell you (family members) that I was not given enough time to write a detailed letter. I am thankful that Allah (God) chose me for this sacrifice. And please, take care of Tabasum and Galib."

SAR Geelani condemned Afzal Guru's hanging was a "cruel and politically motivated gimmick" and a “politically motivated decision."

Justice SN Dhinga, the Judge who sentenced Guru and co-accused Shaukat Guru and SAR Geelani to death in 2002, termed the execution a political move stating that the judiciary took just three years to decide the matter while the executive took eight years to implement the same.

International human rights groups

Amnesty International condemned the execution saying that it 'indicates a disturbing and regressive trend towards executions shrouded in secrecy'. Shashikumar Velath, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India said "We condemn the execution in the strongest possible terms. This very regrettably puts India in opposition to the global trend towards moving away from the death penalty”.

Pakistan

In April 2013, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the execution of Afzal Guru inside the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir region. The President said, "The hanging of Afzal Guru through the abuse of judicial process has further aggravated and angered the people of Kashmir."

Political parties

Most political parties with exception of Kashmiri politicians welcomed the move by the Government of India. The BJP stated that it was a correct move albeit very late. It also stated that the public opinion forced Afzal Guru's hanging.

A leader from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, tweeted "better late than never" after the news of Guru's execution by hanging had been announced. Modi had been previously been critical of the government for delaying Guru's execution after the Supreme Court's final decision.

Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party spokesman Naeem Akhtar also criticised Guru's burial inside the prison complex in New Delhi, saying the body should have been given to his family in Kashmir. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference announced a four-day mourning on the death of Guru. The Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, announced three day mourning and the Kashmir flag waved at half mast.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has been highly critical about Afzal Guru's hanging. He said the "biggest tragedy" of the execution was that he was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged. He also suggested that the Centre was "selective" in avenging attacks on symbols of democracy and backed the allegation that the legal process in the Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru's case was "flawed".

Omar Abdullah’s father, Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Union minister Farooq Abdullah said: "Afzal Guru’s mercy petition was put before the President. He rejected it. The matter is over."

Legal experts

The Hindu published in an article by Praveen Swami where he mentioned that legal experts have cast no small doubt on whether Guru received a fair trial, whether his guilt was proved and whether his death penalty was legitimate. It was cited that the debates on this case had engaged some of India’s finest legal minds for months, both on the side of the state and defence. In Praveen Swami's view "The Supreme Court’s word is not, and ought not to be, the final word. Indeed, the deep ambiguities that surround Guru’s case are in themselves compelling argument to rethink the death penalty."

The press

Although the Press in India has been supportive of Guru's hanging, a section of the press raised apprehension on the manner in which the execution was carried out. In particular, the Times of India pointed out that since assumption of office as president Pranab Mukherjee turned down three clemency petitions – Ajmal Amir Kasab, Afzal Guru and Saibanna Ningappa Natekar. Times of India highlighted the possible dilution of the due process evident from the government's failure to comply with the stipulation of the jail manual to inform Guru's family about the date of the execution. The compromise is more evident in Guru's case because, unlike Kasab, his family members are Indians, who live in Kashmir. The rationale behind this stipulation is to provide the convict a chance to meet his family members for the last time. However in a different article, Times of India also noticed that "There's no doubt, therefore, that the crime of which Afzal has been convicted falls in the "rarest of rare" category. In the event he's gone through due process, as exemplified in the acquittals or lesser sentencing of all three of his co-accused through various stages of the judicial process, depending on quality of evidence. Once the president rejected his mercy petition the government had no option but to carry out the death sentence."

However in an article, it was observed in The Hindu that though judicial determination will – and ought to be – subjected to continued critical scrutiny but there is nothing to show the judicial system was blind to Guru’s legal rights. The article also criticised the journalists and political leaders of 'a certain kind' for not dealing with the "full truth".

Victims' families

The families of victims of the 2001 parliament attack said that they will write to president Pranab Mukherjee to get back the bravery awards returned by them earlier. The families had earlier returned the medals to protest the delay in hanging.

Home minister

Indian Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that Afzal Guru's family was informed about the hanging decision on time. But the family was not aware of Guru's hanging since the Speed post letter sent by the tihar jail authorities regarding the hanging of Afzal reached his family 2 days after his hanging. He defended the secrecy government maintained in the execution saying that it would not have happened had the decision been made public in advance. He also denied the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's charge that he was kept in the dark about the Centre's decision to hang him. He said: "I personally informed Omar about the execution. Also, the family of Afzal Guru was informed on the night of February 07." Asserting the need to maintain secrecy, Shinde said, "This, as Ajmal Kasab's case, was extremely sensitive, government had to be very careful. Secrecy has to be maintained in such cases." He also picked holes in Omar Abdullah’s assertion that Parliament attack convict Guru’s hanging was "out of turn."

Lawyers' resignation

On 13 February, few days after Guru's execution, lawyers N D Pancholi and Nandita Haksar withdrew as his family's counsel, citing "unseemly controversies" and "suspicion" by certain political groups in Kashmir. Without elaborating on the immediate reasons for their decision they said that in Kashmir some political groups feel that there offers of solidarity and friendship with suspicion.

Handing over body

Guru 's wife, Tabasum, had sought to claim his body which was buried in the Tihar Jail. However citing the jail manual, central government is likely to reject the same. Delhi Jail manual provides that the body may not be transferred to the family/friends "if there are grounds for supposing that the prisoner's funeral will be an occasion for a demonstration".

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/afzal-guru-a-chronology-of-events/article4396402.ece
OTHER LINKS:



BLOOD MONEY: QISAS & DIYYA [RASHID AL-RASHIDI EXECUTED IN DUBAI, U.A.E (10 FEBRUARY 2011)]

‘I’M IMMOVABLE. ABORTION IS MURDER’ (HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY! GLENN BECK!) [ARTICLE ON PRO-LIFE OF THE MONTH ~ FEBRUARY 2014]

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NOTICE: The following article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to violate their copyright. I will give some information on them. I chose this article on Pro-Life as it is the 50th Birthday of Glenn Beck on February 10.

ARTICLE TITLE:‘I’m immovable. Abortion is murder’: Glenn explains why he is pro-life
DATE: Thursday January 23, 2014
AUTHOR: Glenn Beck
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Glenn Beck A.K.AGlenn Edward Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative, television network producer, media personality, radio host, author, entrepreneur, and political commentator. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. He formerly hosted the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN and from January 2009 to June 2011 on the Fox News Channel. Beck has authored six New York Times-bestselling books. Beck is the founder and CEO of Mercury Radio Arts, a multimedia production company through which he produces content for radio, television, publishing, the stage, and the Internet. It was announced on April 6, 2011, that Beck would "transition off of his daily program" on Fox News later in the year but would team with Fox to "produce a slate of projects for Fox News Channel and Fox News' digital properties". Beck's last daily show on the network was June 30, 2011.In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named Beck on its Digital Power Fifty list. Beck's supporters praise him as a constitutional stalwart defending traditional American values while his critics contend he promotes conspiracy theories and employs incendiary rhetoric for ratings.


Glenn Beck
Glenn opened this morning’s radio program with a candid monologue about why he is pro-life. In light of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent comments about “right-to-life” “extreme conservatives” not being welcome in his state and prominent Republicans and Democrats stating abortion will be a major theme this election cycle, Glenn decided it was time to broach the sensitive subject and explain why he believes abortion is murder.

Well, get ready. Both political parties have said that they plan to make abortion one of the main issues this election year. Now, why are they doing that? Well, let me give you a real quick snapshot on Cuomo. The reason why Cuomo came out and said: There’s no place for people who are pro-life and everything else is because of Bill de Blasio. Bill has taken the party over in New York, and the Democrats have fully gone leftist in New York. Governor Cuomo is deciding now that he’s got to play a role in that, so he’s got to go as hard left as he possibly can.

This show, while all of us here feel passionately about abortion, we are intensely pro-life, we have never really focused on it. In fact, it was one of those topics that we said we will never really talk about. We don’t want to get into that because it’s so divisive, et cetera, et cetera. And when you have a discussion about it, you just go back and forth in circles and you usually get shouted down with some bull crap about back alley clinics and a war on women. But since it’s about to become a major election issue, and since New York Governor Cuomo has just made being pro-life a big reason for not being welcome in his state, I am going to talk about it.

The biggest problem with this debate is that we as conservatives have lost it. We lost it the day we allowed abortion supporters to get away with the biggest language coup in the history of the world. And because of that coup, the other side is not for killing babies. They are not for mass genocide, which has taken the lives of 55 million children since 1973… They are pro-choice. If we were simply trying to decide whether we have, you know, Rice Krispies over Cap’n Crunch for breakfast, then I would understand calling it pro-choice.

Now, how did this happen in a conversation that is so unbelievably important? They still argue that all they really want is for [abortions] to be safe and rare. But that’s all. Rare and safe. Let’s ask the tens of thousands of women in the horrific abortion mills in Philadelphia and Houston how safe their choice was in a story that the press didn’t want to cover. Let’s ask the untold women whose lives have been torn apart by that choice that you never see in the media because of an agenda. Mentally and physically the relationships that have been destroyed with massive regret for their entire life… Not to mention that with 1.2 to 2 million of those choices every year, adding up to 55 million since 1973. Doesn’t really seem to be that rare at all. Yeah, instead of the death of a baby, instead of the deaths of tens of millions of babies, including a disproportionate number of minorities… it is indeed just a woman’s right to choose.

Forget about the choice that she had about her spouse or boyfriend or whoever had nine months earlier. See, that’s where choice comes into play. That’s where choice comes into play… Forget about the choice she makes at conception. None of that personal responsibility nonsense can even be considered. There can’t be any consequences for anyone’s actions today. No man must pay for his sins. You have to be allowed to choose what goes on with your body. Women need to choose what goes on in their body and with their body.

[…]

But there again, the debate gets side tracked. We can’t even call what’s in the womb life. Can’t do that. It’s not life at all… We have come so far in the past 40 years since Roe vs. Wade. Now it’s some sort of inhuman abuse of women. It’s an extreme violation to even ask a woman to look at what is growing inside of her. Before you make the ultimate, irreversible decision to end your baby’s life, just look at the ultrasound, see what is inside of you. Look at how amazing this is. This is what we do if you’re seeking an abortion in Texas. God bless the Republic of Texas. So why do abortion providers and supporters so vehemently oppose a pre-abortion ultrasound? Well, here’s the reason. Because 90% of the women who have one realize what is in their womb is not tissue. It’s not a knife. It’s not a fork, a spoon, a shoe. It’s a baby. It is her precious living human baby.

But the old adage is true. Control the language, control the argument, control society. Nothing proves that point more vividly than the abortion debate. The other side never even talks about a baby. No human life is even involved at all. In fact, the father and his wishes never, ever even enter into the equation. It’s about a woman and her right to choose, never about the man. What does a man feel? If we object, we’re of course waging a war on women. We’re the oppressors.

We’re the Nazis, which is really ironic, given the fact that again, 55 million human beings were killed in this country and we’re the ones who are trying to desperately stop this genocide because we’re the Nazis… It is a genocide, and I know that’s strong language, but I’m sick and tired of pussyfooting around on the subject. It is time for strong language… It’s murder… I’m immovable. Abortion is murder. Period… The left tries to tell us just as they do with global warming that the debate is over. It’s all settled. Roe vs. Wade, 40 years ago. It’s a Constitutional right. Really? Show me that Constitutional right. Show it to me… It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist in either of our founding documents. It doesn’t exist in our Constitution. It doesn’t exist in the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the preamble of the Constitution specifically protects the unborn. Let me read it for you:


We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, To ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.


Who are our posterity? Our unborn children – those who should be born and will be born. And the Declaration of Independence protects their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[…]

But there are a couple of tough questions regarding abortion. And actually, the first one for me isn’t tough at all: If the mother’s life is in danger. I’m sorry, but if I have to choose between my wife and the mother of my children, and the baby, I’m choosing my wife. Does this make me inconsistent? Perhaps. Does it make me a flawed person? Perhaps it does. Maybe we’ll try again for the baby, and Lord, forgive me, because I am only human. But I need her. My other children need her. I think most people are on board with that. Some people aren’t. And that’s fine. I’m flawed. I pray that I can have a better understanding.

But here’s the really, really hard question. What about the real choice of the woman? What if her right to choose to create a baby was stolen from her [because of] rape? Now you have taken away her right to choose… If you’re asking her to carry to term nine months, a baby from a monster – not the baby’s fault, obviously – but from the woman’s perspective, that reminder, that act of violence, that horrible violation, the trauma of that? I can’t even begin to comprehend. And again, I know that makes me a flawed human. Maybe. I’ve tried. I guess some people would ask her to carry the baby full term because it is either killing a baby or it isn’t. But if she can’t deal with the baby because of the circumstances of conception once the baby is born, give her up for adoption. I understand, I have an adopted son. And he has changed my life. But if it is my wife or daughter, I can’t demand that of her. Horrible flaw in me, I’m sure. But it is who I am today.

But I want to make it very clear: The only reason why they’re going to talk about abortion is because they win. They will separate us and try to make us hate each other. The Republicans will do it to the Democrats and the Democrats will do it to the Republicans. Don’t fall for that. But don’t you dare shy away. We hold these truths to be self-evident for ourselves and our posterity. We must stand up, square our shoulders, and be better than we think we can be, as guardians of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.


HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY! GLENN BECK! [PRO LIFE QUOTE OF THE WEEK ~ SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2014 TO SATURDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2014]

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Glenn Beck

QUOTE:“They were all slave owners! And so they have no concept; we can’t relate to them and we should dismiss everything.” Well — no. You have to put yourself back into their frame of mind. Just like someday, down the road, people are going to have to recognize people like you and people like me as fighting against murder. Abortion. Okay? You stand against abortion — someday — we’re on the right side of this, Kathie Lee — someday, somebody’s going to look back and say, “They were slaughtering babies in the womb! How can you possibly…?” Can you please recognize that many people knew that it was wrong and stood against it. We’re doing the best we can, and that’s the way they were. They’re doing the best they can.”

AUTHOR: Glenn Beck A.K.AGlenn Edward Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative, television network producer, media personality, radio host, author, entrepreneur, and political commentator. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. He formerly hosted the Glenn Beck television program, which ran from January 2006 to October 2008 on HLN and from January 2009 to June 2011 on the Fox News Channel. Beck has authored six New York Times-bestselling books. Beck is the founder and CEO of Mercury Radio Arts, a multimedia production company through which he produces content for radio, television, publishing, the stage, and the Internet. It was announced on April 6, 2011, that Beck would "transition off of his daily program" on Fox News later in the year but would team with Fox to "produce a slate of projects for Fox News Channel and Fox News' digital properties". Beck's last daily show on the network was June 30, 2011.In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter named Beck on its Digital Power Fifty list. Beck's supporters praise him as a constitutional stalwart defending traditional American values while his critics contend he promotes conspiracy theories and employs incendiary rhetoric for ratings.

THE SUICIDE OF BOBBY JOE CLARK (FEBRUARY 11, 2012)

COP KILLER, ANTHONY LEE CHANEY EXECUTED IN ARIZONA ON FEBRUARY 16, 2000

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            On this date, February 16, 2000, Cop Killer, Anthony Lee Chaney was executed by lethal injection. He was convicted of the September 6, 1982 murder of Reserve Deputy John Jamison was killed in the line of duty in Arizona. One of the cop killers, Anthony Lee Chaney was executed by lethal injection 18 years later on February 16, 2000. Please go to the Unit 1012 Blog to hear from the fallen cop’s son, who felt justice was served years later after the execution. 


Anthony Lee Chaney



GUILTY AS SIN: CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM [JANUARY 9, 1968 TO FEBRUARY 17, 2004]

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Ten years ago on this date, February 17, 2004, a psychopath by the name of Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Texas for the arson murder of his three children. As usual, the abolitionists in the U.S.A claim that he is innocent, but I doubt it after going through the facts of the case.


Cameron Todd Willingham
PLEASE GO THE FOLLOWING BLOG POSTS TO LEARN MORE:



OHIOAN NEO NAZI SPREE KILLER: FRANK G. SPISAK JR. (EXECUTED IN OHIO ON FEBRUARY 17, 2011)

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On this date, February 17, 2011, a Neo Nazi by the name of Frank G. Spisak Jr. was executed by lethal injection in Ohio for the shooting spree murder of three people. Please go to this previous blog post to learn more about the killer, and go to the Unit 1012 Blog to hear from the victims’ families. 

 

Neo Nazi, Frank G. Spisak Jr.

THE SPORTPALAST SPEECH (18 FEBRUARY 1943)

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         On this date, 18 February 1943, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech calling for Total War. 

Nazi rally on 18 February 1943 at the Berlin Sportpalast. The sign says "Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg" (Total War – Shortest


The Sportpalast speech (German: Sportpalastrede, Sports-Palace speech) or total war speech was a speech delivered by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large but carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943 calling for a total war, as the tide of World War II had turned against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies.

It is considered the most famous of Joseph Goebbels's speeches. The speech was the first public admission by the Nazi leadership that Germany faced serious dangers. Goebbels exhorted the German people to continue the war even though it would be long and difficult because—as he asserted—both Germany's survival and the survival of a non-Bolshevist Europe were at stake.

Background

Compared to the previous year, 1943 started inauspiciously, with Germany suffering major military problems on all fronts. On 2 February the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the surrender of Field Marshal Paulus and the German 6th Army to the Soviets. At the Casablanca Conference, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill demanded Germany's unconditional surrender, and the Soviets, spurred by their victory, were beginning to retake territory, including Kursk (8 February), Rostov (14 February), and Kharkiv (16 February). In North Africa, the Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was being brought close to defeat, when German supply ships sailing to Tripoli were sunk by the Allies during January. The Western Desert Campaign had ended with British victory and the Axis were in Tunisia between two Allied forces—one advancing from Algeria and one from Libya. The fortunes of Germany's Axis allies were turning as well. Italy's military collapse had made the war in Africa a largely German operation, and in the Pacific, the Americans had just completed their months-long reconquest of Guadalcanal after their victories against Japanese forces at Midway and the Coral Sea.

Adolf Hitler responded with the first measures that would lead to the all-out mobilization of Germany. On 2 February, 100,000 restaurants and clubs were closed throughout the country so that the civilian population could contribute more to the war.

Setting and audience

The setting of the speech in the Sportpalast placed the audience behind and under a big banner bearing the all-capitals German words "TOTALER KRIEG — KÜRZESTER KRIEG" (total war — briefest war) along with Nazi banners and Nazi swastikas.

Although Goebbels claimed that the audience included people from "all classes and occupations" (including "soldiers, doctors, scientists, artists, engineers and architects, teachers, white collars") it was evident to outsiders that the propagandist had carefully selected his listeners. After the speech, Goebbels said to Albert Speer that it was the best-trained audience one could find in Germany.

Details

Goebbels cited three theses in the speech:
  1. If the Wehrmacht was not in a position to break the danger from the Eastern front, then the German Reich would fall to Bolshevism, and all of Europe shortly afterwards;
  2. The Wehrmacht, the German people, and the Axis Powers alone had the strength to save Europe from this threat;
  3. Danger was at hand. Germany had to act quickly and decisively, or it would be too late.
Goebbels concluded that "Two thousand years of Western history are in danger," and blamed Germany's failures on the Jews. While Goebbels referred to Soviet mobilization nationwide as "devilish," he explained that "We cannot overcome the Bolshevist danger unless we use equivalent, though not identical, methods [in a] total war." He then justified the austerity measures enacted, explaining them as temporary measures.

Historically, the speech is important in that it marks the first admission by the Party leadership that they were facing problems, and launched the mobilization campaign that, arguably, prolonged the war, under the slogan: "And storm, break loose!" (Und Sturm, brich los!). Goebbels claimed that no German was thinking of any compromise and instead that "the entire nation is only thinking about a hard war".

Goebbels attempted to counter reports in the Allied press that German civilians had lost faith in victory by asking the audience a number of questions at the end, such as:

Do you believe with the Führer and us in the final total victory of the German people? Are you and the German people willing to work, if the Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory? Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?

The recorded oral version of the speech differed in some ways from the written record. The enthusiastic and unified crowd response recorded in the written version is, at times, less than fully supported by the recording.

Especially significant is that in the oral (vs. written) record of the speech, Goebbels actually begins to mention the "extermination" of the Jews, rather than the less harsh terms used in the written version to describe the "solution", but catches himself in the middle of the word.

Quotes

Original German
English translation
Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg? Wollt ihr ihn, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir ihn uns heute überhaupt erst vorstellen können?
"I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?"
[…]
[…]
Nun, Volk, steh auf und Sturm brich los!
"Now, people, rise up, and let the storm break loose!"

The last line originated in the poem Männer und Buben (Men and Boys) by Carl Theodor Körner during the Napoleonic Wars. Körner's words had been quoted by Adolf Hitler in his 1920 speech "What We Want" delivered at Munich's Hofbräuhaus, but also by Goebbels himself in older speeches, including his 6 July 1932 campaign speech before the Nazis took power in Germany.

Original German
English translation
Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg? Wollt ihr ihn, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir ihn uns heute überhaupt erst vorstellen können?
"I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?"
[…]
[…]
Nun, Volk, steh auf und Sturm brich los!
"Now, people, rise up, and let the storm break loose!"

The last line originated in the poem Männer und Buben (Men and Boys) by Carl Theodor Körner during the Napoleonic Wars. Körner's words had been quoted by Adolf Hitler in his 1920 speech "What We Want" delivered at Munich's Hofbräuhaus, but also by Goebbels himself in older speeches, including his 6 July 1932 campaign speech before the Nazis took power in Germany.

Reception

Millions of Germans listened to Goebbels on the radio as he delivered this speech about the "misfortune of the past weeks" and an "unvarnished picture of the situation." The audience reacted fanatically, causing an even bigger impact; they were selected by Goebbels to perform appropriately, showing one of his many skills as propaganda minister. Goebbels also wanted, by amassing such popular enthusiasm, to convince Hitler to give him greater powers in running the war economy.


Background: This long speech by Joseph Goebbels is also his most famous. It was delivered on 18 February 1943 to a large, but carefully selected audience in Berlin. The battle of Stalingrad had ended, and the true seriousness of the war was evident to everyone. Goebbels wanted the speech to build popular enthusiasm for the war, and also to convince Hitler to give him greater powers in running the war economy. Albert Speer reports talking with Goebbels afterwards:
Except for Hitler’s most successful public meetings, I had never seen an audience so effectively roused to fanaticism. Back in his home, Goebbels astonished me by analyzing what had seemed to be a purely emotional outburst in terms of its psychological effect — much as an experienced actor might have done. He was also satisfied with his audience that evening. “Did you notice? They reacted to the smallest nuance and applauded at just the right moments. It was the politically best-trained audience you can find in Germany.”
Goebbels had used the concluding quotation of the speech (“Now, people rise up, and let the storm break loose!”) in earlier speeches, for example a campaign speech before the Nazi takeover of power on 6 July 1932. 
I particularly thank Malte Ecker in Berlin, who made many valuable suggestions for improving my translation, and caught a number of errors. 
In my book Landmark Speeches of National Socialism, I provide the oral versionof the speech. There are signficant differences between the two. The most striking is that in the oral version, Goebbels begins to mention the extermination of the Jews, then catches himself in the middle of the word. It’s also interesting to note that the audience reactions reported in the text below are sometimes stronger than the recording justifies.
The source: “Nun, Volk steh auf, und Sturm brich los! Rede im Berliner Sportpalast,” Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944), pp. 167-204.



 
Add caption


Nation, Rise Up, and Let the Storm Break Loose

by Joseph Goebbels

Only three weeks ago I stood in this place to read the Führer’s proclamation on the 10th anniversary of the seizure of power, and to speak to you and to the German people. The crisis we now face on the Eastern Front was at its height. In the midst of the hard misfortunes the nation faced in the battle on the Volga, we gathered together in a mass meeting on the 30th of January to display our unity, our unanimity and our strong will to overcome the difficulties we faced in the fourth year of the war.

It was a moving experience for me, and probably also for all of you, to be bound by radio with the last heroic fighters in Stalingrad during our powerful meeting here in the Sport Palace. They radioed to us that they had heard the Führer’s proclamation, and perhaps for the last time in their lives joined us in raising their hands to sing the national anthems. What an example German soldiers have set in this great age! And what an obligation it puts on us all, particularly the entire German homeland! Stalingrad was and is fate’s great alarm call to the German nation! A nation that has the strength to survive and overcome such a disaster, even to draw from it additional strength, is unbeatable. In my speech to you and the German people, I shall remember the heroes of Stalingrad, who put me and all of us under a deep obligation.

I do not know how many millions of people are listening to me over the radio tonight, at home and at the front. I want to speak to all of you from the depths of my heart to the depths of yours. I believe that the entire German people has a passionate interest in what I have to say tonight. I will therefore speak with holy seriousness and openness, as the hour demands. The German people, raised, educated and disciplined by National Socialism, can bear the whole truth. It knows the gravity of the situation, and its leadership can therefore demand the necessary hard measures, yes even the hardest measures. We Germans are armed against weakness and uncertainty. The blows and misfortunes of the war only give us additional strength, firm resolve, and a spiritual and fighting will to overcome all difficulties and obstacles with revolutionary élan.

Now is not the time to ask how it all happened. That can wait until later, when the German people and the whole world will learn the full truth about the misfortune of the past weeks, and its deep and fateful significance. The heroic sacrifices of heroism of our soldiers in Stalingrad has had vast historical significance for the whole Eastern Front. It was not in vain. The future will make clear why.

When I jump over the past to look ahead, I do it intentionally. The time is short! There is no time for fruitless debates. We must act, immediately, thoroughly, and decisively, as has always been the National Socialist way.

The movement has from its beginning acted in that way to master the many crises it faced and overcame. The National Socialist state also acted decisively when faced by a threat. We are not like the ostrich that sticks its head in the sand so as not to see danger. We are brave enough to look danger in the face, to coolly and ruthlessly take its measure, then act decisively with our heads held high. Both as a movement and as a nation, we have always been at our best when we needed fanatic, determined wills to overcome and eliminate danger, or a strength of character sufficient to overcome every obstacle, or bitter determination to reach our goal, or an iron heart capable of withstanding every internal and external battle. So it will be today. My task is to give you an unvarnished picture of the situation, and to draw the hard conclusions that will guide the actions of the German government, but also of the German people.

We face a serious military challenge in the East. The crisis is at the moment a broad one, similar but not identical in many ways to that of the previous winter. Later we will discuss the causes. Now, we must accept things as they are and discover and apply the ways and means to turn things again in our favor. There is no point in disputing the seriousness of the situation. I do not want to give you a false impression of the situation that could lead to false conclusions, perhaps giving the German people a false sense of security that is altogether inappropriate in the present situation.

The storm raging against our venerable continent from the steppes this winter overshadows all previous human and historical experience. The German army and its allies are the only possible defense. In his proclamation on 30 January, the Führer asked in a grave and compelling way what would have become of Germany and Europe if, on 30 January 1933, a bourgeois or democratic government had taken power instead of the National Socialists! What dangers would have followed, faster than we could then have suspected, and what powers of defense would we have had to meet them? Ten years of National Socialism have been enough to make plain to the German people the seriousness of the danger posed by Bolshevism from the East. Now one can understand why we spoke so often of the fight against Bolshevism at our Nuremberg party rallies. We raised our voices in warning to our German people and the world, hoping to awaken Western humanity from the paralysis of will and spirit into which it had fallen. We tried to open their eyes to the horrible danger from Eastern Bolshevism, which had subjected a nation of nearly 200 million people to the terror of the Jews and was preparing an aggressive war against Europe.

When the Führer ordered the army to attack the East on 22 June 1941, we all knew that this would be the decisive battle of this great struggle. We knew the dangers and difficulties. But we also knew that dangers and difficulties always grow over time, they never diminish. It was two minutes before midnight. Waiting any longer could easily have led to the destruction of the Reich and a total Bolshevization of the European continent.

It is understandable that, as a result of broad concealment and misleading actions by the Bolshevist government, we did not properly evaluate the Soviet Union’s war potential. Only now do we see its true scale. That is why the battle our soldiers face in the East exceeds in its hardness, dangers and difficulties all human imagining. It demands our full national strength. This is a threat to the Reich and to the European continent that casts all previous dangers into the shadows. If we fail, we will have failed our historic mission. Everything we have built and done in the past pales in the face of this gigantic task that the German army directly and the German people less directly face.

I speak first to the world, and proclaim three theses regarding our fight against the Bolshevist danger in the East.

This first thesis: Were the German army not in a position to break the danger from the East, the Reich would fall to Bolshevism, and all Europe shortly afterwards.

Second: The German army, the German people and their allies alone have the strength to save Europe from this threat.

Third: Danger faces us. We must act quickly and decisively, or it will be too late.

I turn to the first thesis. Bolshevism has always proclaimed its goal openly: to bring revolution not only to Europe, but to the entire world, and plunge it into Bolshevist chaos. This goal has been evident from the beginning of the Bolshevist Soviet Union, and has been the ideological and practical goal of the Kremlin’s policies. Clearly, the nearer Stalin and the other Soviet leaders believe they are to realizing their world-destroying objectives, the more they attempt to hide and conceal them. We cannot be fooled. We are not like those timid souls who wait like the hypnotized rabbit until the serpent devours them. We prefer to recognize the danger in good time and take effective action. We see through not only the ideology of Bolshevism, but also its practice, for we had great success with that in our domestic struggles. The Kremlin cannot deceive us. We had fourteen years of our struggle for power, and ten years thereafter, to unmask its intentions and its infamous deceptions.

The goal of Bolshevism is Jewish world revolution. They want to bring chaos to the Reich and Europe, using the resulting hopelessness and desperation to establish their international, Bolshevist-concealed capitalist tyranny.

I do not need to say what that would mean for the German people. A Bolshevization of the Reich would mean the liquidation of our entire intelligentsia and leadership, and the descent of our workers into Bolshevist-Jewish slavery. In Moscow, they find workers for forced labor battalions in the Siberian tundra, as the Führer said in his proclamation on 30 January. The revolt of the steppes is readying itself at the front, and the storm from the East that breaks against our lines daily in increasing strength is nothing other than a repetition of the historical devastation that has so often in the past endangered our part of the world.

That is a direct threat to the existence of every European power. No one should believe that Bolshevism would stop at the borders of the Reich, were it to be victorious. The goal of its aggressive policies and wars is the Bolshevization of every land and people in the world. In the face of such undeniable intentions, we are not impressed by paper declarations from the Kremlin or guarantees from London or Washington. We know that we are dealing in the East with an infernal political devilishness that does not recognize the norms governing relations between people and nations. When for example the English Lord Beaverbrook says that Europe must be given over to the Soviets or when the leading American Jewish journalist Brown cynically adds that a Bolshevization of Europe might solve all of the continent’s problems, we know what they have in mind. The European powers are facing the most critical question. The West is in danger. It makes no difference whether or not their governments and intellectuals realize it or not.

The German people, in any event, is unwilling to bow to this danger. Behind the oncoming Soviet divisions we see the Jewish liquidation commandos, and behind them terror, the specter of mass starvation and complete anarchy. International Jewry is the devilish ferment of decomposition that finds cynical satisfaction in plunging the world into the deepest chaos and destroying ancient cultures that it played no role in building.

We also know our historic responsibility. Two thousand years of Western civilization are in danger. One cannot overestimate the danger. It is indicative that when one names it as it is, International Jewry throughout the world protests loudly. Things have gone so far in Europe that one cannot call a danger a danger when it is caused by the Jews.

That does not stop us from drawing the necessary conclusions. That is what we did in our earlier domestic battles. The democratic Jewry of the “Berliner Tageblatt” and the “Vossischen Zeitung” served communist Jewry by minimizing and downplaying a growing danger, and by lulling our threatened people to sleep and reducing their ability to resist. We could see, if the danger were not overcome, the specter of hunger, misery, and forced labor by millions of Germans. We could see our venerable part of the world collapse, and bury in its ruins the ancient inheritance of the West. That is the danger we face today.

My second thesis: Only the German Reich and its allies are in the position to resist this danger. The European nations, including England, believe that they are strong enough to resist effectively the Bolshevization of Europe, should it come to that. This belief is childish and not even worth refuting. If the strongest military force in the world is not able to break the threat of Bolshevism, who else could do it? (The crowd in the Sportpalast shouts “No one!”). The neutral European nations have neither the potential nor the military means nor the spiritual strength to provide even the least resistance to Bolshevism. Bolshevism’s robotic divisions would roll over them within a few days. In the capitals of the mid-sized and smaller European states, they console themselves with the idea that one must be spiritually armed against Bolshevism (laughter). That reminds us of the statements by bourgeois parties in 1932, who thought they could fight and win the battle against communism with spiritual weapons. That was too stupid even then to be worth refuting. Eastern Bolshevism is not only a doctrine of terrorism, it is also the practice of terrorism. It strives for its goals with an infernal thoroughness, using every resource at its disposal, regardless of the welfare, prosperity or peace of the peoples it ruthlessly oppresses. What would England and America do if, in the worst case, Europe fell into Bolshevism’s arms? Will London perhaps persuade Bolshevism to stop at the English Channel? I have already said that Bolshevism has its foreign legions in the form of communist parties in every democratic nation. None of these states can think it is immune to domestic Bolshevism. In a recent by-election for the House of Commons, the independent, that is communist, candidate got 10,741 of the 22,371 votes cast. This was in a district that had formerly been a conservative stronghold. Within a short time, 10,000 voters, nearly half, had been lost to the communists.

That is proof that the Bolshevist danger exists in England too, and that it will not go away simply because it is ignored. We place no faith in any territorial promises that the Soviet Union may make. Bolshevism set ideological as well as military boundaries, which poses a danger to every nation. The world no longer has the choice between falling back into its old fragmentation or accepting a new order for Europe under Axis leadership. The only choice now is between living under Axis protection or in a Bolshevist Europe.

I am firmly convinced that the lamenting lords and archbishops in London have not the slightest intention of resisting the Bolshevist danger that would result were the Soviet army to enter Europe. Jewry has so deeply infected the Anglo-Saxon states both spiritually and politically that they are no longer have the ability to see the danger. It conceals itself as Bolshevism in the Soviet Union, and plutocratic-capitalism in the Anglo-Saxon states. The Jewish race is an expert at mimicry. They put their host peoples to sleep, paralyzing their defensive abilities. (Shouts from the crowd: “We have experienced it!”). Our insight into the matter led us to the early realization that cooperation between international plutocracy and international Bolshevism was not a contradiction, but rather a sign of deep commonalities. The hand of the pseudo-civilized Jewry of Western Europe shakes the hand of the Jewry of the Eastern ghettos over Germany. Europe is in deadly danger.

I do not flatter myself into believing that my remarks will influence public opinion in the neutral, much less the enemy, states. That is also not my goal or intention. I know that, given our problems on the Eastern Front, the English press tomorrow will furiously attack me with the accusation that I have made the first peace feelers (loud laughter). That is certainly not so. No one in Germany thinks any longer of a cowardly compromise. The entire people thinks only of a hard war. As a spokesman for the leading nation of the continent, however, I claim the right to call a danger a danger if it threatens not threatens not only our own land, but our entire continent. We National Socialists have the duty to sound the alarm against International Jewry’s attempt to plunge the European continent into chaos, and to warn that Jewry has in Bolshevism a terroristic military power whose danger cannot be overestimated.

My third thesis is that the danger is immediate. The paralysis of the Western European democracies before their deadliest threat is frightening. International Jewry is doing all it can to encourage such paralysis. During our struggle for power in Germany, Jewish newspapers tried to conceal the danger, until National Socialism awakened the people. It is just the same today in other nations. Jewry once again reveals itself as the incarnation of evil, as the plastic demon of decay and the bearer of an international culture-destroying chaos.

This explains, by the way, our consistent Jewish policies. We see Jewry as a direct threat to every nation. We do not care what other peoples do about the danger. What we do to defend ourselves is our own business, however, and we will not tolerate objections from others. Jewry is a contagious infection. Enemy nations may raise hypocritical protests against our measures against Jewry and cry crocodile tears, but that will not stop us from doing that which is necessary. Germany, in any event, has no intention of bowing before this threat, but rather intends to take the most radical measures, if necessary, in good time (After this sentence, the chants of the audience prevent the minister from going on for several minutes).

The military challenges of the Reich in the East are at the center of everything. The war of mechanized robots against Germany and Europe has reached its high point. In resisting the grave and direct threat with its weapons, the German people and its Axis allies are fulfilling in the truest sense of the word a European mission. Our courageous and just battle against this world-wide plague will not be hindered by the worldwide outcry of International Jewry. It can and must end only with victory (Here there are loud shouts: “German men, to arms! German women, to work!”).

The tragic battle of Stalingrad is a symbol of heroic, manly resistance to the revolt of the steppes. It has not only a military, but also an intellectual and spiritual significance for the German people. Here for the first time our eyes have been opened to the true nature of the war. We want no more false hopes and illusions. We want bravely to look the facts in the face, however hard and dreadful they may be. The history of our party and our state has proven that a danger recognized is a danger defeated. Our coming hard battles in the East will be under the sign of this heroic resistance. It will require previously undreamed of efforts by our soldiers and our weapons. A merciless war is raging in the East. The Führer was right when he said that in the end there will not be winners and losers, but the living and the dead.

The German nation knows that. Its healthy instincts have led it through the daily confusion of intellectual and spiritual difficulties. We know today that the Blitzkrieg in Poland and the campaign in the West have only limited significance to the battle in the East. The German nation is fighting for everything it has. We know that the German people are defending their holiest possessions: their families, women and children, the beautiful and untouched countryside, their cities and villages, their two thousand year old culture, everything indeed that makes life worth living.

Bolshevism of course has not the slightest appreciation for our nation’s treasures, and would take no heed of them whatsoever if it came to that. It did not do so even for its own people. The Soviet Union over the last 25 years built up Bolshevism’s military potential to an unimaginable degree, and one we falsely evaluated. Terrorist Jewry had 200 million people to serve it in Russia. It cynically used its methods on to create out of the stolid toughness of the Russian people a grave danger for the civilized nations of Europe. A whole nation in the East was driven to battle. Men, women, and even children are employed not only in armaments factories, but in the war itself. 200 million live under the terror of the GPU, partially captives of a devilish viewpoint, partially of absolute stupidity. The masses of tanks we have faced on the Eastern Front are the result of 25 years of social misfortune and misery of the Bolshevist people. We have to respond with similar measures if we do not want to give up the game as lost.

My firm conviction is that we cannot overcome the Bolshevist danger unless we use equivalent, though not identical, methods. The German people face the gravest demand of the war, namely of finding the determination to use all our resources to protect everything we have and everything we will need in the future.

Total war is the demand of the hour. We must put an end to the bourgeois attitude that we have also seen in this war: Wash my back, but don’t get me wet! (Every sentence is met with growing applause and agreement.) The danger facing us is enormous. The efforts we take to meet it must be just as enormous. The time has come to remove the kid gloves and use our fists. (A cry of elemental agreement rises. Chants from the galleries and seats testify to the full approval of the crowd.) We can no longer make only partial and careless use of the war potential at home and in the significant parts of Europe that we control. We must use our full resources, as quickly and thoroughly as it is organizationally and practically possible. Unnecessary concern is wholly out of place. The future of Europe hangs on our success in the East. We are ready to defend it. The German people are shedding their most valuable national blood in this battle. The rest of Europe should at least work to support us. There are many serious voices in Europe that have already realized this. Others still resist. That cannot influence us. If danger faced them alone, we could view their reluctance as literary nonsense of no significance. But the danger faces us all, and we must all do our share. Those who today do not understand that will thank us tomorrow on bended knees that we courageously and firmly took on the task.

It bothers us not in the least that our enemies abroad claim that our total war measures resemble those of Bolshevism. They claim hypocritically that that means there is no need to fight Bolshevism. The question here is not one of method, but of the goal, namely eliminating the danger. (Applause for several minutes) The question is not whether the methods are good or bad, but whether they are successful. The National Socialist government is ready to use every means. We do not care if anyone objects. We are not willing to weaken Germany’s war potential by measures that maintain a high, almost peace-time standard of living for a certain class, thereby endangering our war effort. We are voluntarily giving up a significant part of our living standard to increase our war effort as quickly and completely as possible. This is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. Our social standard of living will be even higher after the war. We do not need to imitate Bolshevist methods, because we have better people and leaders, which gives us a great advantage. But things have shown that we must do much more than we have done so far to turn the war in the East decisively in our favor.

As countless letters from the homeland and the front have shown, by the way, the entire German people agrees. Everyone knows that if we lose, all will be destroyed. The people and leadership are determined to take the most radical measures. The broad working masses of our people are not unhappy because the government is too ruthless. If anything, they are unhappy because it is too considerate. Ask anyone in Germany, and he will say: The most radical is just radical enough, and the most total is just total enough to gain victory.

The total war effort has become a matter of the entire German people. No one has any excuse for ignoring its demands. A storm of applause greeted my call on 30 January for total war. I can therefore assure you that the leadership’s measures are in full agreement with the desires of the German people at home and at the front. The people are willing to bear any burden, even the heaviest, to make any sacrifice, if it leads to the great goal of victory. (Lively applause)

This naturally assumes that the burdens are shared equally. (Loud approval) We cannot tolerate a situation in which most people carry the burden of the war, while a small, passive portion attempts to escape its burdens and responsibilities. The measures we have taken, and the ones we will yet take, will be characterized by the spirit of National Socialist justice. We pay no heed to class or standing. Rich and poor, high and low must share the burdens equally. Everyone must do his duty in this grave hour, whether by choice or otherwise. We know this has the full support of the people. We would rather do too much rather than too little to achieve victory. No war in history has ever been lost because of too many soldiers or weapons. Many, however, have been lost because the opposite was true.

It is time to get the slackers moving. (Stormy agreement) They must be shaken out of their comfortable ease. We cannot wait until they come to their senses. That might be too late. The alarm must sound throughout the nation. Millions of hands must get to work throughout the country. The measures we have taken, and the ones we will now take, and which I shall discuss later in this speech, are critical for our whole public and private life. The individual may have to make great sacrifices, but they are tiny when compared to the sacrifices he would have to make if his refusal brought down on us the greatest national disaster. It is better to operate at the right time than to wait until the disease has taken root. One may not complain to the doctor or sue him for bodily injury. He cuts not to kill, but to save the patient’s life.

Again let me say that the heavier the sacrifices the German people must make, the more urgent it is that they be fairly shared. The people want it that way. No one resists even the heaviest burdens of war. But it angers people when a few always try to escape the burdens. The National Socialist government has both the moral and political duty to oppose such attempts, if necessary with draconian penalties. (Agreement) Leniency here would be completely out of place, leading in time to a confusion in the people’s emotions and attitudes that would be a grave danger to our public morale.

We are therefore compelled to adopt a series of measures that are not essential for the war effort in themselves, but seem necessary to maintain moral at home and at the front. The optics of the war, that is, how things outwardly appear, is of decisive importance in this fourth year of war. In view of the superhuman sacrifices that the front makes each day, it has a basic right to expect that no one at home claims the right to ignore the war and its demands. And not only the front demands this, but the overwhelming part of the homeland. The industrious have a right to expect that if they work ten or twelve or fourteen hours a day, a lazy person does not stand next to them who thinks them foolish. The homeland must stay pure and intact in its entirety. Nothing may disturb the picture.

There are therefore a series of measures that take account of the war’s optics. We have ordered, for example, the closing of bars and night clubs. I cannot imagine that people who are doing their duty for the war effort still have the energy to stay out late into the night in such places. I can only conclude that they are not taking their responsibilities seriously. We have closed these establishments because they began to offend us, and because they disturb the image of the war. We have nothing against amusements as such. After the war we will happily go by the rule “Live and let live.” But during a war, the slogan must be “Fight and let fight!”

We have also closed luxury restaurants that demand far more resources than is reasonable. It may be that an occasional person thinks that, even during war, his stomach is the most important thing. We cannot pay him any heed. At the front everyone from the simple soldier to the general field marshal eats from the field kitchen. I do not believe that it is asking too much to insist that we in the homeland pay heed to at least the basic laws of community thinking. We can become gourmets once again when the war is over. Right now, we have more important things to do than worry about our stomachs.

Countless luxury stores have also been closed. They often offended the buying public. There was generally nothing to buy, unless perhaps one paid here and there with butter or eggs instead of money. What good do shops do that no longer have anything to sell, but only use electricity, heating, and human labor that is lacking everywhere else, particularly in the armaments industry.

It is no excuse to say that keeping some of these shops open gives a lovely impression to foreigners. Foreigners will be impressed only by a German victory! (Stormy applause). Everyone will want to be our friend if we win the war. But if we lose, we will be able to count our friends on the fingers of one hand. We have put an end to such illusions. We want to put these people standing in empty shops to useful work in the war economy. This process is already in motion, and will be completed by 15 March. It is of course a major transformation in our entire economic life. We are following a plan. We do not want to accuse anyone unjustly or open them to complaints and accusations from every side. We are only doing what is necessary. But we are doing it quickly and thoroughly.

We would rather wear worn clothing for a few years than have our people wear rags for a few centuries. What good are fashion salons today? They only use light, heat and workers. They will reappear when the war is over. What good are beauty shops that encourage a cult of beauty and take enormous time and energy? In peace they are wonderful, but a waste of time during war. Our women and girls will be able to greet our victorious returning soldiers without their peacetime finery. (Applause)

Government offices will work faster and less bureaucratically. It does not leave a good impression when the office closes on the dot after eight hours. The people are not there for the offices, the offices are there for the people. One has to work until the work is done. That is a requirement of the war. If the Führer can do that, so can his paid employees. If there is not enough work to fill the extended hours, 10 or 20 or 30 percent of the workers can be transferred to war production and replace other men for service at the front. That applies to all offices in the homeland. That by itself may make the work in some offices go more quickly and easily. We must learn from the war to operate quickly, not only thoroughly. The soldier at the front does not have weeks to think things over, to pass his thoughts up the line or let them sit in dusty files. He must act immediately or lose his life. In the homeland we do not lose our lives if we work slowly, but we do endanger the life of our people.

Everyone must learn to pay heed to war morale, and pay attention to the just demands of working and fighting people. We are not spoilsports, but neither will we tolerate those who hinder our efforts.

It is, for example, intolerable that certain men and women stay for weeks in spas and trade rumors, taking places away from soldiers on leave or from workers who are entitled to a vacation after a year of hard work. That is intolerable, and we have put an end to it. The war is not a time for amusement. Until it is over, we take our deepest satisfaction in work and battle. Those who do not understand that by themselves must be taught to understand it, and forced if need be. The harshest measures may be needed.

It does not look good, for example, when we devote enormous propaganda to the theme: “Wheels must roll for victory!,” with the result that people avoid unnecessary travel only to see unemployed pleasure-seekers find more room for themselves in the trains. The railroad serves to transport war goods and travelers on war business. Only those who need a rest from hard work deserve a vacation. The Führer has not had a day of vacation since the war began. Since the first man of the country takes his duty so seriously and responsibly, it must be expected that every citizen will follow his example.

On the other hand, the government is doing all it can to give working people the relaxation they need in these trying times. Theaters, movie houses, and music halls remain in full operation. The radio is working to expand and improve its programming. We have no intention of inflicting a gray winter mood on our people. That which serves the people and keeps up its fighting and working strength is good and essential to the war effort. We want to eliminate the opposite. To balance the measures I have already discussed, I have therefore ordered that cultural and spiritual establishments that serve the people not be decreased, but increased. As long as they aid rather than harm the war effort, they must be supported by the government. That applies to sports as well. Sports are not only for particular circles today, but a matter for the entire people. Military exemptions for athletes are out of place. The purpose of sports is to steel the body, certainly with the goal of using it appropriately in time of the people’s greatest need.

The front shares our desires. The entire German people agrees passionately. It is no longer willing to put up with efforts that only waste time and resources. It will not put up with complicated questionnaires on every possible issue. It does not want to worry about a thousand minor matters that may have been important in peace, but are entirely unimportant during war. It also does not need to be constantly reminded of its duty by references to the great sacrifices of our soldiers at Stalingrad. It knows what it has to do. It wants everyone, high and low, rich and poor, to share a spartan life style. The Führer gives us all an example, one that must be followed by everyone. He knows only work and care. We do not want to leave it all to him, but rather we want to take that part of it from him which we are able to bear.

The present day has a remarkable resemblance for every genuine National Socialist to the period of struggle. We have always acted in the same way. We were with the people through thick and thin, and that is why the people followed us. We have always carried our burdens together with the people, and therefore they did not seem heavy to us, but rather light. The people want to be led. Never in history has the people failed a brave and determined leadership a critical hour.

Let me say a few words in this regard about practical measures in our total war effort that we have already taken.

The problem is freeing soldiers for the front, and freeing workers for the armaments industry. 

These are the primary goals, even at the cost of our standard of social life. This does not mean a permanent decline in our standard of living. It is only a means to reaching an end, that of total war.

As part of this campaign, hundreds of thousands of military exemptions have been canceled. These exemptions were given because we did not have enough skilled labor to fill the positions that would have been left open by revoking them. The reason for our current measures is to mobilize the necessary workers. That is why we have appealed to men not working in the war economy, and to women who were not working at all. They will not and cannot ignore our call. The duty for women to work is broad. That does not however mean that only those included in the law have to work. Anyone is welcome. The more who join the war effort, the more soldiers we can free for the front.

Our enemies maintain that German women are not able to replace men in the war economy. That may be true for certain fields of heavy labor. But I am convinced that the German woman is determined to fill the spot left by the man leaving for the front, and to do so as soon as possible. We do not need to point out Bolshevism’s example. For years, millions of the best German women have been working successfully in war production, and they wait impatiently to be joined and assisted by others. All those who join in the work are only giving the proper thanks to those at the front. Hundreds of thousands have already joined, and hundreds of thousands more will join. We hope soon to free up armies of workers who will in turn free up armies of fighting front soldiers.

I would think little of German women if I believed that they do not want to listen to my appeal. They will not seek to follow the letter of the law, or to slip through its loopholes. They few who may try will not succeed. We will not accept a doctor’s excuse. Nor will we accept the alibi that one must help one’s husband or relative or good friend as a way of avoiding work. We will respond appropriately. The few who may attempt it will only lose the respect of those around them. The people will despise them. No one expects a woman lacking the requisite physical strength to go to work in a tank factory. There are however numerous jobs in war production that do not demand great physical strength, and which a woman can do even if she comes from the better circles. No one is too good to work, and we all have the choice to give up what we have, or to lose everything.

It is also time to ask women with household help if they really need it. One can take care of the house and children oneself, freeing the servant for other tasks, or leave the house and children in care of the servant or the NSV [the party welfare organization], and go to work oneself. Life may not be as pleasant as it is during peace. But we are not at peace, we are at war. We can be comfortable after we have won the war. Now we must sacrifice our comforts to gain victory.

Soldiers’ wives surely understand this. They know it is their duty to their husbands to support them by doing work that is important to the war effort. That is true above all in agriculture. The wives of farmers must set a good example. Both men and women must be sure that no one does less during war than they did in peace; more work must instead be done in every area.

One may not, by the way, make the mistake of leaving everything to the government. The government can only set the broad guidelines. To give life to those guidelines is the job of working people, under the inspiring leadership of the party. Fast action is essential.

One must go beyond the legal requirements. “Volunteer!” is the slogan. As Gauleiter of Berlin, I appeal here above all to my fellow Berliners. They have given enough good examples of noble behavior and bravery during the war such that they will not fail here. Their practical behavior and good cheer even during war have earned them a good name throughout the world. This good name must be maintained and strengthened! If I appeal to my fellow Berliners to do some important work quickly, thoroughly, and without complaint, I know they will all obey. We do not want to complain about the difficulties of the day or grump to one another. Rather we want to behave not only like Berliners, but like Germans, by getting to work, acting, seizing the initiative and doing something, not leaving it to someone else.

What German woman would want to ignore my appeal on behalf of those fighting at the front? Who would want to put personal comfort above national duty? Who in view of the serious threat we face would want to consider his private needs instead of the requirements of the war?

I reject with contempt the enemy’s claim that we are imitating Bolshevism. We do not want to imitate Bolshevism, we want to defeat it, with whatever means are necessary. The German woman will best understand what I mean, for she has long known that the war our men are fighting today above all is a war to protect her children. Her holiest possession is guarded by our people’s most valuable blood. The German woman must spontaneously proclaim her solidarity with her fighting men. She had better join the ranks of millions of workers in the homeland’s army, and do it tomorrow rather than the day after tomorrow. A river of readiness must flow through the German people. I expect that countless women and above all men who are not doing essential war work will report to the authorities. He who gives quickly gives twice as much.

Our general economy is consolidating. That particularly affects the insurance and banking systems, the tax system, newspapers and magazines that are not essential for the war effort, and nonessential party and government activities, and also requires a further simplification of our life style.

I know that many of our people are making great sacrifices. I understand their sacrifices, and the government is trying to keep them to the necessary minimum. But some must remain, and must be borne. When the war is over, we will build up that which we now are eliminating, more generously and more beautifully, and the state will lend its hand.

I energetically reject the charge that our measures will eliminate the middle class or result in a monopoly economy. The middle class will regain its economic and social position after the war. The current measures are necessary for the war effort. They aim not at a structural transformation of the economy, but merely at winning the war as quickly as possible.

I do not dispute the fact that these measures will cause worry in the coming weeks. They will give us breathing room. We are laying the groundwork for the coming summer, without paying heed to the threats and boasting of the enemy. I am happy to reveal this plan for victory (Stormy applause) to the German people. They not only accept these measures, they have demanded them, demanded them more strongly than ever before during the war. The people want action! It is time for it! We must use our time to prepare for coming surprises.

I turn now to the entire German people, and particularly to the party, as the leader of the totalization of our domestic war effort. This is not the first major task you have faced. You will bring the usual revolutionary élan to bear on it. You will deal with the laziness and indolence that may occasionally show up. The government has issued general regulations, and will issue further ones in coming weeks. The minor issues not dealt with in these regulations must be taken care of by the people, under the party’s leadership. One moral law stands above everything for each of us: to do nothing that harms the war effort, and to do everything that brings victory nearer.

In past years, we have often recalled the example of Frederick the Great in newspapers and on the radio. We did not have the right to do so. For a while during the Third Silesian War, Frederick II had five million Prussians, according to Schlieffen, standing against 90 million enemies. In the second of seven hellish years he suffered a defeat that shook Prussia’s foundations. He never had enough soldiers and weapons to fight without risking everything. His strategy was always one of improvisation. But his principle was to attack the enemy whenever it was possible. He suffered defeats, but that was not decisive. What was decisive is that the Great King remained unbroken, that he was unshaken by the changing fortunes of war, that his strong heart overcame every danger. At the end of seven years of war, he was 51 years old, he had no teeth, he suffered from gout, and was tortured by a thousand pains, but he stood above the devastated battlefield as the victor. How does our situation compare with his?! Let us show the same will and decisiveness as he, and when the time comes do as he did, remaining unshakable through all the twists of fate, and like him win the battle even under the most unfavorable circumstances. Let us never doubt our great cause.

I am firmly convinced that the German people have been deeply moved by the blow of fate at Stalingrad. It has looked into the face of hard and pitiless war. It knows now the awful truth, and is resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin. (The crowd rises and like the roaring ocean chants: Führer command, we follow! Heil our Führer!” The minister is unable to continue for several minutes.)

The English and American press in recent days has been writing at length about the attitude of the German people during this crisis. The English seem to think that they know the German people much better than we do, its own leadership. They give hypocritical advice on what we should do and not do. They believe that the German people today is the same as the German people of November 1918 that fell victim to their persuasive wiles. I do not need to disprove their assertions. That will come from the fighting and working German people.

To make the truth plain, however, my German comrades, I want to ask you a series of questions. I want you to answer them to the best of your knowledge, according to your conscience. When my audience cheered on 30 January, the English press reported the next day that it was all a propaganda show that did not represent the true opinion of the German people. (Spontaneous shouts of Pfui!” “Lies!” “Let them come here! They will learn differently!”) I have invited to today’s meeting a cross-section of the German people in the best sense of the word. (The minister’s words were accompanied by stormy applause that increased in intensity as he came to the representatives of the army present at the meeting.) In front of me are rows of wounded German soldiers from the Eastern Front, missing legs and arms, with wounded bodies, those who have lost their sight, those who have come with nurses, men in the blush of youth who stand with crutches. Among them are 50 who bear the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, shining examples of our fighting front. Behind them are armaments workers from Berlin tank factories. Behind them are party officials, soldiers from the fighting army, doctors, scientists, artists, engineers and architects, teachers, officials and employees from offices, proud representatives of every area of our intellectual life that even in the midst of war produce miracles of human genius. Throughout the Sportpalast I see thousands of German women. The youth is here, as are the aged. No class, no occupation, no age remained uninvited. I can rightly say that before me is gathered a representative sample of the German population, both from the homeland and the front. Is that true? Yes or no? (The Sportpalast experiences something seen only rarely even in this old fighting locale of National Socialism. The masses spring to their feet. A hurricane of thousands of voices shouts yes. The participants experience a spontaneous popular referendum and expression of will.) You, my hearers, at this moment represent the whole nation. I wish to ask you ten questions that you will answer for the German people throughout the world, but especially for our enemies, who are listening to us on the radio. (Only with difficulty can the minister be heard. The crowd is at the peak of excitement. The individual questions are razor sharp. Each individual feels as if he is being spoken to personally. With full participation and enthusiasm, the crowd answers each question. The Sportpalast rings with a single shout of agreement.)

The English maintain that the German people has lost faith in victory.

I ask you: Do you believe with the Führer and us in the final total victory of the German people?

I ask you: Are you resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin to victory, and are you willing to accept the heaviest personal burdens?

Second, The English say that the German people are tired of fighting.

I ask you: Are you ready to follow the Führer as the phalanx of the homeland, standing behind the fighting army and to wage war with wild determination through all the turns of fate until victory is ours?

Third: The English maintain that the German people have no desire any longer to accept the government’s growing demands for war work.

I ask you: Are you and the German people willing to work, if the Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory?

Fourth: The English maintain that the German people is resisting the government’s total war measures. It does not want total war, but capitulation! (Shouts: Never! Never! Never!)

I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?

Fifth: The English maintain that the German people have lost faith in the Führer.

I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end? (The crowd rises as one man. It displays unprecedented enthusiasm. Thousands of voices join in shouting: “Führer command, we follow!” A wave of shouts of Heil flows through the hall. As if by command, the flags and standards are raised as the highest expression of the sacred moment in which the crowd honors the Führer.)

Sixth, I ask you: Are you ready from now on to give your full strength to provide the Eastern Front with the men and munitions it needs to give Bolshevism the death blow?

Seventh, I ask you: Do you take a holy oath to the front that the homeland stands firm behind them, and that you will give them everything they need to win the victory?

Eighth, I ask you: Do you, especially you women, want the government to do all it can to encourage German women to put their full strength at work to support the war effort, and to release men for the front whenever possible, thereby helping the men at the front?

Ninth, I ask you: Do you approve, if necessary, the most radical measures against a small group of shirkers and black marketers who pretend there is peace in the middle of war and use the need of the nation for their own selfish purposes? Do you agree that those who harm the war effort should lose their heads?

Tenth and lastly, I ask you: Do you agree that above all in war, according to the National Socialist Party platform, the same rights and duties should apply to all, that the homeland should bear the heavy burdens of the war together, and that the burdens should be shared equally between high and low and rich and poor?

I have asked; you have given me your answers. You are part of the people, and your answers are those of the German people. You have told our enemies what they needed to hear so that they will have no illusions or false ideas.

Now, just as in the first hours of our rule and through the ten years that followed, we are bound firmly in brotherhood with the German people. The most powerful ally on earth, the people itself, stands behind us and is determined to follow the Führer, come what may. They will accept the heaviest burdens to gain victory. What power on earth can hinder us from reaching our goal. Now we must and will succeed! I stand before you not only as the spokesman of the government, but as the spokesman of the people. My old party friends are here around me, clothed with the high offices of the people and the government. Party comrade Speer sits next to me. The Führer has given him the great task of mobilizing the German armaments industry and supplying the front with all the weapons it needs. Party comrade Dr. Ley sits next to me. The Führer has charged him with the leadership of the German work force, with schooling and training them in untiring work for the war effort. We feel deeply indebted to our party comrade Sauckel, who has been charged by the Führer to bring hundreds of thousands of workers to the Reich to support our national economy, something the enemy cannot do. All the leaders of the party, the army, and government join with us as well.

We are all children of our people, forged together by this most critical hour of our national history. We promise you, we promise the front, we promise the Führer, that we will mold together the homeland into a force on which the Führer and his fighting soldiers can rely on absolutely and blindly. We pledge to do all in our life and work that is necessary for victory. We will fill our hearts with the political passion, with the ever-burning fire that blazed during the great struggles of the party and the state. Never during this war will we fall prey to the false and hypocritical objectivism that has brought the German nation so much misfortune over its history.
When the war began, we turned our eyes to the nation alone. That which serves its struggle for life is good and must be encouraged. What harms its struggle for life is bad and must be eliminated and cut out. With burning hearts and cool heads we will overcome the major problems of this phase of the war. We are on the way to final victory. That victory rests on our faith in the Führer.

This evening I once again remind the whole nation of its duty. The Führer expects us to do that which will throw all we have done in the past into the shadows. We do not want to fail him. As we are proud of him, he should be proud of us.

The great crises and upsets of national life show who the true men and women are. We have no right any longer to speak of the weaker sex, for both sexes are displaying the same determination and spiritual strength. The nation is ready for anything. The Führer has commanded, and we will follow him. In this hour of national reflection and contemplation, we believe firmly and unshakably in victory. We see it before us, we need only reach for it. We must resolve to subordinate everything to it. That is the duty of the hour. Let the slogan be:

Now, people rise up and let the storm break loose!
(The minister’s final words were lost in unending stormy applause)

IN LOVING MEMORY OF ADMIRAL CHESTER W. NIMITZ (FEBRUARY 24, 1885 TO FEBRUARY 20, 1966) [SOLDIERS’ QUOTE OF THE MONTH ~ FEBRUARY 2013]

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Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN Oil on canvas, 46.5" x 30", by Adrian Lamb, 1960.
QUOTE:Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

AUTHOR: Chester William Nimitz GCB (24 February 1885 – 20 February 1966) was a Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac), for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

Nimitz was the leading U.S. Navy authority on submarines, as well as Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Navigation in 1939. He served as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 1945 until 1947. He was the United States' last surviving Fleet Admiral.

SAINT PETER DAMIAN ON ABORTION [PRO LIFE QUOTE ~ FEAST DAY ON FEBRUARY 21]

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Saint Peter Damian
QUOTE:Observe, O man, and see whether the dog goes after the bitch after she has conceived. Look at the cow or certainly at the mare, and notice whether the bulls or stallions bother them after they are with young. Obviously, they forego the pleasure of intercourse when they sense that they are unable to produce offspring. Therefore, since bulls and dogs and other kinds of animal show such regard for their young, it is men alone, whose teacher was born of the Virgin, who have no fear of destroying and killing their little ones, made in the image of God, just so that they can satisfy their lust. This is the reason why many women practice abortion before their term is complete, or certainly why they discover means of mutilating or damaging the tiny and still fragile limbs of these little ones. And thus, as they are impelled by their incentives to lust, they are first murderers before they become parents. [Letter 96, Letters 91-122, Fathers of the Church: Medieval Continuation, Owen J. Blum, O.F.M., 1998, Catholic University of America Press, pp. 62-63, ISBN 0813208165 ISBN 9780813208169. Editor's note: “Here we have one of the few references, perhaps the only explicit one, in Damian's letters, to the practices of abortion. And to the horror of post-modern feminists he puts the blame on ‘the many women who practice abortion,’ charging them ‘with being murderers before they became parents.’ This discussion and its context are important evidence from the Central Middle Ages, reflecting the constant opposition of the Church to abortion from the Council of Elvira (ca. 302) to the present.”]

AUTHOR: Saint Peter Damian, O.S.B. (Petrus Damiani, also Pietro Damiani or Pier Damiani; c. 1007 – February 21/22, 1072) was a reforming monk in the circle of Pope Gregory VII and a cardinal. In 1823, he was declared a Doctor of the Church. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Saint Francis of Assisi.


IN LOVING MEMORY OF DR. BERNARD NATHANSON (FROM PRO-CHOICE TO PRO-LIFE) [PRO LIFE QUOTE OF THE WEEK ~ SUNDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2014 TO SATURDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2014]

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QUOTE:"We fed the public a line of deceit, dishonesty, a fabrication of statistics and figures. We succeeded because the time was right and the news media cooperated. We sensationalized the effects of illegal abortions, and fabricated polls which indicated that 85 percent of the public favored unrestricted abortion, when we knew it was only 5 percent. We unashamedly lied, and yet our statements were quoted [by the media] as though they had been written in law."

AUTHOR: Bernard N. Nathanson (July 31, 1926 – February 21, 2011) was an American medical doctor from New York who helped to found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, but later became a pro-life activist.

THE PEDOPHILE OF OSAKA: KAORU KOBAYASHI (NOVEMBER 30, 1968 TO FEBRUARY 21, 2013)

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          On this date, February 21, 2013, the Pedophile of Osaka, Kaoru Kobayashi was executed by hanging in Osaka, Japan. He was convicted of killing a 7-year-old girl. He must be in hell together with other Japanese child killers like Tsutomu Miyazaki and Mamoru Takuma. I will post information about him from Wikipedia.


Kaoru Kobayashi (小林Kobayashi Kaoru)

Born
November 30, 1968
Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka
Died
February 21, 2013 (aged 44)
Osaka Detention Center
Cause of death
Death penalty (Hanging)
Criminal charge
Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Homicide (2 counts of murder and sexual assault resulting to death), Theft and Intimidation, Guilty to corpse (2 counts of damage and abandonment)
Criminal penalty
Death by hanging

Kaoru Kobayashi(小林Kobayashi Kaoru, November 30, 1968 – February 21, 2013) was a local newspaper delivery man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered Kaede Ariyama (有山Ariyama Kaede), a seven-year-old first-grade student from the Japanese city of Nara. Kobayashi already had a record as a sexual offender at that time. Kobayashi was tried and convicted of his crimes. He was executed by hanging at Osaka Detention Center on February 21, 2013.

Early life

Kobayashi was born in 1968, in Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka. Because his family was poor, he worked as a paperboy since his childhood. His mother died in 1978. In 1989, he was convicted of sexually assaulting eight children. He was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 2 years imprisonment. In October 1991, he attempted to kill a five year old girl and was sentenced to 3 years in prison. He was paroled on November 9, 1995 and officially released on July 23, 1996.

Kobayashi had worked at a newsstand for Asahi Shinbun in the Tomio area, between March and July 2000, so he knew his way around the Ikoma-Tomio area very well. At the time of the murder, he was employed as a newspaper deliveryman for Mainichi Shimbun in the Ikoma district of Nara Prefecture.

Kidnapping and murder

On November 17, 2004, in the Tomio section of Nara, Kobayashi kidnapped Kaede Ariyama, a student at Tomio North Elementary School, while she traveled from her school to her home. The kidnapping occurred in close proximity to Nara Prefecture's west-side police station. Using the girl's cellular phone, he sent Kaede's photograph to her mother with the message: "I've got your daughter".

Kobayashi murdered Kaede and dumped her body in the town of Heguri in the Ikoma District of Nara Prefecture. Her body was found that night. The autopsy revealed the cause of death to be drowning. The water collected in Kaede's lungs was not dirty, so it was assumed that Kobayashi had drowned her in a sink or bathtub. Also, it appeared that he had undressed Kaede before murdering her, and then re-dressed her after she was murdered.

There were abrasions on Kaede's hands and feet, and several of her teeth were missing. It was assumed that the abrasions had been made post-mortem by the suspect. The removal of the teeth was also performed post-mortem.

On December 14, 2004, Kobayashi sent an email from Kaede's cellular phone to her mother's cellular phone, saying "I'll take her baby sister next." An image of Kaede was included in the e-mail.

He had shown off a photograph of Kaede to a waitress and customers in a local bar, claiming to have gotten the photograph from a website.

Arrest

On December 30, 2004, Kobayashi, who lived in the town of Kawai in Kitakatsuragi District in Nara Prefecture, was arrested for kidnapping. The suburbs of Kitakatsuragi along with Tomio and Ikoma are all in the northwest area of Nara Prefecture.

Kobayashi had sent the victim's photograph from her cellular phone to his own. His use of the victim's phone helped speed his arrest because the local cell phone towers logged the messages sent from the phone.

He was arrested after he had finished his morning paper route, distributing the news that the suspect would be arrested soon.

The police confiscated from his room a video and a magazine, containing child pornography. In addition, Kaede's cellular phone and randosel were discovered. In his room, there was a considerable amount of underwear, which had been stolen by him between June and December 2004.

A witness saw Kaede walking to Kobayashi's car, which suggested that they knew each other. However, Kobayashi said "I would have kidnapped anybody."

On January 19, 2005, Kobayashi was prosecuted for kidnapping. Because he had previous sexual offenses involving girls, public attention turned to passing a law in Japan similar to Megan's Law in the United States.

Reaction

Mainichi Shimbun

In the wake of the arrest, it came out that the manager of the newspaper delivery agency in Higashisumiyoshi Ward had made a report to the police that a newspaper subscription fee of 230,000 yen had been stolen. Afterwards, the manager discovered that the thief was Kobayashi, now working in Kawai. On November 17, 2004, the day of the kidnapping, a judge had issued an arrest warrant for Kobayashi for the embezzlement reported by the manager. However, the manager did not inform the police of this, because he was promised that the suspect would repay him for the stolen money with monthly payments. Therefore, the police were not able to arrest Kobayashi, and he was free to commit his attack.

As a result of this, Mainichi Shimbun announced on January 19, 2005, that it would terminate its contracts with two delivery agents in Kawai and Higashisumiyoshi Ward in Osaka on January 31.

Effect on Otaku               

In Japan there has been some negativity towards otaku and otaku culture. Tsutomu Miyazaki became known as "The Otaku Murderer" in 1989. His bizarre murders fueled a moral panic against otaku.

Japanese journalist Akihiro Otani suspected that Kobayashi's crime was committed by a member of the figurine collector sub-culture, even before his arrest. Although Kobayashi was not an otaku, and did not even own any figurines, the degree of social hostility against otaku seemed to increase for a while, as suggested by increased targeting of otaku by law enforcement as possible suspects for sex crimes, and by calls from persons in local governments for stricter laws controlling the depiction of eroticism in materials which cater to some otaku (e.g. erotic manga and erotic videogames). Nobuto Hosaka criticised a lot of the hype.

Trial and verdict

His trial began on April 18, 2005. Kobayashi said:


I want to be sentenced to death as quickly as possible, and leave a legacy among the public as the next Tsutomu Miyazaki or Mamoru Takuma.


However, both Miyazaki and Takuma killed many children and were regarded as insane murderers.

Miyazaki claimed that "I won't allow him to call himself 'the second Tsutomu Miyazaki' when he hasn't even undergone a psychiatric examination."

Kobayashi's psychiatrist diagnosed him as suffering from antisocial personality disorder and pedophilia, but sane enough to be responsible for his actions. In fact, he might have been gnawed by a sense of guilt.

Kaede's identity had been withheld by the Japanese media when the media learned of his sex crime, but the bereaved released her name and photograph in September 2006.

On September 26, 2006, Kobayashi was sentenced to death by hanging by the Nara district court. The defense made an appeal on the same day, but retracted it on October 10, 2006.

His new lawyer claimed in June 2007 that the withdrawal was invalid, which was declined by the Nara district court on April 21, 2008. On May 22, 2008, the Osaka high court upheld the decision. On July 7, 2008, the Supreme Court of Japan upheld the decision.

Kobayashi was executed by hanging at Osaka Detention Center on February 21, 2013.

MASAHIRO KANAGAWA (1983 TO FEBRUARY 21, 2013)

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On this date, February 21, 2013, a Japanese Spree Killer, Masahiro Kanagawa was executed by hanging in Tokyo, Japan. I will post the information about him from Wikipedia

 

Masahiro Kanagawa (金川真大Kanagawa Masahiro)
Masahiro Kanagawa (金川真大Kanagawa Masahiro, 1983 – 21 February 2013) was a Japanese man who went on a stabbing spree in the city of Tsuchiura on March 23, 2008, which left a 27-year-old man dead and seven others wounded. Police arrested Kanagawa, then 24, who was wanted in an earlier slaying of a 27-year-old man. The man told the investigators that he "just wanted to kill anyone". The suspect, who carried two knives, stabbed the 27-year-old man to death and hurt at least seven others, while the victims were walking along a short hallway connecting Arakawaoki Station. The 27-year-old died as he was being rushed to a nearby hospital. Police said that Kanagawa liked games and that he hid out in Akihabara while escaping. A part of mass media claimed that he murdered people under the influence of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. He reportedly sought capital punishment. Tomohiro Kato, who committed the Akihabara massacre, is alleged to have posted a message which referred to his case. 

The Mito District Court sentenced him to death on December 18, 2009, and he was executed by hanging on February 21, 2013.


THE TIGER OF MALAYA: GENERAL TOMOYUKI YAMASHITA (NOVEMBER 8, 1885 TO FEBRUARY 23, 1946)

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            On this date, February 23, 1946, the Tiger of Malaya, Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita was executed by hanging in Laguna, Philippines. I will post information about him from Wikipedia and other links before giving my thoughts.


Photo of Yamashita Tomoyuki, Lieutenant-General, Commander of the Japanese 25th Army in 1941

Native name

山下奉文
Nickname
"The Tiger of Malaya"
"The Beast of Bataan"
Born
November 8, 1885
Kōchi prefecture, Japan
Died
February 23, 1946 (aged 60)
Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Allegiance
Empire of Japan
Service/branch
Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service
1905–1945
Rank
General
Commands held
25th Army
1st Area Army
14th Area Army
Battles/wars
  • Second Sino-Japanese War
  • Pacific War
Awards
  • Order of the Golden Kite
  • Order of the Rising Sun
Tomoyuki Yamashita (山下奉文Yamashita Tomoyuki, November 8, 1885 – February 23, 1946) was an Imperial Japanese Army general during World War II. He was most famous for conquering the British possessions of Malaya and Singapore.

Biography

Yamashita was born the son of a local doctor in Osugi village, in what is now part of Ōtoyo village, Kōchi prefecture, Shikoku. He attended military preparatory schools in his youth.

Early military career

After graduating from the 18th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in November 1905, Yamashita was commissioned a second lieutenant in June 1906. Promoted to lieutenant in December 1908, he fought against the German Empire in Shantung, China in 1914. Promoted to captain in May 1916, he attended the 28th class of the Army War College, graduating sixth in his class in 1916. He married Hisako Nagayama, the daughter of retired General Nagayama in 1916. Yamashita became an expert on Germany, serving as assistant military attaché at Bern, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany from 1919–1922. He was promoted to major in February 1922.

On his return to Japan in 1922, Major Yamashita served in the Imperial Headquarters and the Staff College, receiving promotion to lieutenant-colonel in August 1925. While posted to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, Yamashita unsuccessfully promoted a military reduction plan. Despite his ability, Yamashita fell into disfavor as a result of his involvement with political factions within the Japanese military. As a leading member of the "Imperial Way" group, he became a rival to Hideki Tōjō and other members of the "Control Faction". In 1928, Yamashita was posted to Vienna, Austria, as the military attaché, and was promoted to colonel in August 1929.

In 1930, Colonel Yamashita was given command of the elite 3rd Imperial Infantry Regiment. Promoted to major-general in August 1934, after the February 26 Incident of 1936, he fell into disfavor with Emperor Hirohito due to his appeal for leniency toward the rebel officers involved in the attempted coup.
                              
Early war years

Yamashita insisted Japan should end the conflict with China and keep peaceful relations with the United States and Great Britain, but he was ignored and subsequently assigned to an unimportant post in the Kwantung Army. However, he was promoted to lieutenant-general in November 1937. From 1938 to 1940, he was assigned to command the IJA 4th Division which saw some action in northern China against Chinese insurgents fighting the occupying Japanese armies.

In December 1940, Yamashita was sent on a clandestine military mission to Germany and Italy, where he met with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita leading successful assault of japanese troops on Malaya.



In Singapore.


February 15, 1942. Battle of Singapore, British Surrender. Lt.-Gen. Yamashita (seated, centre) thumps the table with his fist to emphasize his terms -- unconditional surrender. Lt.-Gen. Percival sits between his officers, his clenched hand to his mouth. (Photo from Imperial War Museum)
This photograph was created in Singapore during British colonial time. It has great historic and educational value for independent Singapore.
In addition, the copyright of the photograph may be expired. In Singapore, copyright expired after 50 years. In UK, photographs taken before 1955 are in public domain.
This photograph is taken in 1942 and has exceeded sixty years. This photograph is also found in the Singapore National Archive, the majority of the content there is Public Domain. Either way, it is Public domain.


Malaya and Singapore


On 6 November 1941, Lieutenant-General Yamashita was put in command of the Twenty-Fifth Army. On 8 December, he launched an invasion of Malaya, from bases in French Indochina. In the campaign, which concluded with the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Yamashita's 30,000 front-line soldiers captured 130,000 British, Indian, and Australian troops, the largest surrender of British-led personnel in history. He became known as the "Tiger of Malaya".

The campaign and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Singapore included war crimes committed against captive Allied personnel and civilians, such as the Alexandra Hospital and Sook Ching massacres. Yamashita's culpability for these events remains a matter of controversy, as some argued that he had failed to prevent them. However, Yamashita had the officer who instigated the hospital massacre and some soldiers caught looting executed for these acts, and he personally apologized to the surviving Alexandra Hospital patients.

Manchukuo

On 17 July 1942, Yamashita was reassigned from Singapore to far-away Manchukuo again, having been given a post in commanding the First Area Army, and was effectively sidelined for a major part of the Pacific War. It is thought that Tōjō, by then the Prime Minister, was responsible for his banishment, taking advantage of Yamashita's gaffe during a speech made to Singaporean civilian leaders in early 1942, when he referred to the local populace as "citizens of the Empire of Japan" (this was considered embarrassing for the Japanese government, who officially did not consider the residents of occupied territories to have the rights or privileges of Japanese citizenship). He was promoted to full general in February 1943.


General Yamashita Tomoyuki and staff surrender 2 September 1945 General Yamashita Tomoyuki and staff surrender 2 September 1945.
General Yamashita, Commander, Japanese forces, ‘Tiger of Malaya,” and his staff walk down the trail to U.S. forces in northern Luzon, occupied by Co ‘I’, 128th Inf Regt, 32nd Division.

General Yamashita and his staff surrender to officers of the 32nd Infantry Division, Luzon, P.I., 2 September 1945.

The Philippines



In 1944, when the war situation was critical for Japan, Yamashita was rescued from his enforced exile in China by the new Japanese government after the downfall of Hideki Tōjō and his cabinet, and he assumed the command of the Fourteenth Area Army to defend the Philippines on 10 October. The U.S. forces landed on Leyte on 20 October, only ten days after Yamashita's arrival at Manila. On 6 January 1945, the Sixth U.S. Army, totalling 200,000 men, landed at Lingayen Gulf in Luzon.

Yamashita commanded approximately 262,000 troops in three defensive groups; the largest, the Shobo Group, under his personal command numbered 152,000 troops, defended northern Luzon. The smallest group, totaling 30,000 troops, known as the Kembu Group, under the command of Tsukada, defended Bataan and the western shores. The last group, the Shimbu Group, totaling 80,000 men under the command of Yokoyama, defended Manila and southern Luzon. Yamashita tried to rebuild his army but was forced to retreat from Manila to the Sierra Madre mountains of northern Luzon, as well as the Cordillera Central mountains. Yamashita ordered all troops, except those tasked with security, out of the city.

Almost immediately, Imperial Japanese Navy Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi re-occupied Manila with 16,000 sailors, with the intent of destroying all port facilities and naval storehouses. Once there, Iwabuchi took command of the 3,750 Army security troops, and against Yamashita's specific order, turned the city into a battlefield. The battle and the Japanese atrocities resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Filipino civilians, in what would be later known as the Manila massacre, during the fierce street fighting for the capital which raged from February 4 to March 3.

Yamashita used delaying tactics to maintain his army in Kiangan (part of the Ifugao Province), until 2 September 1945, after the surrender of Japan, where his forces were reduced to under 50,000 by the tough campaigning by elements of the combined American and Filipino soldiers including the recognized guerrillas. Yamashita surrendered in the presence of Generals Jonathan Wainwright and Arthur Percival, both of whom had been prisoners of war in Manchuria. Percival had surrendered to Yamashita after the Battle of Singapore.

Yamashita (second from right) at his trial in Manila, November 1945
 

The Yamashita Trial Commission. From left to right: Maj. Gen. Donovan, Brig. Gen. Harwerk, Maj. Gen. Reynolds, Brig. Gen. Bullens, and Maj. Gen. Lester. The Yamashita Trial Commission. From left to right: Maj. Gen. Donovan, Brig. Gen. Harwerk, Maj. Gen. Reynolds, Brig. Gen. Bullens, and Maj. Gen. Lester.

Trial

From 29 October to 7 December 1945, an American military tribunal in Manila tried General Yamashita for war crimes relating to the Manila Massacre and many atrocities in the Philippines and Singapore against civilians and prisoners of war, such as the Sook Ching massacre, and sentenced him to death. This controversial case has become a precedent regarding the command responsibilityfor war crimes and is known as the Yamashita Standard.

The principal accusation against Yamashita was that he had failed in his duty as commander of Japanese forces in the Philippines to prevent them from committing atrocities. The defense acknowledged that atrocities had been committed but contended that the breakdown of communications and the Japanese chain of command in the chaotic battle of the second Philippines campaign was such that Yamashita could not have controlled his troops even if he had known of their actions, which was not certain in any case; furthermore, many of the atrocities had been committed by Japanese naval forces outside his command.

During his trial, the defense attorneys who challenged MacArthur deeply impressed General Yamashita with their dedication to the case, and reaffirmed his respect for his former enemies. American lawyer Harry E. Clarke, Sr., a colonel in the United States Army at the time, served as the chief counsel for the defense. In his opening statement, Clarke asserted:



The Accused is not charged with having done something or having failed to do something, but solely with having been something....American jurisprudence recognizes no such principle so far as its own military personnel are concerned....No one would even suggest that the Commanding General of an American occupational force becomes a criminal every time an American soldier violates the law....one man is not held to answer for the crime of another.


The court found Yamashita guilty as charged and sentenced him to death. Clarke appealed the sentence to General MacArthur, who upheld it. He then appealed to the Philippines Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court, both of which declined to review the verdict.

The trial was not without criticism.

In dissent from the Supreme Court of the United States's majority, Justice W.B. Rutledgewrote:



More is at stake than General Yamashita's fate. There could be no possible sympathy for him if he is guilty of the atrocities for which his death is sought. But there can be and should be justice administered according to the law....It is not too early, it is never too early, for the nation steadfastly to follow its great constitutional traditions, none older or more universally protective against unbridled power than due process of law in the trial and punishment of men, that is, of all men, whether citizens, aliens, alien enemies or enemy belligerents.


The legitimacy of the hasty trial was questioned at the time, including by Justice Frank Murphy, who protested various procedural issues, the inclusion of hearsay evidence, and the general lack of professional conduct by the prosecuting officers. The considerable body of evidence that Yamashita did not have ultimate command responsibility over all military units in the Philippines was not admitted in court.

Former war crimes prosecutor Allan Ryan argues that by order of five American generals, General Douglas MacArthur, and the Supreme Court of the United States, General Yamashita was executed for what his soldiers did without his approval or even prior knowledge. The two dissenting Supreme Court Justices called the entire trial a miscarriage of justice, an exercise in vengeance, and a denial of human rights. 


Yamashita is removed from the courtroom by military police immediately after hearing the verdict of death by hanging.


Execution

Following the Supreme Court decision, an appeal for clemency was made to U.S. President Harry S Truman; Truman, however, declined to intervene and left the matter entirely in the hands of the military authorities. In due course, General MacArthur confirmed the sentence of the Commission.

On 23 February 1946, at Los Baños, Laguna Prison Camp, 30 miles (48 km) south of Manila, Yamashita was hanged. After climbing the thirteen steps leading to the gallows, he was asked if he had a final statement. To this Yamashita replied through a translator:



I was carrying out my duty, as the Japanese high commander of the Japanese Army in the Philippine Islands, to control my army with the best of my ability during wartime. Until now, I believe that I have tried my best for my army. As I said in the Manila Supreme Court that I have done everything with all my capacity, so I wouldn't be ashamed in front of the Gods for what I have done when I have died. But if you say to me "you do not have any ability to command the Japanese Army," I should say nothing in response, because it is my own nature. Now, our war criminal trial is going on in the Manila Supreme Court, so I wish to be justified under your kindness and righteousness. I know that all your American military affairs always have had tolerant and rightful judgment. When I had been investigated in the Manila court, I have had good treatment, a kind attitude from your good-natured officers who protected me all the time. I will never forget what they have done for me even if I die. I don't blame my executioners. I'll pray that the Gods bless them. Please send my thankful word to Col. Clarke and Lt. Col. Feldhaus, Lt. Col. Hendrix, Maj. Guy, Capt. Sandburg, Capt. Reel, at Manila court, and Col. Arnard. I thank you. I pray for the Emperor's long life and prosperity forever.


Yamashita's chief of staff in the Philippines, Akira Mutō, was executed on 23 December 1948 after having been found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Enduring legal legacy

The U.S. Supreme Court has never overruled its 1946 Yamashita decision. The precedent the decision established was that a commander can be held accountablebefore the law for the crimes committed by his troops even if he did not order them, did not stand by to allow them, or possibly even know about them or have the means to stop them.

This doctrine of command accountability has been added to the Geneva Conventions and was applied to dozens of trials in the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It has also been adopted by the International Criminal Court established in 2002.

  • I was carrying out my duty, as the Japanese high commander of the Japanese Army in the Philippine Islands, to control my army with the best of my ability during wartime. Until now, I believe that I have tried my best for my army. As I said in the Manila Supreme Court that I have done everything with all my capacity, so I wouldn't be ashamed in front of the Gods for what I have done when I have died. But if you say to me "you do not have any ability to command the Japanese Army," I should say nothing in response, because it is my own nature. Now, our war criminal trial is going on in the Manila Supreme Court, so I wish to be justified under your kindness and righteousness. I know that all your American military affairs always have had tolerant and rightful judgment. When I had been investigated in the Manila court, I have had good treatment, a kind attitude from your good-natured officers who protected me all the time. I will never forget what they have done for me even if I die. I don't blame my executioners. I'll pray that the Gods bless them. Please send my thankful word to Col. Clarke and Lt. Col. Feldhaus, Lt. Col. Hendrix, Maj. Guy, Capt. Sandburg, Capt. Reel, at Manila court, and Col. Arnard. I thank you. I pray for the Emperor's long life and prosperity forever.
    • Last words. Quoted in "Yamashita Hanged Near Los Banos" - "New York Times" article - February 23, 1946
  • How could we win when you had all that?
    • About the great armada of ships gathered for the invasion of Japan. Quoted in "The Tiger of Malaya: The Story of General Tomoyuki Yamashita" - Page 38 - by Aubrey Saint Kenworthy - 1953
  • We have just received your reply. The Japanese Army will consider nothing but surrender.
    • Quoted in "But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor" - Page 216 - by John Toland - 1961
  • In order to carry out orders from the southern army I sent 50,000 troops to Leyte, but due to air and submarine attacks half of them were lost.
    • Quoted in "Yamashita Denies Any Atrocity Link" - New York Times - November 29, 1945
  • All I want to hear from you is Yes or No!
    • Demanding the surrender of Singapore. Quoted in "Secret Missions: The Story of an Intelligence Officer" - Page 419 - by Ellis M. Zacharias - 2003
 

YAMASHITA'S ARRAIGNMENT. - Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya," is arraigned before the War Crimes Commission in Manila, pleading "not guilty." He will be confined at New Bilibid Prison until his trial, October 29, 1945, in Manila. Here, Major Kenworthy, Military Police prison officer, delivers Gen. Yamashita to the residence of the Philippine High Commissioner, where Yamashita was held for arraignment in the first step of the war-crime trials to be held in the Pacific. The arraignment was open to the public. Yamashita was brought from his cell in New Bilibid Prison in an ambulance for security reasons.

"The Tiger" returns to his "cage". Here General Tomoyuki Yamashita, guarded by military police, returns to his cell at the end of a day in court listening to testimony against him in the war crimes trial at Manila, P.I. His expression indicates his reaction to testimony submitted concerning massacre, rape, and other atrocities. 11/1/45.

Last Words of the Tiger of Malaya, General Yamashita Tomoyuki

By Yuki Tanaka

The final reflections of a convicted war criminal enshrined at Yasukuni Jinja
                                                                                                               
One of the major reasons for Chinese and Korean public criticism of Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine is that 14 out of 28 A-Class Japanese war criminals are enshrined there. Seven among them including Tojo Hideki and Matsui Iwane were executed at the conclusion of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the other seven died either during the tribunal or while serving their sentences. Yasukuni Shrine also sanctifies many B and C-Class war criminals, many of whom were directly responsible for atrocities committed throughout the Asia-Pacific region. One of those is Tomoyuki Yamashita, who was enshrined on 17 October 1959. As the commander who led the Japanese Imperial Army troops to invade Singapore in February 1942, he was nicknamed the 'Tiger of Malaya.'

At 2:15 am on the morning of 8 December 1941, advance troops of the 25th Army led by Lieutenant General Yamashita landed at Kota Bharu on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula with the aim of seizing Singapore. This landing was an hour and 20 minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor and thus, strictly speaking, marks the beginning of the Pacific War. The 25th Army swiftly advanced south towards Singapore, completely unsuspected by the British forces armed with large-bore artillery that were defending Singapore from seaborne attack via the Straits of Malacca. The Japanese troops numbered 20,000; the defending troops consisted of 88,000 British, Australian, and Indian soldiers and Malay volunteers. Although the British forces had the advantage of much greater numbers, Singapore fell relatively quickly, the British not only having underestimated the ability of the Japanese forces, but being insufficiently trained in jungle warfare and lacking adequate communication among their forces.

On the evening of 15 February 1942, Yamashita and Lieutenant General A.E. Percival of the British Forces met at the Ford Motor factory outside Singapore to negotiate the surrender of the Commonwealth forces. Japanese correspondents reporting the meeting claimed that Yamashita aggressively demanded: "Is the British Army going to surrender immediately? Answer 'Yes' or 'No'." In fact, he had simply instructed his interpreter to ask Percival whether he was prepared to accept unconditional surrender. The story of this negotiation was, however, embellished and proudly publicized by the Japanese media as emblematic of Japan's new confidence and strength. Due to the swift victory of his military campaign and the successful capture of Singapore, Yamashita won the sobriquet 'Tiger of Malaya.' A feature film under the same title was screened throughout Japan and the occupied territories of Asia, creating an image of him as a ruthless militarist. Less than five months after the fall of Singapore, he was posted to remote northern Manchuria as commander of the First Area Army by General Hideki Tojo, the then Prime Minister and Minister of the Army. Effectively, Tojo demoted Yamashita whom he perceived as a threat, Yamashita belonging to a different military faction to his own.

Yamashita was promoted to General in February 1943, but in 1944, with the war situation deteriorating for Japan, he was dispatched as Commander of the 14th Area Army in the Philippines. He arrived in Manila on 6 October 1944, just two weeks prior to the landing of U.S. forces on Leyte Island. He opposed the plan devised by the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo to send some of his troops to Leyte because of the lack of food and ammunition supplies as well as ships to transport them there. Eventually, however, he was unable to disobey his immediate superior, General Terauchi Hisaichi, General-Commander of the Southern Army, and sent approximately 80,000 troops to Leyte by early December. The result was a disaster -- 97 percent died, many from starvation. In the middle of the Battle of Leyte, Terauchi moved his headquarters from Manila to Saigon in Vietnam, thereby escaping the dangerous battlefield situation that enveloped all Japanese forces in the Philippines.

As large quantities of supplies had already been exhausted in the Battle of Leyte, there were insufficient arms and ammunition for the 287,000 Japanese troops stationed across Luzon Island under Yamashita's command as they faced 191,000 U.S. troops who landed at the island's Lingaen Bay on 9 January 1945. In mid-December 1944, anticipating the landing of the U.S. forces, Yamashita had ordered all troops stationed in Manila to evacuate the city within six weeks and his headquarters was also moved to Baguio in the mountains of northern Luzon. About 20,000 troops of the 31st Naval Base Force, initially under the command of Rear-Admiral Iwabuchi, came under Yamashita's command by late December, but they refused to move. For four weeks, these troops fought fiercely against the U.S. forces that entered the city on 3 February. As a result, about 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed. In the course of the campaign, Japanese tortured and killed many civilians believed to be members or collaborators of guerrilla groups opposing Japan. Many women were raped by the Japanese troops, and numerous civilians became victims of aerial bombing conducted by the U.S. forces. Eventually all the Japanese troops who had remained in the city to fight the Americans perished.

Yamashita's troops continued to fight in the mountains despite suffering widespread disease and starvation. By the time Yamashita surrendered to the U.S. forces in June 1945, 210,000 Japanese soldiers were dead.

Immediately after the surrender, Yamashita, as commander of all Japanese forces in the Philippines, was arrested as a war criminal, charged with responsibility for atrocities committed by Japanese forces under his command against civilians in Manila. The evidence suggests, however, that he was unaware of the crimes committed by the members of the Naval Base Force who had refused to obey his order to move out of Manila, and that he exercised no command over those forces during the battle. Despite weak legal grounds for his personal responsibility for those crimes, the U.S. court martial conducted a swift trial and sentenced him to death on 7 December 1945. The background to this affair was General MacArthur's determination to turn the trial of the 'Tiger of Malaya' into a showcase. MacArthur, who had been Governor of the Philippines, fled shortly after the Japanese invasion in late December 1941. A group of American military lawyers who defended Yamashita appealed the verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the appeal was rejected by five to two. Yamashita was hanged in Manila on 23 February 1946.

What was Yamashita's responsibility for the crimes committed by Japanese troops against local civilians and POWs in the Philippines? When he arrived in Manila as Commander of the 14th Area Army in October 1944, the Japanese communication and supply system was already in turmoil, and the morale of the troops was very low. These problems intensified after his headquarters was moved to Baguio while the troops were scattered throughout the mountains of northern Luzon. By this stage the soldiers were desperate in the face of severe shortages of food, medicine and ammunition. Many soldiers never received Yamashita's orders and instructions, and many commands were ignored, even by junior officers. The rejection by the 31st Naval Base Force of Yamashita's order to evacuate Manila was a typical example of a situation aggravated by the longstanding Army-Navy rivalry. For this reason, the defense lawyers, themselves members of the American armed forces, thought the trial a "kangaroo court" -- a political exercise -- staged by the U.S. Army, particularly General MacArthur.

However, this does not automatically exempt Yamashita from responsibility for all Japanese military atrocities. On 18 February 1942, three days after the capture of Singapore, Yamashita issued an order to 'select and remove hostile Chinese.' At the time, about 600,000 Chinese lived in Singapore and anti-Japanese sentiment was rife after a decade of Japanese invasion and war beginning in Manchuria in 1931 and continuing in China from 1937. Indeed, a Chinese guerilla force set up with the help of British forces support fought fiercely against the invading Japanese troops after the fall of Singapore. For their part, the Japanese occupation force amassed and interrogated 200,000 Chinese men aged between 15 and 50, in an attempt to root out the so-called "anti-Japanese elements," such as communists and supporters of the Guomindang, as well as criminals. One officer, Masanobu Tsuji, reportedly boasted that he would reduce the Chinese population of Singapore to half by implementing Yamashita's order. Due to the haphazard methods used to find these "anti-Japanese elements," however, the exercise ended as a massacre of large numbers of innocent civilians. Estimates of the toll varied between 6,000 and 100,000, although it was probably around 40,000. Similar atrocities were also carried out across the Malaya Peninsula, resulting in the deaths of a further 60,000 Chinese. If the British forces had conducted Yamashita's war crime tribunal, he would certainly have been found guilty for this appalling large-scale massacre of Chinese.

Surprisingly, it seems that Yamashita was profoundly affected by the tribunal, even though the proceedings conducted by the US Army were patently unfair. At the hearing, about 200 victims and witnesses to various Japanese atrocities gave detailed accounts of Japanese atrocities. It must have been an excruciating experience for Yamashita, listening day after day to painful stories of the victimization of many men, women and children. In the courtroom, on the advice of his American lawyers, he denied responsibility for the crimes committed by those under his command, but in his personal will he humbly acknowledged his failure as commander to discipline his soldiers and punish those who committed crimes against the people of the Philippines. Moreover, he appears to have internalized the pain of the victims of Japanese atrocities, displaying remorse for his troops' war crimes, somehow overcoming his own old-fashioned militarist ideology and replacing it with a remarkable self-criticism. This is clear from his last words, dictated to Buddhist prison chaplain Morita Shokaku, shortly before he was hanged. These words, a message to the Japanese people, were an addition to his written will, in which he sincerely apologized to all the people of the Philippines for the atrocities that his troops committed.

His dictated message started in a state of confusion -- many ideas must have rushed to mind just hours before his execution. Thus some of his words in the first few paragraphs do not really make sense. It seems that he wished to justify his decision to surrender rather than commit suicide. He obviously had a deep sense of guilt at having survived while many men under his command died. Such statements of remorse at not having died in combat are not unusual and most war criminals' final statements are full of self-justification for what they did during the war. Interestingly however, in contrast to other Generals, Yamashita made no excuses for the atrocities that his soldiers committed against the people of the Philippines. On the contrary, he clearly accepted responsibility as commander and the judgment "by rigorous but impartial law." It seems ironic that many conservative politicians who support Prime Minister Koizumi's official visits to Yasukuni Shrine now claim that the war crime tribunals conducted by the Allied forces were simply "victor's justice" and therefore had no legal validity.

Undoubtedly the trials were unfair because the Allies ruled out consideration of war crimes committed by their own forces -- the most obvious example of war crimes committed by the United States being the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (The A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people in an instant, and an estimated 140,000 died by the end of 1945. In Nagasaki, 70,000 people are believed to have died by the end of the same year. Many more would die agonizing deaths in subsequent years from the blast, wounds, and radiation. It is a well-established fact that the killing of civilians in wartime is contrary to international law.) However, unfairness in the tribunals themselves does not invalidate the criminality of the numerous atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during the Asia-Pacific War, nor does it call into question the responsibility of their commanders, including that of the Supreme Commander, Emperor Hirohito.

When Yamashita overcame his initial difficulty in explaining himself and started talking about his hopes for the Japanese people, his tone became quite straightforward and confident. He ascribed the fundamental cause of war crimes to the Japanese peoples' inability to make independent moral judgments. Although he did not use the term "human rights" (and probably he was not familiar with that terminology), the words "moral judgment" are repeatedly used in order to urge the Japanese people to respect the human rights of others. This is indicated by his expression "your personal responsibility in relations with other people" (emphasis added). By the time he faced execution, he clearly had come to the realization that Japan's brutal military actions were due to the lack of a sense of personal responsibility toward others that may be equated with the concept of "human rights", and that this eventually led people in Asia and elsewhere to distrust Japan. He concluded that this was one of the crucial reasons for Japan's defeat in war. He welcomed the prospect that the Japanese in defeat would belatedly be given the freedom to make their own moral judgments. But he remained apprehensive about their ability to do so, and urged the Japanese to become "cultured and dignified" people. We need to reflect on this statement carefully, particularly in the current situation where some nationalist scholars and many Japanese politicians -- including Prime Minister Koizumi -- seek to sanitize Japan's military conduct during the Asia-Pacific War.

Yamashita's second point was that there could be no weapons or military strategies to defend ourselves against nuclear weapons. This should also be re-emphasized on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 2005, and above all in light of the failure of the NPT Review Conference in May 2005 to advance the abolition of nuclear weapons. Politicians like Mr. Abe Shinzo, who think that Japan should develop nuclear arms for defense purposes, should also be reminded of General Yamashita's words that the "only method to defend ourselves against atomic bombs" is "to establish nations all over the world that would never contemplate the use of such weapons." Indeed, these words of a Japanese general at the hour of his execution are fully consistent with the spirit of eternal peace that the A-bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have long advocated.

It is remarkable that half of his final words were addressed to women. Here we can discern Yamashita's hope that the new Japanese society should be built on the principles of women, not those of men, specifically power and violence. His statement that "the driving force of peace is in the heart of women" sums up his thoughts on this issue. He was surely that rare person amongst Japanese military leaders who was able to see the fundamental link between war and male violence. He came to hold the view that women should play more important roles in building peace, especially in the field of education. I am not sure how he overcame his own patriarchal beliefs in the eight months between his surrender and execution. During the conduct of his trial, something must have occurred that led him to dramatically change his views on gender and society, and indeed on war and peace.

His last point emphasizing the importance of mothers educating their children sounds like male chauvinism, imposing all responsibilities for raising children on women. We must understand, however, that his views on this issue were closely intertwined with his deep sense of personal responsibility for the deaths of many young men under his command. Perhaps for this reason he romanticized the bond between mothers and their children, using "breastfeeding" as an overriding metaphor for nurturing and educating children. It should be noted that his goal was to educate Japanese youth "to be able to live independently, cope with various circumstances, love peace, appreciate cooperation with others and have a strong will to contribute to mankind when they grow up."

Closely examining Yamashita's last words, it becomes crystal-clear that the conclusions he drew from his war experience are fundamentally at odds with the reigning ideology of Yasukuni Shrine and its supporters. It is an historical irony that General Yamashita is worshipped by neo-nationalist politicians who claim that Yasukuni Shrine is sacred, deride the legality of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal as victor's justice, deny Japan's war responsibilities, promote nationalistic education policies and textbooks, advocate the abolition of the Peace Constitution, suggest the necessity of possessing nuclear arms "for the purpose of defending the country," and show no interest at all in improving women's social and economic status.

Yamashita Tomoyuki's Last Message to the Japanese People

Due to my carelessness and personal crassness, I committed an inexcusable blunder as the commander of the entire [14th Area] Army and consequently caused the deaths of your precious sons and dearest husbands. I am really sorry and cannot find appropriate words for sincere apologies as I am really confused because of my excruciating agony. As the commander of your beloved men, I am soon to receive the death penalty, having been judged by rigorous but impartial law. It is a strange coincidence that the execution is to be carried out on the birthday of the first U.S. president, George Washington.

I do not know how to express my apology, but the time has come to atone for my guilt with my death. However, I do not think that all the crimes for which I am responsible can easily be liquidated simply by my death. Various indelible stains that I left on the history of mankind cannot be offset by the mechanical termination of my life.

For a person like me who constantly faced death, to die is not at all difficult. Of course I should have committed suicide when I surrendered, as ordered by the emperor in accordance with the Japanese code of the samurai. In fact, I once decided to do so when I attended the surrender ceremonies at Kiangan and Baguio, at which General Percival, whom I had defeated [in Singapore], was also present. What prevented me from committing such an egocentric act was the presence of my soldiers, who did not yet know that the war was over at that time. By refusing to take my own life, I was able to set my men free from meaningless deaths, as those stationed around Kiangan were ready to commit suicide. I really felt pain from the shame of remaining alive, in violation of the samurai's code of "dying at the appropriate time in an appropriate place." I therefore can imagine how much more difficult it is for people like you to remain alive and re-build Japan rather than being executed as a war criminal. If I were not a war criminal, I would still have chosen a difficult path, bearing shame to stay alive and atone for my sins until natural death comes, no matter how you all might despise me.

Sun Tzu said 'The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.' From these words, we learn that our military forces were lethal weapons and their very existence was a crime. I tried my best to prevent the war. I am really ashamed of having been unable to do so because of my weakness. You may think that I am a born aggressor and a typical militarist, because my campaign in Malaya and the fall of Singapore excited the entire Japanese nation. I understand that this is quite natural. I do not excuse myself, as I was a professional soldier and dedicated myself to the military. But even while being a military man, I also have a relatively strong sense as a Japanese citizen. There is no resurrection any longer for the ruined nation and the dead. From ancient times, war has always been a matter for exceptional prudence by wise rulers and sensible soldiers. It was entirely due to our military authorities' arbitrary decisions, which were made by just a handful of people, that a large number of our people died and the rest of the nation was dragged into its present unbearable suffering. I feel as if my heart will break when I think that we professional soldiers will become the object of your bitter resentment. I believe that the Potsdam Declaration will wipe out the leaders of military cliques who led the nation to its downfall, and Japan will start rebuilding as a peaceful nation under new leaders elected by the popular will. However, the path of rebuilding the nation will not be easy in the face of many obstacles.

The experience that you went through, enduring various difficulties and poverty in the last ten years of war, will inevitably give you some strength, even though it was as an unwelcome result of pressure from the military authorities. To construct a new Japan, you really must not include militarists who are the relics of the past or opportunistic unprincipled politicians, or scholars patronized by the government who try to rationalize an aggressive war.

Probably some appropriate policies will be adopted by the Allied Occupation Forces. But I would like to say something on this point, as I am just about to die and thus have great concern about Japan's future. Weeds have a strong life force, and grow again when spring comes, no matter how hard they are trodden underfoot. I am confident that, with strong determination for development, you will rebuild our nation now completely destroyed, and make it a highly cultured one like Denmark. Denmark lost its fertile land in Schleswig-Holstein as the result of the German-Denmark War in 1863, but gave up rearming themselves and made their infertile areas into one of the most cultured of European nations. As a ruined people, we repent having done wrong. I will pray for Japan's restoration from a grave in a foreign country.

Japanese people, you have expelled the militarists and will gain your own independence. Please stand up firmly after the ravages of war. That is my wish. I am a simple soldier. Faced with execution in a very short time, a thousand emotions overwhelm me. But in addition to apologizing, I want to express my views on certain matters. I feel sorry that I cannot express myself very well, because I am a man of action, reticent and with a limited vocabulary. The time of my execution is drawing near. I have only one hour and forty minutes left. Probably only convicts on death row are capable of comprehending the value of one hour and forty minutes. I asked Mr. Morita, a prison chaplain, to record these words and I hope he will pass my ideas on to you some day.

Facing death, I have four things to say to you, the people of the nation of Japan as it resurrects.

First, is about carrying out one's duty. From ancient times, this topic has repeatedly been discussed by scholars, yet it remains most difficult to achieve. Without a sense of duty, a democratic and cooperative society cannot exist. Duty has to be fulfilled as a result of self-regulating and naturally motivated action. I feel some misgivings in thinking about this, considering that you are suddenly to be liberated from the social restraints under which you have long lived.

I often discussed this with my junior officers. The moral decay of our military was so grave that the Imperial Code of Military Conduct as well as the Field Service Code were simply dead letters. Therefore, we had to remind people of this all the time, even in the military where obedience was strongly demanded and defying orders was not allowed at all. In this war, it was far from true that officers under my command carried out their duties satisfactorily.

They were unable to fulfill even the duties that were imposed upon them. Therefore I have some concern over your ability to fulfill your duty voluntarily and independently, after being released from long-standing social restraints. I wonder if you'll be dazzled by suddenly bestowed freedom, and whether some may fail to carry out your duty as required in relations with others, as you've received basically the same education as military men. In a free society, you should nurture your own ability to make moral judgments in order to carry out your duties. Duties can only be carried out correctly by a socially mature person with an independent mind and with culture and dignity.

The fundamental reason why the world has lost confidence in our nation, and why we have so many war-crime suspects who left ugly scars on our history, was this lack of morals. I would like you to cultivate and accept the common moral judgment of the world, and become a people who fulfill duties on your own responsibility. You are expected to be independent and carve out your own future. No one can avoid this responsibility and choose an easy way. Only through that path can eternal peace be attained in the world.

Second, I would like you to promote education in science. No one can deny that the level of Japan's modern science, apart from certain minor areas, is well below world standards. If you travel outside Japan, the first thing you notice is the unscientific way of life of the Japanese. To search for truth with Japan's irrational and cliquish mentality is like searching for fish among the trees.

We soldiers had great difficulties in securing the necessary materials to fight and to make up for the lack of scientific knowledge. We tried to fight against the superior forces of the United States and to win the war by throwing away the priceless lives of our nation as substitutes for bullets and bombs. Various methods of horrendous suicide attack were invented. We exposed our pilots to danger by stripping vital equipment from the planes in order to just slightly improve their mobility. This shows how little knowledge we had for conducting war. We made the greatest mistake -- unprecedented in world history -- by trying to make up for the lack of materials and scientific knowledge with human bodies.

My present state of mind is quite different from that at the time of surrender. In the car on the way to Baguio from Kiangan, Mr. Robert MacMillan, a journalist of the magazine Youth asked, what I thought was the fundamental reason for Japan's defeat. Something suppressed for a long time in my sub-consciousness suddenly burst out and I instantly responded "science," before referring to other important issues. This was because my long-lasting frustration and intense anger were loosened all at once when the war was over.

I am not saying that this is the only reason, but it was clearly one important reason for Japan's defeat. If there will be another war somewhere in the world (although I hope there won't be), it is expected end in a short time through the use of horrific scientific weapons. The foolish methods of war that Japan adopted will be regarded as the illusions of an idiot. Human beings throughout the world, I presume, will make efforts to prevent such a terrible war -- not just the Japanese who thoroughly endured the horror of this war. This is the task that is given to humanity.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were horrendous weapons. Never before have so many people been killed instantly in the long history of slaughtering human beings. As I have been in prison, I have not had enough time to study the A-bomb, but I think that no weapon will be invented to defend against atomic weapons. It used to be said that it would always be possible to fight against a new method of attack. This is still true. If there is any method to defend against atomic bombs -- the weapon that has made obsolete all past warfare -- it would simply be to create nations all over the world that would never contemplate the use of such weapons.

A defeated officer like me reflects sadly that if we had had superior scientific knowledge and sufficient scientific weapons, we would not have killed so many of our own men. Instead we could have sent them back home to use the knowledge as the foundation to rebuild a glorious and peaceful country. However, the science that I mean is not science that leads mankind to destruction. It is science that will develop natural resources still to be tapped, that will make human life rich, and will be used for peaceful purposes to free human beings from misery and poverty.

Third, I want to mention the education of women. I have heard that Japanese women have been liberated from the feudal state authorities and been given the privilege of suffrage. From my experience of living in foreign countries for a long time, I can say that the position of modern Japanese women is inferior to that of women in the west.

I am slightly apprehensive about the fact that freedom for Japanese women is a generous gift from the Occupation Forces, not one that they struggled to acquire themselves. A gift is often enjoyed as an object of appreciation and not actually put to direct use. The highest virtues for Japanese women used to be "obedience" and "fidelity." That was no different from "obedient allegiance" in the military. A person who respects such castrated and slave-like virtues has been called a "chaste woman" or praised as a "loyal and brave soldier." In such values, there is no freedom of action or freedom of thought, and they are not the virtues by which one can self-examine autonomously. My hope is that you will break out of your old shell, enrich your education, and become new active Japanese women, while maintaining only the good elements of existing values. The driving force for peace is the heart of women. Please utilize your newly gained freedom effectively and appropriately. Your freedom should not be violated or taken away by anyone. As free women, you should be united with women throughout the world and give full play to your unique abilities as women. If not, you will be squandering all the privileges that you have been given.

Finally, there is one more thing that I would like to tell women -- you are either already a mother or will become a mother in future. You should clearly realize that one of a mother's responsibilities is a very important role in the "human education" of the next generation.

I have always been unhappy about the idea that modern education begins at school. The home is the most appropriate place for educating infants and the most appropriate teacher is the mother. You alone can lay the foundation for education in its true meaning. If you do not want to be criticized as worthless women, please do your best in educating your own children. Education does not begin at kindergarten or on entry to elementary school. It should begin when you breastfeed a newborn baby. It is a mother's privilege to have a special feeling that no one else can have when she cuddles and breastfeeds her baby. Mothers should give their love to their baby both physically and mentally, as they are the baby's source of life. Breastfeeding can be done by another, and nourishment can be provided by other animals, or can be substituted for by a bottle. Yet nothing else can substitute for mother's love.

It is not enough for a mother to think only about how to keep her children alive. She should raise them to be able to live independently, cope with various circumstances, love peace, appreciate cooperation with others and have a strong desire to contribute to humanity when they grow up.

You should raise the joyful feeling of breastfeeding to the level of intellectual emotion and refined love. Mother's love will constantly flow into her baby's body through breastfeeding. The fundamental elements of future education must exist in embryo in mother's milk. Attention to the baby's needs can be the basis for education. Untiring mothering skills should naturally develop into a higher level of educational skill. I am not a specialist on education and therefore I am not sure how appropriate it is, but I would like to call this kind of education "breastfeeding education." Please bear this simple and ordinary phrase in your mind. These are the last words of the person who took your children's lives away from you.

Yuki Tanaka is research professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, a Coordinator of Japan Focus, and author of Japan's Comfort Women. Sexual slavery and prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. He prepared this article for Japan Focus. Posted September 22, 2005.


OTHER LINKS:

YAMASHITA ON TRIAL FOR WAR CRIMES



Tokyo/Yamashita Trials
Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009
Clips from a program hosted by Oliver North entitled "War Stories" relating to the Tokyo Trial and the Yamashita Trial. The featured prosecutor was Robert Donihi who was part of Joseph Keenan's team at Tokyo. Mr. Donihi was also a guest at the Robert H. Jackson Center during the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trial. For further information, see http://www.roberthjackson.org

MY THOUGHTS:

THE SHOOTING OF TRAYVON MARTIN (FEBRUARY 26, 2012)

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On this date, February 26, 2012 was the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin:


Date
February 26, 2012
Time
7:09 PM EST (start)
7:16 PM (gunshot on 911 call)
7:17 PM (police car arrives)
7:30 PM (Martin declared dead)
Location
The Retreat at Twin Lakes
in Sanford, Florida, U.S.
(See aerial views of points of interest.)
Coordinates
28.79295°N 81.32965°WCoordinates: 28.79295°N 81.32965°W
Participants
George Zimmerman (shooter)
Deaths
Trayvon Martin
Injuries
Fractured nose, lacerations to the back of the head. (Zimmerman)
Charges
Second-degree murder, lesser included offense of manslaughter.
Verdict
Not guilty

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. According to Zimmerman's subsequent testimony, Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during an altercation between the two. Responding to an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived on the scene within two minutes of the shooting. Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours. The police chief said that Zimmerman was released because there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Florida's Stand Your Groundstatute, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest. The police chief also said that Zimmerman had had a right to defend himself with lethal force. As news of the case spread, thousands of protestors across the country called for Zimmerman's arrest and a full investigation. Six weeks after the shooting, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases misleading media coverage, Zimmerman was charged with murder by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott.

Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford. On July 13, 2013, a jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and of manslaughter charges.

PLEASE SEE THIS VIDEO:
SUSPICIOUS (Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman) Re-enactment Short film
Published on Apr 9, 2012
By Mike McMahon X. Official "Suspicious" short film reenacts the facts and theories of the Trayvon Martin case. This film was made in April, 2012 as part of the "I Am Trayvon Martin" movement, when the police were refusing to arrest George Zimmerman. Craftily using the Zimmerman 911 call and others, it is intended to generate healthy discussion about what happened the night of February 26, 2012. Our respect for the victim and his family is of the utmost. this video was made and uploaded before Zimmerman's arrest in mid-April, 2012, so not all facts known to us now were able to be incorporated into the film. If we had known, we would have shown the reality-- Zimmerman profiled, followed, and confronted Trayvon, and tried to detain him. This caused the boy to defend himself and fight him, and because Zimmerman thought Trayvon was an "asshole" from the nearby subdivision who was robbing their homes, he shot him when he was losing the fight. He assumed he would get away with the murder. He was right...but God won't let him get away with it!

GO SEE FRUITVALE STATION!!! It is an excellent movie; if you liked this, you'll love it. It is the story of Oscar Grant, who was shot in the back by a BART officer. Rest in Peace, Oscar. Your death was not in vain. His name appears at the end of "Suspicious"...
John Henry Spooner has been found guilty of shooting unarmed black teenager Darius Simmons in the chest, no doubt thanks only to the old man's own video surveillance that caught the entire assault on tape!



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