Wars and ConflictsΒ permalink
Nuremburg: any remorse?
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Message 1.Β
Posted by Elkstone (U3836042) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Did any leading nazi, party officials or serving soldiers admit to their wrongs or had any remorse for the evil crimes of the regime? Or were most 'brainwashed' into denials?
VonPaulos who later served under the East German communist bloc, did he admit to any wrongs,or had knowledge of the Nazi war crimes? Did any of those jailed during nuremburg repent after their sentences? Did any join anti nazi movements, working against neo nazi groups that later emerged? -
Message 2
Posted by JB on a slippery slope to the thin end ofdabiscuit (U13805036) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Speer was the only senior Nazi to express remorse and admit responsibility.
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Message 3
Posted by henrylee100 (U536041) on Monday, 6th April 2009
yet he got twenty something years in jail regardless
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Message 4
Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Elkstone VonPaulos who later served under the East German communist bloc, did he admit to any wrongs,or had knowledge of the Nazi war crimes?Β Compare and contrast Paulus and Keitel. Paulus was the key Barbarossa planner, while Keitel opposed it. However, Paulus was brought in to Nuremberg as a witness. Keitel was hanged for launching aggressive wars, while Paulus was spared. In all likelihood, the life and death difference was that Keitel's testimony did not please Stalin's lawyers that much, because he talked too much about Red Army's take over of Bessarabia in the summer of 1940 and consequent build up threatening Germany's oil supplies from Ploesti oil fields. Remorse had little to do with it.
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Message 5
Posted by White Camry (U2321601) on Monday, 6th April 2009
henrylee100,
yet he got twenty something years in jail regardlessΒ
A rather light sentence, all things considered. -
Message 6
Posted by Nik (U1777139) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Why would anyone search remorse? Most of these men had "planned" a camp, not necessarily order directly the deaths (there were also those that ordered them but it had to be traced down). In the minds of many of these officers they had not done much different of what the "victorius" side had done. And still it would be till the first news about such camps from the victorious Russians that British would cease to pretend "not having any idea" (despite knowning very well - everyone knew very well anyway).
Britain was no-one to give moral lessons and neither was USSR.
The thing to better ask would be whether really the Allies were willing to punish Nazi and Nazi collaborators as in so many cases they collaborated nicely with them and in countries like Greece for example they have been famous for protecting not only the lifes of the loser Nazis (known to have commited grave crimes for which they never paid) but also the few local collaborators which they took them under their wings.
So the last thing that matters here is whether the accused (anyway criminal men) showed any remorse or not. -
Message 7
Posted by henrylee100 (U536041) on Monday, 6th April 2009
"A rather light sentence, all things considered."
Well, after reading Inside the Third Reich one gets the impression the guy was nearly wholly innocent, he even claims to have gone out for a smoke at the time that Himmler was talking about the final solution of the Jewish question during some Nazi party conference in 1944, so he says he wasn't really aware of what was happening to the Jews. Also there is a TV series based on Inside the Third Reich in which Speer is played by Rutger Hauer (sorry if I misspelled this name) and he seems like a very likable guy -
Message 8
Posted by Sixtus Beckmesser (U9635927) on Monday, 6th April 2009
"Also there is a TV series based on Inside the Third Reich in which Speer is played by Rutger Hauer (sorry if I misspelled this name) and he seems like a very likable guy"
Not a wholly reliable basis for sound historical judgement, Henry.....remember Diana Mosley (Mitford) talking about Hitler on 'Desert Island Discs'...something along the lines of "He really was a charming man when one met him socially". -
Message 9
Posted by Parti-NG-ton Blue (U13898629) on Monday, 6th April 2009
I don't believe Albert Speer to be evil. He was an architect at heart and never got overly involved in policy.
In no way am I saying he was entirely innocent and I am sure he knew more of what was going on than most. 20 years is by no way a lenient sentence.
If it spared the death sentence then remorse would have been more forth coming. The ones who were spared would have to offer something in trade. I believe in the case od Rudolf Hess that more happened on his trip to Britain that meets the eye and that is why he was kept inprisoned rather than killed. -
Message 10
Posted by Steelers708 (U1831340) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Remorse has nothing to do with the farce that was the Nuremburg War Crimes trials, the simple fact is if you were/had been useful to the Allies then any crimes you may have comitted were ignored/forgotten about.
Probably the best known of those was Werner von Braun, Friedrich von Paulus had been used by the Soviets in the Free Germany Committee, there isn't a German general I despise more than him, he lived a relatively comfy life whilst his army marched of to their deaths. After the war he was asked by the relatives of those taken prisoner at Stalingrad how they were doing, his reply was that they were all doing ok and would be home soon, even though he new that the vast majority of them were already dead.
The list is endless but the last one I'll mention is Ferdinand Porsche, he was only arrested by the French on War Crimes charges after a deal between him and the French Goverment to make cars in France was prevented from happening by French car manufactures. -
Message 11
Posted by Spruggles (U13892773) on Monday, 6th April 2009
Message 9,
Apart from the fact that he organized slave labour. Still, there were the others who were not exactly clear of blame but who were considered as valuable to the Allies and therefore their records were overlooked. There is also the knotty problem of the use of the results of medical experimentation that were equally 'borrowed' by the Allies, presumably with not a backwards glance as how the Nazi's achieved them. And a careful reading of the records of the last year of the war, especially the peace negotiations show that we had some very strange bed-fellows indeed. C'est Le Guerre' -
Message 12
Posted by Allan D (U1791739) on Monday, 6th April 2009
I don't believe Albert Speer to be evil. He was an architect at heart and never got overly involved in policy.Β
The major charge against Speer was his knowing use of slave labour, especially in the construction of the V-1 and V-2 rockets where thousands died in the most appalling of conditions. Documents also surfaced that even before he became Armaments Minister he had ordered the confiscation of Jewish-owned apartments in Berlin for use by government officials.
Also, as perhaps the only halfway-competent Nazi official he extended the Reicjh's fighting capacity long past what it sjould have been and therefore bears a heavier burden than the rest for the continuation of the war.
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