sb- I think Goering was in charge of the gestapo and himmler was head of the ss...if I remember right and then himmler took charge of both groups...but the gestapo and the ss were different units
The Nazi state needed 'tools' of repression, i.e. to make sure Germany contained 'good' and compliant Nazis. Nazi thinking may be summed up in the motto "Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer" - "One state, One people, One leader". In other words, no-one was allowed to be different - all the people, the state and the leader should be one and the same and share the same aims and goals. The SS, Gestapo and Sicherheitdienst (SD) were an important part of the state apparatus that was meant to enforce this idea. The SS, led by Heinrich Himmler, was split into 3 organisations - the Waffen SS (a military branch of supposedly true Nazis - elite soldiers who fought in battles), the Death's Head (given the task of organising concentration camps and, later, the mass extermination of 'undesirables') and the SD (who dealt with enemies of the state - those who threatened or undermined the state structure). The Gestapo, led by Reinhard Heydrich, were the secret police of the state - targetting individuals thought not to be fully committed to the Nazi way of life or those pursuing 'non-German' activities. The Gestapo were feared greatly because no-one knew who they were - though in reality this fear was greatly exaggerated. Your nextdoor neighbour might be a Gestapo official; the person sat next to you in a bar - you wouldn't know. So, for example, if your wife/girlfriend/sister etc was discovered smoking a cigarette in public (something which Hitler considered very un-German), then they might get a visit form the Gestapo. There are examples of people telling subversive jokes in pubs and bars and later being arrested. The power of these organisations lay in the fact that they could sieze individuals and groups, accuse them of various unlawful activities and imprison, torture or execute them without going through any law courts. Some were allowed trials, but these were almost all 'show trials' designed to justify the Nazi regime at the expense of the accused.
sb- yer not boring! I agree with you! human beings are capable of some very sick shit
as for the soap thing...I think it would have been more costly to make the soap out of the corpses than to just buy it cheap out right- although the skin lampshades and stuff like that is real- I just don't think they were MASS produced as an effective means of recycling...that doesn't make sense on a large scale
RIGHT! WE should NOT let it go- we need to have the corpse pile pictures burned on our brains- my children will see those pictures (should I wait til the 5th or 6th b-day party to break them out? lol) but we as a human race need to remember what we are capable of - what we did in the past and especially- WHY we did what we did and how it happened- what were the consequences of our actions?...learn from the past...there is no better teacher
sb- I am most interested in the psychological aspects of the people involved- from the leaders to the civilians...also the concentration camps and the planning that went into creating them...
Dr. Josef Mengele and his "special projects" fascinate me...the things he did to people...the medical torture shit...he was a very complex character
I am less interested in the military strategies...but I have read a lot about that stuff also...
If I had a kitchen that wasn't so small that I hit the counter with the fridge door everytime I needed to grab the oj...maybe I would experiment a little more nella cucina *sigh*
I actually like baking the most...I love to bake sweets and cakes!
time to dance dangerous intruder, unsuspecting quietly, behaved suffers known, terror thrives, hopes false, slyly smile, most insane, toy with nature, magnitude emerges, destruction unleashed, intent firmly state
Today i walked into the men's room and heard a guy talking on his cell-phone while he was taking a shit....of course i laughed....then i started thinking....how many people do this? do people i know do this when i'm talkin
Is it safe to be lost All tired and tossed In the midst of some other's dream? To loose I, Mine and Me? Only YOU do I see, Till I've lost all Identity?
And then a day comes along I no longer belong 'cause you've fished