SS Photo Album

[EKman]

In a scene right out of Schlinder's List, a soldier cuts the beard from what appears to be a Jew.

Larry,

I won't hijack your thread just to show examples, but I can confirm that you are correct in this. It was common practice for German troops to humiliate Ost Juden by forcing them to cut their beards and then pose for pics. In my Holocaust archive, I have many such photos showing the degradation of Jews. Half a beard would sometimes be shaved off and German troops and Polish Gentiles would crowd around to pose for a pic. What's more, it was not just the SS who were a part of this, I have photographic evidence to show that it was just as much elements of the honorable Heer troops who got their kicks brutalizing the Orthodox Jews who stood out in a crowd.

[Sven Masch]

I have photographic evidence to show that it was just as much elements of the honorable Heer troops who got their kicks brutalizing the Orthodox Jews who stood out in a crowd.

Well in every war both sides do such things.
It ever was like this and ever will be (abu-ghuraib).

But please don´t let it sound like "all german soldiers were criminals"

I bet you also have a lot photos in your collection showing prisioners that are well treated well by german soldiers, who gave them cigarettes etc.
And this was much more common then the scenes you discribe.

[EKman]

Well in every war both sides do such things.
It ever was like this and ever will be (abu-ghuraib).

But please don´t let it sound like "all german soldiers were criminals"

I bet you also have a lot photos in your collection showing prisioners that are well treated well by german soldiers, who gave them cigarettes etc.
And this was much more common then the scenes you discribe.

Very true sir and I grant you that, I was only wanting to point out that outside our community of collectors and students of history wherein we generally know the truth, the common misunderstanding is that all atrocities can be laid at the feet of the SS while the hands of the army remain spotless. This simply is not so. And yes, I have photos to show prisoners being treated well, getting cigs and so on, but there was a vast difference between the treatment of POWs and the treatment of Orthodox Jewish civillians. The two can't be equated on any level I don't think.

[LarryHW.]

All sides do such things....

It is true that there are abuses and atrocities in almost all wars. However, what the pictures in this thread depict was different from the Iraq situation. First, what happened at Abu Gharib (sp) was not official policy and, when exposed, the perpetrators were punished.

The actions in the pictures, from the invasion of Poland in September 1939, were certainly encouraged by the deeds and words of the highest levels of German leadership. They were the first step in what became one of the greatest systematic acts of murder and terror in world history. The SS were
certainly ready and eager to brutalize in Poland. The German Army was more of a mixed bag, but in no way clean and clear of what happened.

As for treatment of prisoners--I'd suggest it was a rare and memorable event indeed for any Jew in Poland to get nice treatment from a German in any uniform. Not to say it didn't happen somewhere, but it was sure a notable exception.

The point is that "all sides" did not and do not engage in the kind of overt, systematic persecution and murder that took place in Nazi occupied Europe.

[Maikäfer]

Very true sir and I grant you that, I was only wanting to point out that outside our community of collectors and students of history wherein we generally know the truth, the common misunderstanding is that all atrocities can be laid at the feet of the SS while the hands of the army remain spotless. This simply is not so.

So you're gonna hijack this thread and then turn it into a racist, anti-German rant disguised as some vague accusation towards the whole Wehrmacht?

[EKman]

So you're gonna hijack this thread and then turn it into a racist, anti-German rant disguised as some vague accusation towards the whole Wehrmacht?

Um ok...whatever