• ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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    fedilink
    41 year ago

    There are actually two articles crying over this.

    Here and here

    For those curious, a good number of German POWs were unsurprisingly rabid supporters of Nazism, to the point that they were willing to murder fellow German POWs for not supporting or even just expressing doubts over Nazism.

    German POWs in Canada formed intelligence sections to spy on fellow POWs and control news of the war in the camps, propaganda sections to ensure that the POWs remained committed to the cause, escape committees, and their own Gestapo units to brutalize those judged as traitors to the cause.

    Immediate Gestapo punishments included physical beatings and psychological torment. “Prisoners threatened by Nazis feared for their lives; finding a noose in one’s bed was extremely traumatizing,” wrote Martin Auger, who authored a book about German POWs in Canada.

    The Gestapo also monitored the mail of POWs to keep news of Nazi setbacks out of the camp, identify anti-Nazis, and keep others in line by threatening to withhold the mail. “The Gestapo element…is extremely active,” wrote one intelligence officer. According to one intelligence director, the holding back of mail was even effective than beatings.

    During this time, there were dozens, if not hundreds of murders committed in the name of Nazism in various Allied POW camps.

    Barely any of the murders were solved. The main problem was that witnesses (other POWs) rarely cooperated. They were either staunch believers in Nazism or feared retaliation. In the end, only 10 murders were solved by the Americans, British, and Canadians combined. One was only solved after one of the killers confessed out of remorse.

    In these cases, a total of 43 German POWs were prosecuted for murder, of which 38 were convicted. All but seven of those convicted were sentenced to death. Twenty-six of them were executed; the other three were reprieved and served prison sentences.

    The title of the article isn’t even correct since Canada didn’t execute seven German POWs. They executed five.

    Seven men were charged. Six were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. One was reprieved after the jury recommended mercy due to his young age. He served nearly 10 years in prison before being paroled and sent back to Germany. The other five were executed.

    The articles are arguing that rabidly pro-Nazi German POWs were within their rights to murder fellow POWs whom they viewed them as traitors for not supporting Nazism enough.

    • @Shrike502
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      31 year ago

      Unless that white man is from “designated enemy territory”, i.e. USSR