American soldier turning away from a SS guard moment before he’s beaten to death with a shovel by prisoners after the liberation of Dachau

20 comments

  3. Part of the Dachau Liberation Reprisals:

    “Dachau liberation reprisals – Wikipedia” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_liberation_reprisals

    Technically a US war crime, but I think there can be some debate as to the mental state of US troops encountering the horrors of a concentration camp.

    Edit: The US Army investigation concluded:

    “in the light of the conditions which greeted the eyes of the first combat troops, it is not believed that justice or equity demand that the difficult and perhaps impossible task of fixing individual responsibility now be undertaken”.

    IE: The soldiers probably acted wrongly, but were so traumatized as to be difficult to punish.

  4. Is that really a guard?

    Shaved head, matching shoes and sweater (but no stripes). Looks like it could have been a prisoner that acted as a rat.

  8. All warcrimes against prisoners of war are equally despicable and shouldn’t be EVER glorified.

    This applies also to the germans captured after WW2, many nations treated them with complete disregard for Geneva conventions and human rights.

    They should be punished but in a just and fair way.

  10. That’s a Kapo, a prisoner tasked with supervision/admin of other prisoners, they got given extra privileges as they meant less SS personnel were needed, and they helped turn prisoners against each other too.

  12. I don´t know who the fuck gave this the wholesome award but it isn´t. Life is not about revenge or about causing pain to other or killing them, it is a very wrong thing to beat to death someone with a shovel regardless of what that person did. There are other ways in life.

  14. One of the things that I don’t think is properly discussed when it comes to the question of war crimes is that your behavior will often dictate how the enemy treats you. It was drilled into our soldiers heads in WWII, don’t do it to them or they will do it to us. Don’t shoot at parachuting pilots, don’t shoot at hospitals or medics, don’t shoot captured soldiers, because if we do it to them, they’ll do it to us.

    When you’re dealing with monsters and war criminals who have the blood of civilians on their hands, your own soldiers *will* likely lose control. The prevention of reprisals in these situations is extremely difficult, and often becomes impossible when you’re dealing with an army of civilians who’ve been given very basic training and sent into a total war.

    Some level of reprisal was inevitable when it came to Nazi concentration camps. It is a baked in fact of war.

    It shouldn’t be glorified, but it should inform us on the necessity of international law.

Leave a Reply