Lemmygrad’s resident expert on fascism’ — GrainEater, 2024

The political desperadoes and ignoramuses, who say they would “Rather be Dead than Red”, should be told that no one will stop them from committing suicide, but they have no right to provoke a third world war.’ — Morris Kominsky, 1970

  • 2.71K Posts
  • 1.85K Comments
Joined 6 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 27th, 2019

help-circle

  • In his death-row memoir, Rudolf Höss discussed the “many suicides” among the men of the Einsatzgruppen and those “who could no longer mentally endure wading in the bloodbath … [and] went mad.” He continued, “Most of the members of the Special Action Squads [i.e., Einsatzgruppen] drank a great deal to help get through this horrible work.”¹⁷

    Likewise, SS colonel Paul Blobel, the commander of Sonderkommando 4a, who enjoyed his reputation as “‘an efficient killer of Jews’ as well as a ‘drunk and a monster,’” still attempted to place himself in the rôle of the victim by citing the “psychological trauma” of his experience, in which alcohol became a means for dealing with his participation in genocide.¹⁸

    (Source.)

    Nevertheless,

    There was […] a notable lack of guilt among the top [Axis] leaders, but fear of retribution may well have prompted their suicides.

    (Source.)

    I have seen plausible claims that camp guards in particular were more suicidal, but I have no proof.