| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
10 Mar 2005 11:22:30 AM |
| Object: |
Why would concentration camp survivors lie about their treatment? |
Why would concentration camp survivors lie about their treatment?
a) There are a variety of reasons former prisoners of the Nazis would
lie about their treatment.
A. Many concentration camp inmates were imprisoned not simply for
ethnic reasons. They were there because they were common criminals.
Some of these people were not honest to begin with and used this
opportunity to turn the tables on their former captors. It is a way to
take revenge and to distract attention away from their own crimes.
B. Many concentration camp inmates were there for political reasons--
particularly communists. They might lie for ideological reasons.
Alleging atrocities and abuse would help to discredit the Nazi regime
and system that imprisoned them.. On a more personal level, communists
and Jews who spent the war in a camp working for the Nazis need to
justify their actions while in custody. This usually entailed working
in German shops and factories for the Germans. Claiming heavy abuse,
or involvement in sabotage are ways of satisfying questions of
personal political hygiene.
C. Some former prisoners testified to abuse after their liberation
from the Nazis simply because that was what was expected of them from
their liberators. In the postwar trials some people became paid
professional prosecution witnesses who were willing to testify to just
about anything. Perjury by prosecution witnesses was not something
that was punished-instead it was often encouraged.
SR)Segev; Butz; Staeglich
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--
Freedom of speech involves the right to think the unthinkable,
mention the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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