In a 2005 interview for The Washington Post, [Ferencz] revealed some of his activities during his period in Germany by way of showing how different military legal norms were at the time:
"Someone who was not there could never really grasp how unreal the situation was ... I once saw DPs [displaced persons] beat an SS man and then strap him to the steel gurney of a crematorium. They slid him in the oven, turned on the heat and took him back out. Beat him again, and put him back in until he was burnt alive. I did nothing to stop it. I suppose I could have brandished my weapon or shot in the air, but I was not inclined to do so. Does that make me an accomplice to murder? You know how I got witness statements? I'd go into a village where, say, an American pilot had parachuted and been beaten to death and line everyone one up against the wall. Then I'd say, "Anyone who lies will be shot on the spot." It never occurred to me that statements taken under duress would be invalid."
My Opinion: History is always more complex than some people think. The Good Guys are not 100% good. The Bad Guys are not 100% bad. Life is full of hard choices. Just as one aspect of this: The current Woke effort to eliminate the Confederate history from US history and from towns across America really fails to understand how complex history is for anyone who is caught up in it.
My father was in North Africa & Europe for 4 years during World War 2.
He saw things that you would never want to see...
> My Opinion: History is always more complex than some people think. The Good Guys are not 100% good. The Bad Guys are not 100% bad. <
A friend of my father’s served in the US Army in Italy during WW II. It was early in 1945. The Germans were retreating, and his division was rapidly advancing. And they took no prisoners. Every surrendering German was shot.
This guy said it had to be done. Escorting so many prisoners to the rear would severely weaken his unit. Then they couldn’t support Allied units on either side of them. Allied soldiers would die because of that.
Was shooting those German soldiers a cruel necessity? A war crime? Both?
They were the Confederacy.