Posted on 04/12/2005 4:46:09 PM PDT by SJackson
German prosecutors have provoked outrage by ruling that the 1945 RAF bombing of Dresden can legally be termed a "holocaust".
The decision follows the refusal by the Hamburg public prosecutor's office to press charges against a Right-wing politician who compared the bombing raids to "the extermination of the Jews".
German law forbids the denial or playing down of the Holocaust as an incitement to hatred.
So delicate is the subject of the slaughter of Jews under Hitler that any use of the word "holocaust", or comparison with it, faces intense scrutiny and sometimes legal action.
But prosecutors have declined to pursue further the case of Udo Voigt, the chairman of the far-Right NPD, who likened the RAF's raids to the Nazis' "final solution".
Rudigger Bagger, a spokesman for the Hamburg public prosecutor, said the decision took into account only the criminal, not the moral, aspects of the case.
But he cited as a legal precedent a ruling by the federal constitutional court that favoured free speech in political exchanges, if defamation was not the prime aim of the argument.
Holger Apfel, the NPD's leader in the Saxon regional parliament, caused a scandal in January when he shouted down a commemoration of the Dresden bombing, prompting many others to walk out in disgust.
His outburst was covered by parliamentary privilege but Mr Voigt applauded and repeated the statements elsewhere.
Paul Spiegel, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, criticised the decision by prosecutors not to take action. He said the statements were incitement and allowing them to stand opened the door to further such comments.
"Morally, I have no understanding of this," he said. "One can ban such remarks if you use the law consistently. It is questionable whether statements that are clearly incitement come under freedom of expression."
Although the NPD is despised by other parties, German politicians reluctantly accepted the ruling.
Dieter Wiefelspüetz, the interior spokesman for the Social Democrat Party described the phrase "holocaust" in the context of Dresden as an "exploitation of the victims". But he supported the decision not to prosecute.
Attitudes towards the Allied bombing campaign, which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, are changing. Estimates of the death toll in Dresden in February 1945 hover at about 35,000. All the same, some historians claim that as many as 500,000 people were killed in the raids.
Strictly speaking, the word "holocaust," which comes from the ancient Greek for "burnt", might seem apt for Dresden, much of it immolated by the fires started by the RAF's incendiary bombs.
But its primary meaning is now so closely linked to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews that such etymology appears to be in bad taste.
I've studied WW2 history for 40 years and don't feel I have to read every revisionist book by every pop historian.
I gather you're a real fan of the My Lai massacre, too. And John Kerry's wartime escapades.
Nice open mind you have there.
Screw your LIBERAL pop-psychology/ babble, puppy.
"The whole event is covered by the grandson of one of the former inhabitants, Kurt Vonnegut. He was there, on the ground. I don't think he particularly enjoyed it."
I didn't know warfare was supposed to be enjoyable. I always though it was about breaking your enemies will to fight. I guess we could have just shouted at them and hoped that worked.
Did the Allies round up all the ethnic Germans from all of Germany (as well as Austria and Slovakia) and imprison them in Dresden and surround the city with guard towers and electrical barbed wire before bombing it?
Then it's not a Holocaust.
Not sure any of this makes sense.
As far as revenge on the German people goes, it was after the war when the borders were redrawn for Czechoslovakia and Poland that all the Germans who lived there were forcibly sent packing to the new Germany much farther West. I've seen estimates that over 2 million civilians died on the march.
This was AFTER the war, not DURING the war.
So?? What's false about anything in that statement? Are you trying to say I haven't seen that book advertised? Or that it's not an attempt to justify the destruction of Dresden? Or that that is pretty low behavior? You're in over your head.
You are very welcome.
They never even tried.
Copnsidering that you're the one still spouting WW2 propaganda, I find that remark a little ironic.
Very impressive. The only thing separating you from the Nazis is that you just talk tough on the Internet. I suspect that you wouldn't have the stones to back up your barking if push came to shove.
And thank God for that.
Wow. That was so well put LIW.
I totally agree!
You hit the nail squarely on it head! As usual, I must add.
Thanks.
Please get back to me on what untruth he has spoken.
Right. WWII propaganda.
And you're so enlightened you don't need to read anything that might disagree with your current conclusions. You're so enlightened that if you think something might disagree with you, you have to mock and disparage it and its author and anyone who goes as far as calling it to your enlightened attention.
There's your irony.
I've thought about it.
Does hating brussels sprouts make you a brussel sprout?
Does hating lies and falsehoods make you the New York Times?
Does hating the starvation of helpless invalids make you Michael Schiavo?
Does hating evil make you evil?
You can argue until you're blue in the face that the Dresden event demoralized the German people and prepared them for defeat. On the other hand all you need to do is pick up a Russian book on the matter and they'll instruct you that it was the Red Army, on the ground, using missile launchers and tanks, and lots and lots of infantrymen, who defeated the German nation and it's army.
The United States of America kept those fine gentlemen and gentleladies fully supplied with everything they needed, including Spam, to bring about that defeat.
The Brits attended the war, and the French turned out on both sides, as it were.
WWII in Europe is fundamentally an American and Russian defensive maneuver against the force of German arms and Central European industry.
And yes, the United States of America opened up a Western Front in Europe to relieve pressure on the Red Army and allow it a break-out into the North German Plain.
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