Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalThe Pompeo/Bolton Tag Team
MAY 17, 2019
by RENEE PARSONS
There was little pretense that when former UN Ambassador John Bolton became President Trump’s National Security Adviser and former Rep. Mike Pompeo moved into the Secretary of State position, that either would bring a professionally credible and respectable presence to world diplomacy or foreign affairs.
It is fair to say that both have surpassed any of the bleak expectations and proven to be more extreme in their ideology, more personally amoral and malevolent than previously feared. What we are seeing now is as if all constraints have been removed with free rein to fulfill their zio-neocon agendas specifically against Venezuela and Iran.
* While speaking to a student audience recently at Texas A&M University, Pompeo revealed his utter contempt for a democratic government based on the rule of law when he bragged about “lying, cheating and stealing” as CIA Director. To an audience of undergraduates which clapped and laughed throughout, Pompeo offered
“What’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA Director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. (laughing as if he had said something humorous) We had entire training courses.(Audience applause and cheers) It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/17/the-pompeo-bolton-tag-team/
What 50 Countries are Backing Guaid? Who Knows? Who Cares? If the Media Say It Enough It Must Be Tr
MAY 16, 2019
What 50 Countries are Backing Guaidó? Who Knows? Who Cares? If the Media Say It Enough It Must Be True
by DAVE LINDORFF
American media still refer to Juan Guaidó, America’s hand-picked “legitimate leader” or “legitimate president” of Venezuela, as having an “administration.”
The truth is that his “administration” — consisting of advisors and other opposition leaders — are all either arrested and being held by the government, hiding, seeking asylum in various foreign embassies (Spanish, Italian, Brazilian and Argentinian) in the capital of Caracas, or have fled to other countries like Brazil and Colombia.
Guaidó, apparently a government of one, has so far avoided arrest probably because the elected Venezuelan President Maduro doesn’t want to give the US an excuse to try and rescue him, or to launch military actions of some kind against Venezuela as the White House keeps threatening to do.
Clearly, in calling for US military intervention, Guaidó has both demonstrated almost his total lack of backing among the masses of Venezuelan people, as well as his desperation, given most Latin Americans’ visceral resentment of US interventions in their country, all of which have been designed to put autocrats or even military juntas in power, and many of which have openly overthrown popularly elected governments, as in Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and elsewhere.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/16/what-50-countries-are-backing-guaido-who-knows-who-cares-if-the-media-say-it-enough-it-must-be-true/
The Washington Post's "Cartel of the Suns" Theory is the Latest Desperate Excuse for Why the Coup At
MAY 17, 2019
The Washington Post’s “Cartel of the Suns” Theory is the Latest Desperate Excuse for Why the Coup Attempt in Venezuela has Failed
by PETER BOLTON
With the attempted coup in Venezuela now nearing its four-month mark, commentators in the corporate-owned Western press are scratching their heads as to why Washington’s plan for its proxy, Juan Guaido, to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro has so far failed to materialize. Of course, all of the real reasons elude them because they have never so much as crossed their minds. It is beyond their mental world to consider the lasting popularity of the late Hugo Chavez’s policies and lasting suspicion toward the right-wing opposition amongst large swathes of the population – or the deep revulsion at the thought of US (and especially US military) intervention into their country held by the vast majority of Venezuelans (and, indeed, Latin Americans generally). Rather, both the coup attempt’s puppeteers in Washington and their ventriloquist dummies in the mainstream media have been coming up with ever-more desperate excuses for why Guaido’s attempt to take power has not been a swift and decisive success. The so-called “propping up” of the Maduro “regime” by the traditional the US boogeymen of Russia, China and Cuba seems to have been the most frequently touted explanation. This has manifested itself in increasingly bizarre ways, such as the recent claim by Mike Pompeo that Maduro was at the point of fleeing the country before being convinced otherwise by Russia.
Now, the Washington Post’s notorious warhawk and deranged conspiracy peddler Jackson Diehl has come up with the latest labored rationalization for the failure of the coup attempt: the so-called “Cartel of the Suns.” According to Diehl, this shadowy organization is made up of “some of the most senior officials in the Maduro regime.” He claims that it “flies hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine from Venezuelan airfields to Central America and the Caribbean for eventual distribution in the United States and Europe.” He furthermore claims that the Maduro government’s crimes also include skimming accounts used for importing food and medicine and “corrupt currency trading.” Describing the Maduro government as “less a government — much less a socialist one — than a criminal gang,” he claims that “the money it is reaping from criminal activity is serving as a prop that allows it to survive U.S. sanctions.” The only sources he provides to support these assertions are: an Associated Press article from September 2018 that reported on an unproven allegation made by a minor US Treasury Department figure, a January 2019 Wall Street Journal article that reports on another unproven allegation made by the US Treasury Department, and a link to one of his own Washington Post articles published in 2015. Leaving aside the self-citation, allegations made by the Treasury Department can hardly be considered credible evidence. It is, after all, a branch of the US government, which has been attempting to destabilize Chavista administrations since their earliest days in office. The Trump administration that it currently answers to, meanwhile, has been the major driving force behind the attempted coup and makes no secret of basing the effort on the advancement of US corporate economic interests.
Larissa Costas has gone so far as to posit that the very idea of such la government-operated cartel might be a whole-cloth fabrication. She stated in February 2017 article:
Although information abounds in the mediums of communication, the “Cartel of the Suns” has not been caught with a single gram of drugs, nor has there been any insignia of the organization identified in any seizure, nor has a single death been attributed to it. There are just two explanations: either it is the most inoffensive of cartels or it simply does not exist. [translated from the original in Spanish]
More:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48284392
US senators express concern over Colombia military promotions of alleged war criminals
by Adam Veitch May 16, 2019
Three high-ranking US senators sent a letter to Colombia’s President Ivan Duque expressing their concern over the promotion of alleged war criminals in the military.
The letter echoes concerns raised by a report released in February by Human Rights Watch, which said that Duque promoted nine army officials linked to war crimes to top positions.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) expressed their disappointment that those suspected of atrocities had not been held to account by Colombia’s justice system.
Being promoted to positions of such responsibility, they argued, ought to have been ruled out until the allegations against them were properly investigated.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/us-senators-express-concern-over-colombia-military-promotions-of-alleged-war-criminals/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142317600
Chile: Pinochet's Family Home Destroyed in Fire
The estate has 51 hectares and consists of five buildings nad was acquired by Pinochet in 1994. | Photo: @RodrigoOgalde
The estate has 51 hectares and consists of five buildings nad was acquired by Pinochet in 1994. | Photo: @RodrigoOgaldePublished 15 May 2019 (2 hours 26 minutes ago)
The property belongs to Jacqueline Pinochet, one of the daughters of the former Chilean dictator.
A fire destroyed a house owned by the Pinochet family located inside Los Boldos Estate - where the dictator’s ashes remain - on Tuesday in the western coastal municipality of Valparaiso in Chile.
The property belongs to Jacqueline Pinochet, one of the daughters of the former Chilean dictator. According to first responders, at this moment it is not yet known if the origin of the flames is accidental or the result of voluntary action. Chilean police (Carabineros) are investigating the incident.
The governor of the municipality, Gabriela Alcalde, said that the fire "affected a warehouse and 30 percent of a house, which is a second home and at the time of the accident was without residents." While the fire chief, Cristian Herrera, said that the emergency was attended by about 30 volunteers to prevent its spread and that the house is approximately 500 meters from the Chapel, where the remains of Pinochet rest.
This fact has turned Boldos into a popular “pilgrimage” location for fascist Pinochet’s fans. The estate has 51 hectares and consists of five buildings. The property was acquired by Pinochet in 1994, but is currently uninhabited and served as a resting home for the family.
More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chile-Pinochets-Family-Home-Destroyed-in-Fire-20190515-0025.html
Fire consumes Augusto Pinochet's home in Valparaíso
The fire was registered in the Los Boldos farm in Chile . The remains of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet are located near the site of the accident .
15 May 2019 | 2:05 p.m.
A fire consumed one of the homes of the Pinochet family in Chile . The incident was recorded at 10 am today at the Los Boldos farm , located in Santo Domingo, Valparaíso region .
The address, used as a resting place, belongs to Jacqueline Pinochet Hiriart, daughter of the late Chilean dictator. The flames consumed four rooms: two bedrooms, a living room and a dining room. The latter was the part most affected by the accident.
. . .
One of the caretakers of the house noticed when the smoke emanated from the farm. The second lieutenant of the Fire Department of the Chilean commune, Ricardo Pardo, declared that the Research Department of that institution initiated a process to investigate the causes of the fire .
. . .
The Boldos farm is one of the memorable places of the Pinochet, because in a chapel inside the land are the ashes of the ex Dictador Augusto Pinochet . The place has 51 hectares and consists of five buildings. It is known that it was acquired in 1994 and is currently not inhabited.
https://larepublica.pe/mundo/1469175-chile-incendio-consume-casa-augusto-pinochet-fundo-boldos-valparaiso-atmp/2?ref=notagaleria
. . .
Take this article, printed in Spanish and put it in Google Translate to see a description of property holdings of Pinochet's family. He stole untold millions from Chile, and everyone knew it was stolen as there was so much he had taken it was far, FAR more than he could ever have amassed through inheritance, or his wife's added wealth, or his income from his career, and he, his employees, his family traveled all over the world, especially the Riggs Bank in the U.S., making huge deposits.
Here's the first part of the article, through "Google translate" available in any search:
10 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, CIPER ASSESSED ITS PROPERTIES
The true value of the fortune accumulated by Pinochet
05.12.2016
By Pedro Ramírez
During his 17 years as dictator Pinochet accumulated a wealth that justice valued at US $ 21.3 million. But part of his fortune was invested in properties that have only increased their value and that according to experts consulted by CIPER today would cost about US $ 28 million. To that we must add US $ 3.1 million that the Pinochet family obtained from real estate sales, US $ 5 million in deposits that are seized and US $ 5.4 million whose destination is unknown. The future of a large part of Pinochet's assets depends on the outcome of the Riggs Case, which could be delivered to the Treasury or to his heirs.
Ten years after the death of Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte , the real amount of fortune that the dictator managed to accumulate and hide abroad, remains a mystery. The Riggs Case , the trial that investigated the origin of that fortune, closed in May 2015 with a "judicial truth" that must be corroborated by the Supreme Court: the patrimony accumulated by the dictator amounts to US $ 21.3 million , of the which US $ 17.9 million would have been obtained illegally.
But that is only the "judicial truth". In addition to the threads that led to the participation of Pinochet in the commissions for the purchase and sale of weapons and that were never properly investigated, there is another gray area that denies the final amount of that fortune.
CIPER investigated the large real estate assets that Pinochet acquired with ill-gotten money and those inherited from his family, and discovered that its real value currently stands at $ 18,914 million (some US $ 28 million) . Behind a tangle of transactions and societies appear new characters and amounts that surprise.
The figure corresponds to the sum of the commercial appraisals of 26 properties that were acquired with funds whose origin is partly in the "Reserved Expenses" of which Pinochet appropriated as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Army.
All those properties are still registered in the name of Pinochet, of companies that he created in tax havens, or of some of his direct relatives.
And there is more. Because the calculation of the fortune that Pinochet inherited from his descendants, he should consider the proceeds from the sale of nine properties that CIPER tracked . Those properties, alienated by his family, were acquired with embezzled fiscal funds ("reserved expenses" ) or on suspicion of coming from commissions for the purchase and sale of weapons in which the dictator participated.
More:
https://ciperchile.cl/2016/12/05/el-verdadero-valor-de-la-fortuna-que-acumulo-pinochet/
Why Colombia's war crimes tribunal rejected a US extradition request and released a FARC leader
by Adam Veitch May 15, 2019
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal ordered the immediate release of a FARC leader on Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence and “serious irregularities” in due process.
The ruling also denied an extradition request from the United States that last year claimed “Jesus Santrich,” whose real name is Zeuxis Hernandez, conspired to traffic drugs between 2017 and 2018.
In a further blow to the prosecution, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) ordered a criminal investigation into possible misconduct in the investigation against Santrich and said United States authorities may have violated national sovereignty.
Prosecutor General Nestor Humberto Martinez, who had already been accused of “intimidating” and “constant meddling” with the transitional justice system, resigned furiously.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/why-colombias-war-crimes-tribunal-released-a-former-guerrilla-chief/
Néstor Humberto Martínez
US State Dept Deletes Sadistic Hit List Boasting of Venezuela's Ruin
US State Dept Deletes Sadistic Hit List Boasting of Venezuela’s Ruin
May 14, 2019
Grayzone has obtained a list of “key outcomes” that include wrecking the nation’s economy, destabilizing its military and puppeteering its political opposition, reports Anya Parampil.
By Anya Parampil
Grayzone
On April 24, six days before self-proclaimed Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaidó‘s attempt to violently overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government alongside a handful of military defectors, the U.S. State Department published a fact sheet that boasted of Washington’s central role in the ongoing coup attempt. After realizing the incriminating nature of its error, the State Department quickly acted to remove the page.
The Grayzone has obtained a full copy of the expunged report. The deleted page puts to bed any claims of Guaidó’s independence from Washington, as the State Department emphasizes the fact that he “announced his interim presidency… in January” at the the top of a section dedicated to breaking down “key outcomes” of U.S. efforts with regard to Venezuela.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier recently took to Twitter to claim that “since he became acting president, Juan Guidó has given tangible results to the people of Venezuela.” Her tweet was accompanied with an infographic detailing alleged accomplishments of the powerless coup administration based on data compiled by the legally defunct National Assembly, the only governing body actually controlled by Guaidó.
. . .
Economic Hit List
Entitled “U.S. Actions on Venezuela,” the document boasted that U.S. policy had effectively prevented the Venezuelan government from participating in the international market and has led to the freezing of its overseas assets. It read like a sadistic celebration of Washington’s retribution against the Venezuelan population as a whole, the kind of collective punishment which is illegal according to Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions.
More:
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/14/us-state-dept-deletes-sadistic-hit-list-boasting-of-venezuelas-ruin/
Colombia's Supreme Court removes judge from Uribe case for omitting ties to lawyer
by Adriaan Alsema May 13, 2019
Colombia’s Supreme Court said Monday it has removed a magistrate from the witness tampering case against former President Alvaro Uribe for omitting to report she used to work for his lawyer.
Senator Ivan Cepeda requested the removal of magistrate Cristina Lombana after she was forced to admit to journalist Daniel Coronell that she worked with Uribe’s defense attorney, Jaime Granados, in the 1990s.
Lombana was the lead investigator of claims that Uribe was trying to tamper former paramilitary fighters who had testified that the controversial politician and former Medellin Cartel associate formed a death squad in the 1990s when he was governor of his home province of Antioquia.
Cepeda, one of Uribe’s fiercest political rivals, published a book about Uribe’s alleged role in the formation of the Bloque Metro death squad that left at least 4,000 victims in Antioquia.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/supreme-court-recuses-judge-for-omitting-ties-to-uribes-lawyer/
Uncovering a 5000-year-old family tragedy
May 10, 2019
Eight years ago, a mass grave was unearthed in the southern Polish village of Koszyce. The circumstances surrounding the 5000-year-old gravesite have been a mystery ever since. The skeletons of 15 women, children and young men were found - each slain by powerful blows to the head. Yet, their bodies were neatly positioned alongside one another and with an abundance of gifts for their final voyage.
An international team, composed of researchers from the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus and the Archaeological Museum in Poznan, Poland, used DNA profiles to demonstrate that the mass murder was that of a large, three generational family. Using genomic analyses, radiocarbon dating, isotopic analyses and archaeological data, the researchers gained detailed insight into a this Stone Age society and a grizzly occurrence some 5000 years ago.
"By analyzing ancient DNA from the skeletons, we were able to map each of the family relationships. We can see that mothers are laid next to their children and brothers side-by-side. Those who buried the dead knew them well. We also see that most of the fathers from this extended family are absent from the grave. Our suggestion is that they weren't at the settlement when the massacre occurred and that they returned later, and subsequently buried their families in a respectful way," says evolutionary biologist Morten Allentoft of the University of Copenhagen.
A period of transition
"We do not know who was responsible for this massacre," according to University of Copenhagen archaeo-geneticist Hannes Schroeder. "But it is thought-provoking that it occurred 5,000 years ago, as the late Neolithic Period was transitioning into the Bronze Age. During this period, European cultures were being heavily transformed by Yamnaya cultures migrating from the east. It is easy to imagine that these changes somehow precipitated violent territorial clashes.
More:
https://www.brightsurf.com/news/article/051019482942/uncovering-a-5000-year-old-family-tragedy.html
~ ~ ~
Unraveling ancestry, kinship, and violence in a Late Neolithic mass grave
Hannes Schroeder, Ashot Margaryan, Marzena Szmyt, Bertrand Theulot, Piotr Włodarczak, Simon Rasmussen, Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Anita Szczepanek, Tomasz Konopka, Theis Z. T. Jensen, Barbara Witkowska, Stanisław Wilk, Marcin M. Przybyła, Łukasz Pospieszny, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Zdzislaw Belka, Jesper Olsen, Kristian Kristiansen, Eske Willerslev, Karin M. Frei, Martin Sikora, Niels N. Johannsen, and Morten E. Allentoft
PNAS first published May 6, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1820210116
Edited by Clark Spencer Larsen, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, and approved March 25, 2019 (received for review November 27, 2018)
Significance
We sequenced the genomes of 15 skeletons from a 5,000-y-old mass grave in Poland associated with the Globular Amphora culture. All individuals had been brutally killed by blows to the head, but buried with great care. Genome-wide analyses demonstrate that this was a large extended family and that the people who buried them knew them well: mothers are buried with their children, and siblings next to each other. From a population genetic viewpoint, the individuals are clearly distinct from neighboring Corded Ware groups because of their lack of steppe-related ancestry. Although the reason for the massacre is unknown, it is possible that it was connected with the expansion of Corded Ware groups, which may have resulted in violent conflict.
Abstract
The third millennium BCE was a period of major cultural and demographic changes in Europe that signaled the beginning of the Bronze Age. People from the Pontic steppe expanded westward, leading to the formation of the Corded Ware complex and transforming the genetic landscape of Europe. At the time, the Globular Amphora culture (3300–2700 BCE) existed over large parts of Central and Eastern Europe, but little is known about their interaction with neighboring Corded Ware groups and steppe societies. Here we present a detailed study of a Late Neolithic mass grave from southern Poland belonging to the Globular Amphora culture and containing the remains of 15 men, women, and children, all killed by blows to the head. We sequenced their genomes to between 1.1- and 3.9-fold coverage and performed kinship analyses that demonstrate that the individuals belonged to a large extended family. The bodies had been carefully laid out according to kin relationships by someone who evidently knew the deceased. From a population genetic viewpoint, the people from Koszyce are clearly distinct from neighboring Corded Ware groups because of their lack of steppe-related ancestry. Although the reason for the massacre is unknown, it is possible that it was connected with the expansion of Corded Ware groups, which may have resulted in competition for resources and violent conflict. Together with the archaeological evidence, these analyses provide an unprecedented level of insight into the kinship structure and social behavior of a Late Neolithic community.
ancient DNA
In 2011, archaeological excavations near the village of Koszyce in southern Poland uncovered a ca. 5,000-y-old mass grave (Fig. 1) associated with the Globular Amphora culture and containing the remains of 15 men, women, and children who had been killed, but carefully buried with rich grave goods (1). Closer study of the skeletons (2) revealed that the individuals had all been killed by blows to the head, possibly during a raid on their settlement. To shed light on this Late Neolithic community and the events that unfolded at Koszyce 5,000 y ago, we sequenced their genomes to between 1.1- and 3.9-fold coverage (Table 1) and performed genome-wide analyses to explore their genetic ancestry and kinship relations. In addition, we obtained 16 radiocarbon dates (SI Appendix, section 4 and Dataset S1) to narrow down the date of the massacre to 2880–2776 BCE (SI Appendix, Fig. S5). We also provide a detailed description of the injuries (SI Appendix, section 3), and strontium isotope measurements of dental enamel provide information on mobility and residence patterns (SI Appendix, section 5). Together, the analyses enable us to draw up a remarkably detailed picture of this Late Neolithic community, including their genetic ancestry, physical appearance, kinship structure, and social organization.
Fig. 1.
Download figure Open in new tab Download powerpoint
Fig. 1.
The mass grave at Koszyce, southern Poland. (A) Photograph of the 15 skeletons and grave goods buried at Koszyce site 3 (reproduced with permission from ref. 2). (B) Map of Poland showing the location of Koszyce and four other Globular Amphora/Złota group sites included in this study.
VIEW INLINE VIEW POPUP
Table 1.
Sequencing results for the Koszyce individuals
Results and Discussion
DNA was isolated from teeth and petrous bones, using established protocols, and the libraries were sequenced on Illumina HiSeq 2500 platforms. The sequence data showed all the hallmarks of damaged ancient DNA, and modern contamination was estimated to be very low (Table 1). The human endogenous DNA contents ranged between 13% and 75% (Dataset S3). According to the sequencing data, eight of the individuals in the grave were males and seven were females (Table 1). This is consistent with previously published results based on skeletal traits, with the exception of one male (individual 4) who had previously been identified as a probable female and five juveniles who could not be sexed previously (2). Data on phenotypic traits based on imputed genotypes (Dataset S5) revealed that the individuals had mostly brown eyes, dark or dark-blonde hair, and intermediate to dark skin.
More:
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/04/30/1820210116
~ ~ ~
MAY 13 // 2019
WARSAW 8 °C // 11:12 PM
Secrets of Neolithic mass grave where massacred families met a grizzly end revealed
ANNE CHATHAM MAY 07, 2019
New findings shed light on a mass grave in Poland from 5000 years ago and the mysterious circumstances in which the families in it were killed and buried.
The mass grave in Koszyce, in southern Poland, was discovered by archaeologists from Kraków in 2011. It contained the bones of 15 people; the youngest of them small children. DNA tests showed that the people were related. The group were associated with the Globular Amphora culture found in Central Europe around 3400-2800 BC.
The intriguing scene was studied by specialists from a range of disciplines, including criminology and anthropology, to better understand how the group lived – and the circumstances in which they died. Some Polish experts suggested that they were killed during a ceremony or even as part of ritual cannibalism.
New research published this week by a group of experts from Poland and abroad supports a different explanation. The academic article entitled “Unravelling ancestry, kinship, and violence in a Late Neolithic mass grave”, published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, provides an overview of what archaeologists know so far.
“All individuals had been brutally killed by blows to the head, but buried with great care,” the authors highlight.
More:
https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/secrets-of-neolithic-mass-grave-where-families-met-a-grizzly-end-revealed-5818
Berlin to bury prisoners' tissue kept by Nazi-era doctor
1 hour ago
GERMAN RESISTANCE MEMORIAL CENTER, GDW
Some of the women whose bodies were used by Stieve (pic: GDW)
More than 300 tiny pieces of human tissue from prisoners executed in Nazi-era Berlin will be buried on Monday.
The samples were found in microscopic slides at a property that belonged to Hermann Stieve - an anatomy professor at the Charité university hospital.
Heirs of the doctor, who died in 1952, discovered the collection in 2016.
Researchers say Stieve systematically collaborated with the Nazis to receive the bodies of 184 people, mostly women, executed for political resistance.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48215894
https://bilder.bild.de/fotos-skaliert/professor-hermann-stieve-horror-nachlass-von-nazi-arzt-entdeckt-201104584-61232162/4,w=993,q=high,c=0.bild.jpg
Professor Hermann Stieve
~ ~ ~
NOV. 6 2013 5:50 AM
The Nazi Anatomists
How the corpses of Hitler's victims are still haunting modern science—and American abortion politics.
By Emily Bazelon
“Sources of Material”
In 1941, Charlotte Pommer graduated from medical school at the University of Berlin and went to work for Hermann Stieve, head of the school’s Institute of Anatomy. The daughter of a bookseller, Pommer had grown up in Germany’s capital city as Hitler rose to power. But she didn’t appreciate what the Nazis meant for her chosen field until Dec. 22, 1942. What she saw in Stieve’s laboratory that day changed the course of her life—and led her to a singular act of protest.
Stieve got his “material,” as he called the bodies he used for research, from nearby Plötzensee Prison, where the courts sent defendants for execution after sentencing them to die. In the years following the war, Stieve would claim that he dissected the corpses of only “dangerous criminals.” But on that day, Pommer saw in his laboratory the bodies of political dissidents. She recognized these people. She knew them.
On one table lay Libertas Schulze-Boysen, granddaughter of a Prussian prince. She’d been raised in the family castle, gone to finishing school in Switzerland, and worked as the Berlin press officer for the Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She joined the Nazi Party in 1933. On a hunting party, she flirted with Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. But in 1937 Schulze-Boysen joined the resistance with her husband, Harro, a Luftwaffe lieutenant. They helped form a small rebel group the Nazis called the Red Orchestra. When Libertas started working for Hitler’s movie empire in 1941, she gathered photos of atrocities from the front for a secret archive. Harro was transferred to Göring’s command center and with other dissidents started passing to the Soviets detailed information about Hitler’s plan to invade Russia. The Gestapo decoded their radio messages in 1942 and arrested Harro at the end of August. They came for Libertas eight days later. Both she and her husband were sentenced to death for espionage and treason.
Now Harro’s body lay on another table in the lab. Pommer could see that he had been hanged and Libertas had been decapitated by guillotine. On a third table, Pommer identified Arvid Harnack, another member of the Red Orchestra who had been a key informant for the American Embassy as well as the Soviets. In the 1920s, Harnack had studied economics as a Rockefeller Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, where he wandered into a literature class by mistake and met a young American teaching assistant named Mildred Fish. They traded English and German lessons and got married on her brother’s farm. After the couple moved to Germany, Mildred also helped the resistance effort by carrying messages and trailing her husband to meetings to make sure he wasn’t being followed. They were caught in the same Gestapo operation that ensnared the Schulze-Boysens. "Can you remember Picnic Point, when we got engaged?” Arvid asked his wife in his final letter to her from prison. “And before that our first serious talk at lunch in a restaurant in State Street? That talk became my guiding star.” At the time, Mildred was serving a six-year sentence for her part in the Red Orchestra. Before he was executed, Arvid wrote to his family about his joy that her life had been spared. But Hitler refused to accept the sentence, and Mildred, too, would be beheaded on his order two months later.*
More:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2013/11/nazi_anatomy_history_the_origins_of_conservatives_anti_abortion_claims_that.html
Profile Information
Member since: 2002Number of posts: 160,516
