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...the significance of phony legal rationalizations for torture, the GITMO travesty, Abu Ghraid torture and "ghost detainees" are lost on poorly educated Americans. This includes many "college educated" as well.
First came Dachau, a showplace of human degradation reserved for conservative aristocrats, homosexuals, socialists and communists.
Then came Auschwitz.
"Many of the later concentration camp Kommandants learned their business in this unit at Dachau, among them Rudolf Hoss of Auschwitz."
"What Hoss rationalized as hatred for the enemies of the state might be better described as a sense of power and contempt for the inmates fostered in the guards by the camp system. Sadists had license and delighted in their ability to cause suffering, especially it their victims pleaded for mercy. As Hoss noted, "they were continually in search of new methods of mental and physical torture."
From Himmler, Peter Padfield, P 129.
Sound like anything we've seen recently?
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