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A quibble: > Gentzen died at age 35, a casualty of the World War. makes it sound as if GG was a soldier or something. In fact, he was an academic and Nazi par
by chalst 7y ago
A quibble:
> Gentzen died at age 35, a casualty of the World War.
makes it sound as if GG was a soldier or something. In fact, he was an academic and Nazi party member who worked in Czechoslovakia during the occupation. Wikipedia describes his death so:
> Gentzen was arrested during the citizens uprising against the occupying German forces on May 5, 1945. He, along with the rest of the staff of the German University in Prague was subsequently handed over to Soviet forces. Because of his past association with the SA, NSDAP and NSD Dozentenbund, Gentzen was detained in a prison camp, where he died of starvation on August 4, 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Gentzen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Gentzen
- jhfdbkofdcho 7y agoYes, I looked that up too and was similarly uh bummed. But I don’t blame the author. I don’t think he sugar coated it.
- trhway 7y ago>>a casualty of the World War. >makes it sound as if GG was a soldier or something as we're in thread on logic, it worth noting that your statement is logically incorrect. Given that the most casualties of the WWII were civilians, saying that somebody was a casualty of that war means that most probably the person wasn't a soldier or something.
- a1369209993 7y agoPedanticly, "casualty" does actually mean specifically soldiers (or other military personel). Civilian deaths are called "murders" (or "executions"/"resisting capture"/not-at-all if your side is doing it). The term "civilian casualties" is a euphemism that was made up (IIRC during WWII) to obscure/excuse bombing of civilian targets (especially factories). In practice, the euphemism has largely won, though.
- mjd 7y agoNo. See my reply to Charles upthread.
- mjd 7y agoThe word “casualty” has been used since at least the 17th century to mean a person killed by an accident, mishap, or disaster. They do not have to be a soldier or something. For example, try a Google search for “earthquake casualty”.
- chalst 7y agoSure. But was he a casualty of the war or a casualty of the Soviet and East European retribution against the Nazis, which continued until 1950 or so? The dates are ambiguous, but the profile fits the latter very well. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_(1944%E2%80%931950) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_German...