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> It is interesting that, despite being so awful, the Nazis let people write these last letters. I wonder how this tiny bit of humanity survived. I’m at a loss

> It is interesting that, despite being so awful, the Nazis let people write these last letters. I wonder how this tiny bit of humanity survived. I’m at a loss as to why the Nazis would put their foot down over a last smoke or a last letter.

bee_rider 1y ago
It isn’t so much putting their foot down, but rather, I’m surprised they enabled it. These were prisoners, so the Nazis would have had to bring them writing instruments, mail the letters out, etc.
- schoen 1y ago
  Indeed, one of the people discussed in the article was given a bonus extra sheet of paper, seemingly because one of the guards noticed that he had run out of space or something (?!).
- keybored 1y ago
  The Nazis were just as human as you and me. They didn’t have this “tiny bit of humanity left”. A Nazi soldier which was perfectly nice to the locals might have been sent to a concentration camp and been either a willing participant or a begrudging order-follower—in any case just as much of an enabler and and worker under the Nazi regime.
IAmBroom 1y ago
Perhaps you should read more about the atrocities they did commit, with apparent casual concern for the people. It is wholly incongruous with the simple courtesy afforded most death-row inmates, by contrast.
- keybored 1y ago
  > It is wholly incongruous with the simple courtesy afforded most death-row inmates, by contrast. No it isn’t. I know it might seem to be the most maximally woke position to get shocked when Nazis did something apparently nice that they apparently wasn’t forced to do. But it really isn’t. The Nazis killed millions of people and tried to conquer the world for their Reich. Meanwhile they were also people. They were fathers and mothers and friends, heck even polite patrolling soldiers, They didn’t live in caves and eat each other. They lived normal European lives (for war time anyway) and went to their jobs. Some of which directly or indirectly involved systematically slaughtering whoever the non-Germanics were considered to be. Or other “undesirables”. They also did apparently nice things for resistance fighers. That they were about to execute. Why not. The Nazis were humans. They were us.

bee_rider 1y ago

It isn’t so much putting their foot down, but rather, I’m surprised they enabled it. These were prisoners, so the Nazis would have had to bring them writing instruments, mail the letters out, etc.

schoen 1y ago
Indeed, one of the people discussed in the article was given a bonus extra sheet of paper, seemingly because one of the guards noticed that he had run out of space or something (?!).
keybored 1y ago
The Nazis were just as human as you and me. They didn’t have this “tiny bit of humanity left”. A Nazi soldier which was perfectly nice to the locals might have been sent to a concentration camp and been either a willing participant or a begrudging order-follower—in any case just as much of an enabler and and worker under the Nazi regime.

IAmBroom 1y ago

Perhaps you should read more about the atrocities they did commit, with apparent casual concern for the people. It is wholly incongruous with the simple courtesy afforded most death-row inmates, by contrast.

keybored 1y ago
> It is wholly incongruous with the simple courtesy afforded most death-row inmates, by contrast. No it isn’t. I know it might seem to be the most maximally woke position to get shocked when Nazis did something apparently nice that they apparently wasn’t forced to do. But it really isn’t. The Nazis killed millions of people and tried to conquer the world for their Reich. Meanwhile they were also people. They were fathers and mothers and friends, heck even polite patrolling soldiers, They didn’t live in caves and eat each other. They lived normal European lives (for war time anyway) and went to their jobs. Some of which directly or indirectly involved systematically slaughtering whoever the non-Germanics were considered to be. Or other “undesirables”. They also did apparently nice things for resistance fighers. That they were about to execute. Why not. The Nazis were humans. They were us.