16 February 2010 There may be hope for the future

16 February 2010 There may be hope for the future


But I have my doubts about my class mates.

There is still next to no participation in the Holocaust class. I’m making some effort to not hijack the class at this point. The progress is tediously slow as we are spoon-fed the history of the Nazi rise to power, German re-armament, and the invasion of Poland in Sept 1939 with the subsequent liquidation of the Polish intelligentsia, leaders, and military cadre.

Yesterday’s class dealt with the resettlement of Poles from W. Prussia and the Wartheland into the General Government area. Fritz repeated everything at least three times during the course of the hour. I’d noticed heavy repetition  previously but yesterday was remarkable for it’s over use of repetition. If I were teaching this class, we’d be somewhat farther into WWII. But WWII has not really been mentioned until briefly and repeatedly, yesterday.

At the end of the class period Fritz brought up a memo written by Himmler dealing with the “Treatment of Racial Aliens in the East," dated May 25, 1940. In comparing the plans to resettle Poles and Jews, Himmler made reference to the brutal murders carried out under the Bolsheviks. Following the usual Nazi pattern of shifting blame, he called the Nazi actions humane compared to those of the Soviets. He further referred to the Russians and other Slavic peoples as sub-human compared to the Aryan model claimed by the Nazis as pure Germanic.

When this cropped up near the end of the class period I was surprised at the willingness to accept Himmler’s blame shifting. While Stalin was a murderous, paranoid thug, he was no more so than Hitler and his minions. Stalin’s body count is greater in number but his aim was far less genocidal than Hitler’s. I want to see whether or not this can be resurrected and further discussed, lest it leave anyone with the impression that the Soviet government under Stalin was worse than Hitler’s Germany when it came to killing Jews. Germany, having been “civilized” far longer than the USSR reached a greater depth of depravity compared to the USSR. Stalin had the long history of Eastern European anti-Semitism to fuel his murderer’s blood lust. Hitler had to regenerate that level of senseless hatred in Germans. Neither’s actions can ever be excused but Hitler’s were worse in intent.

Following that, the CSI class lasted long enough to sign the roll sheet, pick up a handout, and put my coat on. This class has never lasted the full period. There’s a lot of material that can be covered. I hope it will be. Yet no one seemed upset yesterday at not having an actual class.

Hike with Mike this morning. The road was slick as oiled glass before the county truck made its way here. Seems mostly clear now. Tomorrow morning could be quite interesting. Gloria has more back roads to travel than I. I’ll be home late as I have an audiology research program to take part in tomorrow at 1300. That barely gives me time to get from ETSU to VA and find a parking spot.

High today has been 26.74 °F. The low will be around 20 tonight with perhaps another 0.5-1.0 inch of snow.

We’re having baked, stuffed eggplant for dinner.

I received a scarf in the mail today. More about that later.