War Is a Force that Gives Life Meaning

Genocide and terror in WWII

To this point..

Take up the white man’s burdenSend forth the best ye breedGo bind your sons to exileTo serve your captor’s needs

Rudyard Kipling

CONVENTION WITH RESPECT TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND

ARTICLE XXIII Besides the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially prohibited:a. To employ poison or poisoned arms;b. To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;c. To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion; d. To employ arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury; …

ARTICLE XXV The attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.

Nuremburg PrinciplesArticle VI

• (c) Crimes against humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian populations, before or during the war; or prosecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

RESOLUTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

• Recognizing the necessity of applying basic humanitarian principles in all armed conflicts,..:(a) That the right of the parties to a conflict to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited;(b) That it is prohibited to launch attacks against the civilian populations as such;(c) That distinction must be made at all times between persons taking part in the hostilities and members of the civilian population to the effect that the latter be spared as much as possible;

Auschwitz

Hannah Arendt “The trouble with Eichmann was

precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal.”

Arendt continued

“Half a dozen psychiatrists had certified him as “normal” — “More normal, at any rate, than I am after having examined him” one of them was said to have concluded.”

Arendt continued

“Except for an extraordinary diligence to looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all. And this diligence in itself was in no way criminal; he certainly would never have murdered his superior in order to inherit his post. He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing.

Was Churchill a War Criminal?

Dresden 1945

Tokyo Burns