In dealing with the sexual assaults and cover ups, the Baylor Board of Regents adopted a page right out of the Roman Catholic playbook.
When Cardinal Dolan of Boston was discovered to have been actively covering sexual abuse by clergy under his command, the Roman Catholic Church decided rather than impose an appropriate sanction of at least termination of his status as a cardinal and reporting his cover ups to the police to instead transfer Cardinal Dolan to a new position at the Vatican in Rome.
When Baylor President Kenneth Starr (who is a Baptist) was discovered to have been covering up sexual assaults by Baylor students, the Baylor Board of Regents rather than imposing appropriate sanctions such as termination and reporting the cover up to the police, instead gave Starr a transfer.
Baylor is a Southern Baptist university. The irony and hypocrisy is deepened as the Southern Baptist have been harshly critical of the Roman Catholic Church with some calling the pope the "antiChrist".
When it comes to cover up of sexual assault by its leaders, Southern Baptists behave no better than the antiChrist.
These posts are background research and talking points.
I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
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This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Saturday, April 23, 2016
73rd Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: What I've Learned Over the Years
Yellow daffodils are the symbol of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and are being distributed in Warsaw in observance of the 73rd anniversary.
In the 1960s and 1970s I first learned of the WWII 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Without realizing at the time, I was also learning the version being promoted in popular culture by anti-Polish Soviet propaganda. That version reported that Slavic Poles because of their anti-semitism and fascism abandoned the Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to the Nazis.
Since then as I have deepened my skills as an amateur historian here's what I have been learning:
What was the relationship between Slavic and Jewish Polish during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?
2013 Israeli stamp commemorating the raising of Zionist and Polish flags over the Warsaw Ghetto during the Uprising.
Most of the Polish Jewish combatants in the Warsaw Ghetto were in units of the Polish Home Army, The Polish Home Army, the official underground armed resistance movement in Poland, was one branch of the Polish armed forces under the command of the Polish government-in-exile, the legitimate government of Poland.
When the Poles learned the Nazis intended to liquidate the ghetto, the Polish Jews discussed what to do with the Polish Home Army. The Polish Home Army reported they lacked the capacity to defend the ghetto but agreed to support armed resistance by the Polish Jewish combatants.
The Polish Home Army supplied weapons and explosives to the Polish Jewish units in the Warsaw Ghetto.
After the defeat of the Uprising, the Polish Home Army assisted Ghetto survivors to escape.
Some of the surviving combatants continued to served in the Polish Home Army and fought in the next year in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Could the Western Allies Provided Support for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?:
Another part of popular culture history is that the Allies also did nothing to support the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I am less clear if that is the result of Soviet propaganda or the post-Holocaust rage and grief at the horror of both the Holocaust and the many times the world failed to act to have prevented the Holocaust or to have rescued victims.
My assessment is that the Allies could not have done anything militarily effective to assist the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
In April, 1943, Warsaw was beyond the range of American and British air forces at the time based in Britain and North Africa.
The Polish air force units in the British air force and the Polish paratroopers in the British army were always willing and available for missions in Poland. They were under orders of the Allied command and were also restricted to the range of Allied long range aircraft.
Warsaw did not come within range of Allied long range bombers until the Allies had captured air bases in Italy later in 1943.
Raids that deep into Nazi held territory also required that the long range bombers be escorted by fighters. At the time of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising n 1943, the Allies were still working on extending the range of the their fighters. They did not have that capability until 1944.
Could the Soviets Have Provided Military Support to Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?
By the Soviet's pointing fingers at Slavic Poles and the Soviet's British and American Allies, the Soviets successfully diverted attention from their own role in the Holocaust and their own failures to support the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, to use military force against the Holocaust infrastructure, or to rescue Holocaust victims.
Warsaw was much closer to Soviet airbases than it was to Allie air bases.
But unlike the WWII history of the Allied long range bombers, no maps exists showing the range of Soviet long range bombers. That is because the Soviets had no long range bombers.
The Soviets destroyed their long range bomber capacity during their paranoid purges of their armed forces during the 1930s and did not recover that capacity until after WWII.
The Soviets did have medium and short range bombers.
Even if Warsaw was within range of Soviet medium range bombers, the Soviets would not have assisted the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Soviets did not use their short range bombers or artillery to assist the 1944 Warsaw Uprising when the Soviet armed forces were across the Vistula River in the Warsaw suburbs. The Nazis fighting the Polish Home Army were well within artillery range of the Soviets and within range of Soviet battlefield short range bombers.
The Polish Home Army was opposed to Soviet occupation of Poland. Among the reasons the Soviets did little to support the 1944 Warsaw Uprising is that the Soviets wanted the Polish Home Army destroyed. The Soviets let the Nazis destroy much of the Polish Home Army knowing that would make easier the Soviet destruction of the remanents after the Soviets drove the Nazis out of Poland.
The Soviets killed Polish Jews who were opposed to Soviet occupation. Among the 20,000 Poles killed by the Soviets in the Katyn Forest in 1940 were about 1800 Polish Jews in 1940. They were Polish POW officers, police, intellectuals religious and community leaders.whom the Soviets suspected of opposing Soviet occupation of Poland.
Because of both antisemitism and ideology, the Soviets did not care about Polish Jews. The Soviets deny or minimize the significance of the racial aspects of WWII, focusing instead on fascism.
These posts are background research and talking points.
I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
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This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
What is the Three Percent Movement at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge?
On October 19, 2015, 234th Anniversary of the Victory at Yorktown, the American Society of Le Souvenir Français, Inc. and others laid wreaths before the Monument to the French dead in Yorktown, Virginia.
Photo from Jean Lachaud's post on the Facebook Group of the American Society of Le Souvenir Français, Inc
Among the armed extremists at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge and in Harney, Oregon are a group called the III% (Roman numeral 3).
The III% refers to their historically inaccurate mythology that only 3 percent of the American colonists were active combatants in the war for independence (Oath Keepers and Three Percenters Part of Growing Anti-Government Movement, October 26, 2009, Anti-Defamation League).
The III%'s rhetoric is about armed defense against the "tyranny" of the Federal government.
Their assessment of Federal tyranny requiring armed defense coincides with the 2008 election of a Democratic African-American president. Almost identical Federal policies by previous Republican European-American presidents somehow did not rise to the level of "tyranny" requiring armed defense.
The percentage of colonialist who engaged in combat is irrelevant as we won our independence because of the decisive independence of France and the French armed forces.
Starting in 1778 the independence war was financed by France and our colonial troops were armed and equipped by the French.
In 1781 as many as 11,000 French soldiers, marines and sailors joined as many as 8,000 colonial troops on the ground at the decisive Battle of Yorktown.
In the waters off Yorktown in the Battle of the Virginia Capes (the Battle of the Chesapeake) the French Navy defeated the British Navy which was attempting to break the siege and rescue the trapped British troops.
The total of French troops on the ground and French sailors and marines offshore exceeded the number of colonial troops engaged at Yorktown.
The percentage of colonial combatants does not matter since in order to achieve victory and independence, those colonials need the assistance of a greater number of allied foreign troops.
Exactly which foreign nation does the III% movement expect to again intervene to insure their ability to overthrow the tyrannical Federal government? France?
The historical ignorance of these movements equals their legal illiteracy regarding the Constitution and the subsequent 228 years of legislative, judicial, and scholarly interpretation.
These posts are background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
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Saturday, November 7, 2015
Ben Carson's Medical Career Could Have Begun at West Point
West Point graduates are eligible and allowed to apply for medical school,
Ben Carson could have begun his medical career at West Point then fulfilled his service obligation as a doctor.
He also had the option of having his civilian pre-med and medical studies funded by the Armed Forces. He should have known about that and that should have been readily available to him after his successful high school Junior ROTC career which Carson brags about.
All Carson did after high school was go to college and major in pre-med with no guarantee of admission to medical school.
Since the 1947 desegregation of the Armed Forces, the military has been a highly respected source for careers in the African-American community.
Ben Carson's misrepresentations disrespects:
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Ben Carson could have begun his medical career at West Point then fulfilled his service obligation as a doctor.
He also had the option of having his civilian pre-med and medical studies funded by the Armed Forces. He should have known about that and that should have been readily available to him after his successful high school Junior ROTC career which Carson brags about.
All Carson did after high school was go to college and major in pre-med with no guarantee of admission to medical school.
Since the 1947 desegregation of the Armed Forces, the military has been a highly respected source for careers in the African-American community.
Ben Carson's misrepresentations disrespects:
- West Point graduates who went on to medical school,
- Doctors whose undergraduate and medical school education were funded by the Armed Forces, and
- African-American who choose a career in the Armed Forces because they assess that the equal opportunity in the Armed Forces is more of a reality than in the civilian world.
Ben Carson's misrepresentations now appear to be an attempt to promote himself as someone who heroically sacrificed a generous offer of a college education at West Point to pursue a medical career.
Carson's West Point story is not only pointless and meaningless, his misinformation can be confusing and harmful to others considering a medical career while seeking appointment to a military academy.
Carson's West Point story is not only pointless and meaningless, his misinformation can be confusing and harmful to others considering a medical career while seeking appointment to a military academy.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
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This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Paul Ryan's Refusal to Work with President Obama on Immigration: Why History Matters
New House Speaker Paul Ryan says he will not work with President Obama on immigration reform.
Extremists have said President Obama cannot be trusted.
However, these same extremists also refused to work with Republican President George W. Bush and Republican Senator John McCain when they proposed immigration reform.
Based on that history, the extremists are unwilling to work with anyone on immigration reform which means a continuation of the system we currently have.
That means the agriculture, construction, and other big money interests will continue to make huge profits by using a pool of undocumented workers whom they can continue to pay low wages and employ in unsafe working conditions.
Paul Ryan and other Republicans lack the courage to tell the extremists in their ranks that legalization is not "amnesty" and deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants would require:
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I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
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Extremists have said President Obama cannot be trusted.
However, these same extremists also refused to work with Republican President George W. Bush and Republican Senator John McCain when they proposed immigration reform.
Based on that history, the extremists are unwilling to work with anyone on immigration reform which means a continuation of the system we currently have.
That means the agriculture, construction, and other big money interests will continue to make huge profits by using a pool of undocumented workers whom they can continue to pay low wages and employ in unsafe working conditions.
Paul Ryan and other Republicans lack the courage to tell the extremists in their ranks that legalization is not "amnesty" and deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants would require:
- Turning the U.S. into a police state to find the undocumented immigrants, Everyone will be required to carry proof of citizenship or their visa at all times. Police will be allowed to randomly demand "show me your papers" and to set up residency and citizenship papers checkpoints.
- To prevent harm to our economy from the loss of the deported workers, a new program to immediately issue massive numbers of work visas for new immigrants to replace those undocumented workers being deported.
- A massive tax increase to fund those programs.
Ironically Paul Ryan's extremist free market Ayn Rand libertarian ideology probably would advocate open borders to allow the free movement of workers to seek the best deal for their labor. But his same lack of courage cited above suggests that he will not be discussing that either.
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Sunday, November 1, 2015
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month By Ceasing Undocumented Claims of Native American Ancestry
President Obama just proclaimed November Native American Heritage Month.
To celebrate I urge all who claim American Indian ancestry to review their family history.
If they do not have documentation, I urge them to state their claim is based on undocumented family oral history or to refrain from continuing to make such claims until ancestry is documented.
Claiming American Indian ancestry without documentation can be disrespectful of American Indians and is best discontinued.
Many claims are found to be family legend and not to be true.
I urge public figures who have claimed American Indians ancestry but have not provided any documentation to cease such claims.
Confirmation can be a family tree with supporting documents showing a direct descent from an American Indian.
Attempting to benefit from a claim of American Indian ancestry without documentation is a form of "white privilege" and needs to stop.
Europeans expropriated all American Indian land and almost completely exterminated them. Among the ways we can make amends is to cease falsely claiming to be descended from them.
Revised: November 1, 2015
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I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
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This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
To celebrate I urge all who claim American Indian ancestry to review their family history.
If they do not have documentation, I urge them to state their claim is based on undocumented family oral history or to refrain from continuing to make such claims until ancestry is documented.
Claiming American Indian ancestry without documentation can be disrespectful of American Indians and is best discontinued.
Many claims are found to be family legend and not to be true.
I urge public figures who have claimed American Indians ancestry but have not provided any documentation to cease such claims.
Confirmation can be a family tree with supporting documents showing a direct descent from an American Indian.
Attempting to benefit from a claim of American Indian ancestry without documentation is a form of "white privilege" and needs to stop.
Europeans expropriated all American Indian land and almost completely exterminated them. Among the ways we can make amends is to cease falsely claiming to be descended from them.
Revised: November 1, 2015
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
The Anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the Roots of the Holocaust
October 31 is the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 theses and the start of the Protestant Reformation.
Remembrances of Martin Luther are incomplete without acknowledgement of his antisemitism and its relationship to the Holocaust.
For 1,000 year prior to Martin Luther's posting of his Theses Germany and Austria were dominated by Roman Catholicism.
Tragically Martin Luther failed to reform Roman Catholic antisemitism. Instead he continued it. His writings are filled with vile antisemitism.
Almost 100% of the Germans and Austrians who actively committed the Holocaust or passively enabled it were Christians in good standing with about 50% being Roman Catholics and 50% being Lutherans.
Fourteen hundred years of antisemitic teachings by the Roman Catholic Church together with 400 years of antisemitic teachings by the Lutherans created a very fertile ground for the Nazi ideology of the Holocaust to emerge.
In the 1960s Pope John XXIII made great progress in purging antisemitism from Catholic teachings.
His predecessors have done an extremely poor job of following up as antisemitism remains widespread among Roman Catholics.
With the number of Roman Catholics who actively and passively implemented the Holocaust, ending antisemitism among Roman Catholics should be one of the Roman Catholic Church's highest priorities (along with ending clergy sex abuse).
As an recovering ex-Catholic I am most familiar with Roman Catholicism. I am not familiar what the Lutheran Church has done to purge antisemitism from its teachings and deal with antisemitism among its members.
In my teens among the first times i had questions about the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church was when I learned of the Pope Pius XII's silence in response the Holocaust.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Remembrances of Martin Luther are incomplete without acknowledgement of his antisemitism and its relationship to the Holocaust.
For 1,000 year prior to Martin Luther's posting of his Theses Germany and Austria were dominated by Roman Catholicism.
Tragically Martin Luther failed to reform Roman Catholic antisemitism. Instead he continued it. His writings are filled with vile antisemitism.
Almost 100% of the Germans and Austrians who actively committed the Holocaust or passively enabled it were Christians in good standing with about 50% being Roman Catholics and 50% being Lutherans.
Fourteen hundred years of antisemitic teachings by the Roman Catholic Church together with 400 years of antisemitic teachings by the Lutherans created a very fertile ground for the Nazi ideology of the Holocaust to emerge.
In the 1960s Pope John XXIII made great progress in purging antisemitism from Catholic teachings.
His predecessors have done an extremely poor job of following up as antisemitism remains widespread among Roman Catholics.
With the number of Roman Catholics who actively and passively implemented the Holocaust, ending antisemitism among Roman Catholics should be one of the Roman Catholic Church's highest priorities (along with ending clergy sex abuse).
As an recovering ex-Catholic I am most familiar with Roman Catholicism. I am not familiar what the Lutheran Church has done to purge antisemitism from its teachings and deal with antisemitism among its members.
In my teens among the first times i had questions about the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church was when I learned of the Pope Pius XII's silence in response the Holocaust.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Concern About Police Use of Force is Not Advocacy of Violence Against the Police
Politicians and police leaders continue to falsely charge that citizens concerned over police use of lethal force are advocating violence against police, with Gov. Christie being the most recent.
An excellent report in the October 24, 2014 Washington Post on police use of force features the tragic death of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Trooper Trevor Casper.
Trooper Casper was one of the 31 officers killed this year.
Trooper Casper was murdered by a European-American bank robber and not by a politically motivated African-American.
How Trooped Casper died is probably how most of the other 30 died.
The only politically motivated murders of police this year of which I am aware are by right wing European-American extremists. (That is from my memory as I did not review the year's news for this post.)
This year two African-Americans who may be suffering from mental illness murdered police officers. If their psychotic delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia included political concerns, that does not change that their behaviors were related to their mental health problems and not to political ideology.
The Washington Post's data makes clear the central issues:
Misrepresenting our advocacy dishonors and disrespects the service and sacrifice of officers such as Trooper Trevor Casper.
When politicians and police leaders make such false allegations journalists need to ask them to cite specific attacks on police where such a link has been established. However a friend has repeatedly reminded me that may be expecting an awful lot of our current crop of journalists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/10/24/on-duty-under-fire/
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
An excellent report in the October 24, 2014 Washington Post on police use of force features the tragic death of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Trooper Trevor Casper.
Trooper Casper was one of the 31 officers killed this year.
Trooper Casper was murdered by a European-American bank robber and not by a politically motivated African-American.
How Trooped Casper died is probably how most of the other 30 died.
The only politically motivated murders of police this year of which I am aware are by right wing European-American extremists. (That is from my memory as I did not review the year's news for this post.)
This year two African-Americans who may be suffering from mental illness murdered police officers. If their psychotic delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia included political concerns, that does not change that their behaviors were related to their mental health problems and not to political ideology.
The Washington Post's data makes clear the central issues:
- 10 to 26% of the approximately 800 citizens killed by police this year were not have armed and were not have attacking either a police officer or civilians.
- 25% of the civilians killed by police were African-American. African-Americans are 13.2% of the population. Their rate of death by the police is almost twice their percentage of the population.
Misrepresenting our advocacy dishonors and disrespects the service and sacrifice of officers such as Trooper Trevor Casper.
When politicians and police leaders make such false allegations journalists need to ask them to cite specific attacks on police where such a link has been established. However a friend has repeatedly reminded me that may be expecting an awful lot of our current crop of journalists.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
We Are All In This Together
This is a battle between an extremist form of Islam and the rest of the world with most of the victims being Muslims.
Sergeant Wheeler died fighting side by side with Kurdish Muslims rescuing Kurdish and Arab Muslim captives from Islamic extremists.
Muslims such as the Kurds are our allies and fight alongside men women such as Sgt. Wheeler.
The anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S. is neither supportive nor respectful of the service and sacrifice of our troops such as Sgt. Wheeler.
As much as I wish to share this in public, I am not emotionally up for the possible negative reactions.
Sgt. Wheeler is from Oklahoma. I first learned his identity from the 45th Division Museum Facebook page in Oklahoma. While Sgt. Wheeler was not in the 45th, the 45th Museum covers stories about Oklahoma troops.
Felix A. Cizewski, my late father, served in the 45th in WWII.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Drug and Alcohol Testing Should be Mandatory in All Traffic Accidents Involving Injuries
An investigation has concluded that a bicyclist who was killed in collision with a car pulled into traffic and that the driver will not be charged.
However a careful reading of the news article indicates that the car driver shares responsibility.
The skid marks indicate that the driver was from 7 to 10 miles over the speed limit. Obviously that decreased the driver's ability to stop when a bicyclist pulled in front of them. The driver should have at least been cited for speeding.
The news reports that the officer assessed the driver did not appeared impaired nor smelled of alcohol. Subjective officer assessments of impairment are extremely unreliable and frequently inaccurate. They should be discontinued and replaced with science based breath and blood tests.
The driver apparently immediately contacted an attorney. On advice of the attorney, the driver refused a blood test.
That was the driver's Constitutional right. I have an equal Constitutional right to wonder why.
I hope the family brings a wrongful death suit against the driver.
Wisconsin law is notorious for enabling and shielding impaired drivers. That Wisconsin law allows a driver involved in what was ultimately a fatal accident to refuse a blood test may be another example.
Bicyclists should protect themselves by maintaining a high level of consciousness of the number of inattentive, speeding, and impaired drivers with whom they share the rode.
Wisconsin's implied consent laws should be amended to require blood tests of drivers involved in accidents that cause serious injuries or death.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
However a careful reading of the news article indicates that the car driver shares responsibility.
The skid marks indicate that the driver was from 7 to 10 miles over the speed limit. Obviously that decreased the driver's ability to stop when a bicyclist pulled in front of them. The driver should have at least been cited for speeding.
The news reports that the officer assessed the driver did not appeared impaired nor smelled of alcohol. Subjective officer assessments of impairment are extremely unreliable and frequently inaccurate. They should be discontinued and replaced with science based breath and blood tests.
The driver apparently immediately contacted an attorney. On advice of the attorney, the driver refused a blood test.
That was the driver's Constitutional right. I have an equal Constitutional right to wonder why.
I hope the family brings a wrongful death suit against the driver.
Wisconsin law is notorious for enabling and shielding impaired drivers. That Wisconsin law allows a driver involved in what was ultimately a fatal accident to refuse a blood test may be another example.
Bicyclists should protect themselves by maintaining a high level of consciousness of the number of inattentive, speeding, and impaired drivers with whom they share the rode.
Wisconsin's implied consent laws should be amended to require blood tests of drivers involved in accidents that cause serious injuries or death.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Has Senator McCain Forgotten How His POW Crimes Were Resolved?
The Army judicial process is deciding the fate of Sergeant Bernie Bergdahl, the soldier who was captured by the Taliban and released in a prisoner exchange.
Headlines report how outraged Senator McCain is that Army is recommending that sergeant Bernie Bergdahl not be charged with desertion, not be given a prison sentence, and not be given a punitive discharge.
While Lieutenant Commander McCain was a POW he was broken under torture. He then signed propaganda statements and made propaganda broadcasts for the North Vietnamese.
When he was released at the end of the Vietnam War, the Navy judicial system was very understand, generous, and forgiving.
Not only was he not prosecuted, he was so effectively shielded that during his presidential campaign his psychological fitness for office because of the trauma of being broken under torture was never raised as an issue not meaningfully discussed.
Instead of condemning the Army, Senator McCain should be commending them for showing Sergeant Bergdahl the same compassion the Navy showed Senator McCain.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Headlines report how outraged Senator McCain is that Army is recommending that sergeant Bernie Bergdahl not be charged with desertion, not be given a prison sentence, and not be given a punitive discharge.
While Lieutenant Commander McCain was a POW he was broken under torture. He then signed propaganda statements and made propaganda broadcasts for the North Vietnamese.
When he was released at the end of the Vietnam War, the Navy judicial system was very understand, generous, and forgiving.
Not only was he not prosecuted, he was so effectively shielded that during his presidential campaign his psychological fitness for office because of the trauma of being broken under torture was never raised as an issue not meaningfully discussed.
Instead of condemning the Army, Senator McCain should be commending them for showing Sergeant Bergdahl the same compassion the Navy showed Senator McCain.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Monday, October 12, 2015
False Allegations Against Activist
After a Houston County sheriff's deputy was recently murdered, the sheriff and others blamed activists concerned about excessive use of police force for inspiring the murder. They specifically named Black Lives Matters.
Some reports suggest that the suspect has a history of mental health problems which is a more reality based explanation for his actions .
Over the last few days, reports have emerged that the murdered deputy, a married father, was with his lover when he was murdered. His lover is a witness.
The sheriff department's investigator started a sexual relationship with the witness during the investigation and has been suspended.
I hope this sufficiently compromises the prosecution case that they can no longer seek the death penalty.
I hope that this causes the Houston County sheriff's department to cease making false accusations against activists and focus on the very serious internal problems in their department.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Some reports suggest that the suspect has a history of mental health problems which is a more reality based explanation for his actions .
Over the last few days, reports have emerged that the murdered deputy, a married father, was with his lover when he was murdered. His lover is a witness.
The sheriff department's investigator started a sexual relationship with the witness during the investigation and has been suspended.
I hope this sufficiently compromises the prosecution case that they can no longer seek the death penalty.
I hope that this causes the Houston County sheriff's department to cease making false accusations against activists and focus on the very serious internal problems in their department.
My readers are free to use anything in this blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
"Forward" Columnist Adds More Facts to the Correction of Carson's Remarks on Gun Control and the Holocaust
In the Forward columnist Jay Michaelson said that Ben Carson's statement is an antisemitic canard that blames the victims of the Holocaust rather than the perpetrators.
Michaelson adds historical facts to the Anti-Defamation League's correction of Ben Carson's statement about gun control and the Holocaust.
The ADL stated the absurdity of expecting the about 200,000 German Jews in 1938, less than 1% of the population, to have been able to effectively resist the Nazi state with handguns and hunting rifles.
Michaelson adds facts about the Polish Jews.
Michaelson cites the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising where Polish Jews resisted with firearms the Holocaust. The Polish Jews killed at most 24 Nazis. The Nazis killed at least 13,000 Polish Jews, most of them unarmed civilian residents of the Warsaw Ghetto.
To the ADL and Michaelson, I will add the resistance of the Polish Jews in the Polish armed forces in 1939. Polish Jews were about 10% of the population of Poland in 1939 and served in all positions including in combat and as officers.
In 1939 about 16,000 German and Austrian invaders were killed during their unprovoked war of aggression, conquest, and genocide against Poland.
From a statistical perspective as many as 1,600 were killed by Polish Jewish members of the Polish armed forces. (Art Spiegelman depicts the 1939 killing in combat of an invading Nazi soldier by a Polish Jewish soldier in his graphic novel Maus.)
Tragically, despite their best, gallant, heroic, repeated efforts, armed Polish Jews were not able to stop the Holocaust.
Acknowledgement: My friend Jeff Spitzer-Resnick shared Jay Michaelson's column with me. That allowed me to share my amateur historian's knowledge about subjects about which I care including the WWII history of Poland, the Holocaust, and relations between Slavs and Jews in Poland.
Why Ben Carson's Rant About Gun Control and the Holocaust Is So Dangerous
by Jay Michaelson, in Opinion, Forward, October 9, 2015
My readers are free to use anything in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Michaelson adds historical facts to the Anti-Defamation League's correction of Ben Carson's statement about gun control and the Holocaust.
The ADL stated the absurdity of expecting the about 200,000 German Jews in 1938, less than 1% of the population, to have been able to effectively resist the Nazi state with handguns and hunting rifles.
Michaelson adds facts about the Polish Jews.
Michaelson cites the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising where Polish Jews resisted with firearms the Holocaust. The Polish Jews killed at most 24 Nazis. The Nazis killed at least 13,000 Polish Jews, most of them unarmed civilian residents of the Warsaw Ghetto.
To the ADL and Michaelson, I will add the resistance of the Polish Jews in the Polish armed forces in 1939. Polish Jews were about 10% of the population of Poland in 1939 and served in all positions including in combat and as officers.
In 1939 about 16,000 German and Austrian invaders were killed during their unprovoked war of aggression, conquest, and genocide against Poland.
From a statistical perspective as many as 1,600 were killed by Polish Jewish members of the Polish armed forces. (Art Spiegelman depicts the 1939 killing in combat of an invading Nazi soldier by a Polish Jewish soldier in his graphic novel Maus.)
Tragically, despite their best, gallant, heroic, repeated efforts, armed Polish Jews were not able to stop the Holocaust.
Acknowledgement: My friend Jeff Spitzer-Resnick shared Jay Michaelson's column with me. That allowed me to share my amateur historian's knowledge about subjects about which I care including the WWII history of Poland, the Holocaust, and relations between Slavs and Jews in Poland.
Why Ben Carson's Rant About Gun Control and the Holocaust Is So Dangerous
My readers are free to use anything in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post to be background research and talking points. I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
This is for me to practice my writing and blogging skills so please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Add the Holocaust to the List of What Ben Carson Knows Nothing
Headlines report Ben Carson claims the Holocaust would have been less likely if the Jews were armed.
That armed individuals could have successfully resisted the Holocaust is a propaganda lie used by American extremists to oppose gun regulations that the SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled Constitutional.
To which Jews was he referring?
The Jews of Germany? German Jews were less than 1% of the German population.
Prior to the Holocaust, the Nazis destroyed all opposition in Germany, including potentially armed opposition.
Armed resistance by less than 1% of the German population would have not stopped their massacre. The Nazis would have shot them in their residence instead of taking them to death camps;.
The Jews of Poland? They were about 10% of the Polish population.
The Polish Jews were armed as members of the Polish armed forces. They resisted the Nazis from the first day of WWII. When the Nazis captured them, instead of being treated as POWs they were executed.
The Nazis together with their Soviet allies defeated the Polish armed forces which left all Poles, including Polish Jews, mostly disarmed.
After Poland's military defeat, armed individual Polish Jews had not more the ability to stop the Holocaust than did German Jews.
Polish Jews did their best to rearm themselves and resist the Holocaust. They were able to again resume armed resistance culminated in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. As heroic as that was, the fighters knew that they had no chance of stopping the Holocaust and were instead choosing to die fighting rather than in death camps.
The only armed people who could have stopped the Holocaust were the armed forces of nations such as the United States in alliance with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Britain, and France.
The only time those armed forces could have stopped the Holocaust would have been in 1938 or 1939 before the Nazis were at the peak of their military power and the victims of the Holocaust were still within reach of military rescue.
That misuse of the Holocaust dishonors the victims and those such as my late father who served in the fight to defeat the Nazis, liberate the camps, and rescue the surviving victims.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
That armed individuals could have successfully resisted the Holocaust is a propaganda lie used by American extremists to oppose gun regulations that the SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled Constitutional.
To which Jews was he referring?
The Jews of Germany? German Jews were less than 1% of the German population.
Prior to the Holocaust, the Nazis destroyed all opposition in Germany, including potentially armed opposition.
Armed resistance by less than 1% of the German population would have not stopped their massacre. The Nazis would have shot them in their residence instead of taking them to death camps;.
The Jews of Poland? They were about 10% of the Polish population.
The Polish Jews were armed as members of the Polish armed forces. They resisted the Nazis from the first day of WWII. When the Nazis captured them, instead of being treated as POWs they were executed.
The Nazis together with their Soviet allies defeated the Polish armed forces which left all Poles, including Polish Jews, mostly disarmed.
After Poland's military defeat, armed individual Polish Jews had not more the ability to stop the Holocaust than did German Jews.
Polish Jews did their best to rearm themselves and resist the Holocaust. They were able to again resume armed resistance culminated in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. As heroic as that was, the fighters knew that they had no chance of stopping the Holocaust and were instead choosing to die fighting rather than in death camps.
The only armed people who could have stopped the Holocaust were the armed forces of nations such as the United States in alliance with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Britain, and France.
The only time those armed forces could have stopped the Holocaust would have been in 1938 or 1939 before the Nazis were at the peak of their military power and the victims of the Holocaust were still within reach of military rescue.
That misuse of the Holocaust dishonors the victims and those such as my late father who served in the fight to defeat the Nazis, liberate the camps, and rescue the surviving victims.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Airport Level Weapons Screening at High Risk Locations
Seven years ago in 2009 a security guard at the entrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gave his life stopping an armed European-American anti-semite from attempting a mass shooting.
When my wife Cheryl Robinson and I visited the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center we first passed through airport level weapons screening before entering.
I am not optimistic that we will soon find the political will to implement the gun regulations that the SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled to be Constitutional under the 2nd Amendment.
But we must do something now.
I very reluctantly suggest that we may need to use airport level weapons screenings at institutions assessed to be at risk for mass shootings.
My reluctance is that will result in our schools, places of worships, museums, movie theatres, and other places at risk of mass shooting having secure perimeters with fences and barbed wire with one entrance with metal detectors, x-ray for our bags, and armed guards. Our nation will start to resemble a police state.
The reality is that may be one of the few effective ways to keep us safer in our nation that is suffering from an epidemic of gun sickness.
That is what kept safe the staff and visitors at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
That will also make people aware of the price we are paying to give a a handful of people a minimum of restrictions to purchase firearms. Perhaps that price will raise consciousness so we find our political will to deal with a problem that has resulted in over 400,000 non-terrorist deaths since 9/11.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
When my wife Cheryl Robinson and I visited the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center we first passed through airport level weapons screening before entering.
I am not optimistic that we will soon find the political will to implement the gun regulations that the SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled to be Constitutional under the 2nd Amendment.
But we must do something now.
I very reluctantly suggest that we may need to use airport level weapons screenings at institutions assessed to be at risk for mass shootings.
My reluctance is that will result in our schools, places of worships, museums, movie theatres, and other places at risk of mass shooting having secure perimeters with fences and barbed wire with one entrance with metal detectors, x-ray for our bags, and armed guards. Our nation will start to resemble a police state.
The reality is that may be one of the few effective ways to keep us safer in our nation that is suffering from an epidemic of gun sickness.
That is what kept safe the staff and visitors at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
That will also make people aware of the price we are paying to give a a handful of people a minimum of restrictions to purchase firearms. Perhaps that price will raise consciousness so we find our political will to deal with a problem that has resulted in over 400,000 non-terrorist deaths since 9/11.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Firefighters Lives Matter
A few days ago a European-American firefighter in Lansing, Michigan was murdered by a European-American.
The firefighter was volunteering at a muscular dystrophy fundraiser. The murderer was irritated at the traffic delays the fundraiser caused so with his vehicle he ran down the firefighter.
That hit me hard as my nephew is a paramedic and works with fire departments on the East Coast.
But this also reminded me of the demagoguery that has falsely accused those of us concerned about the use of force by police on minorities with inciting minorities to attack the police.
Those concerned about the police use of lethal force have been advocating changes in police procedures and criminal investigations and when warranted prosecutions of officers whose use of force violated procedures and crossed the line into a crime.
Both the President and the Attorney General have been consistent in their condemnation of all attacks on police and their support for the police.
Only the most vile type of demagoguery could distort that to claim that is incitement to attack our police.
Such demagoguery distracts from reality. When we are distracted from reality we are not supporting our first responders.
Our first responders are in most danger when responding to crimes and domestic violence from suspects of all ethnicities.
Our first responders are at risk from road rage as happened in Michigan.
When a person with mental illness cites a political reason for their attack on the police, we need to remain focused on the person's mental illness.
Most of the politically motivated attacks on our first responders have been by European-Americans who are on the right wing of the political spectrum. Politically motivated attacks by ethnic minorities are rare.
Firefighter, Black, and All Lives Matter.
This is an issue for firefighters and their families, African-Americans, and all Americans. (That was inspired by Hilary Clinton's recent speech in Wisconsin.)
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
The firefighter was volunteering at a muscular dystrophy fundraiser. The murderer was irritated at the traffic delays the fundraiser caused so with his vehicle he ran down the firefighter.
That hit me hard as my nephew is a paramedic and works with fire departments on the East Coast.
But this also reminded me of the demagoguery that has falsely accused those of us concerned about the use of force by police on minorities with inciting minorities to attack the police.
Those concerned about the police use of lethal force have been advocating changes in police procedures and criminal investigations and when warranted prosecutions of officers whose use of force violated procedures and crossed the line into a crime.
Both the President and the Attorney General have been consistent in their condemnation of all attacks on police and their support for the police.
Only the most vile type of demagoguery could distort that to claim that is incitement to attack our police.
Such demagoguery distracts from reality. When we are distracted from reality we are not supporting our first responders.
Our first responders are in most danger when responding to crimes and domestic violence from suspects of all ethnicities.
Our first responders are at risk from road rage as happened in Michigan.
When a person with mental illness cites a political reason for their attack on the police, we need to remain focused on the person's mental illness.
Most of the politically motivated attacks on our first responders have been by European-Americans who are on the right wing of the political spectrum. Politically motivated attacks by ethnic minorities are rare.
Firefighter, Black, and All Lives Matter.
This is an issue for firefighters and their families, African-Americans, and all Americans. (That was inspired by Hilary Clinton's recent speech in Wisconsin.)
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Why Does the NYT Ignore Serpico's Antisemitism?
I have long admired the courage of former NYC police officer and whistleblower Frank Serpico and appreciate whenever follow up stories appear about him.
He has settled in upstate New York.
Sadly I have discovered that he now writes a blog filled with the vile antisemitism most often seen in the writing of people suffering from a serious form of mental illness.
In other writing Serpico admits to heavy alcohol and marijuana use so the paranoia and out of touch reality of his antisemitic writings could be related to that.
Serpico is running for a seat on a local board not because of any local issues but because of a long standing dispute with a neighbor over trees on their shared property line,
The NYT article reported that local Democrats have long wanted Serpico to run for something.
In this and a previous article, the NYT did not do the very easy basic research that I did to discover the very troubling blog posts. That and other issues should be reported and should have disqualified Serpico from being considered as a candidate by local Democrats.
Serpico needs to acknowledge he has very serious problems and deal with them. Encouragement to run for office and NYT puff pieces enable his denial.
I hope others who are aware of this are now contacting the NYT. I hope in the next few days to see a letter to the editor with this information or an updated report with this omission.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
He has settled in upstate New York.
Sadly I have discovered that he now writes a blog filled with the vile antisemitism most often seen in the writing of people suffering from a serious form of mental illness.
In other writing Serpico admits to heavy alcohol and marijuana use so the paranoia and out of touch reality of his antisemitic writings could be related to that.
Serpico is running for a seat on a local board not because of any local issues but because of a long standing dispute with a neighbor over trees on their shared property line,
The NYT article reported that local Democrats have long wanted Serpico to run for something.
In this and a previous article, the NYT did not do the very easy basic research that I did to discover the very troubling blog posts. That and other issues should be reported and should have disqualified Serpico from being considered as a candidate by local Democrats.
Serpico needs to acknowledge he has very serious problems and deal with them. Encouragement to run for office and NYT puff pieces enable his denial.
I hope others who are aware of this are now contacting the NYT. I hope in the next few days to see a letter to the editor with this information or an updated report with this omission.
My readers are free to use anything from my private blog in any way without attribution.
I consider what I post as background research and talking points.I would be honored if others found something useful for their work.
If you wish to acknowledge me, please ask me me before doing so.
As this is for me to work on my writing and blogging skills please ignore grammar, spelling, formatting and other errors.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Did Christie Just Make a Campaign Killing Walker-Like Statement?
Republican presidential candidate and NJ governor Christie said jailed Kentucky clerk Kim Davis should just have been transferred to another job.
Christie statement suggests he oblivious to the fact that she's not a public employee but the elected clerk. She can't be transferred to another position.
But being an "honest straight talker" means never to having to check that your opinions are based in reality before opening your mouth.
Just as Walker's string of incredibly stupid statements has done nothing to halt his declining poll numbers and may be among the reasons his candidacy fails, I expect this will do nothing to stop the fall in Christie's already low poll numbers which are already scraping the bottom or increase donations to his campaign.
For some reason right now Trump can get away with making nonsense statements not based in reality. Christie and Walker are not Trump and cannot.
Christie statement suggests he oblivious to the fact that she's not a public employee but the elected clerk. She can't be transferred to another position.
But being an "honest straight talker" means never to having to check that your opinions are based in reality before opening your mouth.
Just as Walker's string of incredibly stupid statements has done nothing to halt his declining poll numbers and may be among the reasons his candidacy fails, I expect this will do nothing to stop the fall in Christie's already low poll numbers which are already scraping the bottom or increase donations to his campaign.
For some reason right now Trump can get away with making nonsense statements not based in reality. Christie and Walker are not Trump and cannot.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Rommel's image in popular culture
70 years ago on October 14, 1944 the Nazis forced Field Marshall Erwin Rommel to commit suicide.
In popular culture in the U.S. Rommel has a positive image.
Among the reasons are:
1933 to 1944
From the Nazis rise to power in 1933 until 1944 Rommel did nothing to oppose Nazism or to stop the Holocaust.
During those 11 years Rommel enjoyed the benefits of Nazi rule.
He failed to act in 1938 or 1939 when the Nazis were more vulnerable and would have been much easier to overthrow than in July, 1944.
For five years from 1939 until 1944, Rommel implemented the Nazi ideology of aggressive wars. Among the conquered populations were the majority of the victims of the Holocaust.
In 1939 among the earliest victims of the Holocaust were Polish Jewish officers and enlisted personnel executed when captured by Germans.
During the Polish campaign Rommel was commander of Hitler’s bodyguards (the Führer escort headquarters) as Hitler toured the Polish front.
From that position Rommel had to have been aware of the murder of Polish Jewish POWs.
During the 1940 Battle of France, troops under Rommel’s command motivated by the Nazi's racial ideology executed captured French Senegalese troops.
1940: Senegalese soldiers preparing to defend France against the Nazis.
Public domain image from Tales of War, page 239.
1944: French children with their Senegalese liberator.
Public domain image from Amére patrie, devoir de mémoire et de vérité
Carving on the gate of the French military cemetery in Chasselay with Senegalese soldiers massacred by Nazi troops including some under Rommel’s command.
The cemetery is designed in the traditional Senegalese burial grounds.
Fair use of image from by Petra Pulles at Tata Chasselay France – A WW2 Cemetery on French soil for massacred Senegalese troops
From 1941 to 1943 in North Africa Rommel reportedly refused to implement Nazi orders to execute Jewish and other categories of POWs. Many Jewish soldiers were serving in the British and Polish forces in North Africa.
That is further confirmation of the depth of Rommel’s knowledge of Nazi criminality.
While Rommel may have prohibited the execution of Jewish POWs at the front, no evidence exists that he did anything to stop the Nazis behind the front from rounding up of Sephardic Jews in Nazi occupied parts of North Africa for deportation to slave labor and death camps.
In 1943 when Rommel was given command of Normandy, he used slave labor to construct fortifications.
Stopping the Holocaust or protecting ethnic Germans?
By July, 1944, Rommel recognized that Germany was militarily defeated. Germany no longer had the military capacity to defend its borders.
To continue the war meant that the Soviets would overrun Germany.
Was Rommel’s 1944 dissent motivated by his concern for the potential sufferings of ethnic Germans at the hands of Soviet troops or to stop genocide?
July, 1944 status of the Holocaust
By July, 1944, most of Nazi Holocaust murders had already occurred.
The July 1944 assassination and coup attempts were much too late to save most victims.
Rommel’s role in the attempted coup and assassination
Rommel may not have supported assassination or a coup.
He may have hinted that after others killed Hitler and overthrew the Nazis he would be available to serve in the post-Nazi government and armed forces.
He may have looked the other way while members of his staff planned the coup and assassination. He refrained from alerting the Nazis of the plots to what if anything he knew.
As his troops were being defeated in Normandy he said to his superiors including Hitler that the time had come to negotiate an end to the war.
On July, 17, 1944 Rommel suffered a serious brain injury when British aircraft attacked his car near the Normandy front.
That injury seemed to have decreased his inhibitions on speech.
His comments became less guarded, more frequent, explicit, and strident.
On July 22, 1944, a coup and assassination Hitler were attempted. Both failed.
On October 14, 1944. the Nazis force Rommel to choose between torture, a show trial followed by an execution, and violent retaliation against his family or suicide.
To shield his family from retaliation, Rommel chose to execute himself by committing suicide.
My amateur historian’s assessment of Rommel’s legacy:
From February to July, 1944, the 3110th Signal Service Battalion, my late father Felix A. Cizewski’s unit, and Rommel faced each other across the English Channel (La Manche in French).
Rommel was preparing to continue the Nazi occupation of France and the 3110th was building communications infrastructure to facilitate the supplies to the forces preparing to liberate France.
Links with sources and for more information:
(French) le maréchal erwin rommel se suicide le 14 octobre 1944: Site where I learned of the 1940 massacre of French Senegalese POWs by troops under Rommel’s command.
(French) Le Tata sénégalais
In depth historical background and context: An occasional feature of my family history blog where this was first published.
Shortlink to original on Wordpress: http://wp.me/p2ix3W-BD
Revised: October 18, 2012
In popular culture in the U.S. Rommel has a positive image.
Among the reasons are:
- His competence as a military commander.
- Unlike other German commanders especially on the Eastern Front, his adherence to the international standards of the treatment of POWs in North Africa from 1941 to 1943.
- His association with the plotters of the July, 1944 attempted assassination of Hitler and coup and his statements of dissent about Nazi conduct of the war.
1933 to 1944
From the Nazis rise to power in 1933 until 1944 Rommel did nothing to oppose Nazism or to stop the Holocaust.
During those 11 years Rommel enjoyed the benefits of Nazi rule.
He failed to act in 1938 or 1939 when the Nazis were more vulnerable and would have been much easier to overthrow than in July, 1944.
For five years from 1939 until 1944, Rommel implemented the Nazi ideology of aggressive wars. Among the conquered populations were the majority of the victims of the Holocaust.
In 1939 among the earliest victims of the Holocaust were Polish Jewish officers and enlisted personnel executed when captured by Germans.
During the Polish campaign Rommel was commander of Hitler’s bodyguards (the Führer escort headquarters) as Hitler toured the Polish front.
From that position Rommel had to have been aware of the murder of Polish Jewish POWs.
During the 1940 Battle of France, troops under Rommel’s command motivated by the Nazi's racial ideology executed captured French Senegalese troops.
1940: Senegalese soldiers preparing to defend France against the Nazis.
Public domain image from Tales of War, page 239.
1944: French children with their Senegalese liberator.
Public domain image from Amére patrie, devoir de mémoire et de vérité
Carving on the gate of the French military cemetery in Chasselay with Senegalese soldiers massacred by Nazi troops including some under Rommel’s command.
The cemetery is designed in the traditional Senegalese burial grounds.
Fair use of image from by Petra Pulles at Tata Chasselay France – A WW2 Cemetery on French soil for massacred Senegalese troops
From 1941 to 1943 in North Africa Rommel reportedly refused to implement Nazi orders to execute Jewish and other categories of POWs. Many Jewish soldiers were serving in the British and Polish forces in North Africa.
That is further confirmation of the depth of Rommel’s knowledge of Nazi criminality.
While Rommel may have prohibited the execution of Jewish POWs at the front, no evidence exists that he did anything to stop the Nazis behind the front from rounding up of Sephardic Jews in Nazi occupied parts of North Africa for deportation to slave labor and death camps.
In 1943 when Rommel was given command of Normandy, he used slave labor to construct fortifications.
Stopping the Holocaust or protecting ethnic Germans?
By July, 1944, Rommel recognized that Germany was militarily defeated. Germany no longer had the military capacity to defend its borders.
To continue the war meant that the Soviets would overrun Germany.
Was Rommel’s 1944 dissent motivated by his concern for the potential sufferings of ethnic Germans at the hands of Soviet troops or to stop genocide?
July, 1944 status of the Holocaust
By July, 1944, most of Nazi Holocaust murders had already occurred.
The July 1944 assassination and coup attempts were much too late to save most victims.
Rommel’s role in the attempted coup and assassination
Rommel may not have supported assassination or a coup.
He may have hinted that after others killed Hitler and overthrew the Nazis he would be available to serve in the post-Nazi government and armed forces.
He may have looked the other way while members of his staff planned the coup and assassination. He refrained from alerting the Nazis of the plots to what if anything he knew.
As his troops were being defeated in Normandy he said to his superiors including Hitler that the time had come to negotiate an end to the war.
On July, 17, 1944 Rommel suffered a serious brain injury when British aircraft attacked his car near the Normandy front.
That injury seemed to have decreased his inhibitions on speech.
His comments became less guarded, more frequent, explicit, and strident.
On July 22, 1944, a coup and assassination Hitler were attempted. Both failed.
On October 14, 1944. the Nazis force Rommel to choose between torture, a show trial followed by an execution, and violent retaliation against his family or suicide.
To shield his family from retaliation, Rommel chose to execute himself by committing suicide.
My amateur historian’s assessment of Rommel’s legacy:
- 11 years of personally benefiting from the Nazi's policies.
- 5 years of waging the Nazi’s wars of aggression during which the majority of the Holocaust victims were captured.
- Being present in Poland when Polish Jewish POWs were executed.
- Being in command of troops who executed French Senegalese POWs.
- Use of slave labor to construct Normandy fortifications.
- After D-Day in 1944, stating that the Allies and Soviets had militarily defeated Germany and that Germany should end the war.
- Doing nothing to increase the chances of the success of the July, 1944 assassination and coup attempts.
- Dissent motivated more to protect ethnic Germans from the Soviets than to stop genocide.
From February to July, 1944, the 3110th Signal Service Battalion, my late father Felix A. Cizewski’s unit, and Rommel faced each other across the English Channel (La Manche in French).
Rommel was preparing to continue the Nazi occupation of France and the 3110th was building communications infrastructure to facilitate the supplies to the forces preparing to liberate France.
Links with sources and for more information:
(French) le maréchal erwin rommel se suicide le 14 octobre 1944: Site where I learned of the 1940 massacre of French Senegalese POWs by troops under Rommel’s command.
(French) Le Tata sénégalais
In depth historical background and context: An occasional feature of my family history blog where this was first published.
Shortlink to original on Wordpress: http://wp.me/p2ix3W-BD
Revised: October 18, 2012
Sunday, May 9, 2010
65th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe
Felix A. Cizewski's copy of the 45th Division News Extra edition, May 13, 1945, announcing the end of the war in Europe.
The full edition and larger images are on my family history web site: 45th Division News
(The original has been donated to the
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
which hold the copyright on reproductions of this copy.)
which hold the copyright on reproductions of this copy.)
65 years ago, my father, Felix A. Cizewski, got the news that Germany surrendered. The Germans had been defeated in the 45th Infantry Division's area of operations and the 45th had halted in and around Munich and Dachau a few days earlier.
As positive as this was, Felix did not yet know his fate. At this point, nothing indicated that he was going home. Was he to remain in Germany on occupation duty or be transferred to the Pacific for the war with Japan.
For the first time, foreign troops were in the annual Moscow victory parade The U.S. unit was C Company, 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. This unit's history includes landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Allied Troops to Join 10,500 Russian Soldiers in Victory Parade by Alexander Bratersky,The Moscow Times, May 7, 2010.
| Best history of the 45th Infantry Division. | Best history of the end of the war in Europe. |
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