i am reading an incredibly rough book
Please note: This post was written some time ago (21 years ago). My perspectives, knowledge, and opinions may have evolved significantly since then. While the content might still offer valuable insights, I encourage readers to consider it in the context of its publication date.
it isn’t hard per se. it is just rough. it is called Into That Darkness. it is about the Franz Stangl the commandant of treblinka. When I first started reading the book - I thought “oh.. I can handle this.. it won’t be rought.. I have read about this stuff before.” little did I know..
i think what is hard for me to understand is how workers at the extermination camps seemed to rationalize the killing. I can see how a government can get fucked up enough to start killing. I can see how a group can get misguided enough to start killings.. but I can’t understand how the people who worked there.. who were just “doing there jobs.” those people I do not get. it is totally confusing and baffeling. I also do not understand - why at the extermination camps.. they had to maintain the charade that they were not actually extermination camps to the people coming in to be exterminated. I understand why they needed to do this at first.. you can’t have people just coming off of the trains to die. you had to organize them and what not. . but why did they have to dehumanize them and such. heh. of course.. I am not the first to ask this. heh. nor will I be the last.
i hope this never happens again.