Henning von Tresckow Quotes
Remember this moment. If we don't convince the field marshal (Fedor von Bock) to fly to Hitler at once and have these orders (Commissar Order) canceled, the German people will be burdened with a guilt the world will not forget in a hundred years. This guilt will fall not only on Hitler, Himmler, Göring, and their comrades but on you and me, your wife and mine, your children and mine, that woman crossing the street, and those children over there playing ball.
Gersdorff, Rudolf-Christoph von. Soldat im Untergang. Ullstein, 1977, p. 89. Quoted in Fest, Joachim. Plotting Hitler's Death: The Story of the German Resistance. Translated by Bruce Little, Henry Holt and Company, 1996, p. 167.
The second atomic bomb had just been dropped.
He had been part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. There were a small group of Anti Nazi Germans during WW II. Carnaris was one. Most were killed.
Although generally a right wing conservative, Clark today sounds like almost like an extreme leftist on the issue. At the time however, many thought that he had taken leave of his senses. He not only was completely contrary to bipartisan national policy but opposed by almost universal American public opinion. He is one of the very few significant American officials to oppose the war policies.
Germany had invaded and occupied much of Europe. These two fronts accounted for the majority of the German casualties. The Germans not only violated the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War repeatedly, but as you can see from this quotation, it was deliberate policy. Keitel was tried and hanged after the war. See {621438} .
The note was found in an abandoned Japanese camp on Bataan. There are some who believe that this note was a forgery. However, most think it genuine as it reflected one of the Japanese
“aces in the hole” to defend against an allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. It was one of the reasons that some American planners advocated use of the Atomic Bomb. Of course that was a real risk of using the bomb. The Japanese might be so angry and feel morally abused and kill the many allied prisoners they had. Many thought it was a lesser risk because it did not have the symbolic animus that foreigners occupying the Japanese homeland had. The quotation illustrates the amazing complexity that the American and allied leadership faced trying to end WWII in the Pacific.
When the doubts began to be expressed, the scientists were briefed on the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland and the military medical preparations for treating and caring for ½ million serious wounded casualties. In addition, given the state of war, there was expected about the same number of American Military deaths. On top of that, there would be many more Japanese military casualties plus even more Japanese civilian deaths and wounded. The use of the Atom Bomb would save all those lives but have casualties of its own, but far fewer. At the time, surprising to most people now, the use of the atomic bomb was not an issue of controversy at all. There were no Congressman who questioned it, no newspapers which editorialized against the use of the bomb. There were not even any other counties which protested its use.
During WWII, the Japanese militarists maintained what they euphemistically described as “brothels” of “comfort women.” They Japanese forced 200,000 Korean Women to become sex slaves for the Japanese Troops in addition to Dutch and other white civilians interned by the Japanese in Asia. For years after the war, the Japanese Governments denied this or maintained a discrete silence. Finally some of the Korean women demanded an apology and restitution and it became a world-wide scandal. Unlike Germany which went through a public nationwide assessment of their WWII atrocities, Japan’s apologies for their war crimes have always been very muted and discrete and Japanese students are not even taught about the Japanese atrocities. Worse, nationalist Japanese politicians have either denied the facts about the sex slavery or as in this quotation, attempted to justify the horrid behavior. See {632770} for an American approach to the same problem.
Henning Hermann Karl Robert von Tresckow was an officer in the German Army who helped organize German resistance against Adolf Hitler. He attempted to assassinate Hitler on 13 March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan for a coup against the German government. He was described by the Gestapo as the "prime mover" and the "evil spirit" behind the plot of 20 July 1944 to assassinate Hitler. He committed suicide at Królowy Most on the Eastern Front upon the plot's failure.
