Sadists!

This is coolbert:

There was a survey done for the Y2K celebrations a few years ago now about the worst dictators of the last thousand years. And in the previous century, there were more than a few that existed. And the criteria for the worst dictator list was that a sadistic streak had to be present in the dictator. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin all made the list from the last century. No argument with any of that selection.

Now, Hitler not only led Germany during the Second World War, he also dominated his military, who acted in an obsequious manner toward him. So much so, that when Hitler acted on his sadistic tendencies, the military obliged him, much to their disgrace.

Two incidents from the early part of the war bear out this sadistic tendency of Hitler.

The first incident occurred in 1940, during the conquest of Holland. In a campaign lasting at most a month, the German Army invaded, conquered, and occupied all of Holland. This campaign went smoothly for the Germans and was relatively easy. Right at the end of the campaign, however, a Dutch sniper shot and badly wounded one of Hitler's favorite Generals, Kurt Student, the founder of the German Army parachute corps. When Hitler was told of the wounding of Student, he became incensed and ordered the Luftwaffe to conduct a saturation bombing of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. And this was done, one square mile of the center of the city being totally leveled by the bombardment. What was especially sadistic about this was that the German campaign in Holland had ended, the fighting was over, and the Dutch had surrendered and were not resisting! This bombardment occurred AFTER the fighting had ended!!


The second incident that illustrates quite well the sadistic tendency of Hitler occurred in 1941 during the German campaign in Serbia. To consolidate his military position prior to the attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler's army launched at attack against Yugoslavia. As with the Dutch, the Serbs resisted but were overcome by the German Army in a campaign that lasted about a month. German casualties were not excessive, but just the fact that the Serbs offered opposition to Hitler and did not easily acquiesce to his threats incensed "Der Fuerher". And again, Hitler's sadistic tendencies came to the surface. Exactly as he had done with the Dutch, Hitler ordered that the Serb capital, Belgrade, be subjected to saturation bombardment by the Luftwaffe. And the Luftwaffe obliged, with the number of dead being as high as 25,000!! And again, this act of murder occurred AFTER the Serbs had surrendered and the fighting was over!!

These incidents only solidified the opinion of the democratic countries resisting Hitler, especially among leaders such as Churchill, that Hitler was a man filled with evil, a man who would harness "perverted science" to forward his aims. Negotiations and a reasonable peace were not possible from Hitler. The war had to be fought until the democratic states emerged victorious.

[for those that are interested, Tamerlane, Ivan the Terrible, and Robespierre round out the list of most terrible dictators of the last millennium].

coolbert.