Pork

[Andrew Dinn]

Mathew Jacobson, Green Mountain Forest Watch writes:

> >In your discussion of WWII and corporate sector vs. private sector et al,
> >how would you explain the holocaust?

> Asking me to explain the holocaust now, eh?  Whod'ya think I am?  As Woody
> ALlen's dad in Hannah and Her Sister said,  "Explain the Holocaust?  I
> don't even know how the electric can-opener works."

Well, if you want an economic reference... One of Pynchon's few direct
references to the Holocaust includes the discussion of Katje
negotiating her way out of trouble in Holland at the expense of a few
Jews who are described as being `every bit as negotiable as cunt or
Hershey bars'.

It was not only the Jews material wealth (or their lives) which was
confiscated, Jews themselves were used as slave labour - some of them
in that Nordhausen rocket works, served by the inmates of the
neighbouring Dora camp. Remember the scene where Poekler plights his
troth with The Unknown Victim - that's Dora. If you read Speer's
autobiography `Inside the Third Reich' or his book `Slave State' you
can get some idea of the way the SS tried to muscle in on German
industry using (mostly) Jewish slave labour. Schindler's List, for all
its faults as a novel, is also full of excellent material describing
the use of Jewish forced labour.

Needless to say Speer, as industry minister, did his best to protect
industry against being undermined by the competition. But he had
little to worry about since the combined incompetence and corruption
of the SS and feet dragging of the concentration camp internees
reduced productivity to virtually zero. But Speer was rewarded with
his life after WWII *precisely* because he kept German industry
intact. He made much profit from the fact that he housed the V2
workers in the Dora camp rather than the foul, cold and wet
underground tunnels of the Nordhausen works. But he himself admits
that his only reason for doing so was to keep his skilled workers safe
so that he could keep production rolling. He was not concerned with
Jewish lives.

Of course the most chilling economic use of Jews was the recycling of
shoes, spectacles, hair, gold fillings - or worse even their bodies
e.g. the use of Jews in `scientific' experiments at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
No doubt the good Doctor Mengele had sound reasons for e.g. injecting
paraffin into people's bloodstreams and found Jews far more economical
and much more useful for laboratory experiments than lower
animals. Undoubtedly, the Nazis constructed and accepted in all sorts
of perverse economic `truths', as well as a host of biological,
psychological and moral `truths', to justify their treatment of the
Jews.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
O alter Duft aus Maerchenzeit / Berauschest wieder meine Sinne
Ein naerrisch Heer aus Schelmerein / Durchschwirrt die leichte Luft