Does it really matter whether prisoners died from disease or poison gas?
From the point of view of each victim and its personal suffering there is no difference. One could even make the point that it would be preferable to die quickly from poison than to die slowly from an epidemic disease. However, in the present discussion we are not focusing on the intensity of suffering of the victims, which no one questions.Here we are concerned with the historical accuracy of certain allegations and the moral guilt of the so-called German “nation of perpetrators” as well as the consequences which resulted from these allegations. Considered from the point of view of the historian as well as the perpetrators, there is a tremendous difference between being victims of raging epidemics and victims of planned industrial mass murder in chemical slaughterhouses designed specifically for homicide. Epidemics, starvation, and other catastrophes resulting from poor treatment, political mistakes, and military defeats are recurrent in the history of mankind.Here we are concerned wi
