Vive Le Canada

Alan Dershowitz's Speciousness

Posted on Monday, July 24 at 12:31 by FurGaia
"It was a matter of survival - always of survival. What I had to do, [...] was to limit my own actions to what I - in my conscience - could answer for. At police training school they taught us - I remember, it was Rittmeister Leitner who always said it - that the definition of a crime must meet four requirements: there has to be a subject, an object, an action and intent. If any of these four elements are missing, then we are not dealing with a punishable offence."

"I can't see how you could possibly apply this concept to this situation?

"That's what I am trying to explain to you; the only way I could live was by compartmentalizing my thinking. By doing this I could apply it to my own situation; if the 'subject' was the government, the 'object' the Jews, and the 'action' the gassings, then I could tell myself that for me the fourth element, 'intent' [he called it 'free will'] was missing." [...]

"What if you had been specifically assigned to carry out the actual gassings?"

"I wasn't," he said drily, and added in a reasonable and explanatory tone: "That was done by two Russians - Ivan and Nicolau, under the command of a sub [Gustav Muenzberger]."

- from Gitta Sereny's Into That Darkness: excerpt of her interview of Franz Stangl, Commandant of Treblinka - the largest of the five Nazi extermination camps.

Note: Alan Dershowitz

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Comments

  1. by 4Canada
    Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:18 am
    I have seen Dershowitz interviewed on more than one panel and consider him to be one of the enemies of the Jewish community. In my opinon you cannot hold the views he does and expect empathy towards his postion and those he professes to speak for. I can't imagine sitting in a court room with this guy on the attack - he appears to go out of his way to foster hateful feelings and revel in the outcomes.

    ---
    "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. by FurGaia
    Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:38 pm
    <p>You are so right! Were I Jewish, I would be extremely anguished and appalled not to say absolutely mad that people such as Dershowitz dare go out there and dare utter such insanity in my name. <p> I have sent a link to my post to a blogger who is doing a round-up of the reaction to Mr. Dershowitz and I'm happy to say that he has added it to <a href="http://stephenfrug.blogspot.com/2006/07/lawyering-for-slayers-of-civilians.html">the listing</a>. Not many people have read Gitta Sereny’s <i>Into That Darkness</i>. I think it was right for me to quote from her book under the circumstance. I realize that it will cause pain and more anguish to many Jews by reminding them of what was. Yet somehow, I do think that most of them would not have me do otherwise - not with the horror that is unfolding in Lebanon! <p> One can take heart in the fact that <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742257.html">not all Jews think like Dershowitz</a>.



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