Obama to Apologize for American "War Crimes" During WWII

DRESDEN, GERMANY
Derek Seizer
Deutsche Welle
21/5/2009

In a move aimed at healing the rifts of American foreign policy decisions, President Obama will make a trip to Europe next month, including a trip to Dresden, Germany. The trip will consist of several stops and the President will meet with the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany. Also slated are several policy speeches.

Perhaps the most controversial is a planned speech in which President Obama will formally apologize for American 'war crimes' during the Second World War. This would be particularly comforting to Europeans, who have long condemned American foreign policy actions, especially regarding civilians.

This speech will also be welcome in Germany, who had over 12,000,000 of its citizens killed during the war. Mayor Johann Krupp of Augensburg in Saxony stated to DW that the speech will "help my great-uncle's soul rest. He burned to death during the Dresden bombings."

Along with the Dresden fire-bombings, which German historians calculate killed 300,000 civilians, Obama will discuss other American actions. These include mistreatment of French civilians during the June 1944 invasion, including the killing of over 3,000 Milice members. In February 1945, the bridge over the Rhine River was bombed by an American B-29, killing over 300 fleeing refugees.

What is not clear is broader American 'war crimes' will be spoken of. These include accusations of anti-German sentiment during the war and placing Japanese-Americans into 'concentration camps', in which UC Berkeley professor Harold Beffer, PhD, estimated that 30,000 died.

Obama's speech will take place on June 6, the 65th anniversary of American, British, and Canadian landings in Normandy, France. He will speak briefly in Berlin before making his keynote address in Dresden.


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Why I Own a Gun

I was reading a book about the Vichy Regime which ruled France between 1940-1944. The regime was an ally of Hitler and one of its worst crimes was helping in the extermination of the Jews. Below is one of the accounts of someone lucky enough to survive the Holocaust. Remember, one of Hitler's first acts was to take away the guns. So be thankful for your firearms and the right to have them.

In March or April, 1944, we got the dreaded notice that we had been selected for resettlement farther east. The train cars they took us in were actually cattle cars. We entered the cars and sat on our baggage. There was not very much room between us and the roof of the cattle car. Our car had from 80 to 100 people in it so it was quite crowded. We were sifting tight on tight. We had some water and some food but no comfort whatsoever. The cars were sealed. We could not open them from the inside. The w indows were small, open rectangles. Perhaps we could have jumped off the train and run into the countryside, but we did not know ff anyone on the outside would help us. We thought most civilians would probably turn us in. We could not speak the Czech lang uage. It seemed better to go along with the SS and do what they wanted. By that time the war had been going on four or five years. We thought the end might be in sight and we would be liberated.

Our train left the ghetto at six o'clock in the evening. At night as we traveled, we heard gun shots. We did not know why these shots were fired. After the war, I learned the SS troops were on the roofs of the cattle cars shooting past the windows todiscourage people from sticking their heads out. The train was moving at a fairly great speed. We did not know what country we were going through. There was no stopping.

At four o'clock the next afternoon, we arrived in Auschwitz (Ow- Switch) in Poland. When the train stopped, we again thought of trying to escape. But we knew that in Germany most Germans would turn us over to the local authorities for a reward of money or food. We had no way of knowing ff the Poles would be any differe nt. Someone would have to hide us or bring us food. We had no money to pay for our keep. So in the end, to keep our family together, we dropped any plans of attempting to escape.

The doors of the cattle car were yanked opened. The first thing we heard was shouts of, "Out, as soon as you can, out. Your belongings you leave therel" Despite this we grabbed what we could and assembled outside. Before us stood an immense rectangleof land surrounded by electrically-charged barbed wire. This was the Auschwitz death camp.