POLS 1500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 22: Axis Powers, Reductionism, Euphemism
6 Oct 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Killing in wartime: most accounts of killing in wartime highlight the aggression of whoever counts as enemies: they" killed us". In the diaries and letters of british and american combatants who committed acts of mass killing, there were three excuses that appeared most frequently: retribution, obedience, and parallel response. No prisoners: the first excuse was the language of retribution, a marine said: nobody wanted to take prisoners to begin with nobody who had had a buddy killed, which was almost everybody. And nobody wanted to go somewhere to do it - leave his living buddies to walk the prisoners back behind the line. When they first started surrendering, we shot as many as we took. Division"s 180th infantry regiment slaughtered around 70 italian and german prisoners of war: captain john c. compton was on of the men eventually charged with this war crime, but he based his defence on the grounds that lieutenant.
