A shameful and dark episode...

[ozzy72]

You chaps were the ones who devised drawing and quartering and keelhauling, weren't you?

That is nothing compared to me in a rampage in a classroom Jim I've reduced 18 year old boys to tears without even raising my voice or using physical violence. Imagine what I could do if I was allowed to belt my students

[H]

That is nothing compared to me in a rampage in a classroom Jim I've reduced 18 year old boys to tears without even raising my voice or using physical violence. Imagine what I could do if I was allowed to belt my students

They don't have their belts ? No wonder they're in tears if they're already caught with their pants down !

[ozzy72]

Actually H my biggest problem is mobile phones and students SMS'ing or playing games in class. Since I dropped one out of the window on the third floor onto a concrete surface (Nokia don't do very good impact testing) no trouble, and I had warned the idiot 5 times in 2 weeks!
I nearly died laughing when his parents came to school to complain and the headmaster said they had a choice they could have the money or their child could remain at the school

[H]

Actually H my biggest problem is mobile phones and students SMS'ing or playing games in class. Since I dropped one out of the window on the third floor onto a concrete surface (Nokia don't do very good impact testing)

Good thing you added in that "parenthesis" info; a real disciplinary, dropping the student out...quite an impact test that would be, too!

[Smoke2much]

I'm sure that all sides in all wars are guilty of "War Crimes".  The fact we had interrogation centres that used torture techniques is no real shock.  In 1942 Churchill wanted to use poison gas on German cities, it was only Bomber command that persuaded him otherwise; not because it was against the geneva convention but because fire storms created by conventional bombing were thought to have a greater negative effect on civillian morale.

I agree that the timing of this report is awful, but to pretend that we were some form of pure force of good from '39-'45 would be naive.

Will

[ozzy72]

Believe me H if I thought I could get away with dropping a student out of a window I'd do it. There is one class I'd happily introduce to gravity... I still wonder how they could be the fastest out of the 250,000,000 sperms

[Hagar]

I agree that the timing of this report is awful, but to pretend that we were some form of pure force of good from '39-'45 would be naive.

Will

Of course I'm not naive enough to think that Will. I'm well aware of some of the terrible things normally decent human beings from all countries can do to each other during times of conflict. This is part of our human nature & in most cases done in the heat of the moment. However, I'm quite certain that the vast majority of German PoWs were treated strictly in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I think the publication of this latest discovery by the newspaper concerned was quite deliberately & callously timed to coincide with Remembrance Day & not for the reasons that Andrew suggested either.

[myshelf]

well, in this days when it is considered cruel torture if a prisoner doesn't get three square meals and fresh sheets to sleep 8 hours such actions sound much more evil than they did back then.

even in peacetime many of the alleged torture methods were perfectly legal at the time, and the threshhold was considerably raised in war.

if anyone spoke up back then, the voices were drowned out by the global outcry against the german war-crimes and the holocaust.
most of the tortured might have put it behind them as memories connected to a war they just wanted to forget.

[Felix/FFDS]

Let's remember that there are three degrees to "torture" ...

1st degree - telling the person what will happen,
"If you don't tell me what I want to hear, I'll shoot your foot off... "

2d degree - showing the persons the instruments of "torture"
"This is the 9mm Glock that I'll use to put a hole into your foot!"

  "Okay, I won't miss the next time..."

3rd degree - the actual use of the instruments of torture
 "OOops, MEDIC!"

Nowadays, 1st and 2d degree are equated to the actual torture ...

[ozzy72]

I'm guilty of first and second degree torture on a regular basis

[Scorpiоn]

This doesn't surprise me at all, but the fact it is being reported does.  We (America and Britain) seem to have a tendency to view World War II through rose colored glasses. The Last Good War - as if there is such a thing.

But apparently, as y'all have said, this isn't the most trustworthy of papers.

[Felix/FFDS]

But apparently, as y'all have said, this isn't the most trustworthy of papers.

Scorpy ...  Trust only ME!  *I* will never lead you astray.  I speak naught but the Truth ... , and no, that jellyfish won't sting you, you are pure of heart  

[Flt.Lt.Andrew]

Lest we forget, then.  ::)


A.

[Scorpiоn]

Scorpy ...  Trust only ME!  *I* will never lead you astray.  I speak naught but the Truth ... , and no, that jellyfish won't sting you, you are pure of heart  

So the Man o War is my friend?  Then war is my friend!

I will serve...  I will serve... I will serve...

[H]

I'm reminded of being in a small supermarket in the U.S. midwest. He must have been @ 11, give or take, telling his mom, "It must be true. It's in the paper!"
He thereby pointed at the paper rack displaying Star, Enquirer...  :-/ I hope his discernment and thinking for himself greatly improves during the next half (and beyond) of his life.