I guess I carelessly thought it was an urban-legend that the Nazis had actually taken human skin and used it to make things like lampshades. Much to my disgust and horror it turns out it was really true. In We Spoke Out there are many comic book stories showcasing the evil that was the Third Reich, but even more horrific at times are the essays which tell the true stories behind the particular comic yarns. This is one instance.
"The Tattooed Heart" in some ways is just one more gross horror tale all too common in the 1950's. When the horror boom struck such grotesque tales as this one rampaged across the racks. In this one we meet Ludwig Stern, the Commandant of a concentration camp and a less sympathetic figure you will likely never find. He's cruel and cold and runs away when the Allies storm his camp. He ends up in America, living a life and remembering his atrocities but then vengeance finds him. I'll just say, be careful when you turn on the lights in his house. This is a lurid tale but the horror is it's based on the truth.
Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo.
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I remember my dad (who fought in the war) telling me about this. He rarely ever spoke about the war but at the time there were a lot of Nazi apologists in Europe saying that "....the Nazi's were not as bad as they were portrayed ..." my dad was not impressed and told me some of the things he saw (and that was limited to what he actually saw). I will never understand how anyone can be a Nazi sympathizer.
ReplyDeleteI'm always struck by how people who are in war rarely talk about it much. It's too real to revisit. Only jokers who never fought seem all too willing to dive in again. As for Nazi apologists, I concur. I've been reading about the move to deny the Holocaust and it calls upon the adherents to rewrite a lot of history as we know it. The evidence of the eyewitnesses is not enough for these mopes.
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