Auschwitz (Phot credit: CIPDH)
Jews and other victims of the Holocaust were often deceived about their fate when they were taken to gas chambers.
Nazi authorities used various methods of psychological manipulation and deception to keep the victims calm and prevent resistance.
Key Tactics of Deception:
- Disguised as Showers: Many gas chambers were deliberately designed to look like communal shower rooms. Upon arrival, victims were told they were going to take a shower or undergo delousing procedures for hygiene purposes. This lie was intended to reduce panic and maintain order.
- Told They Were Being Relocated: In many cases, Jews were told they were being resettled in safer or better areas, especially to work camps. This lie was part of a broader effort to mask the true purpose of concentration and extermination camps.
- Signs and Orders: At death camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, signs directed victims to “showers” or “disinfection areas.” Guards would order them to undress, under the guise of a routine process, before leading them into gas chambers.
- Calming Efforts: To ensure the victims remained compliant, the Nazis often told prisoners that after the “shower,” they would receive food or be reunited with their families. In some cases, the Nazis distributed soap and towels, furthering the illusion that the victims were merely going to bathe.
Examples:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau: This was one of the most infamous death camps where gas chambers were disguised as shower rooms. Jews were often told they would be relocated to work camps but were sent directly to gas chambers.
- Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec: Similar tactics were used in these extermination camps. At Treblinka, for instance, Jews were told they would undergo disinfection before entering gas chambers disguised as shower rooms.
This deliberate deception was a critical component of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” to facilitate mass extermination without resistance or revolt.
Gaza, Palestine
Today, Israel is in principle doing the same thing. Sending Palestinians to ‘safe zones’ that it has designated and then bombing the Palestinians to death.
It deliberately selects buildings that are naturally perceived to be safe – such as schools and hospitals.
There is no moral difference between Nazis telling Jews to go to areas they thought were safe and then killing them, to Zionists sending Palestinians to areas that are designated safe zones and then killing them.
- Israel forced two millions Gazans into Rafah and then wanted to blanket bomb them to death – it was forced by the world not to do this.
- Israel wanted to prevent food and water going into these safe zones in Rafah – then had to be forced by the world not do this.
- Israel didn’t want to allow Polio vaccinations into Rafah – then had to be force by the world to allow them.
- If Israel was allowed to – it would ethnically cleanse or exterminate all the Palestinians in Rafah.
In principle, Zionism (manifested as Israel) as an ideology is as ghastly as Nazism – it relies on the ethnic cleansing or extermination of others for its existence.
Zionism (manifested as Israel) began with the ethnic cleansing and extermination of Palestinians in 1948 with the Nakba. It continues today.
But, Nazism didn’t work out well for the Germans – and Zionism won’t work out well for the Israelis either.
