It Occurs To Me:  The politics of ‘necessity’?

Pat McArt and I agreed recently that any visits to the US by either of us in the near future would probably result in the pair of us being sent home. 

Not because we present a threat, terrorist or otherwise, but because we - in common with many of you - have dared to laugh at the Mango Mussolini in the White House. 

Not that I have any intention of darkening the increasingly darkening US doors while Trump is hellbent on destroying any remaining vestiges of democracy. 

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It was so refreshing to see the protests in big cities and small towns throughout the country, and while far too many gullible and frightened Republicans still hang on to his gibbering coattails, the worm may be slowly turning. 

As I write, Netanyahu is visiting Trump, a marriage of convenience made in Hell…that hell being Gaza. 

Last month, two witnesses told The New York Times that they saw Israeli soldiers fire on ambulances and a fire truck in an attack that killed 15 rescue workers. 

CAPTION: ‘Trump is hellbent on destroying any remaining vestiges of democracy’ PHOTO: SEAN CURTIN

They were able to see what happened because they were being held by the same Israeli soldiers. Although the accounts could not be independently confirmed,  the actual details matched a video obtained and verified by The New York Times. They also appeared to support the UN’s accusations that Israeli troops had killed the aid workers, discarded their bodies and destroyed their vehicles. 

Last  Saturday, after the video surfaced, the Israeli military said that its initial accounts of its troops’ involvement in the shooting had been partially “mistaken”.

‘Partially’ mistaken! A perfect excuse to share with the ‘Bigly’ President, who wants to follow the Gaza genocide with a real estate plan! As I’ve written here before, I studied 1930s Germany as a third-level student, and the parallels are becoming more frightening. Isn’t it incredible that those who suffered most from Hitler’s excesses are now the chief protagonists in Israel?

One obvious parallel with Germany at the time is how the Nazi supporting  millionaires/billionaires were treated with kid gloves. The IG Farben Trial was the second of three trials of leading industrialists of Nazi Germany for their conduct during the Nazi regime. (The two other industrialist trials were the Flick Trial and the Krupp Trial.) IG Farben was the private German chemicals company allied with the Nazis that manufactured the Zyklon B gas used to commit genocide against millions of European Jews and others in the Holocaust.

The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal VI, were presiding Judge Curtis Grover Shake, a former Chief Judge of the Indiana Supreme Court: Supreme Court Judge James Morris from North Dakota; Paul M Hebert, dean of the Law School of Louisiana State University; and Clarence F Merrell, a lawyer from Indiana. 

One of the indictments was “War crimes and crimes against humanity through participation in the enslavement and deportation to slave labor on a gigantic scale of concentration camp inmates and civilians in occupied countries, and of prisoners of war, and the mistreatment, terrorization, torture, and murder of enslaved persons.” 

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Incredibly, the judgement “allowed the defendants the benefit of the defense of ‘necessity’”. In other words, slave labour could be forgiven if considered necessary.

The only dissenting voice was the law lecturer, Hebert, who argued that the defense of “necessity” did not apply and that all defendants should have been found guilty on count 3 of the indictment. He stated that:“... the record shows that Farben willingly cooperated and gladly utilized each new source of manpower as it developed. Disregard of basic human rights did not deter these defendants.” 

The trial lasted from August 27, 1947, until July 30, 1948. Of the 24 defendants arraigned, 13 were found guilty on one or the other counts of the indictment and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one and one half to eight years, including time already served; 10 defendants were acquitted of all charges. 

The Circle of Friends of Himmler was a group of influential German industrialists and bankers—founded in 1932 by Wilhelm Keppler and taken over by Himmler in 1935—for the purpose of giving financial support to the Nazis. 

Its members “donated” annually about 1 million Reichsmark to a “Special Account S” in favor of Heinrich Himmler. One of the chief ‘Friends’ was Friedrich Flick, who was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, two of the other defendants received shorter sentences, and the remaining three were acquitted. 

In the Krupp trial, the main defendant Alfried Krupp always denied any guilt. In 1947, he stated: “The economy needed a steady or growing development. Because of the rivalries between the many political parties in Germany and the general disorder there was no opportunity for prosperity. ... We thought that Hitler would give us such a healthy environment. Indeed he did do that. ... We Krupps never cared much about [political] ideas. We only wanted a system that worked well and allowed us to work unhindered. Politics is not our business.”  

According to conservative estimates, the Krupp enterprises used nearly 100,000 persons in the slave labour programme, about 23,000 of which were prisoners of war. 

Many of the aforementioned returned to high positions in Germany’s post war government and business…with US approval. The echoes of that time are scarily current…is Musk’s chainsaw a metaphor for worse to come? Judging by the size of the counter demonstrations last weekend, hopefully not!

                              Ah begod, your honour!

One of my favourite court stories from away back concerned the old Garda Sergeant who, in trying to empty a pub one night in rural Donegal, got dog’s abuse and a wallop from an individual who had form. He managed to subdue and arrest him, but when the case came to court, his inspector advised him to exercise caution as there was a new judge on the circuit, and nobody was really sure how lenient or otherwise he might be when it came to pub cases. In any event, the wily old sergeant discovered that the new judge was a Roscommon man, and in the course of his evidence, he added that the defendant had used terrible insulting language while he was wrestling him, but that he couldn’t possibly share it in a court-of-law. “I’ve heard it all before” said the judge, “let us hear it!” “Your Honour” says the Sergeant, “he called me a thick Roscommon bastard!”

The judge responded: “Oh, did he now?”, glared at the smirking defendant, and proceeded to give him the maximum sentence permissible.

Afterwards, as the guards returned to base, the inspector paused, turned to the sergeant, and enquired: “I thought you were from Mayo?” The Sergeant smiled, touched the side of his nose, and replied: “Do you fancy a pint?”

                                         Live radio?

I have a morning schedule: Morning Ireland followed by Pat Kenny, then Claire Byrne at 10am. I usually listen to her but last Monday, as the eggs were boiling, I turned on the telly and switched to Claire ‘s radio programme on the RTÉ News channel. 

Richard Boyd-Barret was talking about his throat cancer diagnosis, but everytime the camera switched to him, it showed an empty chair! You could just about see that he was in studio but it was all so surreal, and I guessed that the camera had been left on in remote, and nobody in RTÉ was watching (listening?). Then, in the middle of Richard talking about his diagnosis/prognosis, it switched to Mass in Clonmel! 

Somebody in Donnybrook would need to get their act together! Fine, if it is a radio broadcast, but if you’re going to televise it, do it right!

                            Sunshine and scores!

There’s no doubt the good weather gives people a huge lift, and with the added bonus of Donegal football, the combination is a real boost at a time when our TV screens are dominated by a head-the-ball! As my sister Bernie quipped last Sunday…“Derry have Glass, but Donegal have class!” Long may it last!