When Germany invaded Czechoslovakia (as it was then) in 1938 they had to use force to subjugate the population, naturally there was resistance, and in one notorious action in collaboration with British agents was Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, SS leader Heinrich Himmlers deputy and the then Protector of Bohemia and Moravia Hitler went berzerk and ordered 1300 people to be killed. The villages of Lidice and Ležáky were completely destroyed by the Nazis; all men over 16 years of age from the village were murdered and the rest of the population was sent to Nazi concentration camps where many women and nearly all the children were killed. This is an historical example of collective punishment and it was justified to the German people as a response to an act of terrorism. A modern example of collective punishment is the bombardment of the citizens of Gaza. Around 500 people have been killed in this exchange, several thousand maimed and injured and over 80,000 homeless, living in refugee camps (A refugee camp in a open prison, think about that). Of these only 20% are claimed to be Hamas members. A great many of the dead are children, women and elderly.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:34:04 +0000