New Delhi: During the reign of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in Germany, the Holocaust, one of the most shambolic periods in the history of modern world took place. The Nazi Germany killed lakhs and lakhs of Jews during the Holocaust in concentration camps and by other means, perpetrating the most heinous crimes in history. Not to mention the fact that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were absolutely dictatorial, throwing any kind of freedom and rights out of the window.
“Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog) is an example of the dictatorship of Hitler and his Nazis. On December 7, 1941, Hitler issued the decree with the codename Nacht und Nebel and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the German Armed Forces High Command signed it. The decree permitted the German government to abduct people who they thought to be a danger to the German security and those people simply vanished from the face of the Earth.
Night and Fog: The persecution of Nazi Germany of innocent people
The ‘Night and Fog’ decree was to be implemented on people in occupied territories whom the Nazi Germany thought to be threatening its security. After they were captured, the people were brought to Germany ‘by night and fog’ and special courts would conduct their trials. It enabled the Nazi Germany to bypass military procedure and various conventions governing the treatment of prisoners.
Thanks to Night and Fog, the family of the arrested person would know nothing about him or her. The arrested people were sent to Germany in secrecy, perhaps to a concentration camp. The families would not whether they lived or died and it was done to keep the population in occupied countries quiet by promoting an atmosphere of terror. It made it difficult for other countries to know the real situation and as a result, the Nazis could not be held accountable. It allowed the Nazi Germany to silently defy international treaties and conventions since the victims could not be located.
How were the prisoners treated under Night and Fog?
In a word, horribly. The hair of the prisoners was shaved, and the women had to wear a thin cotton dress. The prisoners were often moved from prison to prison and the journeys were painful with little or no food or water. Every morning at 5 am, they had to stand for hours in wet and freezing conditions. They would work for 12 hours everyday with a 20-minute break.
They were confined in cold and starving conditions and the Nazi Germans would torture them heinously. Those who were sick or weak or totally exhausted were killed in the Revier or other places. If there was no gas chamber in the camp, the prisoner would be murdered or sent to other concentration camps for the person’s execution.
“Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog) is an example of the dictatorship of Hitler and his Nazis. On December 7, 1941, Hitler issued the decree with the codename Nacht und Nebel. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
