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A shameful and dark episode... (Read 620 times)
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 9:56am
ozzy72
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... in British history, nabbed from Guardian Unlimited today!
The British government operated a secret torture centre during the second world war to extract information and confessions from German prisoners, according to official papers which have been unearthed by the Guardian.
More than 3,000 prisoners passed through the centre, where many were systematically beaten, deprived of sleep, forced to stand still for more than 24 hours at a time and threatened with execution or unnecessary surgery.
Some are also alleged to have been starved and subjected to extremes of temperature in specially built showers, while others later complained that they had been threatened with electric shock torture or menaced by interrogators brandishing red-hot pokers.
The centre, which was housed in a row of mansions in one of London's most affluent neighbourhoods, was carefully concealed from the Red Cross, the papers show. It continued to operate for three years after the war, during which time a number of German civilians were also tortured.
A subsequent assessment by MI5, the Security Service, concluded that the commanding officer had been guilty of "clear breaches" of the Geneva convention and that some interrogation methods "completely contradicted" international law.
On at least one occasion, an MI5 officer noted in a newly declassified report, a German prisoner was convicted of war crimes and hanged on the basis of a confession which he had signed after he was, at the very least, "worked on psychologically". A number of people who appeared as prosecution witnesses at war crimes trials are also alleged to have been tortured.
The official papers, discovered in the National Archives, depict the centre as a dark, brutal place which caused great unease among senior British officers. They appear to have turned a blind eye partly because of the usefulness of the information extracted, and partly because the detainees were thought to deserve ill treatment.
Not all the torture centre's secrets have yet emerged, however: the Ministry of Defence is continuing to withhold some of the papers almost 60 years after it was closed down.
Amazing how the more things change the more they stay the same
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Reply #1 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 10:05am
Craig.
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I think some people are a little too touchy about the subject of torture to extract information. Definatly something that shouldn't be allowed, but the simple fact it happens shouldn't exactly come as a surprise. but
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Reply #2 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 11:05am
Hagar
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This doesn't surprise me & other distateful things might well come out once those records are declassified. I heard that some of these records have 'mysteriously' disappeared which doesn't surprise me either.
However, you must appreciate that this is the Guardian which makes it suspect. I don't trust much that I read in the average newspaper & that goes double for the Guardian.
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Reply #3 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 11:08am
C
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Doesn't surprise me at all. War doesn't pretend to be a nice business, and to be fair there can't be many (if any) countries who haven't operated similar centres in times of war, particularly in such a conflict as WWII, and if they denied they existed I wouldn't believe them. There are always going to be some people who you want more information than their name rank and number in the interest of your own nation. To be fair we also train our own forces today to expect that kind of treatment after capture anyway...
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Reply #4 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 11:15am
Hagar
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I don't deny that many things have been done by this country over the years that most people would rather not know about. I find it strange that not one of the 3,000 prisoners that were allegedly tortured ever told anyone about it. I would have thought this would have come out long ago if there's any truth to it, even if the Government & MoD strenuously denied it.
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Reply #5 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 11:28am
C
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Quote:
I find it strange that not one of the 3,000 prisoners that were allegedly tortured ever told anyone about it. I would have thought this would have come out long ago if there's any truth to it, even if the Government & MoD strenuously denied it.
A very fair point...
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Reply #6 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 4:15pm
C
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Also, come to think of it, I find the timing of the report disgusting. They did not have to publish such a story on Remembrance weekend in another press smear on the British armed forces...
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Reply #7 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 4:19pm
ozzy72
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Aye tis not the best timing, but alas it is the only online newspaper I can get here (since the Times started subscription only viewing).
I am not surprised no Germans came forward however as I think they'd have been treated with contempt after what happened over in their neck of the woods.... also I suspect that most of these people were probably spies not soldiers and therefore the Geneva Convention doesn't apply.
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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Reply #8 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 6:21pm
Hagar
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Quote:
Aye tis not the best timing, but alas it is the only online newspaper I can get here (since the Times started subscription only viewing).
Must admit I wondered why you're always quoting from that rag.
Quote:
I am not surprised no Germans came forward however as I think they'd have been treated with contempt after what happened over in their neck of the woods.... also I suspect that most of these people were probably spies not soldiers and therefore the Geneva Convention doesn't apply.
I was also wondering who these prisoners were & when they were captured. I doubt very much that any member of the German forces was mistreated. Not only would we almost certainly have found out about it in various memoirs published over the last 60 years but also if this had been discovered or even suspected it would have affected the treatment of our own PoWs in German hands.
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Reply #9 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 6:25pm
C
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Must admit I wondered why you're always quoting from that rag.
Quote:
I was also wondering who these prisoners were & when they were captured. I doubt very much that any member of the German forces was mistreated.
I suppose thats why several thousand decided to stay here after the war...
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Reply #10 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 6:28pm
Saitek
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Sad and truly shameful, but war is bloody and although one cannot use the other side as an excuse - just look what Hitler was up to. Yet it was not a case of our soldiers die or theres over a quibble of some sort it was The WHOLE nation die or some of their soldiers. Quite frankly, terrible though it was, this war was no ordinary war and millions were dying and it had to be a case of stopping the German invasion of the UK - however it was done. It is all very well for us to look back and say whatever, but Hitler had conquered the whole of Europe and was wanting Britain. It was a certainty that weirdly never happened. It is still amazing to think of and the officials back in Britain despite what they said probably though defeat was imminent.
Oh and for papers my favourites are the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
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Reply #11 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 6:44pm
Hagar
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Quote:
I suppose thats why several thousand decided to stay here after the war...
Indeed. Like one of my close neighbours. He liked it here so much that he stayed, married an English girl & raised a family.
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Reply #12 -
Nov 12
th
, 2005 at 11:58pm
H
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Indeed. Like one of my close neighbours. He liked it here so much that he stayed, married an English girl & raised a family.
The same here and elswehere: early post-war, their home neighborhoods were, well, basically, not.
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Reply #13 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 3:20am
Webb
Ex Member
I Like Flight Simulation!
You chaps were the ones who devised drawing and quartering and keelhauling, weren't you?
Jolly good fun and a great way to instill discipline among the masses.
Cheerio!
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Reply #14 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 3:36am
Flt.Lt.Andrew
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Tisnt bad timing at all. Its good to see the awful truth when we live in an era that doesnt full appreciate the horrors of war.
Still, nasty business!
A.
P.S Its the Guardian after all, socialist newspapers always tint the facts.
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Reply #15 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 3:44am
ozzy72
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You chaps were the ones who devised drawing and quartering and keelhauling, weren't you?
That is nothing compared to me in a rampage in a classroom Jim
I've reduced 18 year old boys to tears without even raising my voice or using physical violence. Imagine what I could do if I was allowed to belt my students
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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Reply #16 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 3:58am
H
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That is nothing compared to me in a rampage in a classroom Jim
I've reduced 18 year old boys to tears without even raising my voice or using physical violence. Imagine what I could do if I was allowed to belt my students
They don't have their belts ??? ? No wonder they're in tears if they're already caught with their pants down
! 8)
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Reply #17 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 4:05am
ozzy72
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Actually H my biggest problem is mobile phones and students SMS'ing or playing games in class. Since I dropped one out of the window on the third floor onto a concrete surface (Nokia don't do very good impact testing) no trouble, and I had warned the idiot 5 times in 2 weeks!
I nearly died laughing when his parents came to school to complain and the headmaster said they had a choice they could have the money or their child could remain at the school
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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Reply #18 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 5:01am
H
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Actually H my biggest problem is mobile phones and students SMS'ing or playing games in class. Since I dropped one out of the window on the third floor onto a concrete surface (Nokia don't do very good impact testing)
Good thing you added in that "parenthesis" info; a real disciplinary, dropping the student out...quite an impact test that would be, too! 8)
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Reply #19 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 5:32am
Smoke2much
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I'm sure that all sides in all wars are guilty of "War Crimes". The fact we had interrogation centres that used torture techniques is no real shock. In 1942 Churchill wanted to use poison gas on German cities, it was only Bomber command that persuaded him otherwise; not because it was against the geneva convention but because fire storms created by conventional bombing were thought to have a greater negative effect on civillian morale.
I agree that the timing of this report is awful, but to pretend that we were some form of pure force of good from '39-'45 would be naive.
Will
Who switched the lights off? I can't see a thing....... Hold on, my eyes were closed. Oops, my bad...............&&
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Reply #20 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 5:46am
ozzy72
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Believe me H if I thought I could get away with dropping a student out of a window I'd do it. There is one class I'd happily introduce to gravity... I still wonder how they could be the fastest out of the 250,000,000 sperms
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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Reply #21 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 6:57am
Hagar
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Quote:
I agree that the timing of this report is awful, but to pretend that we were some form of pure force of good from '39-'45 would be naive.
Will
Of course I'm not naive enough to think that Will. I'm well aware of some of the terrible things normally decent human beings from all countries can do to each other during times of conflict. This is part of our human nature & in most cases done in the heat of the moment. However, I'm quite certain that the vast majority of German PoWs were treated strictly in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I think the publication of this latest discovery by the newspaper concerned was quite deliberately & callously timed to coincide with Remembrance Day & not for the reasons that Andrew suggested either.
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Reply #22 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 9:18am
myshelf
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well, in this days when it is considered cruel torture if a prisoner doesn't get three square meals and fresh sheets to sleep 8 hours such actions sound much more evil than they did back then.
even in peacetime many of the alleged torture methods were perfectly legal at the time, and the threshhold was considerably raised in war.
if anyone spoke up back then, the voices were drowned out by the global outcry against the german war-crimes and the holocaust.
most of the tortured might have put it behind them as memories connected to a war they just wanted to forget.
the reasonable man adjusts to his souroundings, while the unreasonable man insists on adjusting his souroundings to him.&&&&therefore all progress is due to the unreasonable man.
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Reply #23 -
Nov 13
th
, 2005 at 2:02pm
Felix/FFDS
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Let's remember that there are three degrees to "torture" ...
1st degree - telling the person what will happen,
"If you don't tell me what I want to hear, I'll shoot your foot off... "
2d degree - showing the persons the instruments of "torture"
"This is the 9mm Glock that I'll use to put a hole into your foot!"
<Bang!> "Okay, I won't miss the next time..."
3rd degree - the actual use of the instruments of torture
<Bang!> "OOops, MEDIC!"
Nowadays, 1st and 2d degree are equated to the actual torture ...
Felix/
FFDS
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Reply #24 -
Nov 14
th
, 2005 at 3:10am
ozzy72
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I'm guilty of first and second degree torture on a regular basis
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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Reply #25 -
Nov 14
th
, 2005 at 3:43am
Scorpiоn
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This doesn't surprise me at all, but the fact it is being reported does. We (America and Britain) seem to have a tendency to view World War II through rose colored glasses. The Last Good War - as if there is such a thing.
But apparently, as y'all have said, this isn't the most trustworthy of papers.
The Devil's Advocate.
&&
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Reply #26 -
Nov 14
th
, 2005 at 8:20am
Felix/FFDS
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Quote:
But apparently, as y'all have said, this isn't the most trustworthy of papers.
Scorpy ... Trust only ME! *I* will never lead you astray. I speak naught but the Truth ... , and no, that jellyfish won't sting you, you are pure of heart <snort>
Felix/
FFDS
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Reply #27 -
Nov 15
th
, 2005 at 2:02am
Flt.Lt.Andrew
Ex Member
Lest we forget, then.
A.
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Reply #28 -
Nov 16
th
, 2005 at 1:10am
Scorpiоn
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Scorpy ... Trust only ME! *I* will never lead you astray. I speak naught but the Truth ... , and no, that jellyfish won't sting you, you are pure of heart <snort>
So the Man o War is my friend? Then war is my friend!
I will serve... I will serve... I will serve...
The Devil's Advocate.
&&
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Reply #29 -
Nov 16
th
, 2005 at 2:00am
H
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2003: the year NH couldn't
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I'm reminded of being in a small supermarket in the U.S. midwest. He must have been @ 11, give or take, telling his mom, "It must be true. It's in the paper!"
He thereby pointed at the paper rack displaying
Star, Enquirer
...
I hope his discernment and thinking for himself greatly improves during the next half (and beyond) of his life.
«
Last Edit: Nov 17
th
, 2005 at 2:43am by H
»
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Reply #30 -
Nov 16
th
, 2005 at 5:11am
Flt.Lt.Andrew
Ex Member
Hehe, so I supposed you've been introduced to Set 10 english, then Mark?
I was in set 9 in year 7, but now set 1....some kids couldn't read! Craziness.
A.
P.S Lets spare a thought for the torturers.
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Reply #31 -
Nov 19
th
, 2005 at 8:07pm
Woodlouse2002
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You chaps were the ones who devised drawing and quartering and keelhauling, weren't you?
Cheerio!
But then on the other side of the coin we were one of the first nations to ban slavery. So we're not all bad.
I could be wrong but I believe Keelhauling was mainly done by the Dutch, and even then not really after the 17th century,
Quote:
socialist newspapers always tint the facts.
And the capitalist newspapers are the definition of honesty? Right?
I'm not in the least bit suprised about this. Torture happened then, it happens now and will happen in the future. C'est la vie.
Woodlouse2002 PITA and BAR!!!!!!!!&&&&Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George the First for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King.&&&&Viva la revolution!
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Reply #32 -
Nov 20
th
, 2005 at 3:25am
Scorpiоn
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Take it easy!
The Alamo
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I'm not in the least bit suprised about this. Torture happened then, it happens now and will happen in the future. C'est la vie.
Well, erm... I suppose that says it all!
The Devil's Advocate.
&&
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Reply #33 -
Nov 20
th
, 2005 at 8:01am
Felix/FFDS
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Well, erm... I suppose that says it all!
Even worse is happening nowadays. THere are reports that the SAS is forcing detainees in Iraq to watch Teletubbies for four hours straight!
Felix/
FFDS
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Reply #34 -
Nov 20
th
, 2005 at 8:26am
C
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Earth
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Quote:
And the capitalist newspapers are the definition of honesty? Right?
Yep!
Quote:
I'm not in the least bit suprised about this. Torture happened then, it happens now and will happen in the future. C'est la vie.
Exactly. War isn't nice and no one pretends it is...
Quote:
Even worse is happening nowadays. THere are reports that the SAS is forcing detainees in Iraq to watch Teletubbies for four hours straight!
[writes letters to UN and EU Human Rights Commision]
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Reply #35 -
Nov 20
th
, 2005 at 4:14pm
ozzy72
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Pretty scary huh?
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I think that the Teletubbies are a clear breach of the Geneva Convention and a particularly cruel and unusual punishment
There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!
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