Poison Gas & The War On Innocents

Having done a couple of articles on poison gas, I can't finish with the subject without covering the Nazi use of poison gas against innocent, defenseless people, namely Jews and Gypsies (also known to some as the "Romani" or "Roma").* The Nazis murdered many other people, and this article is not meant to diminish their loss, but Jews and Gypsies were specifically targeted for eradication by the insane Nazi racial nonsense, just because of their heritage. Many Gypsies and many Jews lived in communities together in various countries, although they learned the language and customs of their respective country.** Most of these people came to view themselves as being true citizens of the country in which they lived, in spite of periods of persecution, including some outbreaks of intense violence. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, persecution of minorities, especially German Jews, intensified, coming into full view for the world to see in November 1938 with the "Kristallnacht," "the night of broken glass," when Nazi thugs broke into Jewish businesses and religious facilities throughout Germany (which then included Austria, and Vienna had a substantial Jewish population). Many Jewish properties were burned or otherwise severely damaged, many Jews were hauled off to concentration camps, and others were killed.

The Nazis were murderers long before they started using poison gas, but the conquest of much of Europe, and especially of eastern European, where millions of Europe's Jews lived, brought them the desire to come up with a more "efficient" way to kill other human beings. They had tried mobile vans, pumping in carbon monoxide to kill their victims, but for the Nazi nutcases, led by nutcase-in-chief Adolf Hitler and his henchman, assistant nutcase, Heinrich Himmler, the process was much too slow. By 1941-42, the Nazis had discovered that using a cyanide-based pesticide gas, they could kill people faster than ever, an important point to these murderous bastards. The gas was called "Zyklon B," and it was kept in canisters. Usually pellets of the gas were dropped into fake shower rooms filled with victims. The most notorious of the sites where Zyklon B was used was "Auschwitz," a combination labor-extermination camp complex in a part of southeastern Poland annexed to Germany after Poland's defeat in 1939. The Nazis "sorted" people into those who could work, putting them into the labor camp areas, and into those they wanted to eliminate immediately. Once "workers" became too exhausted, sick or weak from malnutrition to work anymore, they too became expendable. The whole thing so boggles the mind, it is no wonder that many survivors and liberators feared the world would not believe such things had taken place. The Nazis used the poison gas in other camps too, but it was in Auschwitz where it has been figured that somewhere between about one and a half million to two and a half million people were gassed, with Jews being the overwhelming percentage of those killed. Records on how many Gypsies were gassed is not known, but it is estimated that about a quarter million Gypsies perished at the hands of the Nazi butchers, with quite a few of these victims having been gassed at Auschwitz.

* Gypsies or the Romani are a people who trace their roots back to India, and indeed, their language is from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo European language family. English is part of the Germanic sub-branch of the Indo European languages, so Romani and English are related, although much further down the family tree. The Romani people migrated from India and many reached Europe at some point between 1000 and 1100.

** Jews were often forced by European "Christians" (I only use the term because that's what they called themselves) to live in particular areas of cities and towns, usually less appealing areas. Eventually these Jewish areas came to be called "ghettos." I plan to do an article, or a series of articles, on the history of ghettos very soon.

WORD HISTORY:
Lose-This word goes back to Indo European "leu" or "lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausam," with the same basic meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "los," a noun which meant "loss," in the sense "total loss, destruction." From this came the verb "losian," which meant "to lose, to perish." Gradually "losian" overtook the then common word for "lose;" that is, its close relative, "leosan." "Losian" later became "losen" before the modern version. German has "lösen," which means "to solve or resolve (a problem)," from the original notion of 'undo,' and some Low German has "leese," also meaning "solve," Dutch has "oplossen" (also solve, resolve), West Frisian has "ferlieze" (lose), Norwegian and Danish have "løse" (solve), Icelandic has "leysa" (solve, also "untie") and Swedish has "lösa" (solve). Old English also had "liesan," from the same Germanic source. It meant, "to loosen, to free from something," but also had the the secondary meaning, "to redeem," perhaps from the notion of "loosening, or freeing something by giving up something." The related German word, "lösen," also has a secondary meaning of "buy a ticket" (usually for travel), and this is just purely speculation on my part, but tickets are often torn off or dispensed by machines, which ties in with the meanings of the Old English form "liesan."  Interestingly I could not find the Old English word for "solve" (English borrowed "solve"), but I've got to believe it was similar to its other Germanic relatives and thus would be related to "lose." I will keep checking. I will also do the history for "solve" very soon, and it may surprise you to learn that "solve" is distantly related to "lose."

Chemical Warfare 1919-1945

In a recent article about Marshal Pietro Badoglio of Italy, I noted that his overall record had a "blemish" for his use of poison gas in Abyssinia.* This brought a comment from a reader that the use of poison gas is more than a "blemish." First, I think that is a valid criticism, and my choice of words should have been better. Second, in answer to the reader's comment, I said I would do an article about poison gas. So, here it is. This is just some basic information, and it in no way means that I'm trying to excuse Badoglio or any others mentioned below, but it does give context to those times prior to and during World War Two.

Poison gas of various types was used on both sides in World War One. The use was so widespread and accepted, it would be virtually pointless to go into use during the war. After the war, however, there were attempts to outlaw the use of poison gas, but doing so was not an easy task, and lest we forget, the U.S. and certain allies invaded Iraq to find and destroy "weapons of mass destruction," including "poison gas." So the issue is still around all of these decades after the end of World War One.

One Winston Churchill favored the use of poison gas in Iraq in 1920 "against uncivilised tribes," as he called some people in that region.** Historians are divided over whether the British did in fact use poison gas in Iraq in 1920, and I won't debate the issue in this article. During World War Two (July 1944), Churchill, rebuking "morality," proposed using poison gas on German cities, noting those cities could be "drenched," and that, "if we do it (use poison gas), let us do it one hundred percent." The matter was dropped due to fear of retaliation by Germany.

The Spaniards used mustard gas in Spanish Morocco in the mid 1920s against Berber rebels.*** The Japanese used mustard gas and other agents in China in late 1930s. The Nazis and the Allies both feared each other would use chemical warfare, but fear of massive retaliation by the other side kept poison gas from being used, although it was available in quantity to both sides. Both sides had specially trained units for delivery of poison gas (aerial and artillery) as well as units trained in decontamination of sites if poison gas had been used. The United States had been reluctant for decades to sign treaties banning chemical weapons, citing mistrust of other nations (mainly the Soviet Union) and the need to have a deterrent; that is, the ability to retaliate against any nation that used chemical weapons against the U.S. It wasn't until 1997 that a United Nations treaty on chemical weapons was finally ratified by the U.S. Some weapons were destroyed by the U.S. and other nations, but further such actions have been postponed, as the issue of how to safely destroy chemical weapons was debated, and also, the idea of a deterrent has remained an issue.

* The link to the article is: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/03/marshal-badoglio-of-italy.html

** The general area of modern Iraq was called Mesopotamia at that time, and it was under British control. An uprising against British rule by some elements of the population took place in 1920.

*** Morocco was then divided between Spain and France as "Spanish Morocco" and "French Morocco." The Berbers are an indigenous people of many parts of North Africa, not just Morocco. They have often, but not always, been nomadic.

WORD HISTORY:
Loss-This word goes back to Indo European "leu" or "lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausam," with the same basic meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "los," a noun which meant "loss," in the sense "total loss, destruction." Whether this then became modern "loss," which usually has a much less drastic meaning, is unclear. Some believe "los" died out with its place taken in the 1300s by its close relative "lost," the participle form of "lose,"^ and that this then became "loss." It is certainly possible that "los" remained, but that it was not in common use among more educated people, and that, influenced by the toned down meaning of "lost," it became modern "loss," which has relatives in the other Germanic languages, but I will cover them with some of the other related words to come.

^ "Loss" is closely related to a number of other words: "lose," "loose," "lorn" (the second part of 'forlorn'), and the "less" part of words like "homeless," "spotless," etc. These close relatives of "loss" will be covered in the next few articles, and it can all get quite confusing.