Aiming towards evil: Lenin and music
A while back I was looking up one of my favorite films, The Lives of Others, and I came across this quote at Wiki:
…Maxim Gorky [said] that Lenin’s favorite piece of music was Beethoven’s Appassionata. Gorky recounted a discussion with Lenin:
“And screwing up his eyes and chuckling, [Lenin] added without mirth:
“‘But I can’t listen to music often, it affects my nerves, it makes me want to say sweet nothings and pat the heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty. But today we mustn’t pat anyone on the head or we’ll get our hand bitten off; we’ve got to hit them on the heads, hit them without mercy, though in the ideal we are against doing any violence to people. Hm-hm—it’s a hellishly difficult office!'”
It’s not easy being a dictator. Apparently, one always has to make sure nothing soft enters the psyche.
And speaking of evil, the German police and SS men and soldiers who massacred unarmed civilians – including women and children – in Eastern Europe as part of the Einsatzgruppen had to be steeled to do their dirty dirty work. They didn’t start by murdering Jews; first on the agenda were the Polish leaders and intelligentsia. And in terms of “steeling,” this is how Hitler himself put it at that point:
As stated by Hitler: “… there must be no Polish leaders; where Polish leaders exist they must be killed, however harsh that sounds”.
“However harsh that sounds.”
They were given liberal supplies of alcohol. Later, after much brutal and barbarous killing of Jews including women and children, it was this way for the killers:
After a time, Himmler found that the killing methods used by the Einsatzgruppen were inefficient: they were costly, demoralising for the troops, and sometimes did not kill the victims quickly enough. Many of the troops found the massacres to be difficult if not impossible to perform. Some of the perpetrators suffered physical and mental health problems, and many turned to drink.As much as possible, the Einsatzgruppen leaders militarized the genocide. The historian Christian Ingrao notes an attempt was made to make the shootings a collective act without individual responsibility. Framing the shootings in this way was not psychologically sufficient for every perpetrator to feel absolved of guilt. Browning notes three categories of potential perpetrators: those who were eager to participate right from the start, those who participated in spite of moral qualms because they were ordered to do so, and a significant minority who refused to take part. A few men spontaneously became excessively brutal in their killing methods and their zeal for the task. Commander of Einsatzgruppe D, SS-Gruppenführer Otto Ohlendorf, particularly noted this propensity towards excess, and ordered that any man who was too eager to participate or too brutal should not perform any further executions.
During a visit to Minsk in August 1941, Himmler witnessed an Einsatzgruppen mass execution first-hand and concluded that shooting Jews was too stressful for his men. By November he made arrangements for any SS men suffering ill health from having participated in executions to be provided with rest and mental health care. He also decided a transition should be made to gassing the victims, especially the women and children, and ordered the recruitment of expendable native auxiliaries who could assist with the murders. Gas vans, which had been used previously to kill mental patients, began to see service by all four main Einsatzgruppen from 1942. However, the gas vans were not popular with the Einsatzkommandos, because removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them was a horrible ordeal. Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma.
The Severity Order was issued to the army in October of 1941:
In this eastern theatre, the soldier is not only a man fighting in accordance with the rules of the art of war, but also the ruthless standard bearer of a national conception and the avenger of bestialities which have been inflicted upon German and racially related nations. For this reason the soldier must learn fully to appreciate the necessity for the severe but just retribution that must be meted out to the subhuman species of Jewry.
In other words, harden yourselves to the killing of innocent civilians, often women and children, not as unintended collateral damage but in cold blood. For some, this appears to have been rather easy:
British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper noted that although Himmler had forbidden photographs of the killings, it was common for both the men of the Einsatzgruppen and for bystanders to take pictures to send to their loved ones, which he felt suggested widespread approval of the massacres.
Few objected, very few.
the German police and SS men and soldiers who massacred unarmed civilians – including women and children – in Eastern Europe as part of the Einsatzgruppen had to be steeled to do their dirty dirty work.
Not just Germans, often this was delegated to Ukrainian or Baltic auxiliaries, who even had their own SS units.
This stirs a reflection on the decision a couple of days ago at the Toronto
IndependentInternational Film Festival to disinvite the showing of an Israeli documentary flim about a defender who fought the invasion of 10/7/23 which used Hamas’ livestream footage, on the grounds that the Israeli producers could not demonstrate they had acquired Hamas’ copyright agreement.Nihilism marches on apace, so who is Canada to stop it?
https://nypost.com/2025/08/13/entertainment/tiff-cuts-oct-7-doc-because-hamas-didnt-give-footage-permission/
True. Can’t remember if I’ve posted this here before, but according to Daniel Goldhagen, the picture below was sent home, by the man with the rifle, to his family. He was proud of what he was doing.
https://share.google/7wRwiDXhqb5X8L7tH
From the book Hitlers Willing Executioners.
It was common for both the men of the Einsatzgruppen and for bystanders to take pictures to send to their loved ones, which he felt suggested widespread approval of the massacres.
This happened with American lynchings too, some even ending up as postcards. And of course we’ve seen this with October 7. “What would the neighbors think” was obviously not a factor.
The 1887 massacre of 34 Chinese miners in Hells’ Canyon was not an easy matter to prosecute given the isolation of the mining camp; that it had even happened was not known until the bodies came down the river. But one of the participants confessed and gave evidence against the others. Only a few were tried, none were convicted, and they remained respectable members of their community. They don’t, however, seem to have bragged about it.
Once you go through that door you don’t come back.
Goebbels once said, “For those whose nerves are broken, we say, take your pensions, go.”
Goldhagen’s book will keep you up nights.
Imagine going back to your quarters wondering when the dirt on top of the trench will stop heaving. Might still be, tomorrow morning. Bullets don’t necessarily kill immediately.
Been said before, it’s a military truism that being on the defense provides a three-to-one advantage over the attacker. Zillions of factors can be asserted for individual circumstances but the ratio is generally valid.
For every able man devoted to killing civilians, Jews or others, instead of soldiering, it was the equivalent of giving the Allies three more guys. And that without recruiting, training, feeding, equipping, and shipping to the front. Same with the resources such as transport and so forth.
See the video on youtube, “The Train Near Magdeburg”. The one running a minute nineteen. War nearly over, everybody crying for trains (ammo, move tanks, etc.) but the priority was to kill Jews and if that meant driving the train into a river, so be it. Have to get by without it. First things first.
The same idea in Nam, shoot to wound not kill it takes a lot of people to take care of the wounded vs the dead. This doesn’t take into account defeat, in defeat there are plenty of people.
People do not understand, just as there’s no top to sainthood, there’s no bottom to absolute evil and the devil.
People would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven
Your quote about Hitler and the Polish leaders, Stalin did the same. After the War ended, some Polish Army members that fought for the Allies went home to Poland. Stalin had most of the shot. Many of Polish Airmen in the RAF were sent back to Poland by the UK, and shot.
Civilization’s veneer is quite thin. Not as thin on some, but thin nonetheless.
The lesson here is clearly one of human nature. Whether it’s Nanking, or Eastern Europe, or the Vendee, it’s always the same – once one is given “permission” to kill en masse, it’s only a matter of time before sadism emerges. And when it does we are limited only by our imaginations.
I see Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS etc as the modern day heirs of the Einsatzgruppen. Btw Himmler witnessed a mass shooting of arpund 100 people in Prague, Czechoslovakia alongside Reinhard Heydrich and got physically sick. Heydrich they say looked at him with contempt for that.
Thank god for Operation Anthropoid.
I see a parallel with that powerful miniseries Chernobyl, the troops who had to go from village to village killing the abandoned pets drinking themselves into a stupor.
Several months ago I came across the Lenin quote on Beethoven in Betram D. Wolfe’s book Strange Communists I Have Known. Wolfe used the quote in discussing Inessa Armand. Inessa Armond was involved in a menage a trois with Lenin and his wife, Krupskaya. Inessa Armand, an accomplished pianist, played Beethoven for Lenin. She was also a hard-core Bolshevik—Wolfe called her “pedantic”— who acted as a spokesman for Lenin at various meetings or conferences.
Its said hezbollah used amphetamines to train their martyrs hamas probably does similar maybe some of that captagon that the assads had the corner of the market
Tim powers declare suggested an extra terrestrial source for the soviet terror state
Richard Aubrey:
I have noticed that, too. Even when losing, the Nazis continued to use manpower and ammunition and transportation to facilitate the killing of Jews. It was a top priority for them. Maybe even THE top priority.
The Toronto film festival has bowed to public uproar and will “ensure” the screening of the film on the Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities.
https://nypost.com/2025/08/14/world-news/tiff-reverses-course-will-ensure-oct-7-doc-is-screened-following-swift-backlash/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=twitter
This prompted me to ask Grok about an incident when Lenin was near death and Krupskaya read him some Jack London stories.
Love of Life (1905): Lenin reportedly enjoyed this story, which depicts a man’s desperate struggle for survival in the harsh Yukon wilderness, showcasing themes of human resilience and determination that likely resonated with Lenin’s revolutionary mindset.
The Seed of McCoy (1909): Lenin is said to have criticized this story for reflecting what he called “bourgeois morals.” The story involves a ship navigating a dangerous reef with the help of a calm and resourceful Tahitian, McCoy, and Lenin may have interpreted its themes as less aligned with his Marxist worldview.
IIRC, Lenin liked the first for its pitiless description of a struggle for survival, while he disliked the second for, as said, its bourgeois morals.
I’ve also read (and neo mentions) that the Nazis didn’t force their personnel to participate in mass killings or the Holocaust. For instance, at the Józefów Massacre:
________________________________
In 1992, Browning wrote Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, which is an expanded work of his essay, “One Day in Józefów: Initiation to Mass Murder.” This essay seeks to prove that the men of Police Battalion 101 did not follow through with the execution out of fear of being punished by their leader, but rather they committed these horrible acts on their own accord. Browning argues that these men “were certainly not a group carefully selected for their suitability as mass murderers, nor were they given special training and indoctrination for the task that awaited them.” Although they were given the option to not take part, the large majority of the unit were able to shoot a combined total of over a thousand Jewish men, women and children in a single day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zef%C3%B3w_Massacre
________________________________
Twelve out of 500 policemen opted out when allowed to leave freely.Those of them who felt unable to continue shooting at point-blank range of prisoners begging for mercy, were asked to wait at the marketplace where the trucks were loaded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Police_Battalion_101
________________________________
Of course this was strictly a pragmatic decision, not one based on principles.
Goldhagen talks about this in his book as well. There was real worry among the architects that some might not be up to the task. Opting out really was a thing. Few did.
He also tells the same story that BrooklynBoy does. Himmler, pretty sure it was him but I get them all confused, maybe it was Eichman, was observing the work of the Einsatzgruppen and became physically ill. From memory that had something to do with the “opt out” clause, but it’s been a long time since I read it.
People do not understand, just as there’s no top to sainthood, there’s no bottom to absolute evil and the devil. — Sennacharib
Something that used to be commonly understood, but today is glossed over, because it’s so unpleasant: the Fall of Man is not just a metaphor. It’s not just an expression. We are, as a people, as a species, Fallen. Broken. Tainted. It can be fought or submitted to, but it’s always there. It’s the poison that makes utopian visions empty at best. We forget it at our peril.
The Nazis had Pervertin, an amphetamine, to help them keep on killing.
Philip K Dick wrote “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” and “The Man in The High Tower.” The first made into the movie “Blade Runner,” and the 2nd became a series on Amazon.
Decades after the movie, I was curious and read DADOES which is quite an unusual novel. Studying a bit more, I discovered that the author’s inspiration for it was his research for TMITHT which is about Nazis and Nazi cruelty, with some Sci-Fi thrown in.
He was so appalled by the historical documents he poured through in Germany that he just couldn’t imagine the level of inhumanity required for it all to happen. This inspired him to conceive of the androids or “replicants” (in the movie) as an analog to this sort of inhuman creature.
if memory serves, they brought in walter rauff, who ran the mobile gas trucks, who had rounded up jews in tunisia, then in milan, he ultimately took the ratline to Chile,
I first heard about him in a novel los Canallas about the coup,
or Klaus Barbie, who did Oradour roundup who subsequently
of course with rare exceptions, the Soviet butchers were rarely acknowledged much less made accountable
where he had been residing, he certainly inspired some of Chile’s military, so it is said, until he died in 1984, he wasnt the worst, that was probably Eichmann’s deputy Alois Brunner, who aided the Syrian military, until he died in 1992
Re; Philip K. Dick / The Man in the High Castle / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep
TommyJay:
Well-spotted and not well enough known.
Dick had gone down the Nazi rabbit hole, which became the basis for “The Man in the Highest Castle” (Hugo Award Winner 1963). It was in a Dick interview where I first read that the Nazis didn’t force people into becoming mass killers.
The replicants in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep” were based on the Nazis, people incapable of empathy. When I first saw “Blade Runner” based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep”, I considered the movie a betrayal of Dick’s novel.
Instead we have Rutger Hauer, playing a psychopathic android, still getting his beautiful “Tears in the Rain” monologue at the end. Clearly he is misunderstood and has his just grievances, excusing his ghastly behavior.
In Dick’s novel the replicants have no redeeming features at all. They are not even loyal to each other.
The stunning vision of “Blade Runner” and its great cast eventually won me over. I later learned that the screenwriters for the movie only read a third of Dick’s novel and made up the rest.
he did make into a 21st century noir, the bradbury building, which I think was in double indemnity, is at the climax of the film, it can’t really translated faithfully, although deckard is more like a hammett character, something from the Continental Op, than the smoother Marlowe, the tyrell corporation probably is not a good analogue, to the sort of outfits, that marlowe investigated, more like Jake Gittes and the Mulholland Mulroy tableau,
the Nazis remind me of the late Phillip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther, who is apolitical police detective from the 20s through the 50s, the riff in apocalypse now ,trying to arrest Kurtz for murder in Vietnam, is like giving a speeding ticket at the Indianopolis Speedway Kerr finds himself in some of the worst places in Ustachi Croatia, in the Ukraine under the OUN, in Argentina after the war,
one of the last is the South of France, where he meets up with Somerset Maugham he is witness to the madness with a wry look and tries to keep his integrity,
The Man in The High Castle. Apologies!
If memory serves, it took six writings of the screenplay for Blade Runner before proceeding. When I read the book, at about 1/4 of the way into it I thought, “Oh, this is un-filmable. And what the hell is it?” The book won me over, but yes, making a film from it is a whole other kettle of fish.
huxley’s comment reminds me of an unconventional Humphrey Bogart movie, “In A Lonely Place.” He gets a job to write a screenplay from a trashy romance novel. He can’t bear the thought of having to read it first, so he has a hat-check girl tell him the story instead. A bit of humor in an otherwise dark film. And he gets rave feedback when it is finished.
Im reminded of sunset boulevard where holden plays a down on his luck screenwriter whose rather sentimental pitches get shot down by the studio head his agent cant get him a paying gig and they are trying to reposess his car hiding away is how he comes across nora desmonds old estate holliday then is forced to read noras treacly script that she has been trying to pitch forever the ending will be dark for holliday
One of the marks of immorality about this regime is how it allowed
functionaries from the castro regime to settle in this country after every ones life they ruined in the old country
@ Kate > “The Toronto film festival has bowed to public uproar and will “ensure” the screening of the film on the Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities.”
The anti-cancel culture is beginning to ride the pendulum swing down from the insane high of the Left.
miguel recently linked to a post by el gato malo which included information about the actual sizes of the cancel-rabid segment and the people who just want to get along. The numbers are sobering.
Just like the cancellers got “permission” for their obscene authoritarianism from the highest levels of culture and government, the majority is now seeing that they really aren’t “alone,” but can speak out and be supported under the auspices of the Trump era.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/dc-home-rule-madhouses-and-choices
(References a study conclusion “image” embedded in the post.)
I had to look that up:
Like Chernobyl — after Galveston hurricane, those gathering the dead to be burned were also given all the booze they could drink every night.
There are two movie recreations of the Wansee Konferenz that took place near Berlin in January 1942. One of the participants or secretaries kept a transcript. The movies are word for word and breathtakingly ruthless and matter of fact. The subject: How can we Nazis kill as many Jews in the shortest time possible.
One movie is in German and one in English. Both are excellent.
It was very quick – 75 minutes or so. This sealed the Jews fate. It was here that the camps of Auschwitz, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno and Treblinka were proposed. These were the extermination camps. Organized, efficient and evil.
The rest is history.