examples – 24 – Dogs – The Radikalization

Dogs—Radicalization – Analysis of a Group foto 

Something happens while sorting and archiving in the various repositories of knowledge. At night, I suddenly have terrible dreams that leave me waking up drenched in sweat: a dog playfully jumps at me.

There was a strange development in the Schneider family in Rombach regarding the dogs. At first, dogs were friendly and loving animals. They were family members. Under the influence of the Nazis, Schneider changed that. He began to assert his power in Rombach through dogs, but also within the family.

Nero the loyal Newfoundland

“We had Nero, the Newfoundland, who wore a red bow tied around his neck. He brought my father his meals to the cabin. He was so good. You could play with him, do anything,” M. told me.

Harras, the older sister tells me, came after Nero, the Newfoundland. To make him aggressive, they had given him blood to drink. He would grab his human victims by the throat and then wait for the command to bite. ”

Harras – “Harras was trained to go for the throat. We weren’t allowed to touch him.”

The sowjet writer Vasily Grossman reports from Treblinka that Kurt Franz, one of the Treblinka commanders, had trained his dog Barry “to leap up at the doomed people and tear out their genitals.” (Vasily Grossmann; The hell of Treblinka,September 1944 published)

And now it becomes clear to me: The children who loved the dogs, played with them, kissed and cuddled them, lost Nero, the good-natured Newfoundland.

But what did happen?