THE DEATH DEALER

They call it “The Garage Massacre.” It occurred in July when people of the town forced 40-60 of their fellow townspeople into a courtyard of a garage which was in the center of the city.

They spent some time publicly insulting, ridiculing and humiliating the 50 or so of their neighbors and fellow workers. Then the day turned deadly.

An eye-witness said, “I saw a group of well dressed, intelligent-looking people holding iron bars which they used to viciously beat another group of similarly well dressed, intelligent-intelligent looking people.

But some weren’t dead but lay unconscious. Using a hose for washing cars, they doused them with water until they regained consciousness then they began beating them again. And so it went on and on until the victims lay dead. As some of the citizens watched, they lifted their children onto their shoulders so they could catch a glimpse of one man known as the “Death Dealer.” He was the one who had instigated the Garage Massacre.

A few feet away from him stood another group of individuals who were guarded by armed men. Every few minutes he signaled with his hand and another person quietly stepped forward and had his skull shattered with one blow from the huge iron bar the Death Dealer held in his hand.

Each blow he struck drew another round of clapping and cheering from the enthralled crowd. There were women in the crowd and many of them clambered onto chairs and crates so that they and their children could get a better view of the spectacle taking place in the courtyard below. They were cheering, clapping, and laughing.

The Death Dealer was a blond man of medium height, about twenty-five years old. We know what he looked like because someone took his picture that day. The picture shows him standing and leaning on a wooden club, resting. The club is as thick as his arm and comes up to his chest.

At his feet lie about fifteen to twenty dead or dying people. Water is flowing continuously from a hose washing blood away into the drainage gully. Just a few steps behind this man some twenty men, guarded by armed civilians, stand waiting for their execution in silent submission.

In response to a wave of the hand, the next man steps forward silently and is beaten to death with the wooden club. The audience, seeing each blow enthusiastically shouts with the landing of each blow. Once the mound of the bodies at his feet had reach fifty, a young man who had wielded a crowbar, grabbed an accordion, climbed to the top of the pile of the corpses, and played a patriotic song as he danced and the spectators sang.

This incident was well documented and photographed; it was a public event that happened in Kovno, Lithuania, on June 1941, a day in which all those innocent Jews were beaten to death. Over 95% of that country’s Jewish population was massacred over a three-year period. The estimate is that 190,000–195,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania before the end of World War II.

The philosopher Karl Jaspers wrote about the Holocaust: “That which has happened is a warning. To forget it is guilt. It must be continually remembered for it was possible for this to happen and it remains possible for this to happen again at any minute.” Karl Jaspers