The most terrible torture in the history of mankind. Torture in concentration camps

Torture is often called various minor troubles that occur with everyone in everyday life. The upbringing of naughty children, a long line in the queue, a large wash, subsequent ironing and even the process of cooking are awarded this definition. All this, of course, can be very painful and unpleasant (although the degree of exhaustion largely depends on the character and inclinations of a person), but still it does not resemble the most terrible tortures in the history of mankind. The practice of interrogations “with prejudice” and other violent acts against prisoners took place in almost all countries of the world. The time frame is also not defined, but since relatively recent events are psychologically closer to the modern person, his attention is drawn to the methods and special equipment invented in the twentieth century, in particular in the German concentration camps of the Third Reich. But there were both ancient Eastern and medieval tortures. Fascists were also taught by their colleagues from the Japanese counterintelligence, the NKVD and other similar punitive bodies. So why was all this mockery of people?

The meaning of the term

To begin with, starting to study any issue or phenomenon, any researcher tries to give him a definition. “It’s right to name - it’s already half understood” - Chinese wisdom says .

So torture is the conscious infliction of suffering. Moreover, the nature of the torment does not matter, it can be not only physical (in the form of pain, thirst, hunger or deprivation of the possibility of sleep), but also moral and psychological. By the way, the most terrible tortures in the history of mankind, as a rule, combine both “channels of influence”.

But it is not only the fact of suffering that matters. Meaningless torment is called torture. From him, torture is focused. In other words, a person is beaten or suspended on a rack for a reason, but in order to get some kind of result. Using violence, the victim is encouraged to plead guilty, divulge hidden information, and sometimes simply punish for some offense or crime. The twentieth century added one more item to the list of possible targets of torture: torture in concentration camps was sometimes carried out in order to study the body's response to unbearable conditions to determine the limit of human capabilities. These experiments were recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal as inhumane and pseudoscientific, which did not hinder studying their results after the defeat of Nazi Germany by physiologists from the victorious countries.

Death or judgment

The purposeful nature of the actions suggests that after receiving the result, even the most terrible tortures in the history of mankind ceased. Continuing them did not make sense. The executioner-executioner position, as a rule, was held by a professional who knew about painful methods and the characteristics of psychology, if not all, then very much, and there was no point in wasting his efforts on senseless bullying. After the victim was recognized as a crime, she could wait, depending on the degree of civilization of society, an immediate death or treatment, followed by trial. The legally executed execution after biased interrogations during the investigation was characteristic of the punitive justice of Germany in the initial Hitler era and of the Stalinist “open trials” (Shakhty case, trial of the industrial party, massacres of the Trotskyists, etc.). After giving the defendants a decent appearance, they were dressed in decent suits and demonstrated to the public. Broken morally, people most often dutifully repeated everything that investigators forced them to admit. Torture and execution were put on stream. The veracity of the testimony did not matter. Both in Germany and in the USSR of the 1930s, the recognition of the accused was considered the “queen of evidence” (A. Ya. Vyshinsky, USSR prosecutor). Cruel torture was used to obtain him.

Deadly torture of the Inquisition

Few areas of their activity (except in the manufacture of murder weapons) have made humanity so successful. It should be noted that in recent centuries there has even been some regression compared to ancient times. European executions and torture of women in the Middle Ages were carried out, as a rule, on charges of witchcraft, and the reason for this was most often the external attractiveness of the unfortunate victim. However, the Inquisition sometimes condemned those who actually committed terrible crimes, but the specifics of that time were the unambiguous doom of the condemned. No matter how long the torment lasted, they ended only in the death of the convict. As an instrument of execution, they could use the Iron Maiden, the Copper Bull, a bonfire or a sharp-edged pendulum described by Edgar Poe, methodically descending inch by inch onto the victim’s chest. The terrible torture of the Inquisition was notable for its duration and was accompanied by unthinkable moral torment. A preliminary investigation could have been conducted using other ingenious mechanical devices for the slow cleavage of the bones of the fingers and limbs and the rupture of muscle ligaments. The most famous tools were:

- a metal sliding pear, used for especially sophisticated torture of women in the Middle Ages;

- “Spanish boot”;

- The Spanish chair with clamps and a brazier for legs and buttocks;

- an iron bra (pectoral), worn on the chest in a red-hot form;

- “Crocodiles” and special forceps for crushing male genitals.

The executioners of the Inquisition had another torture tool, which is better for people with a sensitive psyche not to know.

East, Ancient and Modern

No matter how ingenious European inventors of mutually damaging technology, the most terrible tortures in the history of mankind are still invented in the East. The Inquisition used metal tools, which at times had a very intricate design, while in Asia they preferred everything natural, natural (today these means might have been called eco-friendly). Insects, plants, animals - everything went in progress. Oriental torture and executions had the same goals as the European ones, but technically differed in duration and greater sophistication. Ancient Persian executioners, for example, practiced scaphism (from the Greek word "scaphium" - a trough). The victim was immobilized in chains, tied to a trough, forced to eat honey and drink milk, then smeared the whole body with a sweet composition, and lowered into the swamp. Blood-sucking insects alive slowly ate a person. They did the same in the case of execution by the anthill, and if the unfortunate one was to be burned in the scorching sun, his eyelids were cut off for further torment. There were other types of torture that used elements of the biosystem. For example, it is known that bamboo grows fast, a meter a day. It is enough just to hang the victim a short distance above the young shoots, and cut off the ends of the stems at an acute angle. The attempted has time to change his mind, confess everything and give out accomplices. If he persists, he will slowly and painfully pierce the plants. Such a choice, however, was not always provided.

Torture as a method of inquiry

Both in the Middle Ages and in the later period, various types of torture were used not only by inquisitors and other officially recognized savage structures, but also by ordinary state authorities, today called law enforcement. He was part of a set of investigation and inquiry methods. Since the second half of the XVI century, various types of bodily influences have been practiced in Russia, such as: a whip, hanging, a rack, cauterization by ticks and open fire, immersion in water, and so on. Enlightened Europe, too, was not at all humanistic, but practice showed that in some cases torture, bullying, and even fear of death did not guarantee clarification of the truth. Moreover, in some cases, the victim was ready to confess to the most shameful crime, preferring a terrible end to endless horror and pain. There is a well-known case of a miller, an inscription on the pediment of the French palace of justice calls for remembering. He took upon himself another's guilt under torture, was executed, and the real criminal was soon caught.

Abolition of torture in different countries

At the end of the 17th century, a gradual departure from torture practice and a transition from it to other, more humane methods of inquiry began. One of the outcomes of the Enlightenment was the realization that not cruelty of punishment, but its inevitability affects the decrease in criminal activity. In Prussia, torture was abolished in 1754; this country was the first to place its legal proceedings in the service of humanism. Then the process went on, different states followed suit in the following sequence:

Note:

*) The laws of various cantons of Switzerland changed at different times of the specified period.

Two countries deserve special mention - Britain and Russia.

Catherine the Great abolished torture in 1774 by issuing a secret decree. By this, on the one hand, she continued to keep criminals in fear, but, on the other, she showed a desire to follow the ideas of the Enlightenment. Legally issued this decision already, Alexander I in 1801.

As for England, torture was prohibited there in 1772, but not all, but only a few.

Illegal torture

The legislative ban did not mean their complete exclusion from the practice of pre-trial investigation. In all countries there were representatives of the police class, ready to break the law in the name of his triumph. Another thing is that their actions were carried out illegally, and if exposed, they would face legal prosecution. Of course, the methods have changed significantly. It was required to “work with people” more carefully, without leaving visible traces. In the XIX and XX centuries, heavy objects were used, but with a soft surface, such as sandbags, thick volumes (the irony of the situation was that most often these were codes of laws), rubber hoses, etc. They were not left without attention and methods of moral pressure. Some investigators sometimes threatened with harsh punishments, long sentences and even reprisals against relatives. It was also torture. The horror experienced by the defendants prompted them to make confessions, incriminate themselves and receive undeserved punishments, including the death penalty. Most police officers did their duty honestly, examining evidence and collecting testimonies to make a reasonable charge. Everything changed after the rise to power in some countries of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes. It happened in the 20th century.

In Soviet Russia

After the October Revolution of 1917, a Civil War broke out on the territory of the former Russian Empire, in which both warring parties most often did not consider themselves bound by the legislative norms that were mandatory under the tsar. The torture of prisoners of war in order to obtain information about the enemy was practiced by both the White Guard counterintelligence and the Cheka. During the years of the Red Terror, executions took place most often, but the mockery of representatives of the "class of exploiters", which included the clergy, nobles, and simply decently dressed "gentlemen," became widespread. In the twenties, thirties and forties, the NKVD authorities used forbidden methods of inquiry, depriving detainees of sleep, food, water, beating and mutilating them. This was done with the permission of the leadership, and sometimes at its direct direction. The goal was rarely to clarify the truth - repressions were carried out for intimidation, and the investigator's task was to obtain a signature on the protocol containing recognition of counter-revolutionary activities, as well as the stipulation of other citizens. As a rule, the Stalinist “shoulder cases of the master” did not use special torture devices, being content with accessible items, such as a paperweight (they hit him on the head), or even with an ordinary door that pinched fingers and other protruding parts of the body.

In fascist Germany

The tortures in the concentration camps created after Adolf Hitler came to power differed in style from those previously used in that they were a strange mixture of oriental sophistication with European practicality. Initially, these “correctional institutions” were created for the guilty Germans and representatives of national minorities declared hostile (Gypsies and Jews). Then came the turn of experiments, which had the character of a certain scientific nature, but in terms of cruelty surpassed the most terrible tortures in the history of mankind.
In an attempt to create antidotes and vaccines, Nazi SS doctors injected prisoners with lethal injections, performed operations without anesthesia, including abdominal ones, froze the prisoners, stained them with heat, did not let them sleep, eat or drink. Thus, they wanted to develop technologies for the “production” of ideal soldiers who were not afraid of frost, heat and mutilation, resistant to the effects of toxic substances and pathogenic bacilli. The history of torture during the Second World War forever captured the names of doctors Pletner and Mengele, who, along with other representatives of criminal fascist medicine, became the personification of inhumanity. They also carried out experiments on lengthening the limbs by mechanical stretching, asphyxiation of people in discharged air, and other experiments that caused agonizing agony, which sometimes lasted long hours.

The torture of women by the Nazis concerned mainly the development of ways to deprive their reproductive function. Various methods were studied - from simple (removal of the uterus) to sophisticated ones, which, in the event of victory of the Reich, had the prospect of mass application (irradiation and exposure to chemicals).

It all ended before the Victory, in 1944, when the concentration camps began to liberate Soviet and Allied forces. Even the appearance of the prisoners was more eloquent than any evidence that their content in inhuman conditions was torture in itself.

Current state of affairs

The torture of the Nazis became the standard of rigidity. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, mankind sighed happily in the hope that this would never happen again. Unfortunately, though not on such a scale, but the torture of the flesh, mockery of human dignity and moral humiliation remain some of the terrible signs of the modern world. Developed countries that declare their commitment to rights and freedoms are looking for legal loopholes to create special territories in which compliance with their own laws is not necessary. Prisoners of secret prisons have been exposed to punitive bodies for many years without specific charges. The methods used by military personnel of many countries during local and major armed conflicts against prisoners of war and simply suspected of sympathy for the enemy are sometimes brutal than the torture of the Middle Ages and bullying of people in Nazi concentration camps. In an international investigation of such precedents, too often, instead of objectivity, one can observe the duality of standards when war crimes of one of the parties are completely or partially ignored.

Will the era of a new Enlightenment come when torture will finally be finally and irrevocably recognized by the shame of mankind and will be banned? So far, there is little hope for this ...