By Reg Doty
Bryce and I were having coffee the other day when the topic of how to value a human life came up. Of course, the first thing that came to our minds gravitated towards the economic since, as Americans, we tend to first think about things in that way. As it turns out so do the Vietnamese, since we both recalled instances where the life of a chicken, that was run over by an American vehicle, was measured in how many years it could lay eggs as the going recompense for its demise. It turns out that is not a far stretch from what our courts view as damages from the untimely departure of a bread winner through no fault of their own.
In our system of slavery, people had value in the work that they could accomplish through their lives; the young and healthy had far greater value than the old and infirm. To the chagrin of entrepreneurs, Native Americans had zero value since they couldn’t be forced to do anything. The point is that we held higher regard for those who could work, opposed to those who couldn’t or wouldn’t and so accorded monetary value, and a kind of freedom for those efforts.
Circa 1940s and the era of Nazi Germany where value shifted from the economic to philosophical in order to subjugate a people for their ostensible ability in controlling markets and thus stealing food off their competitor’s plate – an a priori shift from necessity to avarice. The result was the Holocaust with its redefining of human worth and value. An example is provided by author Wilbur Smith, from Courtney’s War, with his description of extermination vans, first used in Poland in 1940, for the purpose of murdering via carbon monoxide and asphyxiation.
While the efforts of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Friedrich Jeckelin, the head of the Einsatzgruppen death squads, was appreciated, it was the Babi Yar operation in Ukraine, where masses of “undesirables” were lined up beside trenches and shot to fell in and be buried in a process called sardine packing. Reichskommissar Erich Koch intervened since it wasted bullets and therefore was uneconomical and another way must be found.
Enter the infamous death vans, that were actually developed by the Soviet secret police, NKVD, in 1939, and then promoted by General Nebe, the head of the Nazi Criminal Police. The main idea was to divert exhaust fumes to a valve beneath an air-tight chamber, that held approximately 70 adults, and let gas save the Reich the cost of bullets. Here is a description of it’s us from one occasion in early 1942, at the Chelmno death camp in Poland:
70 Jews, between 10 and 65, were rounded up and brought to a barn, the previous night, and stripped naked in the sub-zero temperatures. Then individually they had their teeth extracted that contained gold and left to wait shivering until morning. Finally, on signal they were brought to the van. Observers noted the dried blood on their mouths from the teeth extractions.
On command from Reichskommissar Koch, the prisoners were brought running from the barn surrounded by SS soldiers who were beating them with sticks. One young Jew spit at an SS soldier who smashed the butt of his rifle into the man’s face. The others were crying and pleading, but the more they did, the more brutal were the SS. They stopped when arriving at the van so that Koch and his entourage could look at the beasts before they were crammed into the cargo bay. When the last person entered the chamber it was secured and locked and Koch ordered the engine started. Next from a trial account:
“Then they heard, faintly through the metal sides, the sounds of coughing. The coughs turned to curses, cries of panic, pleas to be let out. Next came hands, fists and feet battering the sides as the people fought to smash their way out. The sounds rose to a crescendo of human anguish and desperation, the noise like a beating, howling, cacophonous emanation from the depths of hell.
The sound ebbed away until there was only the faint impact of a human hand on metal, one last moan and then a silence fell that was worse than the ghastly clamor that had preceded, for it was the soundlessness of lives erased, breath turned to stone.”
Next came word from a sergeant for the SS troops to enjoy a cigarette and some coffee with biscuits. Then a nice spread was offered to the dignitaries, when Koch said to “Eat heartily, my friends, since our baker has a rare gift, but sadly, he is a Jew and not long for the kitchen.”
According to testimony none was eaten, other than by Koch and Jeckelin, and so were offered to the SS troops as a gesture for a job well done.
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So, what is the value of a human life today? Is it merely a relative concept? Are we disposed to relativism as a guiding principle? Or, do we look at the Christian Bible, or the Koran, offering some sanctity for existence. What about the preamble to the US Constitution as a shinning light in our search for answers that all men and woman are created equal? What about Rene Nicole Good and Alex Pretti and all those others hurt by ICE? I opt for life that is sacred and that we may not impose earthly value on our lives.
