Sunday 21 July 2013

A hare in Nuremburg


Still on the subject of Albert Pierrepoint, the British executioner, this is a photo I took of the stadium at Nuremburg, Germany, when I was working there some years ago.

John said that the little bag of tricks that Pierrepoint used, came up for sale on a T.V. auction and nobody bid on them. I can understand why not, as to show any interest at all in public might make the bidder look tasteless and morbid in the eyes of the viewers, even though they might have been even more tasteless and morbid in private.

It is - in a way - natural to gawp at fatal road-accidents that you happen to be driving past, as to glimpse the end of someone else's life seems to be a way of coming to terms with the end of your own, though I - personally - don't think it helps at all, so I just drive past with only a glance. I get quite angry with drivers who virtually come to a halt on the other side of the crash-barrier and have to be waived on by the police in case they cause another fatal accident of their own.

When I visited the Nuremburg Stadium, you had to climb through a hole in a fence, and the stadium itself was kept in a state of controlled decay, waiting for a time when it would be acceptable to restore it as part of Germany's rich, cultural heritage. The Nazi badges had been removed (by heavy calibre gun-fire) and the main flag-pole had a Stars and Stripes in place of the old swastika.

I walked up the steps to the little box reserved for Adolph Hitler to inspect the troops and athletes, wanting to take a look at the same vista that Hitler would have had himself - there is only enough room for one person in it at a time.

As I stood there, I became overcome with an intense embarrassment, as there could have been only one reason for being there, and that reason was obvious to anyone watching me. I scuttled out of the box and back down to where I took this photo.

A little later, I saw a youngish German man doing exactly the same thing as I had, and his discomfort was obvious - even from a distance of several hundred yards.

I walked around the grounds of the stadium, eventually going to the rear of it, where there was some back-entrances to changing rooms and offices.

Suddenly, in a small courtyard, I came across a very high, wooden scaffold, complete with trapdoor and lever. It had small wheels on each corner so it could be pushed around into location when needed.

I began thinking that Albert Pierrepoint must have used the very same contraption when he was sent to kill about 300 Nazis in 1945. For some reason, I did not take a photograph of it.

Just after I took the above photo, a hare sprinted up the shallow steps - a hare in the middle of Nuremburg. Who would have thought it?

17 comments:

  1. In mythology Hares are seen as shape shifters in which the spirit of a deceased person may occupy for a short while; so now you may take a guess as to whom may have been within the hare that you saw in Nuremberg ?

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    1. I've seen the websites for 'cats that look like Hitler', but hares?

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  2. If animals are capable of being 'fashionable', then Hares certainly fit the bill. Perhaps it was Barry Flanagan who started the trend. I saw one yesterday.

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    1. It was H.I. and her ex-husband who started the trend by sending Barry Flanagan (a mate) a little etching of a leaping hare, taken from an ancient wall-painting, but done by H.I.

      Next Spring, Barry started making the hares, and then - for the next 30 years - everyone started to copy them.

      I met him a couple of times, and he was a nice bloke.

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  3. If that person Pierrepoint, as you wrote in the post before, didn't feel any compassion but "only did his job", maybe he would - if he had been born in Germany in the Third Reich - be one of those who went up to the gallows in England (many of the Nazis were - awful and incurably - convinced that they 'had only done their job, according to their inhuman law'). I hope I made myself clear: I think those Nazis deserved their sentence of death, but that hangman seems not to be far from them, only on the other side. Of course in those times someone had to do it - but I think one should not be callously proud of the number.

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    1. The police have to think like criminals in order to understand them, and there lies the danger.

      People often accuse hunters of enjoying killing animals, but the reality is that if - for instance - you are going to go out and shoot pheasant, then you have to be good at it for the pheasant's sake.

      In the process of becoming an expert, you also have to enjoy the process and the attaining of skill, but that does not mean you have to enjoy killing things.

      I hope I've made myself clear as well.

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    2. I don't know anything about Pierrepoint or was even aware of his existence, but I agree with: "being good at it for the pheasant's sake."

      I own a book called 'Monsieur de Paris' which is the story of the executioner of Paris. Quite an interesting read. If I remember it correctly, he meets Napoleon and is asked by him what it feels like to have lead so many people to their deaths. His answer: You should know that yourself, shouldn't you?

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  4. I adored this post
    It's the tiny snippet of recognition with the young German guy that I find fascinating

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    1. It was bloody fascinating - and enlightening - for me at the time too.

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  5. The idea of hanging sounds so macabre these days doesn't it? In my parents' days it was accepted and I remember when I protested at the idea of Ruth Ellis being hanged my father was really cross and told me I didn't know what I was talking about.
    Surely that stadium would be better demolished and all memory of it wiped away - a good point for discussion I would think Tom.

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    1. Discuss away - I for one think it should be saved, but I'm not sure about that block of flats in Sheffield.

      Places like Belsen, Buchenwald, Treblinka etc. need to be saved just for the memory of those 6 million Jews - lest we forget.

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    2. Oh, and I would save Bahlsen too - just for the biscuits.

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    3. H'm yes Forgetting! is a trait owned by: The British who murdered 35,000 Women and children by starving them to death in Concentration Camps during the South African Boer War of 1899-1902.

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  6. Tom, for something completely different and if you have a spare hour in your day, watch this with HI:
    http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/program/40804
    It's worth it, trooly.

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    1. Thanks, Sarah. I have emailed it to myself so I can watch later and not lose it. Looks good.

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  7. We are all waiting too, here in Australia
    Maybe it is just me.

    Nah, no it's not.
    C'mon darling.
    Push!

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    1. Sorry, I was not particularly waiting for that one - no offence to the Windsors.

      I am going to take out a bet tomorrow for my grandchildren that the boy will also be gay. I wonder what odds I will get...

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