{"id":384,"date":"2009-09-29T11:23:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T11:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html"},"modified":"2009-09-29T11:23:21","modified_gmt":"2009-09-29T11:23:21","slug":"the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We have all heard, if we&#8217;ve paid attention, of how stories of Americans widespread torturing of Muslims have served as a big recruitment draw for groups fighting us.&nbsp; Torture is what Americans have been doing because our amoral leaders say its how best to deal with committed enemies.<\/p>\n<p>Compare that logic with this story of a Waffen SS soldierwho spent the the final year of the war as a POW in Scotland.&nbsp; When he dies he will leave hundreds of thousands, perhaps \u00a3400,000, to the village because, as he put it, &#8220;I came as a prisoner of war and I left as a friend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/this-britain\/nazi-pow-leaves-his-fortune-to-villagers-1794772.html\">The Independent<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"font-null\">Mr Steinmeyer was a member of the SS 12th Panzer<br \/>\nDivision [Hitler Youth] when he was captured of August 1944 near Caen<br \/>\nin Normandy during the Allied invasion . He wants the money to be<br \/>\nadministered through a trust fund for elderly residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">Speaking from his home near the northern German port of <a id=\"KonaLink1\" target=\"undefined\" class=\"kLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/this-britain\/nazi-pow-leaves-his-fortune-to-villagers-1794772.html#\"><font color=\"blue\"><span class=\"kLink\" style=\"border-bottom: 1px solid blue;color: blue ! important;font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight: 400;font-size: 10.5667px;background-color: transparent\">Bremen<\/span><\/font><\/a>,<br \/>\nhe said: &#8220;I always wanted to pay something back. The people were very<br \/>\nkind to us German PoWs. They did not treat us as the enemy. I had so<br \/>\nmany happy experiences in Scotland.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">Speaking<br \/>\nabout his planned donation, he said: &#8220;I&#8217;ve always had it in my mind. I<br \/>\nhave no children and I live on my own. I came as a prisoner of war and<br \/>\nI left as a friend.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">Mr Steinmeyer said his<br \/>\nhouse was worth about \u00a3110,000 and he had saved &#8220;some money&#8221;. He was<br \/>\nsent to the camp in Perthshire because he was a member of the feared<br \/>\nWaffen SS. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"font-null\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">But then, the Brits weren&#8217;t blessed with Dick Cheney and other criminals as their leaders.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\">Many thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americablog.com\/\">America Blog<\/a> for turning me on to this story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-null\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have all heard, if we&#8217;ve paid attention, of how stories of Americans widespread torturing of Muslims have served as a big recruitment draw for groups fighting us.&nbsp; Torture is what Americans have been doing because our amoral leaders say its how best to deal with committed enemies. Compare that logic with this story of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We have all heard, if we&#8217;ve paid attention, of how stories of Americans widespread torturing of Muslims have served as a big recruitment draw for groups fighting us.&nbsp; Torture is what Americans have been doing because our amoral leaders say its how best to deal with committed enemies. Compare that logic with this story of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-29T11:23:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"We have all heard, if we&#8217;ve paid attention, of how stories of Americans widespread torturing of Muslims have served as a big recruitment draw for groups fighting us.&nbsp; Torture is what Americans have been doing because our amoral leaders say its how best to deal with committed enemies. Compare that logic with this story of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2009-09-29T11:23:21+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html","name":"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-29T11:23:21+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-29T11:23:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/the-difference-between-civilization-and-barbarism-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Difference Between Civilization and Barbarism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}