Monday, December 15, 2014
The Tattooed Heart!
I guess it's been a while since we delved into the horrors of wartime atrocities, and of course any tale concerning nazi concentration camps is bound to be extra horrific. But fret not, this journey down a very dark chapter of world history actually has a light at the end of it, as you will soon see. From the March 1953 issue of Beware! Terror Tales #4, art by Harry Harrison, maybe...
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ReplyDeleteI'm currently doing a course at the former Dachau concentration camp near where I teach, so this was an interesting (if ludicrous!) offering.
ReplyDeleteA heart with an arrow through it? What else did he have? Heart with a "mom" scroll? A giant, comedic anchor?
ReplyDeleteI've never been the biggest fan of horror stories that bring in the Holocaust, but they do serve a purpose, especially at the time with the cold war looming. In reality, many of those associated with these atrocities got away, in one way or another, by their own hand, or just being taken by the war. These kind of stories give people the sense that justice will prevail, when we all known that, many times, it does not.
Then again, it has the habit of minimizing the true horror.
Even more horrific -- old Ludwig looks a bit like the Skipper in page 3!
Similar to the Twilight Zone episode where the former Kommandant is tried for his crimes by ghosts of his victims...Maybe Rod Serling read horror comics?
ReplyDeleteReferring to Mestiere's comments, I guess a specifically evil and sadistic individual act (always possible) as making lamps with human skin is more "impressive" for the average comic reader in 1953 than explaining the carefully planned operation set by Heydrich and company.
ReplyDeleteHigh scale, scientifically programmed horror is dull and unimpressive, mostly a matter of planning train trips. I recall some documentaries showing small items made with human skin, or actual tattos, but who knows... Surely the story would have worked better showing the work of some "experimenter" in Mengele style (I remember a great Uncle Creepy) story based on this.
Sad to say, the majority of men like Sterne did not receive proper punishment, not to mention highly useful and celebrated guys like Von Braun who exploited slavery work of prisoners
By the way, I have a feeling this is not a concentration camp for Jews, but resembles one of the early structures for dissidents or political opponents.
@Brad S.: I don't have the TZ episode you mention, what's the season? I only remember the U-Boote episode, kinda similar.
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ReplyDelete@Mestiere: Thanks!
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