Mihail Pojarsky/Conrad Morgen

There was one interesting SS officer in the Third Reich - his name was Konrad Morgen. He is interesting for his specific field of activity: he was a judge and fought against crimes within the SS. And he did it diligently. At the beginning of the war, he clung to Hermann Fegelein, the commander of the SS cavalry brigade - in Poland, he redistributed the confiscated Jewish property not in favor of the Reich (as it was supposed to), but in his own pocket. But the top leadership of the SS (including Himmler) turned out to be involved in corruption, as a result, Morgen himself received a slap in the face - he went as a private to the Eastern Front, Stalingrad was just there. But the scale of theft among the true Aryans was such that already in the 43rd, the same Himmler returned Morgen back, handed him authority and sent him to investigate. The new investigation began with the discovery of a package of dental gold bars, which were obtained from the crowns of thousands of people. The trail of this gold led Morgen to Auschwitz. As you might have guessed, the gold of the dead was supposed to be sent to the Reichsbank, and the camp authorities appropriated them. But besides this, Morgen saw another secret there - this whole industry of death with gas chambers (I remind you that all this was hidden to the last).

Impressed (and not in a good way), Morgen went to report to the authorities (Müller), but the authorities replied that everything was in order and they were aware. Realizing that he was powerless here, Morgen devoted his future activities to persecuting the camp commanders with the charges that he could bring against them. He opened a case against the chief of Buchenwald, Karl Otto Koch (corruption and murder). And on the head of the camp "Gestapo" Grabner - on charges of killing prisoners (he, in addition to "legal" murders, also committed "illegal"). Koch was shot, the trial of Grabner was postponed - as a result, he was already tried for war crimes after the war. There were also others. Morgen even requested an arrest warrant for Adolf Eichmann (the same one) for stealing some diamonds. After the war, Morgen testified in court; the Allies did not have any claims against him. In general, delightful stories - you can read.

The writer Littell in the book "The Benevolent" brought out Morgen as a passing caricature character, arguing at the SS drinking bout that, they say, the Germans should exterminate the Jews, simply methodically and "according to the law." Littell distorted everything here (as, apparently, in many other ways). In fact, Morgen (at least, as he himself later claimed) considered the Holocaust a "monstrous crime", although he was primarily worried about this not about the Jews, but about ... the Germans. They say that participation in such monstrous crimes destroys the "moral foundation of the people", and the people personally involved in them become incorrigible criminals, "absolutely corrupted." This is not the best position in terms of universal values, but it is clearly a patriotic position. I don’t know what the aged Morgen later thought about the well-known gesture of Chancellor Willy Brandt (knelt before the Jews), but it seems to me that, based on the same logic, we can say that this gesture was then more necessary for the Germans themselves than for the Jews.

Why did I remember this? Imagine, in 1944, a Nazi, an active officer of the criminal organization SS, understands that the main capital of his people is not money and not gold. The main capital of his people is moral. And today there are lovers of "political pragmatism" who do not even think about such things. But when it comes to money, they are right there. They say that the main interest of any people is not to pay money to anyone. Money money money.

Mihail Pojarsky 2023-02-25