A Model Psychosis
Track 5. Dachau
Early '40s, just over the border in Nazi Germany.
You know that scene in Apocalypse Now where Dennis Hopper's character says of Kurtz, "The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad"? That's the voice of this piece. The character speaking could be Sigmund Rascher, who was eventually imprisoned with his wife (for illegally adopting a child) in the very camp where he performed his experiments. Himmler had them both executed three days before the camp was liberated. The character could be Kurt Ploettner, who succeeded Rascher. Or it could be Hubertus Strughold, their direct superior, who is considered the father of space medicine today and had the research library at Randolph Air Force Base named after him. He lived to be 89 years old, but died before his name was removed from the library in 1995 after pressure from the Anti-Defamation League.
I left the man's identity open because, you know what? Germany has to live with his legacy. You'll hear plenty more about our own government borrowing his methods in track 8. I guess my point is this: You won't find the name of any of the aforementioned men among those executed at Nuremberg.
It's chilling, to imagine being a prisoner at Dachau. Now imagine being dosed with mescaline.
lyric
take a break from shoveling ashes come inside, have a drink we won't mention and you won't care the cup is half full of a voice for your tortured soul you say you resent us? what could be a better set and setting? can you taste the memory of your sister's final screams? your life will be yet another credit to save me from the noose when the heroes find a colder war more desperate for mind control I'm just a doctor I'm saving lives
links
- Brooks Air Force Base - Listen to Colonel George Mohr discuss "Strugi's" legacy.
- Anti-Defamation League - LIBRARY WON'T BE NAMED FOR NAZI SCIENTIST, AIR FORCE ASSURES ADL
- The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, by John Marks
- Execution of Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg Trials
- Execution of Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg Trials (more)
- Records of US Naval Technical Mission in Europe, 1944-1947 - They leave out Technical Report no. 331-45, "German Aviation Research at the Dachau Concentration Camp", I guess because it's irrelevant to oil.
