Allied War Crimes in General

Contributions on war crimes committed by the enemies of the Axis powers (“The Allies”). Since there is abundant documentation on war crimes committed by the vanquished, yet the crimes of the victors have been largely swept under the carpet – the victors having written the canonical history of that war, as is usual – we focus here on this oft-ignored aspect of the conflict.

We present this page not as a condemnation of any of the allied countries, nor of those young men that we call on from time to time to go forth on our behalf in order to kill and be killed by young men from other countries for our supposed benefit. We offer it in the spirit expressed by Donne, that the deaths of all humans are equally important to all others. So, by extension, are the wrongs which lead to them. No people who embrace War escape the carrion taint of savagery it confers on all, without respect for their intentions or the niceties of their lives prior.

—David Thomas, June 1, 1998

For Whom the Bell Tolls

(from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions)

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

JOHN DONNE