Junkies

One thing Richard and I have in common is documentaries. We're both documentary junkies. I just brought a stack home from the library: Che Guevera (who I despise), Korean POWs, Prisoner of Paradise (about a Jewish screenwriter forced to direct a Nazi propaganda film), and The Goebbels Experiment. And Richard just bought 638 Ways to Kill Castro (don't ask, I have no idea...Operation Mongoose, maybe?) and The War on the War on Drugs.

I just watched a Joe Berlinger doc, Gray Matter, about Nazi Germany's T4 Euthanasia program in Austria. In the early '40s Dr. Heinrich Grosse, one of Austria's top forensic psychologists and a Justice Ministry consultant, killed over 700 mentally and physically disabled Austrian children and removed their brains for study. Not only did Grosse receive a medal of honor for his contributions to science, he received a government pension. And he continued his research on the brains into the 1990s without any interference, despite the outcry from his surviving victims and human-rights activists around the world. He died a free man.
Absolutely disturbing and sickening to see such a man escape justice. Fortunately, the children were given a proper memorial service and burial in 2002.

Most of the docs I watch aren't nearly so grim, but I always learn something. It's wonderful to see things from another POV for an hour or so.

Coming soon: Hand meme (tagged by Tweetey)