#nero decree

Operation Cinder is a stupid, short sighted, comically evil and morally indefensible endeavour.

Yes!

That’s the point!

The Galactic Empire is an organisation of EVIL!

The cruelty is the point!

19 March 1945: Hitler issues the Nero Decree.

Remember when you'd sometimes talk about WWII and someone would say, "Oh man, Hitler was so crazy," and for the most part, you're like 'yeah, Hitler really was crazy." But sometimes you stop and think, was he really crazy? Maybe he was just super evil? Like maybe he just knew that what he was doing was awful?'

Well today I'm going to tell you that yes, Hitler was fucking crazy by the end of the war. Like of the "batshit insane" level.

This was proven when, facing defeat, he issued the "Demolitions on Reich Territory Decree" AKA the Nero Decree.

So it's March of 1945. The Axis powers are failing miserably. Most places that the Nazis had invaded were either already freed or on their way to it. Most people already knew about the concentration camps and what was going on there, the Allies were making their way deeper into Germany, and in general, it was bad news for the Nazis and everything was falling apart.

Everyone was like, "Dude, Hitler, just fucking surrender man, we can't win."

And Hitler basically responded with this decree that, in short, said, "IF I CAN'T HAVE GERMANY NOBODY CAN HAVE GERMANY."

What did he mean by that? It was simple: Blow. Up. Everything.

The actual words go as such:

"The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the slightest regard to the population. I therefore order ... All military transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, as well as anything else of value within Reich territory, which could in any way be used by the enemy immediately or within the foreseeable future for the prosecution of the war, will be destroyed."

He ordered factories, train tracks, bridges, anything of value really, to be blown up; even around the fucking Eiffel Tower, because the French weren't allowed to have their landmark after he took it, damn it!

Fortunately, there was at least one sane person in his cabinet - it happened to be the person who was responsible for carrying out the order.

Next time you go to Paris, give thanks to Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, for not leaving the fucking place in ruins. He recognized that his boss was completely off his rocker and responded by not doing anything at all.

Hitler may have made the same pouty face.

The Führer, because, remember, he was fucking crazy and wasn't exactly with it all the time, didn't even realize the order had never been taken out until pretty much the end of the war when Speer told him himself that he had disregarded the order, shortly before Hitler shot himself.