renegadetribune--2020-06-12--The jewish Expulsion and Extermination of Eastern European Germans: An Overview

The Expulsion and Extermination of Eastern European Germans : An Overview The expulsion of Eastern European Germans resulted in the largest exchange of population in European history .
It ended close to 1,000 years of German presence in areas now considered to be parts of Poland , the Czech Republic , Russia and other Eastern European states , forever changing the ethnic face of Europe .
Alone , the expulsion of millions of Prussian Germans from their native land between 1944 and 1947 was accomplished in an immensely sinister manner , yet it is an event that has been ignored @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media .
Senator Homer Capehart ’ s remarks to the US Senate on February 5 , 1946 : “ Since the end of the war about 3,000,000 people , mostly women and children and over-aged men , have been killed in Eastern Germany and south-eastern Europe ; about 15,000,000 people have been deported or had to flee their homesteads and are on the road .
About 25 % of these people , over 3,000,000 have perished .
About 4,000,000 men and women have been deported to Eastern Europe as slaves .
It seems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Eastern Europe – at least 15,000,000 people – was planned in accordance with decisions made at Yalta .
Churchill had said to Mikolakczyk when the latter protested during the negotiations to Moscow against forcing Poland to incorporate eastern Germany ; ‘ Don ’ t mind the five or more million Germans .
Stalin will see to them .
You will have no trouble with them ; they will cease to exist.
’ ” “ The fact can no longer be suppressed , namely , the fact that it has been and continues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a confidential and conspiratorial clique within the policy-making circles of this government to draw and quarter a nation now reduced to abject misery… ” “ In this process this clique , like a pack of hyenas struggling over the bloody entrails of a corpse , and inspired by a sadistic and fanatic hatred , are determined to destroy the German nation and the German people , no matter what the consequences… ” “ At Potsdam the representatives of the United States , the United Kingdom , and the Soviet Socialist Republics solemnly signed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : ‘ It is not the intention of the Allies to destroy or enslave the German people.
’ Mr. President , the cynical and savage repudiation of these solemn declarations which has resulted in a major catastrophe , can not be explained in terms of ignorance or incompetence .
This repudiation , not only of the Potsdam Declaration , but also of every law of God and men , has been deliberately engineered with such a malevolent cunning , and with such diabolic skill , that the American people themselves have been caught @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For nine months now this administration has been carrying on a deliberate policy of mass starvation without any distinction between the innocent and the helpless and the guilty alike… ” “ The first issue has been and continues to be merely humanitarian .
This vicious clique within this administration that has been responsible for the policies and practices which have made a madhouse of central Europe has not only betrayed our American principles , but they have betrayed the GI ’ s who have suffered and died , and they continue to betray @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their dirty work for them… ” “ The second issue that is involved is the effect this tragedy in Germany has already had on the other European countries .
Those who have been responsible for this deliberate destruction of the German state and this criminal mass starvation of the German people have been so zealous in their hatred that all other interests and concerns have been subordinated to this one obsession of revenge .
In order to accomplish this it mattered not if the liberated countries in Europe suffered and starved .
To @ @ @ @ @ @ @ addressed themselves : ‘ Germany is to be destroyed .
What happens to other countries of Europe in the process is of secondary importance.
’ ” At the peak of the expulsions in July of 1946 , 14,400 people a day were still being dumped over the devastated and famished frontier into an equally devastated and famished Germany which had been reduced to a smaller size than it was in the 11th century .
Most countries which once had a substantial ethnic German presence no longer do .
Entire ethnic German cities and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war .
When Stalin promised a “ modest reduction in the German population ” to Churchill and Roosevelt , his homicidal plans were greeted with a wink and a nod , and that goal was accomplished with lethal zeal .
Agreeing to Stalin ’ s murderous plans to uproot both Poles and Germans , Churchill said in the House of Commons in 1944 : “ Expulsion is the method which , in so far as we have been able to see , will be the most satisfactory and lasting .
There will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trouble .
A clean sweep will be made .
I am not alarmed by these transferences.
” In November 1944 , Roosevelt agreed , and chief advisors to both Roosevelt and Churchill argued for a solution to the “ German problem ” as calculated and as chilling as Stalin ’ s .
In December , 1945 , The New York Times noted that the number of people the Allies proposed to transfer in just a few months equalled the total of all the immigrants admitted to the USA since the beginning of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civilians who fled in advance of the Red Army and were bombed , drowned or shot at , since the British and Americans agreed at Yalta to redraw historic German borders , they abetted , authorized and encouraged the deportation of millions of ethnic German civilians and gave to vengeance-fueled communist governments the power for who , where and how these citizens would be deported , a power which would inevitably be greatly abused .
Among the Allies , who insisted that they nobly fought the war to uphold the dignity and value @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials , servicemen and politicians who took active roles in carrying out a program that was contrary to all principles of humanity , a program which , had it been perpetrated by their wartime enemies , would have been considered a criminal violation of human rights .
Chaos , kidnapping , rape , thievery and mass murder were the order of the day in the regions where Germans were expelled .
Poles , Czechs and others , with the assistance of the Red Army , sometimes gave the populations of whole German villages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Germans were either collected by force or ordered to gather at a central location where selected individuals were ripped from the group and beaten , executed , or dragged off for slave labor in a ruthless process which even tore children from their mothers ’ arms .
The evicted Germans were methodically stripped of their most personal and dearest possessions before being taken to train stations where they were indecently prodded for hidden valuables , shoved aboard cars without adequate food , water or sanitation facilities , and speedily shipped to occupation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dumped .
Others were forced to walk hundreds of miles to destinations which were often in rubble , and few of them reached these destinations with even a handbag left in their possession .
Many died on the roadside from disease , exposure or starvation .
Forbidden to ever return home , all of their worldly goods were confiscated .
Many taken for slave labor were deported to the USSR after Secret Order 7161 of 1944 issued by USSR State Defense Committee made possible the internment of all adult Germans from Romania , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
About ten per cent of the victims died just in the course of transportation to Russia as a result of hunger , murder and cold .
Half of the remaining ‘ repatriated displaced persons ’ died in camps , one of the worst being the Kolyma Camp .
The numbers of deaths and expulsions sky-rocketed at war ’ s end .
In the USSR , over 75 % of German civilian slaves worked the mines in Ukraine and 11 % worked in the Urals .
By 1946 , out of the German @ @ @ @ @ @ @ died , and of 875,000 other German civilians who were abducted and transported to the camps , over 50 % perished .
Labor camps for Germans existed not only in the Soviet Union , but in almost all the regions from which Germans were displaced , the last ones not being closed until 1950 .
In Poland and areas under Polish administration , there were 1,255 camps : 6,048 out of about 8,000 people died in Lamsdorf camp alone .
In Czechoslovakia , 2,061 camps existed : in the Mährisch-Ostrau camp around 350 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ July 1945 .
In Yugoslavia , the Red Cross found 1,562 gruesome camps and prisons .
By May of 1945 , practically all of the Yugoslav Germans who did not flee in time were living and dying in camps .
The standard estimates which stood unrevised for sixty years stated that between 1945 and 1950 , from 11,730,000 to 15,000,000 German civilians fled and/or were expelled from the eastern territories of Germany proper and from the Eastern European countries and other estimates were much higher .
Although , as in the case with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of victims is relentlessly downsized , that these violent expulsions displaced and murdered millions of innocents is undeniable .
“ Population transfers , ” from highest to lowest , were from former eastern Germany , then Czechoslovakia next , then Poland , Danzig , Yugoslavia , Romania , Hungary , the Baltic states and , lastly , the USSR .
And besides the forced expulsion and murder of millions of these people , at least another 3.1 million simply “ disappeared ” during the expulsion/liquidation process .
Even after a murderous bombing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ population , five times as many Germans , both civilians and soldiers , perished in the first year after World War Two than died during the course of the entire war , and they died at the hands of others directly as a result of revenge policies inflicted upon a thoroughly dehumanized enemy .
15 to 20 million homeless people , many half insane from shock and grief , wandered amid rotting human bodies dotting the bleak roadsides and paper thin orphans aimlessly navigating through the charred and broken remnants of mercilessly bombed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worked out procedures in advance for taking into the occupied territory 6,650,000 “ racial Germans ” who were among those they expected to be expelled from Poland , Hungary , Austria and Czechoslovakia under their plans .
The US zone ’ s share was to be 1,750,000 from the Sudetenland and 500,000 from Hungary .
They were scheduled to come at a rate of a quarter million a month in December , January , and February of 1945 and even larger numbers in the spring .
But they came at greater rates , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prepared or eager to deal with the situation humanely .
In a British camp at Kleve , for instance , thousands of civilians died from hunger , disease and starvation .
25 percent of former German farmland had been given to Poland making food scarce in Germany after the war and there was already a disastrous famine in the many urban areas where refugees were dumped since the Allies were not yet letting food through .
Health and medical services could not possibly handle the additional millions of starving , homeless and ill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under a year old died during the first months in cities like Berlin .
By the summer of 1945 , 20,000 weak , starving , homeless people were dying every day , their bodies piling up on roadsides , by train tracks and in empty fields .
When winter arrived , the Allies relented and finally allowed some private international relief agencies to provide food and clothing , but it was far too late for many .
In communist-occupied Koburg , 3/4 of the people were dead by starvation by the spring of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of diseases such as Diphtheria which ran rampant .
The greatest deaths were reported in the Neumark area in Eastern Brandenburg .
Out of a 644,834 pre-war population , by 1945 there were 257,000 dead .
Out of sheer desperation , people all over Germany shot , hanged , drowned and poisoned themselves and sometimes their entire families .
Within the Eastern German regions which were hacked up and turned over to communist rule , “ liberation ” led to enslavement for decades .
Subjected to brutal policies calculated to break their will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were murdered , oppressed or tortured .
“ Crimes ” such as singing an old regional folk song could be punishable by prison , and the brutality used to obliterate German “ nationalism ” extended to executions , prison or life in the far away gulag .
Many people simply disappeared .
Those who didn ’ t comply with the degrading re-education process inflicted by their new communist masters were enemies of the state .
Refugees in the Eastern Cities after the War : One City ’ s Story The refugee problem was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place in Leipzig is typical of many eastern cities .
Families having lost their homes and farms were split up and scattered into unfamiliar areas , children torn from their mother ’ s arms and fathers and sons missing or dead .
Refugees with friends or relatives to rely upon were lucky if they had the capacity to make the journey and if their contacts were still alive and in surviving houses themselves .
Others faced long stays in crowded , harsh refugee camps .
The plight of the desperate refugees began first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ From 1943 , thousands of Leipzig houses had been destroyed by bombing .
Of 221,178 dwellings , 28,178 were completely destroyed and 93,000 were damaged , thus 20 percent of the native Leipzig inhabitants had become homeless themselves and had to be accommodated in the dwellings of others or in emergency shelters and camps .
Sizable buildings still standing , such as the university , were seized , and the evacuation of a large number of dwellings was demanded , but it was not enough .
The old Leipzig mansions were also seized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There was not only a housing crisis , but an absence of urgently needed clothing , food , furnishings as well as a lack of furnaces , fuel and cooking stoves .
The first refugee camps in Leipzig developed in January , 1945 when Central Germany was affected for the first time by the escape waves of people fleeing East Prussia .
Later , exiled Silesian and Sudeten Germans flocked to cities for help .
They were put up in private homes , zoos , high schools , auditoriums and restaurants .
Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1945 with white flags .
Nobody realized at the time that they had been “ sold out ” to the Red Army .
The Allies immediately issued regulations that , among other things , imposed curfews and closing hours and forbade the publication of newspapers and the use of cameras , which were confiscated .
Under the Americans , bread rations for the population was only 200 grams for young people , 170 grams for adults and 100 grams for children .
As the Americans prepared to end their occupation and leave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refugees , created by Allied bombing and Allied policies set at Yalta , were stunned to hear that Russian troops were about to arrive in the city the next day .
Because of the two zones of occupation , traditional supply lines to Leipzig had been cut off and the infrastructure was destroyed per day .
There was no escape from a future of brutal communism .
Conditions worsened in the entire Soviet zone of occupation until a uniform food map system was inserted much later , which consisted of categories .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mainly by work status , so non-laboring housewives and pensioners had a diet containing neither fat nor meat .
Among the refugees , there were many old people and women who , because they had to supply small children , were exempted from the forced work details and therefore had very little to eat .
A “ dwelling law ” put forth by the temporary Allied occupation forces had decreed that “ victims of fascism ” and immigrant workers were to be given first preference to housing and the needy second preference , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the groups privileged by the law !
Average floor space was calculated for eight square meters per person , with children under fourteen years old ranked as “ half a human ” by the Americans , who were given strict orders to destroy or otherwise render inedible their own leftover surplus so as to ensure it could not be eaten by German civilians , a policy in US zones throughout all of Germany .
Within the Soviet zone of occupation , some refugees were sent over the borders , resulting in strong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own refugee crisis .
Usually the neighboring authorities sent the refugees back to Saxony , some numerous times , ostensibly to prevent the spread of epidemic disease .
This resulted in even more trauma for the exhausted refugees .
When the surrounding frontier was closed , certain cities such as Leipzig were subjected to the in-pouring of thousands of frightened and weary human beings who had accumulated in the area .
Where they would live and how they would eat was a horrible problem .
A decree was issued on August 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refugees , and on August 7th , the Leipzig welfare office suggested that any future refugees should receive accommodation of only one night in the Leipzig transit camp .
The Red Cross tried to supply these people with at least one warm meal and bread and jam for their forthcoming travels .
Some refugees walked aimlessly for months in hunger , pain and confusion .
Typhus broke out and there was a malaria epidemic in the damp Leipzig camps from 1945-49 where some refugees languished in old , swampy prison camps .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as lice , ringworm , bedbugs and transmittable diseases , while the formerly rich and the once poor struggled together for survival .
The whole social order had broken down with nothing of substance to replace it and lift the sagging spirits and weary bodies .
Stress , grief , illness and pain took a devastating toll , especially in the very young and aged .
One of the linguistic rulings of the Communist regime turned the refugees into “ re-settlers , ” and after the establishment of a central administration for “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1945 , efforts were undertaken to end the chaotic situation in Saxony and to settle thousands of refugees in a more orderly manner .
To enforce this , a halt was called to refugee movements from October 1 , 1945 .
At the same time , the naturalization of all refugees in Saxony was arranged .
For the city of Leipzig this meant naturalization of almost 28,000 additional people during a time of incredible hardship for everyone .
Worse was to come .
The “ arranged evacuation ” of the remaining Germans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Poland and Czechoslovakia began in summer , 1946 , and turned a crisis into a calamity .
Saxony alone was assigned 400,000 more refugees .
Since most refugees came in the last months of the year , winter was already upon them and many wanted to remain in the camps where , despite disadvantages , at least there was heat and meagre food .
Churchill ’ s final solution to the German problem was proving deadly .
After 1947 , another 25,000 people gained admission to Leipzig , and then another 38,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ square meters of floor space had to be lowered .
The catastrophic housing conditions caused already traumatized people to become more ill .
Strangers shared housing , and often five or more persons had to live in one or two rooms without a kitchen and with a continuing shortage of food , heat , sanitation and private sleeping places .
Most refugees had no money .
Despite the emergency housing dilemma , in July , 1947 the Soviet military administration demanded the evacuation of approximately one thousand dwellings north of the city to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enterprises .
Only in 1948 was a slow improvement in the living conditions of the refugees finally discerned .
Until the stop of all refugee movements in Leipzig , 71,324 “ re-settlers ” had gone through the Leipzig camp .
In 1950 , more than half of the Leipzigers were still not in their own home , but in officially assigned dwellings , and 78,000 out of 93,707 refugees still lived in the city .
The situation did not begin to remedy itself until the early 1960s .
Information from the State Ministry @ @ @

The Expulsion and Extermination of Eastern European Germans: An Overview
The expulsion of Eastern European Germans resulted in the largest exchange of population in European history. It ended close to 1,000 years of German presence in areas now considered to be parts of Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and other Eastern European states, forever changing the ethnic face of Europe. Alone, the expulsion of millions of Prussian Germans from their native land between 1944 and 1947 was accomplished in an immensely sinister jewish manner, yet it is an event that has been ignored, minimized or rationalized by the jewish mainstream media.
Senator Homer Capehart’s remarks to the US Senate on February 5, 1946:
“Since the end of the war about 3,000,000 people, mostly women and children and over-aged men, have been killed in Eastern Germany and south-eastern Europe; about 15,000,000 people have been deported or had to flee their homesteads and are on the road. About 25% of these people, over 3,000,000 have perished. About 4,000,000 men and women have been deported to Eastern Europe as slaves. It seems that the elimination of the German population of Eastern Europe – at least 15,000,000 people – was planned in accordance with decisions made at Yalta. Churchill had said to Mikolakczyk when the latter protested during the negotiations to Moscow against forcing Poland to incorporate eastern Germany; ‘Don’t mind the five or more million Germans. Stalin will see to them. You will have no trouble with them; they will cease to exist.’”
“The fact can no longer be suppressed, namely, the fact that it has been and continues to be, the deliberate policy of a confidential and conspiratorial clique within the policy-making circles of this government to draw and quarter a nation now reduced to abject misery…”
“In this process this clique, like a pack of hyenas struggling over the bloody entrails of a corpse, and inspired by a sadistic and fanatic hatred, are determined to destroy the German nation and the German people, no matter what the consequences…”
“At Potsdam the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Socialist Republics solemnly signed the following declaration of principles and purposes: ‘It is not the intention of the Allies to destroy or enslave the German people.’ Mr. President, the cynical and savage repudiation of these solemn declarations which has resulted in a major catastrophe, cannot be explained in terms of ignorance or incompetence. This repudiation, not only of the Potsdam Declaration, but also of every law of God and men, has been deliberately engineered with such a malevolent cunning, and with such diabolic skill, that the American people themselves have been caught in an international death trap…”
“For nine months now this administration has been carrying on a deliberate policy of mass starvation without any distinction between the innocent and the helpless and the guilty alike…”
“The first issue has been and continues to be merely humanitarian. This vicious clique within this administration that has been responsible for the policies and practices which have made a madhouse of central Europe has not only betrayed our American principles, but they have betrayed the GI’s who have suffered and died, and they continue to betray the American GIs who have to continue their dirty work for them…”
“The second issue that is involved is the effect this tragedy in Germany has already had on the other European countries. Those who have been responsible for this deliberate destruction of the German state and this criminal mass starvation of the German people have been so zealous in their hatred that all other interests and concerns have been subordinated to this one obsession of revenge. In order to accomplish this it mattered not if the liberated countries in Europe suffered and starved. To this point this clique of conspirators have addressed themselves: ‘Germany is to be destroyed. What happens to other countries of Europe in the process is of secondary importance.’”
At the peak of the expulsions in July of 1946, 14,400 people a day were still being dumped over the devastated and famished frontier into an equally devastated and famished Germany which had been reduced to a smaller size than it was in the 11th century.
Most countries which once had a substantial ethnic German presence no longer do. Entire ethnic German cities and regions vanished in the aftermath of the war. When Stalin promised a “modest reduction in the German population” to Churchill and Roosevelt, his homicidal plans were greeted with a wink and a nod, and that goal was accomplished with lethal zeal.
Agreeing to Stalin’s murderous plans to uproot both Poles and Germans, Churchill said in the House of Commons in 1944: “Expulsion is the method which, in so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences.” In November 1944, Roosevelt agreed, and chief advisors to both Roosevelt and Churchill argued for a solution to the “German problem” as calculated and as chilling as Stalin’s. In December, 1945,
The Jew York Times noted that the number of people the jewish led Allies proposed to transfer in just a few months equalled the total of all the immigrants admitted to the USA since the beginning of the 20th century!
Aside from countless German civilians who fled in advance of the jewish Red Army and were bombed, drowned or shot at, since the British and Americans agreed at Yalta to redraw historic German borders, they abetted, authorized and encouraged the deportation of millions of ethnic German civilians and gave to vengeance-fueled judeo communist governments the power for who, where and how these citizens would be deported, a power which would inevitably be greatly abused. Among the jewish led Allies, who insisted that they nobly fought the war to uphold the dignity and value of all humanity, were thousands of officials, servicemen and politicians who took active roles in carrying out a program that was contrary to all principles of humanity, a program which, had it been perpetrated by their wartime enemies, would have been considered a criminal violation of human rights.
Chaos, kidnapping, rape, thievery and mass murder were the order of the day in the regions where Germans were expelled. Poles, Czechs and others, with the assistance of the jewish Red Army, sometimes gave the populations of whole German villages only minutes to vacate their homes. The Germans were either collected by force or ordered to gather at a central location where selected individuals were ripped from the group and beaten, executed, or dragged off for slave labor in a ruthless process which even tore children from their mothers’ arms.
The evicted Germans were methodically stripped of their most personal and dearest possessions before being taken to train stations where they were indecently prodded for hidden valuables, shoved aboard cars without adequate food, water or sanitation facilities, and speedily shipped to occupation zones in Germany where they were simply dumped. Others were forced to walk hundreds of miles to destinations which were often in rubble, and few of them reached these destinations with even a handbag left in their possession. Many died on the roadside from disease, exposure or starvation. Forbidden to ever return home, all of their worldly goods were confiscated.
Many taken for slave labor were deported to the USSR after Secret Order 7161 of 1944 issued by USSR State Defense Committee made possible the internment of all adult Germans from Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. About ten per cent of the victims died just in the course of transportation to Russia as a result of hunger, murder and cold. Half of the remaining ‘repatriated displaced persons’ died in camps, one of the worst being the Kolyma Camp. The numbers of deaths and expulsions sky-rocketed at war’s end. In the USSR, over 75% of German civilian slaves worked the mines in Ukraine and 11% worked in the Urals. By 1946, out of the German “arrested internees,” 39% died, and of 875,000 other German civilians who were abducted and transported to the camps, over 50% perished.
Labor camps for Germans existed not only in the Soviet Union, but in almost all the regions from which Germans were displaced, the last ones not being closed until 1950. In Poland and areas under Polish administration, there were 1,255 camps: 6,048 out of about 8,000 people died in Lamsdorf camp alone. In Czechoslovakia, 2,061 camps existed: in the Mährisch-Ostrau camp around 350 people were tortured to death by early July 1945. In Yugoslavia, the Red Cross found 1,562 gruesome camps and prisons. By May of 1945, practically all of the Yugoslav Germans who did not flee in time were living and dying in camps.
The standard estimates which stood unrevised for sixty years stated that between 1945 and 1950, from 11,730,000 to 15,000,000 German civilians fled and/or were expelled from the eastern territories of Germany proper and from the Eastern European countries and other estimates were much higher. Although, as in the case with mortality figures from Allied bombing, the number of victims is relentlessly downsized, that these violent expulsions displaced and murdered millions of innocents is undeniable. “Population transfers,” from highest to lowest, were from former eastern Germany, then Czechoslovakia next, then Poland, Danzig, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, the Baltic states and, lastly, the USSR. And besides the forced expulsion and murder of millions of these people, at least another 3.1 million simply “disappeared” during the expulsion/liquidation process.
Even after a murderous bombing campaign eliminated a large part of their population, five times as many Germans, both civilians and soldiers, perished in the first year after World War Two than died during the course of the entire war, and they died at the hands of others directly as a result of revenge policies inflicted upon a thoroughly dehumanized enemy. 15 to 20 million homeless people, many half insane from shock and grief, wandered amid rotting human bodies dotting the bleak roadsides and paper thin orphans aimlessly navigating through the charred and broken remnants of mercilessly bombed cities.
The Allied Control Council had worked out procedures in advance for taking into the occupied territory 6,650,000 “racial Germans” who were among those they expected to be expelled from Poland, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia under their plans. The US zone’s share was to be 1,750,000 from the Sudetenland and 500,000 from Hungary. They were scheduled to come at a rate of a quarter million a month in December, January, and February of 1945 and even larger numbers in the spring. But they came at greater rates, and the Allies were in no way prepared or eager to deal with the situation humanely. In a British camp at Kleve, for instance, thousands of civilians died from hunger, disease and starvation.
25 percent of former German farmland had been given to Poland making food scarce in Germany after the war and there was already a disastrous famine in the many urban areas where refugees were dumped since the Allies were not yet letting food through. Health and medical services could not possibly handle the additional millions of starving, homeless and ill German refugees. Half of the children under a year old died during the first months in cities like Berlin. By the summer of 1945, 20,000 weak, starving, homeless people were dying every day, their bodies piling up on roadsides, by train tracks and in empty fields. When winter arrived, the jewish led Allies relented and finally allowed some private international relief agencies to provide food and clothing, but it was far too late for many.
In judeo communist-occupied Koburg, 3/4 of the people were dead by starvation by the spring of 1947. The children died like flies of diseases such as Diphtheria which ran rampant. The greatest deaths were reported in the Neumark area in Eastern Brandenburg. Out of a 644,834 pre-war population, by 1945 there were 257,000 dead. Out of sheer desperation, people all over Germany shot, hanged, drowned and poisoned themselves and sometimes their entire families.
Within the Eastern German regions which were hacked up and turned over to judeo communist rule, “liberation” led to enslavement for decades. Subjected to brutal policies calculated to break their will, thousands upon thousands of innocent people were murdered, oppressed or tortured. “Crimes” such as singing an old regional folk song could be punishable by prison, and the brutality used to obliterate German “nationalism” extended to executions, prison or life in the far away gulag. Many people simply disappeared. Those who didn’t comply with the degrading re-education process inflicted by their new communist masters were enemies of the state.
Refugees in the Eastern Cities after the War: One City’s Story
The refugee problem was of a momentous proportion and what took place in Leipzig is typical of many eastern cities. Families having lost their homes and farms were split up and scattered into unfamiliar areas, children torn from their mother’s arms and fathers and sons missing or dead. Refugees with friends or relatives to rely upon were lucky if they had the capacity to make the journey and if their contacts were still alive and in surviving houses themselves. Others faced long stays in crowded, harsh refugee camps. The plight of the desperate refugees began first with a severe shortage of housing. From 1943, thousands of Leipzig houses had been destroyed by bombing.
Of 221,178 dwellings, 28,178 were completely destroyed and 93,000 were damaged, thus 20 percent of the native Leipzig inhabitants had become homeless themselves and had to be accommodated in the dwellings of others or in emergency shelters and camps. Sizable buildings still standing, such as the university, were seized, and the evacuation of a large number of dwellings was demanded, but it was not enough. The old Leipzig mansions were also seized, but proved impractical for conversion. There was not only a housing crisis, but an absence of urgently needed clothing, food, furnishings as well as a lack of furnaces, fuel and cooking stoves.
The first refugee camps in Leipzig developed in January, 1945 when Central Germany was affected for the first time by the escape waves of people fleeing East Prussia. Later, exiled Silesian and Sudeten Germans flocked to cities for help. They were put up in private homes, zoos, high schools, auditoriums and restaurants.
Americans were greeted in Leipzig on April 18, 1945 with white flags. Nobody realized at the time that they had been “sold out” to the Red Army. The Allies immediately issued regulations that, among other things, imposed curfews and closing hours and forbade the publication of newspapers and the use of cameras, which were confiscated. Under the Americans, bread rations for the population was only 200 grams for young people, 170 grams for adults and 100 grams for children.
As the Americans prepared to end their occupation and leave July 2, 1945, the corralled refugees, created by Allied bombing and Allied policies set at Yalta, were stunned to hear that Russian troops were about to arrive in the city the next day. Because of the two zones of occupation, traditional supply lines to Leipzig had been cut off and the infrastructure was destroyed per day. There was no escape from a future of brutal communism.
Conditions worsened in the entire Soviet zone of occupation until a uniform food map system was inserted much later, which consisted of categories. The assignment of the food maps was graduated mainly by work status, so non-laboring housewives and pensioners had a diet containing neither fat nor meat. Among the refugees, there were many old people and women who, because they had to supply small children, were exempted from the forced work details and therefore had very little to eat. A “dwelling law” put forth by the temporary Allied occupation forces had decreed that “victims of fascism” and immigrant workers were to be given first preference to housing and the needy second preference, while the refugees did not even rank among the groups privileged by the law! Average floor space was calculated for eight square meters per person, with children under fourteen years old ranked as “half a human” by the Americans, who were given strict orders to destroy or otherwise render inedible their own leftover surplus so as to ensure it could not be eaten by German civilians, a policy in US zones throughout all of Germany.
Within the Soviet zone of occupation, some refugees were sent over the borders, resulting in strong objection from adjacent provinces who were battling their own refugee crisis. Usually the neighboring authorities sent the refugees back to Saxony, some numerous times, ostensibly to prevent the spread of epidemic disease. This resulted in even more trauma for the exhausted refugees. When the surrounding frontier was closed, certain cities such as Leipzig were subjected to the in-pouring of thousands of frightened and weary human beings who had accumulated in the area. Where they would live and how they would eat was a horrible problem.
A decree was issued on August 2, 1945 prohibiting the further influx of refugees, and on August 7th, the Leipzig welfare office suggested that any future refugees should receive accommodation of only one night in the Leipzig transit camp. The Red Cross tried to supply these people with at least one warm meal and bread and jam for their forthcoming travels. Some refugees walked aimlessly for months in hunger, pain and confusion.
Typhus broke out and there was a malaria epidemic in the damp Leipzig camps from 1945-49 where some refugees languished in old, swampy prison camps. The forlorn refugees were afflicted with scourges such as lice, ringworm, bedbugs and transmittable diseases, while the formerly rich and the once poor struggled together for survival. The whole social order had broken down with nothing of substance to replace it and lift the sagging spirits and weary bodies. Stress, grief, illness and pain took a devastating toll, especially in the very young and aged.
One of the linguistic rulings of the Communist regime turned the refugees into “re-settlers,” and after the establishment of a central administration for “re-settlers” at the end of September, 1945, efforts were undertaken to end the chaotic situation in Saxony and to settle thousands of refugees in a more orderly manner. To enforce this, a halt was called to refugee movements from October 1, 1945.
At the same time, the naturalization of all refugees in Saxony was arranged. For the city of Leipzig this meant naturalization of almost 28,000 additional people during a time of incredible hardship for everyone. Worse was to come. The “arranged evacuation” of the remaining Germans who were forced out of their homes in Poland and Czechoslovakia began in summer, 1946, and turned a crisis into a calamity. Saxony alone was assigned 400,000 more refugees. Since most refugees came in the last months of the year, winter was already upon them and many wanted to remain in the camps where, despite disadvantages, at least there was heat and meagre food.
Churchill’s final solution to the German problem was proving deadly. After 1947, another 25,000 people gained admission to Leipzig, and then another 38,000. Leipzig’s standard of 8.8 square meters of floor space had to be lowered. The catastrophic housing conditions caused already traumatized people to become more ill. Strangers shared housing, and often five or more persons had to live in one or two rooms without a kitchen and with a continuing shortage of food, heat, sanitation and private sleeping places. Most refugees had no money. Despite the emergency housing dilemma, in July, 1947 the Soviet military administration demanded the evacuation of approximately one thousand dwellings north of the city to be handed for use by Soviet commercial enterprises.
Only in 1948 was a slow improvement in the living conditions of the refugees finally discerned. Until the stop of all refugee movements in Leipzig, 71,324 “re-settlers” had gone through the Leipzig camp. In 1950, more than half of the Leipzigers were still not in their own home, but in officially assigned dwellings, and 78,000 out of 93,707 refugees still lived in the city. The situation did not begin to remedy itself until the early 1960s. Information from the State Ministry, Saxony.
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renegadetribune--2020-06-12--Accad and the Early Semites

Accad and the Early Semites

By Paul Carus From History of the Devil [ 1900 BOUT THE YEAR 3000 B. C. , long before the Arise of the Semitic nations , among whom the Babylonians , Assyrians , Israelites , and later the Arabians , were most prominent , there lived in Mesopotamia a nation of great power and importance , which is known by the name of Accad .
And , strange to say , the Accadians were not a white , but a dark race .
They are spoken of as “ blackheads ” or “ blackfaces ” ; yet we need not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually as black as the Ethiopians , for the bilingual tablets found in the mounds of Babylonia speak also of them as Adamatu 1 or red-skins , which makes it probable that they were reddish-dark or brown .
How much the Semites owe to the Accadians , whose dominion ceased about 1500 B. C. , and whose language began to die out under the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon ( 722-705 ) , we may infer from the fact that many religious institutions , legends , and customs among the Semites were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for certain that in their mode of determining the time they already possessed the institution of a week of seven days , and that the Sabbath was their holy day of rest .
The literal meaning of the original Accadian word is explained as “ a day on which work is unlawful , ” and the Assyrian translation Sabattu signifies cc a day of rest for the heart.
” Further , the legends of creation , of the tree of life , and of the deluge , mentioned in Genesis and also in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Accadians , and from the conventional form of the tree of life , which in the most ancient pictures bears fir-cones , we may infer that the idea is an old tradition which the Accadians brought with them from their former and colder home in the fir-covered mountains of Media .
In addition we have reminiscences of Accadian traditions in many Hebrew names , which proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the long-lasting influence of the ancient civilisation of Accad .
The rivers of paradise , mentioned in Genesis , are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or Purat , is the curving water ; Tigris is Tiggur , the current ; Hid-Dekhel , “ the river with the high bank , ” is another name for the Tigris , which in inscriptions is called Idikla or Idikna ; Gihon has been identified by some Assyriologists with Arakhtu ( Araxes ) , and by Sir H. Rawlinson with Jukha ; and King Sargon calls Elam “ the country of the four rivers.
” The names of the rivers of Eden indicate that the people with whom the legend of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banks of the Euphrates and Tigris .
Under these circumstances we are surprised to find that the cultivated portion of the desert lands west of the Euphrates was called Edinna , 1 a name that sounds very much like Eden .
About the time of Alexander the Great , a Babylonian priest by the name of Berosus wrote an interesting book on the history and religion of Babylon .
It is now lost , but as various Greek authors , Alexander Polyhistor , Apollodorus , Abydenus , Damascius , 2 and Eusebius have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know quite a good deal about the information he gave to the world concerning his country .
All this was very interesting , but there was no evidence of the reliability of Berosus ’ s records .
The Babylonian legends might have been derived from the Old Testament .
However , since the successful excavations of the Assyrian stone-libraries we have the most positive evidences as to the source and the great age of these traditions .
A great part of them have come down to us from the old Accadians .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which have been received into the Old Testament , the most striking ones being the legend of the deluge , of the tower of Babel , of the destruction of corrupt cities by a rain of fire ( reminding us of Sodom and Gomorrah ) , of the babyhood adventures of King Sargon I .
( reminding us of Moses ) , and of the creation of the world .
The name of Babel , which is in Assyrian bab-ilani , or bab-ilu , i. e. the Gate of God , is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the same meaning ; literally : “ Gate + of God + the place.
” The etymology of the name Babel from balbel , “ to confound , ” which is suggested both in the Assyrian account of the story and in Genesis , is one of those popular etymologic errors which are frequently found in ancient authors .
XISUTHRUS ( THE BABYLONIAN NOAH ) IN THE ARK .
Saved through the assistance of the gods from the deluge .
[ After an ancient Babylonian cylinder .
Reproduced from Smith-Sayce .
Ch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] In the legend of the destruction of the cities there occur several names which indicate an Accadian source .
The legend of the deluge 1 agrees in all important details with the analogous story in Genesis .
It is the eleventh part of a larger epic celebrating Izdubar , 2 a sun-hero and an Assyrian Hercules , who goes through the twelve signs of the Zodiac , the eleventh being Aquarius , corresponding to the eleventh mouth of the Accadians , called “ the rainy.
” 3 Who has not yet seen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , pictures and statues of the four Evangelists adorned with the four representative beings of the animal creation ?
Matthew is accompanied by an angel or a winged man , Mark by a lion , Luke by a steer , and St. John by an eagle .
The creatures represent the cherubim of the Old Testament , who by the early Christians were conceived as the guardians and heavenly prototypes of the Gospel-writers .
But these symbols are not original with the Jews ; they are of a more venerable age than even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them on the walls of the ancient royal palaces of Nineveh , and there can be no doubt about it that the Jewish conception of the cherubim is the heirloom of a most hoary antiquity .
WALL DECORATION OF THE ROYAL PALACE AT NINEVEH IN THEIR PRESENT STATE .
( After Place , reproduced from Lenormant . )
About Sargon I. , king of Agade , who , according to a tablet of King Nabonidus , lived 3754 B. C. and built a temple to Samas , Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ p. 40 , : As to the Assyrio-Babylonian origin of these legends there can be no doubt .
The best authorities agree– The numerous illustrations that have been found or early Assyrian and Babylonian seals prove– It is probable that all the old Chaldean legends existed in several versions .
Of the creation story we possess two accounts which vary considerably ; but one of them , which is narrated on seven tablets , is of special interest to us , not only on account of its being the main source of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but also because we possess in it one of the oldest documents in which the existence of the Evil One is mentioned .
He is called in Assyrian Tiamtu , i. e. , the deep , and is represented as the serpent that beats the sea , the serpent of the night , the serpent of darkness , the wicked serpent , and the mighty and strong serpent .
The derivation of the biblical account of Creation from Assyrian sources can as little be doubted as that of other legends , not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ features , and in many unimportant ones , but also because sometimes the very words used in Genesis are the same as in the Assyrian inscriptions .
We find in both records such coincidences as the creation of woman from the rib of man and the sending out of birds from the ark to ascertain whether the waters had subsided .
First the birds returned at once , then they returned , according to the cuneiform tablet-inscriptions of the Assyrians , with their feet covered with mud ; at last they returned no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , confusion , chaos , is the Assyrian Mummu , while the Hebrew tehôm , the deep , and tohû , desolate , correspond to the Assyrian Tiamtu ( = Tiamat ) .
SACRED TREE AND SERPENT .
From an ancient Babylonian cylinder .
After Smith-Sayce ( L. c. , p .
88 . )
Our excavators have not as yet found a report of the fall of man and of the serpent that seduced Adam and Eve to taste the fruit of the tree of life .
There is , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existed , as we are in possession of pictures which represent two persons seated under a tree and a serpent near by .
The tree of life is an idea which must have been very popular among the Assyrians and Babylonians , for their artists do not tire of depicting it in every form .
It may date back to that remote period when the fruits of trees constituted an important part of the food by which human life was sustained .
1 THE TREE OF LIFE .
Decorations on the embroidery of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Layard , Monuments , 1st series , pl .
6 .
Lenormant , l. l. V. , p. 108 ) .
Tiamat is the original watery chaos from which heaven and earth were generated .
Babylonian philosophers see in it the mother of the world and the source of all things , while in mythology it appears as the representative of disorder and the mother of the monsters of the deep .
After a long struggle Tiamat was conquered , as we read in the fourth tablet of the creation-story , by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The struggle , however , is not finished , for the demon of evil is living still and Bel has to fight the seven wicked storm-demons who darken the moon .
He kills dragons and evil spirits , and the reappearance of divine intelligence in rational creatures is symbolised in the myth that Bel commanded one of the gods to cut off his , i. e. Bel ’ s head , in order to mix the blood with the earth for the procreation of animals which should be able to endure the light @ @ @ @ @ @ @ EVIL SPIRITS .
( From a Babylonian cylinder .
From Smith ’ s Chaldean Account of Genesis . )
We here reproduce a brief statement of the Babylonian story of the creation , in which Tiamat plays an important part .
Professor Sayce says ( Records of the Past , New Series , Vol .
I. , pp .
128-131 ) : “ But before the younger gods could find a suitable habitation for themselves and their creation , it was necessary to destroy ‘ the dragon ’ of chaos with all her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Babylonian sun-god Merodach , the son of Ea , An-sar promising him victory , and the other gods providing for him his arms .
The second tablet was occupied with an account of the preparations made to ensure the victory of light over darkness , and order over anarchy .
“ The heavens having been thus made , the fifth tablet tells us how they were furnished with mansions for the sun , and moon , and stars , and how the heavenly bodies were bound down by fixed laws that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the year .
The sixth tablet probably described the creation of the earth , as well as of vegetables , birds , and fish .
In the seventh tablet the creation of animals and reptiles was narrated , and doubtless also that of mankind .
“ It will be seen from this that in its main outlines the Assyrian epic of the creation bears a striking resemblance to the account of it given in the first chapter of Genesis .
In each case the history of the creation is divided into seven successive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world has been preceded by a watery chaos .
In fact the self-same word is used of this chaos in both the Biblical and Assyrian accounts–tehôm , Tiamat–the only difference being that in the Assyrian story ‘ the deep ’ has become a mythological personage , the mother of a chaotic brood .
The order of the creation , moreover , agrees in the two accounts ; first the light , then the creation of the firmament of heaven , subsequently the appointment of the celestial bodies ‘ for signs and for seasons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and next , the creation of beasts and ‘ creeping things.
’ But the two accounts also differ in some important particulars .
In the Assyrian epic the earth seems not to have been made until after the appointment of the heavenly bodies , instead of before it , as in Genesis , and the seventh day is a day of work instead of rest , while there is nothing corresponding to the statement of Genesis that ‘ the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
’ But the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the struggle between Merodach and the powers of evil , as a consequence of which light was introduced into the universe , and the firmament of the heavens was formed .
The Babylonians worshipped many deities , but their favorite god was Bel , who is frequently identified with Merodach , on account of his struggle with Tiamat .
THE CHALDEAN TRINITY BLESSING THE TREE OF LIFE .
( British Museum .
Lenormant , V. , p. 234 ) THE GODDESS ANNA .
( Bas-relief in the British Museum .
Lenormant , V. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is one of the great trinity of Anu , Ea , and Bel , which on an ancient cylinder is pictured as hovering above the tree of life before which two human forms , apparently king and queen , are seen in an attitude of adoration .
The Babylonian trinity was thought to be male and female , and it is noteworthy that the female representative of the divine father Anu , the god-mother Anna , also called Istar , was worshipped under the symbol of a dove , which in a purer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an emblem of most significant spirituality .
Bel-Merodach is the Christ of the Babylonians , for he is spoken of as the son of the god Ea , the personification of all knowledge and wisdom .
Professor Budge says : FIGHT BETWEEN BEL-MERODACH AND TIAMAT .
From an ancient Assyrian bas-relief , now in the British Museum The struggle between Bell-Merodach and Tiamat was a favorite subject with Assyrian artists .
In one of them , which is now preserved in the British Museum , the Evil One is represented as a monster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tail and wings , and covered with scales .
Concerning the Evil One and hell , as conceived by the Babylonians , Mr. Budge says , pp .
139 , 140 : “ Their Hades was not so very far different from Sheol , or the ‘ pit ’ of the Bible , nor the Devil much to be distinguished from the Satan we read of.
” “ The Babylonian conception of hell is made known to us by a tablet which relates the descent of Istar thither in search of her lovely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been stated that the same word for Hades , i. e. Sheol , as that used in the Hebrew Scriptures , has been found in Babylonian texts ; but this assertion has been made while the means for definitely proving it do not at present exist .
The lady of the Babylonian Hades was called Nin-kigal , and the place itself had a river running through it , over which spirits had to cross .
There was also ‘ a porter of the waters ’ ( which reminds us of the Charon of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven gates .
The tablet mentioned above tells us that– 1 .
To the land of no return , to the afar off , to regions of corruption , 2 .
Istar , the daughter of the Moon-god , her attention firmly 3. fixed , the daughter of the Moon-god , her attention fixed 4. the house of corruption , the dwelling of the deity Irkalla ( to go ) 5 to the house whose entrance is without exit 6. to the road whose way is without return 7. to the house whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place where much dust is their food , their meat mud , 9. where light is never seen , where they dwell in darkness 10. ghosts ( ? )
like birds whirl round and round the vaults 11. over the doors and wainscoting there is thick dust .
“ The outer gate of this ‘ land of no return ’ was strongly guarded and bolted , for the porter , having refused to grant Istar admission , the goddess says– ‘ Open thy gate and let me enter in ; If thou openest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not in , I force the gate , the bolt I shatter , I strike the threshold , and I cross the doors , I raise the dead , devourers of the living , ( for ) the dead exceed the living.
’ “ There is another name for Hades , the signs which form it meaning ‘ the house of the land of the dead.
’ A gloss gives its pronunciation as Arali .
Such , then , is the Babylonian hell .
It is difficult to say where they imagined their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been conjectured by some that they thought it to be in the west.
” EVIL DEMONS .
( From a Chaldean stele in the British Museum .
After Lenormant . )
Besides Tiamat there were in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology innumerable demons whose names are known through the inscriptions and whose portraits are preserved on statues , bas-reliefs , and cylinders .
The magic formulae which were employed to ward off their influence are always uttered seven times in the Sumero-Accadian language which was deemed more sacred on account of its age , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common people and remained in use only for liturgic purposes .
The Assyrians expected to frighten demons away by showing them their own shape and by exhorting them to destroy themselves mutually in an internecine combat .
Lenormant briefly sets forth the demonology of the Assyrians Histoire ancienne de l ’ Orient , V. , page 494 .
DEMON OF THE SOUTHWEST WIND .
( Statue in the Louvre .
After Lenormant . )
“ In the army of the Good as well as in the army of Evil , there obtains a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spirits according to their rank .
The texts mention the ekim and the telal or warrior ; the maskin or trapper ; the alal or destroyer ; the labartu , the labassu , the ahharu , kind of ghosts , phantoms , and vampires .
Frequently the mas , the lamma , and the utuq are quoted ; and a distinction is made between the good and the evil mas , the good and the evil lamma , the good and the evil utuq .
There are also the alapi or winged bulls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the innumerable kinds of heavenly archangels .
The gods Anna and Ea , called the spirit of heaven ( zi an na ) and the spirit of the earth ( zi ki a ) , as the gods of every science , are commonly invoked in incantations as alone able to protect mankind against the attacks of the evil spirits .
The monuments of Chaldea prove the existence of an extremely complex demonology the exact gradation of which is not yet sufficiently known.
” Concerning the Devil of the disease-engendering southwest wind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ p. 212 ) : NIRGALLI .
Lion-headed and eagle-claw-footed demons .
( British Museum .
After Lenormant , l. c. V. p .
204 . )
The Nirgalli are described by the same scholar as follows ( ibid .
V. , p. 215 ) : AN ANCIENT ASSYRIAN BRONZE TABLET REPRESENTING THE WORLD IN THE CLUTCHES OF AN EVIL DEMON .
Collection of M. de Clercq .
( After Lenormant ) .
There is an ancient bronze tablet which shows the picture of the world in the clutches of the Devil .
Lenormant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of hell , alludes to this remarkable piece of antiquity and describes it as follows : A bronze plate in the collection of M. De Clercq contains in a synoptic world-picture a representation of hell , and it is necessary that we here give a description of it .
One side of the bronze plate is entirely occupied by a four-footed monster , with four wings , standing on eagle ’ s claws .
Raising himself on his hind feet , be looks as though he intended to jump over the plate against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the border as over the top of a wall .
The face of the wild and roaring monster towers , on the other side of the plate , above a picture which is divided into four horizontal strips representing the heavens , the earth , and hell .
In the top strip one sees the symbolic representations of the celestial bodies .
Underneath appears a series of seven persons clad in long robes and having beads of a lion , a dog , a bear , a ram , a horse , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These are the celestial genii called ighigs .
The third strip exhibits a funeral scene , which undoubtedly happens on earth .
Two personages dressed in the skin of a fish , after the fashion of the god Anu , are standing at the head and foot of a mummy .
Further on there are two genii–one with a lion ’ s head , the other with a jackal ’ s head–who threaten one another with their daggers , and a man seems to flee from this scene of horror .
The picture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the floods of the ocean , which according to the traditional mythology of the Chaldeans reaches underneath the foundations of the earth .
An ugly monster , half bestial , half human , with eagles ’ wings and claws , and a tail terminating in a snake ’ s head , stands on the shore of the ocean , on which a boat is floating .
This is the boat of the deity Elippu , frequently mentioned in the religious texts and probably the prototype of the boat of Charon in Greek mythology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which carries upon its back a gigantic lion-headed deity , holding in her hands two serpents ; and two little lions jump to her breast to suck her milk .
In the corner there are fragments of all kinds , human limbs , vases , and the remainders of a feast .
Thus this little bronze tablet contains the picture of the world such as the imagination of the Chaldeans represented it to be : the gods and the sidereal powers , angels and demons , ighigs and anunnaks , the earth and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a direct influence upon them : the dead protected by certain demons and attacked by others according to the philosophical conception of good and evil , and the antagonism of the two principles which constitutes the basis of the Assyrio-Chaldean religion .
Anu protects the dead in the same way as does the Egyptian Osiris .
There is the subterranean river reminding one of the Styx and Acheron of the Greeks as well as of the subterranean Nile of Amenti.
” ( P .
291 . )
It goes without saying that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their value by being proved to be much older , gain air additional value ; they are now more interesting to us than ever .
Formerly the biblical account of the creation was thought to be the very beginning of the religious evolution of man , but now we know that it is merely a milestone on the road .
It is neither the beginning nor the end .
It is simply the summary of a long history of anxious inquiry and speculation , which would have remained forgotten had we not discovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aspirations that preceded the composition of the Old Testament .
But there is one thing which seems strange : the Chaldean belief in the immortality of the soul found no echo in the literature of the Jews .
Did they refuse to incorporate it into the Hebrew world-conception because they disbelieved it ; or did they merely ignore it because they were too realistic and would not allow themselves to be carried away by illusions even of the loftiest kind ?
The civilisation of Assyria and Babylon was more brilliant , more powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Israel .
Nevertheless , there is this important difference between the religious legends and speculations of these two nations , that while the Assyrian tablets are polytheistic and mythological , the Hebrew text is monotheistic .
The mythological ornaments of the original story have been chastened and simplified .
Without being blind to the poetic beauties of the original , which in its way is not less venerable than the later Hebrew version , we must say that the latter is a decided improvement .
Its greater simplicity and freedom from fantastic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grandeur which is absolutely lacking in the Assyrian myth of the creation .
While unequivocally recognising the superiority of the Hebrew account , we must , however , mention in justice to the Assyrian and Babylonian civilisation that monotheism was by no means an exclusively Jewish belief .
There were monotheistic hymns of great strength and religious beauty , both in Egypt and in Babylon , long before the existence of the people of Israel , and it is not impossible that what Sir Henry Rawlinson calls “ the monotheistic party ” of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the founders of Jewish monotheism .
It is certain that the philosophers of Egypt and Babylonia were not without influence upon the development of the Israelitic religion .
Egyptian and Babylonian monotheists apparently suffered the popular mythology as a symbolical expression of religious truth , while in later periods the religious leaders of the Jews had no patience with idolators , and , becoming intolerant of polytheism , succeeded in blotting out from their sacred literature the popular superstitions of their times ; some vestiges only were left , which are now valuable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before it was changed by the hands of later redactors .
29:1 A popular etymology connected this word Adamatu with Adamu or Admu , “ man , ” which later , as Rawlinson pointed out , reappears in the Bible as the name of the first man .
See The Chaldean Account of Genesis , by George Smith .
p. 83 .
31:1 Sir Henry Rawlinson believes that Gân Eden or the Garden of Eden is Gan-Duniyas ( also called Gan-Duni ) , meaning “ enclosure , ” which is a name of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George Smith , The Chaldean Account of Genesis , edited by Prof. A. H. 32:2 This is the commonly adopted form of the name ; although the proper transcription is Gilgamesh .
He is also called “ Gistubar.
” The literal meaning of the word is “ mass of fire.
” See Lenormant ’ s Histoire Ancienne de l ’ Orient , V. , p. 199 .
32:3 Some of the pictures of the Zodiac are strikingly like those which modern charts employ ; for instance the centaur and the scorpion , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the British Museum reproduced in Lenormant ’ s Histoire Ancienne de l ’ Orient , V. , p. 180 .
36:1 It is noteworthy that fagus , the beechtree , and φηγός , the oak , which are both etymologically identical with the English word beech and the German Buche , mean “ eating ” or “ the tree with eatable fruit.
” The word acorn , which is not derived from oak , but is connected with acre , the field , means “ harvest or fruit ” ; it has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ acorn ) , but it is the same as the German Ecker , which is the name of the beechtree fruit .

By Paul Carus
From History of the Devil [1900
BOUT THE YEAR 3000 B. C., long before the Arise of the Semitic nations, among whom the Babylonians, Assyrians, Israelites, and later the Arabians, were most prominent, there lived in Mesopotamia a nation of great power and importance, which is known by the name of Accad. And, strange to say, the Accadians were not a white, but a dark race. They are spoken of as “blackheads” or “blackfaces”; yet we need not for that reason assume that they were actually as black as the Ethiopians, for the bilingual tablets found in the mounds of Babylonia speak also of them as Adamatu 1 or red-skins, which makes it probable that they were reddish-dark or brown. How much the Semites owe to the Accadians, whose dominion ceased about 1500 B. C., and whose language began to die out under the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon (722-705), we may infer from the fact that many religious institutions, legends, and customs among the Semites were of Accadian origin.
Thus we know for certain that in their mode of determining the time they already possessed the institution of a week of seven days, and that the Sabbath was their holy day of rest. The literal meaning of the original Accadian word is explained as “a day on which work is unlawful,” and the Assyrian translation Sabattu signifies cc a day of rest for the heart.” Further, the legends of creation, of the tree of life, and of the deluge, mentioned in Genesis and also in Assyrian records, were well known to the Accadians, and from the conventional form of the tree of life, which in the most ancient pictures bears fir-cones, we may infer that the idea is an old tradition which the Accadians brought with them from their former and colder home in the fir-covered mountains of Media. In addition we have reminiscences of Accadian traditions in many Hebrew names, which proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the long-lasting influence of the ancient civilisation of Accad. The rivers of paradise, mentioned in Genesis, are Babylonian names. Thus, the Euphrates, or Purat, is the curving water; Tigris is Tiggur, the current; Hid-Dekhel, “the river with the high bank,” is another name for the Tigris, which in inscriptions is called Idikla or Idikna; Gihon has been identified by some Assyriologists with Arakhtu (Araxes), and by Sir H. Rawlinson with Jukha; and King Sargon calls Elam “the country of the four rivers.”
The names of the rivers of Eden indicate that the people with whom the legend of paradise originated must have lived on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. Under these circumstances we are surprised to find that the cultivated portion of the desert lands west of the
Euphrates was called Edinna, 1 a name that sounds very much like Eden.
About the time of Alexander the Great, a Babylonian priest by the name of Berosus wrote an interesting book on the history and religion of Babylon. It is now lost, but as various Greek authors, Alexander Polyhistor, Apollodorus, Abydenus, Damascius, 2 and Eusebius have largely quoted from his reports, we know quite a good deal about the information he gave to the world concerning his country.
All this was very interesting, but there was no evidence of the reliability of Berosus’s records. The Babylonian legends might have been derived from the Old Testament. However, since the successful excavations of the Assyrian stone-libraries we have the most positive evidences as to the source and the great age of these traditions. A great part of them have come down to us from the old Accadians.
We know that the Babylonians possessed several legends which have been received into the Old Testament, the most striking ones being the legend of the deluge, of the tower of Babel, of the destruction of corrupt cities by a rain of fire (reminding us of Sodom and Gomorrah), of the babyhood adventures of King Sargon I. (reminding us of Moses), and of the creation of the world. The name of Babel, which is in Assyrian bab-ilani, or bab-ilu, i. e. the Gate of God, is a Semitic translation of the Accadian Ka-dingirra-ki, with the same meaning; literally: “Gate + of God + the place.” The etymology of the name Babel from balbel, “to confound,” which is suggested both in the Assyrian account of the story and in Genesis, is one of those popular etymologic errors which are frequently found in ancient authors.
XISUTHRUS (THE BABYLONIAN NOAH) IN THE ARK.
Saved through the assistance of the gods from the deluge. [After an ancient Babylonian cylinder. Reproduced from Smith-Sayce. Ch. A. of G., p. 300]
In the legend of the destruction of the cities there occur several names which indicate an Accadian source. The legend of the deluge 1 agrees in all important details with the analogous story in Genesis. It is the eleventh part of a larger epic celebrating Izdubar, 2 a sun-hero and an Assyrian Hercules, who goes through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the eleventh being Aquarius, corresponding to the eleventh mouth of the Accadians, called “the rainy.” 3
Who has not yet seen, even in our most modern cathedrals, pictures and statues of the four Evangelists adorned with the four representative beings of the animal creation? Matthew is accompanied by an angel or a winged man, Mark by a lion, Luke by a steer, and St. John by an eagle. The creatures represent the cherubim of the Old Testament, who by the early Christians were conceived as the guardians and heavenly prototypes of the Gospel-writers. But these symbols are not original with the Jews; they are of a more venerable age than even the Old Testament; for we find them on the walls of the ancient royal palaces of Nineveh, and there can be no doubt about it that the Jewish conception of the cherubim is the heirloom of a most hoary antiquity.
WALL DECORATION OF THE ROYAL PALACE AT NINEVEH IN THEIR PRESENT STATE. (After Place, reproduced from Lenormant.)
About Sargon I., king of Agade, who, according to a tablet of King Nabonidus, lived 3754 B. C. and built a temple to Samas, Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge says in his Babylonian Life and History, p. 40,:
A curious legend is extant respecting this king, to the effect that he was born in a city on the banks of the Euphrates, that his mother conceived him in secret and brought him forth in a humble place that she placed him in an ark of rushes and closed it with pitch that she cast him upon the river in the water-tight ark; that the river carried him along; that he was rescued by a man called Akki, who brought him up to his own trade; and that from this position the goddess Istar made him king.”
As to the Assyrio-Babylonian origin of these legends there can be no doubt. The best authorities agree–
that Chaldea was the original home of these stories and that the Jews received them originally from the Babylonians.” (Smith Sayce, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 312.)
The numerous illustrations that have been found or early Assyrian and Babylonian seals prove–
that the legends were well known and formed part of the literature of the country before the second millennium B. C.” (Ib., p. 331.)
It is probable that all the old Chaldean legends existed in several versions. Of the creation story we possess two accounts which vary considerably; but one of them, which is narrated on seven tablets, is of special interest to us, not only on account of its being the main source of the first chapter of the Old Testament, but also because we possess in it one of the oldest documents in which the existence of the Evil One is mentioned. He is called in Assyrian Tiamtu, i. e., the deep, and is represented as the serpent that beats the sea, the serpent of the night, the serpent of darkness, the wicked serpent, and the mighty and strong serpent.
The derivation of the biblical account of Creation from Assyrian sources can as little be doubted as that of other legends, not only because of its agreement in several important features, and in many unimportant ones, but also because sometimes the very words used in Genesis are the same as in the Assyrian inscriptions. We find in both records such coincidences as the creation of woman from the rib of man and the sending out of birds from the ark to ascertain whether the waters had subsided. First the birds returned at once, then they returned, according to the cuneiform tablet-inscriptions of the Assyrians, with their feet covered with mud; at last they returned no more. Further, the Hebrew Mehûmâh, confusion, chaos, is the Assyrian Mummu, while the Hebrew tehôm, the deep, and tohû, desolate, correspond to the Assyrian Tiamtu (= Tiamat).
SACRED TREE AND SERPENT.
From an ancient Babylonian cylinder. After Smith-Sayce (L. c., p. 88.)
Our excavators have not as yet found a report of the fall of man and of the serpent that seduced Adam and Eve to taste the fruit of the tree of life. There is, however, a great probability that some similar legend existed, as we are in possession of pictures which represent two persons seated under a tree and a serpent near by.
The tree of life is an idea which must have been very popular among the Assyrians and Babylonians, for their artists do not tire of depicting it in every form. It may date back to that remote period when the fruits of trees constituted an important part of the food by which human life was sustained. 1
THE TREE OF LIFE.
Decorations on the embroidery of a royal mantle. (British Museum. Layard, Monuments, 1st series, pl. 6. Lenormant, l. l. V., p. 108).
Tiamat is the original watery chaos from which heaven and earth were generated. Babylonian philosophers see in it the mother of the world and the source of all things, while in mythology it appears as the representative of disorder and the mother of the monsters of the deep.
After a long struggle Tiamat was conquered, as we read in the fourth tablet of the creation-story, by the Sun-god, Belus or Bel-Merodach. The struggle, however, is not finished, for the demon of evil is living still and Bel has to fight the seven wicked storm-demons who darken the moon. He kills dragons and evil spirits, and the reappearance of divine intelligence in rational creatures is symbolised in the myth that Bel commanded one of the gods to cut off his, i. e. Bel’s head, in order to mix the blood with the earth for the procreation of animals which should be able to endure the light.
MERODACH DELIVERING THE MOON-GOD FROM THE EVIL SPIRITS.
(From a Babylonian cylinder. From Smith’s Chaldean Account of Genesis.)
We here reproduce a brief statement of the Babylonian story of the creation, in which Tiamat plays an important part. Professor Sayce says (Records of the Past, New Series, Vol. I., pp. 128-131):
A good deal of the poem consists of the words put into the mouth of the god Merodach, derived possibly from older lays. The first tablet or book, however, expresses the cosmological doctrines of the author’s own day. It opens before the beginning of time, the expression ‘at that time’ answering to the expression ‘in the beginning’ of Genesis. The heavens and earth had not yet been created, and since the name was supposed to be the same as the thing named, their names had not as yet been pronounced. A watery chaos alone existed, Mummu Tiamat, ‘the chaos of the deep.’ Out of the bosom of this chaos proceeded the gods as well as the created world. First came the primæval divinities, Lakhmu and Lakhamu, words of unknown meaning, and then An-sar and Ki-sar, ‘the upper’ and ‘lower firmament.’ Last of all were born the three supreme gods of the Babylonian faith, Ann the sky-god, Bel or Illil the lord of the ghost-world, and Ea the god of the river and sea.
“But before the younger gods could find a suitable habitation for themselves and their creation, it was necessary to destroy ‘the dragon’ of chaos with all her monstrous offspring. The task was undertaken by the Babylonian sun-god Merodach, the son of Ea, An-sar promising him victory, and the other gods providing for him his arms. The second tablet was occupied with an account of the preparations made to ensure the victory of light over darkness, and order over anarchy.
The third tablet described the success of the god of light over the allies of Tiamat. Light was introduced into the world, and it only remained to destroy Tiamat herself. The combat is described in the fourth tablet, which takes the form of a poem in honor of Merodach, and is probably an earlier poem incorporated into his text by the author of the epic. Tiamat was slain and her allies put in bondage, while the books of destiny which had hitherto been possessed by the older race of gods were now transferred to the younger deities of the new world. The visible heaven was formed out of the skin of Tiamat, and became the outward symbol of Ansar and the habitation of Ann, Bel, and Ea, while the chaotic waters of the dragon became the law-bound sea ruled over by Ea.
“The heavens having been thus made, the fifth tablet tells us how they were furnished with mansions for the sun, and moon, and stars, and how the heavenly bodies were bound down by fixed laws that they might regulate the calendar and determine the year. The sixth tablet probably described the creation of the earth, as well as of vegetables, birds, and fish. In the seventh tablet the creation of animals and reptiles was narrated, and doubtless also that of mankind.
“It will be seen from this that in its main outlines the Assyrian epic of the creation bears a striking resemblance to the account of it given in the first chapter of Genesis. In each case the history of the creation is divided into seven successive acts; in each case the present world has been preceded by a watery chaos. In fact the self-same word is used of this chaos in both the Biblical and Assyrian accounts–tehôm, Tiamat–the only difference being that in the Assyrian story ‘the deep’ has become a mythological personage, the mother of a chaotic brood. The order of the creation, moreover, agrees in the two accounts; first the light, then the creation of the firmament of heaven, subsequently the appointment of the celestial bodies ‘for signs and for seasons and for days and years,’ and next, the creation of beasts and ‘creeping things.’ But the two accounts also differ in some important particulars. In the Assyrian epic the earth seems not to have been made until after the appointment of the heavenly bodies, instead of before it, as in Genesis, and the seventh day is a day of work instead of rest, while there is nothing corresponding to the statement of Genesis that ‘the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.’ But the most important difference consists in the interpolation of the struggle between Merodach and the powers of evil, as a consequence of which light was introduced into the universe, and the firmament of the heavens was formed.
It has long since been noted that the conception of this struggle stands in curious parallelism to the verses of the Apocalypse ( Rev. xii, 7-9): ‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.’ We are also reminded of the words of Isaiah, xxiv. 21, 22: ‘The Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison.'”
The Babylonians worshipped many deities, but their favorite god was Bel, who is frequently identified with Merodach, on account of his struggle with Tiamat.
THE CHALDEAN TRINITY BLESSING THE TREE OF LIFE.
(British Museum. Lenormant, V., p. 234 )
THE GODDESS ANNA.
(Bas-relief in the British Museum. Lenormant, V., p. 259.)
Bel-Merodach is one of the great trinity of Anu, Ea, and Bel, which on an ancient cylinder is pictured as hovering above the tree of life before which two human forms, apparently king and queen, are seen in an attitude of adoration.
The Babylonian trinity was thought to be male and female, and it is noteworthy that the female representative of the divine father Anu, the god-mother Anna, also called Istar, was worshipped under the symbol of a dove, which in a purer and nobler form reappears in Christianity as an emblem of most significant spirituality.
Bel-Merodach is the Christ of the Babylonians, for he is spoken of as the son of the god Ea, the personification of all knowledge and wisdom. Professor Budge says:
The omnipresent and omnipotent Marduk (Merodach) was the god, who ‘went before Ea’ and was the healer and mediator for mankind. He revealed to mankind the knowledge of Ea; in all incantations he is invoked as the god ‘mighty to save’ against evil and ill.”–Babylonian Life and History, p. 127.
FIGHT BETWEEN BEL-MERODACH AND TIAMAT.
From an ancient Assyrian bas-relief, now in the British Museum
The struggle between Bell-Merodach and Tiamat was a favorite subject with Assyrian artists. In one of them, which is now preserved in the British Museum, the Evil One is represented as a monster with claws and horns, with a tail and wings, and covered with scales.
Concerning the Evil One and hell, as conceived by the Babylonians, Mr. Budge says, pp. 139, 140:
“Their Hades was not so very far different from Sheol, or the ‘pit’ of the Bible, nor the Devil much to be distinguished from the Satan we read of.”
“The Babylonian conception of hell is made known to us by a tablet which relates the descent of Istar thither in search of her lovely young husband, Tammuz. It has been stated that the same word for Hades, i. e. Sheol, as that used in the Hebrew Scriptures, has been found in Babylonian texts; but this assertion has been made while the means for definitely proving it do not at present exist. The lady of the Babylonian Hades was called Nin-kigal, and the place itself had a river running through it, over which spirits had to cross. There was also ‘a porter of the waters’ (which reminds us of the Charon of the Greeks), and it had seven gates. The tablet mentioned above tells us that–
1. To the land of no return, to the afar off, to regions of corruption,
2. Istar, the daughter of the Moon-god, her attention firmly
3. fixed, the daughter of the Moon-god, her attention fixed
4. the house of corruption, the dwelling of the deity Irkalla (to go)
5 to the house whose entrance is without exit
6. to the road whose way is without return
7. to the house whose entrance is bereft of light
8. a place where much dust is their food, their meat mud,
9. where light is never seen, where they dwell in darkness
10. ghosts (?) like birds whirl round and round the vaults
11. over the doors and wainscoting there is thick dust.
“The outer gate of this ‘land of no return’ was strongly guarded and bolted, for the porter, having refused to grant Istar admission, the goddess says–
‘Open thy gate and let me enter in;
If thou openest not the gate, and I come not in,
I force the gate, the bolt I shatter,
I strike the threshold, and I cross the doors,
I raise the dead, devourers of the living,
(for) the dead exceed the living.’
“There is another name for Hades, the signs which form it meaning ‘the house of the land of the dead.’ A gloss gives its pronunciation as Arali. Such, then, is the Babylonian hell. It is difficult to say where they imagined their Hades to be, but it has been conjectured by some that they thought it to be in the west.”
EVIL DEMONS.
(From a Chaldean stele in the British Museum. After Lenormant.)
Besides Tiamat there were in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology innumerable demons whose names are known through the inscriptions and whose portraits are preserved on statues, bas-reliefs, and cylinders. The magic formulae which were employed to ward off their influence are always uttered seven times in the Sumero-Accadian language which was deemed more sacred on account of its age, for it had become unintelligible for the common people and remained in use only for liturgic purposes. The Assyrians expected to frighten demons away by showing them their own shape and by exhorting them to destroy themselves mutually in an internecine combat.
Lenormant briefly sets forth the demonology of the Assyrians Histoire ancienne de l’Orient, V., page 494.
DEMON OF THE SOUTHWEST WIND.
(Statue in the Louvre. After Lenormant.)
“In the army of the Good as well as in the army of Evil, there obtains a hierarchical system of more or less powerful spirits according to their rank. The texts mention the ekim and the telal or warrior; the maskin or trapper; the alal or destroyer; the labartu, the labassu, the ahharu, kind of ghosts, phantoms, and vampires. Frequently the mas, the lamma, and the utuq are quoted; and a distinction is made between the good and the evil mas, the good and the evil lamma, the good and the evil utuq. There are also the alapi or winged bulls, the nirgalli or winged lions, and the innumerable kinds of heavenly archangels. The gods Anna and Ea, called the spirit of heaven (zi an na) and the spirit of the earth (zi ki a), as the gods of every science, are commonly invoked in incantations as alone able to protect mankind against the attacks of the evil spirits. The monuments of Chaldea prove the existence of an extremely complex demonology the exact gradation of which is not yet sufficiently known.”
Concerning the Devil of the disease-engendering southwest wind Lenormant says (ibid. V., p. 212):
The Louvre possesses the image of a horrible demon in upright posture, with a dog’s head, eagle’s feet, lion’s paws, and a scorpion’s tail. Half of the head shows the skull fleshless. He has four spread wings. A ring at the top of the head served to suspend the figure. On the back of the statue is the inscription in sumero-accadian, indicating that it represents the demon of the southwest wind and that it should be placed at the door or the window for the sake of warding off his injurious influence. The south-west wind in Chaldea comes from the deserts of Arabia, and its burning breath parches everything, producing the same ravages as the khamsin in Syria and the simoon in Africa.
NIRGALLI.
Lion-headed and eagle-claw-footed demons. (British Museum. After Lenormant, l. c. V. p. 204.)
The Nirgalli are described by the same scholar as follows (ibid. V., p. 215):
At Kuyunjik, in the palace of Asurbanipal, we see in several corners a series of monsters with human bodies, lions’ heads, and eagles’ feet. They appear in groups of two, combating one another with daggers and clubs. They, too, are demons and express in the language of the sculptor the formula so frequently met with in incantation: ‘The evil demons should get out, they should mutually kill one another.'”
AN ANCIENT ASSYRIAN BRONZE TABLET REPRESENTING THE WORLD IN THE CLUTCHES OF AN EVIL DEMON. Collection of M. de Clercq. (After Lenormant).
There is an ancient bronze tablet which shows the picture of the world in the clutches of the Devil. Lenormant, when speaking of the Chaldean conception of hell, alludes to this remarkable piece of antiquity and describes it as follows:
A bronze plate in the collection of M. De Clercq contains in a synoptic world-picture a representation of hell, and it is necessary that we here give a description of it. One side of the bronze plate is entirely occupied by a four-footed monster, with four wings, standing on eagle’s claws. Raising himself on his hind feet, be looks as though he intended to jump over the plate against which he leans. His head reaches over the border as over the top of a wall. The face of the wild and roaring monster towers, on the other side of the plate, above a picture which is divided into four horizontal strips representing the heavens, the earth, and hell. In the top strip one sees the symbolic representations of the celestial bodies. Underneath appears a series of seven persons clad in long robes and having beads of a lion, a dog, a bear, a ram, a horse, an eagle, and a serpent. These are the celestial genii called ighigs. The third strip exhibits a funeral scene, which undoubtedly happens on earth. Two personages dressed in the skin of a fish, after the fashion of the god Anu, are standing at the head and foot of a mummy. Further on there are two genii–one with a lion’s head, the other with a jackal’s head–who threaten one another with their daggers, and a man seems to flee from this scene of horror. The picture of the fourth strip is bathed in the floods of the ocean, which according to the traditional mythology of the Chaldeans reaches underneath the foundations of the earth. An ugly monster, half bestial, half human, with eagles’ wings and claws, and a tail terminating in a snake’s head, stands on the shore of the ocean, on which a boat is floating. This is the boat of the deity Elippu, frequently mentioned in the religious texts and probably the prototype of the boat of Charon in Greek mythology. In the boat is a horse which carries upon its back a gigantic lion-headed deity, holding in her hands two serpents; and two little lions jump to her breast to suck her milk. In the corner there are fragments of all kinds, human limbs, vases, and the remainders of a feast. Thus this little bronze tablet contains the picture of the world such as the imagination of the Chaldeans represented it to be: the gods and the sidereal powers, angels and demons, ighigs and anunnaks, the earth and men, with supernatural beings who exercise a direct influence upon them: the dead protected by certain demons and attacked by others according to the philosophical conception of good and evil, and the antagonism of the two principles which constitutes the basis of the Assyrio-Chaldean religion. Anu protects the dead in the same way as does the Egyptian Osiris. There is the subterranean river reminding one of the Styx and Acheron of the Greeks as well as of the subterranean Nile of Amenti.” (P. 291.)
It goes without saying that the old biblical legends, far from losing their value by being proved to be much older, gain air additional value; they are now more interesting to us than ever. Formerly the biblical account of the creation was thought to be the very beginning of the religious evolution of man, but now we know that it is merely a milestone on the road. It is neither the beginning nor the end. It is simply the summary of a long history of anxious inquiry and speculation, which would have remained forgotten had we not discovered the Assyrian tablets bearing witness to the aspirations that preceded the composition of the Old Testament. But there is one thing which seems strange: the Chaldean belief in the immortality of the soul found no echo in the literature of the Jews. Did they refuse to incorporate it into the Hebrew world-conception because they disbelieved it; or did they merely ignore it because they were too realistic and would not allow themselves to be carried away by illusions even of the loftiest kind?
The civilisation of Assyria and Babylon was more brilliant, more powerful, and more cosmopolitan than the civilisation of Israel. Nevertheless, there is this important difference between the religious legends and speculations of these two nations, that while the Assyrian tablets are polytheistic and mythological, the Hebrew text is monotheistic. The mythological ornaments of the original story have been chastened and simplified. Without being blind to the poetic beauties of the original, which in its way is not less venerable than the later Hebrew version, we must say that the latter is a decided improvement. Its greater simplicity and freedom from fantastic details gives it a peculiar soberness and grandeur which is absolutely lacking in the Assyrian myth of the creation.
While unequivocally recognising the superiority of the Hebrew account, we must, however, mention in justice to the Assyrian and Babylonian civilisation that monotheism was by no means an exclusively Jewish belief. There were monotheistic hymns of great strength and religious beauty, both in Egypt and in Babylon, long before the existence of the people of Israel, and it is not impossible that what Sir Henry Rawlinson calls “the monotheistic party” of Babylon or their brethren in Egypt were the founders of Jewish monotheism. It is certain that the philosophers of Egypt and Babylonia were not without influence upon the development of the Israelitic religion.
Egyptian and Babylonian monotheists apparently suffered the popular mythology as a symbolical expression of religious truth, while in later periods the religious leaders of the Jews had no patience with idolators, and, becoming intolerant of polytheism, succeeded in blotting out from their sacred literature the popular superstitions of their times; some vestiges only were left, which are now valuable hints indicating the nature of the text before it was changed by the hands of later redactors.
Footnotes
29:1 A popular etymology connected this word Adamatu with Adamu or Admu, “man,” which later, as Rawlinson pointed out, reappears in the Bible as the name of the first man. See The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith. p. 83.
31:1 Sir Henry Rawlinson believes that Gân Eden or the Garden of Eden is Gan-Duniyas (also called Gan-Duni), meaning “enclosure,” which is a name of Babylonia in Assyrian inscriptions.
31:2 See Cory’s Ancient Fragments, pp. 51-56.
32:1 See George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, edited by Prof. A. H.
Sayce, p. 304, and also Dr. Paul Haupt’s habilitation lecture Der keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht, Leipzig, 1881.
32:2 This is the commonly adopted form of the name; although the proper transcription is Gilgamesh. He is also called “Gistubar.” The literal meaning of the word is “mass of fire.” See Lenormant’s Histoire Ancienne de l’Orient, V., p. 199.
32:3 Some of the pictures of the Zodiac are strikingly like those which modern charts employ; for instance the centaur and the scorpion, which can be seen on an Assyrian bas-relief in the British Museum reproduced in Lenormant’s Histoire Ancienne de l’Orient, V., p. 180.
36:1 It is noteworthy that fagus, the beechtree, and φηγός, the oak, which are both etymologically identical with the English word beech and the German Buche, mean “eating” or “the tree with eatable fruit.” The word acorn, which is not derived from oak, but is connected with acre, the field, means “harvest or fruit”; it has no connexion with the German Eichel (acorn), but it is the same as the German Ecker, which is the name of the beechtree fruit.
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