07/09/04 Chris Rules!!!

Chris Lehman

March 4, 2003

Sr. Comp

Compare and Contrast

Sadists

            Who come to mind when you think of a sadist? Hitler maybe? Genghis Kahn? Nero? Or Kelligeuler? Sadism is defined simply as a delight in cruelty so says The American Heritage Concise Dictionary. Well what comes to mind when I say Joseph Stalin or Vlad Dracolya? Nothing right? You draw a blank “Stalin was a commy and who’s the other guy?” All those mentioned in this opening paragraph are sadistic they enjoy cruelty and are delighted in the process. In my mind out of every sick, twisted blood and hatred driven engine 3 of these stand out far more prolific than the rest, the right wing communist Joseph Stalin, the left wing National Socialist, Adolph Hitler, and the voeved prince, Vlad Dracolya. These three Sadists killed millions of people and loved every minute of it, and then they killed some more.

Joseph Stalin born in 1879 and died in 1953. He was the leader of the USSR from 1929 till death. Stalin led Russia into a great industrial nation to defeat Hitler in World War 2. Joe stayed on in the Kremlin as Hitler’s forces stood at the gates of Moscow. Stalin moved in the Siberian Troops from the east to obliterate Hitler’s push to defeat Russia. It wasn’t till after the war though that Stalin became so sadistic, more than he was an enemy of the world he was an enemy to his people. It’s rumored he had 40-50 million of his own citizens murdered for no apparent reason. He would send his red army into a randomly selected city or town and kill every one and burn the place down then pick up and move onto the next city. He also forced his people onto community farms supposedly “for the good of the people,” all which opposed this decision and family members and townsfolk were slain in cold blood, Joseph Stalin even slayed the very people that elected him to power. Definitely sadistic, being responsible for all those deaths is a tough title to match.

            Adolph Hitler, leader and founder of the Nazi party of the 30’s and 40’s. Elected as chancellor of Germany in the early 30’s. He’s infamous for the oppression of the Jews during the holocaust, he’s coined responsible for the death of nearly 6 million people, 4 million of which were Jews. The majority of those 6 million were sent to crematoriums and gas chambers after they were torn from their families and sent to concentration camps one of which, Auschwitz, was the most heinous of all led by Rudolph Hoss, who claims in an interview that between 1941 and 1944 he himself sent more than 4 million people, under the order of Hitler, to death, but there are no records to back this up. Hitler in April on the 30^th of 1945 married Eva Brown an hour before his suicide, he took cyanide pills then shot himself in the head along with his wife and his SS troops put them in a shallow grave and torched their bodies. Suicide was popular in Hitler’s cabinet after World War 2; those who didn’t kill themselves were tried in various courts and sentenced to death.

            Lastly the Warlord prince, Vlad Dracolya. He was the prince of Wallachia during the time of the Ottoman Empire’s attempts to take over parts Eastern Europe in the 1400’s. At a young age more than likely in his first battle he participated in, Vlad was taken captive by then Turks, along with his younger brother Radu the Handsome. Vlad and Radu were valuable hostages, being sons of the local prince, so they were taken back to Istanbul and imprisoned by the sultan, Mehemet. During this imprisonment it has been suggested that Vlad’s sadistic tendencies were a result of this. Vlad Dracolya was not a good or kind prince. He had a terrifying habit of repeatedly raiding certain towns in his territory and murdering great numbers of people. For reasons unknown, the towns selected for these meaningless attacks were often towns whose population was largely German. The most famous depiction of Vlad is of him on a grassy hill surrounded by a forest of impaled bodies. Most of Vlad’s victims were killed by impalement, when killing large numbers of peasants he would drive them in herds over cliff sides on to beds of spikes below. Vlad was a fierce defender of his homeland. Even though he died in battle over the age of fifty. Many will remember him as a cruel fiend.

     Vlad, Adolph, and Joseph. Three amazing stories similar to one another, rise to power, murder millions of people then die, and enjoy doing so. Who to you is most sadistic of the three? Does the thought of standing face to face with Hitler make you tremble with fear? When you think of Dracolya does it make it hard to sleep? Sadism again is defined as a delight in cruelty. A person who loves torment, torture, and death.