Leningrad Siege
In the summer of 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. The attack on Leningrad (also known as St. Petersburg) was one of the initial targets of the German invasion. This invasion was one of the longest and most gruesome sieges. The objective of this operation was to make the whole city starve to death. The whole operation was ruthless and inhumane.
First, we discussed whether eating corpses was morally right. Annie and I thought that the bodies would go to waste anyway so it is in fact very resourceful of them to eat those bodies. So we said that eating the corpses would be moral and skilful but killing someone and eating them is morally incorrect. A lot of the class also agreed on this thought. Will also brought up that when put in such critical situations, humans will dilute down to their original forms as animals fighting for survival. This is also why I do not think that feeding on the corpses is wrong when placed in these kinds of extreme conditions. Another very interesting point Yeon Seo raised was that in this situation one could either eat or get eaten as if they don’t eat, they would die and people would eat them so eating sounds like a better solution to starvation.
Another one of our main discussions was if we were in charge of the food provided, how would we divide it and why. So at first, Annie thought that the mothers should get the food because, without them, there would be no kids. However, I thought that the food should be given to the kids because they are young and cannot provide or fight for themselves so they need that kind of support. Through the discussion though, we found out that our choices were quite silly. This is because many points were brought up about providing people who are capable with food instead of the weak. So we eliminated old, sick and young kids or babies. We then decided that the men and teenagers who had energy and the health to carry on were given the priority and the ones that were weaker were not as relevant. Then we thought that the workers should get more food because they are exerting more energy into labour (whether they are doctors or soldiers) without assuming that they will do their jobs thoroughly and keep the population safe.
An interesting summary of our discussion, I like to see how your thinking evolved over the course of the lesson. however, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss your first instincts. While feeding the useful is one way of tackling this problem, there is also the ethical question about what responsibility we have for taking care of those not in a position to advocate for themselves. Children do not have power to fight for their resources, so perhaps we should be feeding them first?
For the order of who would you feed, the last one was very It was very similar to what I was thinking, too, so it was interesting to see the similarities. It was still really interesting to see the morality and your opinions about the corpse eating vs killing someone and eating them, and under the circumstances, and imagining you were living through it, I see how your opinions were influenced. I was wondering, would it make a difference if the corpse was your family member or a loved one, or do you think since they were already dead, the hunger would be so overwhelming, and it wouldn’t make a difference? Very well explained ideas with justification, though.