During World War II, the Nazis set up a camp factory in Hungary where hundreds of Jewish prisoners had survived in disease infested barracks on little food and gruesome backbreaking work. Each day the prisoners were marched to the compound¡¦s giant factory where tons of human waste and garbage were distilled into alcohol to be used as a fuel additive. Even worse than the nauseating odor of the stewing sludge was the realization that they were fueling the Nazi war machine.
One day Allied aircraft bombers destroyed the factory. The next morning hundreds of inmates were herded to one end of the charred remains. A Nazi officer commanded them to shovel sand into carts and drag it to the other end of the plant. The next day the same process was repeated in reverse; they were ordered to move the huge pile of sand back to the other end of the compound. At first some prisoners thought there¡¦d just been a mistake, but the process continued day after day.
One man began crying uncontrollably and the guards hauled him away. Another screamed until he was beaten into silence. One, who had survived three years, ran. Guards ordered him to stop as he ran toward the electrified fence. Prisoners cried out, but there was a blinding flash and a terrible noise as smoke puffed from his smoldering flesh. In the days that followed, dozens of prisoners went mad. They ran from their work only to be shot by guards or electrocuted by the fence. The Commandant smugly remarked that soon there¡¦d be no more need to use the ovens.
Chuck Colson and Jack Eckerd, Why America Doesn¡¦t Work. Dallas, TX: Word, 1991, 12