As Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead; it isn’t even past.”
Some 80 years later and we still wonder how entire nations could be captivated by hatred and madness. To me the riveting (and frightening) thing about Oskar Groening is that he admitted his moral guilt, but argued that he was not legally accountable.
I use these stories to show that the Nazis and their supporters weren’t cartoon villains. They were neighbors and people just like any of us. It’s a reminder that we can slip into these gross human rights abuses by being complacent.
The “just following orders” defense made me think of My Lai.
From an exhaustive and horrifying wikipedia article on the subject:
Full article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
When will it ever end…
The recent PBS film on the War In Vietnam examined Lt. Calley’s conduct and his reprehensible explanations/defense. His hands will never be clean. No doubt for me that he’s a war criminal.
If there had been more officers like Hugh Thompson Jr. in Vietnam, and among the German military as well, perhaps other soldiers would have refused to obey evil orders in the first place.