Nazi Atrocities, Committed by Ordinary People

[Arawn-ap-Hywel]

From doctors to opera singers, teachers to truant schoolchildren, the extermination of European Jews was the work of roughly 200,000 ordinary Germans and their helpers. Years of research -- not yet complete -- reveal how sane members of a modern society committed murder for an evil regime.

Everyday Murder: Nazi Atrocities, Committed by Ordinary People - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Walter Mattner, a police secretary from Vienna, was there in October 1941 when 2,273 Jews were shot to death in Mogilyov in Belarus. He later wrote to his wife: "My hand was shaking a bit with the first cars. By the tenth car, I was aiming calmly and shooting dependably at the many women, children and babies. Bearing in mind that I have two babies at home, I knew that they would suffer exactly the same treatment, if not ten times as bad, at the hands of these hordes." After World War II, it was obvious to most observers that such acts could only have been committed by sadists and psychopaths, under orders from a handful of principal war criminals surrounding Adolf Hitler. It was a comforting way of looking at things, because it meant that ordinary people were not the real perpetrators. But the horrifying results of an opinion poll that the Americans conducted in their occupation zone in October 1945 could have raised doubts even then about the version of the story that blames everything on a few pathological criminals. Twenty percent of the respondents "agreed with Hitler's treatment of the Jews." Another 19 percent said that although they felt that his policies toward Jews were exaggerated, they were fundamentally correct. It took until the 1990s before historians and other experts embarked on a large-scale search for those men (and women) who carried out the Holocaust. The research isn't complete yet, but the results available to date are shocking.

When researching history truths come out that often make us uncomfortable.

I hope as part of the published research they reflect on the personal agonies these "normal people" felt when they realised fully what they'd become part of!

The Nazi's created many victims, Jews, Gypsy's Communists, Objectors and many others whom they persecuted, but consider, their own peoples became victims, due to the senslessness of "peer pressure"

Let us all learn from this and be responsible humans who will stand firm and not tolerate inhumanity, wherever we may encouter it!

[Nono]

A fond hope.
Here's Wikipedia's account of the classic Milgram experiment carried out "three months after the start of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem".
Milgram experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's really no hope of changing human nature.

[grandpa]

Quote by: Nono A fond hope. Here's Wikipedia's account of the classic Milgram experiment carried out "three months after the start of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem".

Unfortunately, Eichmann's are not only in the past.

Grandpa h.

[Nono]

That's sorta my point, gramps.