It’s too easy to seek justification for people who turned the other way or condoned crimes on an unprecedented scale, by saying: “They were just trying to survive”. A lot of people were not just trying to survive and took huge risks to fight nazism – for no glory or reward other than the knowledge that they did the right thing. I know that my family did the right thing and took huge risks, facing torture and certain death if caught – so there were other options and, luckily lots of people opted for them, regardless of the risk involved – or we would be all goose-stepping and raising our arm to salute since about 80 years.
I can only hope that I would do the same if I found myself in a similar situation. Time is a great healer, on condition that we don’t repeat the same mistakes – which we are doing, over and over again.
LUENEBURG, Germany (AP) — Former SS Sgt. Oskar Groening told a German court Tuesday that he helped keep watch as thousands of Jews were led from cattle cars directly to the gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp where…
Source: Auschwitz guard goes on trial, says he shares moral guilt