Of course the Nazis, even those who worked in the death camps, even those who witnessed mass murder, qualify as humans. One of the camp commandants was asked if he had regrets; he said he wished he had spent more time with his children.
It’s easy to assign these crimes to aliens. Some once in a generation creatures totally devoid of humanity. To do so draws a line between them and us. We could never do that. Somehow, in the early 1940s, the nazis just happened upon hundreds of psychos.
One of the fascinating aspects of the Holocaust, and the need for the warning through history, is that the ability to conduct genocide exists in all of us. Look up the Stanford Prison Experiment. We are fascinating creatures; humans. We should be mindful of what we are capable of. We should be scared of it.
The lesson from the Holocaust is not how evil the basis were. The lesson should be ‘Know Yourself’. Understand what you; we; are capable of and you just might be able to stop a future genocide. The end of the Nazis certainly was not the end of genoicde; there have been more across the world post ww2.
One final thought. For a long time I used to think I would be one of those who saved the Jews. I would still like to think I might. But think back to school. Was there ever, any time, a kid who looked a bit different or who had the wrong kit for sports, or who was overweight or anything. And did a popular kid pick on them and you, somewhere in the crowd, just kind of go with it, laugh along, because you wouldn’t want them to single you out? Well then you are a nazi sympathiser, potentially. When the Jews were being picked in, harassed, boarded onto trains and people were laughing at them for their misfortune, how easy to laugh along a little, at the back of the crowd. How hard to push your way to the front and argue with the soldiers. Or criticise your neighbours, or even your friends, for laughing. Since I realised that, at work and in social circles I have always strived to identify a situation where we are all laughing about someone else. And I have strived to not laugh. Or even to gently speak up in their favour. I like to think every time I do that I am that but less nazi sympathiser.
