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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was this post intended as sarcasm, or did you actually mean to equate the torture of a small number of prisoners with mass executions of millions of civilians?
I never said they were equal. I don't know if anyone was punished for doing it though.
Interestingly, the Geneva Convention was barely used at all, and the "excuses" given were mostly based on the politics of the military instead.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because civilian protections where only added in 1949 to the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Convention as-of WW2 would only be applicable to PoWs, not civilians.
To be fair I don't think anybody saw systemic violence upon civilians during a war between states (as opposed to a civil one) as a realistic possibility during the inter-war period. It was well outside the customs of war in our corner of the world at that point. The national-social cocktail completely tore apart common decency.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monowitz_concentration_camp#Bu...
The last line resonated with me a lot "In every case of documented refusal to obey orders to exterminate people, the coercive powers of the Nazi system proved to be impotent or ineffective." I would have expected the opposite. I guess this means, the structures of society and rule of of law were actually sort of still working, but that most people feared going against the zeitgeist.
In fact, the Nazis had perverted the law and its rule but retained the structure of a lawful state, as chaos and anarchy were pretty much out of fashion in Germany after the 20s. Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters winning some decent hotel in a game of poker. They had to retain the reception, the service personal and the kitchen. But they behave disgustingly at every opportunity.
Actually lots of highly educated people were Nazis, including Nazi leaders and apologists.
Including people considered by their (even Jewish, even post WWII) academic peers, as the "biggest thinkers" of the 20th century.
Heck, Mengele had 2 Ph.Ds (anthopology and medicine).
The courage to stand up against your own ingroup is the highest form of courage and morals. It requires independence of thought and high principles.
The Milgram Experiment[1] shows that most people do go along with what an authority figure tells them. It’s one of the more depressing experiments in social psychology. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
It doesn't tell you anything about what people do in the real world in real situations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact, the Nazis had perverted the law and its rule but retained the structure of a lawful state, as chaos and anarchy were pretty much out of fashion in Germany after the 20s. Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters winning some decent hotel in a game of poker. They had to retain the reception, the service personal and the kitchen. But they behave disgustingly at every opportunity.
> Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters Actually lots of highly educated people were Nazis, including Nazi leaders and apologists. Including people considered by their (even Jewish, even post WWII) academic peers, as the "biggest thinkers" of the 20th century. Heck, Mengele had 2 Ph.Ds (anthopology and medicine).
Imagine how horrific someone's actions must be when even the SS think they might be going too far.