This being a very emotive subject, I feel that I had better nail my colours to
the mast and preface what I am about to say by saying that many of my family
were exterminated in the Holocaust; and that I owe my existence to the fact
that my father managed to escape.
On Tuesday 28 April 2009 07:54:12 Sean Gibbins wrote:
> By the way, Nazis are really bad people
But I must take issue with this, Sean. I have made myself wait a bit to
respond in case I might want to change my mind, but I do not.
I spent much of my early adult life hating Hitler. But in the end I realised
that the hatred hurt me, not Hitler, and forced myself to look afresh at the
whole nasty affair.
It is simply not true to say that Nazis were bad people. The worst that can
be said of most of them is that they were weak, but even that seems to me to
be an untenable position.
Much Nazi policy was evil: one could justify saying that many - or even all -
of those at the top of the Nazi party were evil. But it was more or less
obligatory to be a Nazi in wartime Germany (and Austria). Some resisted, and
I have had the privilege of knowing some of them. One couple were put into a
Concentration camp themselves, one doctor I knew crossed the border at night
(and left all his family and friends) because he was under (call-up) orders
to report to one of the Concentration camps the following day. He never went
back to his home. We all know of the Von Trapp family.
I salute such bravery. But we cannot demand it of everyone. Most people
simply kept their heads down and went with the flow. How many of us could
have done better?
So, no - Nazis are not necessarily bad people. Some of them were. Most of
them just wanted to be left in peace to live their lives.
Lisi
