RE: Faith in Humanity
March 16, 2010 at 10:01 pm
(This post was last modified: March 16, 2010 at 10:03 pm by Oldandeasilyconfused.)
Perhaps it's at that time one first sees the world and those in it having the audacity to not meet one's personal expectations.
This was a process for me,which began in 1963 at age 16. That was the year I saw film of the liberation of some of the Nazis death camps. I threw up.
My horror was not just the devastating images ,but at the realisation that most rank and file Nazis and ordinary Germans who ran and provided support for the camps weer NOT monsters,but 'ordinary; people doing evil things, I concluded that most human beings are capable of any action,depending on circumstance.
Today I always expect the worst behaviour,whilst hoping for the best. That means I'm never surprised or disappointed and am often pleasantly, surprised.
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References;
"Hitler's Willing Executioners; Orinary Germans And The Holocaust' (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_...ecutioners
"SS- GB" (fiction:Len Deighton)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB
This book caused outrage when released in the UK .
This was a process for me,which began in 1963 at age 16. That was the year I saw film of the liberation of some of the Nazis death camps. I threw up.
My horror was not just the devastating images ,but at the realisation that most rank and file Nazis and ordinary Germans who ran and provided support for the camps weer NOT monsters,but 'ordinary; people doing evil things, I concluded that most human beings are capable of any action,depending on circumstance.
Today I always expect the worst behaviour,whilst hoping for the best. That means I'm never surprised or disappointed and am often pleasantly, surprised.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
References;
"Hitler's Willing Executioners; Orinary Germans And The Holocaust' (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen)
Quote:Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996) is a book by American writer Daniel Goldhagen that posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust because of a unique and virulent "eliminationist antisemitism" in the German identity, which had developed in the preceding centuries. Goldhagen asserted that this special mentality grew out of medieval attitudes from a religious basis, but was eventually secularized.
Goldhagen's book stoked controversy and debate, in Germany and the United States. Some historians have characterized its reception as an extension of the Historikerstreit, the German historiographical debate of the 1980s that sought to explain Nazi history. The book was a "publishing phenomenon",[1] achieving fame in both the United States and Germany, despite its "mostly scathing" reception among historians,[2] who were unusually vocal in condemning it as ahistorical and, in the words of Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, "totally wrong about everything" and "worthless".[3][4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_...ecutioners
"SS- GB" (fiction:Len Deighton)
Quote:SS-GB is an alternate history novel by Len Deighton, set in a United Kingdom fictionally conquered and occupied by Germany during World War II. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that controls Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB
This book caused outrage when released in the UK .
