“Is this what Statism can do? Are Germans somehow morally defective monsters, or can any group of people be made to behave so horrifically?”
The Stanley Milgram obedience research (as portrayed in the CBS series The 10th Level) gave startling evidence that even in a college setting, with the only authority figure being a man in a lab coat and a clip board could coax ~~70% of the subjects to commit murder by electrocution (or so they thought they were doing).
This is why the world should have listened to the words of Lord Acton “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”, and of course to the Founders of the USA who did everything they could to keep chains on the size of government.
However, we have been too stupid, (thanks in large part to government schools), and too lazy and we allowed the monster of government and unlimited diet of money and power.
I saw a study years ago that said the two countries where the people were most likely to follow the direction of authority figures were Germany and the U.S.A.