I just finished Hitler’s Furies, in addition to just about any other book about the 3rd Reich and WWII you you can name...two or three a week. It’s my profession.
What I teach my students is that these profoundly evil people rarely harm anyone.
It’s the willingness of individuals to kill for “leaders” that causes ALL the collective human evil in the world.
Until THEY (my students) take responsibility for their actions, we’ll never progress as a species.
That’s the lesson I hope they take away from my classes.
/BTW: visit Auschwitz. It’ll change you forever.
I would like to visit Auschwitz and Normandy and Battan but alas I don’t think I’ll ever be able to. The closest I’ve ever come to visiting a concentration camp was working with a man in New York in the construction trade. One day I saw the numbers on his forearm. He told me his story. He was a German Jew. His father was an upolhsterer and furniture maker. On Kristhallnacht his shop was set on fire. His father, and later his mother and sister were sent to Auschwitz where they were gassed. He was sent to Dachau to work in a munitions factory. American GI’s rescued him. He was cared for by some nuns and later came to America to live with a relative.
What did you think of Goldhagens book? I thought it was good.