Reality really is testing my empathy lately.
There’s no excuse for this.
The “just following orders” stage
If I were to carry out this order, I would refuse. Who cares whether she’s “legal” or not - deporting a sick child is simply inhumane. Those goddam monsters!
But yes, that’s quite right. The reign of terror in Hitler’s Third Reich was also only possible with those who carried out orders and clung to the idea that they were not responsible. Hannah Arendt described all this very well in “The Banality of Evil”.
Reading this now, and it strikes me as all the things I should have been taught about the Nazis beyond just the enormity of their cruelty:
Most important of all, how often just a little pushback stopped them stupid.
A student strike in German-occupied Belgium was enough pushback to stop the enforcement of the extradition of Jewish people there.
Italy, an ally at the beginning, would just say they would extradite their Jewish population, then not actually do it, in a loop, leaving the Germans frustrated simply by being lied to to their face and incapable of making progress.
You’re left with a picture of a bunch of bureaucrats following orders who are incapable of comprehending disobedience nor knowing how to handle it.
