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Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin
Indeed, Faramir has echoes of Von Stauffenburg. I've never really understood how the German Officer's oath to Hitler had such a crippling effect on potential
resistance, since ethics and morality should always trump "My country right or wrong".
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Not wanting to hijack the thread, but just will mention a Holocaust scholar Christopher Browning in
Ordinary Men really does blow up the entire obediance argument. It's interesting that during the trials the defense typically was "I had to shoot, or I would have been shot," but no evidence of this exists. What took place is supported more by the Milgram experiment and Zimbardo's prison experiment. Nazi's executed more out of
conformity than obediance to orders from higher up. When the "final solution" in Poland first began, Major Trapp a veteran of World War I, told his battalion they did not have to take part in the shootings (and Trapp was not going against any direct orders from superiors, he didn't get 'punished' by anyone). There was an authority figure telling them "you don't have to do this" only 20% went with Trapp's solution. As the war dragged on that 20% got smaller and smaller, although that might have been due to the option to not take part had all but disappeared.
With the SS the obediance argument may be made, because to deny an order in the SS was suicide, but the SS was pretty small compared to the ordinary Police Battalions that Browning writes about and that Trapp was a part of.
Maybe this can be tied into patriotism because you see anti-semitism all over Europe throughout this time. In America too, in Nazi Germany the anti-semitism became radical and turned to genocide, but it existed everywhere. The idea of "we are superior," because we are Germans, French...etc stuck with everyone, not just those in charge.