Jewish owners. And they felt that this was completely normal.”
Changing Morality
Of course, what appears to us today as a colossal shift in social norms also applied to the Wehrmacht and its way of conducting the war. At any rate, there is much more evidence to support the assumption that most German soldiers felt they were fighting for a just cause than there is for the opposing assumption that they secretly questioned their actions.
Even some members of the firing squads at the mass graves must have perceived their work there as the fulfillment of a “sacred obligation,” as it was dubbed in the emotionally charged language of the Nazis. The same sentiments were behind Heinrich Himmler’s famous words that the SS, which he commanded, could be proud, despite all criticism, of having “remained decent.” What seems like the height of cynicism to postwar generations is in fact an expression of the conviction of serving a higher morality. In this case, it was one that saw itself scientifically legitimized in its murderous biological determinism.
This is, as it were, the disturbing insight one reaches after reading the transcripts about killing and dying: The morality that shapes the actions of people is not rooted in the people themselves, but in the structures that surround them. If they change, everything is basically possible—even absolute evil.
