I never said that I thought that the Nazis were in a morally ambiguous situation. From their own perspective, at least, they were not. The situation they were in was not ambiguous in the least, it was quite clear-cut. They didn't have to choose between one ethical principal and another, there was only one ethical principal at stake, the preservation of the Volk.
When you say that there was "no objective need whatsoever" for the Nazis to do what they did, you ignore the fact that for the Nazis, the preservation of the Volk was, subjectively, important. By "objective," you can only mean yourself, and you can only mean that you don't agree with them.
I am not saying that their choices were as good as anyone else's. I just don't know how one judges except by one's own subjective morals. I am certain that the choices that the Nazis made were wrong, by my own morals, and I don't concede that their belief that they were right makes any difference. |
