Didn’t work in the Nuremberg trials, so why should it matter here. Some people just like licking boots.
Don’t you see, we SS men were not supposed to think about these things; it never even occurred to us. . . . We were all so trained to obey orders without even thinking that the thought of disobeying an order would simply never have occurred to anybody, and somebody else would have done just as well if I hadn’t. . . . I really never gave much thought to whether it was wrong. It just seemed a necessity.
Rudolf Höss, the commandant at Auschwitz, Nuremberg trials October 1946
100% they were ordered to do this.
Now, is it on them for joining an organization that can take control of your own actions away? Yes.
But these guys didn’t roll out the red carpet because they felt like it. Ain’t nobody wanna do that crap.
Yeah that’s why “just following orders” is not just dumb but actually evil.
Didn’t work in the Nuremberg trials, so why should it matter here. Some people just like licking boots.