Are these the faces of evil?*
This photo essay in the New York Times is a different view of Auschwitz . It raises some uncomfortable questions.
This slide show illustrates how effective the German propaganda machine was, allowing people to lose their conscience and be business as usual all the while participating in acts of extreme depravity.
The very fact that these pictures portray what seem to be normal everyday people is what makes it so scary. They don't look like monsters. They smile, are cleanly dressed, have kids, have dogs. We could pass them on the street and not shudder or be afraid.
Evil can come in a very nice package, with black hearts wrapped in ribbons and bows. We, and the entire world, need to learn to see beyond the packaging.
For them it was a job that they probably didn't think that much about when they went home. How much does an exterminator obsess over his job when he's home in the evening? For the Nazis, a Jewish life wasn't worth more - or even as much - as that of a roach. That's why you could have "people" playing with their dogs in a charming garden while a few feet away, others were being starved and tortured to death.
What's so scary is how normal they look. How can anyone know who is evil if Evil can wear such a human face?
When we hear over and over about Darfur, Rwanda , and other places where human atrocities are taking place even today, these places quickly become background noise for some obscure distant form of evil. These albums, taken within steps of the camps, remind us that these acts are committed, even today, by fellow human beings against other fellow human beings.
*Thanks to my friends at JWN for this material
