Can You Learn Anything From a Void?

During the Holocaust, numerous atrocities were committed both by ruthless and cruel Nazis, and those non-Jews who were just following orders. You could say that the ones committing the murders at the concentration camps were "just doing their jobs", but you'd think human decency would overrule these horrific commands. Nonetheless, most of the concentration camp workers followed the orders and followed through with the executions. Are these people worthy of being convicted of murder? In my opinion, they shouldn't be held completely accountable for the murders, but they should be given some sort of penalty for their actions. They are only partially responsible, as they were told to kill, they didn't necessarily want to kill anyone. However, if they truly didn't want to commit any atrocities they should have refused to go through with the executions. This is much easier said than done, as they would probably be threatened to be killed themselves if they didn't follow orders. It really makes you wonder if their time at the concentration camps was almost as much torture and suffering as those who were sent to work at the camps. Now they obviously didn't face the same amount of physical labor and fatigue, but they were most likely emotionally drained from everything they saw and everything they were forced to do. Their consciences were probably torn apart, as they faced many internal struggles on what decisions to make. It sounds really difficult to feel any sympathy for a person who executes thousands of innocent people, but can we honestly say we wouldn't have done the same in their shoes? The account that strikes me the most is that of Dr. Capesius. People he knew from home stared him in the eye and he had to decide whether or not they live or die. It is disheartening to hear about a man sending his own acquaintances to the gas chamber, and I'm sure it was something he struggled to deal with. When Macbeth goes to kill Duncan, he feels a sense of guilt as well. It isn't until Lady Macbeth pushes him to go through with it that he actually commits the crime. As for the "innocent" onlookers, they should also be held accountable for the crimes in some way as they didn't do anything to stop the inhumane deeds. They didn't actually kill anyone, but they didn't save any one's life. Just like the one's committing the murders, they too must have had guilty consciences as they did nothing to prevent the killings. I think the only way to combat the evils would be to work together with others to stop the evil-doing. It would be much more difficult to tackle the power alone. It seems possible as a group to stop the officials in charge. It would take a lot of courage to go against the regime, and it would take a completely moral conscience to do so.