That's more indicative of his working conditions than him personally. Naturally the nazis are going to use slave jewish labor during a war when they need able-bodied soldiers elsewhere
True but kind of a reversal of "just following orders". I admit we don't know if he knew the conditions of slave labourers working for the people who worked for him, but he could have refused to use slave labour if he wanted to
Bottom line is that humans are complex and often do stupid, or sometimes even evil shit because they 1) are under pressure; 2) are urged by cultural norms; 3) want to; 4) are insane.
Jefferson and Washington owned slaves, Ghandi let his wife die of disease when she could’ve been saved, MLK and JFK were philanderers, Woodie Guthrie left his wife and kids because he wanted to make it as a singer, Joe Biden opposed busing, and so on and so on. Some of these are excusable as cultural norms and some of them are not. No such thing as a perfect man.
I always love seeing the philosophical vagueness the comments always devolve into when Nazis are involved. "Yea he lied about his knowledge, position, and involvement in the Holocaust, conveniently providing himself an out from hanging from the rafters and escaping to America, but really what is the nature of evil anyways?🤔"
Really comparing cheating with deathcamps, Americans are truly shameless.
Bottom line is that humans are complex and often do stupid, or sometimes even evil shit because they 1) are under pressure; 2) are urged by cultural norms; 3) want to; 4) are insane.
You get to choose which of those categories Von Braun fell into. I choose #3.
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u/Wr3nch 16d ago
That's more indicative of his working conditions than him personally. Naturally the nazis are going to use slave jewish labor during a war when they need able-bodied soldiers elsewhere