At the Nuremberg trials top Nazi officials defended their actions during the Holocaust by claiming they were following orders Do you agree with this defense explain your answer?

Answer 1

No, because we all have to accept responsibility for our own actions. I accept this is not an actual parallel: I was once in a group given a command to do something and another member of the group said to us that this command was illegal. There was a 'discussion' for want of a better description. Views were exchanged. The outcome was that we decided to obey what we knew was an illegal command & argue about it later. In other words we did what we were told. We obeyed orders. No I am not condoning what the Nazis did in any way. But the reality was that they had no real choice. It was the same in the recruitment for the Soviet prisoners into the Whermacht: 'Will you sign up to join the Whermacht ?' 'No' and he gets shot dead..... the remainder sign up. No, I do not agree with the defence. Yes, I am saying the reality was that there were no realistic alternatives to doing what they actually did. The orders were illegal & immoral & indefencible but they were unavoidable.