No, they didn’t. We could talk all night about how some Germans would have insisted at the end of the war that they didn’t know shit about the death-camps or any killings for that matter. Would I have believed any? I doubt it. Would I have been so certain of knowing that they weren’t actually lying to me, that I could have taken it upon myself to serve justice on them? I don’t think so, no.
We don’t need their word for it… they recorded everything they did. They initially did not intend on systemic genocide they ended up doing. That doesn’t mean that didn’t intend on not doing other atrocities. It’s much like people don’t intend on torturing and abusing prisoners after being sentenced, but they often look the other way when the guards do it.
Would you murder that baby Hitler? It’s easy to say “yes”
if one had the power to do so, one wouldn’t need to murder anyone. simply changing the variables that led young Hitler down the road. Preventing his service in WW1 alone would had completely changed the course of history. Or giving him painting lessons so he wouldn’t been kicked out of art school.
But thats not really the argument here… we’re staring at 1932 Hitler.
We don’t need their word for it… they recorded everything they did.
My point is individual Germans. If an individual German said “oh we didn’t know about the camps”, you might believe them. Maybe. Perhaps a kid, at least? But if you liberated a camp in their city, probably not, since it was in their city.
It doesn’t matter what they knew. They knew something horrible was happening and wanted to ignore it, which is almost as bad as being directly part of it.
simply changing the variables that led young Hitler down the road.
Well doing that would also require for you to know what exactly led to that. It’s probably not as simple as you or Family Guy made it out to be. But yeah, so then essentially choosing to remain there to try and make Hitler a better person. Like at the least, preventing his service would mean that you’d either have to disable him in some way or convince him to become a deserter, since they weren’t enlisting but were conscripted. Or you’d have to know enough about art to make Hitler a better artist. And as far as paintings go, I don’t think I have the same level of skill he did.
Oh yeah 1932 Hitler you’d just shoot in the face. But even then, you wouldn’t be able to know for certain that that would only have good effects. Perhaps if we lived in 1950’s Europe, it would be quite a lot clearer and less risky, but due to the whole butterfly effect thing, (and this is getting more into the metaphysical than political) you wouldn’t even know if you’d exist in the world that would happen. Or perhaps it’s a oneway timemachine, and then that worry wouldn’t exist. It just really depends on which movie we use for the time-travel rules, really, lol.
If we dial it back from time machines and shooting Hitler in the face to just agreeing to punch fascists in the present?
