This is one of the hardest but also one of the most important warnings from the history of Auschwitz coming to us today. Perpetrators were people who accepted and followed an ideology that made them believe that they were better than others, an ideology that rationalized and promoted hatred and evil. This ideology became part of their everyday lives and environment. They were not monsters. They were people: fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. They were farmers, doctors, bakers, bankers, architects, or carpenters. They had their family joys and problems, favorite desserts or songs, hobbies or fears. They were people like us. But they also perpetrated horrible, monstrous acts on behalf of the ideology they believed in. Dehumanizing all the „others” was a tool that helped them achieve their goal. The perpetrators thought of themselves as moral people. And this is the scary part of this history. We should not and cannot dehumanize them, as their story and choices are the human warning. For us all.
