The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Nazi (2008)

Happy Nazis (2008): The secret photographs that reveal how Nazi exterminators spent their free time.

For similar stories, see:
Life In The World's Most Infamous Concentration Camp
The Holocaust Perpetrator Protected By Australian Law
The Netherland's Unsung Schindler

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In January 2007 a photo album marked "Auschwitz: 21 June 1944" was made public. It revealed astonishing clues as to how the Nazi extermination team enjoyed a life that they ruthlessly denied their victims.

"They look almost like normal people. They are devils", says Auschwitz survivor, Regina Speigel. The photos were taken at the height of the holocaust and have helped researchers identify key Nazi killers. Dr Josef Mengele, aka the 'Angel of Death', is seen "smiling and laughing at this singalong during the most horrific period of murder in history. It's astonishing."

SBS Australia– Ref. 4134

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[bluegaming]

"They look almost like normal people" Thats because they were normal people, thats the scary part.

[BaneRain]

It doesnt take much to be a monster. You just need to be convinced that the person you're harming isn't like you

[antonleimbach]

What people fail to understand is that these killers thought they were making the world a better place. They thought that they were on the right side of history and would be honored for what they had accomplished. That is what is so horrifying. These people thought they were the good guys.

[c.w.]

I can’t imagine having to reconcile a decision of “I pushed my way in, I wanted to be first so I wouldn’t have to hear anyone else scream”. At 17.

[hammadhussain]

"If someone can make you believe an absurdity, they can make you commit an atrocity."

“They almost look like normal people.” They WERE normal people, and that’s perhaps the most important and hardest lesson to learn from these pictures. They could have been us. We could be them.

[JohnOneill-jfyj]

"Anyone who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire.

[MrBekliyom]

My late neighbor was a Polish Jew who had survived Auschwitz. I once saw her tattoo on her arm. It sent shivers down my spine. Unbelievable.

[Jay-bdbs]

It happens even today. Think of the politicians having a good time, while having ordered the bombing of the civilians in some far away land.

[fischX]

The answer is quite easy how they could look so relaxed and have fun. The same way we can look relaxed and have fun minutes after walking past a homeless with frozen fingers. By not thinking about it.

[ili]

7:55 If only studying genocide could help the current situation in Gaza. So horrible what humans can do

[jonasini]

As a German of about 30 years it scares one, that one of those people might have been who you knew as a loving grandfather or grandmother.
Of course you talk about stuff like that often at family gatherings, but you never know whether you get the truth.

It should be a warning to all future generations.

[rayamat]

"This is disgusting" I say as I watch This video on my iPhone made with forced child labor

[sfudge]

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly"

-Robert Wilson

[heikkijhautanen]

what about the horror and deaths cauzed by Stalin and the USSR?? History has several tyrants and monsters!!

[Frosty-One]

When you learn about this in history, when you see the horrible photos and atrocities committed by the Nazis, the people that did it take on an almost super villain kind of aura about them. History paints them as among THE MOST CRUEL and THE MOST EVIL people to have ever existed. So to see them laughing, playing, lounging and drinking, and enjoying themselves like ordinary people; truly shocked me. My mind lit up as like, Wow! They were REAL, these were ACTUAL PEOPLE that existed and had feelings of their own, the shocking realization for me is that there's a chance a good many of them just didn't give a damn. Surrounded by suffering, death, fear, terror, unrelenting torture, and they can just smile and take a break, go to a resort and have themselves a good time while women, children, men, and families went through all they went through. That's truly Monstrous, I can't fathom or even comprehend how...i mean how could they do that?!?

[Starlitwarrior]

Dehumanization.That’s partly why they shaved the heads and took the clothes. If we can make them less human, then we can feel less guilt. And the more and more people died, the less they were people to these monsters. Until finally it didn’t even register anymore.

[mrmidnight]

Guilt only exists if you get judged or it’s seen as wrong.

When it’s the norm in your society it doesn’t exist.

[paulwary]

It’s not accidental that these were scenes involving shared experiences and strong bonding between these people. Most people have a strong need to be part of a group, so that they feel that they might die if rejected by the group. Such people can tacitly agree not to see what’s right in front of them, if it means they have a place in the group.
I was bullied and ostracised for a full year during one particular year at primary school, with the full knowledge of the teacher. My life was never in danger, but it did effect the rest of my life. I was never again comfortable in a group, or really any relationship for that matter. My point is that such an experience gives you perspective, makes you an observer, makes you understand what people are capable of, how they lie to themselves and everyone around them, how they justify the unjustifiable with just a few weak words of rhetoric, and everyone nods and accepts it. And you do continue to see bad behaviour throughout your life, directed at you, because you’re not playing their game. No one who has had such an experience really harbours any illusions about, erm, humanity.
So it not surprising at all to see them having fun together, indeed I can imagine that the fun reached a completely hysterical intensity on those occasions.

[patriley]

I know that humans have the capacity for huge amounts of cruelty, but I would like to think that no matter how demonized a group of people became, that I would stop short of taking part in the actual killing of innocent people, especially children. This was absolutely horrible.