We must differentiate between guilt and duty. The soldier on the front, like the common man, who does his duty everywhere, should not be held responsible for the actions of a few who also called themselves Germans.
Interpretation
Guilt and duty are distinct; individuals should not be held accountable for the wrongdoings of others.
Oskar Schindler highlights the importance of recognizing the difference between personal guilt and a sense of duty. He suggests that a soldier or any individual fulfilling their responsibilities should not carry the burden of accountability for the actions of a small group that misuses their identity or nationality. This raises ethical considerations about collective responsibility versus individual accountability.
In practice
In a discussion about moral responsibility in wartime, this quote could illustrate the difference between individual and collective guilt.
The persecution of Jews in occupied Poland meant that we could see horror emerging gradually in many ways. In 1939, they were forced to wear Jewish stars, and people were herded and shut up into ghettos. Then, in the years '41 and '42 there was plenty of public evidence of pure sadism. With people behaving like pigs, I felt the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them. There was no choice.
If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love.
I am thankful to the Nobel committee for recognising the plight of millions of children who are suffering in this modern age.
Woman's degradation is in mans idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man.
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
Britain is A world by itself, and we will nothing pay For wearing our own noses.
Without thinking or reflecting, we plunge into war, contract heavy debts, increase vastly the patronage of the Executive, and indulge in every species of extravagance, without thinking that we expose our liberty to hazard. It is a great and fatal mistake.
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