Reply #2: "The Fuhrer's Orders have the Force of Law" [View All]

[Hubert Flottz]

"The Fuhrer's Orders have the Force of Law"

"Orders from above", and the Fuhrer's Orders have the force of Law": implied or stated directly, these were expressions repeated over and over at Nuremberg and other tribunals as the Nazis were put on trial at the end of World War II. One of the most common questions people have about the Shoah, is how in the 20th Century, in a 'civilized society' the enormity and tragedy of the holocaust could have occurred. The extreme of evil and cruelty demonstrated in the genocide of millions seemed only a few years before impossible and unfathomable. The degeneration of the human heart came progressively as the war progressed, but probably one of the most definitive and central reasons were the principles of "fuhrerprinzip and befehlnotstand so firmly taught and indoctrinated in the Wehrmacht, the Nazi Party, and German Society in general.

http://www.shoaheducation.com/befehl.html

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Befehlnotstand:

Blind Obedience & 'Orders from Above'The "Fuhrerprinzip" had to do with the order of leadership and is reflected in Military rank: there were under-fuhrers and over-fuhrers (uberfuhrer & oberfuhrer) even in the naming of the ranks.(see Nazi Party) The concept of Befehlnotstand had more to do with the blind obedience: orders were to be obeyed at all cost, without question, and the penalty for non-obedience in many cases was death. German participants in the 3rd Reich at first had difficulty with the utterly blind obedience required (although the principle was ingrained in the German family dynamic and workplace), but facing death for disobedience, the principle became a defense mechanism allowing many to commit abominable acts and pass responsibility on to their superiors, who in turn, passed culpability upwards. In the end, no one was ultimately responsible, as the leadership would claim they had no idea what was going on while the underlings claimed 'orders from above' and 'befehlnotstand'" The oft repeated principle of "the fuhrers words have the force of law" also served to overwrite even legal concerns in immoral acts, leaving the German military and domestics barrier-free in committing unconscienable cruelty.

"Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss!"