Interview with the (Secretary of the) Vampire.

September 25, 2000 1:08 PM

Interview with the (Secretary of the) Vampire. Hitler's secretary, now 80, describes the man in this interview with The Times. (Via Arts and Letters Daily.) 'After all the despair, all the suffering, not one word of sorrow, of compassion. I remember thinking, he has left us with nothing.'
posted by rory (2 comments total)

What an amazing interview. Seems like a sweet lady. To me, it presented another angle on the questions raised at Nuremburg. To wit: At what point do you say "There is something really wrong going on here. I am morally obligated to say to "hell with this", despite the fact that I may get killed for expressing that opinion, which probably wouldn't change anything anyway?"
We have the benefit of fifty-plus years of hindsight. We can be righteously indignant, and say to ourselves "How could she have worked for that monster?". The sad answer is: It was just a gig. She had to eat. And I believe that that holds true for most people who have been the "support staff" for many of humanity's most glaring moments of failure. Humans, despite a certain innate decency, are able to overlook quite a bit in the quest to keep ourselves and our loved ones warm and fed.
And that, my friends, is a goddamned shame.

posted by Optamystic at 2:01 PM on September 25, 2000

This is the same sort of thing that inspired that famous "Banaltiy of Evil" essay. Hannah Arendt?
posted by dhartung at 8:52 AM on September 26, 2000