Radical Evil

Commercially popular German director Stefan Ruzowitzky's gripping Holocaust documentary combines freshly rediscovered archival footage (in startling full color) with dramatic re-enactments depicting doomed Jews and young Wehrmacht soldiers during the Nazi era, together with recitations (in English) of official documents, letters, and testimony. The film skillfully poses the question of how ordinary decent people could commit the atrocities of the Final Solution—especially outside of the factory death camps, where Third Reich troops executed hundreds of victims face-to-face. Drawing on comments from modern authors (Robert Jay Lifton, Dave Grossman etc.) and Nuremberg lawyer Benjamin Ferencz, along with classic psychological experiments, the documentary describes how basic human pathologies of conformity, persuasion, propaganda, desensitization, and deferred responsibility led to "radical evil" (a phrase borrowed from Kant). What is most disquieting here is the suggestion that this wasn't some malicious sorcery unique to Hitler and European anti-Semitism, but could happen in other societies as well. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)