I think the postwar German authors were afraid of themselves and their military traditions. "Just following orders" wasn't only a defense at Nurnberg. It was a frightening tradition.
A predictive event was the "Hauptmann von Kopenick" incident:
Wilhelm Voigt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The postwar German authors fully believed their offspring would recreate the Holocaust if not prevented. They believed someone diabolical and charismatic would come along eventually to give the orders they would be predestined to follow.
That is why, I think, we should remember the perpetrators as well as the victims. The perpetrators are the ones we need to struggle against, and need to struggle against becoming. After all, we Americans have been known to go blindly into war based on manufactured fear.
We have already forgotten.
--lemit
