Nazis murdered without emotion

I WAS interested by Dani ­Garavelli’s linking of Stuart Hall with the Nazis, “cruel, cold figures who stalked the ­concentration camps” (12 May). This presents an inaccurate image of the Nazi attitude to exterminating “undesirables”. Sadism and perversion were not their driving force; indeed Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the scheme, was described by psychiatrists as perfectly normal. Equally normal were the many other Germans, both civilian and military, who willingly joined in.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th May 2013, 01:00 BST

In 2007, pictures were released showing Auschwitz guards at leisure enjoying normal activities such as singing and music during a break from gassing and cremating men, women and children. It was just routine work, devoid of emotion.

Anyone doubting the same horrors could surface again might consider the current political situation in Hungary, with one of the EU’s largest Jewish populations. The two coalition government parties stand accused of institutional antisemitism, but the real danger is the right-wing nationalist party Jobbik. Formed in 2003, it was the third largest party by 2010. Last year, one of its leaders chillingly called on the government to draw up lists of “Jews who pose a national security risk”.

Robert Dow, Tranent