“Everywhere and always the power of evil lurks in the darkness, waiting for the moment when men are once again weak… and when they yield to the forces of evil, they separate themselves from the power of a higher order; after willingly taking the first step, they are driven on and on to the next and to the next, at a furiously accelerating rate. We will not keep silent. We are your guilty conscience.”
The White Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich, 1942
“I was satisfied that I wasn’t personally to blame and that I hadn’t known about those things. I wasn’t aware of the extent of the crimes. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out.”
Traudl Junge, Hitler’s Secretary
Thank Edward Snowden. That’s how we found out things.
Perhaps he should not be awarded a medal, but at least he should be pardoned.
But if I were him, I would be very wary of any deal he is offered. If he is lied to, and takes the deal, who will defend him when the government reneges?