|
 This
is a study of moral choice that focuses primarily on one man, Major
Julius Schmähling, commander of the German occupation troops in the
region of the French Haute Loire during much of the time that the
area was under German occupation in World War II. The Major was
clearly a decent man. He was concerned not to do harm to the
French people unless absolutely necessary. He often helped
individual French men and women to avoid the grasp of the regional
German security police (S.D.). Despite the policy of the German
state to round-up and destroy all Jews within its domain, the
Major cast a blind-eye as thousands of Jewish children openly
moved through the region of his command and on into Switzerland.
Indeed, contrary to Nazi policy, Jews lived and worked with his
troops in his headquarters town of Puy. The French authorities of
the Haute Loire wrote to him after the war, that he was “a good
German among good Frenchmen.” Yet, he was a card-carrying member
of the Nazi Party. He loved his country, wished it victory in the
war, and was downcast when he came to the realization that Germany
was going to lose the war. His commanding officer wrote of him
after the war, “he was an excellent officer who filled out his
position splendidly, an example of job-fulfillment and straight
sense….” His decency was clearly circumscribed by his sense of
duty and patriotism. In sum, this study examines a German officer
who had a capacity for survival and a capacity for making
difficult moral choices necessary for his own well-being as well
as the well-being of others. |
