ADOLPH EICHMANN AND CONSCIENCE
During the trial for his participation in the murders of Jews and others in Nazi Germany during the 1940s, Adolph Eichmann argued that all his actions in supporting the movement of people into the Nazi extermination camps were consistent with the following of his conscience. One’s first reaction to Eichmann’s defense of his actions on the basis of conscience was of disbelief and disgust. How could Eichmann treat the concept of conscience so frivolously? He could not expect people to really believe that he was following his conscience as he prepared millions of humans for slaughter. Yet, upon reflection, is it possible he really had convinced himself that he was doing the “right thing.”?
What is conscience? While there are several definitions of what makes up a person’s conscience, most people will agree that conscience is that which enjoins man at the appropriate moment to “do good and avoid evil.” The admonition of conscience to “ do good and avoid evil” is inscribed upon every person’s heart by God. Conscience includes perception and reliance on moral principles and a person’s accountability for his actions. It is the responsibility of a person to discover what is good and what is evil, using reason and the direction of God though his church. Thus conscience is not feeling or emotion or a political exercise; it is based upon reason and God’s laws. It subscribes to norms or standards that are universal.
If conscience advises man to “do good and avoid evil,” how could an Eichmann claim that the slaughtering of millions of human beings is truly a correct act of his conscience? In the Germany of the late 1930s and early 1940s, many had substituted the moral principles established by God for the “law” as provided by man, particularly one man, Adolph Hitler. The secular German society had exchanged the Christian moral principles of doing good and avoiding evil for the laws of the human lawgiver – Hitler; who was an example of Nietzsche’s atheistic Superman. It had identified evil as anything that was contrary to the secular law as proclaimed by Hitler’s Nazism. Thus Eichmann’s claim to be following his conscience and doing his duty as he sent millions to their death was justified upon the secular view of what consisted of good and evil. Eichmann was conforming his conscience to the conventions of the social environment and political conviction of his time.
Certainly there is no intention here to justify Eichmann’s claim that his conscience was properly formed or that there is any justification for the killing of millions of people. But there is a very important lesson to be learned. Secular human law often is not a valid criterion for judging the moral law of “doing good and avoiding evil.” In many countries, including the United States, secular law allows for the taking of innocent human life under a false concept of freedom and choice. Few, if any, people would justify Eichmann and his Nazi comrades in the taking of millions of innocent lives under a distorted secular concept of what was good and evil, yet today many justify and even encourage the taking of millions of lives each year under the auspices of secular human law, by claiming “it is constitutional.” There is no difference in the result of the two secular laws – the death of millions of innocent people.
People should beware of all secular law. They should not train their consciences to blindly accept and follow secular human law. When people follow certain secular laws just because they are constitutional, they could be training their “consciences” to follow and justify evil, just as Eichmann did. Those who allow their consciences to be guided by secular law should consider that, in the future, they may be one of the millions who fall prey to dangerous secular law, just as the Jews and others fell prey to Nazi law in the 1940s and innocent humans in the 20th and 21st centuries who fell victim to the secular laws that are “constitutional.”
Suggested readings:
“On Conscience” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, published by Ignatius Press. Includes two speeches / essays by Cardinal Ratzinger. One of the essays can also be found at the website listed below.
“Conscience and Truth”, a speech by Cardinal Ratzinger www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/RATZCONS.HTM