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The question of evil is one that had absorbed the energies of countless Christian theologians as well as other religious theologians. Christians have not only discussed the nature of evil. Free will is an essential part of the Christian concept of evil. Another question is just how much free will any individual set in his time and society actually has or should be expected to have.
We have no information on the image here. We do not know when abd where it was taken, but we can speculate. The soldiers look to be members of the regular Germany Arny--the Wehrmact. It looks to us that it probably was taken in Germany, because the little boy looks to related to one of the soldiers. We are not sure when it was taken, perhaps a year or two before the War.
The Wehrmacht was in the mind of many military historians the finest military force in modern history. It was also a vast criminal enterprise. Since the end of World War II there has been an effort to paint the Wehrmacht a a professional, not political force that was the victim of Hitler and the NAZIs. Nothing could be further from the truth. The German Army (tHe Reichwehr) became highly politicized following World War I. Conspiracy theiries florished in the minds of officers and men who could not bring themselves to accept defeat. The leadership of the Reichwehr was never committed to German democracy and the Weimar Re;public. It should be rememvered that its was President Hindenberg, a Prussian Junker to the core, who brought Hitler to power. The Reichwehr, faced with the threat of the NAZI SA, agreed to swear a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. The Wehrmacht cooperated closely with the NAZIs to rearm Germany far beyonf that needed for defensive puroses. It is true that there was resistance with the Wehrmacht to Hitler's early aggressions, especially the seizure of the Sudetenland, but this was more out of fear that it would bring a disatrous war than the objection to the goal of seizing the German populated area. Hitler turned the Wehrmacht into his instrument of aggression, the invasion of neighboring countries and the seizure of their resources to support the German war mmachine. It was also the occupying military force establish the German conmtrol needed to conduct the Holacaust, a process that was to be continued with the Slavs in the East.
Some readers though that the image here was not the best one to illustrate the page discussing the Christian concept of evul. A German reader writes, "The top figure in the article reminds of bad historical events in Germany. It is a figure without relation to the holocaust. Armies are maintained in most of the states, Germany, yes, the US, Great Britain, France, Japan, even the "neutral" Switzerland and Scandanavian countries, the old Romans, and - not to forget - in the former Soviet Union and Russia, in Arabic states, in Israel. I think to be neutral in an discussion about God and the evil you should not (solely) use an illustration showing soldiers (no SS!) of the former German Wehrmacht (the little boy marching is not an excuse!). Certainly you have figures of the Pearl Harbour attack or the terrorists' destruction of the World Trade Center, to give some other really very bad examples."
Quite a range of images could have been selected to illustrate the issue. We chose this image because it was the regular German Army (the Wehrmacht) and not the SS. Our German reader is quite correct. The young soldiers here are in the regular army, many would have been conscripted (drafted). Virtually every country around the world have armies. Few people would see serving in an army as an evil act. After all even the Pope was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a boy. Of course this is not just any army. The people of most of Germany's neighbors will see images of the Whermact, even images like this with considerable distaste because of what the Germans did when they occupied their country. It is true that the SS/SD organized the Holocaust, but the Wehrmacht like other organizations such as the German Railways also participated. The Wehrmacht was the principal occupation force and a wide series of crimes were committed during the occupation, the Holocaust being only the most heinous. Of cour history os not neat. It is often in fact messy. Details of guilt, complicity, and responsibility are often lost in the fog of war. But as Clemenceau said when asked about who started World war I, "I will tell you one thing that history will not say, that Belgium invased Germany." And in World War II the Wehrmact in which each individual soldier had sworn aersonal oath to Adolf Hitler, was the Führer's primary instrument of aggression. All that said, this is not why we chose this image.
Our reader is correct that a photograph of an SS man killing Jews present a clearer depiction of evil. But our purpose here it is not moral clarity. It is to develp the issue of evil and individual resonsibility. Viewing this image a wide range of questions occur to us. We know that the Wehrnacht conducted aggressive war. The question becomes what is the moral resoinsibility for the members of the Wehrmact. Most of us whould say that these young soldiers were not responsible. The question then becomes just how high up the chain of command do you have to go befire individuals are resonsible. Every soldier in the Wehrmacht had to swear a persinal oath to Adolf Hitler. After the war many officers claimed that obligated then to obey orders, including actions seen as war crimes fter the War. We wonder just how much free will the young men in the photograph here should be expected to have. They grew up in a Germany dominated by the NAZI Party. The NAZIs controlled the new media, schools and organizations like the Hitler Youth. They were taught that Poland and Czechoslovakia unjustly seized German territory and abnused German minorities, that the Jews were evil, that Germany needed the vasy lands of the East (Soviet Union), ect. In the super heated nationalism of NAZI Germany did the average indivual actually have free will. Should they have been expected to think differently. Does this absolve then from responsibility for acts they may have committed, especially acts against civilians, during the War. Christianity has a just war doctrine. If they though the War was a hust war, does that absolve them of participating in an agressive war. And how low down the chain of command go in terms of individual respmsibility. The questions become even more complicated on the other side of the front line. Are the moral responsibilities identical for the men in the armies of the country's invaded? Does an army defending its country have to respect the rules of war. And what if the invading army is bent on genocide does that change the equation. We know that German civiloanss were killed in the Allied strayegic bombing campaign. Was that justified because the Luftwaffe began bombing cities first. And did the fact that the Germans were committing genocide abosolve Allied pilots from any pesonal responsibility for the civilians killed in area bombing raids on German cities. And did Allied soldiers have a greater responsibility to exercise free will because they came from countries with a free press.
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