Why Do Monsters Exist

Don’t leave me here alone.’ The narrator simply shakes him off and moves on. The soldiers have been trained like beasts and they have been dehumanised; they have been taught that no life is to be spared. Death is now the norm and they have been desensitized to it. The narrator relates an incident where he volunteers for a raid on the German trenches. He experiences much trauma; he kills a soldier, Karl. Karl’s death is terrible- the bayonet is trapped in Karl and eventually the narrator has to shoot him. When he returns to the trenches with two German prisoners he tries to suppress what has happened: ‘It is better not to think’. The narrator knows that he would indubitably go insane if he thinks about his action. Karl’s death epitomizes the fact that soldiers on both sides are killed in horrific way for no discernible reason. There is definitely nothing glorious or heroic about war.

To understand how this could happen again we must first understand how it happened at all. One can not think of the Germans as hate based beings frothing at the teeth at the opportunity to kill a Jew. The German people were normal people, like you and I. It was

Many people would willingly assist someone in danger, yet many German citizens sat idle as innocent people were slaughtered by the thousands. By the mid 1920s, Germany was plunged into a state of economic depression and people were desperately looking for someone to follow. Many people simply conformed to the ideals of others, despite their own thoughts and beliefs. Herd mentality is the subconscious adoption of the attitudes and behaviors of one’s peers. As a result of this ingrained disposition, people are more likely to “bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one” (Taleb 192). Through the use of propaganda, Hitler effectively targeted people’s innate need to conform to prevent the rapid decline in his following

In the pursuit of safety, acceptance, and the public good, many atrocities have been committed in places such as Abu Ghraib and My Lai, where simple, generally harmless people became the wiling torturers and murderers of innocent people. Many claim to have just been following orders, which illustrates a disturbing trend in both the modern military and modern societies as a whole; when forced into an obedient mindset, many normal and everyday people can become tools of destruction and sorrow, uncaringly inflicting pain and death upon the innocent.

In history, humans have influenced ways to abuse each other in hateful ways. Because of hate, all miserable things that happen to people relates to mob mentality. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel states, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.” Throughout history, humanity has seen dignified people pursuing horrendous actions because these individuals got caught up in mob mentality.

“Hands up!” one Nazi shouted, “I said hands up or I’ll shoot you!” The people scared to look behind them, in fear of what they may see, did exactly what the Nazi demanded. The poor mothers and children dressed in shorts and skirts almost frozen to death, just a jacket wasn’t enough to keep you warm in this weather. The soldiers just

People will resort to drastic measures for survival. Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy learns about this as he goes through life in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. He talks about this in his book Night. In Night, Jews are taken from their homes and tortured to death. Everything is taken from the prisoners, so they have to fight for survival. Some of the prisoners give up, but others focus on fighting to the end with a bit of hope that they will make it out alive. Surviving in a place like a concentration camp is very hard and dangerous. Wiesel shows in his memoir that when survival is at stake, people lose self-respect and their humanity.

The Nuremberg Trials More than half a century has passed since the end of World War Two and to this day it is still difficult to fully understand the severity of what was by far the most destructive war in human history. More than sixty million people were killed during World War Two and more than half of those were innocent town’s people. Among the dead were over six million Jews, which was two thirds of the total living race in Europe at the time. Beyond these general statistics were thousands of stories of crimes committed against soldiers and civilians. These crimes against humanity included cases of prisoners of war being murdered, sent to concentration camps and abuse as well as harmless civilians being rounded up and

The Life Of A Child Soldier “Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head. Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my two lifeless friends, I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people.” (Beah 119). This is one of the most powerful quotes in the book. As you’re reading you understand that this is just the beginning and it only gets worse from here on out. This is the life of a child soldier.

My teeth chatter, and my heart races as I step onto the battlefield. I finally take a deep breath and muster up my courage. Not only this, but also when I kill a German, although it feels relieving at first, a sense of guilt dawns upon me. I wonder, if I met that person’s family, how sorrowful and infuriated they would feel to find out that I murdered their son.

When dealing with war, The one outcome out of war a country would want is to win, no matter how many innocent people die in the process. In Germany, the leader at the time, Adolf Hitler, wanted to destroy the Jewish race and religion thinking Germany would be better off without them. Hitler manipulated the citizens of Germany and Austria to be for the elimination of the Jews. The book Night, by Elie Wiesel states, ¨ From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun.¨(Wiesel 20 ), in this quote, Wiesel reveals how devastating it was watching other innocent people and himself be forced to evacuate their homes and be sent to the dreadful death camps. The fact that Germans allowed themselves to be manipulated into putting the Jews to death is terrifying because not only were they innocent, but they were citizens and had their rights taken from them. The novel The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, it states, “I am haunted by humans.” (Zusak 550 ) and the author declares that humans behave differently in different situations when under pressure and are capable of doing more evil deeds. Even Death is astonished what Human beings were capable of doing, thus Death believes that it is being haunted by Humans. Just the thought of normal people having the ability to kill their own kind is astonishing and it is an uncomfortable truth people

The conflict between the Allies and the Axis was a horrific and deadly one, which consisted of genocide and mass bombings. Innocent citizens were killed with the estimated sixty million casualties, which lead to the question as to the morality of the different actors—Germany, Japan, England and America— in WWII. In order to truly assess their guilt, meaning their moral innocence, each country will be measured upon the morality of their intent and execution of the different controversial mass killings that Germany (the Holocaust), Japan (Nanking), and the Allied forces (Dresden and Hiroshima) took part in. This hierarchy of evil can be judged upon how Japan’s tyranny and the Allies’ area bombing compare to the genocide performed by Germany. Similarly, these countries will be judged on the whether these different acts were premeditated versus in response to another act, as well as the proportionality to which these acts were carried out. This measurement of evil places each party on an overall scale, which depicts the total guilt that each country or countries deserve. WWII exemplifies that while war is an unavoidable aspect of human nature, there is no such thing as a just war. Similarly, while there is a definite hierarchy of morality between the different actors of WWII, each of the countries at play are immoral in their intent and execution of the attacks on opposing countries.

The soldiers need to come out in a specific position when they fall down to their deaths, this probably takes many tries. It certainly can be said that many men died to be apart of this sickening scheme. These men were easily persuaded to be compliant by, the General, who honoured their bravery by giving the soldiers the same pin that was attached simply with a cheap safety pin. The General himself did not seem to care too much about murdering the soldiers. He had an egotistical look when he was speaking to the next soldier. It can be assumed that, he enjoys the power he holds when he persuades or talks the soldiers into falling to their deaths. During World War II, many very young boys were drafted into the war. They almost instantly lost their sanities being surrounded by the horrifying corpses of dead soldiers and the persecuted jewish people. These boys were too young to be thrown into a world they had never imagined nor did they ever think could manifest on earth. Sociologically these boys could have become attached to their generals or sergeants or whomever was caring for them at the time of the

As shocking as Nazi acts were these have not been isolated incidents. Hundreds of thousands have been murdered in Russia, Cambodia, Chile, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Philippines, El Salvador, Rwanda and many more over the second part of the past century. The sad part is that the world communities has witnessed the massacres and have been hesitant to intervene. One of the many examples occurs in the case of the genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda which any action by the United Nations was paralyzed by the Cold War. The result in most of these cases that have reoccurred in history the leader/dictator/president/military has been able to get away with it unlike in the case in Nuremberg. One of the very few exceptions of this was the case of the capture of the President Saddam Hussein. He was captured on December 2003 and was tried and found guilty by the Iraqi Special Tribunal who charged him for crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 1968.

And Though The Darkness. How is the term “monster” defined? Are monsters dark creatures, with the ability to call upon hell and all its attributes? Do they have mangy fur and eyes the vibrant color of blood? In reality, monsters are not furry beast that live under the bed. Monsters