You can't indict a government and its organizations as criminal. The conception of the Reich government is a hundred years old. The general staff is several hundreds of years old. The case of the SS is another matter, because it was started with the party and by the party. But it's quite impossible to indict or convict an organization as criminal if it has in its membership millions of innocent people.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Frank argues that large organizations with many innocent members cannot be collectively condemned as criminal, distinguishing the Reich government and general staff from the SS.
- In plain terms
- You cannot label an entire group criminal if millions of innocent people are part of it.
- What can you take from it?
- Collective guilt is problematic when innocent individuals are mixed within an organization.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you assign guilt to a group?
- When does an organization become criminal?
Another view
Organizations can still be held responsible for systemic actions regardless of individual member innocence.
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