Postwar Germany taught Europeans that middling complicity is the safest position

Evidence

What has the average European learnt for the future from postwar conditions in Germany? He is forced to the conclusion that in periods of totalitarianism it is not wise to stand at the top, but advisable and even advantageous to be among the sympathizers; that it may be risky to be actively involved in the worst atrocities, but is entirely safe to commit more minor crimes. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 424

Categorization

• APHORISMS: A bitter piece of durable life-advice about surviving tyranny: avoid the top, avoid atrocity, stay mid-tier.
• SEED: An essay on how accountability regimes manufacture cynicism, using denazification as the paradigm case.