Hot Enough For You?

I've been watching The History Channel this evening; they are doing a series on the Gestapo. Included are side mentions of the SA and SS. Whenever I see a program about the Nazis, I wonder what the outcomes were when they faced their individual judgements and were called to account for their lives. What happens when you meet your Maker, and have to explain how you picked murder and torture as your choices in life? It can't be a pretty sight.

We all do stuff that's not quite right; little things here and there. Goes with being human. But when you supervise torture and murder, that's quite different. If you are involved in a policy that results in the deaths of 12 million people, you've hit The Big Heat Wave. The person who judges you will drop down for a visit once in a while and say, "Hot enough for you?"

My theory says there aren't any flames; you don't burn forever. Since you really have to blow it to end up Down There, it's reserved for the worst of us. A little casual naughty now and then just isn't enough.

So there are our Nazis. And what are they doing? Experiencing the fears, terrors, horrors and pains of each victim, one by one, in perfect detail; of each victim's family members, also in perfect detail. They become all twelve million of their victims, one by one, and those of all the surviving families and friends. Finally, it comes to an end; at last, it comes to an end; mercifully, it comes to an end. And then it starts over again. The cycle repeats, endlessly; it never stops and the person experiencing it never becomes accustomed to it.

It's the Final Solution, all right. Just not the one they were thinking of.