Judges at Nuremberg in 1945 did not consider "I was just following orders" a legitimate defence. Many of these people knew what they were doing was wrong but did it anyway simply because it was a directive issued from above.
The same applies to Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem in 1961. The mid level bureaucrats who just follow orders I consider actually more dangerous than the crazed dictators, because there are so many of them and that they have no moral compass- they will literally just do whatever their bosses tell them to do regardless of how unethical or amoral it is.
Judges at Nuremberg in 1945 did not consider "I was just following orders" a legitimate defence. Many of these people knew what they were doing was wrong but did it anyway simply because it was a directive issued from above.
The same applies to Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem in 1961. The mid level bureaucrats who just follow orders I consider actually more dangerous than the crazed dictators, because there are so many of them and that they have no moral compass- they will literally just do whatever their bosses tell them to do regardless of how unethical or amoral it is.