The monsters don't look like monsters.

I've had friends and loved ones of late that had encounters with white nationalists and/or Nazis in the real world. A consistent theme when talking to my loved ones has been how normal they (the aforementioned Nazis / nationalists) looked. Well dressed, upper-middle class, reasonably articulate, good looking guys. There is some part of the American psyche (or maybe just the human psyche) that expects monstrous ideas to show on a person's face or physique in some readily identifiable way.

Anyway, with the state of the world today, I thought I'd share a lovely photo that hearkens back to a simpler time. Here we see a company picnic in the 1940's. The young women from the steno pool are lined up sitting on the rail on a beautiful summer day, enjoying being outside, but a little concerned that it might rain. That good looking fellow with the winning smile is their boss. He's decided to switch it up for a day, and spoil them as a reward for all the hard work they do. Here, we see him doling out fresh blueberries, a sweet treat to be sure. You can tell from the looks on everyone's faces that this was a happy day, a moment to relieve the stress of office-work and just enjoy being together somewhere beautiful.

Oh... those young ladies on the rails? They're the steno-and-filing pool at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. The guy with the winning smile who's waiting on the girls with fresh blueberries at hand? That's Karl Hoeker, adjutant to the camp commandant at Auschwitz, responsible for overseeing the paperwork and bureaucracy that murdered thousands of men, women, and children for the crime of being Jewish, or Polish, or Romani, or gay.