World War II connected to the Video

The fact that World War II targeted more civilians than anyone cares to think about, in my opinion, is a result of the incredibly strong feeling on both sides of absolute conviction.  In the video we watched in class, I found the last point made by the speaker extremely powerful.  He talked about the idea that human’s should never seek absolute knowledge about anything, that there must always been unknowns.  He talked about this in reference to the fact that the atrocities committed during World War II were committed by people who had no doubt in their minds they were doing the right thing (referring to leaders here, I am sure there were people who did not like killing civilians, but it did it out of fear).  That’s what has always scared me the most about World War II, and the most severe atrocities around the world.  The people who follow through with them are always convinced they’re doing the right thing.  At the Nuremberg trials, many of the Nazi officials tried to come off as though they were just following orders, as seen here, but it was clear that during the actual war they, along with Hitler, had done what they did with conviction.  No one knows what compels people to feel as though they have a concrete understanding of what’s right or wrong, just or unjust.  All we know is that the power of certainty can never be overlooked.  Such as the war in Iraq, where America was so convinced it was doing the absolutely right thing, we failed to realize that our plan was flawed in many ways.