One of the central moral lessons from the Holocaust is collective responsibility and the dangers of standing by while atrocities occur.
The post-WWII reckoning in Germany emphasized that “just following orders” was not an acceptable defense, and that ordinary citizens bear responsibility when they enable, support, or fail to resist systematic evil.
The whole nation has thus taken extraordinary steps to acknowledge there must be a collective responsibility for the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities. This includes:
- Paying reparations to victims and their descendants
- Creating extensive memorials and educational programs
- Implementing laws against Holocaust denial and Nazi symbols
- Incorporating this history into national identity and education
The well-studied approach reflects the understanding that while not every German was personally complicit (approximately only 300 Germans are among the tens of thousands who have been formally honored for personally opposing genocide), the society as a whole bore responsibility for allowing Hitler’s rise and the subsequent atrocities.
An underlying principle about bystander responsibility remains relevant, regardless of the scale of harm, from giving the Hitler salute to working for Hitler.
In other words, employees of Tesla bear some moral responsibility to respond to their leadership when it violates fundamental values, even when doing so carries personal risk. In fact, personal risk may be the evidence of taking an actual moral stand, as opposed to a purely self-serving one.
And now this:
“We welcome the clarification from Senator Kiziltepe,” said Hikel and Böcker-Giannini [after she called Tesla a “Nazi car” with a subsequent clarification]. The Tesla location is an important economic factor for the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region. “The people who work at the Grünheide site and come from many different nations should not be held liable/accountable for an alleged Hitler salute from their boss.”
This statement from two young politicians Hikel and Böcker-Giannini isn’t an isolated incident but represents a dangerous pattern in contemporary German politics.
As newly elected leaders of Berlin, they’re continuing a dangerously ignorant trend where economic considerations are used to wash away moral principles that Germany once held sacred due to their grave errors. Furthermore they’re using doublespeak to both claim moral high ground to defend immigrants “from many different nations” as a shield while actually promoting an environment extremely hostile to immigration.
The thoughtless move to deny Tesla workers (and by extension, Tesla’s operations) are accountable regarding Nazi symbolism reflects how thoroughly selfish interests can corrupt historical memory.
Are we actually seeing attempts by German politicians to gin up racist “MAGA” themed campaigns, given how a recent AfD hate rally put it so plainly, as Elon Musk jumped onto a main political stage to spread Nazi-sounding propaganda eerily reminiscent of Berlin’s particular labor history?
…battery factories in Berlin, where, thousands of forced slave laborers were used, including female slave laborers from concentration camps…
And what about the fact Tesla factories are known for racism and flagrant safety violations, while undermining worker right using loopholes?
These supposedly center-left politicians from the Social Democratic Party—the very party that was persecuted by the Nazis—now find themselves providing cover for a company whose leader displayed a gesture associated with profit from genocide.
What makes this particularly alarming is that it’s happening in Brandenburg, where the far-right AfD has gained significant ground using similar “economics” campaigning. Rather than standing firmly against the normalization of Nazi symbolism, these politicians have chosen to compartmentalize morality and open the door to Nazism: the Hitler salute by the Tesla CEO is unacceptable, yet workers who choose to enable him should be able to avoid consequences. This represents precisely the kind of moral compromise that enabled fascism’s rise in the first place—placing some personal or local economic stability and convenience above all ethical principles.
This isn’t a fire drill. This is the fire. If you know Peter Thiel and Elon Musk family history, you know this is the return to Nazism.
By framing a statement in terms of protecting jobs and economic development, Hikel and Böcker-Giannini reveal how thoroughly German political discourse has been captured in their mind at the expense of historical responsibility. The fact that these politicians can simultaneously acknowledge Germany’s Nazi past while attempting to excuse the most obvious present-day manifestations of it demonstrates the profound moral contradiction at work. At least the British can see it clearly.
