Twain, Mark -- The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 9 (1916)

Dave — Thu, 05 May 2016 16:00:34 +0000

I know your race. It is made up of sheep. It is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it. The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don’t dare to assert themselves. Think of it! One kind-hearted creature spies upon another, and sees to it that he loyally helps in iniquities which revolt both of them. Speaking as an expert, I know that ninety-nine out of a hundred of your race were strongly against the killing of witches when that foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch. And yet apparently everybody hates witches and wants them killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the other side and make the most noise — perhaps even a single daring man with a big voice and a determined front will do it — and in a week all the sheep will wheel and follow him, and witch-hunting will come to a sudden end.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 9 (1916)

Levi, Primo -- The Drowned and the Saved, ch. 8 “Letters from Germans” (1986) [tr. Rosenthal (1888)]

Dave — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:39:16 +0000

The true crime, the collective, general crime of almost all Germans of that time was that of lacking the courage to speak.

Primo Levi (1919–1987) Italian Jewish chemist and writer
The Drowned and the Saved, ch. 8 “Letters from Germans” (1986) [tr. Rosenthal (1888)]
(Source)

Regarding the Third Reich and the Holocaust.

WIST Quotations

Twain, Mark -- The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 9 (1916)

Levi, Primo -- The Drowned and the Saved, ch. 8 “Letters from Germans” (1986) [tr. Rosenthal (1888)]