Fred E. Katz

Fred. E. Katz grew up in Nazi Germany and lost many of his family members in the Holocaust. He has taught sociology in the United States and Israel. Katz is concerned that too often the great evils of the twentieth century (such as the Holocaust) are solely blamed on a few evil leaders (such as Hitler). Katz agrees that such leaders are responsible. However, Katz challenges his readers to consider how ordinary people, submitting to the expectations of their career paths, also contributed to the evils of the twentieth century. The remainder of Katz’s book (not included in the viewpoint) supports this conclusion by quoting from journals of Nazi soldiers and officers who operated the death camps in World War II. The journals demonstrate that the need to...