Schwartz, Jessica2025-07-172025-07-172017https://hdl.handle.net/1773/53173Dull gray clouds loom above the old buildings of Majdanek on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland. Many modern high-rises of Lublin overlook the site. The old barracks sit untouched as if their occupants have only just vacated. The gas chambers still stand, the crematorium ovens. remain intact. Majdanek was a Nazi extermination camp and remains largely as it was during World War II. According to the camp's tour guides, Majdanek could be up and running again in just twenty-four hours. Around the world, nuclear warheads sit deployed and ready for use. In the U.S., the president alone has authority to order a nuclear strike. Within five minutes of deciding to use a nuclear weapon that could be launched. As Kingston Reif explains, "The U.S. right now deploys approximately 900 nuclear warheads that are on the order of 10 to 20 times more powerful than the weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And those 900 warheads are available for use at virtually a moment's notice." Since the end of World War II, the ominous threat of repeating its two biggest atrocities has not disappeared. It is imperative to remember the Holocaust and Hiroshima because both are so close within reach. But remembering is not enough. One must understand how so many people ignored their intrinsic moral compass and committed terrible crimes or stood by and watched them happen. Why was humanity's inner morality insufficient to prevent these atrocities? And what does it take for one to stand up for one's morals? By understanding the forces at work, one can work to have one's morality prevail and prevent such atrocities in the future.