Many gruesome scenes are said to have taken place, people running away after being shot, the finishing off of the wounded and particularly of the women and the children. Many members of the Einsatzkommandos , unable to endure wading through blood any longer, had committed suicide. Some had even gone mad. Most of the members of these Kommandos had to rely on alcohol when carrying out their horrible work. Bach-Zelewski and his men were avid followers of a party and state that taught that there was no God, and that such murder was an officially sanctioned, even heroic act.
Morality is as important a craving for humans as violence itself is.
This craving, not God and not the law, is the main reason that most people live a relatively moral life. General von dem Bach-Zelewski and the Vietnam veterans mentioned above felt tremendous torment and guilt over actions that were not only legally sanctioned by their governments but actually required of them. Though there are almost never any consequences of walking away from the cash register with too much change, many of us will not do it. The law almost never makes it your obligation to rescue anyone, yet humans rescue each other almost every minute of the day, sometimes at great personal risk to themselves. Yet most people would intervene, even up to a moderate risk to themselves.