Following Orders

I recently watched the film Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott and about the 2nd Crusade, and one scene really hit a chord with the subject matter we are currently studying. In said scene, Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom) is a commoner who recently discovered his father was a noble and traveled to the Holy Land, where he speaks to King Baldwin IV, who has leprosy. During the chaotic Crusades, many men committed atrocities on both sides of the battlefield, one of the worst being the Christian taking of Jerusalem, where most of the inhabitants were butchered, Christian, Muslim, and Jew. Baldwin tells Balian that "A King may move a man. A father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember, how so ever you are played... or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone... even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God you cannot say... 'But I was told by others to do thus'... or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that." The atrocities of the Crusades were similar to the Holocaust in that men of power commanded others to commit horrible actions and very little refused to participate. When Adolf Eichmann stood before the Israeli court he claimed he was following orders, yet he and the Israeli's knew that even though Hitler could move men, their souls were their own.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJDLZRv1otE