During World War II the Nazi government had concentration camps in which they imprisoned Jews, Gypsies, union organizers, and various other "undesirables." Conditions in the camps were horrible. The Prisoners in the camps were malnourished, forced to live in unsanitary conditions, treated as slave labor, and every detail of their lives was controlled by the camp Guards. When the Prisoners became too weak and sick to work, they were murdered in gas chambers.
Dear Reader, aren't you truly glad that you are not a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp?
One prison camp had a special Guard who was known to everyone. His name was Hans, but everyone called him Compassionate Hans. Compassionate Hans had a supply of cyanide tablets. In his prison camp prisoners became so miserable, and suffered so much, that they would decide to go and ask Compassionate Hans for a cyanide tablet. And Compassionate Hans would give them one. They would thank him, and then kill themselves. (Prisoners could kill themselves in other ways, also. But Hans's cyanide tablets were especially civilized and cozy to take.)
Occasionally one of the local townspeople, or one of Hans's colleagues among the Guards would become especially sick or depressed and ask Hans for a cyanide tablet. Hans would given them tablets, too. But most of his clients were among the Prisoners, because the Prisoners had such miserable lives.
Compassionate Hans was not compassionate in any other way than to hand out cyanide tablets. Just like the other Guards, he abused the Prisoners simply because they were Prisoners. He beat the prisoners just as the other guards did, he pushed them into the gas chambers when their time came, and he most certainly did not share his food with the prisoners. But any Prisoner could ask Hans for a cyanide pill, and Hans would hand one over. After all, the Prisoners were all 'incurable' -- they had nothing to look forward to but suffering and death.
Dear Reader, if you were in a Nazi concentration camp wouldn't you be glad to know Compassionate Hans? Wouldn't you be angry with anyone who criticized his generosity? Wouldn't you be glad that Compassionate Hans RESPECTED your RIGHT to kill yourself?
But some of the Prisoners hated Compassionate Hans. They told other Prisoners to avoid him, and to refuse to take his poison. Other Prisoners felt like you feel - they felt lucky to know such a compassionate man. It is a personal decision, after all, whether or not to kill yourself, and Hans never forced anyone to take his pills. The people who criticized Compassionate Hans and urged others not to kill themselves were themselves attacked by Hans's supporters. It was said that Hans's critics "thought they owned other people's lives," and that they "didn't respect freedom of choice" the way Hans did.
After World War II was over, most of the world condemned the Nazi government and the concentration camps. Somehow the story of Compassionate Hans never became widely known. Hans was put on trial for war crimes. In his own defense he reported that he had "compassionately" given poison to the prisoners in his camp. His attorney contacted some of the former prisoners who had defended Hans in the camps. Were they willing to testify to Hans's compassion and his "respect for freedom of choice?"
None of the prisoners came forward to defend Hans in his trial. The fact that Hans had helped prisoners to kill themselves just didn't seem important anymore. Prisoners had been abused and killed, and Hans had participated. He was a murderer and nothing else.
Somehow Hans didn't seem compassionate after the oppression
had ceased. No one was convinced by Hans's argument that the cyanide
pills were a token of his respect for the prisoners' freedom of
choice. Everyone on the jury could see that the "freedom"
he had offered the prisoners was no freedom at all. The pills
he gave to prisoners were just one more way of murdering them.