"the western tradition of universalism, humanity, and individual responsibility based on a guilt culture was replaced by a shame culture that elevated loyalty to and standing within the group to be the new moral fulcrum of German society. Whether it be the Volksgemeinschaft as a whole, or the small unit within which a German fought, “the group claimed moral sovereignty.

The shame culture, making conformity a prime virtue, impelled ordinary Germans in uniform to commit terrible crimes rather than suffer the stigma of cowardice and weakness and the "social death" of isolation and alienation vis-à-vis their comrades. This dynamic was intensified by several other factors. The first was that the "pleasures” of comradeship and the "joy of togetherness"