Some friends and I were discussing World War II and the Nazi regime. We could all agree that the "I was just following orders" defense doesn't fly when you're examine Nazi Officers/higher ranking people. But there were some disagreements over how that worked for the average-Joe soldier/accountant/person enlisted by the Nazi party to work for them/at internment camps.
If a soldier, or anybody who was to be stationed at a concentration camp wanted to refuse could they even do so without fear of having their entire family locked up/killed? How would the "I was just following orders" defense apply to them? Were/should they be absolved of their crimes? Should they still be punished if they wanted to get out but couldn't for the fear mentioned above? Did/do most people expect them to face jail/the consequences rather than do things so immoral?
There of course had to be some that abandoned the regime/military and escaped to a safe country but what about those that were stuck there in the 1940's?
I believe in his book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and The Final Solution, Christopher Browning states that most of the men did not ask of the duties. In fact, it was only a handful that refused to participate in any of the murders. Those who did refuse weren't disciplined. I also think he points out that across most German units that was the case. No soldier was excessive punished (sent to a camp or murdered) for refusing to kill
for the soldiers there where Kriegsgerichte (war courts), feldgerichte (battlefield courts) and later there were at the order of hitler fliegende standgerichte (i cant translate it,it is like a fast judging military court with a 9man shooting squad) accusations of Insubordination often resulted in death penalties
for the civilists there were for example the infamous Volksgerichtshof (peoples court) which where there to "judge" about political enemies (mostly resulting in death sentence) they sentenced for example the people from the group "weiße rose" like Sophie and Hans Scholl to death