The Specialists

Ralph Fiennes’ performance as Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List has really raised the bar for portrayals of Nazis in stories. It’s a challenge to find new heights of cruelty and creepiness. Of course, if you go too far, you run the risk of veering into caricature.

I’m fairly pleased with how the Nazi in this scene turned out; he’s sufficiently nasty, without being over-the-top, I think. But as satisfying as it is to write a truly unsettling scene, it’s also a little disturbing to know that I can conceive of such horrors. Perhaps I’ve stared too long into Nietzsche’s abyss…