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Forbes
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
From Hitler's Bunker To AI Boardrooms: Why Moral Courage Matters
black numbers (figures) 1944 on a marble slab. Eighty-one years ago today, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg walked into Adolf Hitler's Wolf's Lair bunker with a briefcase containing enough explosives to change the course of history. The assassination attempt failed, but Stauffenberg's courage in the face of overwhelming evil offers puzzling lessons for our current moment — particularly as we navigate the transformative power of artificial intelligence. The parallels are uncomfortable, and useful to examine. Then, as now, individual acts of moral courage were essential to preserving human agency in the face of systems that seemed beyond individual control. High-ranking German officials recognized what many contemporaries refused to see: that passive compliance with destructive systems was itself a moral choice. Today, AI systems are being deployed across society at new speed, often without adequate consideration of their long-term implications. Many of us assume that someone else — tech companies, governments, international bodies — will ensure AI serves human flourishing. This assumption is dangerous. AI development is not a natural phenomenon happening to us; it is a series of human choices that requires active human agency, not passive acceptance. The Necessity Of Hybrid Intelligence Stauffenberg and his conspirators understood that opposing tyranny required more than good intentions — it demanded strategic thinking, careful planning, and the ability to work within existing systems while fundamentally challenging them. They needed what we might today call hybrid intelligence: combining human moral reasoning with systematic analysis and coordinated action. The biggest performance improvements come when humans and smart machines work together, enhancing each other's strengths. This principle applies not just to productivity but to the fundamental challenge of keeping AI aligned with human values. We cannot simply delegate AI governance to technologists any more than the German resistance could delegate their moral choices to military hierarchies. Consider practical examples of where hybrid intelligence is essential today: Double Literacy: The Foundation Of Agency The German resistance succeeded in part because its members possessed both military expertise and moral clarity. They could operate effectively within existing power structures while maintaining independent judgment about right and wrong. Today's equivalent is double literacy — combining algorithmic literacy with human literacy. Algorithmic literacy means understanding AI's capabilities and constraints — how machine learning systems are trained, what data they use, and where they typically fail. Human literacy encompasses our understanding of aspirations, emotions, thoughts, and sensations across scales — from individuals to communities, countries, and the planet. Leaders don't need to become programmers, but they need both forms of literacy to deploy AI effectively and ethically. Practical double literacy looks like: Every Small Action Matters Stauffenberg and other members of the conspiracy were arrested and executed on the same day. The immediate failure of the July 20 plot might suggest that individual actions are meaningless against overwhelming systemic forces. But this interpretation misses the deeper impact of moral courage. The resistance's willingness to act, even against impossible odds, preserved human dignity in the darkest possible circumstances. It demonstrated that systems of oppression require human compliance to function, and that individual refusal to comply — however small — matters morally and strategically. Similarly, in the AI age, every decision to maintain human agency in the face of algorithmic convenience is significant. When a teacher insists on personally reviewing AI-generated lesson plans rather than using them blindly, when a manager refuses to outsource hiring decisions entirely to screening algorithms, when a citizen demands transparency in algorithmic decision-making by local government — these actions preserve human agency in small but crucial ways. The key is recognizing that these are not merely personal preferences but civic responsibilities. Just as the German resistance understood their actions in terms of duty to future generations, we must understand our choices about AI as fundamentally political acts that will shape the society we leave behind. Practical Takeaway: The A-Frame For Civil Courage Drawing from both Stauffenberg's example and current research on human-AI collaboration, here is a practical framework for exercising civil courage in our hybrid world: Awareness: Develop technical literacy about AI systems you encounter. Ask questions like: Who trained this system? What data was used? What are its documented limitations? How are errors detected and corrected? Stay informed about AI developments through credible sources rather than relying on marketing materials or sensationalized reporting. Appreciation: Recognize both the genuine benefits and the real risks of AI systems. Avoid both uncritical enthusiasm and reflexive opposition. Understand that the question is not whether AI is good or bad, but how to ensure human values guide its development and deployment. Appreciate the complexity of these challenges while maintaining confidence in human agency. Acceptance: Accept responsibility for active engagement rather than passive consumption. This means moving beyond complaints about "what they are doing with AI" to focus on "what we can do to shape AI." Accept that perfect solutions are not required for meaningful action — incremental progress in maintaining human agency is valuable. Accountability: Take concrete action within your sphere of influence. If you're a parent, engage meaningfully with how AI is used in your children's education. If you're an employee, participate actively in discussions about AI tools in your workplace rather than simply adapting to whatever is implemented. If you're a citizen, contact representatives about AI regulation and vote for candidates who demonstrate serious engagement with these issues. For professionals working directly with AI systems, accountability means insisting on transparency and human oversight. For everyone else, it means refusing to treat AI as a force of nature and instead recognizing it as a set of human choices that can be influenced by sustained civic engagement. The lesson of July 20, 1944, is not that individual action always succeeds in its immediate goals, but that it always matters morally and often matters practically in ways we cannot foresee. Stauffenberg's briefcase bomb failed to kill Hitler, but the example of the German resistance helped shape post-war democratic institutions and continues to inspire moral courage today. As we face the challenge of ensuring AI serves human flourishing rather than undermining it, we need the same combination of technical competence and moral clarity that characterized the July 20 conspirators. The systems we build and accept today will shape the world for generations. Like Stauffenberg, we have a choice: to act with courage in defense of human dignity, or to remain passive in the face of forces that seem beyond our control but are, ultimately, the product of human decisions. The future of AI is not predetermined. It will be shaped by the choices we make — each of us, in small acts of courage, every day.
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The women who tasted Hitler's food... and feared every meal would be their last: Film inspired by survivor's astonishing testimony shed's light on Nazi dictator's fear of being poisoned
It is said that if you sup with the Devil, you should have a long spoon. But for the women who had to eat for the Devil, things were rather more complicated. Because the list of enemies who might have wanted to poison Hitler was a long one, and so lengthy cutlery would not have saved the Nazi dictator's food tasters. In 2013, 95-year-old Margot Woelk broke decades of silence to claim that she and 14 other women were tasked with eating Hitler's food to check it was safe. Given that Hitler was a vegetarian, Woelk and her fellow tasters allegedly feasted on 'delicious' meals; including asparagus and bell peppers paired with rice or pasta. But, every day, Woelk said, 'we feared it was going to be our last meal'. Now, a new film based on a novel inspired by Woelk's remarkable story - which has been doubted by some experts - is set to be released. Italian production The Tasters will debut in German cinemas this month. Director Silvio Soldini told the Guardian his film will show, 'how these women are affected, in this "small" world in which they are forced to do something awful: constantly play Russian roulette.' Woelk claimed she worked as a taster at the 'Wolf's Lair' - Hitler's heavily guarded command centre in what is now Poland - for two and a half years. 'The food was delicious, only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, everything you can imagine. And always with a side of rice or pasta,' she recalled. 'But this constant fear - we knew of all those poisoning rumours and could never enjoy the food. Every day we feared it was going to be our last meal.' Woelk claimed her association with Hitler began after she fled Berlin to escape Allied air attacks. Her husband was away serving in the Wehrmacht - the German army - and she had moved in with relatives in what was then Rastenburg in Germany. She said she was drafted into the civilian service and, as well as being made a taster, was assigned as a kitchen bookkeeper in the Wolf's Lair complex. The widow, who died in 2014, claimed she never saw Hitler in person. She only spotted the dictator's German shepherd dog Blondie and spoke to his SS guards. Hitler's paranoia about his safety stemmed from several attempts that were made on his life. The one that came closest to succeeding was what is now known as the 20 July plot, or Operation Valkyrie, which saw conspirators led by German officer Claus von Stauffenberg try to assassinate Hitler with a bomb hidden in a briefcase. The dictator only survived with minor injuries thanks to luck and timing. Woelk remembered the explosion. 'We were sitting on wooden benches when we heard and felt an incredible big bang,' she said. 'We fell off the benches, and I heard someone shouting "Hitler is dead!" But he wasn't.' In the aftermath, Woelk claimed the Nazis ordered her to leave her relatives' home and move into an abandoned school closer to the compound. With the Soviet army on the offensive and the war going badly for Germany, one of her SS friends advised her to leave the Wolf's Lair. She said she returned by train to Berlin and went into hiding. Woelk said the other women on the food tasting team decided to remain in Rastenburg since their families were all there and it was their home. 'Later, I found out that the Russians shot all of the 14 other girls,' she said. According to a Soviet account of the interrogations of Hitler's close aides, Heinz Linge and Otto Gunsche, the dictator became so paranoid at the end of his life that he demanded his toilet water, as well as the water in which his eggs were boiled, be analysed for traces of poison. After Hitler's suicide in Berlin on April 30, 1945, and the fall of the German capital to Soviet troops, Woelk claimed she was repeatedly raped by the Russians. She said: 'The Russians then came to Berlin and got me, too. 'They took me to a doctor's apartment and raped me for 14 consecutive days. That's why I could never have children. They destroyed everything.' In 1946 Woelk was reunited with the husband she had presumed dead, and the couple lived together until his death in 1990. Woelk spent her final years virtually housebound in her flat in Germany. Her story received intense attention first in the German media and then globally. Historians have documented how Hitler's diet at the Wolf's Lair regularly featured legumes, whilst alcohol was off the menu entirely. Scholar Felix Bohr, whose latest book documents Hitler's time in the Wolf's Lair, said there is 'no evidence' for Woelk's story. He told the Guardian: 'I spent three years in the archives researching Hitler's time there and none of the accounts of secretaries, cooks, servants, military staff or other people who were there – up to 2,000 at a given time – mentioned a team of women food tasters.' The Wolf's Lair had an 'elaborate' system to protect the food supply, he added. But the historian also admitted that there was no concrete proof Woelk's claims were untrue. Author Sven Felix Kellerhoff also raised doubts about Woelk's story, saying Hitler had two cooks who tasted his food before it was served to him. The main character in The Tasters is the fictional Rosa Sauer, portrayed by Elisa Schlott.
