Void

Through Macbeth and the Holocaust, many faultless lives were overtaken by envy and scorn, although each assassin perceived no guilt for what they had done. Adam Kirsch’s “Can You Learn Anything from a Void,” goes beneath the evil to see what was actually happening and what the killer had felt. The doctor Victor Capesius, whom he writes about, is at one point close with the Jewish people but then suddenly turns against them by becoming a German Nazi. Kirsch begins to explain that Capesius no longer voids, something experienced as a loss or privation, the view from another person and what the Jewish people might have felt like when he betrayed them. When he was sent to trial, Kirsch explains, that he was without any emotion when the topic of deception towards them was brought up. Instead of being one who was fighting against this he became someone who was for the cause of killing innocent people. This tied in with the discussion of right and wrong. Because he was with the Nazi force and no one was there to show him what he was doing wrong, he believed that he was doing the right thing. Kirsch shows that Capesius was full of no empathy or remorse for what he had done, even though he still had suffered the consequences for his actions. In Macbeth there is a very similar situation. Three murders killed Banquo for Macbeth in order for him to obtain the reign of king. Not abiding to their morals or principles the proceeded to kill him anyway. They did no feel remorse either for what they had done because they believed it was only what they were asked to do. Right or wrong is then brought into the picture once again. If the murderers were not to do as Macbeth had commanded they would have received no pay, and even could have lost their own lives. Instead they killed Banquo and didn’t understand that they were responsible for their actions even though it was for a different purpose. With seeing evil all around Kirsch then brings up a man named Konrad Jarausch. He was also part of the Nazi force but completely disagreed with it. He was a man that shared compassion with the Jews because he believed everyone had the right to be treated equally. Although he was doing what was wrong in other people’s minds, he was doing what was right after all and this shows that it’s the right thing if it comes from your heart and from God.