In the days following the announcement in France that the torture television program was a psychological experiment, undoubtedly French citizens such as myself are wondering: Am I in the ranks of the 20 percent who walked away, or do I have the capacity to commit atrocities? It may seem hard to know for certain. We were not on that studio room and if we volunteered to participate now, the experiment would not work. It is not hard, however, to determine whether we are in the class of the 20 percent.  You need only ask yourself a simple question: Did you protest when you learned the program was an experiment?

The experiment tested an unfortunate few on whether the French have learned from the Holocaust. Conducting test, in itself, demonstrates we have not. The Nazis demonstrated a fundamental disregard for the sanctity of human life. They did so most notoriously through their horrific genocide. They also acted upon their lack of respect for life by experimenting on their prisoners.  The victims of their experiments suffered psychological and psychical injuries, often leading to death. On a smaller scale, the experiment conducted on our French audience is disturbingly similar. The producers and psychologists cannot claim ignorance of the psychological harm such an experiment causes the participants, even the 20 percent that walked away. The well-known similar experiments conducted in the United States in the 1970s support such conclusions. And yet, the French government willingly allowed psychological harm to befall the audience members.

Simply put, in the name of learning from our terrible past, we have perpetuated its most basic lesson: Respect the life of our fellow man, woman, and child.