Obedience unto death: stripped of honor & glory Richard A. Koenigsberg The SS-man vowed obedience unto death and often fulfilled his vow--suffering and dying when the German nation-state asked him to do so. The Holocaust victim was compelled to be obedient unto death--suffering and dying when the German nation-state asked him to do so. The Holocaust came into being in order to convey suffering and death at the hands of the nation-state—stripped of words like honor and glory.