FBI Director James Comey said this week he requires every new special agent and intelligence analyst to go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. as part of their training.

“Naturally, I want them to learn about abuse of authority on a breathtaking scale,” Mr. Comey said. “But I want them to confront something more painful and more dangerous — I want them to see humanity and what we are capable of.”

New agents and analysts need to understand “our capacity for moral surrender,” he said at the museum’s 2015 National Tribute Dinner, which is part of a weeklong Days of Remembrance. Nazi leaders responsible for the slaughter of millions of Jews “were joined by, and followed by, people who loved their families, took soup to a sick neighbor, went to church, and gave to charity.”

Mr. Comey said that “is the most frightening lesson of all — that our very humanity made us capable — even susceptible — of surrendering our individual moral authority to the group, where it can be hijacked by evil.”

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