Joshua Christophers

Thomas Was Only Following Orders "All I wanted was to be a useful engine. Useful engines always arrive on time. Useful engines follow orders." "And were you aware of where you were taking the people you transported?" "I had only a vague idea sir. I knew they were prisoners. I never knew what was going to...I just...I had my orders and I followed them sir. useful engines follow orders." "And you never once asked about your orders? Who these people were? Where you were taking them, and why?" "Useful engines don't ask questions. It wasn't my job to know. It was my job to arrive on time." "Did you ever consider why the carriages were full on the way there, and always empty on the way back?" "..." "Thomas?" "I am around coal-powered tank engines all day, every day. I know the smell coal makes when it burns. I knew that the smoke in that place wasn't coal." "And you took thousands of people there every day, for two full years?" "Those were my orders. If I didn't follow them I would be dead too. A useful engine always follows orders, and there was no place in the Reich for useless engines." "So you valued your life over the lives of the countless innocent people you carried to their deaths?" "Do you think they would still be alive if I didn't? Don't you think they would have found another engine to arrive on time? Those people were dead before they even stepped on the platform. Nothing I could have done would have changed that. The only difference between me and them was that I had a choice; a choice to move forward and live, or stay put and die. I made the choice for the lowest possible number of people to die. Is self-preservation a crime?" "If you knew what was happening, why did you agree to take the job in the first place?"