I would judge it negatively to honor that person’s service in the Nazi military. If he was a good doctor, honor his skills as a doctor—find an appropriate symbol—a caduceus, perhaps, or whatever. But not his service in the military.
Not all aspects of a person’s life are worth honoring, even if it was important to that person.
Generally speaking, I consider the U.S. military one that is not a reprehensible organization as a matter of character. However, if I know that one particular person’s service in the U.S. military was questionable—participation in the My Lai Massacre, for example—I would think it inappropriate to honor that person’s service in the military.
I don’t know how markers came into this. I would question the judgment of a person who went to a felon’s grave specifically to honor the felony that the person committed.
Dennis Rader is widely known as the BTK Killer. He tortured and murdered numerous people over the course of decades. He also was married and had children. For all I know, he was a loving father whose children loved him in return.
When he dies, I will not think it strange for his children to visit his grave to remember him as a father. I will judge it negatively if they go to his grave and decorate it with ropes and chains to commemorate his crimes.
As a general matter, I do not believe it is a good thing to revere one’s ancestors unconditionally. Revere them for the good things they did. Revere your deceased loved ones for the things that they did that made you love them. Do not revere them for their crimes, even if, while they lived, their crimes were important to them.
Not all people lived lives that are equally worth commemorating. Perhaps some people did nothing good but make it possible for their descendants to live—then that’s the limit to which they should be honored.
Perhaps some people were good to their immediate families but otherwise lived lives that harmed people and harmed society—if their immediate families want to honor them for their actions as family members, that’s one thing.
Perhaps a Nazi doctor was a good doctor. He should be honored as a doctor, not as a Nazi doctor.
The dead are dead. They have no wishes. These things have meaning only for the living. Someone wanting to honor the Confederate service of his ancestors tells me what is important to that living person, not to the dead person.
