The Gerstein Dilemna in Science Fiction and Real Life

The Gerstein Dilemna, as I've termed it, is the choice between saving millions by killing thousands, or doing nothing and walking away. I've given it that term in reference to SS officer Kurt Gerstein, an anti-Nazi who infiltrated the SS in World War II and subsequently tried to alert the world about the Holocaust and sabotage the Holocaust from within the SS. Gerstein is believed to have destroyed a number of gas shipments to the camps, but in order to destroy those shipments, he had to let others go through. Thus, in order to try to save hundreds of thousands, he had to kill tens of thousands. Few literary works have taken on Gerstein's life: The Deputy being the most prominent. But though science fiction has never dealt directly with Gerstein (to my knowledge) it frequently brings dilemmas like these up, because of the epic scale on which it is set. Unfortunately, sci-fi seldom shows its heroes making the hard choices, and when they make the hard choices, they are always spared the consequences. Rosselin considers genocide in BSG, in order to save the human race (killing milllions to save thousands, in that case) and Ender commits a "guiltless genocide" in Ender's Game, but neither of those examples are particularly encouraging. A true Gerstein-like scenario is needed in sci-fi, as a cautionary tale, if nothing else. Sometimes the only way to resist the enemy, is to fight the enemy within. In the process, you don't have clean hands. But then, in war, no one really does.