Problem is, everything dramatic in our history has had consequences, good or bad.  The Second World War produced computers and the internet, and spurred the American economy out of depression.  The First World War stimulated equality between the sexes, as women did jobs previously reserved for men while the men were dying at the front. It also contributed towards ending the class system in Europe.  The Holocaust, as the article says, created a repugnance that put measures in place towards human rights.  The Crimean War created the Red Cross.  The American Civil War ended slavery in America.  Battlefields are the flashes of lightning that illuminate history.  So yes, while one could hardly say that wars and atrocities are good things, one cannot say that the social upheaval they caused has not brought about positive change.  However, to use soap and lampshades as an example of human development is crass in the extreme.  But then maybe that was the intention.