Torture isn't evil.If it is evil then every church,kingdom or political faction from the beginning of humanity to 1949 is evil.
well if you think about it a lot of them are... churches depending on how you look at it have pretty twisted morals for what they are...kingdoms had tyrannical rulers most of the time. and political factions if you pay to much attention they drive you mad... tbh political factions are still torturing us all
Crusades were religious wars because some one didn't share a belief and a lot of the time people were [censored], innocents were killed for no reason and so forth
tyrannical rulers an example of one from that time period you mentioned was Adolf Hitler he was the biggest hypocrite ever to live not to mention he slaughtered 11million people if your counting every one he killed... for is own personal gain he is also an example of a political faction because he was from the NAZI party who before him was only a worker party not what we think of today
so yes in a way all those things are Evil