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Consequences of genocide in general
Limited perspectives towards the Holocaust
Prejudice attitudes of the Holocaust
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Recommended: Consequences of genocide in general
Staub, as referenced in Ordinary Men, proposes that “ordinary psychological processes and normal, common human motivations and certain basic tendencies in human thought and feeling are the primary sources of the human capacity for mass destruction of human life” (167). This idea is indeed exemplified by the actions of the Nazi party towards Jews during the Holocaust. Though this statement raises controversy, in that most people dislike the notion that they, too, possess the capacity for such atrocious actions against other human beings, Staub’s claim is given merit by several authors in their own works regarding the events of the Holocaust and the nature and actions of human beings; specifically, Spiegelman’s Maus I and Maus II, Browning’s Ordinary Men, Bauman’s “The Dream of Purity,” and Sherman’s Bent support Staub’s accusatory claim. The aforementioned works support the notion that, given the proper conditions of existence, any otherwise normal human (that is, not selected for traits expressing violence) possesses a natural capacity for the “mass destruction of human life” (Staub 161) due simply to the intrinsic nature of humans to desire order.
In his essay, “The Dream of Purity,” Bauman discusses the desire, possessed by all humans, for the complete control over the order of their lives. As conscious beings – that is, capable of forethought – humans have a dependency on familiarity and order such that they can reasonably guess the events of the future and plan their actions accordingly. Bauman makes this desire for order clear when he says that people’s desire to “[stigmatize] traitors [and banish] strangers stems from the motive of preservation of order, of making or keeping the environment understandable and hospitable to ...
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...quire order to be able to fully control a situation – even to a level of ordering that which is unordered by its very nature.
This selection of works shows that any normal human does, in fact, possess the capacity for the “mass destruction of human life” (Staub 161) due to his or her natural need for the complete order of all that exists. This is most clearly visible in the application of Bauman’s metaphor of dirt to many real life examples, in which anything which is undesirable and incapable of being ordered must be completely eradicated. As such, it is clear that “common human motivations and certain basic tendencies in human thought and feeling” are quite sufficient to propel the “mass destruction of human life.” Given that this is the case, humans should trudge forward carefully, ensuring not to repeat the events of history due to their own intrinsic nature.
In Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, both authors explore the source of human violence and aggression. Sigmund Freud’s book reacts to the state of Europe after World War I, while Primo Levi’s narrative is a first-hand account of his experiences during World War II. International and domestic tensions are high when both works are written; Sigmund Freud adopts a pessimistic tone throughout the work, while Primo Levi evolves from a despairing approach to a more optimistic view during his time at Auschwitz. To Sigmund Freud, savagery comes from the natural state of human beings, while Primo Levi infers violence is rooted in individual’s humanity being stripped away is.
The pages of history have longed been stained with the works of man written in blood. Wars and conflicts and bloodshed were all too common. But why? What could drive a man to kill another? Many would say it is man’s evil nature, his greed, envy, and wrath. And certainly, they all have a roll in it. But in reality, it is something far less malevolent, at least at first. The sole reason why conflicts grow and spread comes from the individuality that every human cherishes so dearly. This can easily be shown in the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, in which a society has been created where everyone of talent has been handicapped so they are not better than anyone else, all for the sake of equality. This text will show that Individuality
In conclusion, it is the innate nature of mankind to choose survival above all needs which brings out the hidden savage in all of us kept only in check by the artificial restraints placed upon mankind by society. The descent into savagery, man's inherent desire to survive over anything else and the need for civilization and order shows how society unnaturally holds everyone together. The aspiration to endure is an intrinsic response that may lay dormant until the chains of society and civilization are removed; when that day arrives, their dormant instincts will arise and bring about a regression back to that of a savage.
Murders inflicted upon the Jewish population during the Holocaust are often considered the largest mass murders of innocent people, that some have yet to accept as true. The mentality of the Jewish prisoners as well as the officers during the early 1940’s transformed from an ordinary way of thinking to an abnormal twisted headache. In the books Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary men by Christopher R. Browning we will examine the alterations that the Jewish prisoners as well as the police officers behaviors and qualities changed.
Thinking about history and Genocides, we want to imagine the enemies as being somehow different from us. Take watching a film, for instance, you’re watching an action film with a villain or killer. We consider them to be different from us we are scared of them, we look at the differently than a “normal” human. We tend to think of the enemies in history to be the same as the villain or killer in a movie. We perceive this because we don’t want to assume that any normal human being is capable of committing a Genocide. As a society, we believe we are different from the chaos in the world. Christopher Browning’s book, Ordinary Men: Reserved Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland, portrayed the story from the opposite viewpoint. Everyday
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
According to an ends-based rationality, the Holocaust was an extremely irrational event that is connected to the unrealistic goal of exterminating all Jews. Conversely, Weber’s means-based rationality suggests that the Holocaust was rational because the Nazis ran their camps optimally. This particular concept is extremely problematic in that it justifies the mass genocide on the basis of the camp’s functionality in economic terms. Although very different, the two types of rationality explain how organizations such as the Nazi Party and the bureaucracy can create lasting
Through Borowski’s descriptions of Nazi Germany, he depicts the barbarity of a country that is ruled by a single individual with inhumane intentions. He compares the influences of Adolf Hitler to the leader of Hell, whose environment is extremely comparable to concentration camps. The Holocaust will always be considered one of the most shameful events in human history, as it reveals the dangers of giving power to an individual whose primary concern is
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print.
Introduction Individuals often yield to conformity when they are forced to discard their individual freedom in order to benefit the larger group. Despite the fact that it is important to obey the authority, obeying the authority can sometimes be hazardous, especially when morals and autonomous thought are suppressed to an extent that the other person is harmed. Obedience usually involves doing what a rule or a person tells you to, but negative consequences can result from displaying obedience to authority; for example, the people who obeyed the orders of Adolph Hitler ended up killing innocent people during the Holocaust. In the same way, Stanley Milgram noted in his article ‘Perils of Obedience’ of how individuals obeyed authority and neglected their conscience, reflecting how this can be destructive in real life experiences. On the contrary, Diana Baumrind pointed out in her article ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that the experiments were not valid, hence useless.
(1)- Tix, Andy, Ph.D. "The Pursuit of Peace." "Kristallnacht:" The Night That Shattered Humanity. Psychology
"If the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 could become killers under such circumstances, what group of men cannot?" (189). The chilling words at the end of Browning's Book "Ordinary Men" leaves the reader with some very scary thoughts. Although it might not be the safest and most attractive view of society, Browning analyzes in great detail how it was possible for a seemingly normal and common group of men to turn into a group of mass murderers. Browning does not try to shield the reader from the horrific details of the events that entailed the Nazi's liquidation of the Jewish population, and in fact, these very blunt and specific descriptions that constitute many of the stories in the book are the very details that lead to the question nobody
The atrocities of the Belgian Congo and the Holocaust are two of the main events in history that have been responsible for the mass murdering of millions of people. Although these events significantly changed the course of humanity, and the story behind each one is very different, there are significant factors that make them alike as well as different. Many would agree that comparing two atrocities that affected the lives of so many people and gave a 180-degree turn to each of their countries would be something very difficult to achieve. However, by comparing the behavior of both the perpetrators and the victims of both cases, we might be able to further understand the lack of morality and the inspiration that led to these awful events. The perpetrators in both atrocities tended to have a similar pattern of behavior when it came to the way they saw their victims.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
Among these modern principles are instrumental rationality, rule following, the ordering and categorization of all of social life, and a complex division of labor. When analyzed, all of these principles played a role in the mass extermination of the Jewish people. For Bauman, postmodernity is the result of modernity’s failure to rationalize the world and the amplification of its capacity for constant change. Bauman describes that there are two ways to minimize the significance of the holocaust as the theory of civilization, modernity, and of modern civilization 1) to present the holocaust as something that happened to the Jews as an event in Jewish history, and 2) to present the holocaust as an extreme case of a wide and familiar category of social phenomena. These perspectives make the Holocaust part of an individual history, not relevant or representative of the morality of modern