Aaron Bronfman
Cold Spring Harbor High School
New York, USA
In Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, Goldhagen
attempts to explain what could have motivated the German people to abet the
murder of six million European Jews. His central thesis is that the
perpetrators of genocide in Nazi Germany were not a small group of SS zealots but
hundreds of thousands of ordinary Germans who killed with the acquiescence of
millions more.
One of his most convincing examples is that of Police Battalion 101. Due to
manpower shortages during the war, the police battalions could not be composed
only of fanatical Nazis or impressionable youth; instead, they recruited a
representative sample of German society. Members came from all occupations,
and the proportions of Nazi-Party and SS members approximated those in Germany
as a whole. Goldhagen describes in gruesome detail the actions of these men,
which often involved explicitly targeting children and the elderly, who could
not work in the camps. The murders, however, were not forced upon the
battalion, as revealed by the members' testimony. In Police Battalion 101, the
choice to opt out of the murders was offered both before the first killings and
after. Out of 550 men, only twelve declined to take part, and they were not
harmed in any way.
The haunting question is what could have compelled the members of Police
Battalion 101 and other German institutions to such voluntary cruelty. Goldhagen
disproves the five conventional explanations for the perpetrators' actions.
The theory that the perpetrators were forced by authorities is disproved by
testimony from the police battalions and the astounding fact that there is not
one verified case of anyone's being sent to a concentration camp or killed
for not obeying an execution order, despite the extensive efforts of the
Nuremberg defense.
A second theory, supported by psychology experiments, is that people, or
Germans in particular, will instinctively obey orders that come from a source
perceived to be legitimate. This is disproved by a remarkable action taken by
one of the commanders in Police Battalion 101. He, upon receiving an order that
his men sign a declaration obligating them not to steal, sent a written
refusal to his superiors. He felt his honor impugned and refused to obey an order
he believed was wrong, although his men had already killed tens of thousands
of Jews. The third explanation amounts to "peer pressure," which could only
work if a majority of Germans favored the genocide. The remaining two are
career advancement, which was not a factor for most of the working-class
soldiers, and lack of comprehension of Hitler's Final Solution, which certainly
cannot be applied to face-to-face murderers.
Goldhagen presents his own explanation, namely that an "eliminationist
antisemitism" had been present in Germany since the Crusades. He maintains that
antisemitism was not being continually refuted and readopted, but that, although
it remained latent at some time, it was always present. He stresses the
differences between the dominant beliefs in Germany about the various persecuted
groups; the Jews were thought to be willfully malignant and bent on
destroying Germany, while the Slavs were considered simply inferior. His theory
explains the wide discrepancy in monthly death rates among groups in the work camps
(e.g. 100% for Jews and 4% for Poles) and is the only explanation that
creates a tenable motive for the perpetrators' actions. Overall, Hitler's Willing
Executioners presents a coherent, well-supported argument that ordinary
Germans, motivated by an eliminationist antisemitism, knowingly and willingly
took part in the Holocaust.
Jud:
But who gave Heidegger HIS orders? Did he NEED them? Did he give HIMSELF
[will to will] the orders like the McGonagall's Dasein, as "that which relates
Dasein to a stituated clearing?"
Comments? No? Yes? Don't Know?
Regards,
Jud
Personal Website:
_http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm_
(http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm)
E-mail Discussion List:
nominalism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Cold Spring Harbor High School
New York, USA
In Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, Goldhagen
attempts to explain what could have motivated the German people to abet the
murder of six million European Jews. His central thesis is that the
perpetrators of genocide in Nazi Germany were not a small group of SS zealots but
hundreds of thousands of ordinary Germans who killed with the acquiescence of
millions more.
One of his most convincing examples is that of Police Battalion 101. Due to
manpower shortages during the war, the police battalions could not be composed
only of fanatical Nazis or impressionable youth; instead, they recruited a
representative sample of German society. Members came from all occupations,
and the proportions of Nazi-Party and SS members approximated those in Germany
as a whole. Goldhagen describes in gruesome detail the actions of these men,
which often involved explicitly targeting children and the elderly, who could
not work in the camps. The murders, however, were not forced upon the
battalion, as revealed by the members' testimony. In Police Battalion 101, the
choice to opt out of the murders was offered both before the first killings and
after. Out of 550 men, only twelve declined to take part, and they were not
harmed in any way.
The haunting question is what could have compelled the members of Police
Battalion 101 and other German institutions to such voluntary cruelty. Goldhagen
disproves the five conventional explanations for the perpetrators' actions.
The theory that the perpetrators were forced by authorities is disproved by
testimony from the police battalions and the astounding fact that there is not
one verified case of anyone's being sent to a concentration camp or killed
for not obeying an execution order, despite the extensive efforts of the
Nuremberg defense.
A second theory, supported by psychology experiments, is that people, or
Germans in particular, will instinctively obey orders that come from a source
perceived to be legitimate. This is disproved by a remarkable action taken by
one of the commanders in Police Battalion 101. He, upon receiving an order that
his men sign a declaration obligating them not to steal, sent a written
refusal to his superiors. He felt his honor impugned and refused to obey an order
he believed was wrong, although his men had already killed tens of thousands
of Jews. The third explanation amounts to "peer pressure," which could only
work if a majority of Germans favored the genocide. The remaining two are
career advancement, which was not a factor for most of the working-class
soldiers, and lack of comprehension of Hitler's Final Solution, which certainly
cannot be applied to face-to-face murderers.
Goldhagen presents his own explanation, namely that an "eliminationist
antisemitism" had been present in Germany since the Crusades. He maintains that
antisemitism was not being continually refuted and readopted, but that, although
it remained latent at some time, it was always present. He stresses the
differences between the dominant beliefs in Germany about the various persecuted
groups; the Jews were thought to be willfully malignant and bent on
destroying Germany, while the Slavs were considered simply inferior. His theory
explains the wide discrepancy in monthly death rates among groups in the work camps
(e.g. 100% for Jews and 4% for Poles) and is the only explanation that
creates a tenable motive for the perpetrators' actions. Overall, Hitler's Willing
Executioners presents a coherent, well-supported argument that ordinary
Germans, motivated by an eliminationist antisemitism, knowingly and willingly
took part in the Holocaust.
Jud:
But who gave Heidegger HIS orders? Did he NEED them? Did he give HIMSELF
[will to will] the orders like the McGonagall's Dasein, as "that which relates
Dasein to a stituated clearing?"
Comments? No? Yes? Don't Know?
Regards,
Jud
Personal Website:
_http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm_
(http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/index.htm)
E-mail Discussion List:
nominalism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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