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SS
shot by US Army at Dachau
Author: Alan
Jacobs
May 14, 2000
List Editor: Richard S Levy <[email protected]>
List Editor: Jim
Mott
From: Alan Jacobs e-mail [email protected]
IF memory serves, despite the demands of ego, this
thread got started when I responded to what I thought was
an excessive demonization of the Nazis, thus setting up
an us and THEM dichotomy. The Dachau example was
used to emphasize the idea that we too (the Allies) were
guilty of terrible acts. Perhaps we committed even a form
of genocide, albeit of a milder and lesser degree than
the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. It was one example of
several, including the incendiary raids on Dresden and
Tokyo, and of course the two big bombs dropped on
civilian populations.
I have been reading Dr. Joanna Bourkes An
Intimate History of Killing: Face to Face Killing in 20th
Century Warfare. I recommend it to anyone interested
in this subject. Exhaustively researched and thorough in
its scope and detail, it demonstrates the universal
transformation of ordinary men [sic] into killing
machines. From the cover notes: "...Bourke shows how men
and women, just like us can become capable of
grotesque acts of violence."
Professor and talk show host Milton Rosenberg's
reservations and cautionary note about Banks,
Haney, and Zimbardo's Stanford Prison
Experiments are well taken. But in the context of the
original points, de-emphasize the idea that we are, I
think, all capable of either committing acts of extreme
cruelty, or supporting them by doing nothing in their
presence. The Milgram experiments were replicated many
times. They are not the final word to be sure, but they
do indicate that it was not simply the bad guys who do
bad things. Many of the subjects in these experiments
would under ordinary circumstances, never intentionally
harm anyone, much less give them potentially lethal
electric shocks, or brutalize them as prisoners. But
given certain conditions... these tendencies were/are not
far below the surface even if repressed or denied. Please
excuse the psychology... I can't help myself.
This very rich and interesting thread has reinforced
my view that their are two basic positions regarding the
Holocaust and other genocides. The conservative position
is that the Holocaust is unique and may in fact be the
only true genocide, with the possible exception of the
Roma. The other position, call it liberal I suppose,
includes other massacres as genocides e.g. Rwanda,
Burundi, East Timor, South Africa, Soviet Russia, Mao's
Cultural Revolution, the genocide of the Native
Americans, etc. What about Charney's research
showing that a surprising number of Israeli graduate
students in his study opted for euthanasia? There are
plenty of other examples from this century and throughout
history. How do we justify Jerico? Because it was God's
Will? Because they were evil? I seem to have heard this
rational before.
I suppose the conservative position is that if we
accept these other examples as genocide, then we dilute,
trivialize the Holocaust and therefore pave the way for
another. Therefore we must keep it special in memory.
However this memory had not prevented other genocides, or
if you prefer, mass killing, to the tune of 50,000,000
since the end of WW II. So if people are capable of
killing others on this massive a scale, why not
Jews again? If you accept the theory that we become
desensitized to killing on an individual level through
mass media etc, then is it not so that knowledge of other
mass killings desensitizes on this level as well? And
what are we to do about Rummel's democide? Kudos to
Charney prominently emphasizing Rummel's ideas in
The Encyclopedia of Genocide.
It doesn't make a twit of difference whether the SS
guards killed at Dachau were long time, or new. The point
is that American boys lined 'em up and blasted them and,
I might add, would have done the same, with pleasure. I
used this example, and the supportive USHMM archival
photo to support my thesis. Would I have done it, enjoyed
it, reveled in it? Damn straight. I am certain I would
have. Am I universalizing the Holocaust in order to
ameliorate my own murderous urges? I hope not.
I realize that this is a list for historians, but in
this case historicity seems to have superceded the major
point. We are, all of us, capable of killing. Bystanding
amounts to the same thing. I believe this is absolutely
essential to prevention.
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