Dehumanizing propaganda can help with this process by providing participants with cultural narratives that frame violence as the morally right thing to do, and it can help them overcome their initial resistance to killing neighbors as a result. The women screamed and wept and so did the men. Research on dehumanization seeks to offer a causal explanation for the apparent association between describing victims of atrocities as nonhuman and inflicting harm on them. ‘They Will Rot the Society, Rot the Party, and Rot the Army’*: Toxification as an Ideology and Motivation for Perpetrating Violence in the Khmer Rouge Genocide? That is, dehumanizing propaganda sends signals to people about what they think others believe and, even if they disagree, those perceptions can alter their actions in turn. Editors Paulus Kaufmann Universität Zürich Ethik-Zentrum Zollikerstr. Although participants in genocide describe reactions that include vomiting, shaking, nightmares, and trauma the first few times they kill, over time, their physical and emotional horror at killing subsides. Police Violence and Antiracism in France and the United States, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and the SSRC’s Focus on Race in the 1920s and 1930s, Reflections on How Genocidal Killings are Brought to an End, Understanding Selfhood among Young People Who Were Born Out of Genocide Rape in Rwanda, Following Fish-Talk through Industrial Waters. Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells, and waited for a sign from another SS man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. 9Trial Lfd. Dehumanization made much of … Gräbe gave this testimony in November 1945 during the preliminary examinations of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.14 Although he was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965 for having saved several hundred people by employing them on his railway construction sites in Ukraine, using false papers, his position on the eastward expansion of the Reich is entirely ambiguous.15 As the branch manager of a German company, who worked for the Reichsbahn (the German National Railway) for most of the Nazi occupation, he was one of the many German colonists sent to administer the newly conquered territories. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He would only do so if it was proven that the people they were to kill were partisans. Nobody bothered us. Controlled escalation: Himmler’s men in the summer of 1941 and the Holocaust in the occupied Soviet territories, SAGE Publications and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Dehumanization as a factor that supposedly facilitates participation in mass killings, On the role of dehumanization of victims in the perpetration of mass killings: Research notes, Perpetrating violence viewed from the perspective of the social sciences: Debates and perspectives, Radicalization as cause and consequence of violence in genocides and mass killings, Motivational change in the perpetration of genocidal violence, Bandura, A, Underwood, B and, Fromson, ME (. →Aliza Luft, “Toward a Dynamic Theory of Action at the Micro Level of Genocide: Killing, Desistance, and Saving in 1994 Rwanda,” Sociological Theory 33, no 2 (2015):148–72. Dehumanization is defined as a psychological process whereby members of a group of people assert the inferiority of another group. Opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration, and are treated as less than humans through subtle or overt acts or statements. Your examples should include: the conflict used to dehumanize, type of conflict (internal or external), and the effect it had on the prisoner(s). Finally, such proximity between executioners and victims also existed in cases where the executioners were ordered to kill people who had done work for them. Rather, it invites us to attempt to better understand how these moralities conflicted and how they were connected, particularly in the management of culpability. 4 (2018): 529–554. These are animals.” Throughout his campaign, Trump often referred to immigrants as rapists and criminals. I have found significant indications of situations in which the killers seemed disturbed by the attitudes and appeals of their victims. Box 1. This tactic has not disappeared, but has only shifted towards different victims. During judicial proceedings in Bielefeld, on 28 January 1965, he admitted that he was frequently part of the execution groups themselves. Corresponding Author. The pit was already two-thirds full. While this use of the concept of dehumanization is that most frequently encountered in the literature, it is not in this sense, or rather at this level of analysis, that I will discuss the role of dehumanization in the perpetration of mass violence. They find that anti-Semitic propaganda had a positive effect where anti-Semitism was historically high, but it had a negative effect where anti-Semitism was historically low, leading them to conclude that the persuasive power of dehumanizing propaganda depends on listeners’ predispositions and serves to amplify existing feelings but not generate new ones. Kriegswahrnehmungen in Feldpostbriefen. In all the extracts I have cited, even those in which the speaker was among the executioners—in some cases, some of the most enthusiastic of them—the definitions and clichés of anti-Semitic propaganda are largely absent. By taking into account this particular type of “figure” of the executioner, we can tackle one of the most difficult things to explain: that “non-believers,” that is, Germans who did not fully conform to the model of the Nazified “political soldier,” could nevertheless have participated in mass murder—or, more precisely, that the participation of “non-believers” was necessary to ensure complete extermination. Please read and accept the terms and conditions and check the box to generate a sharing link. In summary, the effectiveness of the dehumanization of the victims seems to be proven by the barbarity of the face-to-face massacres that took place. Luft concludes that “dehumanizing discourse can pave the way for violence to occur, but violence does not require it.”. But another explanation is readily available: that a process of moral justification redefines the perpetrators’ perception of the violence itself. In your own words, explain the purpose of this process, and then cite two examples from Night. the world to be degraded, humiliated and dehumanized. The way in which some executioners reacted to the words and actions of their victims does not so much encourage a strict opposition between Nazi and Judeo-Christian moralities—as though everything magically returned to “normal” after the end of the war. But another explanation is readily available: that a process of moral justification redefines the perpetrators’ perception of the violence itself. Part of his testimony was published earlier in Klee et al. Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they were still alive. 74–75). In the book’s central chapter, which studies the litany of massacres in which the unit took part, we can identify a number of scenes in which, years later, the killers recall being reminded of their proximity to those they were about to kill—often by the victims themselves. Nor is it to deny the existence of willing killers—a more common sort than the likes of Täubner—who took pleasure in cruelty. Disposition-based explanations are perfectly suited to interpreting the commitment of the most clearly ideologized executioners, those that freely acknowledged their anti-Semitism and that took pleasure in destruction. Dehumanization is one of the main ways by which perpetrators of genocide attempt to legitimize the elimination of a minority group. Rethinking Rwanda’s ‘Radio Machete’,” Politics & Society 35, no. These emphasize the way in which cognitive dissonance is resolved, for the worst, as individuals adapt their beliefs to expected behaviors, as well as the pluralistic ignorance among the actors, with each individual believing that the others consent to the mission because no one raises any objections. They saw parents holding their children in their arms. Violence without Moral Restraint: Reflections on the Dehumanization of Victims and Victimizers. and dehumanization. Most theories assume that violence is motivated by instrumental gain or impulsiveness, and is restrained by moral inhibitions. Reactions also differed in the ranks. For example, scholars have evaluated the role of Nazi propaganda before and after the establishment of the Third Reich in helping the Nazi party enroll new members, incite anti-Semitic behaviors (such as pogroms during Kristallnacht), and increase denunciations of Jews to authorities. This is the situation that makes his testimony so compelling in comparison with typical police interrogation reports: although he was a German occupier, his description of the killings is unusual for its poignancy, focusing on the victims’ final words and actions. How else can we view the conduct of those who volunteered whenever they could to shoot or hunt down Jews? This commonly made use of animalization: Germans as pigs during the First World War, Tutsi cockroaches, Jewish rats, and so on. This product could help you, Accessing resources off campus can be a challenge. The answer is that these last exchanges between some executioners and their victims deserve our attention because they compel us to argue that the executioners killed in spite of having sometimes recognized the humanity of their victims. from his pocket, held it up, and shouted that he had been a German soldier during the First World War. Extreme perspectives can become normalized when dehumanization becomes central to political discourse. Beginning with the second massacre, at Łomazy, this person-to-person connection was broken, enabling greater depersonalization. The central idea in the literature is that the executioners succeeded, quite concretely, in no longer perceiving those they had to kill as fellow human beings. 4 (2007): 609–37. This is good. The most common example of dehumanization in the book was what they were called. 18See the investigation file, with the interrogations of those involved, Hauptstaatsarchiv Darmstadt, H13 Darmstadt, 979, Ks 2/54, cited in Kühne (2010: 110–113). Strikingly, Browning (2017 [1992]: 86) adds that, among the accounts of the second massacre, only one policeman claims to recall the identity of one of the victims; far more could do so for Józefów. If so, can we clarify the meaning of this claim? The answer to this question is that these exchanges and these difficulties deserve our attention because they compel us to argue that the executioners killed in spite of having sometimes recognized the humanity of their victims. Examining these claims is a lengthy task, one that goes beyond the bounds of this article. It fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. My argument is simply that, if all the killers were fanatics of this sort, there would be little left to explain—or, rather, the explanation would be very brief. Based on the differences between this account and the interrogations of the executioners, I argue that more objective descriptions of such situations—descriptions in which, unlike in the case of the former policemen, there is no interest in silence, either for legal reasons or for reasons of self-respect—offer us a clearer perception of what was seen by the executioners. In some cases, we must answer in the affirmative. This site uses cookies. The shift, without any transition, from the horror of executions to the banality of leisure activities brings to mind the well-known diary of Johann Kremer, a doctor who, in addition to describing the gassings he supervised, discusses the quality of the meals and parties organized for the SS garrison at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Mariot, 2018). One of the killers describes the following scene: After I had carried out the first shooting and at the unloading point was allotted a mother with daughter as victims for the next shooting, I began a conversation with them and learned that they were Germans from Kassel, and I took the decision not to participate further in the executions. At least one of them was a veteran of the First World War, who asked, in vain, for mercy. Although the details are case specific, we cite parallel processes and illustrations from other genocides. In short, cells are administrative entities subject to sector authority. The couple were looking on with tears in their eyes. This afternoon, half of the nine hundred Jews were executed: men, women, and children all together. First, the argument that individuals participated in massacres in spite of emotional interference allows us to focus more closely on the behavior of the victims: attention to such details almost automatically leads to a denser, fairer description of what happened during the killings. From this point of view, the monographs dedicated to units specializing in mass killings, which follow from Browning’s work, offer a remarkable opportunity. The Victims Of The Holocaust 1467 Words | 6 Pages. →Lee Ann Fujii, Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009). : Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide (Oakland: University of California Press, 2004). In his second chapter, on the itinerary of Police Battalion 45, Welzer uses depositions by the killers regarding half a dozen massacres. 463–468). People who were mistreated as children can wall themselves off as a defense against that pain (physical and psychological). In a now-classic example, Christopher Browning’s analysis of the Nazi Paramilitary Order Police finds that middle-aged family men, responsible for murdering at least 83,000 Jews in Poland, killed more often because of peer pressure and a sense of obedience to authority than any profound commitment to anti-Semitism.9Browning, Ordinary Men. The first involves cases where the victims had had direct interactions with their executioners, whom they knew in person, perhaps intimately—as in the final case mentioned above of a woman calling out directly to one of the executioners. In short, cells are administrative entities subject to sector authority. It is possible that during genocides a similar mechanism is at work as well. The most well-known genocides of the 20th century, as well as the majority of the century’s wars, involved the metaphorical degradation of the enemy, often in acute terms. towards their victims in a manner that implicitly acknowledges their hu manity. He was no angel. During the transfer from Komarówka to the Międzyrzec transit ghetto, some of the policemen recognized a Jewish woman from Hamburg who had owned a cinema that one of them had often been to, the Millertor-Kino (Browning, 2017: 103). In other words, he was one of those brutal executioners in the units responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children, whose bodies were left in pits. 14Nürnberger Protokoll II, affidavit of 10 November 1945, document 299-PS, Exhibit USA-494. (1991: 61). Finally, in my own research, I find that dehumanization is more often an outcome of participation in violence rather than a precursor.14Luft, “Toward a Dynamic Theory of Action at the Micro Level of Genocide.” In other words, people make difficult decisions about whether or not to participate in genocide based on their access to financial resources, who they’re being asked to kill, their proximity to extremists ordering the violence, and signals sent by local elites. However, if we examine more closely the range and the precise content of the testimonies available—a difficult task, given the horrors involved—the situation appears more ambiguous: we can observe, at the moment of participation, traces of emotional interference on the part of the killers when they had to face their victims. Radio and the Rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany, What Is the Relationship between Hate Radio and Violence? Some Jews try to escape, lots of shooting. and dehumanization. What are synonyms for dehumanization? This behavior was motivated, in part, by the desire to humiliate these women before killing them. 8: 236–257). There is the striking example of the Garsden massacre, which took place on 24 June 1941, in the annexed territory of Memel, on the Lithuanian border, where Jewish families had taken refuge (Browning, 2004: 253–256; Kwiet, 1998; Matthäus, 2007: 223). The Victims Of The Holocaust 1467 Words | 6 Pages. [Near a small Belarusian village] These people, including the woman and the child, were executed on the spot by the members of the SD [the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi party] accompanying them, using pistols. Of course not. To illustrate this, I turn to an exemplary and unusual account cited by Welzer of a German, Hermann Friedrich Gräbe, who served in Ukraine between September 1941 and January 1944 as chief engineer and director of the Sdolbunov branch of the Solingen-based construction company Josef Jung. Once again, the information comes from post-war judicial testimonies. Among them was the family which I have mentioned. →Luft, “Toward a Dynamic Theory of Action at the Micro Level of Genocide.” The classic “obedience to authority” thesis developed originally by Stanley Milgram has found renewed support in microlevel research on genocide as well: besides Browning and Straus, who both find hierarchical pressures mattered in motivating participation, Williams interviews former Khmer Rouge who explain their participation primarily as the result of vertical coercion.12Timothy Williams and Rhiannon Neilsen, “‘They Will Rot the Society, Rot the Party, and Rot the Army’*: Toxification as an Ideology and Motivation for Perpetrating Violence in the Khmer Rouge Genocide?” Terrorism and Political Violence, October 14, 2016, 1–22. On this occasion, Hohn was a mere spectator. In this framework, dehumanization causes perpetrators to perceive victims as nonhuman and, therefore, not entitled to moral obligation or sympathy, thus enabling perpetrators to act out their violent impulses free of inhibition and without remorse (11 ⇓⇓⇓ – 15). Dehumanization is defined as a psychological process whereby members of a group of people assert the inferiority of another group. the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. He was no saint. 1 synonym for dehumanization: dehumanisation. A full review of all the scholarship on civilian mobilization for genocidal violence is beyond the scope of this essay, but, suffice it to say, this is a dynamic time for social scientific research on genocide as old assumptions are either being challenged, complicated, or extended with new data and via new methodical strategies all the time. 10For the killings in Rovno, which I will return to, see the case of Datsiuk, an Ukrainian auxiliary, who worked as an interpreter for the Schutzpolizei, and who participated in the killings during the Aktion of 7 to 9 November 1941, in Sosenki Forest, where more than 23,500 Jews from the city were murdered.

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