Understanding The Holocaust
While the crimes of members of the Nazi party in Germany against the Jews seem impossible to understand, it is easy to see a natural progression towards these atrocities in
German propaganda and ideology. Following World War 1, Germany faced an economic depression. The need for patriotism, as evidenced in the following quote, would explain Adolf Hitler’s receptivity and acceptance by a country full of hurting people. “ There will be no other revolution in Germany for 1000 years.” (4, pg. 384) Also explainable by their loss in the first World War is their mad patriotism which seemed to dog the entire nation and create a need for such intense xenophobia, as evidence in the following; “In the eyes of many Germans, including the diplomats, …show more content…
From a scientist who first explained in his book how this type of psychology works: “The key to understanding how Nazi doctors came to do the work of Auschwitz is the psychological principle I call “doubling”: the division of the self into two functioning wholes, so that a part-self acts as an entire self. An Auschwitz doctor could through doubling not only kill and contribute to killing but organize silently, on behalf of that evil project, an entire self-structure (or self-process) encompassing virtually all aspects of his behavior. Doubling, then, was the psychological vehicle for the Nazi doctor’s Faustian bargain with the diabolical environment in exchange for his contribution to the killing; he was offered various psychological and material benefits on behalf of privileged adaptation. Beyond Auschwitz was the larger Faustian temptation offered to German doctors in general that of becoming the theorists and implementers of a cosmic scheme of racial cure by means of victimization and mass murder.” (Lifton 404) Here Robert Lifton shows how such a merciless genocide was possible. The doctors in charge the actual executions relegated the murderous part of themselves to a place where they could be “normal” people in every other area of their life. Therefore, the people carrying out these acts were, to be redundant, people. They were not
German propaganda and ideology. Following World War 1, Germany faced an economic depression. The need for patriotism, as evidenced in the following quote, would explain Adolf Hitler’s receptivity and acceptance by a country full of hurting people. “ There will be no other revolution in Germany for 1000 years.” (4, pg. 384) Also explainable by their loss in the first World War is their mad patriotism which seemed to dog the entire nation and create a need for such intense xenophobia, as evidence in the following; “In the eyes of many Germans, including the diplomats, …show more content…
From a scientist who first explained in his book how this type of psychology works: “The key to understanding how Nazi doctors came to do the work of Auschwitz is the psychological principle I call “doubling”: the division of the self into two functioning wholes, so that a part-self acts as an entire self. An Auschwitz doctor could through doubling not only kill and contribute to killing but organize silently, on behalf of that evil project, an entire self-structure (or self-process) encompassing virtually all aspects of his behavior. Doubling, then, was the psychological vehicle for the Nazi doctor’s Faustian bargain with the diabolical environment in exchange for his contribution to the killing; he was offered various psychological and material benefits on behalf of privileged adaptation. Beyond Auschwitz was the larger Faustian temptation offered to German doctors in general that of becoming the theorists and implementers of a cosmic scheme of racial cure by means of victimization and mass murder.” (Lifton 404) Here Robert Lifton shows how such a merciless genocide was possible. The doctors in charge the actual executions relegated the murderous part of themselves to a place where they could be “normal” people in every other area of their life. Therefore, the people carrying out these acts were, to be redundant, people. They were not