This is a question that often comes up at the end of a course, which discusses the Nazis and the Holocaust: “Who is responsible for the Holocaust?” Growing up in Germany, I realized that many of my German friends and classmates have struggled to answer this question...
To me, the easy way to answer this question is to blame it all on Hitler. “Without Hitler, the Holocaust would have never happened!” many say. This may be true, however, Hitler came into power via (at least from a political perspective) legal terms. His party received a majority of voters from the beginning of his time in office. Throughout the years, he enjoyed the popular support – or rather, people admired him so much that they trusted him blindly.
As Browning indicates in his last chapter of “Ordinary men”, not Hitler shot the Jews himself, but the men of Police Battalion 101 were the murderers of thousands of innocent people. They acted upon the orders from above. So, yes, the incentive came from a higher political authority, however, they chose to follow the order to murder. And the men of Police Battalion 101 are just one example of people who were directly involved in this process: “Indeed, many of the perpetrators of the Holocaust were so-called desk murderers whose role in the mass extermination was greatly facilitated by the bureaucratic nature of their participation,” argues Browning (pg. 162) These people scheduled trains, drafted legislation or compiled listings (just to name a few tasks). They followed the orders from above without questioning or refusing to participate.
But also the greater population has not acted against mass murder. As the Professor has argued today in class, too few people stood up and reacted against the deportation of the Jews. One could even argue that, if a well-known public or religious figure or a group of people would have openly acted against the Nazis , Hitler and his frenzy, ideological goals might have been stopped.
Therefore, I conclude, that there is a ‘collective responsibility’ to the Holocaust: “Ordinary Men” and the bureaucratic system of “ordinary people” were directly responsible for the killing of the Jews. If one is honest, Hitler was just one crazy man, the leader of a cult, who gave orders that everybody in the German population seemed to have followed. By following orders, the vast German population has failed to act upon one of humanity’s greatest capabilities – the ability to reason.
I agree with the concept of collective responsibility, that everyone was in some way responsible for the mass murders in the Holocaust. People learning about the Holocaust in middle school or high school mostly will put the blame on Hitler. They would think without Hitler as the driving force behind antisemitism, the Holocaust wouldn't have escalated to that level, or it wouldn't even have happened. Such simplistic thinking excused the actions of people like the men of Police Battalion 101, who had directly killed the innocent people. And in a way, I think it's understandable why they did that. It's so much easier pushing the blame on one person than a whole mass of people, easier to condemn a single individual than the whole population. I would imagine that during that time, when people were being killed here and there, it was hard to think rationally. Like during times of war, soldiers would lose their rational self, and do crazy things. Such events like this tend to distort things and mess with people's minds.
ReplyDeleteBut even though the general population was inside Germany and the killings took place outside the borders, I still don't understand why they chose to turn a blind eye. Someone's child, mother, father, sister, or whoever is being wrongfully murdered, and they won't even do anything about it. Maybe it's because they were thinking, "If no one else is doing anything to stop it, why should I?" People usually act if they see other people do something, and maybe they were just waiting for someone to take the first step. Unfortunately for the innocent Jewish people, no one did.
People don't even realize the power that they have. They can use their hands to build great towns and cities, but they can also use those same hands to wield a weapon to kill innocent people. It's primarily their decision to do evil or do good to others. Apparently, the majority chose wrong. They really had nothing to lose whereas the Jewish people had the most valuable thing to lose: their lives.
People who did not resist or protest against the “Final Solution” were no better than the killers themselves. I agree with Samantha that it is too easy to say that Adolf Hitler alone was responsible for the crimes of the regime or even the “ordinary” men in Police Battalion 101. Those who knew that ruthless executions were being carried out and did not do anything to retaliate were guilty as well.
ReplyDeleteThere were, however, very specific conditions that made it difficult for people to come forward and speak out against the regime. Fear and conformity plagued Germany; neighbors and family members tattled on each other. Individuals were only looking out for their own skin. People, when placed in group settings, are more likely to do something they would not have done if they were alone. Milgram’s experiment is mentioned thoroughly in the final chapter as a way to explain people’s relationships with authority figures. “The naïve subject was significantly influenced” if two collaborators inflicted more and more pain to someone (175). More than just peer pressure, young officers were given pamphlets and weekly meetings as means to indoctrinate them. People were taught to be a certain way, and through psychological distancing and getting drunk to lessen the impact of murder, ordinary men could commit horrendous crimes. Regular people did not want to stand out in the crowd, and it seemed like it was better to blend in and be on the same side as the guys with guns in order to survive.
The officers in Police Battalion 101 were thrown into the “Final Solution” without a moment to think. If they were given the chance to reflect on the moral issue before actually becoming a part of it, perhaps they would have been likely to listen to their consciences.
No one resisted against the killings, not even the Jews themselves. I understand they were living in terrible conditions, starving, hopeless, deathly frightened… but they accepted their fate and the majority did not put up a fight. I do not want to say that the Jews are responsible for the regime’s crimes, but that the mixture of propaganda, hatred, fear, and brutality mixed in one pot produced an environment where really no one resisted against the Germans, and everyone was guilty.