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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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492 |
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| THE PSYCHOLOGY OP GENOCIDE |
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sometimes feminine strength) as well as with a special
commitment and self-sacrifice: in Himmler’s term, not just ordinary
soldiers but “ideological fighters.” They are encouraged, and embrace
the opportunity, to view their genocidal project as a military operation: one
of subduing “partisans,” as in the case of the Einsatzgruppen;
or of “fighting” on the “racial battlefield” against the
“dangerous Jewish enemy.”
Himmler was not without
psychological accuracy when, in speaking of killer troops, he referred to
“the road between the two … possibilities — either to become too
brutal … heartless and no longer respect human life, or to become weak and
be pushed to the point of a nervous breakdown”; he added that “the
road between this Scylla and Charybdis is frightfully narrow.” While he
was wrong in his conclusion that the road had been taken “without any
mental and spiritual harm to our men and our leaders,”119 he was exploring the limits of the human
capacity for numbing and doubling on behalf of mass killing. Nor were numbing
and doubling rendered superfluous by the higher technology of Auschwitz
killing, as suggested by a drunken Birkenau Blockführer who was
overheard to say: “Mother, if you knew that your son has become a
murderer!”120
Genocidal
organizers are likely to combine corps spirit with literal mobilization of
criminality. The Turks made extensive use of criminals in their genocide
against Armenians, and the Nazis did the same in bringing to Auschwitz a large
contingent of criminals to help set up and run the camp. Traditional
criminality and corps spirit can of course be combined, as they were when the
SS adopted a policy of welcoming criminals to its ranks and using them for
murderous tasks. The Nazis made extensive use of other outside groups,
including ethnic Germans from various parts of Europe, Ukranians, Latvians, and
Lithuanians.
Men are drawn to these groups of professional killers by
destructive psychological traits that can be considered psychopathic, but also
by omnipotence and sadism, aggressiveness and violence, and inclinations toward
numbing and doubling that are within an ordinary social range. Such is the
potential human store of these traits that they can be all too readily combined
with elements of ideology and military discipline to form efficient killing
units. |
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| The “Half-Educated Man” |
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| Professionals who kill and professional killers in many
ways merge. One link is the “half-educated man” or
“half-intellectual” common among the Nazis (see page 452). He can
assume prominence in genocide by bringing to the project certain necessary
elements: the smattering of knowledge that can enable one to ideologize
radically the professional sphere and to embrace wholeheartedly false theories;
rage and bitter envy toward those with authentic professional qualifications;
and tendencies toward destructive and violent behavior (sometimes full
psychopa- […thy] |
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THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical Killing and the
Psychology of
Genocide
Robert J. Lifton
ISBN 0-465-09094
©
1986 |
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Page 492 |
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