Sunday, May 1, 2011
Complications in the German-Jewish Relationship
One passage struck me was Browning’s discussion of the German-Jewish relationship in Chapter 17: “Germans, Poles, and Jews.” He gives a couple examples of instances in which a number of policemen had either refused to kill Jews, or purposefully let them escape. In particular there were a couple of cases in which the policemen had developed (minimally) personal relationships with certain Jews, namely German Jews they encountered and the Jews who worked for them. One case that stood out was that of the two kitchen workers, Jutta and Harry, where the policemen ordered to shoot them “had clearly taken extra pains to shoot unawares victims who had prepared their food over the past months and whom they knew by name” (154). These instances struck me because they stand in contrast to the pervading general disconnect and psychological separation of the Jews and their human-ness, and it appears to be evidence that even after the numerous massacres and deportations that Battalion 101 would have undergone by this time, they were still capable to some extent of identifying with the Jews as “human”, and could develop some form, however minimal, of personal relationships with Jews. I think this is significant in that it does away with the claim that those participating in the Final Solution had been completely brainwashed by conditioning and propaganda, that even the repeated dehumanizing actions of countless massacres and deportations did not deprive the policemen of their ability to perceive their victims as human. But rather than providing me with clarity as to their mindset during this time, the presence of, at the very least, a vestige of human identification simply adds to the paradoxical character of this whole event. The lack of a total mental dehumanization of the Jews, makes it even more difficult to believe that the men of Battalion 101 could continue to engage in these massacres.
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It is interesting to think that these people weren't actually brainwashed, that they were in control of what they were doing, but I don't think I agree with it. It is described that they were only not killing the Jews that they had relationships with; that they weren't killing Jews when they could put names to faces, but that they were only killing Jews they didn't know. Firstly, I think that it was individual on whether or not these people were brainwashed. Some probably were, some probably weren't completely, but the fact is that if they didn't know the Jewish people, they were killing them for no real reasons; they were convinced that the "Final Solution" was to get rid of the Jews. There was a sort of purity, racial cleansing ideal put into place. I don't think the fact that they weren't killing Jews they knew proves they weren't brainwashed. I think it proves that they could snap out of it for a little bit. In fact, if it wasn't a matter of brainwashing, I think it was a matter of fear. If these "ordinary men" weren't performing these grave tasks, they could put their lives or the lives of their family members at risk. However, it still amazes me that these people could do this. I could never imagine being a part of anything so gruesome.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post, I spoke about this in my post last week. It is easier to understand these awful crimes if I think about people being completely brainwashed and really believing in their cause. It is hard to read that people were thinking twice about what they were doing and were emotionally disturbed. Then why are you doing it? Its very scary to see what people are capable of. I also like to live with the idea that the rest of the world had no idea what was going on at the time, its not hard to believe that, how could people be capable of such evil? But in lecture when I hear about how many people were applying for visas and the children being saved, it makes me think that there must have been some idea what was going on. This was obviously more than just antisemitism laws and culture. People were willing to send their children away to escape from it. Its very hard to read this book sometimes, its hard to understand how men who knew what they were doing was wrong, killed so many people senselessly, without trials.
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