Summer Blog 4: Chapters 6-12

Since my last blog entry I have read chapters 6-12 of Hitler's Willing Executioners. These chapter's have been quite shorter than the first few lengthy chapters so I was able to finish two entire sections. Part 3 deals with Police Battalions. Chaper 6 of Part 3 gives a general overview on police battalions. Chapter 7 discusses a specific police battalion, Police Battalion 101, and talks of their deeds. Chapter 8 talks about the motives thats the police battalions, especially Police Battlaion 101 had for killing. Chapter 9 concludes the section with a look into their lives outside of being genocidal killers. Part 4 deals with the "work" camps. "Work" is always in parenthesis to note that not much work was actually done in these camps. Chapter 10 discusses how the ideas of "work" camps surfaced. Chapter 11 discusses life in a "work" camp. Finally, Chapter 12 discusses how the "work" camps were more like death camps.

Since there are so many chapters to cover, I can't obviously get into every little detail, but I will try to give a short summary of Chapters 6,7,8 and 10. Also I will discuss if there are any points that are either controversial or disputable.

In Chapter 6: Police Battalions: Agents of Genocide, discusses the basics of police battalions. It explains how many of the members were men who did not want to serve in the army, but were far from qualified to be a police battalion member. However, they received little training because the demand for police battlation at the time was so high. Originally they were used like regular police men for patrolling and keeping areas safe, etc. However, eventually Hitler began using them to assist in the genocidal slaughter of Jews. Soon this became their one of their only jobs. This chapter is not very controversial like the rest of the book since it tends to state facts of the police battalions, which cannot be disputed and are far from surprising. However, there are two points made in this chapter that I wish to address. Goldhagen discusses a specific battalion, Battalion 65, and tells that mass murder schedules were posted on the bulletin board at the battalions quaters for all to see and begins to imply that this is odd even though I do not see how. Then, he makes it a point to say how none of the battalion members in his post war testimony states any upsetness over seeing that they were scheduled for another mass murder. He believes that this should leave one to believe that they had no remorse.

I did not agree with this statement. Although it is very possible, as he later proves, that they probably did not have any remorse, this is far from proof of it. His testimony was led on by a lawyer or judge. Depending on what questions were directly asked to him, he may not have a chance to express his emotions. If all of the questions asked to him are about the details of the mass murders and his involvement with them, when would he get a chance to talk of his emotions. This is simple coincidence.

However, Goldhagen's other point is very much valid. He talks about the search-and-destroy missions that battalions went on. These were unsupervised and nothing was expected. If the battalion members truly were simply forced to be there and had no internal hate for the Jews, they could simply pretend to go looking for Jews or if they did find some they could let them live. Their superiors wouldn't have ever known. As Goldhagen puts it, "When people are sent to look for a needle in a haystack that they do not wish to uncover, the easiest thing for them to do is not find it.

Chapter 7: Police Battalion 101: The Men's Deeds and Chapter 8: Police Battalion 101: Assessing the Men's Motives both obviously deal with Police Battalion 101, a battalion chosen for deeper research into general battalions. Chapter 7 is gruesome to say the least. It discusses mass executions in detail and has visual evidence to support its stories. Chapter 8 tries to look for some reasons for the men killing the Jews, even though at times it was not necessary. Many of the points made in these chapters as proof of the antisemitism in "ordinary germans" are valid. First, Goldhagen proves through many statistics that most of the men in police battalion 101 and many others for that matter represent the German population well as a whole. Very few are SS men and very few are upper class citizens most are lower or middle class citizens. They also possessed many of the same jobs as normal Germans did. The percentages between the battalion and the country for each position are astonishingly close. Also, outside of their work, the battalion members enjoyed many activities that other Germans did, such as performances and plays. They also tended to be very pro-animal rights. They protected their animals lives to the extremes, but ended Jews lives so quickly.

He then explains many situations where these battalion members could either lessen the punishment and torture prior to killing or avoid killing all together. During almost all mass murders, battalion members were not forced to kill if they did not want to. They would simply perform guard duty or some other job. Also, much torture was inflicted prior to the killings such as beatings with whips and such which were not required. I have already touched upon the seek-and-destroy missions. Also, officers could apply for transfers to battalions that performed less mass murders (many of these existed) since offers for transfers were rarely denied.

All of these are instences where battalion members were given opportunities to show that they were forced into these killings and it was not a personal enjoyment, but they rarely ever took advantage of this (I won't post the exact numbers, but they're in the book so let me know if your curious).

Also, it's not like they didn't know of these opportunities. Before almost every mission the captain of the battalion would tell the battalion members that they did not have to participate. Every time a few people would excuse themselves so everyone knew that the opportunity was there. These people were also never discriminated against so there were no consequences. Of those battalion members interviewed by Goldhagen and through their testimonies it is obvious why those who chose not to participate in the killings did so. They could not stomach the gore of the killings. For the most part, this is the only reason given. Never was the reason because they did not agree with the killings. It was simply because they could not handle all of the gore involved. There is no notable dispute between the author and myself in these few chapters because many of his points tend to seem valid and almost indisputable.

Finally, tells where the ideas for "work" camps came from and reasons for "work" camps being the way they were. The Germans felt that the Jews for years had refused to do any "real work" and were simply parasites who could only bring down and economy. Therefore, the Nazi's started camps where they would make them "work." However, this was hardly real work. Much of the work done was simply used as a form of torture. One example is that those in charge of the camps would force the Jews to build a wall, but then knock it down at the end of the day and rebuild it the next day. This is obviously just busy work to force the Jews to become weak and tired. This combined with the tiny amounts of food they received led many to starve to their deaths. My favorite part of the "work" camp chapters had to be the fact that the German's forced the Jews to do this useless work, while the Germans struggled through employmeny problems and even a depression. These millions of Jews that were stuck in "work" camps could have been forced to work for German businesses and help the economy while still forcing them to do work. Hitler, of course, would not allow Jews out of their camps so Germany had to be punished because of their need to punish the Jews in camps. The other two chapters on "work" camps basically give details of what a normal day was like and discusses how much death really came out of these "work" camps.

Well that's the end of my blog. I'll be back in two weeks to discuss death marches and to conclude my book and give final thoughts.

Summer Blog 3: Chapters 4-5

Part 2 of the book focuses on the eliminationist program and institutions. It is broken down into two chapters. Chapter 4 focused on the Nazi assault on the Jews and Chapter 5 focused on the agents and machinery of destruction. These two chapters will be the topic of discussion in this blog. Although these two chapters did not seem to have much relating to TOK, I will try my best to pull out parts that involve a TOK outlook.

In Chapter 4, Goldhagen states that the two main objectives that were seemin most German policies toward Jews were:
1. To turn the Jews into "socially dead" beings - beings that were violently dominated, natally alienated, and generally dishonored - and, once they were, to treat them as such.
2. To remove the Jews as thoroughly and permanently from social and, as far as possible, from physical contact with the German people, and thereby to neutralize them as a factor in German life.
These objectives were reached through many policies and goals, most importantly, according to Goldhagen, verbal assault, physical assault, and the legal and administative restrictions placed on the Jews.

When he discusses the legal and administrative restrictions, Goldhagen, I believe unintentionally, gives some information which I processed in such a way that his original prophecy about the ever-existing antisemitism in pre-Nazi Germany sounds more and more believable. He states that almost from the moment the Nazi's came to power they created restrictions against the Jews. The suprising part is that even at the beginning of the Regime's time in power, the German citizens did not dispute these restrictions, such as the boycott of Jewish stores on April 1, 1933, the removal of Jews from the press, and less suprisingly, the Nuremberg Laws of September 1935. This would mean that the Germans felt these restricitions were acceptable. However, because the Nazi's had not been in power long enough to persuade them to have certain beliefs, these had to be the beliefs that the citizens had prior to the Nazi accension to power.

The rest of the chapter discusses how the Nazi policies toward Jews slowly evolved. Before reading the chapter I had sat down and tried to figure out what the reason would be for Hitler waiting so long to commence the "final solution." My assumption was that the German people would not accept this project at early stages of his time as ruler, so Hitler must have wanted to wait until he felt there was a general level of approval of his actions. Goldhagen tends to make a different point in this chapter. However, some of the evidence that he uses to prov his own point also supports mine. Therefore, I believe he should further inspect his evidence and maybe he will see that there were probably two reasons for Hitler's hesitation to begin the "final solution."

Goldhagen feels that Hitler knew that other countries would not respond well to the mass killings when the information reached them. He felt that war would probably become inevitable. Germany, however, was not ready for war. So until they were ready to battle they would simply find other ways to torture the Jews besides death. Not much here seems to support my idea. However, in many public statements, Hitler stated publicly that if a war occured, it would be caused by the Jews, and if this happened, the Jews would pay for their wrongdoings by way of death.

However, as stated before, Hitler felt that the war would start because other countries would not approve of the killings. Therefore, it seems to me that Hitler lied to his own people to manipulate them into approving of the mass killing of Jews. This makes you think that he worried about the approval of his own citizens and makes it seem as if that could have been a reason for the delayed mass killing. Also, I feel that if this was one of Hitler's reasons for waiting so long that it was a ridiculous one. The German's had obviously resented the Jews long before Hitler came into power and had approved of all of his previous policies, including physical abuse. I do not see why they would have not approved of the mass killings as well, now that I understand the German view of the Jews as evil and superhuman beings.

I believe the most ironic part of this entire chapter is the fact that it focuses on the sub-humanizing of "superhuman beings." Why did the German people never question this? How could beings that supposedly had amazing superhuman powers and were capable of overthrowing Germany being taken advantage of so easily and being sub-humanized without and fight? This was a big error as far as the German people's knowledge of Jews. Had the Germans not been convinced of the evil of the Jews, they may have able to rationally think about what they believed and changed their opinions. Many Jewish lives could have been saved, but unfortunately, it didn't occur this way.

Chapter 5 is a rather short chapter, which focuses on the different agents and machinery of destruction. Not much discussed here relates to TOK. It is basically an outline of shootings, gas chambers, and other methods of killing and how they worked. However, Goldhagen, always aware of the many logical fallacies that could occur when discussing perpetrators - such a broad term- does make sure to clearly give his definition for perpetrators. He states that a perpetrator is anyone who knowingly contributed in some intimate way to the mass slaughter of Jews, generally anyone who worked in an institution of genocidal killing. He then goes on to break down the specifics of the definition. However, there is still some room for interpretation in this definition, and good definitions never leave such room. Although this is a veery specific definition, it does state that the perpetrator must contribute in some intimate way to the killings. Who is then left to define intimate? This leaves room for many incorrect assumptions on who can be considered a perpetrator based on each individuals opinion on the word intimate. Also, this may lead Goldhagen to provide statistics that are then misinterpreted. He may say that there were 500,000 perpetrators, but if I was to look into these in depth I may only feel that 250,000 of these people had intimate contributions. I know that I seem to be argumentative with Goldhagen, but although many of his points make much sense, it is always good to point out the flaws made in an argument as well.

Summer Blog 2: Chapter 3

And here's the second one.

Chapter 3 discusses Antisemitism during Nazi Germany. As I discussed earlier, the book theorizes that much antisemitism was already in place in Germany prior to the Nazi's gaining power. This is not to say that the Nazi's had no effect on what occurred in the upcoming years. Simply put, the Nazi's did not force German citizens to participated in the many "solutions" to their "Jewish Problem". Actually, most of the SA men carried out Hitler's orders without demanding any help from citizens. According to the book however, the citizens still participated in punishing the Jews because of their own hatred toward the Jews.

One key part of this Chapter that I'd like to discuss is Kristallnacht (Crystal Night). Kristallnacht occurred on the night of November 9-10. SA men went to many towns in Germany and burnt down synagogues, beat any Jew that they came across and shattered the store front glass of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses, hence the name Kristallnacht.

The book then says that the German people reacted for the most part with joy, some even assisting the SA men. However, there were some the did not approve of the actions that occurred that night. Their reasons for disapproval were not because of sympathy for the Jews.

According to the author the three reasons were:
1. "So unsettling was the sight of the SA men and others bursting with savagery, wreaking destruction and death in the streets of their communities, that for the first time some non-Jewish and non-leftist Germans began to wonder whether this radical movement might yet turn on them too."
2. "Many, interpreting the events in terms of their hallucinatory understanding of the all-powerful Jews, also felt anxiety at the prospect of the Jews eventually revenging themselves upon Germany."
3. "Finally, the Germans abhorred the destruction of so much property."

The author's argument for two of these is backed up with much support. However, the first claim seems to just be an opinion of the author's since there is no information to back it up and their is no reference to another piece of work. However, the second point is one that is made throughout the book. The Germans felt that the Jews were super human and capable of anything if they were not eliminated. There are many quotes to support this theory. One German states, "We Germans will pay dearly for what was done to the Jews last night. Our churches, our houses, and our stores will be destroyed. You can be sure of that."

The ways of knowing can be discussed in two elements. One can discuss Goldhagen's ways of knowing and one can discuss the German people's ways of knowing. As far as the German people are concerned emotion, reason, and perception are the ways of knowing that affect them. Their emotions toward the Jewish people lead them to make decisions and opinions without thoroughly considering everything. Their reasoning ability was skewed based on their innate beliefs on Jews. This led their perception to also be skewed since they already had a certain view of Jews which they did not want changed. Goldhagen's ways of knowing involve perception and language. Since most of the quotes that he interprets in this chapter are those of German citizens, the language barrier may create problems. If a translation is incorrect in any way, it would lead to an incorrect interpretation. Also, his perception of what every quote means and what he can deduct from it leads to his views on the German people.

Another key part of the chapter discusses the involvement of the Catholic Church in the eliminationist antisemitism taking place in Germany. It goes on to discuss how many parishes did not allow converted Jews to take place in their masses because they still saw them as Jews. Here, the perception of the Catholic Church confused me. How did they still perceive converted Jews to be Jews? Most Germans saw the Jews as a race which they could not convert from, but the Catholic Church is a religious establishment. Why would they not see that the Jews were far from a race? I believe they did see this, but ignored it out of hatred for the Jews.

The Germans did disapprove of some of the actions taken by the Nazi's in their eliminationist program. They did not want to sever all ties to Jewish businesses because they knew that this would lead to financial hardships. Also, although they may have approved of the eliminationist program in general, many Germans wanted exceptions if they knew a Jew personally and liked him/her. Finally, many did not ethically agree with the corporate death sentences. The first two reasons stem from the Germans putting themselves before their beliefs. They did not feel strongly enough about the Jews to make themselves suffer as well. Also, they did not want close friends being punished if they were Jewish. The last one came across as strange to me. I do not understand why the Germans would approve of violence and punishment toward the Jews, but not death. According to their beliefs I would think that they would support death. If the Jews were only tortured and beaten couldn't they, being the "super beings" that they were considered to be, come back with a vengence against Germany? Shouldn't it then make more sense to the German people, under their skewed beliefs, to sentence them to death?

Summer Blog 1: Chapters 1-2

Just got back from vacation so here's my first post.

Hitler’s Willing Executioners begins with a lengthy introduction that explains the purposes of the book. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, the author, explains that the common view that antisemitism in Germany arose with the birth of the Nazi party is a false one and that much antisemitism was present throughout nineteenth century Germany. He then goes on to explain how the book will be broken down. Part I focuses on understanding German antisemitism. Chapter 1 looks at Christian antisemitism during the middle ages. Christians saw Jews as "Christ-killers" and believed that they could convert from their Judaism and be "saved." According to Goldhagen, Jews were seen by Christians as associates to the devil if they refused to repent.

Chapter 2 begins to focus more on antisemitism in pre-Nazi Germany. Although many assume that very little antisemitism was existent in nineteenth century Germany, much of Goldhagen’s research proves this to be incorrect. By the 1850s, a large number of pamphlets and newspapers spoke out against the "Jewish problem." However, few proposed a "solution" because most solutions were either too ineffective or too extreme. The largest difference between nineteenth century German antisemitism and Christian antisemitism during the middle ages, according to Goldhagen, is that Germans began to view the Jews as a race instead of a religion. With this new idea of Jews as a race, the Jews could never truly become Germans. No conversion to Christianity could change what they were allegedly born as. Antisemitism in Germany would seem to calm down near the end of the century with more focus on foreign policy, but the ideas were still in the minds of those same German citizens.

Science and Philosophy

I do not think that philosophy is only used in terms of science as Alexander Rosenberg speculates. I do agree that the Areas of Knowledge are all somewhat related, which many have been what leaded to his claim. But you cannot choose the Natural Science field and assume that this field is the only key one. The Ways of Knowing are reason, emotion, perception, and language. They are used by the knower in many fields. If he feels science is the only field that philosophy deals with, then he completely disregards our lovely ToK diagram. On key field of knowing which helps to disregard his point is The Arts. How can one not believe that The Arts is affected by phiolsophy? Philosophy helps you understand art by the way you perceive it and by the emotions that you display at the time. One perceives art very differently if they are upset than if they are happy. So, I simply cannot find a way to agree with Alexander Rosenberg's claim.

Art and Philosophy

This painting tries to play with the idea of perception. There are two possible ways in which this painting can be viewed. Many may see the painting as a depiction of a doorway with a large block cut on the outside and a random white line going down the side. But this isn't the case. Upon further inspection, one can notice the large block is actually the painter's easel. He is painting the scene so perfectly that it seems to blend in with the rest of the background. Also, I believe that the black ball is there to get your attention. It is very hard to seperate the easel from the background when you are focusing on another object and that is the purpose of the black ball. The artist tries to create and illusion by diverting your attention from the easel to the ball.

Hey this is my new blog.