The study of human behavior is a complex phenomenon, and having a concrete answer is elusive. The problematic nature of studying human nature gets complicated when the subjects of study are numerous. Still, exploring human actions is matter of interest particularly when it concerns the transformation of ordinary men to efficient and skillful killers as demonstrated in the Jewish holocaust in Nazi Germany. Many scholars have pondered for explanations on how ordinary men would be transformed to become serial killers. This essay delves into this discussion while employing the opinion of several scholars such as Christopher Browning, Daniel Goldaheg, and Robert Litfon. In my view, the transformation of ordinary men into mass killers was a function of extraordinary belief in the societal structures and the pursuit of individual gratification.
In his book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution, Christopher Browning states that the average German was forced into killing a combination of factors that include, following orders blindly, influence of peers, and the lack of awareness of the gravity of the genocide. Similarly, Browning points to the anti- Semitic propaganda that was initiated in 1933 by the Nazi authorities changed the German mindset to a common view that Jewish people had to be exterminated. Daniel Goldaheg refutes Browning’ assertion that inducement, indoctrination, and fear of authority in his book Hitler’s Willing Executioners. In his view, the transformation of ordinary German’s into killers was a result of the conviction that the Jewish people had to die. Goldheg writes that “The perpetrators beliefs.. though not obviously the sole source was ..(the) most significant and indispensable source of the perpetrators actions and must be at the center of any explanation.”1 Robert Lifton in the book The Nazi Doctors argues that the Nazi ideology played a key role in enabling doctors to perform their task of “ numbing” Jews with a clear conscience knowing that they performing a noble role of rescuing the Aryan race. 2
Browning records that members of the Police Battalion 101 were family men who had no previous experience with military practice. Many of the men in this battalion recruited while in the dark and forced to commit atrocities that were beyond their wildest dreams. At first, their shocked and saddened by their actions, but later became efficient and formidable killers. In fact, Browning records that “when the time came to kill again, the policemen did not go crazy. Instead, they became increasingly efficient and calloused executioners.”3 What happened to the independent thought and family mindedness that these individuals exhibited? One explanation that Browning provides is that war leads to brutalization that makes individuals to prone to committing atrocities. He continues to say that although members of the battalion 101 had not seen real combat in war, their first encounter *(being forced to kill) prepared them to become killers. Still, Browning asserts that Brutalization only catalyzed the situation but did not ignite their killing process.4
Perhaps a reliable explanation for the transformation of the ordinary men into mass killers was because of obedience to the law. Browning explains that obedience to authority explains the ease in which the unlikely killers accepted to be conditioned to become professional killers. Browning cites Stanley Milgram’s process of socialization and evolution as an explanation for this transformation. This process occurs out of the desire to comply with the demands of those authorities thereby taking away the role of independent judgment. The transformation also occurred because of indoctrination of the theories of the Nazi into general populace’s thinking. The German population was immersed into a racial mindset that absorbed the racial and anti Semitic propaganda perpetuated by the party. This became the truth, and thus killing the Nazi was justifiable.5
On his part, Goldhagen argues that the argument of authority and peer pressure is wrong. First, although the German society had respect for authority, they also had the freedom of going against authority if did not meet their moral values. As such the Germans only respected authority when it was legitimate. Using this thought process; the Germans were bound to disregard orders that were heinous as the genocidal orders. Goldhagen argues that the Germans committed the crimes out of will and out of inner convictions. For example, some Nazi officers disobeyed Hitler’s orders of not pursuing Soviet Jews when they killed many Soviet Jewish people, and many soldiers killed Jewish people in Ghettos even without orders from the authorities.6
Robert Lifton reasons that the German doctors were subjected to a psychological metamorphosis that transformed them into the “Auschwitz self” that shelved them from thinking about their moral code of doctors of saving lives. Lifton describes this metamorphism as “doubling.” Doubling allowed the individual to separate the mind into the state at the camp and the general life requirement. By doing this, the doctors were able to kill consciously instead of saving lives.
While all the arguments make solid cases, I am believe the societal structures played a key role in enabling the German people to become killers. The government structure and the philosophy of the leaders took a toll on the populace. Combined with the economic success of the Nazi regime, many Germans were lampooned into believing that Nazi’s were right and fighting the Jewish was demonstration of love for the nation and the Aryan race.
