Holocaust killers volunteered eagerly rather than obeying reluctantly

Evidence

Browning (1992a) even referred to one notorious massacre of Polish Jews by German policemen as “a kind of radical Milgram experiment that took place in a Polish forest with real killers and victims rather than in a social psychol­ ogy laboratory” (pp. 173–174). Goldhagen, however, decisively rejected that analogy. Accepting the relevance of Milgram’s work, he argued, would mean accepting the idea that Holocaust perpetrators were reluctant killers grimly carrying out their orders. He provided quite a bit of vivid evidence to support his argument that such a characterization would be inaccurate. Specifically, he pointed out that there is little evidence that any German soldier or police­ man was ever punished or even seriously threatened with punishment for refusing to participate in killing operations; that it was actually possible to request not to participate, although few did; that, instead, many more volun­ teered to help massacre Jews; that those who did so seemed proud of what they were doing, and even sent family and friends photographs of themselves in action solving the “Jewish Problem”; and that throughout the war, Ger­ man soldiers and policemen seemed to go above and beyond the call of duty and not just kill Jews but also insult, humiliate, and torture them. Therefore, Goldhagen concluded that the concepts of obedience and coercion are irrele­ vant for understanding perpetrator behavior. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 320

Categorization

• XREF: This Browning-vs-Goldhagen debate over ordinary-men versus willing executioners is the canonical historiographic cleavage on perpetrator motivation. — connects to: Browning’s account of Holocaust perpetrators emphasized obedience and conformity — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 316; The Holocaust required neutralizing popular attitudes, not mobilizing them — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 522; Brutal genocide perpetrators need not hold longstanding eliminationist attitudes toward victims — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 332 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Brutal genocide perpetrators need not hold longstanding eliminationist attitudes toward victims #expands (0.78) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 332
• The Holocaust required neutralizing popular attitudes, not mobilizing them #complicates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 522
• Genocide’s moral invisibility recruits far more participants than conscience-stifling does #qualifies (0.73) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 96